Let's Play It Together PV Lindsey Springhall

It’s Sunday, and Lindsey really wanted a good sleep.
She had been getting up very early throughout the week, and would really like to sleep to 10 o’clock.
Hmm…? Sunday?
She raised her eyebrow, and suddenly jumped out of her bed.
Most of her housemates were still sleeping, so Lindsey quickly slipped out of their dormitory.
She’s heading to the Rehearsal Room.
No one would be there, on Sunday, at 8 a.m. in the morning, so she expected to have a good time there.
It’s usually crowded with students, professors, and other people so you couldn’t even have a touch on the piano. Loud music filled in the room, and Lindsey usually felt a headache.
But today was different.
She flew out of their common room, went across the Great Hall, and jumped merrily on the stairs. She stopped on the fourth floor.
To Lindsey’s surprise, sound of piano came out behind the door. And voice of singing.
It seemed that it’s a boy…His voice was fantastic. And he played the piano so well.
Lindsey felt uncertain if she’s going to go further.
Yes.
She couldn’t hear very clearly outside and she decided to go in and…have a good hear?
She opened the door and tiptoed in, slowly and quietly, hoping that no one would notice her.

@Caelan Stewart Sorry for this late reply!

As Nick approached the end of the song, he slowed down and lowered his voice. The end of a song was very sobering for Nick, it reminded him of the futility of trying to make things last. Whether it be a building, a sickness, a relationship, or even the way you feel, it's going to end. No matter what, it's going to come to an end.

Unfortunately, Nick had to learn about this feeling, one of the most existential feelings in the world, futility, at a really young age. When his dad left, everything changed in his life. His family pretended to be a super happy, super normal nuclear family for the first six years of Nick's life but it was all for nothing. Nick's mom knew this and took a stand to divorce his dad. From there, he went away, an aggressive father who was finally physically leaving after emotionally being gone for six years.

Nick took up piano to deal with this existentialism, it was something he could control. He could control how good he got at it, he could decide when he'd stop playing. Writing music helped him even more because he could control what notes he played and could write about his existential problems. Writing songs led Nick to write stories, one of the most important things in his life. So playing piano was pretty important for Nick.

Striking the last chord, Nick held it, basking in its richness, before letting it go, ending the song. He sat in front of the piano silently for a moment before sensing he wasn't alone. Turning around, he saw a girl with golden-brown hair watching him. He immediately started reddening from embarrassment. He guessed that he had an audience listening to him after all.

"Uh hi. I-i, uh, didn't realize anyone was listening." Nick said bashfully. He stood up from the piano, trying to distance himself from what he was doing. It would be one thing if he had been playing the piano alone, but he had also been singing. He realized that she was one of the first people to hear him sing beside his mom. That made him redden even more.

@Lindsey Springhall (It's chill, as long as you reply, I don't really care how long you take)

“Uh hi. I-i, uh, didn't realize anyone was listening.” The boy said, rather embarrassing.
“You play and sing well.” Lindsey smiled. “Better than everyone I heard playing here before.”
She looked at the boy. Was she a bit awkward, breaking up other’s relaxing time? She didn’t know.
The rather fearless young girl jumped nearer. She’s a Hufflepuff, a talkative and outgoing Hufflepuff so she must speak.
“You like playing and singing alone——too?” Lindsey thought for a little while, and finally added “too”.
Playing and singing alone. That’s just the case on Lindsey. She sometimes got here without telling anyone, and secretly sang a song or played her flute alone in the huge sound of jazz and heavy metal.
If, there’s accidentally no one playing the piano (sadly this “accident” seldom happened), she’d have a great time playing. That’s why she came here today, so early.
Actually Lindsey’s not that shy when being heard so she really couldn’t care less if there’s anyone else with her in the room together. So she was pretty happy to stay——if the boy would not reject.
And, he played and sang well——Lindsey really wanted to hear him singing and playing again. It had been about a couple of weeks since she last played and sang. She needed some practice and learning.
The time had come.

Nick knew that he probably shouldn't be as embarrassed as he was but he couldn't help it. Piano was something basically everyone in his town knew but singing always seemed to be girly to the other kids, especially if the song was originally sung by a girl. He knew that if someone from town saw him, he would be the town gossip as they all bickered behind his mom's back about how ashamed she should be.

“Better than everyone I heard playing here before.”

Nick flushed even redder than before. He never really played in front of anyone except his mother and she wasn't exactly the person you went to to receive compliments. He thought his singing and piano ability were competent, not bad, just not really the best.

“You like playing and singing alone——too?”

"Oh thanks." Nick said, "I guess I just don't really like people listening to me you know? I guess everyone has a bit of performance anxiety though." He tried to downplay his actual performance anxiety since this was a stranger who didn't need to hear about his anxieties. Nick realized that he might've inadvertently downplayed the girl's anxieties, if she had any, and made her feel bad which shot his anxiety through the roof.

Nick realized the girl was here to play and he was just kind of standing there. "If you want to, um, be by yourself I can go. I've already been in here a while so..." Nick said trailing off as he awkwardly started to grab his stuff. He was normally a pretty mellow and chill person but this girl had caught him off guard so he was just dripping with anxiety.

