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

54.

May 2035

ELLA

O.W.L.s were now right around the corner and Ella's nerves were really picking up. She hated how much stress everyone put on these exams, hated that they determined what you were even eligible to take moving forward. Her dad was good about managing their expectations in class, constantly reminding them that a test didn't define them or their future, that they all had the potential to be successful no matter what, but many of the other teachers had them all in a frenzy of nerves.

They'd had individual meetings with their heads of house a while back for future planning, and Ella's had not been helpful at all. She'd said she wanted to do music, teach music maybe, or sing in the choir that elderly woman in Hogsmeade had told her she should audition for, and Professor Poke had basically said she should just try to pass everything, because it sounded like she didn't know quite what direction to go in to support herself so that she could keep up with music. He didn't seem to understand that she wasn't really envisioning music being secondary. It was the only thing she could see herself doing.

Ella wanted to think about something else, but she couldn't seem to manage it. Every conversation she had seemed to circle back around to the upcoming exams one way or another. In fact, the only time she felt any kind of peace was at choir, focused on music only.

She was soaking that feeling in now, enjoying the golden light coming through the stained glass windows and the familiar sounds of shuffling papers, the piano plunking out the tenor line, Logan's voice in her ear.

She could almost forget.

Professor Whitby moved on then to review the soprano and alto harmonies where they'd gotten a little lost, and she straightened up to follow along, aware of Logan next to her, scribbling something on a scrap of parchment.

He put the quill down before she was done and held onto it until Professor Whitby said, "Let me just hear the altos for a moment."

He passed it over to Ella at once, watching her as she bent her head to read what he'd written.

Are you free after dinner?

She glanced at him and nodded.

He reached for the parchment back and wrote something else. She read over his shoulder as he wrote.

Can you help me with the ending a little?

He hadn't asked for help in a while, not wanting to distract her from studying, but she knew he'd been working on it nearly night and day.

She nodded again, feeling a little flip in her stomach. She'd missed it, she realized. She'd liked working together with him at the piano, quietly singing through different possible harmonies together.

"I promise I won't take up your whole night," he whispered. "We'll still have time to study."

Ella reached for the parchment.

Take up as much time as you want, she wrote. I need a break.

And Logan smiled at that. His eyes looked all warm and sparkly in the light. Her stomach flipped again.

—-

They climbed the spiral staircase back up to the choir room after dinner, Logan explaining to her what he'd been working on over the last two weeks.

"I want your opinion," he said as they neared the top. "And I guess I need to hear it, too. I've been kind of trying to play it myself, but I'm not good enough with chords yet to really play all the parts at once. I've just been playing one line at a time and trying to imagine them together."