Henry Francis Warwick Augustus POV
It had been two months since Ella spoke her first word, and after that, nothing as exciting as that day had happened. During this 2-month period, he had come to love her even more after she had spoken his name as her first word. Of course, his mother had pouted for the rest of the day out of jealousy.
Every day since then, he made numerous attempts to get her to say his name every chance he got. She had the most beautiful voice he had ever heard, and he often thought the name Eleanor fit her perfectly. His mother was also elated when Ella finally said 'Mama' a couple of days later.
But he would still like it to be known that - he won! She said his name first.
Anyways, a couple of weeks after that incident, he had also gotten his wish. His parents had decided to enroll him in piano lessons with the local music teacher, who taught for extra income in addition to her full-time job as a music teacher at a secondary school.
So it was that he had added lessons with Ms. Reed to his schedule, two times a week, for now, at least.
The lessons so far had mostly been about how to position his hands and fingers when playing any notes. He also learned about the basic notes and how they sounded, and how to identify them.
The only complaint he had was that he hadn't learned a single song so far, and instead focused on how to read a music sheet and play the corresponding note.
"Setting a solid foundation at an early age will carry you much further than learning pieces without understanding their depth and weight," had quickly become Ms. Reed's favorite phrase, he found out.
According to her, apparently, I would be 'insulting music' if I learned songs without understanding why that specific note was used.
Which he did think he was starting to see, as he had noticed that a note could sound both happy and sad, and even evoke other emotions if you allowed yourself to be immersed in it.
However, that would happen ONLY if you allowed yourself to feel it.
Another thing he realized during these two months of working with her was that you also needed prior musical knowledge to truly enjoy and appreciate any piece, famous or not.
For example, an average listener would never be able to understand Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky the same way someone with a musical background would.
Sure, an average Joe might have their own interpretation of Swan Lake and how they feel while listening to it. But only a learned person could truly dive into it and appreciate its greatness.
Knowledge was everything, it seemed. No matter if it was for magic or music.
If he had been a normal child, he was certain he would have already given up. After all, any child would be bored if someone told them that, instead of playing the music, you are going to read and write about it.
He did briefly wonder if Ms. Reed was just too used to teaching older kids who comprehended things at a higher level than someone his age was supposed to. If he had been an actual kid, he was certain he would have fallen behind and given up by now, and she would be a horrible teacher. I mean, do something, play something, to keep me engaged and increase my interest in music, so I am motivated to practice constantly and put some effort towards learning to play the piano. At least that is how it should have been for children his age who lose interest really quickly.
But fortunately, he was mighty!
And also someone who had lived a different life, and had the patience and the maturity, so there was that working in his favor. So far, he had actually enjoyed learning the basics, as it was exactly what he needed as someone who had never known anything about music.
He needed to build a 'solid foundation', as it were, and she was the perfect teacher for it. Her reverence, passion, and respect towards music was almost comparable to his own towards magic … almost.
The addition of piano lessons to his schedule hadn't affected his academic performance, just as he had promised his mother, as the material covered in his classes right now was still at a rudimentary level.
It also hadn't affected his magical practice; instead, he had been practicing his levitation with even more zeal as his exploration in mind magic had slowed to a crawl.
The magical connection with his sister wasn't something he could poke and prod willy-nilly. He had briefly considered pumping magic into the connection to see if he could elevate its level forcefully, as he had no clue how to deepen the connection, but he decided against it because the risks were too great.
So instead, all his effort went into training his finesse and endurance with magic, using levitation to lift various things in his room, as he had been doing. He had also started attempting to levitate 2 things at once, which was a huge hurdle, as he had made little to no progress.
The act of splitting his focus between two objects was a completely different beast, and was one that he would have to explore from the very beginning, as he had no concept or knowledge of how to split his thoughts and focus into two separate things at the same time.
If his focus shifted to one toy too much, the other would drop, and sometimes he even unconsciously brought the toys together so they would be easier to lift, which defeated the purpose of his training, and he would have to start all over again.
It was almost comparable to having your left hand trace a rectangle in the air continuously, while your right hand tried to draw a circle again and again. Maybe he could learn it with a lot of practice, but he wasn't able to do so right now.
Also, he had finally learned how to summon things to him.
'Yay! A new piece of magic.'
Which he had been attempting to do for months now. He was nowhere as proficient with it when compared to his levitation magic, but it was something new he could add to his daily magical practice routine, so he was happy with it.
The steps behind summoning things to him were almost the same as levitation, which involved invoking his magic, which still felt warm to him.
The next step was what had taken him so long to learn, as he had no idea what the feeling, will, and intent behind pulling something toward him was. However, once he had done it successfully the first time, he was finally able to start using his own will and intent to replicate the magic intentionally.
Now, all that was left was to practice until he could immediately cast the magic and do it on a bigger scale compared to the baby steps he was taking right now.
As for his dance lessons, he was finally starting to learn some ballroom dance styles.
They had even done the full waltz routine!
His partner in the paired dances was still the same girl, Lina. She was still as motivated as she had been months ago, still saw him as her competition, even more so when she learned their interests aligned after he had talked to her about how he, too, was learning to play the piano.
Their conversations during the three-hour classes mostly revolved around dances and music. They never spoke about what colors they liked, what their favorite book was, or what their other friends were doing or had done that day.
Maybe that's why he had actually enjoyed his time in dance class.
While he might be at a kid's age, it didn't mean he actually enjoyed gossip and whatever else kids their age talked about. He would much rather argue about why dipping and extending his feet slightly more and holding the pose for longer than instructed was better because it made that particular movement more pronounced, or even argue for why the piano was the superior instrument when compared to the violin.
He had been quite fortunate to partner up with her, as he was quite certain he would have already given up if he had to learn with kids who whined constantly and didn't put in any effort, like the rest of the kids his age in his class.
It was also through Lina that he had learned about the joy that was Luciano Pavarotti. They had been talking about whatever little they knew about music so far, and she had mentioned that she and her family had gone to see an opera that was happening nearby, where they lived.
She was quite vocal about how she, too, wanted to be one of the people on that stage. After hearing her go on and on about the opera, his interest had been piqued.
So after talking to his mother about it, she had happily agreed to go to one - why she agreed so readily, he wasn't sure.
'Did she see this as him doing the same thing as his friend, like normal kids his age? '
'Had I been so anti-social that she jumped at the first chance she got?' he asked himself.
Author's Note: Hello readers, I will be releasing one extra chapter this week, compared to the usual two per week, just to get to Hogwarts quicker. The following chapter will contain large time skips rather than weeks and a couple of months of skip, like I have been doing so far. Enjoy the read, and look forward to tomorrow's release.