Music recommendation: One Last Shot by Klaus Badelt from Pirates of the Caribbean
Hermione closed her eyes and counted to five. When she opened them, she realized it wasn't a dream. She really was the Concertmaster of the Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra, and her stand partner was a monster. Really, what person wouldn't turn the page if they were sitting on the inside. He was a monster, and there was nothing else she could do. She was screwed for this season.
A low chuckle came from her left and she looked up to see the principal second violinist grinning down at her with very white teeth. "Well isn't this interesting, Draco. It looks like someone stole your rightful throne." Blaise Zabini was tall, dark, and handsome. He had to be another Slytherin Prep student. Why were there so many in this Orchestra? He held out his hand to her with a charming smile. "I'm Blaise Zabini. It's very nice to make your acquaintance, Miss Granger." Hermione shook it and was a little impressed by his firm handshake.
She looked over to see Malfoy glaring at his friend. "Shouldn't you be complaining Blaise? You've been kicked over to the land of the second violins. I don't think you should be gloating right now."
Harry's stand partner, Theodore Nott had wandered over amidst the crowd of students rushing to pack up and go eat dinner. As he drew closer, Hermione realized she would never mix him up with her best friend. Theodore Nott was taller than Harry and was more built than her slight best friend. Did they have special lunches at Slytherin Prep or something?
He gave Hermione a small smile and held out his hand as well. "Theo Nott, at your service." He looked over to Malfoy and his smile grew as she shook his hand. "I'm glad someone can beat you. Your head's gotten even bigger while we were in France. Now, you'll have a reason to practice."
Her blond stand partner actually growled as he picked up his folder. The pretty blonde oboist had also joined their little circle. Hermione groaned. Why were they all so attractive and well-dressed? The girl gave her a small smile as she walked forward, and Theo automatically wrapped his arm around her thin waist. "Hello, I'm Daphne Greengrass. I don't believe we've met," she said as she gave a friendly smile.
Swallowing, Hermione introduced herself and watched as Daphne Greengrass leaned into Theo and laughed. "Oh, it's so wonderful to see Draco with some competition. Well, I guess I'll be helping you tune for the rest of the season."
She managed to nod and bit her lip. Would it be awkward if she just left? None of them looked like they were moving anytime soon. Thankfully, a tan arm waving a black folder cut through the circle of Slytherins. "Hermione! Are you ready to go? Ron's complaining about starving again." She had never been so happy to see Harry's messy hair flopping over his face.
She stood up and grabbed her folder. "Yes, I'm ready to leave."
Blaise was staring at the folder in Harry's hand and did a double take as he looked at her best friend. "Oh, you're a Potter?"
Theo laughed and nodded. "As soon as I saw his name on the sheet, I thought I was going to be second chair."
Harry's friendly smile slid off his face. "Yes, I'm Harry Potter. Is there a problem?"
Daphne took in his Gryffindor t-shirt and gasped, "Oh, he goes to Gryffindor. That explains why none of us have seen him before." She gave him a shy smile. "My parents always wondered where you were."
"Okay, Hermione. Let's leave now," muttered Harry as his face flushed. Hermione slid out between Theo and her chair to follow Harry across the stage.
Malfoy snorted and stood up as well behind them. "Well, the mystery of the lost Potter has been solved and obviously Dumbledore can't make good seating decisions. Wait until Professor Snape hears about this."
Ron and Ginny were laughing at something Neville said in the empty back room. Hermione knelt down next to her case and quickly packed. The trio wandered over and Ginny grinned down at her. "What did you do that made the entire orchestra fall apart?"
Groaning, Hermione rolled her neck and looked up at four curious faces. "Neville, who the hell is Draco Malfoy and why does he refuse to flip the page even though he's on the inside?"
Four pairs of eyes widened, and Neville let out a nervous laugh. "Draco's one of the best violinists I've seen, and he isn't that bad of a person. He's just a little snobby because of his family."
Harry looked at him. "Do they all know about musician families? They all seemed to know who I was just based on my last name. It was actually worse than Regionals."
Nodding, their old friend thought for a second. "A lot of the top players have reasonably famous parents. Theo's mother, Draco's father, and Daphne's father played in Tom Riddle's Orchestra way back when. I think Draco's dad was like third chair and his mother is a retired concert pianist. Blaise's mother is a famous opera singer from Italy." He let out a small laugh. "They all made a big fuss when I turned up at Slytherin Preparatory, so I'm sure they were surprised to see you. The Potters were the most famous cellists of our parents' generation."
Neville checked his watch and grimaced. "I have to run and have dinner with my grandmother. Are you guys heading to the parking lot?"
Ron huffed. "The parking here is so expensive. We took the bus instead."
"Oh, HYSO members get a parking pass. It should be in your folders behind the music," replied Neville with a grin. He took his bass and began to wheel it out the door. "I'll see you next week! I'm glad I get to play with you guys again."
