The Scholomance is ugly. Most people don't think this is the biggest problem with the Scholomance, but it's an awful grinding misery, the noise and the food and the bare metal walls that keep him up at night pressing his fingers to his eyelids and trying to see beauty in the lights it sparks.

It's not too bad yet -- he hasn't been here that long -- and he can keep it at bay, a little, with drawings pasted to his walls and poetry recited while he does push-ups and the colorful braided blanket that used to belong to an older brother. But he misses music so badly, and his ocarina only does so much for that.

So when he hears faint notes drifting through the hallway, he stops in his tracks, study group forgotten. His eyes start to slide closed with pleasure -- no, no, he can't do that, that's how you get eaten by mals or bump into an upperclassman carrying an important potion and give deadly offense -- and he's following it almost without meaning to, drawn like a moth to light.

He certainly doesn't notice what doors he goes through, seeking out the music.

Then he will wind up in the girls' bathroom. They don't notice him right away - Chloe's study buddy is supposed to be taking her turn as lookout but she's splashing water on her face instead, and this particular door isn't very noisy when opened.

When it closes, that's when the study buddy screams, and the singing stops, and Rebecca and Chloe scramble out of their stalls in alarm to see what's going on.

"You stopped," he says, looking up at Rebecca with all the disappointed gravitas he can cram into five-feet-nothing and a tiny ponytail.

"That's not a mal - weren't you looking," says Chloe.

"You're a boy!" Rebecca tells Jean, as though this could be news.

He looks down, as if to verify this fact. "--yes. Would it help if I weren't?"

Is she not supposed to sing in front of boys? He feels like there's somewhere with that rule. Saudi Arabia, maybe??

"This is the girls' bathroom!" Rebecca replies.

"I'm sorry," says her study buddy. "I'm sorry, my fault, I should've been looking better -"

"Oh."

This seems like a surmountable problem.

"...can you come sing in the boys' bathroom?"

"I'm not going to go in the boys' bathroom!"

- wait is that screaming -

- wait is that Rebecca’s voice -

Zeke thinks that this is an appropriate moment to barge into the girl’s bathroom! He is so prepared to punch a mal in the face! Or probably actually he would have to use a spell or run away or whatever but that’s not the point!

"Zeke! This is the girls' bathroom!" says Chloe.

"Well he probably heard me scream," says her study buddy reasonably.

"Can we just go out in the hall," says Rebecca. "Thank you Zeke, if there had been a mal it would have been very heroic."

“- I - uh - there wasn’t a - cool,” he says, turning around and walking out of the bathroom.

Girls follow, giving Jean as wide a berth as feasible.

Jean trots after Rebecca like a tiny ponytailed puppy.

"You have the voice of an angel," he informs her, earnestly. "If I had met you at home I would have sent you silk dresses and fresh camellias and pined away outside your windows longing to hear it."

...that's weird. "Um. Thank you?"

"Please won't you sing some more? I'm sorry about the bathroom, I never meant to interrupt you."

These are his most charmingly enormous eyes.

...Rebecca looks uncertainly at the New Yorkers.

"Make him pay you," says Chloe automatically.

“- was this guy, like, the thingy that you were afraid of? If he was then you should, like, collect for emotional damages or whatever, and then he should pay you for singing stuff too. Also I could totally get you a silk dress and camellias at some point.”

"Aww," Rebecca says to Zeke. "And yeah, she screamed because there was a boy in the girls' bathroom, I don't think he did anything else weird..."

"I can't possibly put a price on your art -- let me give you something, though, a -- not a gift, a -- tribute -- no obligation..."

He's scrounging in his pockets for anything worth giving, and comes up with a grayish lump of soft rubber. "--it'll erase most things, not just pencil, one of the Paris juniors brewed a batch -- I'm sorry I haven't anything prettier."

"- huh, um, thanks?" says Rebecca.

"No, if you take it as a gift that means you're dating," says Chloe's study buddy.

"- uh -" Rebecca's hand drops.

"Not a gift," he says, impatiently, "no obligation -- Americans -- forgive me. Like flowers for a performer. Call it payment for what you've already sung, if you must."

Rebecca takes the eraser.

He beams up at her.

"Please, do forgive me for interrupting you. I was blinded by beauty."

She's gonna shuffle a little closer to Zeke. "Um, no... harm done?"

Zeke puts his arm around her shoulder.

"You're too kind."

He's terribly earnest, and when she moves, he takes a half-step back, giving her space.

