DISCLAIMER: ON THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS LIKE I SAID I OWN NOTHING NOT EVEN THE SONGS WELL I DO OWN HAKKAI, EDDIE AND THOSE USED IN THIS PLOT BESIDES MAIN CHARACTERS
THE BOYS WHO LIVED
Chapter 08: Welcome to the School of Rock
Saturday once again made its way into the boy's lives as an owl appeared on the window sill with a newspaper in his talons. Taking the paper Draco paid the bird who flew away instantly to disappear into the sky. Hedwig having returned from her hunting trip full and content slept comfortably on her perch at Harry's head post.
"Who died this time?" Harry asked, "Um it looks like a whole bunch of families died Harry," said Neville as he read over Draco's shoulder and Harry walked over to the newspaper and read what happened and sighed, "I wish I could do something," he said and Draco looked at him, "You might Potter but remember we are only teenagers not the bloody Ministry," "Hey don't we have practice with Hakkai soon," Dean said and they all cursed before getting ready and running downstairs to eat and then head off towards Kai's room.
"Today we will be doing something different after seeing you all practice rhythms and beats in one week it just shows to me that you have what it takes and that you are not dunderheads," she said and the boys tried to suppress amused glances. "And what is funny?" she said clearly amusement is not there, "Um sorry Kai but you sound like one of our professors from our old school," said Seamus, "And which professor is that?" Kai said raising an eyebrow and they all lost the battle and crowed, "Professor Snape!" the all said and broke out into laughter.
Kai clearly did not find this amusing and whistled and they all stopped laughing and stood at attention. "Thank you," she said eyeing them and watching them squirm, Yep just like Snape Harry thought as Hakkai eyed all of them. "Alright this is what we are going to do since I did an assessment of your soon to be skills. "Neville!" she said and the chubby boy stood up straighter sweat started to form, "Oh at ease soldier who you think me Sergeant Slaughter?" she said and Neville gave her a confused look. "You with your thick fingers seem to be good enough to be a base player," she said and the boy looked at her strangely. "Hedwig told me about what instruments you people tried to play and personally with instruments like those it would cost a lot of paper to get them," "Paper?" asked Ron, "Money," said Draco, "What? I saw what some of the students give to the lunch counter she was talking about Muggle pounds."
Shaking his head to keep people from seeing him smile Harry walked over to one of the guitars, "I don't think so," said Kai as she walked in front of Harry and passed him another guitar, "This is yours," she said passing him another one, "That one belongs to him," she pointed to Draco who jumped startled. "Me?" he said, "Yes you," she said and Draco took the guitar from her. Harry's guitar was black with green and gold linings while Draco's was a white color with blue streaks. Looking at Neville's instrument Harry saw that it was maroon with streaks of black and a trimming of gold around it Gryffindor colors.
"Hey what about us?" asked Dean and Hakkai smiled, "Well Mr. since you are so interested I have something for you," she said and guided him to a newer sound machine, "Since brothers are better DJ's then whites why not give it a go," she said and Dean looked at her funny, "What I am not teasing that is how the do it back in the states," she said and Dean shrugged and went to try out his machine. "Now then judging by your accent your Irish right?" she asked Seamus and the boy nodded. "Alright then I have the keyboard over there for you," her words were full of amusement as Seamus said something about cursed Keyboards. Finally Hakkai pointed out the drums to Ron who walked over to them.
When everyone got into positions, "Alright I want you to each take these and practice with them for at least three hours. I will be coming around and helping you and on different days of the week I will be helping you all with lessons and on Saturdays we come here to learn how to play together is that clear?" she said and they all nodded. "Good you are dismissed," she said and they started to walk out, "Oh and one more thing; Welcome to the School of Rock," she said with a smile.
When Hakkai said that they are going to practice she was not kidding for when Monday came around she waited patiently for Harry and Draco. She passed out schedules during breakfast Sunday morning and Draco and Harry have her on Monday's and Fridays while Neville has her on Tuesdays, Ron on Wednesdays, Seamus on Thursdays and Dean on Fridays. They would go to class have two hours study hall afterwards and then practice with Hakkai. Sundays are their only days off for extra studying or just laying back and hanging out.
"You know Harry if Hakkai has you scheduled for those days then she has a point. Learning separately allows her to focus on teaching you that one instrument and then on Saturdays to work together. I think she is brilliant with that and should be a teacher," Hermione said, "Yeah a teacher like Snape," Ron said.
