BOTH ALIKE IN DIGNITY
By: geekinthepink
Rating: T
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing; everything you recognize belongs to either JK Rowling or William Shakespeare.

I'm so sorry that this is the third time that the chapter has gone up, there's been too many editing problems that were completely my fault, but this time it's here to stay.

Finally, I've done my thank yous!
Sarah-Lily-Potter-Kavanagh – Thank you a thousand times over for your amazing compliments. I tried really hard to make this story as original as possible and I'm glad that I achieved that goal. Thank you also for adding me to your favorites and author alert list, that's incredibly flattering! Also, thank you for your continuing encouragement; you truly make me smile when I receive your reviews.
Thanks also go to: prongsiesxlilyxflower, evelinekathleen, J.E.A.R.K.Potter, Saigo no Megami, Sarah, Em3191, -dEAd-clUmsY-, EmpressMLP, lillllll, and mauraudersminuspeterarehot!

A million cookies, and this chapter's dedication, to all of you!

PLUS a gigantic thank you to my brand new, fantastic beta reader Diana (pumpkinpasty).

Act Three: Scene One.

While the day was slowly drifting away, the sun beat down on the streets of Verona with a vengeance. Perhaps it was because of the ongoing dispute between the Capulets and the Montagues, or perhaps it was because the hot Italian sun knew of the events to come. Mercutio and Benvolio, or Not-Sirius and Not-Remus as James had taken to calling them, found themselves wasting away in the heat.

"Mercutio, please, let's call it a day," Benvolio pleaded, praying that the sun would soon set and force them to retire to their homes. "It's hot and we're running the risk of bumping into the Capulets. When it's hot out, people get hot-headed, and I am not in the mood to fight."

Mercutio, however, was not in the mood to give up the last few hours of the day because of something as meaningless as the weather. "You, my friend, are like a man that walks into a room, unsheathes his sword and says, 'I will never use you.' And after a drink or two you take the sword up and use it against whatever poor sod is the closest to you."

Benvolio didn't appear to be very amused with the little analogy. "Do you really think that I'm one of those men?"

"Oh come off it," Mercutio continued on. "You can be as angry as anyone when you're in a mood. Even if someone does the smallest thing that could make you angry, you get angry. Sometimes you even look for things to be angry about."

"What's your point?"

"If there were two men like you, one of you would kill the other. You'll fight with a man who's cracking nuts just because you have hazelnut-colored eyes. Only you would look for a fight like that. And yet, here you are, trying to teach me about restraint."

Benvolio sighed heavily, exhausted with his friend's antics. "If I picked fights as easily as you, I would be a walking dead man."

"That's foolish," Mercutio pointed out almost cheerfully.

Amid their banter, neither of the boys noticed the sudden appearance of the same family Benvolio had hoped to avoid. Neither family seemed to notice each other until the crunch of shoes meeting the gravelly pavement neared. Looking up, Benvolio was the first to spot the arrival of the unwelcome Capulet family.

"Oh fantastic, here comes the Capulets," he muttered quietly to his friend.

"I don't care," Mercutio informed him rather haughtily, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

Tybalt, apparently the ringleader of the small group of Capulets, was the first the approach. "Good day gentlemen," he greeted them politely, stopping a safe distance away from the other men. "Could I have a word with you?"

"Just a word?" Mercutio questioned him. "Why not put it with another word or two and make a sentence?"

Benvolio shot his friend a sharp look that should have warned him against the dangers of toying with these people, but Mercutio didn't seem to notice, or rather, didn't care. Either way, it appeared that while he had hoped that they might be spared from a fight today, they would be walking into one instead.

"Sir," Tybalt's manners began to irk Mercutio and he clenched his jaw. "I'll be more than willing to do so, if you give me a reason to."

"Can't you find a reason without me giving you one?"

Growing tired of Mercutio's game, Tybalt sighed in much the same way that Benvolio had done moments before. "You consort with Romeo."

"Consort?" Mercutio asked, feigning idiocy. "What do you think we are? Minstrels?" He rested a hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword as a warning. "If we be but minstrels then I shall use this as my fiddle and make you dance." His tone was dangerous and Benvolio was quick to intervene.

"We are in a public place." He stated the obvious to the bickering pair. "Go someplace private if you wish to continue on, speak rationally, or simply leave us alone." He aimed the last suggestion at the Capulets.

"You would dare to rob the public of a show such as this?" Mercutio questioned fervently, the heat making a fool of his anger.

It was at this time that the dimension travelers finally caught up with the Shakespearian verse that they were trapped in. James stepped out of the apothecary and onto the hot Italian streets. He quickly caught sights of the likenesses of his friends in a heated debate with what he assumed to be the so-called relatives of Lily.

He couldn't help it, but a smile rose to his lips at the thought of her. Who would have known that all it would have taken was a tragedy to bring them together? Of course, they weren't technically together but that was a fact that James was more than happy to dismiss. She had kissed him, which was enough for him.

Tybalt also grinned, but his reasoning was far more sadistic. "Good day gentlemen," he dismissed Mercutio and Benvolio upon seeing James' appearance. "Here comes the man I'm looking for."

