CHAPTER 2
A/N:OK, this is the mangling of Bob Dylan's lyrics chapter so if this sort of thing offends you (I know it does me and I'm the one doing it) look away now
Thanks to everyone who's read/reviewed so far – Bless you my children for making an old woman very happy [Exits stage right sprinkling fairy dust behind her . . . .
Sorry this chapter's so short but it seemed like a natural break so – there you go.
Somewhere in the back of her drink befuddled mind Hermione realised that Ginny had stopped giggling. She'd stopped shushing. She'd stopped moving and was sitting stiff as a board next to her, every cell in her body riveted on the stage. Wondering what was keeping her friend so entranced, Hermione raised her head and gazed at the guitar player, squinting through her alcohol haze.
It took a good 15 seconds to for her brain to process what she was seeing and, when the truth finally dawned on her she gasped. "Bloody Hell, Gin, it's Remus!"
"Uh Huh." Replied Ginny, quite proud of the fact that she was able to make any kind of semi-coherent sound at all.
"But," continued Hermione, not quite sure that she'd managed to make her point strongly enough, "it's Remus!" she explained.
"Uh Huh," confirmed Ginny eloquently.
Blissfully unaware of the stir he was creating at the back of the room, Remus played on. A bluesy arpeggio fell out of his guitar and landed in Ginny's ears like the knell of doom.
"Oh my," she thought to herself, "if his fingers can do that to a guitar, just think what they could do to me. . . . . " Drifting off into thoughts that did no credit either to her or to her ex Professor, Ginny started drooling openly into her pint. Her eyes half closed and a small, secret smile hovered around her lips as her libido gave instructions as to exactly what uses Remus' talented hands could be put to, should she ever get the chance.
The soaring arpeggio died away to a softer background rhythm and a pleasantly hoarse baritone voice took over filling the space left by Remus' solo :
"Our conversations were short and sweet
They nearly knocked me off of my feet
And I'm back in the rain
Oh, and you are on dry land
You made it there somehow
You're a big girl now."
Choking on her pint for the second time that night, Hermione watched in disbelief as a second spotlight hit the stage to reveal Sirius Black, standing at the microphone, one booted foot on the stand and one hand draped nonchalantly over the mic itself. Dressed in a loose white shirt and black leather trousers, dust motes swirling around his coal black hair, he looked ,Hermione thought, like a fallen angel and her heart seemed to miss a beat whilst her mouth went inexplicably dry.
Gazing into the distance above the heads of his audience Sirius launched into the second verse :
"Bird on the horizon, sitting on a fence
He's singing his song for me at his own expense
And I'm just like that bird
Oh, singing just for you.
I hope that you can hear,
Hear me singing through these tears"
"Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast
Oh but what a shame if all we've shared can't last
I can change I swear
Oh see what you can do
I have made it through
You can make it too"
Remus broke into another solo and Hermione realised that, whilst Sirius had been singing, she'd forgotten to breathe. Gulping oxygen into her lungs she never took her eyes off Sirius who was watching Remus with a smile on his face as his shy friend took his share of the spotlight. Remus looked up at him and grinned back, finishing his solo with a flourish.
"Love is so simple to quote a phrase
You've known it all the time, I'm learning it these days
Oh I know where I could find you
Oh upstairs in your room
That's a price I have to pay
You're a big girl all the way"
"A change in the weather is known to be extreme
But what's the sense in changing horses in midstream
I'm going out of my mind
Oh with a pain that stops and starts
Like a corkscrew to my heart
Girl what's keeping us apart"
There was a profound silence when the song ended, as if the audience were hypnotised, and into that quiet Sirius breathed one word :
"'Mione."