Music for this chapter: Old Friends by Howard Shore (Soundtrack for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)
The last note came to a stuttered stop behind the thin black curtain that divided the room in half. Albus Dumbledore finished scoring the student and clapped politely. "Thank you very much. We will be emailing out the results of the audition in a few days. Please let us know if you have any questions," he called out so that the auditionee could hear through the curtain.
The sounds of sheet music being shuffled around and footsteps walking towards the door filtered through the thin cloth. The door had barely clicked closed before Severus Snape scoffed. "That had to have been a freshman trying to sneak their way in. I've never heard someone botch Bach so badly. Honestly, it's the best youth orchestra in the city, possibly the country, and they think they have a chance? Everyone knows that it's mainly juniors and seniors who make it in, given how competitive the process is. What a waste of time." He took out a black pen with the forest green crest of Slytherin Preparatory and gave the student an abysmally low score.
Dumbledore turned to his friend and smiled. "Even though the audition didn't go well, at least the student tried and gained experience. Auditions are never a waste of time."
"Yes, well. We could have saved about ten minutes if the student had never auditioned. I've lost track of the number of auditions we've had over the past month," muttered Snape as he rolled his neck.
"And thank you again for helping me out with the auditions, Severus. I know you must be busy with getting ready for your own school year." Dumbledore flipped open a file and brought out the other audition notes they had made over the past few weeks.
Snape opened another file and pulled out more audition notes. "It's no problem, Albus. I've been teaching the same students for years, and I already know the best seating arrangements. I'm sure you'll be seeing many of them join the ranks of HYSO this year. I'm also happy to conduct any rehearsals if you have any scheduling conflicts. Now, shall we begin with the celli?"
They spent the next hour going through each section and picking who they were going to accept into the orchestra before spending more time on figuring out the best place to put everyone. The tricky ones were the first stand of the first violins and the cello section.
Dumbledore picked up the audition notes they had written for the top four musicians. "They're all very good. I haven't heard high school students like this in years. What do you think?"
The younger man looked at the notes on the cellists first. "Student 394 had perfect sight-reading and had very good color in their solo piece. The only thing that's making me think Student 21 would be better is more precision. I don't think we have any large cello solos coming up, and Student 21 might be better in leading the section."
"That's a good point. I think you're right in that judgement," replied Dumbledore before he wrote down the numbers in their respective spaces on the diagram he had already filled in for the rest of the orchestra. Only two boxes remained in the first violin section. "Alright, so Student 3 and Student 408 were the standouts amongst the violins, but we need to decide who our concertmaster will be."
Snape looked over the results again. "We thought Student 3 would be our concertmaster for the longest time until we heard Student 408. I think there were over two hundred violinists between those two alone. I personally thought Student 3 had a much better sound and was very good at projecting and the sight-reading was the only one that was completely perfect. But Student 408 had excellent intonation and bow-stroke, possibly better technique, and there was that one tiny hiccup with the sight-reading."
"Yes, I agree with your points. I think Student 3 is more accustomed to solo work than Student 408, but that can always be fixed rather easily for any solos. An orchestra is about learning to play together as a team." He scanned the notes for a few more minutes before he nodded. "Let's have Student 408 as our Concertmaster and Student 3 will be Assistant Concertmaster."
"Very well. Shall we see who our newest members are then?" The two worked silently to pull up names and writing them in on a fresh diagram of the orchestra. They worked from the back to the front and shared what they knew of familiar names. The Weasleys caused Severus to groan, but he admitted that they deserved their spots. Slytherin Preparatory's conductor was pleased to see how many of his students joined the ranks of Hogwarts.
Dumbledore looked as the Slytherin conductor neatly penned in Neville Longbottom's name for the Principal bass position. "Oh, is he Frank and Alice's son? Longbottom is not a common name."
Nodding, Snape cracked a small and rare smile. "Yes, he's quite talented. We were all confused when he showed up to Slytherin Preparatory with a bass in tow instead of a violin like his parents. He's also principal at Slytherin and very reliable with helping everyone in the orchestra."
