Rating of G
I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.
Remus and Sirius meet over an old piano and an empty classroom on the thrid floor.
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
–
My dad taught me to play the piano when I was just a young child. He showed me the correct way to place my fingers on the ivory keys of the baby grand. How to keep a rhythm and steady tempo. He showed me how to read, write, and play music.
By the age of eight, I was already playing arts by Mozart. By the age of eleven, I was composing some of my own works.
During my first year at Hogwarts, I stumbled upon an old, dusty piano with chipped keys. It was left abandoned, with nothing but the dust and its own out of tune cords to keep it company in an empty classroom, on the third floor.
It became my first friend at school.
Everyday for a month, I would sneak off in the middle of the night to play the music of my childhood. It was all done by ear and memory, no records or sheet music.
The nights before the full moon always brought out the best I had to offer to that lonely, cobweb strewn classroom and my invisible audience.
As my fingers ghosted over the worn keys, I picked up the familiar staring notes of an old favorite. The ringing tone echoed around the room with not even a hint of a mistake and a few added touches of my own for extra flavoring. I finished with a deaf flick of my wrist and sat back on my heels with a satisfied expression on my face.
I jumped ten feet in the air and whirled around when the end of my performance was met with the sound of a single audience member clapping slowly but steadily.
In the darkened doorway stood a boy. He was a littler taller than me and looked about the same age as I, but I couldn't quite make him out, as a shadow hid his face.
"So, this is where you disappear to every night." The unknown figure said and stepped forward into a patch of moonlight streaming form the wall length window on the far wall.
I let out an inward groan. I knew this boy, knew him well. And I wished for nothing more than for him to just go away.
Standing in the room with me was a boy of Gryffindor in my year. A boy of raven, shoulder length hair and laughing, silver eyes. Standing in the room was a boy by the name of Sirius Black.
"Yeah," I mumbled, eyes locked on my tennis shoes. My fingers self conciously brushed the keys behind me, seeking comfort, and a note rang softly throughout the room in responce.
I winced when I realized that my fingers had played the cord that disturbed the silence.
"What are you doing in here all alone?"
I thought it an odd question for him to ask. The night seemed to change him, transform him. He was missing his everlasting smirk and he wasn't taunting me at every opening he got, which was already quite a few. His features were soft instead of sharp. The silver orbs shined with something else besides superiority that I couldn't place.
"Dunno." I shrugged, fingers still traveling, but not making so much as a pin drop of sound.
"Play something for me?"
The question surprised me enough to snap my head up. He was looking straight back at me with that same cool, silver spell that only he could muster. Gaining some composure over myself, I raised an eyebrow, but else wise, said nothing.
"Well, I heard you playing and I thought that you were rather good so I thought that you could play something for me," Sirius stammered in a single breath.
I was taken aback by this. I'd never heard the confident Sirius Black speak that way before.
"Which one?" I was just as amazed when I found myself talking to him in a calm, collected, and even tone.
"Blue Moon," he said with his image regained. It seemed as if he'd never lost it. In a way, he hadn't.
With a nod, I sat back down and rested my fingers skillfully on the keys. I was oblivious to the foot steps that crossed the hard, stone floor until he stood at my shoulder. I could feel his eyes on my hands as they flew like liquid across the keys, issuing forth an arrangement of quick notes that formulated into a beautiful song. Sirius whispered the words into my ear raptly.
This time when the last cord was struck, I didn't turn around, as if expecting Sirius to start on me again like he had earlier in the day when I screwed up a simple potion. I was surprised when I turned around and saw what looked like tears in the corners of his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
He shook his head and the tears vanished before I could even really be sure that they had been there at all.
"No. That was just-Wow, really good."
I couldn't help but beam shyly at his praise.
"C'mon, Remus," he said and held out his hand to me.
Sirius helped me up from my knees in front of the piano.
"It's getting late, we should head up to bed."
The way he said my name had to be the biggest shock of the evening. It wasn't just Lupin, or kid. Or loony, loopy, Lupin, as he had adopted not too long ago, or any combination of the three.
Something about him changed me that night. Or maybe something about me changed him. Whichever one it was, I was thankful that he found me all those years ago in an old, abandoned classroom playing that dusty, age ruined piano.