Music recommendation for this chapter: Unlocking the Mind by Samuel Bohn (from the trailer for The Theory of Everything)


The Hogsmeade Center for the Arts had ridiculous parking fees. Not that she had her license yet or a car, but this meant that they had to catch an early bus for the pre-rehearsal. Orchestras are notorious for being ruthless to any latecomers, and Hermione naturally liked to be early to everything.

She and Harry followed a bickering Ron and Ginny, who were trying to figure out if Ginny could've beaten Ron in seating arrangements, to the prettiest building in all of Hogsmeade. The Hogwarts Symphony Orchestra played in a large castle-like building that was part museum and part performance hall. Hermione had only been a few times before to hear the Symphony play around the holidays or school field trips, but she wished Gryffindor High School had this kind of architecture. They found themselves in a lobby after going through security, but then had no idea of where to go.

"Now what?" she whispered in the vast empty lobby. The others shrugged as they tried the locked doors that people would typically stream through to watch the Hogwarts Symphony Orchestra play. There was no one else around, and the security guard looked bored as he sat eating a sandwich at the front desk.

"Harry?" A voice called from a hallway to their left and they turned to see a tall boy carefully rolling a bass towards them. He looked vaguely familiar to Hermione, but she never remembered seeing someone taller than Ron.

Harry frowned before he blinked. "Neville?" Hermione's jaw dropped. There was no way this tall good-looking boy was the same as short round and sweet Neville Longbottom who had transferred schools after sixth grade.

Neville grinned. "Hi Hermione, Ron, Ginny. It's nice to see you guys! Are you guys also in HYSO?" He pulled up in front of them and just managed to catch his bass before it tipped over.

"Yes, we are. Wow, Neville. It's been a long time since we've seen you. How's Slytherin Prep?" Ron still looked surprised but clapped his free hand across Neville's back.

"It's pretty good, I mean we don't have to wear uniforms like the other private schools. Although, all of the guys basically dress the same. They have a great music department even if our director is pretty strict. I actually saw you guys at Regionals last year, but Harry looked like he was terrified the entire time, Hermione was glued to her laptop during breaks, and Ron, you were always with a sandwich," laughed Neville.

Hermione blushed. "Sorry, I had an important paper due before the concert. It is really nice to see you, Neville. By the way, do you know where we're supposed to go?"

Nodding, Neville pointed at the large concert doors. "Our rehearsals are in the main concert hall unless there's a performance, in which case we're in the back room. I can show you guys. They won't unlock these doors until closer to rehearsal time." He adjusted his bass and wheeled them to a side door and down a long hallway.

"Were you in the orchestra last year, Neville?" Ginny asked as the boy confidently led them through a few doors.

He laughed. "No, they don't take many sophomores. Congratulations, Ginny! But Gran is a patron of the Center, and she's always trying to introduce me to people who knew my parents. I've been backstage quite a bit. Also, there's always more than a few Slytherin upperclassmen who make it into the Orchestra and the seniors tell the new members a few things."

Neville led them down one more hallway and into a large room that could have easily fit another symphonic orchestra. "There are some lockers, but they get filled up really quickly and sometimes Symphony people leave their instruments or belongings here if they need a safe place to keep anything. This is the rehearsal space if the stage is in use and before concerts for last-minute adjustments. It's probably easiest to unpack here. We probably won't play anything because it's the pre-rehearsal meeting, but you never know."

He had just finished speaking when a few other students began to filter in. From the way they were talking, they seemed to be returning members and were most likely seniors. Hermione heard more than a few complaining how Dumbledore seemed to like having juniors lead the Orchestra. She quickly unpacked her violin and walked over to Neville who had just pulled out his bass. "Neville, do you know when we find out what stand we are?"

He grinned. "Yeah, it'll be on the rehearsal door. I wanted to wait for more people to get out of the way, but we can go check out our seats now. You won't know what chair you'll be until you get to your stand though. The folders will be on your chairs with names and numbers on them."

They collected Harry and the Weasleys as more people filtered into the room. Most people were quiet and talking with a few friends, but it looked like the seniors from different high schools were going around and chatting about their summers and if this year could be better than the last.

There was a small crowd jostling around a piece of paper taped to the door, but most people quickly scanned the page before leaving. Hermione found herself at the front and started looking from the bottom of the second violins and ended with a Blaise Zabini and Susan Bones on the first stand. She did the same for the first violins and was shocked to see her name at the top right above a Draco Malfoy. "I'm first stand?" she squeaked and almost dropped her violin.

