Professional Pianist - Not Quite

(May I join?)

((Go for it! This thread is now open to anyone who would like to post. Just don't tread on anyone else's toes while you do it!))

Danny walked into the Leaky Cauldron one day feeling especially drowsy. he stayed up half of the night going over Alchemy notes. It was harder for Danny since he hadn't been to a class for a while now and it was just plain hell to catch up. As he moved forward into the pub and heard some piano playing in the distance. He couldn't recognise the piece however as it had been a while since he ever listened to classical msuic. He was more into 'rock' or 'grunge' music now and classic really just left his mind completely. He looked at the pianist and knew he had seen her before. He had no idea where from then had it on his brain. It was that one girl with Elijah at the Yule Ball. He had never really talked to her and in fact never said one word to her. Might as well say something now. He walked passed the drunk men who were shouting obscene things at her and groaned in disgust. There was also a first year nearby who he never saw in his life. He sat down by the kid and listened to her performance.

It was usual for Scorpius to be at the leaky cauldron at Friday at this time - 7PM. His family frequently chose to stay at the Leaky Cauldron during his days away from Hogwarts. Hardly surprising since his whole house was filled with Death Eaters. It wasn't a great environment to live in, so they had rented a couple rooms at the Leaky Cauldron. Right now Scorpius was downstairs, reading a wizarding novel. It was one of his new hobbies, he had previously hated reading fiction, until the events that had happened after the quidditch match. It had triggered quite a big change in him.

Anyways, he was sitting at a table in the corner, trying to concentrate over the noise in the crowded shop. Even for a Friday Night, it was unusually crowded, and unusually loud. There seemed to be something going on, but personally Scorpius didn't care, he just wanted to finish his book. He heard some music from some odd muggle instrument from the other side of the shop and thought that it was the reason for the noise and crowd. It didn't interest him much really. He got up and headed towards the stairs to go upstairs to his room to finish his novel.

He stopped suddenly though as he heard some more piano music. He hadn't heard the music before, but he loved to uplifting tone to this one. He went over to see who was playing, and saw a crowd gathered around a raised platform where there lay a black grand Piano. The person who was playing seemed rather familiar, and seemed his age, so she would probably be from Hogwarts. He suddenly remembered her, Amelia Lyons. She was playing well, though she did seem a little nervous. Scorpius listened to her play quietly, enjoying the music.

((Danny, just for the record, Amelia is not playing classical music. She is currently playing “Proud Mary”, which is more or less contemporary. Who would play classical music in a rowdy bar scene? ))

As Amelia rolled through the chords of “Proud Mary”, she could tell that this song was going over better with the older crowd than the earlier choices had. More of the adults were getting into the music, likely some of the music they grew up on. Tina Turner was a muggle singer who had been popular during the time many of the bar patrons had likely grew up in, and thus they did not hesitate to supply the words that went along with her melody.


By the time Amelia’s fingers were picking out the notes for the transition between the verse and the chorus, the crowd was on their feet, at least those closest to the piano. Although she would have liked to watch what happened next, Amelia’s eyes had to return to the keyboard for this next part. If she played a wrong note or moved too far down the keys she would miss a chord, and the audience seemed to know the song well enough to spot any mistake she might make.


Amelia couldn’t help but smile as the crowd sang the words; loud and proud, as they were meant to be. A few of the women had even gotten off their barstools and were doing the dance that had originated with the song, much to the amusement and pleasure of the men around them. Although Amelia would have been far too embarrassed and self-conscious to do this herself, she appreciated the energy it provided to the song, drawing a bit of the attention away from herself and therefore calming some of the stage fright she had been experiencing earlier.

The rest of the song was equally rousing, resulting in a riled up crowd and an impromptu drum roll on the tables to end the song. Amelia found herself grinning as she hit the final notes, a bout of laughter escaping her though she didn’t know where it had come from. Going into this, she never would have believed she would find anything enjoyable about this situation, but she had to admit: it wasn’t all bad.

As the final notes died away, the crowd was okay to entertain themselves for a few minutes and a waitress stepped onto the stage with a shot glass in her hand, careful to keep her fingers around the outside of the glass, likely to shield it from onlookers, but Amelia wasn’t sure why.

