Chapter 14-Nights of Glory and Stars: Part II
Authors Note: I hope this makes up for my absence. I'm really spitting up stuff so it might not be up to part, but hopefully the last part will be awesome. I really hope so. Do you guys like all the direction? Reaction? The way it's worded? And I'm sorry about not having enough of my words (*g*) but I am writing a story about a play performance so I have to put in there. I just hope I do it well.
I'm gonna thank you all this time and next time so THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ANYONE who gave positive review and big hugs to those who reviewed more than once, all of you, oh my goddess thank you (In no order): Heather, Xenia, Sarah Lady WaterTiger, ~F~, Prophetess Of Hearts, Bunnybee, Tidmag, Hippy Flower, Sev's-Gurl, Punkie Sakura, Derkaun Zarion, Lise, Ja'kai, Anna, Sevi Snape, Joy M., thecoffeebringer, Hermoine Weasley, Ruka-chan, Brittania Potter, Lucretia Bauhaus, PB+J, Liz, Jenni, Osti, Ashti, ILLK
And extra special, cheering charm thank yous to the KLF fan club, you know who you are (if you don't: PofH, Tidmag, F, Bunnybee, Xenia and Heather!!!!)
I hope you guys really enjoy this!! Share the joy!
-luv
~*AniAO
-
Harry awoke feeling warm and out of his own skin. He didn't open his eyes, not yet, hoping to expel the harsh light that might sting his corneas if he did.
"Mmm…." He murmured aloud, his mind traveling to the night before, the first performance. Wild applause had greeted them at the end, standing and stomping and girls weeping and screaming themselves hoarse in a fit of lust. He chuckled to see them, not only Slytherins, following around Snape. One had even asked for an autograph, which had sent the whole new "Severus Fan Club" as he had called them, into the same fervor. Harry was now not a celebrity for his darned scar but for what he had done onstage, young Gryffindors following him around, people pumping his hand. And then there was the aftermath, a huge party in the green and dressing rooms, Fred and George running the whole show with food and drink, both alcoholic and non-, everyone in a buzzed state from all the adrenaline. Most had not even bothered to take their makeup off, including Severus, which had made Harry very happy. Everyone partied, or erupted into fits of love, Hermoine and Ron holding hands and talking quietly in the corner, Fred and George, Angelina and Alicia dancing somewhat unsteadily together, and Kyra, one of the fairies, holding hands with another fairy Ravenclaw. What had he been doing?
And then it hit him, his eyes shooting open. There was no pain to meet his corneas, only dim light as he realized where he was. He sat up in bed, not his bed, covered in emerald and deep silver blankets.
"Severus…"
As if his whisper had been a secret spell, Snape slipped out of a door, combing his dark mane with a lethal looking comb. Harry then realized he was shirtless, but still had on his boxers. He pulled the blankets over him slightly more.
"I was waiting to see when you would wake up…" The potion's master murmured and pulled on a shirt over his bare chest, still slightly bearing a sheen from the steamy shower.
"What time is it?" Harry croaked as Sev smiled.
"A little past noon…You slept so beautifully I didn't want to wake you…" Harry blushed and Severus opened the curtain on the stony window slightly, letting in light from an unknown source.
"And I thought you never showered," Harry teased and Severus shot him a withering glare before tossing some clothes over to him. Harry pulled on the shirt and jeans, rubbing his hair, tousled as always and pulled his glasses on, making everything less blurry. "Oh bugger!" he cried, "I've got to go back to the common room…I said I'd meet Herm and Ron for lunch." Severus clucked his tongue but pulled his hair back into a ponytail and walked over to a wall that had a Slytherin tapestry covering it. Tugging on a tassel, the tapestry opened and revealed a hole.
"Woah…" Harry breathed, "Where does it go?"
"Gryffindor common room." Harry goggled and sat on the edge of Severus' large bed. "You think all those passageways on that map were from those others? I wouldn't let James put the best ones on there…" A spark of a smile appeared in the older man's eyes and Harry laughed but then grew somber.
