Hogsmeade stores were open but staffed scarcely on New Year's Day. Dominic Maestro's Music Shop was no different, but then again, Hermione doubted that it was ever staffed with anyone but Master Maestro himself.
"Master Draco!" the older man greeted warmly. "How good to see—you—"
Hermione watched the man falter as all the Shadows filed in after Draco (save Theo, who they'd left behind to babysit Neville and Daphne). She wondered if this many people had ever been in his shop at the same time before.
"Happy New Year, Maestro Dominic," Draco greeted, giving him a respectful nod. "It is good to see you doing well."
"And you," Maestro Dominic said reflexively. He paused. "What is…"
"All this?" Draco said, gesturing at the group of people behind him, most of whom had spread out and were looking at different instruments on the shelves. "Ah, we're looking for some beginner instruments for them. Do you have anything very basic for people completely new to music?"
While Draco talked to Maestro Dominic, Hermione went over to the file cabinets where the sheet music was held.
It was much as she remembered – sections labeled Healing, Physical Strength, Magical Potential, Unification — but the pieces in those sections were complicated and difficult. Students from Beauxbatons might be able to play them, but they'd studied for many years. Hermione might have been able to learn to play one if she worked at it, but she could hardly teleport an entire grand piano to the middle of nowhere and have it somehow stay in tune.
Hermione hummed to herself lightly, letting her magic touch the tips of her fingers, and when her fingers slipped between the tabs, she paused.
It was a thick piece of parchment with a hand-drawn staff and clefs. It looked like it had been written with a brush and ink instead of a quill, almost like a tiny work of art instead of composition. Hope was written at the top of it, in small, cursive script. There was no notation of an instrument to be used, nor were there any words to be sung.
There were notes for both bass and treble clef, and Hermione took it over to one of the baby grand pianos to try.
"D A, D A B D," she murmured to herself. "Left hand is just a couple chords… then we've got a progression up and a final chime…"
After playing the piece by pretend a couple times to figure out the fingerings of the keys, Hermione took a deep breath and pressed the keys.
The tune was simple – too simple, almost – but there was a beauty in the simple, chiming notes, and the melody somehow made Hermione feel like she'd just taken a deep breath, like she was watching the sun rise, like she knew somehow that everything was going to turn out okay.
Smiling, she played it again, and the others turned to look at her, wonder in their eyes.
"What do you think?" she asked, standing and taking the sheet of music with her. "Think this will work?"
Tracey was agog, stars in her eyes. "Ah—yeah. Wow. I didn't—I didn't know music could—"
"Only from a magical instrument," Pansy reminded her, chiding. "Nice find, Granger."
"That would be perfect," Susan said, pleased. "Now we just have to find everyone instruments they can learn in a day, or have them practice some sort of choral tune."
Draco could play the flute, as Hermione already knew. Susan could play the violin, Hermione learned, which somehow seemed unsurprising. Luna, to her surprise, told them all she had a seven-stringed lyre in the shape of the moon back in her room.
"I can play the recorder?" Harry offered, grinning in embarrassment. "If that's even a thing in the wizarding world."
Hermione laughed. "We'll find out."
Draco and Maestro Dominic seemed to settle on a few options for the other Shadows to choose from: the harmonica, the ocarina, the pan flute, the recorder, or the xylophone.
"Let's knock out the xylophones," Susan said decisively. "These other ones we can work with, I think."
Harry promptly claimed a recorder, while Millie chose the harmonica, smirking to herself for some reason. Pansy took an ocarina, while Tracey took a pan flute, picking up a second one as well.
"For Theo," she said. "I think he'd like this the most."
"Well, grab another ocarina for Daphne, then," Pansy said, snarky. "There's no way she'd choose the harmonica."
Millie just smirked to herself more.
"Are you going to pick one?" Hermione asked Blaise, and Blaise shook his head.
"Nah, I'll help you with the vocal chorus," he said. "I saw that music – even if you sing the top part, you'll need someone to sing the bass clef notes."
"I—" Hermione stopped, looking at Blaise curiously. "I didn't know you could read music."
Blaise shrugged, eyes sparkling. "Not like it comes up in conversation much."
Maestro Dominic looked slightly overwhelmed at the large purchase they made, but he was pleased enough with the gold Hermione put down. Harry started to object, but Hermione cut him off with a glare. As they all filed out of the shop, Hermione lingered at the door, hesitating.
"If you could not mention to anyone that we were here…" she said.
"I don't know what you're speaking of," the Maestro said promptly. "Business has been completely dead all day."
Susan hadn't finished making ten sets of robes, yet, but she'd made a few. Susan went back to Hogwarts to get them and see if she could finish another set with Tracey's help, while the other Shadows dispersed over the countryside to plant rumors of what was to come.
Draco and Theo seemed to take to this with great aplomb. Hermione had no idea how they did it, given they were high-born landlords, but somehow when socializing with groups of other boys, they managed to not only seem like they were keeping a secret, but also like they were letting go of it reluctantly when the others ferreted it out of them. Pansy was gossiping with Clover and a few other girls, her eyes gleaming, with Millie at her side.
Hermione, on the other hand, was failing miserably.
"It's New Year's tonight," she'd said to Aurican casually, buying a drink at The Yard.
Aurican had raised an eyebrow. "New Year's Eve was last night, little witch."
"Yeah, but—" Hermione objected, her face growing hot. "New Year's Day is special too. There's symbolic meaning in the start of a new year, you know."
Aurican smirked. "You going to do anything with that symbolic meaning at some mysterious meeting tonight, then?"
Hermione had scowled at him, while Aurican had just laughed.
