A Little Music (open)

For almost a year Humphrey had been working on perfecting the shrinking charm. It was one that would come in handy in a lot of ways, and before he'd left for his third year he'd gotten the hang of it. A big reason why he wanted to do it was for his acoustic guitar. Until this year he'd never had enough room to take it along with it, and he'd missed having it with him. When he played a little music it made things easier for him to deal with, it relaxed him, and even made him smile. Somewhere he'd read that Professor Dumbledore had said music is a magic that goes beyond all we do here at Hogwarts or something close to that, and he couldn't help but agree with him.

After a climb up the stairs to the astronomy tower, Humphrey walked over to the edge before taking out his wand and guitar. He made himself relax and focus his mind for a full minute before tapping his guitar with his wand. It worked exactly as he'd hoped and he sat down before crossing his legs. Humphrey slipped the pick from his pocket and tried to remember what songs he was working on the last time he'd played in the summer. Three came to mind: 'Skyway Avenue', 'Dear Maria, Count Me In', and 'Jasey Rae'. None were acoustic originally but he liked the way they sounded with it. His fingers would take some time to build their callouses back up, but he didn't mind. Starting out slow, Humphrey began to play Jasey Rae.

Just as he'd hoped it would be, the astronomy tower was high enough up that not much sound bothered him here. By the time he'd played it through twice he began to sing along softly. "Lights out, I still hear the rain. These images that fill my head now keep my fingers from making mistakes. Tell my voice what it takes to speak up, speak up and keep my conscience clean when I wake." The familiar feeling sent a warm feeling through him and he felt more himself than he had since the summer. He hit the chorus a little louder, though still a fair amount softer than he would if he was at home. "Don't make this easy I want you to mean it, Jasey (Say you mean it). You're dressed to kill. I'm calling you out (Don't waste your time on me)." Another two minutes later and he'd finished, surprised at how easy it had been to pick up where he'd left off.

Humphrey closed his eyes and simply sat there, enjoying the feeling a little music brought him. This was a part of him he promised himself he wouldn't go so long without again.

(ooc: All Time Low wrote both Jasey Rae and Dear Maria, Count Me In. Skyway Avenue is by We the Kings.)

Serafina's fourth year had passed by really quickly or at least she thought so. Sure, there were moments where time seemed to stand still like it was forever the same day or month but mostly time flew. The times that caused time to stand still, to stop completely were the times after the kiss. The times when Serafina was avoiding Sinead. She didn't have her best friend to make the time fly by. In fact, she was alone and didn't loneliness pause time? At least that was what someone had once told her. The girl looked up to her bedroom ceiling, allowing her memories of fourth year to flash across her brain. Her finger traced circles in the air as her eyes drifted to a resting position.

Serafina shot up in bed, sweat beading on her brow as her breathing came hysterically. Another nightmare. Surely she hadn't been sleeping very long, in fact the sky outside wasn't even dark though there was a pretty nice sunset starting to form. Serafina often found herself exhausted after class and like any other day, today had been no different. Though she usually was with Sinead so the fatigue didn't set in until later in the night. However today Sinead was with Danny or that's what Sera thought she had told her so Sera had just went back to her dormitory to study after classes. There was no point sitting alone elsewhere, especially since Matthew was often hanging out with that drunk girl.

Sera's mind focused back to the sunset and she flew off the bed. There was only one place that she would be able to admire the sunset in it's full view from and that was the Astronomy tower. The tower climb was a long one, it was hard and tiring and usually it was no big deal for Sera however today she was groggy from her nap and just plain exhausted. Through the stone walls she could hear chatter and laughter, no doubt drifting in from the grounds and courtyards outside. Finally she reached the last stretch of the climb and pushed open the door, her chest burning from the deep breathing she'd been doing. Her eyes instinctively went to the sky as her initial thought was that she would be alone. The sky shone several vivid hues of reds and yellows and even purples and it caused a small smile to form upon her face.

Sera's mind stopped focusing on the sunset and started focusing on the voice beside her. She wasn't alone. A glance around and she'd spotted him. Curly fry- Sinead's friend that she could never remember the name of. And she'd disturbed him.

Although he really enjoyed playing, he began to wonder if bringing it was a bright idea. Humphrey had a tendency to get started playing and lose track of time once he got going. That he hadn't brought his guitar to Hogwarts earlier was probably a good thing for that reason, even though he'd missed it. Classes took up a lot once you accounted for all of the homework that goes along with it, and much as he loved music he refused to allow himself to get behind. The logical Ravenclaw part of him intervened when it came to staying current with coursework. Once he had neared the ending of the first song, Humphrey began to contemplate which of the ones he remembered to start next: 'Dear Maria, Count Me In', or 'Skyway Avenue'. Finishing with the last few bars of of 'Jasey Rae', he eventually decided that 'Skyway Avenue' was next up.

When Humphrey was playing, he hadn't even noticed when somebody started watching him at first. As he was about to start strumming the guitar again he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. That was what alerted him to somebody else there. Looking around, he tried to find the source of his discomfort. At first he looked out across the grounds to see if something had happened out there, but he didn't see anything unusual. Finally, he looked towards the entrance to the astronomy tower and saw a girl standing there watching. She seemed about his age, and from the description Sinead had provided of the 'Sera' girl, it could be her. Humphrey placed his guitar next to him, leaning against his side. "Hello, it's Sera, right?" he asked, hoping he wasn't too far off in his guess. "I'm Humphrey. You're welcome to the view if you want to stay." he offered, hoping he could get to know her at least a little, especially since Sinead had told him what had happened at the ball.

Now that he had been distracted from his music, Humphrey finally noticed that it was near sunset and the pastel orange, pinks, and purples that accompanied it were beginning to spread across the horizon. It was moments like these that he wished he was good at painting, or even simply drawing. However, he'd tried that before and that was one skill he didn't have the knack for. Silly, him playing music up here and forgetting to take in his surroundings. "This really is a lovely sunset..." he said, half to himself and half to Sera. Although he was curious about Sera, something about being up here with the sunset was helping now to calm him a little. He didn't feel quite as scatterbrained as he had before. Perhaps it's the colors themselves, could be...I know that there are such things as mood rings. However, there was always the possibility he was simply weird, as he usually was.