Harry let out a surprised laugh. "We all are. What is going on?"

Neville grinned as he proudly looked at his own name. "It means we're all talented. Hogwarts is famous for doing blind auditions, and it's surprised more than a few people in the past. You all have really talented stand partners too. Draco and Theo both go to Slytherin with me and are concertmaster and principal cellist this year."

Ron and Ginny had both made first stand, which started another wave of bickering over who would get to be principal. They were both two of the best violists in the state, but never tried hard for Regionals in the past couple years. But it looked like they had actually tried to do their best for the Hogwarts Auditions, and it had paid off.

Ginny flipped her long red hair over one shoulder and gave her brother one last dirty look. "Let's just go find our seats and settle this once and for all."

Hermione followed the others onto the stage through a side door and gulped. The stage lights weren't as bright as they were during concerts, so she could see every seat in the audience. There were hundreds of soft red seats, and the thought of playing in front of that many people made her gulp. The concert hall had golden ceilings and walls, bathing the stage in a soft glow. She saw Neville and Harry take their seats after finding their folders. Neville was principal and Harry was Assistant Principal. Ginny had managed to get principal over Ron, and was grinning in triumph while Ron just slumped in his seat and leaned his head on the scroll of his viola.

Other students were making their way onto the stage and excitedly finding their seats, and Hermione wove around a few empty cello seats and walked along the edge of the stage. The narrow strip of the wooden floor felt enormous, and she knew she would have to make this walk several times to tune the orchestra at the beginning of rehearsals and concerts. She passed by the empty podium and stood just before the stand. Taking a deep breath, she walked closer to look at the folders on the two black chairs.

The one closest to her had her name stamped across the front with a large 1 next to it. It was official. She was Concertmaster of the Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra.

"Well? What'd you get, Hermione?" called out a grinning Harry who was standing at his seat a few feet away. They were only separated by the podium, but it would be hard for her to see him during rehearsal.

She felt an excited grin break across her face, and she pulled out the folder and sank into her assigned seat.

"Nice Hermione!" exclaimed Ginny, and Ron gave a loud whoop.

Harry was smiling at her proudly and lifted his bow into the air. "Long live Concertmaster Hermione Granger," he shouted to the laughs and incredulous looks of the other few orchestra members trickling on stage. Hermione recognized a few from Regionals the previous year, but she didn't know very many names.

Hermione blushed and tightened her hold on her violin. This was not how she wanted to start off her pre-rehearsal practice and would have much rather enjoyed some amount of obscurity, but she did have great friends. Shaking her head, she began to flip through the folder she placed on the stand.

There were two packets of music. Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony was the first one, and she felt her grin grow wider. She had always wanted to play this piece, but Mr. Weasley had never given into her requests because of the length and complexity of the symphony. The next one was Mozart's Symphony No. 27 K. 199. She was decently familiar with the pretty Symphony, and she gave a satisfied sigh. Thank goodness Mr. Weasley and Professor McGonagall had convinced her to audition this year. Not only had she somehow made Concertmaster, but she got to play two amazing pieces she might not have had the chance to play until possibly college.

Hermione had just finished flipping through the pages when she realized that people were whispering and shooting her confused looks. Then she noticed that all the boys were nicely dressed in collared shirts and no one was wearing jeans. The girls were all wearing makeup and fashionable clothing. She was suddenly very aware of her worn jeans and old gray tank top with Gryffindor proudly printed on the front. Her once white and dirty converse nervously slid under her chair as she hurriedly immersed herself in the music again.

This was the best youth orchestra in the country, so of course it attracted privileged students from prestigious schools where everyone dressed nicely. She was going to have to get up in front of everyone to tune the orchestra. Groaning, Hermione fervently hoped that they wouldn't play today and resolved to dress up a bit next week for their first rehearsal. She had never wanted to stick out, but she couldn't avoid at least some of the spotlight by being Concertmaster.

The empty black seats were beginning to be filled, and the sound of people idly playing some of the music filtered through the air. The rest of the inner circle of stands were quickly occupied, but the seat beside her remained empty. Hermione looked up and saw a dark-haired boy who looked quite a bit like Harry, but was dressed in an expensive looking dark green collared shirt and carried himself with a confidence only money and talent could bring, carrying a beautiful cello towards his stand. His hair was also significantly neater. This must be Theodore Nott. He introduced himself to Harry and they shook hands. Hermione noticed he seemed a little surprised at hearing his stand partner's name and wondered if this would be a repeat of Regionals.