"Sev, what…what did we do last night..?" Snape walked over from the hole and stood in front of Harry.
"Nothing…" hand spread in front of him, an open and truthful gesture as he continued, "You were so tired I took you down here and we fell asleep." Harry racked his brain, remembering falling asleep in warm, comforting arms, cool and silky hair caressing his cheeks. He gave a relived sigh before pecking Severus on the forehead and bolting down the hole.
Severus shook his head with a small smile and began to make the bed.
-
Saturday night had more people trying to clamor into seats than opening night, word of the Potion's Teacher as a commanding Oberon spreading like wildfire through the school, as well as the wizarding community. As Lupin looked out on the audience, he wondered what a zoo Sunday night, a later show and the final performance would be like.
He cued the first scene as the house lights flickered.
-
The audience was still reeling from Severus' Oberon and Harry's jubilant Puck. A new group of girls who had gotten in were in incoherent piles of themselves and several of the teachers who had made it were in shock.
However, ignoring the high emotions of the audience, the play continued. The lights rose as Titania's large flower sat in the center, Cho hidden behind it. A large yelp came from the audience and all heads turned to see Fred trip over himself coming down the aisles. Titters were heard and Fred, as Quince, rubbed his head but quickly came to the front of the stage. Crabbe and Goyle came next, entering walking backwards respectively from stage left and right, unaware of the other presence's onstage until they ran into each other and Fred. They all yelled loudly and began to bolt before they realized who each other was and chuckled slightly. Dean and Neville, Starveling and Flute came shrieking from an outside aisles, sending the group onstage to huddle and crouch in front of the flower as they bounded up the stage and pointed with huffing breaths into the darkness. There was nothing and Fred smacked them both with a scroll, mouth pursed. George came up the center aisle, whistling and laughing. Mounting the stage, he watched as Fred began to speak.
"Are we all met?/" Fred looked around, seeing the group catch their breaths and whisper to each other, pointing nervously around the dark woods around them.
"Pat, pat;" George boomed impressively and pounded Neville on the back, sending him flying and sprawling on the stage in a pantomime fall. The audience snickered and George shrugged, "and here's a marvelous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn- brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action as well will do it before the duke. Peter Quince,-" Fred looked up, annoyed, from scrawling in a scroll.
"What sayest thou, bully Bottom?" he sighed.
"There are things…" George said slowly, trying to make his point as grandiose and booming as he could, "in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?" The whole group began to shake their heads.
"By'r lakin, a parlous fear," Crabbe murmured thickly.
"I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done," Dean agreed nervously.
"Not a whit:," George silenced them and pulled them all into a half moon huddle, "I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say , we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver; this will put them out of fear." Fred had wiggled out of the huddle and scrutinized George but said slowly:
"Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and six," George shook his head and came close to Fred.
"No make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight." Fred narrowed his eyes and puffed his chest out but Crabbe shuffled in between them.
"Will not the ladies be afeared of the lion?" Goyle hurried over as well and got in between them as well. "I fear it, I promise you," he said nervously. George shook his head and brought them over underneath his arms.
"Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to bring in-" He placed a hand to his brow, "God shield us!- a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living;" he took a deep breath, the audience hanging on his every word, "and we out to look to it."
"Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion," Goyle whined.
1 "Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself must speak through saying thus, or to the same defect," George came centerdownstage and spread his hand with a smarmy benevolent smile, "Ladies," he looked back, "or," back to the audience, "Fair ladies!'-I would wish you'-" George looked back again, "or" audience, "I would request you-or-I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it I am a man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner." Fred looked exasperated and hit a scroll against his palm.
"Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;" all attention went to him, "that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight." They furrowed their brows, scratched their heads, gave blank looks to each other. Finally something seemed to dawn on Goyle and he said slowly:
"Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?" George snapped his fingers.
