Music & Letters

Bertie felt himself smile uncontrollably as Molly announced him a not bad singer. It was nice to receive complements, not that he received many, he tended to keep his talents secret. Bertie was like that, he enjoyed being off the radar.

Bertie's mouth dropped slightly as Molly began to sang. She was note perfect. Granted her voice wasn't like that of Mariah Carey's but it was still good all the same, in fact it sounded rather sweet. 'Try again it's okay.' Bertie smiled encouragingly as Molly didn't quiet complete the tune. 'This time belt the notes out!' He grinned. If Molly's head voice was nice he'd like to see if there was Christina Aguilera hidden inside her. Most likely not, but even if she was good but not brilliant at belting her notes it was fun all the same.

Bertie reached to the top of the piano, scribbling frantically the notes to play. 'This time I'll accompany you on the flute.' He smiled as he walked across the room to collect a silver instrument.

Molly looked at Bertie after she'd played a bit. He seemed to be smiling, that meant she hadn't been too bad. She never was good at knowing how good she was at things. She knew she was good at Quidditch, because they let her on the team, and magical creatures seemed to like her. Molly was a bit unsure of herself, always needed a ton of confirmation to admit she was good at anything.

She picked up the piece of parchment Bertie had written the notes on, and balanced it on the holder-thing on the front of the piano. She assumed it was meant to hold music, but actually had no idea. It seemed to work though. As he was going to get another instrument, which he called a 'flute', she went through the notes one more time.

"Three, two, one, two, three, three, three, two, two, two, three, five, five, three, two, one, two, three, three, three, two, two, three, two, one." she sang the notes off of the piece of paper, managing to get the right notes on the piano purely because she never had to move her fingers off the appropriate keys. Molly was happy she did it though. Her singing was near note perfect, though she was paying more attention to the piano.

"Hey, it worked! I mean, I did it." she exclaimed to Bertie, happily, now eager to try it with him on the other instrument. "We can try it together now, right?" she asked him, her hand at the ready on the keys.

Bertie held the flute towards his lips, although didn't play, instead he listened as Molly correctly played the nursery rhyme. A smile rose from behind the mouth piece. Walking over he drew a chair up towards the piano stool so they didn't have to share, plus it give them more room to play their instruments.

'Well done.' He smiled. 'That was great!' Raising the flute to his mouth he began to play the rhyme. He managed to successfully play it but that was because it was simple. He wasn't the best flute player - piano was his forte. He occasionally picked up a violin but it was common for his to sound dreadful whenever he moved the bow across the strings. Bertr always remembered to stay clear of the violin.

'On three.' Bertie said, raising the flute to his lips again. 'One two three.' He whispered before beginning to play along with Molly. This is so fun Bertie thought. Soneone wwho is interested in music Perhaps he preferred music to writing? He was much better at writing and came up with great ideas but never actually completed them because another idea would pop into his head and he would start that. At least with music he completed all his compositions.

Molly started to play the tune once more, singing a bit more quietly than before, so she could hear Bertie on the flute. It seemed a strange instrument to her, but it sounded nice, as as Bertie played along.

As Molly finished the tune, she looked back at Bertie. She had played it perfectly this time, and was pleased with herself. She didn't normally pick things up this quickly, and she liked it.

"We sounded good." she commented, happily. "We could try something different, like you suggested before." she added, wondering how far she could go.

Molly looked around the room, in her own thoughts for a minute. It was strange, she didn't usually feel this much at ease around anyone, aside from when she was playing Quidditch with them.

Bertie closed his eyes as they played together. The sound of the piano and flute blended perfectly and Molly's voice only complemented the arrangement even more. It was great to go back to basics. Great to hear how something so simply could so... Great.

Bertie finished playing, removed the flute from his lips and opened his eyes smiling.'We did sound good.' Bertie agreed, nodding before thinking what they could do together. There was London Bridges, but that was too simple. He'd wanted to make something grand. Magnificent.