A tall old man with a very long white beard crossed the stage and smiled. He stopped at the podium with a thin folder and small long box in hand. A hush fell over the members, but Albus Dumbledore just smiled and waved his hand, indicating that there was still time until rehearsal began. People began to speak softly again, and the noise quickly rose. He opened his folder and turned to Hermione with a kind look. "Hello, Miss Granger. It is lovely to officially meet you."

Hermione managed to smile as she became fully aware that she was sitting in front of one of the most famous conductors in the past century. "Hello, Sir. It's lovely to meet you as well."

He nodded and began to say hello to the other students sitting in the first stands. Hermione looked around as he did so and smiled at Susan Bones who was the Assistant Principal for the Second Violins. They had briefly met at Regionals the previous year. There was a handsome boy with amber eyes sitting as Principal. This must be Blaise Zabini.

Hermione nodded at him, but he just stared at her for a few seconds with surprised eyes before looking away. Confused, Hermione resolved to focus on the music. She already had her friends in the orchestra. It wasn't like she needed to become friends with everyone here.

Dumbledore was looking at his watch as he made his way towards Neville and then onto the members of the band. Hermione glanced at her own watch. Rehearsal was supposed to start in two minutes. She was just wondering if her stand partner was ever going to show up when someone cleared their throat to her right and a shadow fell over her.

Hermione looked up to see a handsome boy with white blond hair and sparkling gray eyes looking down at her with a small smirk. An eyebrow was raised and there was a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"Hello. I believe you're in my seat." A faint waft of cologne drifted towards her as he gestured with his gorgeous violin. The scent wasn't overpowering, but smelled of money and privilege. It was actually kind of nice.

She swallowed. Even if Neville hadn't mentioned that he went to school with Draco Malfoy, she would've known he belonged in Slytherin Preparatory. His hair was styled in a way that looked effortless, and he was wearing a light blue button up shirt that no one could pay Harry or Ron to wear. His slacks looked like they were ironed, and he was wearing loafers. High school boys didn't wear loafers unless they went to a private school.

Hermione felt her body automatically begin to get up with an apology but caught herself. "Are you Draco Malfoy?"

His smirk grew a bit. "Yes, I am." His voice was like velvet and deep enough to indicate that he had certainly passed puberty.

Nodding, she took a deep breath and nervously gripped the neck of her violin a little tighter. "Well, you're Assistant Concertmaster, so that's your seat," she pointed at the empty chair to her left but trailed off as his brow began to furrow.

Any hint of amusement instantly disappeared along with his smirk. His gray eyes hardened and he leaned closer. "What are you talking about?"

Hermione had just lowered her hand from pointing to the folder with his name and the number 2 stamped across the front when Dumbledore strode up to the podium. The concert hall instantly fell silent, but Dumbledore looked over at the first stand and the still standing Draco Malfoy. "Is there a problem?"

Soon, all eyes were on them, and Hermione wanted to disappear into her chair. This was definitely not how she had wanted to start rehearsal.

A look of fury appeared on Malfoy's face as he took a second to look from his folder to her folder that was currently on the stand. He whirled to face Dumbledore, another waft of cologne floating towards her as he shifted. "Yes, sir. There is a problem. Who the hell is this and why is she in my seat? There is no way I could be Assistant Concertmaster."

Dumbledore merely smiled. "Excellent segue, Mr. Malfoy. And, I do need to grab something from the back." He clapped his hands even though the orchestra was already silent and spoke in a slightly louder voice. "Welcome everyone. I'm glad to see our returning students and the new Juniors and rare Sophomores. Now, before we get started, I want you to introduce yourselves to your stand partner and become well acquainted. You will be together for the rest of the year. I'll give you five minutes while I go grab something I forgot." He stepped off the podium and strode towards the back door, as everyone began to talk to the person next to them.

Hermione pushed her chair back slightly and waited a minute before Malfoy elegantly slid into his seat. She bit her lip nervously as she watched him give a hard glare at her folder and then turn to face her. A vicious sneer was on his lips. "Granger? I've never heard of any musicians with that last name."

Blinking, she raised an eyebrow. "Were you supposed to?"

