Warning for language and shite.
September: 2012
The first week of school was, as usual, rather boring. Transfiguration and charms were the same as always, however Professor Snape seemed a little bit less forgiving than in previous years, which was surprising to Harry, as he had assumed that the default was as cruel as could be...
Care of magical creatures stood out however, as Hagrid was the teacher of the class. During the first lesson he had enthusiastically introduced the class to Buckbeak, a proud Hippogriff. The class stayed their distance for almost the entire lesson, while Hagrid enthusiastically explained the species. The hour seemed to pass quickly, because the lesson was over just as people were getting comfortable with the overbearing presence of Buckbeak. As students began to leave, Hagrid called to the class "Alright, next week we'll be looking at Unicorns, but after that we'll be back with Buckbeak." Harry wasn't to bothered with Buckbeak, he seemed a bit defensive, but maybe that was because of the large class, so Harry couldn't really blame him, but Unicorns, Harry found himself quite enthusiastic about the next lesson of Care of Magical Creatures.
When the first weekend rolled around, Harry and Ron were happy to finally have the time to play some music. On the Friday night, they were talking in the common room, "We could actually get a proper band together, like," Ron said, "it'd be bloody nice."
"Yeah, but we need other people who play music, what about you Hermione? you play piano, wanna join our band?" Harry asked.
Hermione, who was doing homework for Arithmancy and divination simultaneously, answered distractidly, "What? Sorry no, I've got a lot of work and I want to dedicate my time to that, Sorry."
"That's fine," Harry replied, "To be honest all we need is a drummer."
At this point, Lavender Brown, who had been walking past, jumped in "Did you just say you need a drummer? Are you starting a band or something?"
"Yeah," said Ron
"Why? You don't play drums, do you?" Harry asked.
"Well, yeah, I do, can I, errrr, join your band?" She asked, nervously.
"Errrr, sure, but do you have a drum kit though." Ron said.
"Well yes, but it's at home, I could probably get my parents to shrink it and post it here though, I'll go and write letter." She ran up to her dorm room in a rush. Leaving the so called golden trio in a bit of a state of shock.
Finally, Hermione broke the silence, "Okay, I don't normally like to swear, but what the fuck..."
Ron joined in, "I agree, that was completely out of character, not that I'm complaining, we've just got a drummer for our band."
Harry remained silent, only nodding to their words.
Lavender came down the stairs about five minutes later, she then joined the three, sitting next to Harry, "So, err what kind of music are we actually playing?" It was a good question, and Harry didn't know quite how to answer it. Ron began, "Well, it's probably something in between rock, and indie, but to be honest, we'll figure it out while actually playing, we've only had a few jams so far, speaking of which, we need a place don't we..."
Harry hadn't thought of that, they'd need a room far away from the crowds ok Hogwarts, but not somewhere where it was tedious to get to. Lavender replied to Ron "Well, there's about a thousand unused classrooms in the school, we can just use one of them."
Harry said, "Oh of course! There's loads of them, and they're all just empty, Errr do you have any idea when your drum kit will arrive though, because we were hoping to start playing tomorrow, and that might be hard if we're missing a drummer."
Lavender smiled, "I don't see why my parents won't send it tonight, so we should be good to go for tomorrow..."
The conversation continued for about an hour, until they were all forced to retire to bed by the curfew placed upon students. By the end of it, Harry and Ron were really warming up to Lavender, before they had just seen her as shallow and petty, but she had really shown them her enthusiasm for music, which she rarely shared with other people, due to its very personal meaning for her.
The next day, a Saturday, Harry, Ron and Lavender met in the Gryffindor common room. "Did your parents send your drum kit?" asked Ron.
"Yep," responded Lavender.
"Is it up there or..." Harry pointed at the girls dormitories.
Lavender smiled, "err no, it's shrunk, it's in my bag."
The three of them made their way to an empty room on the fourth floor of the school. When they entered the room, it became apparent that it was an ideal room for rehearsing music. There were a lot of chairs stacked in the side of the room, as well as tables, but the centre of the room was completely free.
From her bag, Lavender took out a tiny drum kit, and with an incantation, brought it to its normal size. Harry and Ron set up their instruments in about 3 minutes, but it soon became apparent that Lavender was still fiddling with the positions of the drums.
