Author's Notes: This story is set in the same universe as my stories "Sixth Year Showdowns" and "The Gift", so if you have read those already you will know what the background is. At the beginning of this story, Harry and his friends are in the second term of their seventh year.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to JK Rowling, except for a couple I've added.
"What're you looking at, Hermione?" Harry Potter asked, coming up behind her. Students were thronging the crowded Hogwarts corridor, jostling in all directions, but they moved aside to give Harry and Hermione some space by the noticeboard, out of deference to their status as Head Boy and Head Girl.
Hermione Granger turned from the noticeboard. "There's a notice up about a new series of tutorials for seventh-years. A new subject."
"What? Another new subject? Aren't we doing enough work already?" Harry ran his hand through his unruly black hair in a gesture of mock despair. Although they were only half-way through their seventh and final year at Hogwarts, he and Ron Weasley were constantly complaining about the amount of work which was being piled on them with their N.E.W.T. exams in mind. Hermione didn't take their complaints very seriously, although she worked harder than anyone else in their year. She was hoping to get a scholarship to a college of witchcraft. However, although she took her work and her prefect duties seriously, she wasn't quite as obsessed with work as she had been when she was younger. She and Ron had been an "item" for just over a year now, and Harry thought the relationship had done her good and made her less serious.
Harry leaned over Hermione's shoulder to read the new notice. "A new series of tutorials are offered to seventh-year students who are interested in furthering their knowledge of Musical Enchantments. Tutorials will be given during your Friday free periods, and we are pleased to announce that the well-known musician, Charybdis Messina, has agreed to give the tutorials. Please sign below if you are interested in attending the sessions. M. McGonagall."
"What a name...Charybdis Messina..." Harry said absently, and then with a start he noticed what Hermione was doing. In her neat writing she was signing up not only herself on the new list, but himself and Ron too. "Hey! Hermione! What if we don't want to go?"
"It'll be interesting," said Hermione serenely, putting away her quill. "And it may help us to gain insight into some other branches of magic." She turned from the noticeboard and called a warning to some first years who were pushing and shoving each other in their haste to get to Potions on time.
Harry sighed. "All right - but don't blame me if Ron doesn't like it."
Ron didn't like it. "Musical Enchantments?" he said incredulously to Harry, as they sat at the Gryffindor table at supper time. Hermione was on duty at the far end of the hall. "Girly stuff! Like that Herbology woman Mum listens to on the radio - the one who sings to her plants to make them grow better - whatshername?" Seeing Harry's blank look, Ron continued, "And in our free period as well - about the only time we've got to catch up on our homework essays - tuh!"
Knowing Ron of old, Harry kept quiet and ate his supper, nodding from time to time in agreement, and as he expected, by the end of the meal Ron's exasperation had subsided into, "Well, I suppose we'd better go to the first session and see what it's all about, but if it's a load of rubbish I'm chucking it in after that -"
When the seventh-years who had signed up for Musical Enchantments assembled outside the classroom door on Friday, Harry found that they were quite a large group. He suspected that most people had come out of curiousity to find out what the subject entailed and to see the apparently well-known Charybdis Messina. Harry himself had never heard of her, but Ron said he thought he remembered his mum mentioning her name, Hermione had found a short biography of her in "Who's Who in Modern Magic", and Parvati Patil was telling everyone she knew all about Charybdis, and she was wonderful.
"She's supposed to know more than anyone else about the use of music in witchcraft, and she's incredibly beautiful -"
Listening to Parvati, the seventh-years were taken by surprise when a low, melodious voice spoke behind them. "Are you all here for the Musical Enchantment class? Please go in."
They turned, and saw a woman looking at them, an air of faint amusement on her face. Parvati had been right. Their new tutor was a stunningly beautiful woman. She was very tall - taller than most of the seventh-years and only an inch or two shorter than Ron, who was six feet four these days and towered over most people at Hogwarts. She had a lithe, slim figure and wore a floating midnight blue robe. A mass of black hair streamed over her shoulders and down her back, and she had the most extraordinary eyes Harry had ever seen - a deep, dark blue, with lashes and brows which looked startlingly black against her white skin. She looked intently at the seventh-years as they made way politely for her to sweep into the classroom. The students followed and sat down, waiting for their new tutor to speak. She walked to the teacher's desk, put down the shoulder bag she carried, and stood facing the class. When she did speak, Harry noticed again what a deep, musical voice she had.
"I'm very pleased to be here at Hogwarts and to meet you all. Let me introduce myself. My name is Charybdis Messina. You may call me Miss Messina." She seated herself gracefully on the desk top, her gauzy sleeves falling away from her white wrists as she gestured. "We are here to study the art of musical enchantment. Can anyone tell me what they think is involved in this art?"
A few hands went up, some doubtfully, some more confidently. Hermione's hand, of course, was the first one up. "Yes? asked Miss Messina.
"It's the art of using chanting or singing to enforce the power of an enchantment," Hermione said promptly, then added, "or you can use the playing of an instrument."
"Quite right. Please tell me your name - I will try to learn as many as I can." She smiled faintly as she looked around the class.
"Hermione Granger, Miss Messina."
"Thank you, Hermione. Yes, it will be valuable for you to know that certain enchantments may involve the use of music. You already know, I am sure, that the way in which one stresses magic words is crucial. Words which are pronounced incorrectly can have no effect - or they may have disastrous effects. Singing, or chanting spells and enchantments can add even more power to the magic being performed."
