This was a present to my friend Kelly Palma, to whom this little piece is dedicated. The characters Professor Severus Snape and Professor Flitwick belong to JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.
The Grand Piano
Professor Flitwick was frantically waving what looked like a magic wand in his right hand, in front of a group of worried students. The wand in fact, turned out to be a conductor's baton, and the worried kids were the components of Hogwarts Choir, of which Flitwick was the director, and conductor. After the successful presentation in the Welcome Feast, at the beginning of the school year with the Double Trouble song, Professor Dumbledore had asked them to give a small presentation at the Yule Ball, in the end of the winter term. They were all worried for the little time they had to rehearse, due to all sorts of homework, exams, and marking (that for Flitwick) that needed to be finished.
Professor Snape was walking down the corridor in his usual stride - which made his long black robes billow and wave behind him, leaving all female portraits of Hogwarts' walls sigh in his wake – as he passed the door to the Charms classroom. From within, came the voices of several kids singing and the sound of several instruments – fiddles, cellos, a clavier... some brass as well...
"Let's have a look at what old Flitwick is hiding up his sleeve for the Yule Ball..." thought Snape.
He quietly entered the classroom – quietly as only Snape could. Mind you, his students never managed to work out just how he could move like that, and turn up right behind them during Potions, exactly when they were saying thinks like how mean he was.
Standing near the door, he observed. Snape was a music-loving man... He held dear both wizard and muggle music... Although in Snape's opinion - and he didn't know that many muggles shared that opinion with him – muggle music had just lost its main appeal somewhere in the beginning of the 19th century, and what he really appreciated were the creations of the greatest muggle genius of all time, WA Mozart. Observing the kids rehearse under the skilled supervision of Flitwick was rather nice... until he turned his attention to the instruments. Oh, he hated self-playing instruments... fiddles and pianos bewitched to perform music by themselves... that was just like playing some vinyl disk in that muggle contraption that Lupin insisted in bringing into the castle. No, that wouldn't do. Snape liked playing his own music, and resented not having enough time – or room in his dungeons – to play his grand piano, which lay untouched at the moment at his mother's house, back in Devon... oh, how he missed those days when he could spend hours and hours playing his piano...
In an impulse, he walked to the middle of the room, startling the already nervous students, and making Flitwick jump.
"Severus, where on Earth did you come from?"
"Sorry Flitwick... but, do you really HAVE to use those silly instruments to play with these children? Honestly, don't they look rather pathetic? Look at the state of that clavier!"
He pointed to a sorry looking, light brown and rather small wooden clavier, which suddenly stopped playing its merry melody, and cowered in a corner, just like some very scared puppy.
"Severus, you've hurt its feelings!"
"Oh, it will feel a lot better when I'm through with it..."
Moving towards the sorry instrument hiding in the corner, Snape pointed his wand towards it and muttered under his breath: "Accrescere cantus!"
In a flash of white light, the sorry looking thing turned over in itself and was transfigured into an enormous, shining, magnificent, black, grand piano that seemed to smile with all its black and white shining keys.
Everyone in the room gaped in awe, and every single one also wondered who was going to play it... no, it couldn't be... now, that would be a sight!
Snape looked back at Flitwick as if asking for permission to have a go... Flitwick waved his hand at him, completely shocked, and not knowing what to expect from that. It was a real first! Professor Severus Snape, playing the piano! Who would imagine! No, really, that he never expected!
Snape turned on his heels and walked down to the piano... leaning over it, he examined keys and strings, caressing it and smelling its sweet perfume, which spoke of music...
Adjusting his robes, he elegantly sat down in front of the grand piano, and concentrated. Now, he was entering a world all his own, and everything else faded. Only the piano and his hands existed. And he began.....
He played the same melody Flitwick was previously rehearsing and, taking the hint, Flitwick gestured to his kids, who picked up the song from a point and sang along with Snape's piano... The fiddles decided they couldn't be left out, and joined in too. Snape, despite his dislike of the "oh-we-are-so-clever-we-can-play-on-our-own" instruments, let the proud fiddles continue. The combination sounded amazing... The portraits were mesmerized, and carried the word around the castle. Pictures from all other rooms were arriving, to listen to the emotional and passionate performance of Professor Severus Snape. Even Peeves was quietly afloat in a corner of the ceiling, along with Nearly-Headless Nick and the Bloody Baron. On they played for hours, neither teachers nor kids getting tired or bored... A little first-year Slytherin, the smallest of the kids, standing at the end of the line nearest to Snape could swear, for all she held dear, that tears were rolling down his cheeks...
End of winter term, all prepared to go home, and the great hall was beautifully decorated for the Yule ball. As the evening approached, excitement grew in the castle, among the students who had very few opportunities for a dance, or even to dress up. As the hall was getting crowded and the staff were taking their chairs around the great table, the choir was taking position, and musicals instruments – shrank to a few centimetres for transport – were being brought in and arranged on top of the steps which lead to the great table. As everyone was settled and ready for the beginning of the feast, the choir started quietly, a very low melody... as they sang, surprise took hold of all pairs of eyes which stared in the same direction: Professor Severus Snape, in his dress robes, and his hair tied back with a black velvet ribbon (which made a few seventh-year girls nearly faint not only of surprise) sat by the grand piano and started to play... Awe and fascination swept the great hall, as he brilliantly made the choir nearly redundant, and his notes took over the performance...
Meanwhile, Dumbledore, incredibly pleased for this sudden disclosure of his trusted friend's musical talents, thought to himself: "Severus' engagement to the gorgeous long-haired, green-eyed, young witch, Kelly of St. Paul's, really did him good..."