"Remus, Remus, Remus!" came the chants of Remus' excitable cousin, Callum, through the telephone. "I saw them again!"
"Who?" he asked, chuckling. His muggle cousin really was cute.
"You know, those two street singers by King's Cross that go there every summer! They started singing again yesterday, and it was all Queen songs!"
"Really?" Remus asked, smiling.
Sirius likes Queen, doesn't he? And I bet he'd want an excuse to get out of the house again...
"Yeah! Their original songs are great, too, but it's nice hearing something I can sing along to. They opened with My Fairy King! That's such a hard song to duet with, but they managed it! And they made it sound good even though they didn't have drums and only had an acousticguitar. They're crazy good! You really should go see them before you have to go to that fancy boarding school in Scotland."
"Sure, sure," Remus grinned. "In a few days, I'll see if they're worth all the hype, Callum."
"They are!" Callum insisted hotly.
"How can I be so sure?"
"I say so, so they are!"
Their friendly banter continued, and Remus almost forgot that it had been the full moon two nights ago, with how nice and childish his muggle cousin was acting. Teasinga werewolf? Really?
Remus Lupin was dangerous, but his muggle side of the family didn't know that, and sometimes it was nice. Other times the guilt killed him inside.
✧༺ ༻∞
The Marauders got out of the Knight Bus, walking into the streets of Muggle London.
"Where did you say these singers were?" asked James Potter.
"My cousin wasn't very clear," Remus confessed, he and Peter leading the group for once as the other two were unfamiliar with the muggle streets. "He told me that they were a few streets away from King's Cross. They move every day, apparently, to find a different crowd."
Sirius Black sighed, "We gonna be walking for a while then? It's so damn hot out, I can hardly bear to move."
"We'll find them soon," Peter Pettigrew said nervously.
Could Sirius stop scaring him already? It was hardly his fault but would it kill him to notice his effect on people?
"We know where they won't be, so it shouldn't be too hard," Remus said. "You won't be drenched in sweat, Pads, don't worry."
James snorted. "Yeah, don't worry, you won't need to take another shower. Your hair will be just as pretty as it always is."
"You admit it!" Sirius crowed. "My hair is pretty and I'm not insane for spending hours taking care of it."
"When did I say that?" James asked, aghast. "You wouldn't hear me say that on my deathbed!"
Remus and Peter let the two teens (though, really, toddlers would be a more accurate description) bicker between themselves and tire themselves out. Remus was sure they'd come across the two buskers eventually. Even if they didn't exactly know who they were looking for.
Remus had just turned the corner with Peter when James' yell stopped him.
"Moony, Wormtail, I think Pads' body gave up on him!"
The two half-bloods stiffened and turned around worriedly, expecting to find Sirius in James' arms, unconscious because of heatstroke or the like, but the Black was standing. He was just frozen, facing the other side of the road, shock etched on his face.
Following Sirius' line of sight, Remus found two teens, a boy and a girl, around their own age. They had mics set up and seemed to be in the process of setting up their instruments: a guitar and keyboard. Sirius had found the buskers, it seemed.
The boy was rather lean, and he looked like he might play a sport of some sort. His hair was brown; lighter than Remus' hair but darker than his eyes. He could give Sirius a run for his money, but Remus didn't remember seeing him at Hogwarts. Muggles, then.
The girl beside him was brown, South Asian, he assumed, and she seemed all the more dark beside her white companion. She was thin. Rectangular, almost. Not conventionally attractive, but Remus had to admit that with her wavy black hair and dark eyes, she had her own appeal.
In fact, he would have assumed Sirius was shocked because of all the wires the keyboard had, or something else to do with the Muggle technology the two other teens were using, had the girl not been staring right back.
"Sirius, speak to me!" James exclaimed, shaking his friend back and forth.
"Oh, shove off, James," he grumbled.
"See, they're both fine," Remus said to Peter, who was flitting about, wringing his hands nervously.
"I hope so!" Peter exclaimed, watching James and Sirius start playfully bickering again.
✧༺ ༻∞
Netra nodded at Willow to announce the song they would be starting with, as it was a remix of sorts.
"We'll be performing a remix of the popular Eleanor Rigby, composed originally by The Beatles!" he said into the microphone enthusiastically. The slowly assembling audience cheered as Netra and Willow made eye contact to prepare themselves for the roller-coaster of a song.
Taking a deep breath, Willow began playing a beat of quarter notes to keep rhythm during the intro rift. With one hand, Netra began playing a melody, a simple but meaningful pattern of notes. The second time she repeated the pattern, she entered with her other hand, playing a similar pattern with different notes to harmonize. Her notes kept alternating to create different harmonies but the beat that Willow was playing remained the entire time, like a backbone.
Within the next twenty or so seconds, Willow's beat had switched to faster eighth notes. The intro was picking up pace, and the audience was glued to their spots. Netra played a melody overtop, dramatically crescendoing and fading into harmony with the underlying beat still going. Meanwhile, Willow had switched back to slower quarter notes.
After a few moments, Netra reentered with a different, more bass-centric melody over Willow's beat. She finally played a tune that resembled one of Eleanor Rigby's tunes before going for a fast but smooth rift that took her to a place high on the keyboard where she played the song's main melody. Willow stopped the rhythm to respond with the fast pattern that nearly defined this song, only for Netra to interrupt him partway.
After an anticipation-filled pause, Willow broke out into song with Netra accompanying him.
"Ah, look at all the lonely people!"
"Ah, look at all the lonely people!" he sang as Netra played her instrument with a feisty sort of determination.
Suddenly the atmosphere became quiet and Willow's voice softened. "Eleanor Rigby," he crooned before letting Netra play a single dramatic note. "Picks up the rice in the church where the wedding has been..." Netra created a suspenseful air to the music. "lives in a dream! Waits at the window," Netra began playing quarter notes to keep the beat as Willow had done for her earlier. "wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door, who is it for?"
"All the lonely people, where do they all come from?"
"All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"
Netra and Willow played the interlude together, Netra playing the lower backing notes and Willow taking the higher ones before he came in on vocals again.
"Father Mackenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear... no one comes near."
"Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there, what does he care?"
"All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"
Netra joined on vocals as an echo for what Willow had just sung. "All the lonely people ("All the lonely people")" Willow came in as well to harmonize and Netra kept playing the keyboard while singing. Singing and playing at the same time? The audience was duly impressed.
"All the lonely people ("All the lonely people")" they repeated a couple more times, slowly intensifying with each repetition and Netra reached the climax of that section with a few extra notes connecting to Willow's next part.
"Eleanor Rigby... died in the church and was buried along with her name. Nobody came..."
"Father Mackenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave... no one was saved."
"All the lonely people. All the lonely people ("Ah, look at all the lonely people. Ah, look at all the lonely people. Ah look at all the lonely people. Ah, look at all the lonely people. Ah, look at all the lonely people. Ah, look at all the lonely people. Ah, look at all the lonely people.")" Both of them sang their hearts out with Netra still playing the accompaniment, before ending the song abruptly but effectively with a final note from Netra.
The awed audience was hushed for a good five seconds before they began cheering like crazy. What seemed like hundreds of people were putting coins in their cup, to the point that it was nearly overflowing. Netra and Willow, both grinning madly, embraced each other, not paying any attention to how sweaty the other was.
"Encore! Encore! Encore!" the audience chanted and the two musicians laughed.
Encore it will be.