What a nice looking Violin PV Avery Chen, Winnie Harper closed

IC Date: Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021

Avery was heading to the Rehearsal Room on the fourth floor, and decided to take a casual stroll through the courtyard from the Snape Dorms to get there. The fall weather was very pleasant, and what could possibly lift his spirits more than a little bit of sunshine outdoors before bowing his notes? He had taken Allegra Steinway's advice; after taking a week away from his violin after the Talent Show, he was slowly working his way back to his lengthier practice sessions. The week-long break had done him good. He was able to focus a lot more on enjoying the other aspects of school life: Working out with Flash as the morning air greeted them, sitting in the Great Hall a little longer after dinner to chat with his classmates, wandering the halls without fear of getting lost and wasting time...

However, towards the end of his break, he even found himself starting to miss playing the violin. Just a little bit. It was strange; he never skipped more than a couple days of practice in the past six years, but he never thought he'd miss it if he stopped for a week.

Indeed, it was a nice day. Some students were chatting around the fountain, and its light splashes and gurgling water seemed soothing. He took a seat on the fountain ledge just to enjoy the sight and the smells and the feeling for a minute. Avery Chen did not often slow down in life, but the story of the piece he planned to play today seemed to fit this picture nicely.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Hilda approaching with a slight limp, as she did. He turned and smiled as she greeted him. "Hi Hilda! I didn't think I'd see you here," he said cheerily. Normally, he thought she tried to walk the least amount possible, due to her disability, so seeing her outdoors was a bit unusual, especially since there were no classes to walk to on Sunday.

As she mentioned the musical device, though, his smile faltered. He remembered that fateful day when he had dropped it onto the cold, hard floor of the Slytherin common room, just as a certain giant slimy worm of Hanako Tone's landed in his lap. He had forgotten about it in his frenzy, and then had resolved to tell his friend the next time he saw her, but it kept slipping his mind. Maybe, somehow, his mind didn't want to think about that snake again.

"Oh, umm... I was just about to tell you," he continued hesitantly. "I'm so sorry, it actually broke when I dropped it in the common room one day. It was a total accident and I really didn't mean to. I probably should've told you sooner, shouldn't I?" He gave her an awkward smile.

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

A joke, that is what Hildegard tried to believe it was, however Avery's facial expression, him trying to smile so desperately made the girl understand.

She had trusted him, she was nice to him, and now that ?! The shock of the disable girl was so immense and so deep that she was not even able to express anything with her face, the Slytherin had a faceless expression, but deep down she was burning with rage.

The girl always believed Avery Chen to be someone likable, fun to be with, and he was definitely in her eyes, despite that time he vomited on her. He also was someone she admired for his violin talent, and joy of living.

Everything he was, everything she believed him to be indeed made Hildegard understand that accident could happen, and they were not something she should blame him for.

Even if she knew that it was rational to forgive him, she was not rational.
To be accurate, instead of using her brain to rule her life as perhaps the ravenclaw's house member would do, she putted her brain in service of her emotions, drive and desire.
Hate, revenge, a desire to cause suffering that is what the girl felt at the moment, if it was not for her leg and her clear physical inferiority to Avery she would have jumped on him right away.
No, she could not do so she had to find another way !
She looked at his violin, Schneider knew it was Chen's precious belonging and so decided that it was the one thing she needed from him in order to take revenge.

-Calm down ! Calm down ! you need to do this well ! She thought to herself.

-Oh come on Avery ! What happened ?! I trusted you with it ! It was my parent's gift ! She blamed him trying to sound way less angry from what she actually was, as if he only had stolen her chocolate frog.

The snake sighed to pretend it was still alright. After listening to his explanation she asked :

-What a story ! At least it was not your violin ! I'm glad about it ! I know you really like that thing ! She lied while getting her hand closer to the instrument.

Is it made out of a special material or something ? By the can I see it ? I think it does look a bit different compared to other violin. She asked the violin player.

Interacting with : @Avery Chen

He peered at Hilda as the awkward and guilty smile was plastered to his face. He was starting to sweat a little now. Maybe it would've been a better look for him if he'd just gone to her immediately after the device broke, rather than forgetting and dragging it out until she asked him about it.

Her face was quite expressionless as he gazed at her. He expected at least a little hint of something? Maybe pained tears? Maybe uncontainable anger, which was more likely the Hilda signature? It was a bit strange, how silent she was upon hearing this news, and how blank her facial expression was.

