In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 207: Play Me a Memory

A/N: Hi everyone! This chapter is going to be a little rough. TW for minor character death. Proceed with caution, and take care. 💕 Everything's going to be okay, I promise.

🩵💛❤️💜🩷

HENRY:

I had just started playing my first song request of the evening when a sudden chill whipped around me. I knew instantly that it was magic on the air, not just a stray breeze from a door opening and closing, so I continued playing with one hand while the other reached for the wand hidden in my pocket.

It was Archie's gaze that I met when I looked up. He had a wildly smug grin on his face from where he was standing, pressed into the shadows on the wall, and I laughed and shook my head as I placed both hands on the keys again. Archie sauntered over, pride radiating off of him in palpable waves.

"You scared me, Graye," I said. "So, you liked what you heard last week enough to come back for more?"

"Yes, and I brought a friend," he replied with a wink. I cocked my head at him, making him grin wider. "He stopped dead in his tracks as soon as we walked in the door. I think he's a little starstruck."

And with that, Archie walked past me, and I glanced up toward the door to see who he had dragged along.

My fingers faltered on the keys for a moment, only one moment, but a moment nonetheless. George Weasley was awkwardly standing in front of the door, undeniably transfixed.

I offered him a shy smile and tipped my head down over the keys to hide the blush creeping into my cheeks. Apparently that small acknowledgement from me was all that he needed to be propelled into action, because rapid footsteps approached me, halted, then hurried past me.

"I don't want to distract him," George hissed from somewhere behind me.

"Oh please, Henry's a professional," Archie replied loudly. He didn't need to be quite so loud — it was obvious that they were sitting at the table directly behind me. "I talked to him the whole time he played last week, except for when I stopped to sing along."

"These songs have words?"

"Of course they — "

"Shh, shut up, I want to see if I can figure out what the words are," George interrupted.

I could practically feel his eyes boring into the back of my head as I kept playing. I fought the urge to sigh. Of course somebody had requested "Somebody to Love" by Queen. Of course I was in the middle of playing a song that I had put on George's Walkman.

I prayed he wouldn't recognize it, and the longer I played and he didn't say anything more, the more relieved I felt. And then right before the end of the song, a gasp.

"I know this song! It's on the Walkman we play in the shop!"

"Good for you, Georgie," Archie remarked. "Song title and band name?"

"Oh, bloody hell, now that I'm on the spot, I can't remember," George groaned. "I know every word, but I'm not sure what — "

"Henry, why don't you help a man out?" Archie called.

I played the last notes with a flourish and nodded at the man who had requested the song before I tossed the answer over my shoulder.

"'Somebody to Love,' by Queen." I stretched my fingers out, then started improvising softly, letting my fingers dance over the keys however they saw fit as I waited for the next request.

"Er — hi, Henry," George said. "You — play piano, then?"

I chuckled. "Hi, George. Yeah, I do. Surprise, I guess."