The Long and Winding Road pv Springhall Fin

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September 20th, 2020
@Wyatt Starkey

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It wasn’t usual for Lindsey to come to the Ballroom.

She was never a master of dancing. Not from the youngest age, and you could probably say that her dancing skills were awful. She was talented in music, but never that sorts of jumping around——she could only follow the rhymes, but not a beautiful dancer. Never.

So the poor girl wondered why she was standing in front of the Ballroom. She should have been in the Rehearsal Room instead of here…yeah. But Lindsey’s curious, for she had never been here before, and just wanted to find out what was like in the grand room.

Lindsey perceived that the room was just large, and was without anything. No chairs, no tables, no musical instruments, and possibly, no one. Who would come here to dance, or practice, if there’s no ball coming ahead? Even the dancing lovers might not come. At least, she had never met one.

She took a deep breath, and tiptoed further. Actually, cause there’s probably no one, she did not have to be that cautious. But it’s her nature. Cautious, and always think twice before acting.

Lindsey was now at the door. When putting her fingers on the handle, she suddenly stopped. She heard the sound of…a piano.

A piano in the Ballroom? That’s…cool! Honestly she had never thought of other places with a piano apart from the Rehearsal Room before. Now, there’s another one in the Ballroom, which means she could avoid the numerous people waiting to play in the Rehearsal Room.

Fantastic, it was. She sighed, and concentrated on the music. Seemed that someone was singing along as well…Lindsey focused, and listened quietly.

“The wild and windy night…” her ears caught. The singing was just beautiful. She focused again, and listened. “…has left a pool of tears, crying for the day.” It continued.

Lindsey just wanted the time to stop, so that she could listen the adorable singing and playing for ages. But she was still curious. About the secret player. The last time she listened someone playing was in her first grade, and they did a great job together singing and playing at last. What about this time? She did not know, but sneaking in and finding out about who it was was worth a try.

She slowly opened the door. And slipped in. Now she had the full view of the Ballroom. The one playing was a boy. Rather skinny, he was, with messy brown hair and a small frame. Lindsey frowned. She had never expected to meet Henry here. The grasshopper did not even worth a visit.

No. He was not Henry. But another boy. She remembered clearly that grasshopper had blue eyes, but this one had jet black ones. A lot prettier than that Henry’s, she thought. And his playing was just awesome. Lindsey felt relaxed, and a little sad in his music. She liked it…so great singing voice…and piano skills…her eyes fell on the singer again.

“Nice playing.” before she could even think, she uttered the words out, in a friendly and praising tone. She soon added a small smile, then turned her eyes yonder, pretending that she’s not paying any attention to the boy, who played, but instead the music itself.

@Wyatt Starkey

The boy accidentally pressed on the wrong key after seeing her. Which was…somehow cute.

She took a better look at him. Quite pale…which made her remember Mercury. With messy brown hair and black eyes, the boy was fairly good looking to her. He was just about the same height of her, and Lindsey’s eyes landed on him. But they soon ran away. She did not dare to look at him long. Herself did not know why, but she just couldn’t. She was kinda afraid to look into the boy’s black eyes…which was weird.

She smiled nervously when the boy thanked her for her praising. She hoped he’s alright…his playing was sad. But Lindsey did not dare to say it about. Still, she was kinda afraid, and feared that an explosion could happen if she asked why.

And that was when he started to play another tune. Beautiful, it was, like it was before. Lindsey began liking the music more and more when the time went by, and eventually, the player himself. He was just cute…or at least he would be if he could just smile a bit. It was weird that he did not sing this time——Lindsey believed that it would go well with the tune. Maybe he didn’t want to…but who knows?

She wanted to listen the whole tune quietly, but she just couldn’t control herself. “This is one of the best playings I’ve heard so far.” she muttered, pretty much to her very own self.

This time, Lindsey did not look at anywhere else. Actually she did not have a good view of the room last time. There were, some portraits? Which was weird. Did they love to dance, or at least love to watch dancing? She had no idea. But her chocolate brown eyes just landed on the boy. Yes, she was looking at him, instead of the piano.

Listening to others playing music was really a pleasure to Lindsey. Happy ones, or sad ones, she loved them all. But still, the ones with a little sadness were the best. She found herself most attracted to them, though she did not have a clue why.

The music the boy was playing was just the type she liked. Believing that she had to say something good for the poor boy (at least the Hufflepuff thought so), Lindsey fixed her eyes on him, and started. “Thanks for the good music.” she said in a soft voice. “I feel really relaxed listening to them.”

@Wyatt Starkey

The boy ended his song early than usual. Though never heard of it before, Lindsey sensed that it must be longer usually. A musician’s sense, that was.

“Thank you. It means a lot.” said the boy. Did he…smile? Lindsey thought would, but it faded quickly. It was really a small smile, however when the boy actually put his cold face off, he was even better looking. Maybe that’s why smiles existed.

He asked her if she played. Her answer was definitely a yes, since she had been learning it from a really young age. The last time she had encountered someone in the art rooms——generally referring to the Rehearsal Room and the Ballroom——she did not play, instead, she sang. Her singing was good, but definitely not as good as playing. After all, she was self taught on that.

“Yeah,” she nodded, with a small smile. “have been learning it from a young age——I sometimes go to the Rehearsal Room to play. Dunno there’s a piano in the Ballroom before.”

