The Sound of Music
‘Ophelia wake up!’ said Harry bouncing on his cousin’s bed.
‘Go away Harry,’ she grumbled.
‘Uncle Remus told me not to wake him or Granny or Grandpa until six o’clock.’
‘Then why are you waking me up?’ she asked glaring at him and sitting up in bed.
‘Because you weren’t on the list,’ laughed Harry.
‘Harry,’ yawned Ophelia, ‘it’s five o’clock in the morning.’
‘What’s going on in here?’ asked Stefan.
He was looking very bleary-eyed and was standing barefoot in Ophelia’s doorway. He looked like he could easily kill Harry with one good look with the mood he was in.
‘It’s my birthday!’ whisper shouted Harry. He was always quite excitable, and he was even more excited today, but he didn’t want to wake up Remus and make him cross.
‘Well, that’s a turn up for the books,’ said Stefan in a tone of mock surprise.
‘Last week you were saying that your birthday was only a week away, and now it’s today.’
Harry had gone on about nothing else apart from how long it was until his birthday since Stefan had gotten home from Hogwarts nearly a month ago.
Harry and Neville were having a birthday party at the Longbottom’s today, but they didn’t know what the theme was. Neville had spent his own birthday the day before at his grandparents. His grandparents always loved seeing Neville, but his Gran had spent the whole day fussing over Neville.
‘What do you want Harry?’ asked Ophelia raising her eyebrows at him.
‘Well it’s my birthday and I couldn’t get back to sleep. But it isn’t very fun celebrating a birthday on your own, so I came to wake you up.’
‘Well then you’re a git,’ said Stefan throwing a pillow at Harry.
‘That’s a bad word!’ said Ophelia covering her mouth.
‘Says who?’ smirked Stefan joining Harry and Ophelia on her bed.
‘Daddy,’ said Ophelia.
‘I’ve heard Remus say worse,’ shrugged Stefan.
‘Uncle Remus doesn’t swear!’ said Harry astounded.
‘No the really bad one’s Uncle Lyall,’ chuckled Stefan.
‘What do you mean Stefan?’ asked Ophelia.
‘Well, I asked my Welsh friend Chris about all those words that Lyall mutters under his breath. When Uncle Lyall’s in a bad mood he mutters under his breath in fluent Welsh, and Chris translated some of it for me. It’s bad, and I mean like really bad!’
Harry chortled with laughter at the thought of his Grandpa swearing.
‘I don’t believe you,’ said Ophelia sticking her nose in the air.
‘Suit yourself,’ chuckled Stefan.
Ophelia decided that as she was awake, she might as well get her book out and start reading. Ophelia read her book, completely unphased by the conversation going on around her between the two boys who sat on her bed.
Stefan and Harry spent a good hour trying to figure out and guess what Harry’s birthday present might be. They were also trying to figure out the theme, as Alice, Frank and Remus had started acting very secretive recently.
They had cut the themes down to fancy dress, dragon and knights, and something involving a trip to the cinema when Remus came in.
‘There you are birthday boy,’ said Remus.
Remus lifted a laughing Harry, up from his cousin’s bed.
‘What are you doing waking Stefan and Ophelia up hmm?’ chuckled Remus swinging Harry in the air upside down.
‘I didn’t wake them up,’ laughed Harry as he was swung around.
‘You did,’ said Ophelia stubbornly.
‘Ok maybe I did,’ laughed Harry, ‘but it’s my birthday!’
‘Come on then birthday boy,’ chuckled Remus finally putting Harry back down.
‘Let’s go get you some breakfast. Your Granny wants you to eat something healthy before you stuff yourself with cake at the party.’
‘There’s going to be cake?’ asked Harry going down the stairs in his pyjamas.
‘It’s a birthday party,’ said Stefan rolling his eyes, ‘of course there’ll be cake!’
‘Yay!’ yelled Harry jumping and down with energy.
‘Harry,’ said hope with her arms folded, ‘if you don’t sit down nicely to eat your breakfast there will be no party.’
‘Sorry Granny!’ said Harry, sitting down quickly not wanting even the possibility of his birthday party getting cancelled.
Harry swung his legs back and forth under the table as he ate his breakfast. He was always quite an energetic boy, but he was only six, and Remus hoped he would eventually grow out of it. Remus remembered that even when he met James at eleven, he was still full of energy, and as unstoppable as a firework.
Even trying to get Harry to sit still long enough to eat his breakfast properly seemed to be impossible, but Hope wouldn’t let him leave the table until he had finished his breakfast. Once he had finished his breakfast, Lyall sent Harry outside to let off some energy and Harry flew around on his broomstick for a while.
Remus still wasn’t letting on what the party was, so Harry and Ophelia had no idea what to wear. Harry took this as an excuse to wear his jeans and a quidditch top, hoping that it would be a Quidditch party even though Neville hated flying. Ophelia wore her best party dress which was pale blue with pink polka dots.