"Oh come on Avery ! What happened ?! I trusted you with it ! It was my parent's gift !" the pale girl finally said, and Avery almost breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Hilda was a little upset, since it was a gift from her parents while she was away from home, but she was also curious what it happened because she knew he was one of the more trustworthy type. "I know, I know," he began, "it was a total accident and I'm sorry." He steeled himself before recounting the events of that terrifying day. "So, this third-year, Hanako Tone, who's one of my dormmates, has this very scary snake. Like, who the heck has a snake for a pet? It tried to attack me from behind, so when it came onto my lap, I was sooo freaked out that I dropped the device onto the floor. And that's how it broke." Avery almost had to shake the thought of that snake out of his mind once more. He could almost see its small, beady eyes, and how it wanted to eat him.

Luckily, Hilda seemed to sympathize with him after hearing his story. "Yeah, right? I would be so sad if my violin broke." It was a bit random that she mentioned his violin, which was laid on the ledge next to him, but maybe it was just conveniently located within her peripheral vision, or something.

When asked about his violin, Avery was always happy to talk about it. It was his most prized possession, after all, and it was quite an elegant beauty. "Of course! Let me show you!" he said, unlocking his case across his lap and opening the top. "This is an Antonio Giuliani Primo violin." He lifted the delicate instrument proudly from its case. "So, the back is made of maple wood. See how the back has a kind of tiger stripe pattern?" He turned the instrument around for Hilda to see. "This is called 'flaming', which maple wood is known for. The front is made of spruce wood from the Himalayas, and the fingerboard is made of ebony, which is black wood." Avery took a second to admire the violin.

"This is an intermediate-level violin, so it's a little more expensive than usual, like...over four hundred pounds! I try to take good care of it. Do you want to hold it?" He offered up the violin to Hilda for closer inspection, if she wanted to.

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

Listening to the violin's description, Hildegard was surprised, it almost seemed as if they were like wands for musician, one violin fitting more a musician than the other, having a specific wood it was made out of and so on.
All and all she could understand that it was really precious to Avery, more than what the girl had expected it to be.
The german snake caressed the violin, and took it, at first she looked at it on every angle touching it everywhere.
When Avery proposed her to hold it she thanked him and holded it, trying to play a little of it, as a newbie tho which just made the violin emit some random sounds, the last ones she wanted it to give.
The disable girl took support on the fountain's corner to get up, and putted the treasure of the musician under a ray of light to see it more clearly.

-What a nice looking Violin... She remarked.

Hildegard turned back to face Avery, holding his precious violin by it's neck and it's back, putting it in front of him as she wanted him to witness what she would do as close as possible.

Just before Avery could touch his violin again Hildegard turned her face expressionless again, and stopped holding the back of the instrument.
She two handedly held it by the neck, aiming at the corner of the fountain and smashed the violin against it as hard as she could.
The violin was still intact she so did it again putting all of her strength into it not giving a care about how the asian boy was reacting or what he was doing.
this time the violin was a bit damaged but not enough, so the girl did yet another swing.

- What was that violin's made out of again ? That stuff is so hard !

The crazy girl tried one last swing using all her strength, aiming at the damaged part and even using her hips to put a bit more force into it.
On her last try the violin broke into different pieces, and the impact and momentum made her fall on the ground, panting she throwed part of the violin in the fountain's water while keeping the neck and scroll as some sort of reward.

-I'm so sorry, It was a total accident and I really didn't mean to She said sarcastically while on the ground.

Interacting with : @Avery Chen

When Hilda took the violin from him, he knew that it would be in good hands. The girl gingerly touched the frame, the knobs, and the scroll design, examining it as if a wandmaker was examining a wand. She also took the bow and attempted to play a few notes. Avery winced a bit with a laugh at the screeching sounds. It was definitely difficult to make the notes sound whole during one's first few tries.

"What a nice looking Violin..." she mused. Avery smiled gently in agreement. "It sure is, isn't it? It's a bit smaller, because it's a 3/4 size that-"

But before he could finish explaining, the pale girl had grabbed the neck of the violin with both hands, and raised it above her head, only to bring it down with force against the fountain's stone edge with a loud smack. At first, Avery didn't even react. His mind simply could not comprehend what had happened. He froze with widened eyes that filled with confusion and a mouth that was slightly agape.