"A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanac; find out moonshine, find out moonshine." Fred pulled something from a bag hanging on his waist and they gathered to look at the date.
"Yes, it doth shine that night," Fred said excitedly. The group cheered and beat each others backs.
George smiled, "Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play open, and the moon may shine in at the casement." He seemed very satisfied at these words and the group assented. However, Fred was walking off, deep in thought.
"Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall." Goyle shook his head and threw up his hands.
"You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?" Fred looked infuriated as the group huddled around him, expectant and awaiting.
"Some man," He looked around, "or other must present Wall: and let him have some plaster, or some loam or some rough-cast about him to signify wall; and let him hold his fingers thus," he stuck his fingers out in the middle of the half-circle huddle and made them into a kind of peace sign, "and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper." The group looked quite satisfied and Fred slumped his shoulders in resignation.
"If that may be, then all is well." He pushed his way through the group and stood in the center. "Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake: and so every one according to his cue." The group nodded and sprinkled themselves around the stage, chatting and pretending to try and memorize lines and George, Fred and Neville gathered in the middle of the stage.
A vine lowered, revealing Harry lounging in it and another like a hammock, the group oblivious to him. He waggled his eyebrows and jumped to the ledge, and around the stage, peering at them with a bright grin.
"What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here,/ So near the cradle of the fairy queen?" He looked to the flower and watched them all, "What, a play toward!" He shrugged and looked expectantly to the audience, "I'll be an auditor;/ An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause." He winked at the audience and ran from sight.
Fred began to explain something to George and Neville, full of thinning patience, "Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth." Neville slumped and George seemed to steady himself, exhaling out breath in preparation before he boomed, arms flying.
"Thisby, the flowers of odious savors sweet-," Fred stomped on the ground and cut with his hands under his neck.
"Odors, odors!" he cried and George stiffened before nodding shakily and continuing in the same hammy voice.
"-odors savors sweet:/ So hat thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. But hark, a voice!" He leaned his hole body to one side, a hand to an ear as Neville fluttered his eyebrows. "stay thou but here a while, And by and by, I will to thee appear." He bowed with a flourish and Fred threw his head in his hands, causing the audience to laugh as George bolted off. Harry appeared from behind a large flower and looked in wonder.
"A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here." He disappeared again and Neville shuffled forward.
"Must I speak now?" he whined and Fred nodded with barely controlled impatience. Neville backed away before placing his hands to his heart and said in an airy, girlish voice:
"Most radiant Pyramus-," he trilled, "most lily-white of hue/ Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier,/ Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely," he sighed, sappy smile coming on as the audience began to laugh harder, "Jew/ As true as turest horse that yet would never tire,/ I'll meet thee Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb!" He cried out, one hand towards the heavens, one hand on his brow. Fred threw his script down.
"'Ninus' tomb man: why, you must not speak that yet: that you answer to Pyramus: you speak in all your part at once; cues and all. Pyramus, enter" Fred sighed, "your cue is past; it is 'never tire.'"
Neville nodded once and continued in the same vein, "O-As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire."
Harry popped up from a flower and whistled as George came out, his features enchanted with a black nose, elongated chin and mouth like donkeys, and long, brown, coarse ears protruding from his red hair. Dean, Crabbe, and Goyle began to back away, mouths wordless and moving as he strode onto the strange.
"If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine!" he cried out and Neville and Fred turned to him, Neville giving a girlish scream and Fred's mouth dropping open. The group began to crouch together, pointing at George.
"O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted." Fred was frantic, "Pray, masters! Fly masters! Help!" He yelped and they scattered, running off separate entrances. Harry ran from his spot center stage and looked around him eagerly. He grinned devilishly.
"I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,/ Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:/ Sometimes a horse I'll bee, sometime a hound,/ A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire:/ and neigh and bark and grunt and roar and burn," His voice went higher, faster as he jumped up in the air, floating momentarily, "Like horse, hound, boar, bear, fire at every turn," He burst down the center aisle again, leaving George alone as the audience roared.