"He's not the one you're looking for." Mercutio tried desperately to save his friend from the impending trouble that had undoubtedly found him. Unfortunately for James, Tybalt ignored Mercutio's cries.

"Romeo, you are a villain," Tybalt informed James sharply.

The verses of the play ringing sharply through James's mind, he tried to push past the other young man forcefully; however, Tybalt must have been expecting such an advance, because he blocked James easily.

"I am not a villain," James informed the small crowd easily. "You haven't a clue who I am, but I am most certainly not a villain. So, simply put, goodbye." Trying the tactic of pause and then run as fast as he could, James hoped to break past these men and get on to the more pressing matter of returning to the Montague home to retrieve his wand. The potion was nearly complete, and it would not be long before James and Lily would find themselves back at Hogwarts.

Once more, Tybalt was ready for the sudden leap of James's body and caught him tightly. "You have done me too much harm, Romeo." He shoved James backwards and he stumbled a little at the sudden force against his body. "Now draw your sword, and we shall settle this."

"I have done you no harm," James protested, suddenly wishing he would have thought of doing something to him. Perhaps a nice little spell to flip him upside down would do the trick, as he had done to Severus Snape once before? It was too late now, no deed had been done and yet he faced a duel, for once without his wand.

"This is ridiculous," Mercutio intervened. He withdrew his own sword and pointed it and the Capulets, Tybalt in particular. "Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you fight me?" It sounded like a dare, even to James, who still found this manner of speaking a little peculiar.

"What do you want from me?" Tybalt questioned, eyeing the tip of the sword precariously.

"Good King of Cats, I want to take one of your nine lives. And afterwards, depending on how well you treat me, perhaps I'll beat the other eight out of you. Come now, unsheathe your sword," he taunted light-heartedly.

Nodding a little, Tybalt pulled his sword out of its sheath and pointed it at Mercutio. "Alright, I'll fight you."

Knowing that the only direction this could lead to would be bloodshed; James felt that it was his job to cut in. After all, for some odd reason, this was his fault. As loyal to James as Sirius was, Mercutio was willing to take this battle into his own hands to protect Romeo. It was foolish, and James wouldn't allow it.

"Mercutio, put your sword away," James ordered him.

"Now Tybalt, perform your forward thrust and let us get on with it," Mercutio said, ignoring James all together.

Before anyone had any time to process what was going on, the clash of sword against sword rang clearly through the small street. With the odd attire and use of ancient swords, James would have mistaken this for a re-enactment of some sort of battle scene, but as the vibrations of such heavy metals whacking against each other was so near that he could feel it, he couldn't mistake this for anything but what it was – a fight to the death.

"Draw your sword, Benvolio!" James ordered the other young man as he unsheathed the sword that he had considered part of the decorations of the too-tight pants. "You two loons!" He called out to Mercutio and Tybalt. "Didn't the Prince ban fighting in the streets? Stop, both of you!" Merlin, did he hate playing the peace maker. That was more Remus's forte, or even Lily's, and he was normally the one starting things like this.

Neither Mercutio nor Tybalt broke apart at James's cries, however. Taking an angry step towards them, he went to break the pair apart when Tybalt's sword pierced Mercutio's body. James froze in his advance and watched as Tybalt and the other Capulets made their swift exit so that the blame for this incident could not be placed on them.

"I have been wounded!" Mercutio cried after them. "May a plague curse both your houses!"

As James advanced towards Mercutio, so did Benvolio. Both of them surveyed their friend with concern. It was the ties between this boy and his own best friend that caused James' breath to hitch in his throat.

"Are you hurt?" Benvolio questioned.

"It's just a scratch, but it's enough." Mercutio admitted, the wound trickling blood onto his clothing. "You, boy!" he called to the nearest peasant boy still wandering the streets. "Go find me a doctor!" The boy obeyed and left the scene quickly, certainly having seen the blood threatening to stain the streets.

"It can't be that bad," James said, trying to assure him with the smallest of smiles.

"It's not very deep, nor is it very wide, but it is enough. It'll do the job, my friends. Tomorrow I shall be housed in a grave. I am spent. I am done for in this world, I believe. May a plague strike both your houses! That foul, disgusting braggart who fights like he learned it in a book! Why did you try and stop us?" He turned on James. "It was your cries that distracted me."

"I thought that it was the right thing to do," James told him honestly.

"Benvolio, help me into some house or I shall faint," Mercutio said, looking as though he would certainly fall to the ground if he were to make any sort of movement. "A plague on both your houses! You have made me food for the worms."

Benvolio carefully carried Mercutio's body into the nearest house, begging the homeowners for the intrusion, and James found himself turning away. While he had not really gotten to know the boy, the similarities between Mercutio and Sirius were so apparent that it was making James feel ill.

