Funiculi Funicula
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters therein belong to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: The music was undeniably cheerful, but Draco knew the truth. It was a death song. A death song made ten times worse... by being a love song as well. Draco/Harry and Lucius/James.
Author's Note: I actually wrote this in one night. I guess you could call it a song fic, but I tried to fit the lyrics in as well as I could without it being...distracting. Thanks Nightengale, for inspiring me to do a oneshot!
Also, the English version of the song that I have included in this one shot is the literal translation of the original Neapolitan version...there is another english version, but that version ends up with a completely different meaning, as it had to be altered for "singability," or rather, to suit the number of syllables.
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"Do you know where I got on yesterday evening, baby?
Where this ungrateful heart can't be spiteful to me anymore!"
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Draco stood outside the music room, contemplating on whether or not he should knock. It was not like the library, or the second floor study, where entering without express permission was forbidden, and Draco could hear his father aimlessly playing on the piano—pressing on no specific keys to create a distinct song—he knew that Lucius did not like to be disturbed if he was preoccupied. Still...the door was unlocked, and it was even left slightly ajar...deciding to be reckless, Draco pushed the door open a little farther. Hopefully Lucius would notice and immediately clear up the issue of whether or not Draco was welcome.
Instead, Lucius did not seem to have heard a sound, and he continued with listless chords and half-hearted arpeggios. It had been a long time since Draco had seen his father in such a casual, ruffled state: he was dressed in simple black slacks and a white dress shirt—with the top three buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up. The black ribbon that usually kept Lucius' hair in such impeccable order had loosened, and several rebellious strands had freed themselves and fell into a platinum blonde frame around their owner's face. Only black socks kept Lucius from being barefoot, as his boots had been casually kicked off into the corner. Numerous candles lined the walls, flickering in their wrought iron sconces to provide just enough lighting to read open music books. Draco was momentarily stunned at Lucius' lapse of perfection, but his suspiscion to a polyjuiced imposter was quieted the moment he saw the half empty bottle of Ogden's Firewhiskey sitting on top of the piano. Deciding it was the better decision to leave, Draco made to close the door, but Lucius' voice stopped him.
"Do you know what a cable car is, Draco?"
Draco blinked in surprise, and he froze mid-motion of wrapping his fingers around the door.
"Sorry?"
"A cable car. Do you know what it is?" Lucius repeated, still keeping his back to Draco and bringing his left hand up to the keys to sound out thesimple C Major chord. At his son's silence, Lucius continued.
"It's a muggle invention...they use large boxes on cords to bring them to places that are too far too walk and too short to fly. For example, up a mountain."
"Where the fire burns, but if you run away, it let's you go!
And it doesn't run after you"
"I'm sorry, father, I didn't mean to disturb..."
"A song was written about these cars...specifically the one to bring people up to the mouth of Mount Vesuvius. I trust I don't have to give a lesson in geography."
"Mount Vesuvius? That's in Pompeii, Italy," Draco answered, trying to keep the shock from being too obvious in his voice. His father was not making any sense, and there was no more emotion to his voice than if he were stating the day's weather.
"Good. Now this song," Lucius said as his right hand danced over the keys in a small succession of notes that to Draco sounded vaguely familiar, but before he could place it, Lucius stopped and went back to random, single notes. "Was written in only a few hours, but became an instant success despite that fact. Most people in the world, muggles and wizards alike, can recognize the tune, whether or not they know the words."
Again the series of notes were played, and Draco felt a small bout of frustration through his confusion, as he knew he had heard that music somewhere before.
"It doesn't tire you, looking at the sky!
Let's get on, let's go, let's get on
Funiculi, funicula!"
"It was written in the old Neapolitan dialect of Italian and though it has been translated to English, the meaning of song was changed in order to fit the syllables. I find that the song has much more...heart...when sung as it was originally meant to be sung."
Lucius suddenly straightened at the piano, and his hands fell into perfect position to tap out the opening verse.
"Aieressera oi' ne,' me' ne sagliette, tu saie addo'? Addo' 'stu core 'ngrato cchiu' dispietto farme nun po'! Addo' lo fuoco coce, ma si fuie, te lassa sta! E nun te corre appriesso, nun te struie, 'ncielo a guarda'! Jammo, n'coppa, jammo ja', funiculi', funicula!" Lucius sang, his voice rolling perfectly around the modified Italian, his pitch matching flawlessly to create a sound like Draco had never heard before. His father had the voice that most aspiring classical artists would kill for, but that took second fiddle for the realization that Draco HAD heard the song before...his father had sung it to him as a lullaby when he was little.
