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

47.

March 2035

ELLA

On Monday morning, the choir all gathered in Professor Whitby's office where they would take the floo network to their first destination. They had two concerts that morning, the first at the Old London Home for Elderly Witches and Wizards and the next at Brighton Magical Assisted Living Center. They would visit a facility in Cardiff the following day, Dublin and Galway on Wednesday, Edinburgh and Glasgow on Thursday, and finish on Friday in Hogsmeade.

Her mum and dad were planning to sneak their way into that last one.

Ella hadn't been nervous leading up to these concerts, but now that they day was here, she felt jittery and anxious.

Logan caught onto this before she'd even said anything. "You're going to be great," he told her, stepping forward in the line of students waiting to take their turn in the fireplace. "You've done this before and that was with a way bigger audience."

"Somehow the smaller audience feels scarier," Ella said, clutching her folder of music in both hands.

"Well think about it this way, most of them won't even know what's happening. They might not even be able to hear."

Ella managed a small smile.

They were nearly to the front now.

"What would help?" Logan asked.

Ella shook her head. "It's okay. I know I can do it. I'm just nervous."

Logan looked at her in this funny way.

"What?"

"Just, you act like you think you don't have confidence in yourself, but you do."

Ella stopped forward again. "I'm starting to," she said.

—-

Ella's nerves continued for the first few songs of their set, but then the piano and their harmonies started to trickle their way inside her and soon she felt that familiar warm glow that music always gave her.

It didn't matter that half the audience was literally asleep, because it wasn't about the accolades. It was the way it made her feel. She wanted to do this forever, sing and perform and stand in the middle of all this sound. It was her, favorite, favorite feeling.

Just before her duet with Logan came up, he found her hand and gave a small squeeze. She smiled at him, then they let their fingers slip apart again and they stepped forward.

Professor Whitby, sitting at the piano, gave a nod, then mouthed counting them in. Logan sang first in this song. He took a verse, then Ella, then they finished the song together. His voice was so warm and calm, it sounded just the way he made her feel. She liked listening to him, liked singing on her own, but the part she liked best was harmonizing.

It had been surprisingly easy to match their quality, to learn to how to blend with one another. Whitby said they had a similar tone and resonance. Ella had internalized that statement, taken it to mean so many other things, and she knew she was turning it into something much bigger, the fact that they sang well together, but it just felt like such a real outward sign of what she was feeling inside.

Logan had fit himself into her life so seamlessly. She loved being around him so much. She liked who she was when she was around him.

The fact that they could sing together was like confirmation that it was all true.

Without even realizing, she found she was beaming by the end of the song. She felt so proud of what they had just done.

The audience response was only a smattering of polite applause, but Ella didn't need any amount of approval. She knew they had done well.