-
The lights went up again, revealing Snape lounging, Oberon crown slightly askew as he drummed his fingers languidly from the ledge he lay on. A girl gasped in ecstasy and he didn't even raise an eybrow before propping his chin in his hands.
"I wonder," he demurred, "if Titania be awaked;/ Then, what it was that next came in her eye,/ Which she must dote on in extremity." He grinned fiendishly to himself and Harry burst in from the center aisle, grabbing a vine that had been lowered and swinging, with an in-air somersault, to the higher ledge. Snape didn't even look up.
"Here," he sat up, smiling broadly at the also laying Harry, whose head was propped in his hands, looking eager to share something, "comes my messenger/ How now, mad spirit!" Harry laughed musically and Snape leaned forward, "What night-rule now about this haunted grove?" Harry leaned in as well, looking conspiratorially around him before coming in front of Snape's face, mouth to his ear.
No one saw Snape shiver slightly at the breath of Harry.
"My Mistress with a monster is in love." Harry breathed, as if a secret and leaned back, Snape's face lit up like a Christmas tree, awaiting more. Harry slithered down from the ledge and made it to the ground, kneeling up to the relaxed Snape. "Near to her close and consecrated bower,/ While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,/ A crew of patches, rude mechanical, That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,/ Were met together to rehearse a play/ Intended for great Theseus' wedding day." The audience watched, feeling almost voyeurish at this otherworldly, yet benignly intimate fairy meeting as Harry levitated up and got on the other side of Snape, laying his chin in hands on Snape's taut chest as the older man listened in laughter. "The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,/ Who Pyramus presented, in their sport/ When I did him at this advantage take, An ass's nole I fixed on his head;," Snape let out a growl of laughter and Harry was encouraged on, standing, his feet straddling Snape's sides. The audience watched in rapt attention, muddled feelings all blending together. "Anon his Thisbe must be answered,/ And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy," his voice grew high-pitched, excited as Snape's eyes glittered in anticipation, "As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,/ Or russet pated choughs, many in sort/ Rising and cawing at the gun's report,/ Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,/ So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;" Bending down, he said in a low, glee-filled tone, "And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; He murder cries and help from Athens calls/ Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,/ Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;/ For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;/ Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch." Harry straightened again and gestured to himself with both thumbs to chest, looking very pleased, "I led them on in this distracted fear,/ And left sweet Pyramus translated there:" He opened one eye and said each word slowly, a grin playing on his features as he leaned slowly closer and closer with each word to Severus, "When in that moment, so it came to pass, Titania waked and straightway loved an ass." He dissolved into laughter and Severus laughed, low and hard as Harry rolled backwards onto the ground. Snape leaned over, propping himself up, observing Harry with a warm smile.
"This falls out better than I could devise./ But-," He got down and pulled Harry up, taking him under his arm, "has thou yet latch'd the Athenians eyes/ With the love-juice, as I bed thee do?"
Harry waved him away, an indignant look on his face, "I took him sleeping- that is finish'd too-" He sounded cocky and continued to Snape, "And the Athenian woman by his side:/ That when he waked, of force she must be eyed."
Hermoine then stumbled in, pulling at her dress and looking angrily behind her as Seamus tripped in next, falling flat on his face as Hermoine huffed as she continued on. The audience laughed and Snape pulled Harry by his shoulder away, "Stand close: this is the same Athenian." Harry bent forward, squinting, but then his mouth dropped open and the crowd laughed.
"This be the woman, but not this the man…" he said slowly and they hid behind a flower, their heads sticking out from both sides.
Seamus wearily got up from the floor and looked pleadingly to Hermia who shot him venomous glare as she inspected her dress. "Oh why rebuke you that loves you so?/ Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe." Hermoine smiled sarcastically and turned away from him, towards the audience.
"Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,/ For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse," She turned onto Seamus, jabbing her finger into Seamus who backed away in fear as she growled out, "If thou has slain Lysander in his sleep,/ Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,/ And kill me too./ It cannot be but thou has murder'd him; So should a murder look, so dead, so grim." She gave him a little push and he gave a pouty look, spreading his hands.
"So should the murder'd look, and so shuld I,/ Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:/ Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,/ As yonder Venus, in her shimmering sphere." With a moony look, he gave her a wishy-washy smile and she let out a cry in exasperation.
"What's this to my Lysander? Where is he?/ Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?" She pleaded, sidling up to his chest. Seamus gave an unpleasant smile and waved something away.
"I had rather give his carcass to my hounds." Hermoine looked disgusted and shot away from him, hugging herself around the abdomen.
"And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?/An adder did it; for with double tongue/ Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung./"
The squeeze that was shared between Harry and Severus was invisible behind the flower at this line.
"You spend your passion on a misprised mood:/" Seamus looked at her angrily, "I am not guilty of Lysander's blood:/ Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell."
"I pray thee, tell me then that he is well." A begging voice, ragged and pleading as Hermoine looked to him. A smile spread across Seamus' face and he looked eager to her.
"An if I could, what should I get therefore?" Hermoine stormed up to him and blew up into his face.
"A privilege never to see me more./ And from thy hated presence part I so:/" She began to run off, crying out behind her, "See me no more, whether he be dead or no." Seamus looked like he was going to say something but just slumped his shoulders and shook his head.
"There is no following her in this fierce vein:/ Here therefore a while I will remain./ So sorrow's heaviness doth sorrow owe:/ Which now in some slight measure it will pay If for his tender here," He gestured down and stretched out on the ground, "If for his tender here I make some stay." He lay, turned his back to the audience and feigned sleep.
Snape stiffed from behind the flower and Harry slunk away, hunching downstage left, biting his nails.
"What hast thou done?" Snape roared and the audience jumped back as Harry squeezed his eyes shut and Snape advanced, "thou has mistaken quite/ And laid the love-juice on some true-love's slight:/ Of thy misprision must perforce ensue/ Some true love turn'd and not a fals turn'd true."
Harry kept his eyes shut and cried out nervously, "Then fate o'er rules, that one man holding through/ A million fail, confounding oath on oath." Snape spun him to face him and Harry opened his eyes.
"About the wood go swifter than the wind/ And Helena," he emphasized, "of Athens look thou find:/ All fancy sick she is and pale of cheer,/ With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:/ By some illusion see that thou bring her here:/ I'll charm his eyes against she do appear./" It was an order and Harry nodded frantically, backing away.
"I go, I go, look how I go,/ Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow." He ran off upstage left. Oberon shook his head resigned and slunk over to Seamus, bending over him with the flower.
"Flower of this purple dye,/ Hit with Cupid's archery,/ Sink in apple of his eye./ When his love he doth espy,/ Let her shine as gloriously,/ As the Venus of the sky./ When thou wakest,/ if she be by,/ Beg of her for remedy. /," he chanted softly, standing as Harry burst in from downstage right.
"Captain of our fairy band," he said excitedly, "Helena," a squeal, "is here at hand;/ And the youth mistook by me,/ Pleading for a lover's fee./ Shall we there fond pageant see?/" He dissolved in raucous laughter, slapping his thighs, "Lord what fools these mortals be!/"
Severus exhaled exasperatedly and grabbed Harry around the waist lifting him as he walked off, the audience murmuring and muttering to themselves, "Stand aside; The noise they wake,/ Will cause Demetrius to awake."
Harry kicked his legs but put his chin in hand, brow furrowed in thought as he slowly said, contemplating, "Then will two," he counted on his fingers, "At once woo-," he paused and his eyes lit up, "one;" Snape took him slowly behind the flower and he continued the speech, eyes eager, "That must needs be sport alone;/And those things do best please me/ That befal preposterously" he winked at the audience and the two disappeared again behind the flower.
