the cold still;; OPEN

Merlin knew how she got her hands on a keyboard that wasn't powered by electricity, but Anna had gotten one. It was pretty small and it could fold into her pocket, so she could carry it around with her at all times. Once she had assembled it, she hummed a tune that had come to her like sweet words ever since she was a child. Music, for Anna, was her bailiwick. If lessons were going down, it was what she could turn to for a little solace.


Her fingers moved around the piano like they have been trained to do that for years. It had been nearly a year since she had that piano given to her, but she had grown more attached to it than she had to anything else. She continued to let her fingers do their job, watching them, never making a single mistake.


She could remember hearing the song for the first time. Technically, it was on the guitar. But since then, she figured out how to change the music from the guitar to the piano. She had to admit, the song's graceful tone sounded much better on the piano. A smile curled on her lips.


Before that summer, she had never considered herself as much of a musician. But now that she was singing this song to herself in the darkness of a quiet night, she pondered at the posibility of becoming one herself. Perhaps, she should give up her dreams of being a Ministry worker and work on her music instead. As she sang to herself, even during the days of her euphoric youth, she could not remember a moment where she thought her voice would sound this soft. She had always imagined herself to have a croaky, annoying voice.


Did this song have to have such beautiful lyrics? Anna thought. They were relatable yet not relatable to her at the same time. She wanted to write such beautiful lyrics when she became a musician. Behind her, in the midst of the dark, she did not know someone was watching her as she sang the final words in the song.

"It's the same thing, right or wrong."

J. J. had been wandering the hall. Her nerves had seemed to have left her long enough to feel restless. She wanted to-to-to...

Well she wanted to feel normal agian, but she wasn't sure if that was going to happen. So it left her with this need to wander - to find something that she wasn't really looking for.

On this day she happened to find hersel wandering towards the clock tower. She stopped however, hovering just in the dark when she heard music. It was soft... pretty music. It was rather calming really.

She didn't want to interupt it, so she stood there. Maybe, she thought, she could sneak back down and no one would be the wiser.

But of course, she wouldn't be J. J. if she didn't manage to make some sort of fool of her herself.

As she turned to leave, she lost her balance and fell on her face with a thud.

Anna turned around, hearing something - or someone, perhaps - fall on the floor. She bit her lip. Should she go and help the person who had fallen? Well, it depended on who it was. If it was a friend, she would go, perhaps. If it was an enemy... needless to say, she would not let them leave the clock tower unscathed.

She decided to play one more song again, to see what else they would do. But her fingers wouldn't graze the keys on the keyboard. If anything, they were repelled by it. Maybe they wanted to reach out and help the person, but Anna had no obligation to. The Ravenclaw ran a hand through her hair and swore, knowing that she would regret it in the morning.

"Are you alright?" she called out, her tone anything but amiable. Her lips curled into a smirk, because she sounded so cold it could be a one-way ticket to let this person know to leave her alone.

J. J. looked up at the voice. She new the face, vague... she believed it was Anna or something... she had talked to the girl one or twice.

But it did not matter who the vocie belong to because it was clear from its tone that it did not want her there, which J. J. could not blame her for.

"Yes, I am fine," she said with a blush as she pulled herself to her feet, "I was just on my way out when my feet decided they'd rather I fall on my face."

Anna blinked. "So you're the mute girl - JJ, yes?" she began, puzzle pieces starting to join themselves together. Even though she may have few friends, she still had ears that knew what happened to most people around school. Merlin, she missed her old friends, but they all seemed to disappear one way or another.

"Would you like a song?" she asked in an attempt to be nice to the girl. To be honest, she didn't care for JJ too much, but her fingers were itching to play some beautiful music and not feel as if she was being interrupted or judged.

J. J. blinked for a moment at her identification, but what did she really expect? A girl who could not talk was great food for gossip. Of course it would be around the school in no time - and it had been a lot longer than 'no time'.

So after a moment she just nodded, "Yes, that is me... though I guess I'm a little less Mute now."

"If you would like to play, I'd love to listen."