“This is from the man at the end of the bar,” the waitress whispered to her, looking over her shoulder to indicate which man she meant. The man at the end of her line of sight was rather sloppy looking, nearly falling off his chair, but he managed to give a grin when Amelia looked his way. Amelia tried to be political and return the smile, but it ended up being more of a grimace instead, due mainly to the fact that she was too preoccupied by his missing front teeth to remember how to correctly form a fake smile.

“He thinks it’s tequila, but I filled it with water. Matt doesn’t let us drink on the job,” the waitress continued, giving Amelia a sympathetic smile as if to say ‘I know your pain’. “Bottoms up,” she encouraged with a smile, and Amelia took the glass from her and tipped it back, letting the blessedly alcohol-less liquid slide down her throat. Not having partaken in much of it, Amelia didn’t have a high tolerance for alcohol, and playing tonight was going to be hard enough without losing her dexterity to liquor.

The waitress having left the stage to go deal with one of her many tables, Amelia set the shot glass down on the edge of the raised platform and turned her eyes back to the crowd, who were still conversing with one another about the memories the last song had invoked. Clearing her throat before speaking, Amelia turned her body on the piano bench to face the crowd and called out in what she hoped was a clear, confident-sounding voice.

“No more requests?” she called, knowing perfectly well that there must be some among the audience who had yet to hear their favorites, “I could use a challenge!”

Way to fake your way through it, Amelia’s subconscious complimented her, I think you are almost passing for confident.

((Well I heard it was classical xD))

Danny smiled as she finished up the rest of the song. As she asked for requests, he really couldn't think of a song. He finally decided to say nothing yet did say "Stella by Starlight?" He hadn't really heard the song but heard it play in some fancy hotels as he checked into one of the rooms. Hopefully his lack of piano knowledge didn't show for right now.

As Amelia’s eyes scanned the crowd, she had missed the collection of students that was starting to form at the base of the stage. Her eyes were initially too high to make contact with theirs, but when the requests were slow in coming from the distracted adults near the back of the bar, Amelia was able to hear the voice which came from just below her.

Her line of sight fell to where the voice had come from, and even before she got there, Amelia knew she recognized the voice. She felt the muscles in her neck tense up at the thought of having another person she knew in the bar watching her. Keith wasn’t so bad, mostly because she didn’t have any reason to dislike him, and the fact that he was likely intoxicated enough that he wouldn’t remember most of what had come to pass between them.

But when she finally made eye contact with the person who had produced the request, the confidence Amelia had been feeling just moments ago seemed to dissipate. The person she was now looking at was Danny Thompson, a Gryffindor student in the year above her, from what she had gathered in her classes and from the talk in the hallway. He had been Christabelle’s escort to the Yule Ball – Amelia knew this from observation, rather than Christabelle telling her. The two weren’t exactly good friends – and Amelia had seen him around school these past few years. His request, though, was probably the first words he had ever spoken to her, Amelia was for a second taken aback.

Stella by Starlight? This echo was her mind’s immediate reaction to the request. First, Amelia was surprised that Danny would even know the title of that song; there weren’t many of her peers at Hogwarts who could name a jazz standard from a muggle composer if their life depended on it. In her surprise, Amelia raised an eyebrow at the dark-haired boy, wondering if perhaps the opinion she had formed of him from what she heard around school was possibly flawed.

Second, though, there was no way Amelia would get away with playing “Stella by Starlight” in this type of situation. To be honest, Amelia didn’t know why the boy had bothered to request it; “Stella by Starlight” was a song played in swanky hotels during fancy dinners, or in a jazz bar between open mic performers. She had a good feeling that there was very little overlap between those crowds and the one that was now beginning to turn its attention back to her, likely beginning to wonder once again about the delay between songs.

“How about something that won’t get me ousted from the stage?” Amelia responded finally, her voice kept low as she spoke to the Gryffindor. Yes, he was a year above her, but Amelia had never been one to believe age demanded respect. Amelia respected the people who had given her some reason to think they had earned it. She knew nothing about this boy, and so she did not feel it particularly necessary to obey social formalities with him.