Lavender entered in from a side aisle at a run, Ron following doggedly at her heels. She grabbed a stick from the ground, oblivious to Seamus, and stood her ground fiercely against Ron. Ron began in catching his breath, "Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?" he sucked in breath and continued quickly, "Scorn and derision never come in tears:/ Look, when I vow I weep: and vows so born/ In their nativity all truth appears./ How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?" He leaned on his knees, gulping in air. Lavender swung her stick pathetically, hunched and fierce.
" You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills turht, O devilish-holy fray!/ These vows are Hermia's," She let her guard down slightly and Ron came forward but she swung it again, "will you give her o'er? Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:/ Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,/ Will even weigh and both as light as tails." She pleaded almost with him and he shook his head in earnestness.
"I had no judgement when to her I swore," he pleaded.
"Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er," she spat back.
"Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you," he tried again. Before Lavender could say anything, Seamus had risen and was kneeling over to Lavender, her stick clattering to the floor, her and Ron's mouths open in shock.
"Oh Helen," Seamus said in wide eyed awe, a breath of adoration, "Goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!" The audience roared, most getting it, "To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?/ Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show/ Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!/ That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,/ Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow/ When thou hold'st up thy hand: O let me kiss/ This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!" He grabbed her hand, lips puckered, as the audience drowned out all other sound with their laughter.
-
Authors Note: I hope this makes up for my absence. I'm really spitting up stuff so it might not be up to part, but hopefully the last part will be awesome. I really hope so. Do you guys like all the direction? Reaction? The way it's worded? And I'm sorry about not having enough of my words (*g*) but I am writing a story about a play performance so I have to put in there. I just hope I do it well.
I'm gonna thank you all this time and next time so THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ANYONE who gave positive review and big hugs to those who reviewed more than once, all of you, oh my goddess thank you (In no order): Heather, Xenia, Sarah Lady WaterTiger, ~F~, Prophetess Of Hearts, Bunnybee, Tidmag, Hippy Flower, Sev's-Gurl, Punkie Sakura, Derkaun Zarion, Lise, Ja'kai, Anna, Sevi Snape, Joy M., thecoffeebringer, Hermoine Weasley, Ruka-chan, Brittania Potter, Lucretia Bauhaus, PB+J, Liz, Jenni, Osti, Ashti, ILLK
And extra special, cheering charm thank yous to the KLF fan club, you know who you are (if you don't: PofH, Tidmag, F, Bunnybee, Xenia and Heather!!!!)
I hope you guys really enjoy this!! Share the joy!
-luv
~*AniAO
-
Harry awoke feeling warm and out of his own skin. He didn't open his eyes, not yet, hoping to expel the harsh light that might sting his corneas if he did.
"Mmm…." He murmured aloud, his mind traveling to the night before, the first performance. Wild applause had greeted them at the end, standing and stomping and girls weeping and screaming themselves hoarse in a fit of lust. He chuckled to see them, not only Slytherins, following around Snape. One had even asked for an autograph, which had sent the whole new "Severus Fan Club" as he had called them, into the same fervor. Harry was now not a celebrity for his darned scar but for what he had done onstage, young Gryffindors following him around, people pumping his hand. And then there was the aftermath, a huge party in the green and dressing rooms, Fred and George running the whole show with food and drink, both alcoholic and non-, everyone in a buzzed state from all the adrenaline. Most had not even bothered to take their makeup off, including Severus, which had made Harry very happy. Everyone partied, or erupted into fits of love, Hermoine and Ron holding hands and talking quietly in the corner, Fred and George, Angelina and Alicia dancing somewhat unsteadily together, and Kyra, one of the fairies, holding hands with another fairy Ravenclaw. What had he been doing?
And then it hit him, his eyes shooting open. There was no pain to meet his corneas, only dim light as he realized where he was. He sat up in bed, not his bed, covered in emerald and deep silver blankets.
"Severus…"
As if his whisper had been a secret spell, Snape slipped out of a door, combing his dark mane with a lethal looking comb. Harry then realized he was shirtless, but still had on his boxers. He pulled the blankets over him slightly more.
