I would like to thank J. K. Rowling and Notwolf for letting me play with their respective toys. I enjoyed it and hope you will enjoy it too. No copyright infringement was ever intended and it is all for the fun of reading and interacting.
The snipped is related to Chapter: 41 of The Voldemort Diaries by Notwolf - from where the title is purely and simple stolen, but I hope to be generously forgiven for this mischief.
Hagrid loved music. He was a gentle soul and apart from rearing his own dragon he had always dreamed of learning to play a music instrument. Fluffy had been his favourite for so long as the three headed sweetie was the first to acknowledge the big man's artistic skills. Well, by napping, but it was a start already, right?
One of the impediments to this dream was finding proper sized instruments. The piano was no good as Hagrid's fingers covered several keys at the same time, and worse, he had to sit on the floor with the instrument virtually in his lap, which prevented him from using the pedals. The ordinary flutes, saxes and so were too small for him as well. But this time the fortune had turned its face to him!
Hagrid has been going alone along a muggle road late at night. A small thing that Arthur had told him was a lorry had tried to bypass him and slipped into a ditch. Hagrid did not think much, but pulled it out, although he had to lift the front a bit. Instead of dissolving into profuse thanks that as expected, the driver had hit the gas pedal and driven through the night! He had not paid attention that a small bag, a set of drums and a violin had fallen on the road and when Hugrid tried to follow him to give them back, the ungrateful man had sped up like a bunch of harpies were after his stupid lorry!
It was starting to rain and the Game Keeper did not want to leave the good instruments on the road. Moreover, the violin seemed almost his size! It was unusual, it had a place for a pin to be attached at the bottom, which he had not seen on Astoria's violin, but he should ask her when they would meet. And there was no chin support, somebody had been careless and misplaced it probably!
In the meantime Hagrid wanted to try the instruments, just a tiny bit. He pulled out first the bag, which had a funny thing in it. It was like someone had skinned a lamb and put different flutes in the places where the head and the legs would be. Definitely a twisted mind, but if you blow some air in it, then you can press it and it worked like a crossover between a flute and bellows. But it was small and after Hagrid inadvertently blew a little stronger - it burst like a soap bubble. Good grief, it could be used as a model, the giant thought and went to his big storage box. Few months ago a strange horned animal had wandered in the Forbidden Forest and was killed there, so he had salvaged the skin, with some stitching it would be fine. Hermione had even given him the name of the animal, and promised a book, what was it, Gloucester, or Guernsey, he could not remember, but it sounded exotic!
It was a rainy day and Hagrid did not have much to do, so he measured and pulled his secret stash of flutes. They fit perfectly and the final result was really neat - red-and-white spots on the skin were complemented with the rough look of the pipes. It was time to test it.
Like any true artist Hagrid was shy. He did not want to present to his audience a non-mastered piece. The Game Keeper thought about going to the Forbidden Forest but there were a lot of critters that would look at him. He thought a little and decided that it would be safe if he put a silencing charm around his hut and some space around to be sure. Bayly had been proud of his student and Hagrid was confident that it would work. He took his wand and started on the incantation.
It did not work exactly as planned, the silence bubble was larger than expected and it was like a cupola with a small opening on one side close to the top but Hagrid reasonably thought that he was far from the buildings for anyone to be so high to hear it. The Game Keeper pulled first the violin, but the bow was not that big and without a chin support it was not that comfortable, so after few glides he decided to try the bag-with-pipes instead. Here he had a field day! He felt mighty and he enjoyed it, as unlike the ordinary flute he could stop blowing for a moment and the melody still went on strong. He closed his eyes and played for a while, but then got tired of the lack of practice. Hagrid gently put his new toy in the hut and decided to salute himself. Drum it up, so to speak! His silencing charm needed work as inside it sounded a little bit like in a bathroom, with the echo and stuff, so Hagrid took the drums set outside and did a frenzy quick tram-tata-tam finished with a mighty BANG on the grand cymbals! It felt good, a mighty sound going up to the sky after reflecting times and again inside the silencing charm. The musician opened his eyes and with a sigh carried his instruments home.
Few unsuspecting birds had had the bad chance of flying over the invisible silencing charm opening. They were literally blown by the energy coming. Their attempts to fly away were futile as they were like clocks which springs had been pulled. Two ravens, a cardinal, a sparrow, and a robin…All that they had in common was the time they chose to fly over Hagrid's hut while he was making music. They glided away by instinct to the silence of the lake but did not reach it. The noise blast had done irreparable damages to their bodies. They fell within meters of each other, predators and prey alike, victims of the most gentle art of music.
You are most cordially welcome to slice and dice me in the comments if you think it merits it. The pleasure will be all mine!