Harry's mind wandered back to his first year at Hogwarts, when he, Ron and Hermione had encountered a giant three-headed dog known incongruously as Fluffy. They had discovered that music would soothe him to sleep, but so far that had been the only time Harry had found a use for music in his time at Hogwarts. He looked sideways at Ron, to see if Ron was also thinking of the Fluffy incident, but Ron was looking forwards, gazing attentively at Miss Messina.
"...It is very important, of course, to use music correctly. In most cases, only the right notes will do. If the wrong notes are sung or played, the enchantment may not take effect. I will demonstrate a simple musical charm for you." Miss Messina cast another intent look around the classroom, and her gaze alighted on Ernie Macmillan. "Perhaps you would like to help me with this?"
Ernie, an amiable, burly Hufflepuff who generally liked to stay out of the limelight near the back of the classroom, got nervously to his feet, gave his name and was directed to stand next to Miss Messina. She opened her bag and removed a curious stringed instrument. Harry had never seen one quite like it.
"This is a lyre. A very sweet-toned instrument. I am going to perform a very simple charm to induce movement of the feet." She poised her fingers over the strings, then struck three sharp, clear notes; two low and one higher. Then she repeated the notes in groups of three, this time chanting "Mo-tor-i! Ped-est-a! Rap-i-do!"
Ernie looked surprised, and slightly alarmed, as his feet began to jerk and dance on the spot, tapping a rapid beat as the sound of the lyre died away. The rest of the class laughed appreciatively. After a few moments, Miss Messina raised her hand and struck one chord on the lyre. Looking very relieved, Ernie stopped dancing and slunk back to the safety of the back row. "You see, quite a simple combination of notes and words can be effective," said Miss Messina. "We have time for another demonstration..." She looked around again. This time her intensely blue eyes rested on Ron. "Your name?"
"Ron Weasley," said Ron awkwardly, tripping over his feet as he got up.
"Thank you, Ron. Do stand there. Now, this is another very simple charm. As you can see, Ron has red hair. I am going to use a charm which will change it." As she spoke, she had raised her hand and ruffled the top of Ron's hair. He looked embarrassed.
Miss Messina smiled brilliantly at the nervous Ron, and struck more notes on her lyre. "Iridium - cortexta - iridium - cortexta -" she sang, in time to the notes which rippled from her lyre. Harry thought she had a very beautiful singing voice - deep, but sweet, and strangely powerful. The room seemed to hum with the power of it. The seventh-years began laughing again as Ron's red hair abruptly faded to white, then darkened to black, then went through a spectrum of rainbow colours before Miss Messina struck a final chord and Ron was red-haired once more, and looking rather sheepish.
"You see," said Miss Messina, looking smilingly from Ron to the rest of the class, "there's really nothing complicated about the use of music in enchantment." She patted Ron's arm. "Thank you."
Ron almost tripped over again as he sat down. He looked a bit dazed. When Harry tried to catch his eye to grin at him, he couldn't, because Ron was still gazing transfixed at Miss Messina. So Harry looked at Hermione instead. She was looking rather disapproving.
The tutorial seemed to go very quickly, and soon Miss Messina was bidding them farewell until the next week. "But I will see you before then, because Professor Dumbledore has kindly invited me to stay as a guest for the next two weeks. I shall look forward to exploring this beautiful countryside - it will inspire me to write new compositions."
She left, and the class spilled out into the corridor, discussing the lesson. Harry caught up with Hermione. "What did you think?"
"Hmm, it seems quite interesting," Hermione said. "I'm not convinced that everything she said was true - if one sticks to the principles of Arithmancy -"
"No, please, Hermione, I need some food before we discuss Arithmancy!" Harry said with a grin. "What did you think, Ron? Liked your hairstyles, by the way!" He noticed that Ron wasn't with them, and looked back to see his friend following slowly behind them, apparently deep in thought. "Ron?"
Ron looked up, slightly startled out of his reverie. "Yeah?"
"What did you think of Miss Messina?"
"Oh! Er, yeah - she's very beautiful, isn't she?" Ron said, rather vaguely.
Hermione gave him a Look. "Harry meant, what did you think of her theories about magical enchantments?"
"Yeah. Interesting." Ron's mind still didn't seem totally with them. They reached the Great Hall, and Ron and Hermione went off to find seats together at the Gryffindor table. Harry, whose turn it was to do prefect duty, went to supervise the first-years entering the Hall.
"I must write to Sirius tonight," he thought to himself.
Sirius Black was Harry's godfather, and had been his guardian since Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. In the holidays they shared a small house Sirius had bought near The Warren, home of the Weasleys. In term time, Sirius liked to travel. When he had first been cleared of the crimes which had sent him to Azkaban for twelve years, Sirius had travelled the world, trying to get away from his bad memories. Now, he had some kind of job with the Ministry of Magic, which also seemed to involve a great deal of travelling, although he still wrote to Harry as often as he could. Harry often wished, however, that Sirius would give him more details about where he was and what he was doing. When they saw each other in the holidays Sirius was never very forthcoming about his travels.
"He'll be interested to hear about Miss Messina," Harry thought. "Wish I knew where he was - but Hedwig will always find him. He's been very mysterious about his new job - I wonder if he'll tell me more about what he's doing when he writes?" And Harry hurried off to break up a fight between some Gryffindor and Slytherin first-years.
End of Part 1.
Additional Author's Notes: In Greek mythology, the whirlpool Charybdis was found in the Straits of Messina. This is appropriate because, as you will see, the effect Charybdis is going to have on our heroes' lives could be compared to the effects of a whirlpool...and I don't mean my Whirlpool washing machine! Prepare for angst...and for those people who've read "The Gift" and are wondering where Ginny is, she'll be in Part 2. Please review - I look forward to reading your comments.