She supposed that in the long run, it hardly mattered – so long as people were curious and showed up, it'd be enough. Still, some part of her smarted to have Derek just directly approach her and ask if she was planning a recruitment ritual tonight, while the other Slytherin Shadows managed to plant seeds and rumors about the countryside effortlessly.
When they weren't spreading rumors, the Shadows met and practiced together in brief, 10-minutes bursts throughout the afternoon. Hermione and Blaise worked on achieving a harmony together, humming, and Hermione abandoned her rumor-spreading efforts in favor of coming up with a ritual-seeming couplet to have everybody sing to the tune.
When dusk came, there was a small group gathered on the Notts' land. There were a few fires burning, and Hermione recognized several of the faces in the crowd, but not all. She met Susan in the nearby woods, where the other girl pulled robes out of her bag.
"I've got four," Susan said. "If I'd had five for the entire coven… as it is, I'm comfortable not wearing a long robe like this. It'll get in the way of playing the violin effectively."
"If you're sure," Hermione said, hesitating.
"I'm sure," Susan said, nodding firmly. Her glasses glinted, reflecting the dimming light in a way that made her seem determined. "I'm ready."
The rest of the coven joined them in the forest and got dressed in the mysterious robes that hid their identity, and Hermione was surprised and mildly dismayed to realize that she had immediately forgotten which coven member had been standing where when they put on the robes.
"Oh, this is wicked!"
The voice that came out was the same, but somehow unidentifiable. Hermione figured that person must be Harry, but somehow it was impossible to recognize the sound of his voice while he had the hood on.
"Hermione?" another person asked. "Where are you? We've got to stay together."
"Blaise?" Hermione held out her hand. "Blaise, come here. Stick with me."
The fourth figure pulled out a 7-stringed lyre from a deep pocket, plucking a few strings.
"Are we all ready?" the person who must be Luna asked. "We should go."
It was fully dark when the coven all appeared out of nowhere among the small crowd that had gathered. The hedges reacted in shock and surprise, but they settled quickly when they saw many of the others were unworried.
Hermione hadn't exactly planned a speech, but she needed to say something.
"We come to recognize the New Year and honor Magic," she announced. "Stand with us in a circle to face the New Year, and Magic will give you what strength and resolve you will need."
The other Shadows, spread among the hedges, helped guide people into a circle. Someone was casting balls of Lumos light, which were helping to illuminate the area on this dark night, the moon fully absent from the sky. Once everyone was in a circle, whispering and nudging each other with wide eyes, Hermione directed them to march clockwise in a circle, stomping down the grass. While they did this, she started to hum, and across the circle from her, the cloaked figure she knew had to be Blaise started to hum too. As the hedges stomped down the grass, some of them started humming as well, almost as if they didn't realize it, and by the time Hermione was satisfied with the circle stomped into the ground, there was a low harmony on the plain.
She raised her hand, and the humming abruptly cut off.
"Our ritual will have us say the incantation three times," she said, using a very loose interpretation of the word 'incantation'. "The first time, those of us who know the ritual will guide you. The second time, join if you are confident. For the third, everyone must join in."
The hedges murmured, but there was nothing else to be done. With glances at other Shadows spaced around the circle, people took out their instruments. Draco looked determined, putting his flute to his lips, and Daphne looked absurdly excited, holding her little ocarina. Once everyone was ready, Hermione made a large gesture, and they began.
The lyrics she'd written to go along with the notes of the Hope song she'd found were simple. She wanted them to be simple, to match the tune itself, but also because the Shadows would be pulling and channeling ley line magic into the circle while they sung or played, imbuing the circle with the magic of the earth along with their music and song.
"New Year, we come unite
Hands held, on clearest night."
She'd opted to repeat the same notes again, with another couplet, when she'd taught everyone the song.
"We stand, together here
Ready, to greet the year."
The next part came on minor notes, creating a tension in the air.
"Good,
Bad,
Worse,"
And then Blaise's voice, smoothly ascending up the scale from the accompanying notes he'd been humming to join hers in an ending harmony:
"Magic will always guide us to see the light."
The first time they sang it, it was a bit shaky, a bit uncertain, but as they finished it, all the Shadows seemed cheered and invigorated, filled with hope and ready to go again. Hedges around them were looking around, and when Hermione gestured for them to begin the second time, a large portion of the hedges joined in, singing.
"New Year, we come unite
Hands held, on clearest night.
We stand, together here
Ready, to greet the year."
The ley line magic began to swell in the circle as they sang, a faint white light emanating up from the ground and their circle. A cluster of men across the circle had neglected the lyrics in favor of singing a harmony with Blaise, but most people joined Hermione's voice in the 'incantation', which was making her smile, hopeful this would actually work.
When it came time for the final recitation, everyone stepped forward and joined in, holding hands with each other where they could. Eyes bright and cheeks red with excitement and cold, their song filled the sky.
"New Year, we come unite
Hands held, on clearest night.
We stand, together here
Ready, to greet the year.
Good,
Bad,
Worse,
Magic will always guide us to see the light."
As they finished the song, the white light that had been glowing on the ground beneath exploded up out of the ground in hundreds of tiny, sparkling glowing balls of light, and everyone gasped as the balls of magic drifted around, shedding sparkles as they faded into the night. The hedges exchanged excited, determined looks with each other, and Hermione felt her own heart fill with hope and determination.
Yes, the coming year would be hard – undoubtedly so, with Harry still facing down possible death in the challenges of the Tournament still yet to come – but she had her friends standing with her now, she had her Magic, and somehow, Hermione knew — somehow, she'd manage to make it through alright.