They called their goodbyes, and Hermione shrugged her arms through the straps of her case. She raised an eyebrow at her friends. "Have any of you heard of Draco Malfoy?"
Ginny shook her head, but Ron and Harry nodded as they walked out the door. "I'm pretty sure he's on the Slytherin soccer team, but we've never played them."
Ron hummed in agreement and added, "He's supposedly a whiz at the violin, which is why I was surprised when you got Concertmaster. I mean, you're amazing Hermione, but he just might have more music in his genes than Harry."
Harry grimaced. "There are way too many people who care about some old orchestra from over fifteen years ago."
Shrugging, Ron opened the main doors of the Hogsmeade Center for the Arts and led the way to the bus stop. "It was a big deal. I also think Malfoy's dad was injured in that final concert and his aunt was Concertmaster and supposedly went insane? I forget the details. I think he also comes from very old money. Was he bothering you a lot besides not turning the page, Hermione?"
She just sighed. "It's okay. I can handle it."
Hermione had no experience with unfriendly stand partners or rich musically-gifted prep school boys. She could only imagine what a nightmare the rest of the year might be like. So, she decided to solve the problem the only way she knew how. Practice and sheer willpower.
For the next week, in between AP classes and practicing her Regionals music, Hermione practiced the HYSO music. She practiced before school, during lunch, after school, and she even silently practiced the bowing and fingerings in her room late at night. She recorded herself after a couple days and constantly listened to the pieces. By the first official rehearsal, Hermione had memorized the first two parts of the Mozart and the first movement of the Tchaikovsky.
Getting out of the old Weasley car with her violin, she took a deep breath. Ginny looked at her with an amused expression. "You look like you're about to enter a battle."
Nodding, Hermione gave her a grim smile. "I think I am."
Tugging Hedwig out of her seat, Harry laughed. "Malfoy's not going to know what hit him."
"Right, let's go do this then." Hermione turned on her heel and led her friends through the parking deck before confidently going through security and setting up
There were already other students unpacking, and Neville waved at them with a grin. Hermione tuned out the conversation as she methodically removed the violin blanket covering her violin and slid the shoulder rest onto the instrument. She put her violin down to take out her bow and tightened the bow hair by twisting the little knob at the bottom. More people began to filter in as she pulled out her small block of rosin, sweeping it across the bow hair to make the sound stronger when the bow hair touched the strings of her violin. There were different grades of rosin, and she wished she had some nicer rosin.
Quickly flicking her bow, she smiled at seeing white clouds of rosin spiraling in the air. Perfect. She self-consciously looked around and was glad to see she fit in better today. Brushing some rosin dust off of her nice blouse, she made her way to her seat in her nicest pair of jeans and ballet flats. Okay, so she wasn't wearing makeup or extraordinarily nice clothes, but at least she felt confident enough to actually get up in front of the Orchestra today.
Hermione was looking out at the audience as she absent-mindedly practiced a few of the more interesting parts of the Tchaikovsky when she caught a whiff of cologne. "Still here, I see," muttered a low voice behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see flat grey eyes looking at her while their owner slid into his seat.
Dumbledore arrived just then, saving her from thinking of an adequate reply. "Hello, everyone. Let's not waste any time. Miss Granger, if you will." He smiled and gestured to the empty podium. Hermione nodded and stepped up. The rest of the orchestra stared up at her, some with curious faces and a few smiles from her friends. She managed to keep a neutral face and nodded to Daphne, who gave her a smile before giving two A's for the band portion of the orchestra. Hermione signaled two more A's, the first for the lower section of the strings, and raised her own to tune along with the violins with the fourth and last A.
She quickly returned to her seat, and was glad that she hadn't tripped or made a fool of herself. So far, so good.
Tapping the podium with his baton, Dumbledore held up a score. "We'll start with the Tchaikovsky. From the top if you will. We'll try to play at least the first couple pages unless we run into any snags."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief that Dumbledore hadn't jumped straight into one of the later movements. Judging from how she was the one to pull out the sheet music and arrange it on the stand, it didn't look like Malfoy was going to be flipping any pages this rehearsal.
Patiently counting out 38 measures of rests for the first violins, Hermione found herself grinning as she listened to the rest of the orchestra play. She didn't need to count, but she didn't know Dumbledore's conducting style yet and wanted to be prepared. Overall, it was a very pretty piece for the winds to be the stars of this section.
She was ready when Dumbledore cued them in, and she bobbed her violin to cue the rest of the violins who weren't paying attention in response. The first section was rather boring until about part B, but she enjoyed playing. The music swelled and rose as they made their way further down the page, and soon she was on the last line of the first page. She glanced over to her stand partner, but he was just playing with no indication of getting ready to turn the page.