They picked up the presents they had got for Neville, and then Lyall and Remus apparated everyone including Hope and Stefan to the Longbottom’s. The front gate of the Longbottom’s house had balloons attached, six red which was Harry’s favourite colour and six blue which were Neville’s favourite colour.
Neville was waiting at the front gate in a very smart blue bowtie to greet his guests, with his Grandpa. Neville was talking to his Grandpa excitedly as he waited for all his friends to arrive.
Mr Longbottom in his younger years would have looked exactly like Frank. They both had strong faces and green eyes and blonde hair. Mr Longbottom’s hair had now faded to grey rather than being blonde as he was sixty. Every day Neville seemed to look more like his parents, he had Frank’s blonde hair, and green eyes, but he had Alice’s round face.
‘William!’ beamed Lyall walking up to Mr Longbottom and hugging his old friend. Mr Longbottom and Lyall had been partners in the Order during the War and fought together in countless duels.
‘Lyall,’ chuckled Mr Longbottom, ‘you haven’t changed a bit.’
‘Neither have you,’ said Lyall.
‘We’re both liars,’ laughed Mr Longbottom patting Lyall on the back.
‘Good to see you Hope, Remus.’
‘That can’t be Stefan!’ gasped Mr Longbottom.
‘Guilty as charged sir,’ muttered Stefan.
‘You look more like your father every time I see you,’ said Mr Longbottom nodding approvingly.
‘Thank you, sir,’ gulped Stefan.
‘And of course, the birthday boy!’ beamed Mr Longbottom.
‘That is Harry under all that tall boy, isn’t it?’ asked Mr Longbottom looking at Harry.
‘Ah yes, I can see the messy hair,’ he chuckled ruffling Harry’s hair.
‘Happy Birthday Harry!’ said Neville hugging Harry.
‘Happy Birthday Nev,’ said Harry hugging him back.
Ophelia couldn’t talk in front of Neville, so she gave him an extra-long hug.
‘Neville dear,’ said Mrs Longbottom coming out of the house, ‘why don’t you show your friends where we’re putting the presents?’
‘Yes Gran,’ said Neville taking Ophelia’s hand. Harry had already run ahead, into the house with a pile of presents.
Neville led Ophelia into the house, and Ophelia still couldn’t figure out what the theme was as all the decorations were quite generic. There was a small mountain of presents in the sitting room though as there were not just all of Harry’s birthday presents, but also Neville’s.
‘What do you want for your birthday Neville?’ asked Harry as Harry and Neville tried to guess what were in some of the presents.
‘I don’t know,’ shrugged Neville who was the slightly more shy of the three boys.
‘I would like some gardening things, I love gardening!’
‘What about you Harry?’
‘A proper broomstick,’ said Harry beaming. ‘The toy one’s only go at ten miles an hour, I want an adult one.’
‘As Uncle Remus keeps on saying, I’m ready to have my training wheels taken off.’
‘What are training wheels?’ asked Neville.
‘They’re on muggle bicycles for small children,’ said harry, ‘to get them more used to the bikes. When the children are ready, they’ll take the training wheels off.’
Before long all the children arrived, and Bill was leading a lively game of tag in the garden with the children, even Ophelia joined in!
Once they had run around for a while, Frank called for everyone’s attention.
‘I know we usually do presents after food and games,’ said Frank, ‘but some of the presents are to do with the theme.’
‘Ok Daddy,’ said Neville going back into the house with his friends.
‘Now before we get started there’s something we’re going to show you both,’ said Alice pulling a photograph out of her pocket.
She passed it to Harry and Neville who were sitting next to each other. There was a photograph of two young Gryffindors who looked more than slightly familiar. Alice and Frank were in the music practice room at Hogwarts, and Alice was playing the piano accompanying Frank who was playing the trumpet.
‘We were in the school orchestra,’ said Frank, ‘that’s how I and your Mum got to know each other properly.’
‘There’s also somebody else,’ chuckled Remus, ‘who was also very musical, but of course thought he was much too cool for the orchestra.’
Remus got out a different photograph which he passed to Harry. James looked about fourteen and was leaning against the headboard of his four-poster playing his guitar. James had taken off his robes and jumper and was wearing his tie tied around his head, rather than wearing it properly.
James was the epitome of teenage anxt in this photo, and the photograph would have looked really candid and natural if James didn’t look up every ten seconds in the moving photo, to check that Remus was still filming him and then grin widely before going back to strumming his guitar.
‘Now I know you’re not enjoying the piano,’ said Alice, ‘so we’re going to try you with the same instrument Daddy used to play Nev ok?’
‘What if I don’t enjoy that either?’ asked Neville.
‘Give it a try and if you don’t like it, we can stop the lessons ok mate?’ asked Frank offering his hand.