It wasn't until Hildegard brought the instrument up and pummeled it again on the fountain ledge that he filled with dread, and realized that something was wrong. Very wrong. "Hilda, wait-" he managed to say, raising a hand as if to get her attention and stop her. He stared at the ledge. Was there a horrendous bug there that he couldn't see? that she was protecting them from?

Again, she brought it over her head, swinging it down with more force now, as if her previous swings had not accomplished what she wanted. "Hilda, STOP!" He was yelling by now, as some of the fine tuning screws scattered onto the ground. The bridge had come loose, and the strings were loose and splaying, as if they had been torn from the instrument.

However, no matter how much he screamed, Hildegard Schneider would not stop.

With one last determined swing, the wood smashed into splinters that flew every-which-where, and there was nothing left of the instrument that was intact except for the neck that the girl was still holding in her hand. The rest of the violin was discarded into the water, its mangled body floating gently away as the fountain gurgled cheerily, undisturbed by the violent sight.

"No..." Avery managed to say, stunned, as his eyes took in the murder scene, still half unable to believe what he saw. His beautiful, beloved instrument, destroyed. As it slowly sank in, his disbelief turned to sadness, as tears began to well in his eyes. His violin had been a friend that he looked after, that he cleaned and played and shared joyous and sad moments with. And it was gone. His parents would kill him for this -- 4o0 pounds of their hard work had gone down the drain.

"I'm so sorry, It was a total accident and I really didn't mean to," Schneider managed to say from the ground, as if mocking him.

He blinked back tears, and slowly, anger simmered, before rage overtook him. How could Schneider possibly do this! Who did she think she was? He had seen hints that indicated she was just a crazy witch from the start, from pushing him overboard and into the lake, to mercilessly setting geese on fire, without any intention of saving them from their misery. Yet, he had rescued her from said geese, and taken her to the hospital wing when she had fallen down the stairs. He had even defended her when Ming snapped at her in anger. And how was she to repay him?

"You CRAZY. SADISTIC. WITCH! I hope you fall down the stairs again and DIE!" he spat the words at her while she lay on the ground. He had half a mind to kick her in the face while she was down, but no, she would just use her poor, disabled girl card. Instead, he attempted to stamp his foot on her wrist so that she'd loosen her grip on the detached neck of the violin, but missed terribly. Finally, he tried to snatch it out of her hand and stepped into the fountain to gather the remaining floating pieces onto the fountain ledge.

He took out his wand. He was breathing heavily by now, fighting back the tears that threatened to pour any second now. "R-reparo!" he incantated, but only a few weak sparks shot out from his wand. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and tried again. "Reparo!" he repeated, wrangled in grief. This time, the charm seemed to work. The pieces of the violin finally came together, and formed a whole upon the ground, but it didn't look exactly right...


He stared at the Picasso-drawing-of-a-violin. No, that was not right at all.

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

When Avery told her that he hoped that she died the girl smirked, the boy tried to get the part of the violin she had in hand. But Hildegard played a little trick, while giving what she had in hand she still kept a little piece of the violin hidden first in her fist later in her sleeve like those muggle magician, not knowing if the trick worked and it went unnoticed.
The kid did it just as some possible warrantee in case anything unexpected happened.
She got up and sat on the corner of the fountain while the boy was desperately trying to save his treasure.
She even let out a laugh when he tried to use reparo on his violin.

-It's not R-reparo, it's "reh-Pah-roh" ! She said when the boy, her now not so much friend misspelled the incantation.

By the way are you going to do anything ? She asked still provoking her victim.

Are you going to hit me ? She added trying to tempt him.

He visibly would not but it was still funny to her to try making him do so, no matter what she did she was sure that this "disable card" was a golden ticket, so why not use it from time to time like a Slytherin would do ?

She started to chill around, even getting some Fizzy Wizzy, that she managed to get, to eat while watching the scene.

Interacting with : @Avery Chen

It was a beautiful September day in the courtyard of Hogwarts. The peaceful outdoor space had always offered a sanctuary of sorts for Winnie. The natural lull of the fountain alone was enough to put her mind at ease and offer her creative inspiration. Indeed, the muses often ran free outdoors, dancing on pointed toes, their flowing presence free of constraint, a welcome respite from the humdrum that daily life usually provides. Winnie could count on these quiet moments alone outdoors to spark her creative juices and make things come to life.