"Do you ever sing for an audience?"

"I've done... recitals? And school plays. I guess I could do concerts here if people wanted it enough that it would be better than spending that time studying?"

"They'd be fools not to." He's so confident it almost makes the claim sound reasonable. "Besides, you have to practice, you might as well charge admission -- do you have somewhere with good acoustics?"

"Not especially?"

"Let me find you somewhere," he begs. "I can put together a group to look -- it wouldn't be safe to go wandering around alone, especially not making lots of noise..."

"I guess it's worth a try?"

“We could probably just, like, put together a good space, Julia was saying things about a party where you could sing and I bet we have people with acousticy spells and stuff.”

"Acoustic spells won't last and she should be able to sing whenever the muse visits her."

"I mean, I can sing in places that don't have good acoustics, it would just be for concerts."

It takes a couple of beats before he manages "...I suppose you can," rather as if she'd announced she could put out her eyes with a rusty poker and get about with a white cane.

“You could maybe learn an acoustic spell and then do it whenever! - I dunno how hard acoustic spells are but they’re probably, like, pretty easy.”

"The good ones are not and there is a difference. ... you might not be able to tell."

"I guess I can ask the void for one but I'd skip it if nobody was going to pay me back the mana and I was just singing for fun."

“I could totally tell the difference! I did choir and stuff!”

"I'd cast it for you -- as often as I could, at least -- if I could listen."

"That's very nice of you? I'm good but I don't know if I'm that good..."

"It's good practice for me anyway. And I could use the space too -- and I miss music."

"Aw... I think doing concerts is a good idea, maybe Vanya would come too..."

"One of the Parisian sophomores has a breath affinity and uses it for woodwinds!"

"Oh, cool! I want to meet more music people for sure."

"I want to go into music but I couldn't bring in any instrument that counts so I can't really make any yet."

"Vanya has a guitar!"

"--I don't know if I have anything worth trading for time on a guitar but if I do then I'd love to -- would it be too much to ask you to introduce us? I'd be happy to introduce you to some Parisians in return!"

"I can probably find him!"

He feels like he’s lost the plot, here, the tiny Parisian dude went into the bathroom because of reasons and that’s why there was screaming and now they’re... friends... with him, or something, and introducing him to people? Is he going to have to learn to play a musical instrument. Are they about to start a punk rock band with this tiny Parisian dude and the super depressed guy. Is there going to be a love quadrangle. Did he zone out during an establishing friendship moment, he definitely zoned out during an establishing friendship moment, ugh.

”I should, like, meet Vanya anyways, he sounds cool.”

"Vanya's really nice! And he's a sophomore so he knows a ton of stuff and his affinity's music so a lot of it is stuff I can learn."

“That’s super neat!”

"--his affinity is music?"

Is he in an enclave already. Please god let him not be in an enclave already.

"Yeah! Like mine! Except I think mine might be more specific, I'm not sure. We can go look for him in Sacramento's reading room."

"--oh you're so lucky," he sighs. "Yes please!!"

The Sacramento reading room in the library contains Landon from senior year, Tristan from the juniors, and Cassie and Vanya. Vanya has a silence-spell up so he can sing to himself while he reviews spell notes. He doesn't even slightly notice people arriving. 

Raleigh is just getting back from the stacks with some history reference books, and does notice. "Hi, Rebecca! And Zeke, right? And...hi? I don't know if we've met?" 

"This is, uh - I didn't get his name, he's from Paris and liked my singing and I thought I'd introduce him to Vanya?"

"Oh, cool. Hey. Just a second - Vanya? ...Oh, right, he's got his sound-blocking up. One moment." Raleigh crosses the room to tap Vanya's shoulder. 

Vanya is very jumpy! He startles up, papers flying everywhere. 

"...Oh. Sorry." 

"Um...." Why is every single interaction he tries to have with Vanya so agonizing now. "Your friend Rebecca met a guy from Paris who wanted to meet you because he likes music stuff?" 

"Oh." Vanya tries to reassemble his scattered notes. 

"Uh, here, let me help you... Rebecca, you guys can come in if you want? Just mind the rope, it's warded." (The rope is Larisa's defensive wards artifact, currently strung across the doorway, but with an obvious handle to pull it aside and step through.) 

Rebecca goes past the rope and helps pick up notes. "He was maybe interested in buying some time with Gloria!" she tells Vanya.

"Jean Dulac. It's a pleasure."