"Excellent. It's been a long time since I've talked to Augusta. I'll be happy to see her again." Dumbledore pulled out the names of the cello auditionees. "Oh, I forgot Harry was a high school student."
Snape raised an eyebrow. "Do you know this Harry?"
"Harry Potter? I'm sure you remember his parents, Severus," Dumbledore frowned as he wrote in the name in the second chair position in the cello section. "He's the son of James Potter and Lily Evans. It says he's only every played in the Gryffindor Middle and High School Orchestras. Oh, and it looks like Sirius Black finally became his guardian. That was all just terrible business, and I'm surprised it took this long to sort everything out." He skimmed the notes again. "It looks like he doesn't have a lot of experience, but he clearly has a lot of natural talent. I'm sure with a little training, he'll surpass his parents."
He turned to look at his friend, who had gone quite pale. "Are you alright, Severus?"
The man's dark eyes blinked before closing as he gave a stiff nod. He cleared his throat to write another name into the first stand. "I'm fine. So, Theodore Nott is our principal cellist. He's also naturally talented like his mother was. He looks quite like her as well, Albus."
Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, Theodosia Nott was exceptionally talented. I look forward to meeting him. "Now for the violins."
Cursing, Severus scrawled in names for the first stand. "Who the hell is Hermione Granger? Lucius is going to kill me when he finds out his son isn't concertmaster."
"It says she's also in the Gryffindor High School Orchestra," Dumbledore remarked with a small chuckle, "it looks like Arthur has some gems in his Junior class. Her audition was quite excellent and the two of them together are going to be wonderful in leading the Orchestra. I'm sure Lucius will be fine, Severus. I assume Draco's going to be the Slytherin concertmaster?"
"Yes, of course. The boy has more talent than the rest of the violin section combined," muttered Snape. "I just won't show up for the first rehearsal and avoid Lucius during the parent rotation night in a couple weeks."
The bell rang, and Mr. Weasley just sighed as everyone rushed out of the rehearsal room. Most of the kids had been eyeing the clock and sneakily packing up ahead of time. At least his children resisted from fleeing as quickly as possible to make it to lunch. Well, at least Ron had friends to stop him. He grinned at the four students who were slowly packing up and chatting.
"I hear congratulations are in order, you four. I think it's a first that four students from Gryffindor High School were accepted into the Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra. Aren't you glad that I convinced you to audition?" he asked as he closed the score they had been working on.
Ron just rolled his eyes. "Dad, I really don't see why you want us to do it. It's just going to take time out of everything, and the orchestra is going to be full of Slytherin Prep snobs anyways."
His father stared at him sternly. "You know Bill and Charlie were Slytherin Prep snobs. Anyways, just because Fred and George decided not to accept their spots two years ago, doesn't mean it is pointless. It's the best youth orchestra, and it will help you play better."
Ginny was grinning. "It'll be fun to play harder music. Plus, at least we made it in, Ron!"
Her brother just snorted as he packed up. "That's because we're violists, Gin. And we don't suck as much as the other violists."
Harry just spun his cello as he watched the siblings. "Do you know what chairs we got, Mr. Weasley? Sirius is really excited about it."
The orchestra director just shook his head. "Dumbledore just sent me the list of students who made it in. You'll have to wait until the pre-rehearsal in a couple days to figure out where you'll be and what music you'll be playing."
Hermione tucked a stray curl behind her ear and smiled at her best friend. "How is living with Sirius going?" Harry had just moved in with his godfather the previous weekend after all the custody arrangements had been finalized.
The green eyes brightened as Harry reached into his backpack. "It's great! He's so much better than the Dursleys, and it's great that he's finally been cleared of all charges. I still can't believe people thought he was so jealous of the other musicians that he rigged the fireworks display at the Halloween Concert. But look, he managed to find the old program for that concert with my parents." Harry pulled out a faded booklet and held it out on a dog-eared page.
Everyone crowded around to see a picture of a full orchestra and a list of names beside it. A handsome dark-haired man stood in the middle with a large smirk on his face.