The dirty cobbled stone was marking up the pale pink puff sleeve dress she had tossed on during the morning, but her thoughts were as elusive as the light that reflected on the flowing water. What could possibly be going through her mind at that moment? Her thoughts were still lost in the hazy fog, as it had been since summer, the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the past few days weighing down against her shoulders. In truth, she was looking forward to releasing some negative energy through her poetry.

With a quill gripped in her right hand, she would bring it down against the parchment and write her most inner thoughts, crafting them into prose--...

CRACK!

Winnie jumped in place when she suddenly heard something being smashed up against the stone water fountain. It sounded like something wooden, and her head jerked up to watch the scene unfold in front of her. Some girl had apparently not gotten the memo about guitars being the instrument of choice to smash. The loud crashing noise was followed by sounds of what she could only describe as pure distress as a boy, a first year she assumed, began to mourn the loss of a beloved instrument. It was then that Winnie hopped onto her feet, shoving her poetry journal into the leather satchel that hung over her shoulder. By the time the second year had arrived on the scene, a boy was desperately trying to repair his shattered violin. Winnie had to admit, the result of the second spell looked rather nifty, but it also didn't look like it would produce the same sound as the original.

The girl beside him was to blame. She might have looked harmless, but if Winnie had learned anything during her time at Hogwarts, it was that looks could be deceiving. Having an understanding of art forms and how important they could be, she could feel herself getting pissed off for the poor boy. She had to take in a deep breath and shift her features behind a mask of indifference, just as Santario had taught her the night prior. "What is going on here?" She would bluntly ask, her eyes flickering between the two.

Her hand reached up to grab her aspen wood wand, which had been securely tucked into her ponytail. "Stop." She told the boy. "If you keep trying to repair it like that, you'll damage it magically and we won't be able to piece it back together." She leaned down to inspect the instrument before turning her focus back to the boy. "... It's missing a piece." She concluded, a small smile curving onto her lips as she took a single step towards the dark haired girl, "You wouldn't happen to know where the missing piece is, would you?"

Avery gritted his teeth and shook off Schneider’s mockery of his spell casting. That girl just didn’t know when to stop, did she? It seemed that she was asking to be hit as well, by the way she talked. Well, he wouldn’t give disabled Schneider the satisfaction of being socked in the jaw. He knew he could strike her down if he set his mind to it. Easy. Already, his morning workouts with Flash were paying off as quidditch season approached. However, there was no way he’d let her flaunt her disabled card and cast him as the villain in this fight.

”What is going on here?”A red-haired girl asked, likely concerned by the commotion. Avery turned towards the girl. “Hildegard the crazy witch smashed my violin,” he explained through teary eyes that were threatening to overflow any second now. “It’s just not right and I’m trying to fix it-“ but the older girl stopped him just as he was trying to recite the incantation again, explaining that he might accidentally damage it with magic. ”Oh,” he managed to say, and lowered his wand. He hadn’t considered that, and would hate to permanently damage his violin.

Yes, it did look to be missing a piece. How odd. He thought he’d gathered all the pieces he could find in their proximity. But, when the older girl looked to Schneider for the missing piece, it all seemed to make sense.

He watched the pale girl carefully, wondering how she would react.

@Hildegard Schneider @Winnie Harper

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

When Avery accused her of breaking his violin she was mad, mad because she knew that there was no way she could disguise this as an accident or anything else, no one would believe it if she said that she was under the imperius curse. So the disabled Hilda did her best to come up with something :

-Me ? I'm not the one who broke someone else's parent's gift ! If it was not for the mending charm your violin would be junk ! And you dare to raise your voice on me ?!

In the meantime she grabbed Walter who was around but really did nothing and was just unnoticed until then.
When the girl who came asked the violin destroyer about the missing piece, the little German squeezed Walter as a teddy bear while replying :

-Why would I know about that ? I'm not a violin maker am I ?

-Okay time to go now. She thought.

She took her walking stick and took just about 1 or two meter of distance from them. Unfortunately for her the little violin piece she had hidden felt down her sleeve to the ground.
Hildegard looked on the ground and then looked at them to see if they saw what just happened.

Interacting with : @Avery Chen | @Winnie Harper