"It's got to be right, otherwise I'll fuck it up," she said after some complaining from the others. After a few more moments of adjusting her ride cymbal, she was ready.
There was a brief pause "Umm, so what are we playing?" Harry asked the air. Ron responded not with words, but with the sound of his bass guitar. A low bass line penetrated the room, loud and unwavering, it shot through them. After a few moments Lavender joined in with a snare flam on every third beat, her bass drum filling in on the first beat after it. Harry checked to see what notes Ron was playing, and he used them to construct a melody off the top of his head. This continued for perhaps a minute, when they all simultaneously knew when to change, and they all did. Unfortunately they all changed into completely different things, and thus the music immediately fell apart...
"That was good while it lasted," Ron laughed.
Harry responded in kind "The makings of a great song."
"Oh shit," exclaimed Ron, "I've just realised we need a singer as well, don't we."
"Well in theory any one of use could do it," said Lavender. In response, Ron made a gutteral screeching sound.
"Well it's probably not going to be me," Ron laughed.
"I've got a shit singing voice, what about you Harry?" Lavender asked.
Harry shrunk back into his shell, "well I don't know, I've never really tried singing have I," he said in a timid manor.
"Well give it a go mate, nothin' lost by trying," said Ron.
Harry looked at the floor, "Well what do I sing?"
"Anything mate," Ron said kindly.
And with that Harry sung the first verse of the song Dreaming of you by The Coral. Harry's voice certainly wasn't the best, but it was very much acceptable as the singer of a band, so it was settled, Harry Potter would be the singer and the guitarist of their band.
By the end of that first rehearsal, the three of them had the bones of two songs, which they would have a week to think about and improve before their next rehearsal. As the second week rolled around, Harry found himself extremely happy at the fact that the band was going well, he was finding more enjoyment out of his relationships with his friends, including Lavender, and he was even enjoying school more. However at the same time, Harry was increasingly on edge with his life, he was finding himself uncomfortable and anxious about seemingly innocuous things, he had no idea why, and this lack of knowledge spurred his minor depression foreward, making things for him much worse.
This beginnings of a downward spiral was stopped however, by the lesson care of magical creatures of all things...
By the Wednesday, Harry was finding himself constantly unhappy in the moments between moments. Whenever left to his thoughts, they would just put him down without permission from his brain, he didn't even understand what he was thinking, all he knew was that it was making him miserable.
Harry, Ron and Lavender headed down to Hagrid's hut for their lesson. Midway though conversation, Hermione made her opinion known. Startled at her sudden and seemingly impossible appearance, Ron shouted expletives and made mad gestures, much to the amusement of the others.
They arrived at Hagrid's just in time for the start of the lesson, Hagrid made his usual opening remarks and lead the class down and through the tree line, into the lightly wooded area in which they had encountered Buckbeak last week. However this week, there was no Hippogriff to be found, what stood before them stole the breath of all present, except of course Malfoy and his goons...
In a small clearing stood three unicorns, proud and majestic. The entire class was, perhaps for the first time ever, absolutely silent. "Now listen," Hagrid said in a whisper, "Unicorns don't usually like people at the best of times, and they much prefer women to men, so if any girls want to approach, do it slowly. No sudden moves, they're more likely to gore you than to flee from you." At that, Malfoy glanced at the horn of the nearest animal, the smug expression on his face slightly dropped, he decided to hold his tongue.
As several of the girls edged their way towards the unicorns, most of the boys grouped together, safety in numbers presumably. While this was happening, Hermione whispered to Hagrid "How did you get them in one place, and get them to stay, all reading I've found says they're impossible to catch."
"Sorry Ermione, can't tell yer, if people found out, Unicorns'd probably be hunted to extinction." Hagrid replied solemnly. Hermione nodded in understanding, any such knowledge must be closely guarded, otherwise a precious species such as this may be destroyed. Hermione joined the rest of the girls in the clearing, leaving the area occupied by the people left, staunchly filled with testosterone.
Suddenly, Harry felt a snuffling at his hand, he slowly turned to find a young unicorn at his side, it stood at about half his height, it then rubbed it's neck across his torso in an affectionate way. This interaction puzzled Harry, he whisper shouted to Hagrid, "Hey, I thought you said they only like women."
"They do," replied Hagrid, before turning and almost falling on his arse in suprise...