In a Heartbeat

Harry's POV

I was in Melody's house, looking at a black-and-white photo of Heather, Melody, and Ella when they were little. They're all wearing dresses and hats. Heather and Melody are standing and grinning like crazy, and Ella was sitting and smiling at something, holding an apple, her eyes open wide and happy. A little boy is standing between Heather and Melody, looking over at Melody and smiling.
Who is that? I wondered.
I looked around me, wondering where the lads went. Heather was taking us on a tour around their massive house, and naturally, I got distracted. I knew where everything I needed was, so what was the point of going to find them?
I kept walking around the house, looking at the walls and at family photos. I noticed there were some picture frames turned toward the wall or lying down on the shelf, picture side down. I lifted one and saw a picture of the same little boy in the black-and-white photo. I put it back down and kept walking. I shoved both my hands in my pockets and put my head down.
Who is that lad? I asked myself. A family friend? A sibling? I shook my head at that last one. Melody would've told us about him. Or maybe she did. I was walking past a descending staircase when I heard something. I backed up a few steps and looked down the stairs. It sounded like... music. Like the beginning strains of "They Don't Know About Us", then turned into something that sounded almost completely different. Almost.
I walked down the stairs silently, afraid of making a noise and causing it to stop. I followed the sound, turning to my left at the bottom of the stairs, then turning left again at the end of the hallway. I peered through an open door to my right and saw that it opened into a huge room.
The first thing I noticed was the sheer size of the room. Then I glanced over at the wall and saw the instruments. There were so many of them! Colorful violins lined up neatly along one wall, next to an impressive array of guitars, a drum set in the far corner, ukuleles, and another door along the far wall, and a keyboard piano in the corner to my left. (Let's just assume there are more instruments in there, because it's supposed to be a very large room, but those are the main instruments.) There were speakers in any open space, and microphones scattered on top of the speakers, along with headphones.
All of this was surrounding a white grand piano, from which the music I was hearing was coming from. Melody was at the piano, sitting with her back to me. I could see her arms move as she played.
I silently walked up behind her and watched her fingers fly over the keys, as if nobody was controlling them. I lost myself in the sound, caught up in the moment. All I saw was Melody. Just Melody. Not who she was around her family, not who she was around us. I saw who she really was, not who she hid behind.
Then the music stopped. There wasn't an ending. Only an abrupt silence.
I snapped back into reality. Melody held her head in her hands, sobbing. I sat down on the piano bench and wrapped my arms around here, pulling her close.
We sat there for the longest time, not moving, not speaking. Just sitting. Because some things are heard best when no words are said.

Notes

The house:


The violins:


The guitars:


The drums:


The ukuleles:


The microphones:


The headphones:


The piano:


And just because I need to write this somewhere that I'll find/remember it eventually, here's a quote I found and I want to remember it.
20% cooler in 10 seconds flat.
That's my saying and I don't want anybody else using it, okay? No excuses.