@Lindsey Springhall

“If you want to, um, be by yourself I can go. I've already been in here a while so...” The boy said.
“Never…never mind really.” Lindsey answered rather embarrassing. “I…I like listening to music.”
She said this, while glancing around the rest of the room with a little anxiety. No one was here. She knew this, but just wanted to make sure. Lindsey hoped no one, except this boy, would hear her rather embarrassing words.
Lindsey awkwardly jumped to the windows, and leaned against them. She didn’t make herself look like “I’ll stay here no matter what you do”. In contrast, she did her best to make herself agreeable and not bothersome. The girl would never want to be hated by others.
She became mute. It was very surprisingly that this talkative young badger would even have a time that didn’t know what should be said.
But, Lindsey was a Hufflepuff, after all.
“Um, I’m Lindsey, Hufflepuff.” She opened her mouth again, awkwardly.
If nothing could be said, then why not make a friend?
“And you please?” She added, after a little while.
This boy seemed not speaking much, did he? She said to herself.
Lindsey remembered meeting some rather shy students, like Noah. The two seemed resembled each other, for this boy seemed adored music, and Noah adored books.
Good. Lindsey decided. He’d make a good friend. Really.
If not, then a music-friend could do.

Luckily for Nick, this girl seemed to be just as awkward about the situation as he is. Both of them could definitely just do their own thing since there are multiple pianos. Then again it is distracting to try and focus on your own playing when someone is playing a completely different song than you are.

“I…I like listening to music.”

He felt bad that this girl had come here to play music and she isn't going to now. He didn't want to force her to play though so he placed his sheet music back on the stand. He didn't know if he should continue to chat or ignore her and start playing. He decided he would kind of make himself look busy for a bit and see if she would continue the conversation.

“Um, I’m Lindsey, Hufflepuff.”

'Lindsey, that's a pretty name' Nick thought. He sometimes forgot that people's parents were normal and actually gave their children normal names. Why his mother had to name him Caelan on his birth certificate when she always just calls him Nick? But noooo the Stewart's have to respect their heritage and only name their children with Gaelic names.

"I'm Caelan but everyone calls me Nick." Nick said, turning his attention back to Lindsey, "I'm a Slytherin, I don't think I've had the pleasure of having a badger as a friend yet." To be honest, he hadn't had the pleasure of having many friends yet, he just hasn't really gone out and tried to make any friends. He was trying to change that recently, he shouldn't be a loner for the entire seven years of school.

He turned between Lindsey and his sheet music. If she was going to stay here and listen to music, then he might as well play something for her. He was about to start playing when he second guessed himself and turned back to Lindsey. "Do you have any, um, song requests?" Nick asked, before adding in after a while, "Maybe you could sing something while I play?"

@Lindsey Springhall

“I'm Caelan but everyone calls me Nick.” the boy said.
Caelan. A rather nice but unique name. Thought Lindsey. Nick’s not bad, though.
Actually Lindsey like uncommon things, especially names and belongings. “Lindsey” was not very common, but it was (sadly) used as a boy’s name in the late 50s. There was a time that she disliked her name, and told others to call her “Flora”——an abbreviation of her middle name Florence.
“Nice to meet you Nick.” She smiled to the boy.
Nick said that he hadn’t got a badger friend yet. Now Gryffindor seemed messing up with Slytherins, but Hufflepuff tended to have their own group of friends. Lindsey thought.
Hearing that Nick’s a Slytherin too, Lindsey actually grinned. All boys she met so far, except Theseus, Clifton and Zykeal, were all Slytherins. It seemed like most boys in Hogwarts were snakes, while girls existed in all houses.
“Do you have any, um, song requests? Maybe you could sing something while I play?”
Lindsey felt a little stunned. She hadn’t really tried this before, but it would be good to have a try.
She searched in her head for what songs could she sing. When We Were Young. That’s a nice song by Take That, a muggle singing group. Or maybe Butterfly Fly Away? Another good one in a muggle movie. Thought Lindsey.
“Well…could you play some muggle pop songs? I mean, I somehow don’t know much about wizard music because my family didn’t introduce me to them although they’re all wizards.” she said in a rather low voice. “Like…When We Were Young by Take That? That’s my favorite muggle song.”

@Caelan Stewart

Nick awkwardly smiled at her before setting the music back down on the stand. He'd never played for anyone like this before. Sure he's had recitals and all that but he had weeks of practice on the song he was performing. He was sure he would do fine but there was always that performance anxiety nudging him in the shoulder.

“Like…When We Were Young by Take That? That’s my favorite muggle song.”

Nick pondered whether he knew the song or not. He recognizes the band name but he doesn't recognize the song itself. It was probably easy to learn though if she knew the chords of the song. Thinking about it more, he knew the band for a couple of their songs. They weren't really a band that played piano much were they though? 'Eh, it's easy to translate guitar chords to piano chords.' Nick thought.

"I don't know the song but if you give me the chords I can play it." Nick said, embarrassed that he didn't know the song, "Unless you don't know them but that's fine, we can just play a different song. Whatever you want." He covered his mouth so he wouldn't ramble anymore. Anxiety really does a number on Nick despite his normally chill demeanor.

He didn't really listen to much music. Most of the time his mother would find a way to say why any band or artist was sinful if they weren't from the 70s. He didn't really vibe with a lot of music anyway. Granted he was pretty restricted in what music he could listen to because it was "too edgy" or "too girly".

He supposed if he wanted to, he could find more music he likes but he didn't really want to. The music he looked for were songs that sound good on the piano but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good song to listen to. Besides, he was one of those people who liked to write in silence which is what he spent most of his time doing.