If I May Be So Bold (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

37.

February 2035

ELLA

The following Thursday, Ella headed out after dinner to check in for her prefect duty, fingers crossed that Logan would find her again. They hadn't officially discussed it on Tuesday at choir, but he'd been there three weeks in a row. She assumed he would be there.

Her dad was on duty that night, sitting in the staff lounge with a stack of papers to grade.

"Hi," she said, heading for the sign in sheet on the little table. She hoped he couldn't sense how nervous she was.

"Hey sweetheart," he smiled.

"Exciting night of reading essays?"

"Second years," he said. "Should be ground breaking."

Ella laughed a little. Usually, when it was her dad on duty, she would stay and chat for a while, but there were only two hours until Logan — if he was even planning on tagging along for the evening — had to be back in his common room, and she didn't want to waste it.

"Well, have fun with that," she said. "Hopefully you get them all done."

Did he sense that she was trying to escape? Did he know there was someone else she wanted to find? Or did he not notice at all? She couldn't tell.

"Well, I'm not taking them home, that's for sure," he said. "It's been a never ending pile of things to grade this week. I'm taking the weekend off."

Ella laughed. "Sounds like O.W.L. year for teachers," she said. "I won't distract you."

Then she went and gave him a quick hug, hoping then he wouldn't think anything strange or unlike her was going on. He kissed her on the cheek, and she smiled and slipped out the door before he could ask anything else.

Logan was at the end of the hall and her face split into an involuntary smile when she saw him. He waited until she'd reached him to say, "It's ready. This one's a masterpiece."

Ella smiled even bigger.

"Come on," she said, and she headed for the choir room.

Upstairs, the room was dark again. She flicked the light on and headed right for the piano, this time purposely sitting to one side of the bench so there would be space for Logan. He sat close to her, reached into his pocket for a piece of parchment, and set it up on the music rest.

"Prepare to be amazed," he said.

"I'm fully prepared," Ella said. "You've been talking this up for weeks."

"You can't undersell a masterpiece," Logan said seriously.

Ella looked it over, put her fingers on the keys. She tested out a few of the chords.

"Seems doable," she said.

"Let's hear it then, maestro."

Ella pressed her lips together. She started to play from the top.

The tune was nearly familiar. He'd used a lot of arpeggios, twice he walked up an entire C major scale, and the melody reminded her of some other song, a classic, though she couldn't put her finger on which one. But it wasn't an exact replica of anything else. That was certain. And it actually sounded very pretty. It was much longer than his last little song, and it appeared he'd actually put some real thought into how this one was going to sound.

It finished with a whole note on E. She held the key down, foot on the pedal, let the sound ring out as long as it could.

"I couldn't come up with good enough lyrics," he said once it had gone quiet, "But it's called 'E is for Ella.' That's why there's a lot of Es in there."