It was Sunny outside when the friends walked out, "You know it has been a long time since we have hung out together," she said, "Yeah with this music class going on and some of our other projects it is even more tedious then Hogwarts!" said Ron and looked at Harry as he was sketching away on his pad, "Harry just what in the world are you drawing?" Ron asked and Harry turned the page over to show him. "Harry since when could you draw?" asked Ron, "Longer then I met you," Harry replied.
Harry's sketch was that of Buckbeak from what he could remember him. Under Buckbeak was the wolf form of Remus Lupin running freely looking not so skinny and not so pathetic. "You know if Professor Lupin were like that he would be twice as scary." Hermione said and Harry smirked, "Well he did look kind of pathetic when we first met his wolf side. I think this makes him look wilder," he replied as Hermione shrugged.
Ron in the meantime was trying to practice his drumming but he was way off beat. Harry and Hermione both chuckled at the sight as Ron blushed pink at the sight, "I was not that terrible was I?" Ron asked and both Harry and Hermione burst out laughing, "Ron, just pray that Hakkai teaches you how to play better just remember the beat," Harry said throwing the beat and Ron suddenly lit up, "Of course!" he said and smacked himself on the head and started tapping again but this time he sounded a lot better then before.
"Well that was a big improvement," Hermione said, "Well Kai is a slave driver," Ron replied as he ate into his food, "Well someone has to be to get you guys from sorry to say this losers to a band that rocks," she said and they just stared at her before breaking out into laughter. Hermione smiled with them as well and then fell back laughing.
In all the fun and games they did not notice how quickly time had passed till the sun began to set in the west. "Oh man how could we forget about the time?" Ron complained, "You mean time flies when we are having fun," Harry said and Ron nodded as they walked back towards the school.
The door swung open and Harry and Draco entered carrying their guitars to Hakkai's room. Kai waited till they closed it before beckoning them to the clearing where she sat with Quick Strike. "Now you two I have to work with for the night so get comfortable for you won't be when I get through with you," she said and both boys gulped as they sat down. "Now then to learn the guitar is a bit complicated like so," she said holding her own which was black with a silver lining.
"Now then when playing a guitar it is always nice to either do two things, one get a guitar pick or two grow out a finger nail," Hakkai said, "Why?" asked Draco, "Because Mr. Malfoy if you don't then your hand gets cut up pretty good," she said holding up her own hands which have a few scars on them. "Oh," they both said as they gulped nervously at their teacher.
Throughout the lesson Hakkai had them learn the scales starting at C scale and that took some time. "Ok now switch from A to E but remember you have to press your fingers like this on the neck where the ridges are," she showed them on her guitar and they tried to follow but she shook her head. "Not that hard or you will go away with sore fingers." She said patiently and both Draco and Harry managed to get the C scale right. "Ok now lets start by going down the scale got it?" she said and both boys acknowledged her. The didn't get it right the first time but on the third or fourth time they managed to get it. "Alright then take a break," she said and the boys massaged their sore hand and walked over to the loo.
When they emerged they heard a song being played on the guitar and they returned to find Kai playing the tune her fingers struck true to the cords as she fiddled with the notes. They were truly mesmerized by it, "Don't understand why you insist on ways of living such a dangerous life, Time after time you stay awake and I just know that you're telling me lies!" They listened as she played the song ripping her guitar more, "black cat long time short days, long nights, living on the edge not afraid to die, heart beat real slow but not fore crow….." They were impressed when they thought that Kai did not know what she was doing but now they knew.
She stopped suddenly and turned to their clapping hands her eyes narrowed and they stopped looking nervous, "Well it was rather brilliant," Harry said to defend himself and Draco. Hakkai's scowl turned into a smirk as she mentioned them to sit down and get back to work. She had them do the C scale again before they finally were able to do some simple songs with it. She drilled them to switched notes and start up on the scale again drilling them on speed each time. By the time two hours past she stopped them. "Alright now it is time to move on to the next scale," she said, "Right now we will start with the A Scale," she said and started playing with the boys to hear what it sounds like.
By the time they were done both Harry and Draco were exhausted and their fingers hurt and cut up. They dragged their guitars up the stairs past the security guard, "Doing lessons again boys?" he asked and they both nodded, "Don't worry your heads off Hakkai is good at what she does," he said, "How do you know?" asked Draco, "Well I heard her play a few times when no one is looking," he said, "I just pretend to be on patrol when I pass her rooms and she is really good, too bad though that she is considered dangerous," he said shaking his head and shooed the boys upstairs but before they got far he said,
"What ever you guys did to her back there keep on going I think it is doing her good!" and they raced back to their rooms.
TBC