= Wands High =

Chapter 27 - 14 May 1998, Thursday

Jessie was the first one to react, Daynen thought, or perhaps she had simply been the loudest. Hermione was already hugging him, doing a good job at trying to choke him at the same time, while Orianna was staring at the night's sky, great relief painted all over her face. James was simply looking at the podium, nodding to himself, be it even barely, a thin smile his only visible reaction. He did look at Daynen for a brief moment, giving him a short, but memorable thumbs up.

- We won! We won! We wooon! – Jessie's cheers were overshadowing not only all of them, but almost the whole audience overall, for the reactions among the crowd were all over the place, as Daynen was beginning to realize.

For some odd reason, he wasn't too sure of his feelings on the matter. Perhaps it was the strange fatigue he'd been experiencing throughout the whole evening, perhaps the stiffly presented announcement? Or was it just the nerves caused by the fear that this whole new project would fail? Maybe he just truly didn't care enough about these events anymore.

That last thought evaporated a second later though, as the glittering spark in Hermione's eyes managed to quickly settle all the mixed emotions he was experiencing.

- You did it! – she seemed so happy - probably a lot more than he himself looked to be right now.

And seeing her like this ended up making him feel the same way, he found.

- Who would have thought, right? – was all he managed to say.

- The members of the winning band are welcome to come on stage – Kevin's voice echoed, his tone indicating that he had called for them at least once already.

- Crap, crap... do we have a song? We don't have a song, do we? We don't have a song!

- We could just play one of the regular ones, but with the different arrangements we discussed Ri, calm down. – Jessie suggested.

- No, we are not doing that.

All of his bandmates looked at him then, somewhat surprised at his firm tone.

- It's okay, you know the song – Daynen smiled and grabbed the railing attached to the ramp, giving a tight hug to Hermione just prior to that. – Come on, let's not make a big deal out of this and just enjoy ourselves. There will be plenty of time for this later!

- Woohoo! – screamed Jessie and ran after James, who had already caught up with Daynen, discussing something with him.

- That was weird – Orianna noted, placing one foot on the first step of the ramp, leading towards the podium. – He tell you anything just now?

- I am not sure – was Hermione's reply. – He just said "this is for you."

- That explains it then.

- What does? – the other girl asked, but Orianna had already climbed up.

- You give us a great honor tonight, Innestrad – James said, wand hovering in front of his face and above him. – We appreciate all the support you have sent our way this evening.

His voice was calm, but the words felt genuine, or at least that was the way Daynen heard them in his head, while a 2nd year student with a STAFF t-shirt was helping him with his guitar.

- We are going to play a song for you now, – James continued. – Which is about something we all experience at one time or another, and if you haven't yet, then I wish you to experience it sooner, rather than later. Love.

A round of applause followed, though more than a few people seemed to exchange somewhat puzzled looks between one another. Didn't seem to bother James one bit though, as he went on, the instruments behind him slowly coming to life one by one.