In lack of a better audience, Ea had decided to make her way to the owlery. With her she had a guitar, a big pillow and a book she had randomly chosen in the library because she liked the color of its cover.

Bringing such big items seemed to be quite difficult. With much trouble, Ea made her way up the stairs, not being able to see anything due to the pillow blocking her view.

"They.. better.. appreciate it" she said to herself. She remembered having read somewhere that animals liked music just as much as people, so she figured she'd kill two flies with one stone this way.

As she finally reached the owlery she was out of breath and had to sit down for nearly a minute before she managed getting up and arranging the pillow on the floor. She sat on it in a crosslegged position and took up the guitar.

Only, Ea had no clue how to actually play it. The instrument belonged to one of her fellow Hufflepuffs, and she had simply borrowed it from the commonroom.
She decided this wasn't going to stop her. She strummed a few strings randomly until she found a combination that at least didn't make you want to cover your ears.
Then she kept playing that same 'chord' as she began singing whatever came into her head.

"Hey there little bird
sitting on your perch,
Tell me have you heard
what it is I search... for.."

She sang, her singing voice rather nice but as unusual as her speaking voice, always small, light and airy.
However, quite a lot of birds took flight, the sound of Ea's pathetic guitar skills too much for them to handle.
Ea continued strumming and humming, caught up in her own little world.

Aaron was rather frustrated, he'd left his guitar in the commonroom while he went to the toilet and, when he got back, it had gone. When he'd asked around someone told him a girl called Ea had it, and to look in the library. But he'd already been there and told by a boy in the girl's year she was headed to the owlery.

He rolled his eyes and made his way up, taking two steps at a time, biting his lip. He hope nothing had happened to the guitar, it had been a present from his friend, James Lynx, lead singer of up and coming band blood letters. Of course, he hadn't tld anyone else that.

He walked into the owlery to see a girl attempting to play his guitar to the owls and frowned.

"Hey, Ea, someone told me I'd find you up here." he told her. "You ever heard the saying it's better to ask before taking?"

He walked over and shook his head at her attempt at playing guitar. "You aren't playing it right, you know." he told her, taking it from her hands. "Watch."

He started to play a delicate melody.

"I've got to tell you this tonight
When all the stars are shining bright
We can't be together anymore
And even though it breaks my heart
It's my chance for a second start
And I'm going to take it
Tonight.

It's not that I don't love you
It's not that I don't care
It's that I got to know
There's always someone there

So I've got to tell you this tonight
When all the stars are shining bright
We can't be together anymore
And even though it breaks my heart
It's my chance for a second start
And I'm going to take it
Tonight."

He smiled at her and stopped playing. "Just a little song I'm working on- it's not finished yet, though."

As someone entered, Ea was pulled out of her concentration.
She looked up to see Aaron, a friend of hers entering.
She smiled widely, but judging by the look of his face he wasn't exactly thrilled to see her. She soon figured why, as he told her that the guitar she had thoughtlessly borrowed was his.

"I did hear that" she said as an answer to his, probably rethorical, question.
"but the thing is, if you ask - people have a fifty percent chance of saying no and I just really wanted to.." her voice trailed off as he shook his head.

"And who made you responsible for judging what is 'right' and 'wrong'?" she asked jokingly as she handed him the guitar. She knew she wasn't playing right, but didn't care too much.

As Aaron started playing, however, not only did she watch: she was completely in awe. Without her realising it, Ea's jaw actually dropped and her, already rather large eyes became even bigger.
When he finished playing she sat there for a moment, mouth still slightly open.

"How do you.. do that?" she asked, in disbelief as she let her hand run over the guitar, carefully. She had just found a new kind of respect for the instrument.
"Did you put a spell on it or something?" she asked, not knowing much about guitars, since they were originally muggle instruments.

She looked up at him as she tilted her head.
"That was.. really really beautiful" she said, honestly.

He shook his head at her, laughing, smiling now, when seconds before he had been stern, he wasn't one to hold grudges.
"Well, Ea, sometimes there's a reason you know. That guitar you're holding, it's special to me, it symbolises a lot." he told her, and looked around, it wuld have been nice up here if it weren't for the smell caused by the owls. Oh well, nowhere was perfect.

He played the song, he watched the awe on her face, and realised how he and other students of his year influenced the younger kids- he was going to miss them.

"Look, I'll give you my other guitar, Ea, and I'll send you some gig tickets for my friends band with backstage passes when I get some through- sound good to you?" he asked her. "And no, no spells, just work." he told her, placing the guitar on her lap and placing her hands correctly. "Be soft with it, play it with love." he told her. "Know what you want to play, and when it doesn't sound right try again."

((That's actually a song I'm writing, but I don't play guitar- piano is my instrument.))

She looked at him with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Oh, no no no, you don't have to do that" she said, shaking both head and hands. She had always found accepting others' charity hard. Especially when she hadn't done anything to deserve it. What Aaron was offering sounded really nice, but taking his guitar without permission didn't really give him a reason to be so nice to her.

"You are too nice to me.. As usual" she said with a smile. This was no lie. Aaron was an amazing friend to Ea, always there for her when she needed him to be. As this thought ran through Ea's head she couldn't help but blushing slightly, thinking of how she hadn't exactly been the best of friends lately. It had been quite some time since they'd spent time together, really.

"It's been a while since we've had some Ea-Aaron quality time, no?" she said, tilting her head, speaking her thoughts out loud as usual.