“This is my first night, and I’d really like to keep my job,” Amelia added, trying to make up slightly for her curt response earlier. Her eyes darted up to see the waitress who had spoken to her earlier giving her a look that said ‘play something already!’, and so Amelia quickly added, “So unless you have another request that might help me in that endeavor, you’d do well to just sit and listen.”

With that, Amelia lifted her head once more to scan the older crowd, doing her best to ignore the fact that there were now two of her peers watching her, adding to the discomfort of the situation, though she had to admit it wasn’t as bad as she had anticipated. “Anyone? Anyone?” Amelia shouted to the crowd, continuing her earlier prompt for requests.

Danny wasn't to obig on piano songs yet it was the first thing to pop up in his head. He had listened to so many wonderful pieces yet in reality never knew the titles nor composer. As she spoke to him, he shrugged casually. "Just a thought," he said calmly no emotion riding his tone of voice. She seemed quite nervous, yet then again, so was everyone on their first job. Well he assumed it was her first time on the job. As he sat, he kept thinking what was wrong. She seemed to get tense now and it actually made Danny feel a bit guilty. He apprently must've caused some sort of stage fright. Hopefully it wouldn't be the case. He sat back further into his chair and then acted like he wasn't there, seeing if it would help the predicament. Yet he was almost 100 percent positive it wouldn't help. He muttered to himself "Come on you can do it..."

The crowd cheered loudly as Amelia finished her first song, Scorpius along with them. Music wasn't something Scorpius was very into, but he had enjoyed this nevertheless. Amelia seemed to be gaining more confidence, as she requested another song for herself to play. Scorpius just stood there, having no idea what to say. He had never really gone near muggle music, and so he wouldn't really know any songs. The little music he had ever listened to was mainly be Wizarding bands such as the Weird Sisters. So he just waited for Amelia to play a different song. Scorpius heard some people requesting songs like "Hey Jude by the Beatles" or "Elton John" but he had no idea what they were talking about.

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I don't really know any piano songs people would play in a bar :/ I mainly listen to Chopin, etc. And you'll hardly be playing that..

((Danny: way to take Amelia’s antagonizing personality in stride. Props to him. Scorpius: I understand if you don’t know many popular pieces. I have played enough Chopin in my day as well, but you are right in thinking it isn’t exactly bar music.))

The requests were slow in coming this time, mostly because people were too busy discussing their requests with each other to make them loud enough to be heard by Amelia. Standing in front of the crowd, Amelia was beginning to grow a bit anxious by the waiting time. She might be starting to feel comfortable behind the piano in front of a group, but standing here alone made her feel self-conscious. The confidence she had been faking was beginning to fade away, and the more timid, awkward personality she actually possessed was showing through the cracks in her carefully constructed façade.

Maybe you should have just played Stella by Starlight, her subconscious thought, too late now. At least that would have given her something to do with her hands, which were now wringing each other painfully. There was obviously a buzz of conversation among the patrons of the bar, but nothing discernable which she could pull from in order to get herself behind the piano again. Try as she might to think of a song for herself, panic had already started to set in and her mind was devastatingly blank.

Just as Amelia was actually considering bolting from the stage, some blessed soul took pity on her obvious discomfort and shouted out a request from the back. Amelia did not even take the time to see who had shouted it, but instead immediately grabbed onto the title, her hands already itching for the keys by the time she was back on the piano bench. Her fingers wasted no time finding the opening chord to the request, and the buzz of the bar which was heightening her nerves slowly died away as more and more people recognized the tune.


It took Amelia until the middle of the chorus to realize that the mental lyrics she usually put to her music were no longer only in her head. In her nervousness and haste to start playing again, Amelia had unconsciously begun to sing aloud, the words slipping from her lips in pure soprano notes without her knowledge. As soon as she came to this realization, however, her cheeks flushed with heat and colour, turning more red than the neon sign which hung above the bar.

Whyyyyy do you always get yourself into these situations? Amelia’s mind inquired of her, but Amelia had no answers. What she had now was a dilemma: did she continue to sing the rest of the song (and would she be able to now that she knew she was doing it?) or did she cut out, hoping no one would notice?