Chapter 1: The Cast List
"It's posted! It's posted!" Hermione Granger squealed as she raced up to her two best friends at the Great Hall table. Ron Weasley and Harry Potter both looked up and sighed.
"Ready to see how bad we did in auditions?" Ron asked.
"If you are mate," Harry Potter replied.
Not long after Hogwarts had announced Sleeping Beauty as their choice for the annual spring play, Fred and George had bet the best mates 5 Galleons each that they wouldn't audition. That was the only reason Harry and Ron were bothering to check the cast list at all. They had tried out to one-up Fred and George (and also to support Hermione, who had wanted to try out from the beginning).
By the time the Golden Trio reached Professor Flitwick's door, many other fellow fifth year students had already crowded around. The friends pushed through to read the list. It took reading only two lines of type for their jaws to drop.
"Ron! You're Prince Phillip! And Hermione's Sleeping Beauty!" Hermione squealed at having gotten the female lead, then remembered what part Ron had won, and blushed furiously. He wouldn't have to kiss her awake…would he? Secretly, all of her fantasies had seemingly come true at once. Ron had reached the same line of thought, but was trying to brush it off by acting all nonchalant. "Alright, mate, what did you get?"
Harry read further down before spluttering, "I'm Prince Philip's horse?! With Fred and George?!"
Ron burst out laughing at the thought of his best mate and idiot twin brothers crammed into a horse costume with him sitting on it. The friends only laughed harder when they saw that Lavender Brown was Maleficent, Slytherins Pansy Parkinson, Eloise Midgen and Millicent Bulstrode were the 3 Fairies ("the ugliest Fairies ever, they'll be!" Harry chortled), and Malfoy was the dragon ("Finally, I get to run that slimy git through and not get detention!" Ron crowed). They did not stop smiling the rest of the day.