Finished Cello Duo

Interacting with @EmmaLee LeDames

none Mentioning

Matilde pushed open the door to the rehearsal room, dragging her cello case behind her. Lately, she been using this room to practice a lot more than Plant Palace. It wasn’t that she really minded if others heard her play, but whenever she played in her dorm, she worried she would bother another student studying or trying to take a nap.

But today, she wasn’t alone in the rehearsal room either. Another girl was there, playing the cello too, and with her, a very fluffy cat. Matilde’s jaw dropped when she noticed the girl’s cello. It was bright blue, and shimmery.

As Matilde was deciding what to do, her bunny made the choice for her. She poked her head out of the young witch’s bag, and in one motion, Pepper leaped out and straight toward the girl’s cat. Matilde was always a little nervous when Pepper was around cats. The young bunny adored them, and so far, they seemed to like her too. Even so, she watched the two pets carefully.

Matilde rolled over to the girl. “Hello! That’s such a pretty song. And your instrument is gorgeous too,” she said, still gawking. “I play the cello too,” She smiled, gesturing beside her.

Minx's ears twitched as the door opened and the sound of small footsteps entered the room. Many had entered the rehearsal room while EmmaLee practiced on other days. Sometimes they stay, sometimes they left to find their own place to practice, but they were usually not worth Minx's notice until the practicing was done. So, the cat remained still, but alert until the intruder's bag rustled and something landed on the floor with a soft "fumph" on the hardwood floor and continued to fumph towards her.

Minx lazily rolled over still laying, but up position as the other animal drew closer, sniffing the air she looked towards her new companion. The cat slowly stood up fully, towering over the bunny, but crouched down just as slowly, as if not to scare the smaller animal, and reached forward to pat a paw on the ground, inviting the bunny to play. Her tail flicked in a welcoming, playful way as she waiting for the rabbit to accept her offer.

EmmaLee, on the other hand, was wholly unaware of the girl's entrance until she spoke and jumped a bit at the sound of her voice piercing her concentration, the note she had been drawing out of the instrument coming to a jittery halt.

EmmaLee looked over to the girl, then to Minx trying to play with a rabbit and chuckled. "Well, 'ello there. I didn't 'ear you come in." She said, letting the bow rest in one hand at her side as her string hand came to her chest in surprise. "Thank you." She said to the girl's complement.

"I won't be here for too much longer if you'd like to wait to practice." She offered. "Or you are welcome to join me if you wish?" She continued, pointing to their pets with her bow. "Minx would enjoy a playmate for a moment. She is very gentle with smaller animals." She assured with a small chuckle.

@EmmaLee LeDames

Matilde laughed as the cat carefully placed a paw in front of her bunny, seemingly to invite Pepper to play. The little gray creature quickly accepted with a hyper energy. She bounced around the cat joyfully.

The girl said she hadn’t seen her come in, which made Matilde feel a little bad, she seemed to have startled the girl a bit. She couldn’t help but notice that she spoke with a bit of a French accent. Matilde was learning French, and spoke a lot of it, but she didn’t really think this was a good time to bring that up.

The girl offered that Matilde could play cello with her. “I’d love to practice with you! It would be so great to hear someone else play. And I think Pepper would love to stay too. She seems to love cats, oddly enough. Your cat seems very sweet.”

Matilde found a music stand and dragged her stuff over to sit by the girl. Then she carefully completed her procedure for setting up her things.

“What are you playing?” She asked the girl in an attempt to keep up conversation as she rosined her bow and began to check whether or not her cello was in tune.

"There is something about the animals at 'Ogwarts. They seem to know not to really bother the other pets. Minx at least seems to definitely know the difference between a wild rabbit and a pet one. Rats and frogs similarly." She said, with a wide smile and her own little chuckle as the animals started to play. Minx pounced around the little bunny as well, clearly making sure not to get too close the it as to startle or harm it. Sometimes she would bat carefully at the rabbit's ears or swish her tail at it, seeing if the rabbit wanted to chase after it or something.

EmmaLee then turned to the girl as she began to set up her own instrument. "I'm am always glad to have a practice partner. The more the merrier. I was playing a song called 'Colors of the Wind.' It is from an American cartoon film." She said. She had long ago given up trying to figure out the backgrounds of her fellow students. It always seemed like the most outwardly unlikely people has non-magique parents and other unlikely people had never even heard of a car before. Hogwarts was such a weird, wonderful mish-mash of different kinds of people.

"My name is EmmaLee, by the way. EmmaLee LeDames. What is yours?" She asked the girl, still smiling widely as she rosined her bow and tuned her cello. ""Ow long 'ave you been playing? I started when I was five, almost six." She giggled a little at the memory of herself reaching out for Tante Alura's bow when she was, in fact, too young to hold it. She had been entranced by the thing from the moment she saw it. "Almost as soon as I could hold the bow."