A flurry of pages turning erupted behind her and in the second violins at the rest, but no one moved at the first stand of the first violins. There was only a measure of rest before the E section continued with fast notes played at fortississimo, and the three f's were quite insistent from her memory.
Hermione couldn't help the smile spreading across her face as she continued playing while staring up at Dumbledore, while Malfoy faltered next to her. The rest of the section was still going strong behind her, but she could see Malfoy glaring at her from the corner of her eye, and he still wasn't playing or moving to turn the page. Hermione kept her eyes focused on Dumbledore as her fingers continued to play, but Dumbledore didn't look their way once as he continued to direct the brass. He quickly waved his hands and put his arms down once they reached section F.
"Well that was a wonderful start! Winds, that was excellent. And brass, let's work on your entrance a little bit. We can start with the pickup to five measures before section E. Please focus on the rhythms." He raised his baton and then glanced over at Hermione and her stand partner. "And Mr. Malfoy, I do believe it is customary for the inside players to turn pages. While Miss Granger appears to have memorized the piece, it seems like you would benefit from reading the music. I will not have musicians sit and refuse to play. Alright everyone, let's begin again." He held up his hands to a low chuckle from Blaise. Hermione looked up and saw Theo leaning a little to his left and giving her a grin. She gave a faint smile in return as she lifted her violin to her neck.
The sounds of the orchestra beginning again barely covered up Malfoy's low growl, and Hermione could see his neck flush a little as she played. Malfoy didn't pick up his instrument, but he did turn the page when it was time with a sigh. He held up his violin and joined in after the page turn.
The rest of rehearsal went smoothly, and they actually made it through the first movement of the Tchaikovsky and the first part of the Mozart again. For someone who had never turned pages before, Malfoy had a knack for it. He flipped pages precisely at the right moment and managed to do it without any awkwardness in juggling his violin and bow while doing the deed as some people did. It was all very elegant and precise. She had never had a better stand partner when it came to turning pages.
As soon as Dumbledore dismissed them, Malfoy got up and walked away without a word. He was already walking out with a black case adorned by a leather Slytherin tag by the time Hermione had gathered her music and made her way into the back rehearsal room to pack up.
Maybe it would be fine.
Neville smiled at her as he carried his bass into the room. "How was it?"
Hermione grinned. "I think there's a truce."
She had been very wrong. What truce? It had merely been an initial stalemate.
Hermione stepped down from tuning the orchestra for the second rehearsal. She returned to her seat while continuing to play the A. Malfoy muttered something as she sat down, and she turned to look at him. Dumbledore had decided to work with the lower strings on a passage for a few minutes and was giving some much needed directions to the viola section.
"Sorry?" she whispered, as the cellos joined in to go over a tricky passage.
Malfoy just rolled his eyes and raised his voice so she could hear. "I said, it's a wonder you made Concertmaster when you can't even tune properly. You're lucky that we all listen to Daphne instead of you."
Frowning, she whispered back, "What on earth are you talking about? I tuned the Orchestra perfectly well."
He smirked at her. "No, you're tuning in your head instead of listening to Daphne. HSO, HYSO, and Slytherin Prep tune to A441, not A440. You're clearly tuning to 440 because that's just what you're used to instead of listening to the orchestra."
Hermione blinked. She had always tuned to A440 and committed the tone to memory. "You can hear that?"
Malfoy just raised an eyebrow and he picked up his violin when Dumbledore asked for the rest of the instruments to join in. "Of course, I have perfect pitch. Can you not hear the difference?"
The rest of the rehearsal was uneventful except for one moment when Hermione needed to write down a couple fingerings to make a passage easier. The only thing on their stand was Malfoy's expensive rosin wrapped in a beautiful green cloth. Hermione was instantly jealous when Malfoy pulled it out in the middle of rehearsal and she saw the beautiful amber color that was worn smooth by an even rotation on Malfoy's part.
She didn't want to ask him to borrow a pencil, but hers wasn't on the stand. As she brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, she remembered she had stuck a pencil in her bun during her AP English Lit class. She carefully fished it out, but her hair decided to rebel and came tumbling down her back in a riot of messy curls.
Hermione quickly scribbled in fingerings, but she heard a snicker from her left. Rolling her eyes, she quickly redid her bun and picked up her violin to play again.
Most of the stands were silent in playing music or quietly talking to their stand partners, but Hermione realized that the battle was raging at her stand.
That evening, Hermione opened the door to the empty apartment and went straight to her closet to dig out the old tuner she hadn't used for a couple years. The setting was still at A440 because that was what Professor McGonagall and Mr. Weasley had told her was normal. It was what the world considered normal.
Quickly jabbing the play button, a tinny A filled the silence in her room. It was the same tone she had committed to memory and always tuned to. Her finger pressed another button and the screen flashed to A441. The tone changed the tiniest bit but it did change.