Rebecca's new friend is tiny and dignified and has an equally tiny dignified French accent. He's all decked out in a Paris power-sharer and a teeny tiny ponytail and just a touch of expertly applied makeup.

He's so tiny and dignified and French! ...Probably a he? 'Jean' is a boy's name in French, Vanya is pretty sure. 

(He's kind of cute? In a completely different way from Talat nope nope nope, Vanya immediately feels deeply ashamed of having this thought and stomps on it.) 

"Vanya Lipovsky," he says. "Pleased to meet you." He smiles, shyly. "I - heard you like music?" 

"More than anything in the world." He's a little breathless just thinking about it.

"He followed us into the girls' bathroom!" says Chloe.

"I was just singing Scarborough Fair," Rebecca says. "Now he wants to get a room with good acoustics? And maybe we could do concerts if there are people who'd pay admission."

"She was singing Scarborough Fair beautifully."

"...Sorry, Scarborough Fair? Oh, right, is it this one -?" And he hums it for them. 

"Yeah! Do you know any harmonies to it - if you don't I do, I learned some when my voice teacher let me borrow her looper - ooooh can I make a looper in shop, how do I get it to assign me one -"

“That’s for singing in harmony with yourself? Yeah, I might be able to do that! I don’t know any good harmonies to it.”

"Okay you can be melody then - one, two, three -"

Vanya sings. 

He has a very nice voice, too, a rich warm tenor. 

Rebecca does harmony with the same words sometimes, and other times does a polyphonic "aaah" along with him, especially if they don't seem likely to agree on all the words.

Zeke eventually figures out the tune and attempts to join in with his own harmonizing “aaah”! He’s an unremarkable and enthusiastic baritone.

Jean closes his eyes, but he doesn't relax -- he listens with his whole body, ever nerve strung taut, breath catching at drops and fingers flexing at trills and shivering at particularly beautiful harmonies.

Vanya, when he's singing, looks peaceful and happy and relaxed, unlike at any other time. 

The song ends, and he sags slightly, blinking as though waking from a dream. Then smiles shyly again at Jean. 

It takes him a moment to open his eyes again.

"...a work of art."

"Aww, thank you. I wish I had a church to sing in, for the hymns especially..."

"I believe there's a ... chapel? Of some sort. For those who go in for that sort of thing."

From his tone, it's clear that Paris doesn't.

"There is? Ooooooh. That could be the acoustic place!"

Vanya actually looks intrigued. "You're looking for somewhere with good acoustics? That's really cool. I - never actually thought of trying to do that here." 

"It was Jean's idea!"

This earns Jean another very sweet smile. "Oh wow!" 

"Beautiful music requires a beautiful space! If we can't find anywhere that has naturally good acoustics then let's look at the chapel and see if it's pretty, and if it is then we can enchant it for acoustics."

"Do you know where it is?"

"No idea, I fear."

"Huh... Does anybody here know where the chapel-y room is?" she asks the broader group.

"Oh," says one of the juniors, "the place where they do mass on Christmas? It's in the library, out through Hindi for a while, they've got a sign on the door and everything."

"Great, thanks! - I don't know what Hindi looks like."

"Bars with snakes dangling from 'em."

"...wild! Okay. Zeke, do you wanna come -?"

"I should know it if I see it," Jean contributes. "I had flashcards for lots of languages with -- not real text, not even real letters, but shapes that look like letters in clumps that look like words in the appropriate alphabet. So I'd know what to look away from."

“Sure!” says Zeke to Rebecca.

"Cool, Vanya are you coming too?"

"...Yeah, okay." 

He doesn't look delighted about it. 

"I don't think they're going to be like evangelistic about it? Not here," she assures him.

- yeah, fair, that hasn't been his experience either. 

"I'll come with you." 

Off to find bars with snakes dangling from them!

Rebecca's voice is lovely and her affinity is enviable but he's not so enamored that he's not going to let the indie take point.

On the other hand, he does fall into a protective position behind Vanya, rather than jockeying for middle. This early in the year, it costs him next to nothing to let the other enclaver have the best spot, so he might as well win favor where he can.

Rebecca hasn't been briefed on formations so she's not even really conscious of the status considerations; she goes in front and finds bars with snakes hanging from them and hangs a right into the aisle, hunting for the chapel.

It's not very chapel-like, but one of the reading rooms has a cross painted on the door and an embossed tin-can holy water font nailed up next to it, which seems suggestive.

"It's not really big enough," she sighs. "But it would be good enough for little concerts." Is anybody home?