@EmmaLee LeDames

Matilde had to agree with the girl about the relationships of the Hogwarts pets. “You’re right. When I first got Pepper, I was scared that the cats would scare or hurt her, but they always seem to be just the best of friends! It’s quite amazing, really.” Her attention drifted from the pets back to the girl as she said she was playing Colors of the Wind. “Oh, I don’t think I’ve heard of it. I’ve seen some films, but not as many as a typical muggle I suppose. I’m half-blood, but we don’t have a television.” Matilde wondered if the girl was muggleborn, or at least had muggle family. She was never really sure if that was an appropriate question, especially after just meeting someone. Before she had time to decide, the girl introduced herself. “Nice to meet you EmmaLee! I’m Matilde, Matilde O’Fionnagan.” She watched as EmmaLee fiddled with her own instrument. Matilde figured EmmaLee would probably be a lot better than her because she had been playing for so long, but she didn’t really mind. She didn’t often get the chance to play with others, and found it inspiring to listen to others who were more advanced. “Wow, that’s a long time. I was eight when I started, and I’m now twelve, so about four years, I suppose! I wasn’t too good for quite a while, but I feel like I’m finally getting a little better.”

EmmaLee plucked the strings of her cello idly while the girl spoke of her blood status and lack of tv with a gentle smile. In France, they hadn't had a tv either. She had only really started watching movies when she moved to New York and met her friend Grace, who's mother insisted on a tv so she could watch Spanish soap operas or telanovelas. Grace had an extensive collection of movies to watch and their friend group had now watched almost all of them several times. Every Summer, Grace went with her mother to visit her no-maj family in Mexico and came back with more and more movies and fun no-maj toys.

"I didn't 'ave a television either until I moved to the United States, but I did grow up in a generally non-magique 'ousehold." She explained. "We were the only wizards in a non-magique town, then I moved to New York and made a friend who 'as a tv. It is nice to meet you Matilde. What songs do you know, we could play one together, yes?"

EmmaLee giggled a little as Matilde mentioned her beginning failure at the instrument and nodded. "I am sure no one starts an instrument perfectly. It takes a lot of determination to get better at anything." She said sweetly.

She ran into a lot of people here in the rehearsal room while she was practicing. It was nice to meet someone she could actually practice cello with occasionally.

@EmmaLee LeDames

Matilde listened curiously as EmmaLee talked about living in America. “That must have been very different moving all the way to the United States! I don’t mean to assume, but… did you live in France before?” Matilde definitely thought she could hear a touch of a French accent in EmmaLee’s voice, though she supposed other places spoke the language as well. “Have you traveled a lot? I’m very curious about visiting other places. Except for London to get to school, and now here, I’ve never really been outside of Ireland. My grandfather may take me and my brother to Norway to visit family though, I am so excited!” Matilde had sometimes been told, though it didn’t tend to bother her, that she talked a lot. She couldn’t help it, she was the type of person that almost thought out loud.

EmmaLee asked what songs she knew, they could play one together. Matilde replied, “Hmm, one of my favorites must me Nocturne op. 9 No. 2 by Chopin, such a pretty piece. And the theme from Star Wars is really fun. I play a wee bit of traditional Irish songs as well.” Matilde guessed EmmaLee hadn’t played many of those before.

Matilde smiled at EmmaLee’s acknowledgement of the beginnings of her cello playing. “Yes, I do think you’re right.”

EmmaLee nodded at Matilde's assumption. "Yes. I was born in France and lived there until I was eight years old. Then my mother married my stepfather and we moved to the United States. My family and our friends do quite a bit of traveling together, including Mexico and Japan." EmmaLee explained with a smile. She really liked Matilde. She seemed like a nice and interesting girl and she was a little surprised that they hadn't talked earlier, considering they were in the same house. Plus, the girl talked almost as much as EmmaLee.

"Norway sounds like it will be a very fun trip. I would love to hear about it when school starts next year. I don't think I'm doing much traveling this summer, but I did a lot last summer. It will be nice to spend some time at home for once," EmmaLee said with a small chuckle. In fact, she had only been home in New York for two weeks last summer, the rest of the time had been spent at Hogwarts' summer camp, a day in San Francisco, and in Japan. EmmaLee's face brightened further as Matilde moved on the the songs she knew.

"Ah. I love Nocturne! I actually 'ave a kind of musical toy that plays it in my dorm room if you'd like to see it sometime. It's a clockwork cello that my friend gave me for Christmas." She said, smiling brightly at the memory of the item. It was pretty much constantly playing whenever she was in there. She thought for a moment on the other suggestions. "I don't really know the theme from Star Wars. I've 'eard of that series but I 'aven't seen it, yet, and I know Scarbrough Fair. Is that traditional Irish?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

@EmmaLee LeDames

“How interesting!” Matilde said, sincerely. She couldn’t really fathom what it would be like to have lived in two different countries. She herself had never even lived in more than one house! She definitely wanted to hear more about EmmaLee’s experiences with it.

“I will make sure to tell you all about Norway,” Matilde promised. The girl smiled thinking about it. “I don’t think I’m going to be spending much time at home this summer either, sadly, with traveling and summer camp. Are you planning on attending camp this year? I’ve never been before, but it sounds very exciting.” Matilde knew incoming first years were admitted to camp but she hadn’t wanted to go at the time. Looking back on it, it might have been a good experience for her to meet people before school started.

Matilde smiled when EmmaLee mentioned she liked Nocturne as well, and her clockwork cello. “That sound very interesting, I would love to see it some time!”

At EmmaLee’s question, Matilde tilted her head thoughtfully. “No, I don’t believe it is Irish. It is a tradition type of song though, I think.” Matilde plucked out a few notes of the tune on her cello. Are you going to Scarborough fair… “Do you want to play it together? Scarborough Fair, I mean?”