8 Friends or Foes

Dashing down the stairs with a guitar slung on my back. I got turned around twice till I found the grand hall. Entering and heading for the Slytherin table, I saw some people look at me with surprise. Paying that no mind, I put the guitar down, resting against the table, and started to tuck it into a plate of sandwiches. "Where did you get that?" Draco asked with a sneer. 

"Found it," I replied, mouth full. I was starving for some reason.

"Can you even play it?" Pansy, a first-year girl, asked.

I nodded, taking another sandwich.

"Well then, play us a song, mud blood", Draco demanded. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, no," I said in answer.

"Like I thought, you can't play it" Draco mocked.

"I can, but I don't play for people who can't say please," I said with a smirk. 

"Please then, will you play me a song?" another first-year Slytherin girl said. Looking at her, I smiled and nodded.

Grabbing the guitar, I strummed a few cords, and a song came to my mind, not one that I hadn't heard in this life. Still, I thought it would be suitable for this situation, so I apologised to Mr and Mrs White in my head. Then, played the opening bars to •we're Going to Be Friends by the white stripes•

♫Fall is here, hear the yell

Back to school, ring the bell

Brand new shoes, walking blues

Climb the fence, books and pens

I can tell that we are gonna be friends

I can tell that we are gonna be friends♫

"That's enough, Mr. Carter" Professor Snape interrupted my singing. "The great hall is not your personal music room." 

"Ah, sorry, sir" I replied with a small smile.

"I am confiscating your guitar, and see me at my office after your history of magic class" Snape said, pulling the guitar from my hands. After that, he strode off out of the great hall. 'Why!' I screamed in my mind, then another thought popped into my head. 'Hungry' so I quickly started eating again.

"That was pretty good," Draco said in a dreamy voice. I looked at him oddly, then around at the faces around me. It seemed like they were coming out of a dazed state. "Yeah, not bad for a mudblood," Pansy said quietly. 

'What's wrong with them?' I thought. Shaking that off and satisfying my hunger, I started to get angry. 'Dam you, Severus, it was just a bit of music.' 

Grumbling my way to the history of magic classroom, I knew Severus was a prick, but that's because of the swirl of emotion he had toiling away in his heart. Guilt, anger, love, grief, hope and fear, the dude would be a wreck if it weren't for occlumency. 

I hummed a song to calm myself down. I'm sure Snape had his reason.

History of magic was taught by Professor Binns, who is a ghost. According to rumours, he fell asleep in the staff room one day, and when he got up to go teach his class, he had left his body behind. That's how dedicated he was to teaching. It's too bad he's not good at it. Long droning lectures on events of the past said in an unenthusiastic way a recipe for naps and brain death. Slytherins had the class with Hufflepuffs, meaning everyone was bored and nodding off about halfway through the first lesson. Even Susan and Hannah, who were sitting next to me, were starting to fall asleep. I took this class as a self-study period and cracked open the bewitching strings book. There was a handwritten introduction on the first blank page.

-for whoever finds this book.

I hope your love of music is as great as your love of magic. I found this book after a lot of searching, and I found it woefully inadequate. Please refer to my notes in the margins; they include my personal improvements. I find it funny that wizards can create beautiful spellwork and brilliant works of painted art, but they seem to trip and fall when it comes to music. Go with my hope that you will bring music to Hogwarts.

J.L. 1957 -

I flipped to the first chapter and noticed that the book is heavily modified, paragraphs scribbled out, with notes like 'not important' or 'misleading'. The first chapter discussed instruments and their care, like tuning, polishing, and other maintenance. They had spells to achieve the results, but at the end of the chapter, there was another note.

-this chapter was all well and good, but if you have time, you should do maintenance the muggle way; it helps build a bond with the instrument.- 

I couldn't help but agree. I missed my guitar already and only had it for an hour. I sighed and closed the book. "What are you reading," Susan asked. 

"Just a book I found", I said, "about music and magic."

"Bewitching strings", Susan read the title. "Looks pretty old."

"From the 50s, it seems", I answered," found with the guitar in while I was exploring." 

"Yeah, we heard you playing in the Great Hall. It was fantastic," Hanah said."too bad Snape stopped you." 

"Yeah, got to see him after this," I said.

Just then, the bell rang. "Whelp, it looks like I have to face the music," I said, waggling my eyebrows; the girls giggled at my joke.

"Hey, wait up!" Grant yelled to me as he ran up, Tim in toe. 

"What's up," I said to Grant when he caught up. 

"What was that spell you used at lunch," Grant asked, and Tim nodded.

"Spell what spell?" I asked.

"The one that turned Draco and his followers a bit more friendly for the last hour", Grant explained.

"What? I didn't cast any spell," I said, "and what do you mean more friendly?"

"Well, they didn't call Tim a mudblood all throughout the class, and Pansy even had a friendly chat with me about quidditch", Grant explained.

"I don't know; maybe they were just following Gemma's rule about a united Slytherin facade", I explained.

"Fine, you know what, don't tell us. Just can you do it a bit more? It was back to cold shoulders and insults when they snapped out of it." Tim said.

"I didn't do anything apart from start to play a song, and then Snape took my guitar", I said.

"You have a guitar; I didn't see it in the dorm," Grant said.

"Ah, I found it in an abandoned classroom after potions class," I said.

"That must be it!" Grant yelled, "The guitar must carry a curse or something. Good thing Snape took it when he did, then."

"Well, I'm going to see if I can get it back," I said, annoyed.

"Mate, I don't think that's a good idea," Tim said. "What if it hurts you."

"If it is cursed, I'll let Snape keep it," I said. "But if it's not, I'm getting it back!" I huffed and headed to Snape's office.