Her ears caught snickering. Who…were the ones? She was pretty sure there was no one else around, except herself and the boy. Lindsey suddenly remembered the portraits. Yes, it must be them. Nasty, they were, just like her brother. She was pretty sure Edmund would snicker as well. But, who were they laughing at? Her?

She decided to ignore them. Maybe she was laughed because of her exceeding friendliness. But that’s her trait. No one was gonna change it.

And she was here, with a boy. It wasn’t exactly like when she listened Nick played, and Lindsey was sorta confused. She was a bit different today…and the thing was, she did not know why.

“I’m Lindsey, by the way.” She introduced herself with a rather nervous smile. What if the boy decide to turn his back at her and walk away when hearing her name because of some reasons she did not know? As far as the Hufflepuff had learnt, relations in Hogwarts were extremely complicated. You would never know whether your new acquaintance was accidentally one of your friends’ enemy.

@Wyatt Starkey

Wyatt…apparently, a really really nice name. People in Hogwarts were always seen around with extremely beautiful names, and, and yeah, it seemed that her name wasn’t really a thing to be proud of. Lindsey was somehow glad that this boy was not named after common names in the UK, like Oliver, George, Jack…but hey, he deserved such a beautiful one.

…Didn’t he?

Her eyes wandered around the room. Some portraits were obviously…giggling. Oh dear. Was she acting like a fool? Or was she just so stupid? She had no idea. She decided to look back. And then her eyes fell on Wyatt again.

She didn’t know why she just wanted to look at him. Or listen to him, if he did speak more times. That’s quite impossible for herself according to the badger’s opinion, and yet, she was confused.

“You want to… play something?”started the boy, after introducing himself.

Play? But apparently he was playing…not her. He should be playing for longer if she didn’t interrupt, right? But why…and the boy actually made a room for her.

Still, she was confused.

“O…okay…” finally she had come up with a reply, which seemed wasn’t appropriate at all. Lindsey didn’t know how she moved to the piano. Jumped? Ran? Or just walked?

Her feeling was strange. This boy was her friend now, at least it seemed so…or she hoped so. Finally taking a seat on the chair, she raised up her head and smiled to Wyatt. “So maybe…like this?” Her finger started moving.

The tune was old. She didn’t know when was it first written, but it must have been a long time. At least hundreds of years, maybe? However the tune was beautiful. Dreamy, you may say. She had been practicing it for a long time as well, and she had full confidence that she could play this tune — Liebestraum well.

She loved playing. Especially playing in front of someone. It’s totally not showing off, just a way of amusement. And today, it was not only amusement — but a way to get to known Wyatt, too. It was important to her. Really.

She still did not know why, though.

[font=times new roman]As she played, Wyatt found himself looking at the girl’s face, instead of her hands, a smile threatening to surface on his lips. Sharply, he turned his head to look down at the keys, and it finally registered what she was playing. His mother had tried- and failed- to get him to learn the song a few times. He couldn’t quite put a name to the tune, but he was sure it started with an L. But it was no use. The only word on his mind that started with L was Lindsey.

The name of the song barely mattered, though. What did matter was how beautifully she played. And she was finished too early, in Wyatt’s opinion. He could've sat and watched Lindsey play the song his whole lifetime. Before he could even think over what words he was going to say next, he said, quite softly, “thank you.” His brain caught up with his words soon enough. What does that even mean? Thank you? For what? Try again, loser!

So, he tried again. “Thank you for playing, I mean.” He looked up from the keys and tried to make eye contact. “You’re amazing- your playing.” The little self-esteem monster in his head rolled it's eyes and face-palmed at the same time, and the tiny anxiety demon was balled up in the corner. Wyatt felt like an idiot. He never had this little control over what he said and it was driving him crazy. He felt happy, but there were butterflies in his stomach running wild.[/font]

_{@Lindsey Springhall}

@Wyatt Starkey

She lifted herself up from the seat after finishing the lyrics. “thank you.” she heard him saying. He’s thanking for what…? For her playing? Well, it wasn’t really a thing. Playing for others was always pleasant for her, and especially this time.

Especially this time.

Something crashed. In her heart. It was quite amazing — quite amazing that she couldn’t look at him properly. Being a sociable person, making new friends was never difficult for Lindsey. Though she wasn’t really sure whether she’s making a friend. The meeting process was definitely not as normal as before. Wyatt. Such a great name. Better than any names she had heard before.

“Than — thanks.” chocolate brown eyes glanced towards the direction of the boy, and quickly turned back to look at the floor. “I mean, thanks for you compliment. You are a great player as well.” Only after saying these words, she realized she had said the same things some time ago. Though she believed that she would have nothing to say if she didn’t say those words…

Weird. The talkative badger found nothing to say this evening when facing this boy. She could feel that the ballroom became more isolated over the times, however, still weirdly, she enjoyed it. It seemed that no words would be needed if she’s here, with him. She felt that she’s spending the most wonderful night even though she’s just looking at him quietly. Merlin, why hadn’t she met him earlier before…

She suddenly found something to converse about. Lindsey was pretty sure that this boy was a second year like herself, though she couldn’t really remember his house. Ravenclaw, maybe? Or Slytherin?

“I’m in my second year. Hufflepuff.” she offered. “What about you? Second year also, I guess?”

Reducio

sorry for this late and short reply…thanks for bearing with me