He walked a few paces but could achieve no more as he dwelled on the fact that this entire altercation should never have happened. While it was plainly written in Shakespeare's original text, James somehow wished that he could have changed what had happened. He and Lily had done it before, hadn't they? They changed the purpose of Friar Lawrence, making him into something that he had not been meant to be. But that was the problem, wasn't it? They hadn't really changed anything. Friar Lawrence had still banded Romeo and Juliet together, while not in marriage, but in a kiss. And now, now Mercutio had fallen at the hands of a Capulet. The story hadn't changed, not really at least.

Spotting Benvolio exiting the house he had borrowed, James knew that Mercutio was dead even before Benvolio had stated it. Even Tybalt chose this moment to make his entrance back into the scene, and James looked at the man with the strongest look of disgust that he could muster.

"Why should he be alive and kicking when Mercutio is dead?" James questioned coldly. "Now, Tybalt." He cornered on the young man as he approached. "You can call me a villain as you did before, but it'll be you, I, or both of us that will soon be meeting with Mercutio again." Of course, James had the added help that he had read Romeo and Juliet. Though he would never admit it to anyone back home. Ever.

"Foolish boy, you are the one that befriended him. It only makes sense that it would be you to join him in the afterlife." Tybalt said, obviously trying his hand at being witty. It wasn't working too well for him.

"I suppose we shall see." James stated, using his drawn sword to his advantage, plunging at Tybalt.

The weight of the sword was almost too much in his hand as he was unaccustomed to something so large in a battle. Wands were easy to maneuver with, but there was something about the physical exertion of sword fighting that made anger management much more fluid. Taking a deep breath, James fought the urge to clench his eyes shut as he knew what the story called for him to do at this point. With one final blow, he found his own sword sinking into the flesh of the young man across from him, knowing that it had been a direct hit.

Unlike Mercutio, Tybalt's death came swiftly and James stumbled backwards away from the body. Breathing was an art that he could no longer master as the realization that he had just killed a man sunk in. Sure it had been a fictional character, but the feel of flesh and bone connecting with the metal of the sword had been real enough.

"Romeo, get out of here." Benvolio warned. "People are watching, and Tybalt is dead. The Prince will sentence you to death if you stick around. Now go!"

James didn't need to be told twice. He quickly turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could down the streets of Verona. He didn't know exactly where he was going, but he knew that it didn't need to be someplace far. At least, not for now.

While James took off running down the streets, the citizens of the watch were quickly approaching to see to the matters at hand.

"Where did that man go? The one that killed Mercutio? That murderous Tybalt, which way did he go?" A citizen of the watch asked of Benvolio.

"Tybalt is there." Benvolio pointed a few yards away where Tybalt's body lay on the ground.

Not advancing close enough to notice that Tybalt was lying dead, the man ordered him to get up. Naturally, being dead, Tybalt didn't listen. Just as the citizen of the watch was growing annoyed with Tybalt's corpse, Lord and Lady Montague as well as Lord and Lady Capulet appeared on the scene with the prince.

"Where is the man that started this fight?" The prince demanded of Benvolio.

"Prince, I can tell you everything you wish to know about this fight. Tybalt is lying over there, dead. He killed your relative, Mercutio and in return, Romeo killed him." Benvolio summed the story up easily and waited for the outcries that were sure to come.

Lady Capulet was the first to cry out, "Tybalt was my nephew! My nephew is dead!" Her weeping followed quickly, dampening the handkerchief that she had suddenly pulled out. "Oh fair and just Prince, take revenge and kill someone from the Montague family!"

Prince ignored her demand of his revenge and instead turned another question to Benvolio. "Who started this fight?"

"Tybalt did. That was, before Romeo killed him. Romeo told him how silly this argument was and mentioned briefly that you would not be pleased with it. He said this all calmly but could not make peace with Tybalt, who was in a fighting mood. He fought Mercutio for a moment before Romeo tried desperately to break it up; however, Tybalt lunged at Mercutio and then fled the scene.

"Soon enough he came back and Romeo sought vengeance for his friend's death. Before I could do anything about it, Romeo had slain Tybalt. Having seen what had happened, Romeo ran away. I swear this to you, my Prince, I swear it on my life," Benvolio admitted forcefully.

"Benvolio is part of the Montague family," Lady Capulet spit out. "His tie to them makes him tell lies! He is not telling the truth. There were twenty Montagues fighting against my poor, dear Tybalt. I demand justice. Romeo was the one to kill Tybalt, so Romeo must die as well."

"Romeo has killed Tybalt. Tybalt has killed Mercutio. Who should pay the price for Mercutio's life?" Prince questioned Lady Capulet.

"Not Romeo, Prince," Lord Montague interjected. "He was Mercutio's friend. His crime paid justice by taking Tybalt's life."

"And for that, Romeo shall be exiled from Verona. I shall not be involved in your rivalry. Mercutio was my relative, and he lies dead because of your bloody feud. I'll punish you so harshly that you'll regret causing me this loss. I won't listen to your pleas or excuses. You can't get out of trouble by praying or crying, so don't bother. Tell Romeo to leave the city immediately, or else, if he is found, he will be killed. Take away this body, and do what I say. Showing mercy by pardoning killers only causes more murders."