A/N: Lots of mushy stuff in this chapter. I think. I mean, that's what I'm planning. But who knows? Maybe this won't turn out to be mushy at all? Anyways, here is chapter eighteen and I am hoping to get more reviews now… (The grumpy effect brought to you by the quarterly exams from school…) R&R or I'll make you solve a hard Chemistry problem… Jokes… Reviews after reading please!
Chapter 18: Yuki-hime
"Hey," Alex greeted Harry as he entered the common room. It was six in the evening and his classes had just finished.
"Hi," Harry replied as he set down his school bag on the couch. "You haven't seen Rose, have you?" The last time Harry saw Rose was at Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"She's upstairs in her room. Good you reminded me, we have practice today."
"Quidditch?"
"No. Band practice."
"Band?"
"Yeah – oh, you don't know that, do you? Rose and I play in a band, together with three other seventh years."
"Raven?"
"No, not Raven. She doesn't even know how to read notes. All she does is flirt – "
"Right, I should have known you always stab me in the back," Raven came down from the girls' dormitories, Rose behind her.
"Does it ev'n hurt ya?" Rose asked Raven sarcastically. Both she and Raven sat down. "Where're the others?" she asked Alex.
"I think they'll be coming in about thirty minutes. Their schedules are quite different from ours."
"Where will you guys be practicing?" Raven asked.
"Why? Need some place to flirt out 'gain?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, maybe," Raven replied playfully. Rose brought her attention to Harry.
"Where will ya be?"
"Me?"
"No, not ya, the couch." Rose grinned.
"I'd like to hear how you sing." Harry grinned back.
"No way." Rose scowled. Alex came to Harry's rescue, however.
"Yes way. Harry, let's go. It's at the top of the building."
Alex got up and stirred Harry by the shoulders, leaving Rose. She followed soon after.
"Do you guys play for Rose when she performs to Muggles too?" Harry asked after a while. They were now walking down a Muggle corridor lined with Muggle plants and paintings.
"No. She has professional Muggle bandmates."
"Ya make it sound like they're bad. They do good."
"Do they know you're a witch?"
"Hell, no. They'd go mad'f they found out."
"And they call themselves punks." Alex shook his head in mock disappointment.
"What do you mean?"
"See, Muggle punks actually try witchcraft. They think they can, anyway. But the guys tha' play for me, well, they're scared at the thought."
They arrived at a handsome wooden door, sleek and gleaming with golden knobs. It bore the sign, "Music Room." Alex swung it open and stood back to let them in.
The large room contained glass cases along the wall that seemed to flash different instruments at intervals. One case flashed different types of violins, while another flashed guitars. Drums and flutes were also visible, and everything seemed to be shining. The instruments, at least as they were flashed, looked highly polished.
Rose pulled out three circular stools from a cupboard. Alex slid the case that flashed guitars open and brought out two identical acoustic guitars. The three of them sat down, Rose and Alex clutching a guitar each.
"I advise you not to comment on whatever you hear, Harry," Alex said as he propped his guitar on his lap. Harry was about to ask why, but Rose suddenly spoke.
"Comment, an' I'll 'ave your head. It's none of your business if I c'mposed these songs, an' where I got them out of for tha' matter. You're here jus' tah list'n, 'righ'?"
Harry grinned subtly and Alex began coughing loudly. Harry could have sworn, however, that Alex said "defensive" in between those coughs. Harry could have also sworn that he saw a tinge of pink in Rose's cheeks, as Rose rarely blushed.
Rose and Alex began plucking chords and Rose began to sing.
Especially for you
I wanna let you know what I was goin' through
All the time we were apart I thought of you
You were in my heart
My love never changed
I still feel the same
Especially for you
I wanna tell you I was feelin' that way too
And if dreams were wings I would've flown to you
To be where you are
No matter how far
And now that I'm next to you
No more dreamin' about tomorrow
Forget the loneliness and the sorrow
I've gotta say
It's all because of you and
Now we're back together
Together, I wanna show you
My heart is oh so true
And all the love I have is especially for you
Especially for you
I wanna tell you you mean all the world to me
How I'm certain that our love was meant to be
You changed my live
Ooh you showed me the way
And now that I'm next to you
I've waited long enough to find you
I wanna put all the hurt behind you
And I wanna bring out all the love inside you
Oh and
Now we're back together
Together, I wanna show you
My heart is oh so true
And all the love I have is especially for you
You were in my heart
My love never changed
And now that I'm next to you
No more dreamin' about tomorrow
Forget the loneliness and the sorrow
I've gotta say
It's all because of you and
Now we're back together
Together, I wanna show you
My heart is oh so true
And all the love I have is especially for you
Harry sat stunned. At first, he didn't think Rose was actually interested in acoustic songs, but as he listened to the lyrics, he realized it was far more not in Rose's character to use such lyrics. Harry secretly felt happy about his suspicion that he might well be the inspiration for Rose's composition.
After the song, Rose stood up and pulled open double doors near the corner of the room. She pulled out a piano, to Harry's bewilderment. If acoustic was not her type, certainly not classic?
Alex returned the two acoustic guitars in the gleaming case and pulled out a red and white electric guitar. Harry began to wonder why they were using Muggle instruments. The question must have shown on his face because Alex spoke.