'How do you learn best?' The Ravenclaw asked. The simple answer to this question would flick numerous light bulbs on and off. He'd have an idea which instrument she would pick up the most and what technique to use when teaching Molly to optimize the chance of success and get the ball rolling onto grand compositions. Or so his imagination liked to think.

Molly was glad Bertie liked it. Given she had only been playing the piano for about half an hour now, she was happy that she could actually play something, even if it was just a simple tune. The flute made it sound even better, too.

When Bertie asked her how she learnt best, she had to take a second to answer it. She wondered how she did learn, and could she apply it to her OWLs at the moment? She was never so good with reading and writing things. She needed a practical approach.

"Er, like a practical approach? I mean, I learn best by doing, as opposed to reading and writing." Molly tried to clarify, not knowing the terms for types of learning. She hoped he would get what she meant, though she didn't see any reason as to why he wouldn't.

Molly wasn't quite sure why he asked, she thought she had done OK so far, though maybe he was about to try and teach her something more complex, she thought.

Bertie listened as Molly told him about the ways in which she learnt best. She she learnt best practically. Well that was a start, it was one of the best ways to learn something practical like an instrument. 'Do you learn best by listening to someone tell you what to do or showing you how to do it first?' He asked. Hopefully this would help narrow her answer down so that they could really progress.

He began to play fur elise on the piano saying: 'Do you think you could learn to play this by listening to the notes then trying to find them and play them yourself or watching me play then copying?' Bertie thought for music a combination of all was needed at some point: you needed to hear how the melody should sound in order to have a target, one then needed to see how something was played in the early stages and then have the music and notes on paper as a guide, a method of memory.

Molly listened to him, realising he meant more than just 'practically'. She didn't know about learning types or anything, so shouldn't have been surprised that she didn't give a full answer.

"Oh, I don't know." she said, not sure for a minute. "Probably showing, I think." she confirmed, though it wasn't like she'd compared the two methods or anything so it was a complete guess.

Molly watched his fingers going up and down the keys. Bertie was playing a really nice song, though she didn't recognise it at all. It looked very complicated, she had only just learnt to play the piano, after all, plus she could only play one tune. She doubted she'd be able to write down all the numbers for this one!

"I don't know. Maybe? It looks a bit complicated, but I guess I could try." she responded, her eyes moving back to his hands, him still playing the tune.

"Just play it another couple of times first, I need to get my head around it."Molly added, knowing she'd get three notes in and forget it otherwise.

Bertie, so absorbed in his playing hadn't even realised that Molly had replied. When he came to the end he held the last notes long, his eyes tightly shut. Opening them he gazed to Molly happily before rearranging his face in sadness. Molly seemed confused. Maybe this was too big a jump. Then again, thinking back, it was.

'Sorry. I guess I got carried away.' He walked over the dustbin and pulled out the scrunched of parchment, bringing then out and plattening them against the holder where the notes to Mary had a little lamb sat. 'Do you like to write?' He asked, not looking at her but gazing at the pieces of parchment, all with Dear Sir/Madam then a single sentence saying who he was, written in a slightly different order each time.

Molly wasn't sure if he'd heard her at first, since he just carried on playing. She didn't meant to interrupt him or anything, so in a way she was glad that he continued. He turned to her once he finished, saying it was probably too big a jump. Molly nodded, agreeing, not knowing how she would play something that complicated. She should stick to smaller things, that she could do.

"No problem. I'll just keep to simpler things." she said, wondering if one day she could play tunes like the one Bertie just did. Or would music be another thing to add to the list of things Molly just shouldn't even bother attempting. She decided to just push it out of her mind, knowing no amount of thinking could change any outcome.

Bertie then switched over to writing. Not wanting to push him at all about music, Molly went along with it.

"I haven't done that much writing. Only school stuff, but I don't like that much, I'd probably be better at non-school things." she responded, not really sure what he meant. She had written an application for an internship at the Ministry of Magic, but she didn't know what sort of writing he was talking about, so didn't mention it,