Lucius stopped on the end of the first verse, letting the last note linger with an extended decrescendo before he spoke again.
"People loved the cable car. It could take them all the way up the volcano, where they could look into the crater itself and never worry. On good days, they would be able to see out to the horizon for miles."
"We go from the ground to the mountain, baby! Without walking!
You can see France, Portugal, and Spain!
I see you!"
Feeling more courageous, Draco stepped fully into the room and let the door slide closed behind him. He made his way over to the piano, but as the bench itself was the only place to rest, Draco folded his legs and sat down on the floor near the front legs. It was the same position that he had assumed when he had been much younger—when he would sit in the music room and listen to his father play for hours—but once again, Lucius seemed too preoccupied to notice. The older man just stared blankly down at his hands, which were still neatly rounded and ready to play. Draco frowned, as he was starting to become concerned with his father's uneven breathing and slight trembling. He started to look around the room for a clue, but he had to go no farther than the piano's own mantle. It was a picture...one of a young, dark haired man that was sitting up on a stone wall and waving cheerfully.
"Pulled by a rope, no sooner said than done,
we go to the skies...
We go like the wind, all of a sudden, go up! Go up!
Let's go on, let's go let's go on
Funiculi Funicula"
'Ah.' Draco thought. 'I see.'
Lucius was mourning.
Diverting his gaze to the side to give his father a bit more privacy, Draco's shoulders sagged with no small bit of sadness. James Potter had been one of Lucius' best friends at Hogwarts and had, in later years, become something...more. It was nothing but unfortunate incidents that had forced them from each other, and though they had had different views on subjects, Lucius had been able to award James immunity for several years, until Voldemort had decided that the Potters had become too much of a threat.
Growing up, Draco had occasionally stumbled in on his father's lapses into depression, and a frequent lament became as familiar as his own name.
"I...could have done something. I could have stopped it..."
"The cable cars were wonderful...you could see the fire, but it wouldn't burn, and you could ride comfortably back to earth. It was perfect...no one imagined that the volcano was only resting...only a few years after the cable car tours were started, Vesuvius erupted, destroying all the towns at its feet—even the cable cars which had so easily defied it before. This song...it sounds so happy when you listen to it...and yet...it's singing to the tune of its own death."
"The head has already got on, baby,
Got on! It has gone, then returned..."
"I want out."
Draco looked back up at his father, whose head was bowed and shoulders were shaking.
"But I can't... I can't..."
Lucius had, for as long as Draco could remember, been trying to extract himself and his family from Voldemort's web, but it was a complicated network of beauracracy, alliances, politics, and oaths—a veritable labyrinth where every way was closed. Lucius had always believed in Voldemort's ideas, but actual murder...James' murder...was going too far.
Draco wanted nothing more than to reach up and comfort his father, just as Lucius had done for him on nights filled with bad dreams, but instead of a hug, Draco merely cleared his throat, recalled the fireside lullabies, and started to quietly sing back.
"Se n' 'e' sagliuta, oi' ne', se n' 'e' sagliuta la capa gia! E' gghiuta, po' e' turnata, po' e' venuta..."
Lucius jerked his head over to his son with a sharp gaze—one not of hostility, but of surprise and, which each passing word that came from Draco's mouth, a gradual realization.
'Ah.' Lucius thought. 'I see.'
Draco was giving him more support than could ever be achieved with a hug or family loyalty—Draco was telling him he understood.
Draco was telling him that he knew how it felt.
Draco was telling him...that he was in the same boat.
'It must be a curse on us...for us to always love a Potter...'
"It is still here! The head turns, turns
Around, around, around you!"
Draco continued to sing, and he was slightly nervous while Lucius continued to stare at him...he did not know which reaction to expect...
Lucius started playing along. The music returned to a lilting, bouncy harmony, and after a few bars, Lucius joined in...singing with his son the song of a cable car that was brought to the edge of a volcano, and was destroyed by that same, vicious fire.
Draco felt tears come to his eyes as he and his father sang, for though the music was undeniably cheerful, he knew that "Funiculi Funicula" was a death song...
But what made it worse, was that it was a love song, as well.
"This heart always sings
One of these days, get married to me, baby!
Let's go on! Let's go, let's go on!
Funiculi, funicula!"
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The end.
If anyone wants to hear "Funiculi, Funicula" ( I know you'd recognize it if you heard the tune—I think everyone knows it), go to this website:
http: www. Intlecorner. com /italy / itasight. Php3 without the spaces! and where it says "select song" select "Funiculi Funicula", hit the "play" button, and it will play for you. I highly recommend it!