"These are not ordinary instruments. They're inclined to take in magic, when it's needed. Muggle instruments often break when too much magic is applied."
"Hiku kyoku," Rose muttered, and the instruments behind her suddenly floated in mid-air. She sat down behind the piano and started playing somber notes. It was only the sound of the piano at first, but soon, Alex's electric guitar, the drums and sound board behind them played as well without human intervention.
Something just isn't right
I could feel it inside
The truth isn't far behind me
You can't deny
When I turn the lights out
When I close my eyes
Reality overcomes me
I'm livin' a lie
When I'm alone I
Feel so much better
And when I'm around you
I don't feel
Together
It doesn't feel right at all
Together
Together we've built our wall
Together
Holdin' hands we'll fall
Hands we'll fall
This has gone on so long
I realize that I need
Something good to rely on
Something for me
When I'm alone I
Feel so much better
And when I'm around you
I don't feel
Together
It doesn't feel right at all
Together
Together we've built our wall
Together
Holdin' hands we'll fall
Hands we'll fall
My heart is broken
I'm lying here
My thoughts are choking
On you my dear
On you my dear
On you my dear
When I'm alone
When I'm alone
When I'm around
When I'm around you
Together
It doesn't feel right at all
Together
Together we've built our wall
Together
Holdin' hands we'll fall
Hands we'll fall
When I'm around you
When I'm around you
I don't feel together
I don't feel together
Together
Together
I don't feel together, no
I don't feel
Together
The door of the music room flew open and in came three people, a girl and two boys who dressed much like Rose herself.
"Hi! Sorry we're late! It's just that Hatori-sensei made us do some crazy – "
"No need to tell me wha' Hatori's student torture for today was, I think I c'n predict tha' on mah own," Rose replied when the girl started explaining in English with a Japanese accent. The two boys stood transfixed, staring at Harry.
"Is he really – "
"Is that him?"
"Er, hi," Harry stood up and held out his hand. The two boys shook it in turns, muttering what sounded like Japanese under their breaths.
"Harry, this's Miko," Rose said, waving her hand at the girl who winked at Harry and smiled. "Kyosuke, and Akito. Bandmates."
"Hi," Harry said again.
"Oh, hey. Now I remember, Prefect Granger, isn't she?" Miko said, nodding at Harry. "She passed us by on our way here. She was looking for you and asked us to tell you that if we saw you. It sounded kinda urgent, actually."
"Urgent, how?" Harry asked, unable to contain his anxiety.
"I dunno. She was panting, running."
"Think ya should go an' find'er, Harry. Migh' be import'nt," Rose said. Harry found it unusual, though, that Rose did not seem to want to come with Harry.
"Right. I'm going. See you in the common room tonight, I guess?"
"Uhm, yeah," replied Rose. Harry felt strange; Rose did not even glance back at him as he walked out the door of the music room.
Harry tried not to run as he neared the corridor to the seventh years' common room. When he pushed the door open, he saw Ron and Hermione sitting in front of the fire looking unsettled.
"What's up?" Harry asked as he walked up to them. Both turned with evident confusion in their eyes.
"Harry, I don't know how this happened – " Hermione started.
"I told you, he might just be playing us! Maybe he's just joking!" Ron interrupted angrily. Harry did not understand why Hermione seemed close to tears, or why Ron was fuming.
"Then why isn't he here yet!"
"You know him! Maybe he's waiting for Harry to look for him!"
"Are you guys talking about Sirius?" guessed Harry.
"Oh Harry, Sirius is missing!"
"He's not! Harry, you know Sirius! He might've just wandered around the school and decided to worry us while doing so!"
"You are being so irrational, Ron!"
Harry thought both of them were over-reacting. Sirius was a grown man. He was not some toddler who would get lost if he did not hold his guardian's hand.
"What do you mean decided to worry us, Ron?"
"Someone left a note," started Ron.
He held out a piece of paper that looked familiar. Harry knew he'd seen that kind of paper somewhere before, he just could not remember.
Ron read out its contents.
"'I have your godfather, Potter. I have nothing to ask from you now, but soon your godfather will come in good use. Stay alert and wait for my notes if you still wish to see your godfather again.'"
Ron handed Harry the note.
Harry surveyed the handwriting for a while, and it too looked awfully familiar. The panic rising in Harry made him unable to think, however. At the bottom of the paper, Chinese characters were written, with Japanese equivalents above it, and English below. Harry squinted to read the tiny writing.
"'The Spell of the Snow Princess.'"
As if a spell had indeed been activated, Harry, after reading the words, felt the worst chill yet to course through his whole body. He heard Ron and Hermione give out cries of panic as he felt himself slide down on the floor. He vaguely felt Ron bent down upon him, fumbling with his glasses.
Before his eyes closed out of their own accord, he saw a face high above Hermione's and Ron's grinning at him as though glad that he was fainting, but his mind felt too tired to recall to whom that face belonged.
A/N: And voila, this suddenly becomes a song fic! The first song here is a local release, here in my country. The other one is Together by Avril Lavigne. Nah, this won't be a song fic, just this chapter. And I really dunno if it would be considered a song fic too. Hey, tell me if you liked the lyrics of the local song and maybe I'll send you an audio file of it! Oh, give me your e-mail address so I could send it, right? And the chapter title, "Yuki-hime," is Japanese for snow princess. Chill! \m/ punks not dead