I have some bad new. My computer got a horrible virus and I lost everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. All the prewritten chapters I had are gone. Added all together, that is about 100,000 to 150,000 words gone. The worst part is that none of it can be recovered. The virus has spread throughout my computer so that it is impossible to even turn it on that this moment. I had to write this chapter on my sister's computer. Because of this problem, chapters are going to be updated at every sparatic intervals.
But I have found a silver lining in this. Some of the chapter later on would not have worke because just writing these nineteen chapters, things have changed that have affected what I already wrote. Plus some of it was written a long time ago so this gives me the chance to make it better. So I guess some good can come out of this.
I just wanted to make everyone aware of the situation because like I said earlier, updates are going to be really weird for a little while and I don't want anyone to think I abandoned this.
With that done, please enjoy reading the nineteenth chapter of A Black and White Story.
Oh, and don't forget to review.
It was a time of change at Hogwarts. The snow had melted, allowing the lush green grass to flourish after months of hibernation. Trees that had previously supported pounds of snow now sported gorgeous flowers. The sunlight beat down on the Earth, but the Black Lake provided a cool breeze. The birds that had left now returned and sang beautiful songs to anyone willing to listen.
The majority of the school took advantage of the weather whenever they could. Students would take the longer way to class if that meant walking past a window or through one of the outdoor passageways. As the year was winding down, students would often not have a lot of homework and whatever homework they did have, they would work on it outside.
It would seem completely illogical for someone to stay inside.
But in Gryffindor Tower there was a young man sitting on his bed with sheets of music spread around him. A violin rested gently on his lap and he wrote in a sharp on his music. He picked up the violin and as softly as he could, he began to play again.
"BEN!" Sirius shouted up the stairwell. "COME OUTSIDE! HOMEWORK CANE WAIT!"
Ben froze and as quietly as he could, he began to put his stuff away. But luck was not on his side; Sirius burst through the door with James right behind him.
"Come on, we're going to nick a— Are you practicing?" Sirius asked when he saw the half closed violin case.
Ben shrugged, "I was but that's not important."
"Like Hell it isn't. Let's hear you play."
B en looked at his two friends with disbelieving eyes. Those two probably didn't know an oboe from an elbow. But the looks on their eager faces ruined his resolve not to play. He quickly picked up his violin and began to play his two pieces.
The first one was a minor, slow piece. The notes seemed to cry as they touched the air. His fingers rocked back and forth with haunting vibrato through the long sustained notes. The notes seemed to pull out every sad moment that you ever experienced. All the disappointment and loss and anger and sadness and pity and confusion and heartbreak a soul ever experienced seemed to be expressed in the resonate notes. He got lost in the music as he rocked back and forth slightly with his eyes closed as the notes rose and fell in beautiful harmonies. Soon, Ben forgot Sirius and James were even in the room; it was just him and the violin.
As the last note slowly died away, Ben kept his eyes closed and he slowly lowered his violin away from his neck. After taking a long breath he looked up to see a sight he never thought he would see.
James was rapidly blinking his eyes while Sirius was wiping the corners of his with his sleeve.
"Holy Hell mate, you need to warn people before you do that," Sirius said after clearing his throat. James nodded his head with agreement.
"You have talent Ben. You have some wicked talent."
Ben smiled happy that his friends weren't ridiculing him. They may not completely understand what he was doing but they listened.
"So what are you practicing for?" James asked; his eyes still a little red around the edges.
Ben shrugged as he put away the violin, "I want to try out for the Hogwarts Band but there are probably students here that have been playing twice as long as I have."
Sirius gave him a look of 'Are you kidding me?'
"You are being ridiculous. Listen, the amount of musical skill I have is turning on a radio, but I can tell that you are good Ben. Stop being such a downer on yourself over this music stuff. Just accept that some people are gits and they are being ignorant fools." James said.
Ben smiled and shuffled through his music, now eager to share his talent with his friends,
"Do you want to hear another one?" He asked.
"If it's another sad one, hell no!" Sirius exclaimed and jumped off the bed.
Ben laughed and shook his head, "It's a fast one I swear!"
He positioned his violin and began to play again. This time the notes seemed to soar around the room at breakneck speeds. His own happiness and joy seemed to push them further and farther than had just twenty minutes ago. As he played, his fingers flew up and down the neck of the instrument and his fingers seemed to be doing a fast jig over the strings.
Laughing, Sirius and James jumped from their seats and began doing the fakest Irish jig known to man kind. They kicked their feet out at random intervals, completely off the beat. If Elyse was in the room, the question would not have been if she would have hexed them. The question would just be how bad.
It was two weeks later and Ben was standing in front of the Ravenclaw head of house that would decide if he would be put into the Hogwarts band.
He had just finished his audition and he looked at the Professor who was currently writing away at his desk, the pen frantically scratching across the paper. Ben gulped as he waited. Was this normal? Why wasn't the professor saying anything?
Flitwick finally looked up at him with a sorrowful face and Ben's heart fell to his feet.
"I'm sorry Mr. White, but we don't have a violin part in our band; it's all brass."
"But I can play piano too! Maybe I can play bells or something-"
"I'm sorry," Professor Flitwick honestly did look sorry. "But there is no place for you in the band."
Ben closed his eyes and tried to think of a way to make this a positive thing, but he came up with nothing. Sadness filling every bit of him, he walked towards the back of the room and knelt down to put his violin away. He had just snapped the case shut when he heard,
"Wait a second, Benjamin."
Ben slowly spun around and stood up so he faced the extremely short man. He saw now standing (on a pile of books) so he was eye level with Ben.
"Benjamin, there is no way I can let you in the band but," he paused a moment, "due to your high musical ability, I want to offer you a part in the Hogwarts Choir. We always need more boys to join."
The red headed boy thought about that for a moment. Did he want to risk ridicule from his classmates for being a singer on top of a violin and piano player? He thought back to James's and Sirius's reaction two weeks prior. They didn't seem to care that he was a musician; heck, they seemed to like it. Then as clear as if he was standing next to him, Ben heard James's voice,
'You have talent Ben. You have some wicked talent"
"I'll do it Professor."
"Splendid! I wasn't sure if you would accept, but your sister seemed sure that you would." Flitwick said with a smile on his face.
Ben's brows furrowed, "Excuse me? My sister?"
Flitwick nodded, "Why yes, Annabelle brags about you all the time in class. She's quite proud of you, you know."
"Actually sir, no I didn't," Ben said with surprise clearly in his voice.
Annabelle? She had never once shown that she was even remotely interested in anything he did. It wasn't that surprising to Ben; she was six years older than him. For most of his childhood, she was already off at Hogwarts making friends with Frank, the Prewitts, and Fenwick. She would always ask him about his future Quidditch plans whenever she could, but never any of his music plans.
"Oh, well Benjamin, you should know that she threatened to knock me off my pile of books if I didn't let you in the music department here." Flitwick told him with a small laugh.
Ben smiled too; that sounded more like the Annabelle he knew.