"Who's that?" Hermione didn't know much about older musicians, even though Harry's parents had been talented cellists who had toured the world with Dumbledore's Orchestra.
Mr. Weasley let out a low whistle and leaned closer. "It's been a long time since I've seen this particular Orchestra." He pointed at the middle man. "This is Tom Riddle. He was a very promising conductor and many thought he would join the likes of Grindlewald and Dumbledore in leading the top symphonies. He had some unconventional ideas though, and some thought his concerts were dangerous."
Hermione frowned. "Dangerous? How can conducting be dangerous?"
Mr. Weasley tapped the program. "This concert was featured in a national broadcast on Halloween, and it was supposed to be Tom Riddle's crowning glory. He was famous for fancy stagework like fake snow falling on the orchestra and staging concerts in the wilderness. Some members of this particular performance claimed it was going to be dangerous with fireworks and went public. There were quite a few, like the Potters, Longbottoms, and the Prewetts." He tapped the names as he went. "None of them were originally a part of Riddle's Symphony, and they played for Dumbledore. But a few members had to pull out for various reasons and they were called in because it was going to be nationally televised."
Harry was frowning, and Hermione realized that the freak accident Harry's parents had died in was connected to Sirius Black being wrongfully imprisoned all these years. She had never heard the story before. Having met her friends on the first day of sixth grade in a brand new city, she had never pried into the recent changes in Harry's life.
"Well, something did go wrong with this performance, and the fireworks caused an explosion. It injured quite a few of the members, but it killed the Potters and Prewett twins. People thought it was rather suspicious because they had been the ones to go public and spread the word that the performances were dangerous for the musicians. The Longbottoms have been in a coma for years, and the whole thing was a national disaster. All of you kids are much too young to remember it," murmured Mr. Weasley as he closed the program.
Harry managed a weak smile and pulled the program back into his bag. "I still can't believe no one told me about it until last year. You should have seen it, Mr. Weasley. A bunch of kids freaked out at me last year at Regionals when they saw my name tag."
Mr. Weasley sighed. "I'm sorry about that, Harry. We thought you knew when you showed up in middle school and told Molly in music class that you wanted to learn how to play the cello. We all assumed, Remus included, that your aunt and uncle told you everything."
Harry shrugged. "It's not your fault my relatives kept me in the dark. At least I know now, and I get to live with Sirius instead."
"What happened to Tom Riddle?" asked Hermione, still perturbed that someone thought fireworks on stage with wooden instruments was a good idea.
"He was injured, but he survived. I don't think anyone's seen him since then. Some people think he went abroad, but no one really knows," replied Mr. Weasley. "You'll miss lunch if you lot don't leave soon. And Ron, Ginny, you better practice before your lesson today. I know you two haven't done anything after the auditions."
Hermione looked at the clock and put down her violin. It was a few minutes to 4:30, and they should really be going if they wanted to make it to the Weasley house on time. She quickly packed away her violin and music before shrugging her arms through the straps so she could carry the case on her back.
She locked the music room door with the key Mr. Weasley had given her and made her way through the silent hallways to the soccer field. The boys were playing around to stay in practice during the off-season because neither of them played club soccer. She spotted Ginny making her way towards them and waved. "Are you guys ready? We'll be late for lessons if we don't leave now."
Ron and Harry grabbed the ball they had been playing with and slung their backpacks over their shoulder. "Let's go." She wrinkled her nose at their sweaty clothes and was glad she only had to survive a fifteen minute car ride and not an hour-long lesson with them.
She turned away and walked in step with Ginny to the school parking lot. "How was your day, Gin?"
The pretty redhead grinned at her. "It was great. Although I do hate Algebra. Can you help me with it in the car?"
"Of course, Gin," Hermione replied as they arrived at the old blue Ford Angelina that the Weasley siblings shared. It was a tight fit, but they managed to squeeze their backpacks and Ron's viola in the trunk. Harry's cello, affectionately named Hedwig, went in the front seat next to Ron, while the others piled in the back with Hermione and Ginny's instruments lying across their laps.