He scoffed and gestured behind him towards the rest of the orchestra. "Most of us have parents who are world-class musicians. I don't understand what you're doing here or how you managed to get that seat." He appraised her from her messy bun that barely held her hair straight back down to her dirty converse. His lip curled as he read her tank top. "Gryffindor High School? That explains why I've never seen you before."

Hermione felt a delayed sense of fury rising up in her. "What does that mean?"

He looked bored as elegantly balanced his violin and bow in one hand before flipping through the sheet music. "I mean, I've only ever gone to Slytherin Preparatory, except for my year abroad at Beauxbatons Academy. I know a few people who go to The Ravenclaw School and The Hufflepuff Independent Day School, but I didn't even know Gryffindor had an orchestra, and you need to be in your school orchestra to play for HYSO."

Dumbledore was back on the podium before she could reply, and Hermione straightened to turn her attention to him. She was gritting her teeth and wondered if it would be inappropriate to strangle her stand partner before their first rehearsal. No, she could do this. It was an amazing opportunity, and she could survive not talking to her stand partner for a year.

"Welcome everyone," Dumbledore called out to the quickly quiet orchestra. "I am always so happy to see a new orchestra with so many young faces. Think of the magic we can make! After all, music is the closest thing to magic we have in the world." He smiled and Hermione felt herself relax. His words were true. When she played, it felt like she was performing magic. She noticed her stand partner's lip twitch upwards into a brief smile at the words from the corner of her eye. Maybe he wouldn't be so bad?

Dumbledore took a moment to scan the orchestra members before continuing. "I am proud of all of you for your talents and dedication to this art, and I am sure we will have a wonderful year. Now, for some housekeeping and the point of this pre-rehearsal. It appears that all of you have made it, so I will expect all of you to be here on time. You have one excused absence for the year, and I will not condone tardiness. This will be good practice for those of you who aim to play in college orchestras and professional orchestras. All of you are to be in your seats with your instrument, sheet music, and pencil when rehearsal is scheduled to begin." He looked over his glasses at the sheet in front of him.

"The hall is ours to use when the Hogwarts Symphony is not using it. We can be in the back room if they need to use the stage for any reason. You are all welcome to use the practice rooms and space whenever you would like, but only if it is already not in use. You must give it up if someone from the Symphony comes in."

Hermione perked up at that. She could play here whenever she wanted to? This was going to be much better than practicing in the Hogwarts music room. She could just imagine how wonderful the music would sound in a space dedicated to creating beautiful music.

Dumbledore continued to read off of the sheet. "The concert cycle for this year will be a Fall concert, Winter concert, and Spring concert. The Fall concert is in a couple months, which is why the repertoire is short. The Concerto Competition will be held a month before the Spring concert." Everyone sat up when he said that and he smiled as he looked up. "The winner of the Concerto Competition will of course play a concerto of his or her choice at the Spring Concert. The winner last year was Cedric Diggory, and I hear he's looking forward to starting his first year at Julliard."

Hermione swallowed as she looked at the other eager members of the Orchestra. Winning the Concerto Competition would be the ticket to all of her dreams. The winner played at the biggest concert put on by the Orchestra, and tickets were always sold out. Winning the Concerto Competition was enough to get you into any university or conservatory in the country, and many famous world-class musicians had won it in the past. If she was Concertmaster, did that mean she had a good chance at winning it? Then she remembered a violinist hadn't won the competition in years. Cedric Diggory had been an oboist, and a cellist named Oliver Wood had won it the year prior. Maybe that would change this year. She realized Draco Malfoy had a vicious smirk on his face and quickly turned to focus on Dumbledore again. At the very least, she would try to beat Draco Malfoy and any other Slytherin snob who auditioned.

Dumbledore ran his finger down the piece of paper before clearing his throat. "Oh, and one more rule we've added this year due to an incident last year. I do request that stand partners do not date. There was a pretty spectacular break-up in the middle of a rehearsal last year, and we cannot have distractions while we practice." A few members of the Seniors grimaced, and Hermione wondered exactly what had happened as the conductor continued to speak. "If it's true love, you can survive one year without dating your stand partner. If there is a couple, we will reassign stands and move both of you to a different stand." He paused, but no one came forward.

Draco snorted and Hermione felt a little offended, but she also rolled her eyes. There was no way she would ever date the boy besides her. She turned around to look at the reactions of the other first violins and noticed that the third violinist had a predatory gleam in her eyes. Her name was Romilda Vane if Hermione remembered the sheet from earlier correctly.