‘Ok Daddy,’ chuckled Neville shaking his Dad’s hand.
‘I’ve got a feeling that you’re going to love yours though Harry,’ said Remus. Harry had been eyeing Remus’ guitar for well over a year, and Remus thought that it was high time that Harry got his own.
Alice passed Neville his first present which contained a trumpet, and a case.
Neville thanked his parents for his gift, but he was starting to think that he wasn’t the most musically inclined of the group. Oh, Neville liked music, but when his Mum had tried teaching him the piano, he had hated it and kept on wanting to be in the garden.
‘Now I know I you like being in the garden Nev,’ said Frank, ‘which is why you’ll be getting your trumpet lessons outside.’
Neville beamed at his Dad and gave Frank a huge hug.
Remus passed Harry his gift, which Harry tore into eagerly.
There was a shiny new guitar, which had a red strap. Embroidered on the strap was Harry Potter so that it was clear it was Harry’s.
‘Woah!’ breathed Harry, ‘it’s just like Dads!’
‘It’s a bit smaller,’ chuckled Remus, ‘but you’ve got to start somewhere.’
They opened the rest of the presents which did include a Comet 280 broomstick for Harry, and various plants and seedlings for Neville, he even now had his own gardening kit including a trowel, a little rake and a watering can. They also both got a rugby ball from Lyall who was still determined someday to teach these kids how to play rugby.
‘Mr Longbottom,’ said Percy once all the presents had been opened, ‘you said that the presents had something to do with the theme of the party.’
‘So I did,’ nodded Frank.
‘That’s because we’re having a music party,’ said Alice.
‘We know you all love music,’ said Remus, ‘particularly Harry. So, we’re having a music party, instead of music hour like we get in school, we’re going to have music afternoon.’
‘Yes!’ exclaimed Charlie who had missed music hour a lot over the last two years at Hogwarts.
‘Pass me my tambourine!’
Remus had introduced the kids to a lot more than just The Seekers now. They now could do The Beatles, Abba, Elton John, David Bowie and of course Queen which had always been Sirius’ favourite. Most of the music that they knew was for the ’60s and 70’s when Remus had been growing up, but they did know some more modern stuff such as The Human League and Wham!
The singing went on all afternoon, and Neville’s grandparents were surprised with how good the children actually were at their instruments. Remus, Alice and Frank joined in the whole time, Alice and Remus leading on the piano and guitar and Frank singing most of the time unless there was a song that actually needed a trumpet like The Beatles, All You Need Is Love.
Mr and Mrs Weasley were also very surprised with how many of the songs they could still remember from when they were being sung in the Common Room at school, or the kids around the house, so they were actually able to join in quite a bit.
Ginny and Luna were very good singers, and everyone else had their instruments which only left Ophelia. She couldn’t sing right now as there were so many people here. She didn’t mind though, she quite enjoyed listening to the others rather than joining in.
After a few hours, everyone went to go and get something to eat, apart from Alice who was still sat at the piano. She was singing softly to herself as she played Simon and Garfunkle’s Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Ophelia pulled herself onto the piano stool next to Alice and watched with interest as Alice’s fingers flew across the keys. Alice was so absorbed in the song, that she didn’t even notice Ophelia sitting there until the end.
‘Oh sorry sweetheart,’ said Alice seeing Ophelia.
‘Was there something you wanted Ophelia?’ asked Alice.
Ophelia shook her head.
‘Do you want your Daddy?’
Ophelia shook her head again.
‘Do you want to go home?’
Ophelia shook her head frantically. She definitely did not want to go home.
‘Ok sweetheart,’ chuckled Alice, ‘you don’t want to go home. That’s ok.’
Ophelia placed her fingers on the keys and tried playing a few experimentally, just to see how they sounded. It sounded awful, and Ophelia shuddered!
‘Ah you like the piano,’ said Alice in dawning comprehension.
‘Come here dear,’ said Alice taking Ophelia’s hand and placing Ophelia’s finger on the first note.
Alice patiently taught Ophelia how to play a simple scale on the piano, and by the time that everyone got back from lunch, Ophelia was actually getting quite good at it.
‘Do we have a young prodigy in the family?’ asked Lyall coming over with two full plates of food for Ophelia and Alice.
‘I don’t know about a prodigy yet,’ laughed Alice, ‘but she’s enjoying yourself and that’s what matters isn’t it?’
Ophelia nodded and hopped off the piano stool and took her plate of food from her Grandpa. As she couldn’t physically thank Alice, she kissed Alice on the cheek and then skipped off to go and eat with Ginny and Luna.
Remus looked away from where he was talking to the Diggory's and saw Ophelia whispering excitedly to Luna and Ginny as they ate their lunches. He was always worried about Ophelia, but he had a feeling that in the end, she would be alright.