I spent my night excited; Dumbledore would make my Walkman work. I had written up how the music player worked and given details of the electronics, including how it got sound from cassettes. But then I thought about the other thing Dumbledore had said. I should bring grant and Tim to the room of requirements, I know he knew where I had gotten the guitar with his vague statement. Looking over at Grant, who was asleep, he had wanted to learn some new songs for the piano. I pulled out some parchment and my ruler. And I started to transcribe some sheet music from my knowledge.
It was late. When I finished crawling into bed, I wondered what instruments Tim would be drawn to.
Packing up my notes on the walkman, the walkman, headset, and a cassette. I chose one Dumbledore might like as a treat if he could get it working. My collection was wide because of my experiments; I chose Glenn Miller's album 'In the Mood'; Dumbledore seemed like he might like jazz.
I stuffed the sheet music into my book bag and then woke the others.
"Dude, it is Saturday", Tim complained.
"Exactly!" I exclaimed, "We have a big day ahead of us."
"You're going to drag us to that classroom, aren't you," Grant said, putting on his glasses.
"Yup, I even have a treat for you, Grant." I smiled and bounced on my feet in excitement. "But first breakfast."
That got them going, and soon, our trio was heading to the great hall. "Gryffindors", I stated as we entered, and we headed over to their table.
"We are still doing this despite what just happened," Tim asked.
"I havnt forgotten" taking a seat to the two people I wanted to talk too.
"Fred, George,", I said in greeting.
"Oh if it isn't the strange first year snakes" one of then said. "Very strange, and he knows our name, brother", the other said.
"Who doesn't?" I replied. "You didn't happen to hear what happened to me, did you?"
"That we did, Mr. Carter", "infact Dumbledore said a few warning words at dinner last night" they explained.
I started to make a bacon egg sandwich. "That's news to me," I said, "but I'm here to ask you two for a favour."
"Go on?" Fred said.
"I want you to see if you can find out who attacked me. I'm sure they will try again, and with your all-seeing eyes, you could help me out," I whispered to them.
"Yeah, and what will you give us," George asked.
"Information, two bits of information, one about a place that is hidden even to your eyes." I said, "And the identity of the marauders," I added, to make sure they knew I knew what they had.
Fred and George looked at each other. "The snake knows our secret", Fred said. "And more secrets," George added.
"Well need proof" they said in unison.
"Okay after breakfast you can follow us with it, you see us vanish" I told them.
They nodded. And I ate my sandwich.
We bid farewell, and I led my mates to the seventh floor. Stopping at the dancing trolls, I turned to my roommates. "I'm about to show you the most awesome room in Hogwarts, made by Rowena Ravenclaw herself." I walked back and forth thrice, and the door appeared.
"Cool," Tim said. And we entered the room of requirements, in its music room formation.
"Rowena Ravenclaw made a music room.?" Grant asked, looking around it.
"Well yes and no" I said to Grant, "this is the room of requirements, also known as the come and go room."
"The what?" Grant asked.
"Room of requirements, to open it, you need to walk past it thrice while thinking of what you need. Then the room appears ready to fulfil that need." I explained.
"So, if you needed to go to the bathroom?" Tim asked.
"Then you would find a lavatory", I answered. "You can get really detailed about it, too. Like a containment curcle so my magic doesn't hurt you guys i pointed at a circle of runes on the ground."
"Cool," Tim exclaimed. Grant had walked over to the piano.
"Right, Tim, you go look at the instruments and see if anything calls out to you," I said to Tim. "Grant here. I wrote this up for you last night. Handing him a bundle of sheet music."
He looked at it. "You wrote this last night?"
"Transcribed might be a better word", I said. "It's just something I thought you would like. Now I need to find." I started to look around at the wind instruments. Grant set up at the piano, looking at the sheet music and playing a few lines. "Great, great," I cheered as the familiar tune tinkled across the room. , "found one." I cheered, dragged the mic stand towards the circle, and faced Grant and Tim. Tim had sat on the stool behind the drum kit. My eyes lit up; he looked good there.
"What's that, Eddie?" Tim asked about the shiny silver thing I was holding in my hand. "This Tim", I held it up ", is a harmonica, but it's a bit dirty."
"Ah yeah." He has as he adjusted his glasses.
"4, 3, 2, 1," I counted him in.
The gentle opening melody played. And I joined in on harmonica. •Piano man by Billy joel•
♫It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Making love to his tonic and gin♫
My magic seemed to sway with the song, this time I didn't fall into the song I tried to control myself and magic. It was very difficult; my music stirred my emotions, and I kept slipping my grasp. I stumbled and missed some parts of the song as I tried to split my focus. It was not my best performance. Then, the drums started playing during the second chorus; it was all wrong but had the correct beat. And Tim had a smile on his face. Grant had a concentration etched on his face but a small smile, too.
"Grant, give me 30 minutes, and I have another song for you; just jam with Tim. I think he likes what he's doing."
I sat on the floor, grabbing more parchment and a quill. I had already drawn the staff on the pages. This time I didn't know the sheet music but I new the song off by heart. So it took more like an hour as I hummed and wrote hummed again to ensure I had it right. Tim and Grant jammed pretty well; Tim picked up drumming fast.
I rushed to him with the sheet music. "Okay, the last song was Billy Joel, who's an American piano legend. This one is from a British piano legend." I handed him the music. "I do not think I'll be able to hold back on this song; it's powerful."
Grant nodded. Looked over the sheet music this song, it had one less beat per minute but felt way more energetic. Grant started to play And I didn't sing, I just watched him, go the smile on his face grew and grew. About halfway through the song, I couldn't hold back anymore.•Elton John, I'm still standing•.
♫You know I'm still standing better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind
I'm still standing. Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm still standing. Yeah, yeah, yeah♫