Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sparrow had spent the train ride actually doing her first train patrol-- Wren had done hers for her last year as she sat crying. But this year, she was determined to be happy. Aria would have wanted that. As she twirled down the train hall, greeting every compartment, Sparrow reflected that between her new boyfriend, drama camp, choir, dance practice, and service projects, life--bittersweetly--did continue.

She gave Kenny a smooch on the cheek and trotted towards Gryffindor House where she found an empty seat next to future musician Matilda Harper and a few other familiar faces. ”Good evening, fellow Gryffindorians. Here’s to a great back to school?”

She took Mattie’s hands excitedly, and her voice pitched up an excited octave--almost back to her former usual. ”Mattie! Did you enjoy your birthday present? I hope you liked it! I don’t know too much about music qualities, but I love Tassy's work and I think your work is at the point where you need a good quality instrument to call your own.”

Sparrow was alarmed as Mattie bit her lip and started to cry as she choked out a reply. She immediately shifted close, concern coloring her features. Apparently, Mattie’s brother had been an idiot and failed his OWLs, causing their parents to...destroy her guitar and burn her music.

Who could burn MUSIC?

Mattie pulled away, wiping her tears with a sleeve and Sparrow pulled the younger girl gently to her, hiding her face from any unkind faces. ”Oh Mattie, Are you okay? Did they hurt you? I’m so sorry, I can’t believe--who--how could they burn music?!” The idea boggled her mind. Surely Mr. and Mrs. Harper wanted the best for their children? How could they burn music? Music was Art! They were burning culture! Sparrow couldn’t think of anyone who would intentionally--actually she could, but they were usually dictators, evil lords, and callous soldiers at war--were they at war? This was a war! A war on culture! And Mattie was fighting it alone.

More than that, as parents, how could they burn music that was so important to their daughter? How--destroying an instrument--that was like murder! If they were willing to murder someone’s instrument were they the kind of people that murdered humans as well?

...it was the perfect villain character.

She’d have to keep that for later. Sparrow pulled away a little, carefully. She personally wanted to just squeeze Mattie tight and tell her everything would work out, surely there was a way to make her parents see reason and all would be well with the world. But...that too wouldn’t bring back Mattie’s Pietro.

”Mattie, tell me seriously now, do your parents hurt you like this regularly? I can call the MCPS for you?” Sparrow didn’t honestly know what the Magical Child Protective Services would do about a broken guitar, but right now she just cared that Mattie the human was hurting. She dug into her memories quickly, and called to mind the image of Big Sis Aspen, who had been the best kind of comfort when needed. What kind of reassurance did Mattie need now? ”We can get another guitar. It won’t be the same, but our tools as artists can be replaced. The best thing you can do for Pietro is to carry on his work--your work. The destroyed pages...that’s harder to replace. But you can think of new ideas. And most importantly, the hours you put into practicing are still here,” she said, gently tapping Mattie’s head. She took the girl’s fingers and smoothed them out. ”And here. Even if the callouses fade, muscle memory is still there.”

Sparrow wiped a stray tear from the younger girl’s cheek. ”Okay?”

Mattie insisted her parents were terrible and awful, but not exactly abusive, which Sparrow honestly doubted. Destroying a child’s figurative voice and ripping out a piece of her heart sounded pretty abusive to her. But then again, Sparrow had been born on a figurative gilded platter, and anything less had always seemed like abuse or neglect to her.

”Well, you are officially welcome to the Winchester Estate for Christmas this year,” Sparrow declared. ”We do a positively wonderful party in the ballroom each year with a feast and music and dancing, so there definitely won’t be coal.”

Sparrow was much relieved that Mattie had managed to rewrite a lot of her music. There was still the issue of not having a place to keep the guitar...there were shrinking charms, but that would break the awful Statute of Secrecy...unless there was an enchantment to keep on the guitar that allowed it to shrink when needed? Like a moke!

”Mad at you? Perish the thought! I’m more worried you don’t have an outlet for your music! You need a good instrument. Well, as long as you have one at school, they can’t exactly take that away.” Sparrow lightened her tone a little before asking: ”Pietro though, hm? That wouldn’t happen to be named after a Mr. Pietro Donati from Music, would it?”

She was about to dive into some friendly teasing about a possible crush before the possible age gap-- Pietro was her year after all-- reminded her of another question and with a worried gasp, pressed her palms together imploringly. ”Mattie you’re a third year now, right? What electives did you sign up for? Please tell me you signed up for Music! Perhaps we can still add it now? They can’t very well argue about it once it’s on the transcript!”