Hermione quickly turned back around. There was no way she was giving up her seat. Especially now that Draco Malfoy had called her out in front of the entire orchestra. No, she was definitely going to show them that she deserved this seat over any prep school kid with an expensive violin.

Dumbledore clapped his hands again. "Now, that's everything for today. Although, I see that many of you brought your instruments with you. Let's play a bit to warm up before we start next week." He opened the long box on the podium and removed a baton that was simpler than one might imagine of a retired world-class conductor. "I know we couldn't bring in a few of the larger band instruments today, so I think we'll just play the Mozart for a bit. Anyone besides the strings, flutes, and horns are welcome to stay and listen but you are otherwise dismissed. Oh, but Miss Greengrass, do stay to tune the A for us. I think just a quick tuning will be enough" He smiled at a pretty blonde girl, who nodded and adjusted her oboe, before turning to look at Hermione. "I just want to get through as much as we can, and we only have a couple minutes left. I think we can save your first tuning until next week?"

Hermione nodded with a smile. She would definitely be prepared to tune the orchestra next week. Everyone who played in the Mozart quickly took out the music and arranged their instruments, and everyone who didn't play just remained in their seats, probably to hear exactly how good it would sound being sight-read. She hated sight-reading, but at least she knew how the piece sounded so it would be a bit easier.

Hearing the A from the oboe, Hermione tuned her instrument and glanced over to see Malfoy tuning as well, but not moving to remove the sheet music from his folder. It was always the inside person's job to take care of the music and flip pages. Even after they had finished tuning, he didn't move to take care of their music. She sighed and opened her folder to pull out the music, but resolved that she wouldn't be flipping any pages. She was Concertmaster, and even if she didn't go to some fancy prep school or have musicians as parents, she knew that the inside player flipping pages was the standard in all orchestras. Dumbledore tapped his baton to give the tempo, which was a tad slower than concert speed given that they were sight-reading before starting them off.

After the second measure, Hermione realized that the Gryffindor Orchestra was ruined for her forever. The powerful sound and beautiful melody of a full Orchestra of students who really knew how to play was beautiful. It was even better than the Regionals Orchestra had been last year. Once they got to the part where they repeated the previous measures, she had fully relaxed and grinned as she played. This was going to be great.

They were nearing the end of the page turn, and Hermione counted out the eight measures of rest they had. There was more than enough time for Malfoy to flip the page, but he didn't move. Hermione turned to look at him, and he was just looking back at her with a raised eyebrow. Hermione reached count seven and began to panic. What was she supposed to do if he didn't flip the page? Should she just flip it? No. If she gave in during a pre-rehearsal, she might find herself being the first Concertmaster to be do the page turns during an actual concert.

He didn't even pick up his violin from rest position. Hermione knew the music was repetitive, but she wasn't sure how similar the ending of the piece was to the beginning. She raised an eyebrow back at him as the eighth measure quickly passed. Two could play that game. Besides, what was the point of being Concertmaster if she didn't have a reliable stand partner. Hopefully Dumbledore would understand. If not, well she never expected to be Concertmaster anyways. Maybe Romilda Vane wouldn't have to wait for any impossible romance scandal before becoming Concertmaster.

The rest of the first violins stuttered disjointedly behind them, as some had been relying on the first stand to pick up their violins to cue everyone in while others had just counted on their own and entered. The rest of the Orchestra faltered as the music grew softer without the first violins. A few continued to play while watching Dumbledore's still moving baton, but others gaped as they stared at the silent first violin section.

Dumbledore lowered his baton with a chuckle, and Hermione sheepishly looked up to meet twinkling blue eyes. "Well, I do suppose that we are at the end of the pre-rehearsal. First violins, please play until I stop next time." He looked over at them with an amused expression. "I expected something like this of the violas, but not my first violins."

The rest of the orchestra snickered at the violas' expense, but they were all used to it and just shook their heads. Hermione thought they were just happy that they got the melody line in the latter half of the Allegro.

Dumbledore organized his papers and nodded as he put his baton back in its box. "I think this will be a fine year. Dismissed, and I will see all of you next week."


Thank you for reading! Reviews are appreciated to know that I'm not writing into the void! And thank you Butterflies765 for the lovely review! I must admit I was a violist in high school, but I absolutely adore viola jokes haha I'm happy you enjoy Ron being a violist!