Groaning, Hermione kept going back and forth between the two tones. Malfoy had been right. HYSO was tuning to A441, and she had just continued to tune to the note in her head because she thought it was close enough to what Daphne had been playing. She had blocked out the noise because that was what she was used to tuning to.
Of course, Draco Malfoy had perfect pitch. She would have killed to gain the skill some lucky people had been born with, but she only had pretty good relative pitch from years of practicing. She would have to learn to tune to A441 and listen to Daphne's notes.
Her shoulder rest broke ten minutes before their third rehearsal. She had been practicing the fourth movement of the Tchaikovsky when one of the legs snapped. Malfoy had just gotten to his seat and smirked at her. "Well, Granger. That's not a problem for you. You could just use your massive hair as a shoulder rest. It might be a bit scratchy, but I'm sure you'll survive."
Hermione glared at her evil cockroach of a stand partner and stood up to walk over to Ginny. "Hey, do you have an extra sponge I can use? My shoulder rest just snapped."
Her friend nodded. "Yeah, it should be in my case with a couple rubber bands. Do you want me to grab it for you?"
"No, I've got it. Thanks, Gin!" She still had enough time to grab it before Dumbledore would make her tune the orchestra.
The back rehearsal room was empty with empty cases lining the perimeter. Hermione quickly found Ginny's case and fished out what she needed. She had just finished adjusting everything when she realized that the case next to Ginny's had a leather Slytherin tag. Making sure no one else was around, she flipped it over to see Draco Malfoy's name written in neat handwriting. Did they teach them penmanship at Slytherin Preparatory? Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised.
She opened it to see a green interior of the case with an extra shoulder rest, bow, and the expensive rosin she had spotted the week before. He had an extra shoulder rest and didn't offer it to her? He really was a monster. Hermione really hated playing with sponges and she knew that she would have to make do until she could order another shoulder rest. Maybe Mr. Weasley could give her an extra one until she received hers.
Closing the case, Hermione walked out of the room and back to her seat as Dumbledore was arriving. She met amused grey eyes as she stood tuning the orchestra to A441 and made a decision. She was going to get her revenge.
Hermione's homeroom teacher was the Art teacher, Ms. Trelawney. She was a little quirky, in that she always wore interesting prints, had stacks of random fabric strewn across the back countertop, had crystal balls lining her desk, and insisted students call her Sybil, but she was relatively harmless. If Hermione had ever decided to take the art class, she might have gone crazy. But Sybil in small doses once a week for homeroom was manageable. And Hermione needed her for her plan to work.
"Hi Sybil. How are you?" Hermione managed to smile at the woman whose hands were covered in charcoal dust while flipping through students' watercolor paintings.
Huge eyes behind thick glasses blinked back at her. "Oh, Hermione. Is it time for homeroom already?"
"Yes, but I actually had a favor to ask of you."
"What can I do for you, my dear? I can't let you into the art class no matter how much you beg me. You simply have no talent for it." Sybil Trelawney gave her a sad smile and continued to flip through the works.
Gritting her teeth, Hermione refrained from speaking her true thoughts of Sybil's art class. "Actually, I was wondering if I could have a spare piece of fabric."
"What on earth do you need it for?"
Hermione then remembered that Sybil Trelawney had gotten into a fight with the superintendent last year and had given A's to every student who managed to land a splat of brown paint on the superintendent's bright pink dress. "Revenge. I need it for revenge."
Her homeroom teacher looked up at her with a small smile. "Take whatever you need, my dear."
Grinning, Hermione went over to the countertop and found a scrap of fabric that was the precise shade of Slytherin Green. Perfect. She even found a small silver button and a stretchy spool of silver thread. Even more perfect.
Right before their fourth rehearsal, Hermione snuck into the back rehearsal room and quickly found Malfoy's expensive case. She flipped it open and replaced his fancy rosin with the cheap, but rather convincing, substitute she had made over the past week. Wandering over to her own case a few feet away, she put the nice rosin into her own case and covered it up with her violin blanket before grabbing an extra pencil that she was going to use as an excuse if anyone wondered why she had been back there.
Would he notice quickly? Probably. Would he replace it quickly? Probably. Would he think it was her? Maybe not. But just in case, she would keep the Slytherin rosin in the Gryffindor music room. She hurried back to the stage and practiced in her seat until Dumbledore arrived.
Nothing special happened that rehearsal, and Hermione raced out of her seat as soon as Dumbledore had dismissed them to leave before Draco Malfoy discovered anything different about his rosin.
And for the record, the fancy rosin was magical. She used it before every school rehearsal and was glad she had carried out her small act of revenge.
Thank you for reading and the reviews! Hope you're enjoying and please let me know if you have any questions about musical nuances!
