Chapter Eleven: Duets
Time: Early June 1995 and Evening 7/14/95
They had found the old piano on Molly's first day at Grimmauld, while inspecting the attic for unsavory denizens. Sirius had been surprised; he had no memory of anyone in the family playing. When they were all satisfied that it displayed no signs of nefarious enchantments, Remus began to tinker with what he soon pronounced, "the sad remains of a once fine instrument - a thing not unlike myself." (This remark, he delivered with such theatrical pathos that Molly giggled and Sirius chucked a doxy-eaten feather duster at his friend. )
As it turned out, Remus had learned to tune and repair pianos as a fallback way to keep body and soul together. Self employment in a cash only business bypassed legal requirements to announce his illness to potential employers. (He even knew how to tune without magic, and so could take muggle customers, though he usually told them he did his best work without an audience. In this way, he had been able to restore several "unrepairable" instruments to playable condition for grateful muggle owners.) When Remus diagnosed the piano as "mostly fixable," Molly had insisted on levitating it down to the ground floor parlor.
Hermione, who had studied piano for six years before entering Hogwarts, was at it like a moth to a flame, and Remus got quite an earful of how Bach reminded her of Arithmancy, while Mozart was more like blending potions, as he did the tedious restoration on the rotten felts. *
Since there was no door between the piano and the entrance hall, someone renewed an "imperturbubble" around it every day or two, creating a sort of acoustic bubble within which the piano's sound would remain, and so avoid disturbing Mrs. Black's portrait.
"It's a pity we can't have music all through the house," Molly lamented. "It would so brighten the place."
Sirius snorted, "Even dead, Mother still gets her way."
Molly, who played a bit herself, regretted that she and Arthur had never scraped together enough money to give their boys formal lessons. She had briefly hoped that Ron might learn a bit from Hermione, but gave that idea up when less than twenty minutes on the bench together produced an exasperated Hermione, and a pantomime from Ron of screaming and tearing his hair out as he ran down the hall away from her. Ginny proved a bit more willing, and would spend a few minutes at the keyboard every day with whomever had time to show her a thing or two. What pleased Molly most, however, was when Remus would pull out the old show tune books one of his muggle customers had given him. Then everyone would crowd into the piano bubble for a sing along.
The second evening after Sapphire's arrival, when it became evident that Sirius had made no plans to entertain her, (indeed, he very nearly fell asleep in his dinner, and excused himself early from the table), Molly suggested that a little music might be nice. Hermione could only be persuaded to play one solo.
"It will take at least two more weeks of practice before I have anything else to play," Hermione protested, "especially since I'm not allowed to do memory enhancement spells out of school," (Molly saw Sapphire alert to this information, but she didn't interrupt), "but Miss McNiven has such a pretty voice, I think we should sing from Remus' American songbooks. Perhaps she knows some of them?"
Molly, who had not forgotten the encoded vendor's chant, had also heard snatches of songs escape now and then as Sapphire helped in the kitchen. She concurred with Hermione. "That's a wonderful idea! Won't you sing with us?"
Sapphire allowed that her voice was nothing special, ("It'll do I guess,") but when Remus produced his volume of Jerome Kern, she searched the index with obvious anticipation. Her finger stopped on a song called, "Why do I Love You?". Remus smiled and turned to it. As Hermione read the accompaniment, Sapphire's dark soprano twined with Remus' somewhat husky, but not unpleasant tenor. Both sang with obvious feeling, and Molly and the others soon fell silent to listen.
When they had finished, Sapphire said softly, "Daddy and I used to sing that together. 'Showboat' was his favorite musical, I think."
Remus nodded gravely. "It has a story that seems to transcend time and, in this case, even culture."
Sapphire's eyes were tearing, and she sniffed. "I'm sorry! We only lost Daddy less than two years ago. I still get sentimental."
Remus put one arm around her shoulders, and gave her a gentle squeeze. She smiled and dabbed at her eyes. At that moment, Hermione spoke.
"Sirius, won't you join us?"
They all turned to see Sirius standing just inside the edge of the sound bubble. He was holding a goblet full of what Molly recognized as a common sleeping potion -- the same one that Ginny took to keep off bad dreams. Sirius stared vaguely into the midst of them for several seconds before he answered, "I only came to say 'goodnight'. I'm very tired, and my presence would contribute nothing to your enjoyment, I'm sure." Sirius' gaze fell on Sapphire, who took in her breath and bit her lips as though she were thinking of something to day; but immediately he nodded and turned away.
As he exited the bubble, Molly heard Ginny say softly, "Sleep well."
________
Sirius set the potion on his night stand, gathered his pajamas from the foot of the bed and sat down upon the edge of the mattress. Six to eight hours of dreamless sleep were contained in the steaming goblet. Last night, he had hardly slept at all; only a cold shower in the morning and lots of tea had gotten him through the day. Now he sat half in, half out of his night clothes, staring at the goblet. For the moment, he didn't feel like sleeping.
Why had the sight of Remus and Sapphire at the piano made him turn away? It was true, he was tired and not altogether in the mood for levity, but he had fully intended to stay for a song or two before retiring. Those evenings around the piano had, up till now, been the best of all distractions. Was it only because Sapphire was a muggle that it jarred so to watch her insert herself into the community at Grimmauld; or were there aspects of this woman that he had missed during that so long ago courtship?
In those days, Sapphire had been a secret to keep close and think on when his daily existence became too grim. He had understood her as always waiting for him -- an escape from the war, even if only for a few days -- certainly a prize that had to be earned, but his alone for the claiming. Now, she was in the vortex of a veritable mob; discussing recipes with Molly, letting Snivellus poke his overgrown nose into her thoughts, charming Dumbledore, Arthur and Kingslea and weeping on Remus' shoulder...
"You've left your wits with the dementors!" Sirius snarled, kicking his shoes into a corner. It was nothing but insane to imagine Remus letting himself be used like that -- as if someone like Sapphire would play such games. "What's more, even if she were trying to make you jealous," he balled up a sock and hurled it after the shoes, "it just doesn't make a damn bit of difference." He'd been crushing his silk pajama shirt in his palm; now he tried to smooth the damp wrinkles against his chest. He reached for the potion, then paused, remembering a conversation on another sleepless night. "She believed there'd be time for sleep later," he whispered, and smiled sadly. On that night, one sort of "later" had seemed very soon, and been something to believe in. "Well, Granny M, I hope you're having sweet dreams."
@ 1,467 words on 07/17/07
Credits: 'Why Do I Love You?'; Duet from "Show Boat" by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Jerome Kern
*Author's Note: I've been asked to explain why Remus didn't use magic to repair this piano quickly. But actually, I did picture him using magic. A muggle felt job might involve replacing all 88 hammer felts (not to mention the damper felts), then pushing needles into the hammer felts and playing each one repeatedly until they are the correct hardness to get an even tone from string to string. That's called "voicing." I figure, even with magic, you have to voice the keys one by one. Then you may play it a few days on and find something needs redoing. Even for wizards, I believe music has infinite capacity for tedious work!
Posted by Madmaxime at October 10, 2007 04:02 PM