Harry had been having an extremely rough first week until he found it. It was pristine, clean, beautiful. It looked as if it hadn't been played in years.
Having gotten bored of sitting alone in the common room, Harry had decided to wander around a bit, and had found himself in the abandoned music corridor. There, he found many instruments, but the most grand was the piano standing before him.
He hadn't played since he was five, before the Dursleys stopped helping him and started hurting him instead.
Tenderly, he rests his fingers over the pristine keys, touching them lightly, wondering if he could still play. Shivering, he sat down in the stool in front of him, and took a deep breath. Lightly, he presses one of the keys, then another, feeling… happy. That feeling was so foreign that he flinched. Then, glancing down again, he began to play.
At first, the tune was simple, a few notes filling the otherwise silent air. As he got used to the sounds, though, he began to play a more complicated tune, one filled with sorrow and pain. He closed his eyes, losing himself in the music flowing through the air. It was blissful.
Gently, he ended the song with a few soft notes, then opened his eyes. Startled, he saw that the notes that he had play had been recorded on a sheet of music paper. Shivering, he reached out and took it. It came along easily, and Harry folded it with trembling fingers.
This spot would become his escape, a secret for him and him alone.
Even during the war.
Even after it.
The soft steps of Harry Potter, the boy who vanquished the Dark Lord, ring through the still air. Gentle fingers brush against a long-forgotten piano, and he smiles sadly. This place was one of the few that weren't damaged during the fighting. It was a small comfort, with everything that had happened.
Sighing, he sits down, pressing trained fingers against dusty keys, and begins to play.
Far away, where the living are burying their friends and family, a faint tune is heard, and those who are no longer alive look around, searching for the source.
Harry plays the notes.
They follow them.
Tears run down the face of the boy who had once been so naive. He plays for the time he had lost, for the loved ones that will not get to see the new world he's going to create. And he cries, unaware of those who are watching him with awe and sorrow.
Harry trembles, finishing his last note, and takes the resulting sheet music.
Those who had been watching vanish, the melody soothing them into the afterlife.
Sometimes, in times of great sorrow, the melody can still be heard.