They spent the whole car ride arguing about what music to listen to, and Hermione had wanted classical to the groans of everyone else, but they managed to make it to the Weasley's house in time for their five o'clock lessons.
They managed to unpack the car as a thin man with brown hair walked up the street with a tired grin. "Hello you lot. Harry, have you practiced?"
Harry grinned. "Hi Remus! Of course, I did. I can't believe you would doubt your star pupil."
Remus Lupin laughed. "I did hear that the four of you got into HYSO. Congratulations. Although, if you let the excitement of getting in get to your head and forgot to practice, I'm going to make you do some very painful exercises."
The star pupil in question gulped and quickly followed his teacher into the house. Ginny looked at her phone. "Ron, dad's going to teach you first, but he'll be here in ten minutes. I'm going to go grab a shower before my lesson."
Ron grinned. "Great, just enough time for a snack. Hermione do you want one?" as they walked into the Weasley house that also doubled as a music studio where students took lessons.
She shook her head with a smile. "No thanks, Ron. I think Professor McGonagall is already here."
A door on the second floor opened above them. "Miss Granger? Come in, dear. Let's get started."
Hermione waved goodbye to her friend and smiled at her teacher. "Good afternoon Professor McGonagall." She put her case down on the piano bench in the room and began to unpack.
The older woman's usually stern expression gave way to a small smile. "Congratulations, Hermione. I'm very proud that you got in, and Dumbledore will be a great conductor to play under this year."
Adjusting her shoulder rest, Hermione nodded excitedly, "I'm really looking forward to playing. I would even be happy with being last chair if I get to finally play in a symphonic orchestra."
Minerva McGonagall shook her head with a frown. "I tried to get you to audition last year, but you were too nervous to try out. And you're much better than you think you are, my dear. You placed quite high in the Regionals orchestra last year, and you would've been higher if it wasn't for your sight-reading."
Hermione cringed as she grabbed her sheet music. "I really don't like sight-reading."
McGonagall tutted. "Well, they're releasing the audition passages for the first round of Regionals auditions, so we can practice sight-reading today. Let's start with some scales."
Groaning, Hermione dutifully held up her violin to her neck and began to tune.
Hermione thanked Sirius and Harry for the ride home and let herself into her apartment. Not taking the bus meant she had beaten her parents home. She dropped off her violin and backpack in her room before going to the kitchen and beginning to heat up leftovers for dinner.
Just as she was pulling things off the stove, the door opened to the soft voices of her parents. Her mom grinned at her as she peeked through the kitchen door. "Hello, darling. How was your day?" She helped Hermione carry things to the table and grabbed utensils.
"It was good. Professor McGonagall wants me to wait another week before starting another piece. Oh, and I have a pre-rehearsal next week." She pulled out the printed email of rehearsal dates from her pocket and set it on the table.
Richard Granger walked through the door and wrapped Hermione up in a hug. "Right, my daughter, the musician, made it into something wonderful."
Hermione giggled. "I still don't think you know exactly what I'm going to be doing."
Her dad shrugged. "We might just be dentists who know nothing about music, but we're very proud of you, dear." He sat down at the table and looked at his phone. "Your mom and I are going to need to stay at the volunteer clinic late for the next week. Will you be alright?"
"Of course. I'm going to the pre-rehearsal with my friends, so I should be fine." Hermione grinned at her parents as she put her dinner plate together. Her parents were busy with their own private practice and donated most of their time and money to volunteer work, but they still tried to understand her passion of music and see all of her performances. She couldn't wait until they saw her play at the fancy Hogsmeade Center for the Arts. She had only been a couple times with the Weasleys and on school field trips, but she was looking forward to finally playing on the stage.
Wow I didn't expect people to read this story! Thank you for reading and I hope to hear how you're enjoying the story! I really don't like the way the beginning of my stories work out (lots of setup sigh), but we'll start to get into the plot soon! And if you're here from It's a Matter of, welcome back and I hope you enjoy!
(apologies if you're seeing this chapter twice! I think there's a bug and the second chapter wasn't showing up originally)
Next chapter: The pre-rehearsal and welcoming the lovely students of Slytherin Preparatory