"I was waiting to see when you would wake up…" The potion's master murmured and pulled on a shirt over his bare chest, still slightly bearing a sheen from the steamy shower.
"What time is it?" Harry croaked as Sev smiled.
"A little past noon…You slept so beautifully I didn't want to wake you…" Harry blushed and Severus opened the curtain on the stony window slightly, letting in light from an unknown source.
"And I thought you never showered," Harry teased and Severus shot him a withering glare before tossing some clothes over to him. Harry pulled on the shirt and jeans, rubbing his hair, tousled as always and pulled his glasses on, making everything less blurry. "Oh bugger!" he cried, "I've got to go back to the common room…I said I'd meet Herm and Ron for lunch." Severus clucked his tongue but pulled his hair back into a ponytail and walked over to a wall that had a Slytherin tapestry covering it. Tugging on a tassel, the tapestry opened and revealed a hole.
"Woah…" Harry breathed, "Where does it go?"
"Gryffindor common room." Harry goggled and sat on the edge of Severus' large bed. "You think all those passageways on that map were from those others? I wouldn't let James put the best ones on there…" A spark of a smile appeared in the older man's eyes and Harry laughed but then grew somber.
"Sev, what…what did we do last night..?" Snape walked over from the hole and stood in front of Harry.
"Nothing…" hand spread in front of him, an open and truthful gesture as he continued, "You were so tired I took you down here and we fell asleep." Harry racked his brain, remembering falling asleep in warm, comforting arms, cool and silky hair caressing his cheeks. He gave a relived sigh before pecking Severus on the forehead and bolting down the hole.
Severus shook his head with a small smile and began to make the bed.
-
Saturday night had more people trying to clamor into seats than opening night, word of the Potion's Teacher as a commanding Oberon spreading like wildfire through the school, as well as the wizarding community. As Lupin looked out on the audience, he wondered what a zoo Sunday night, a later show and the final performance would be like.
He cued the first scene as the house lights flickered.
-
The audience was still reeling from Severus' Oberon and Harry's jubilant Puck. A new group of girls who had gotten in were in incoherent piles of themselves and several of the teachers who had made it were in shock.
However, ignoring the high emotions of the audience, the play continued. The lights rose as Titania's large flower sat in the center, Cho hidden behind it. A large yelp came from the audience and all heads turned to see Fred trip over himself coming down the aisles. Titters were heard and Fred, as Quince, rubbed his head but quickly came to the front of the stage. Crabbe and Goyle came next, entering walking backwards respectively from stage left and right, unaware of the other presence's onstage until they ran into each other and Fred. They all yelled loudly and began to bolt before they realized who each other was and chuckled slightly. Dean and Neville, Starveling and Flute came shrieking from an outside aisles, sending the group onstage to huddle and crouch in front of the flower as they bounded up the stage and pointed with huffing breaths into the darkness. There was nothing and Fred smacked them both with a scroll, mouth pursed. George came up the center aisle, whistling and laughing. Mounting the stage, he watched as Fred began to speak.
"Are we all met?/" Fred looked around, seeing the group catch their breaths and whisper to each other, pointing nervously around the dark woods around them.
"Pat, pat;" George boomed impressively and pounded Neville on the back, sending him flying and sprawling on the stage in a pantomime fall. The audience snickered and George shrugged, "and here's a marvelous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn- brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action as well will do it before the duke. Peter Quince,-" Fred looked up, annoyed, from scrawling in a scroll.
"What sayest thou, bully Bottom?" he sighed.
"There are things…" George said slowly, trying to make his point as grandiose and booming as he could, "in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?" The whole group began to shake their heads.
"By'r lakin, a parlous fear," Crabbe murmured thickly.
"I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done," Dean agreed nervously.
"Not a whit:," George silenced them and pulled them all into a half moon huddle, "I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say , we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver; this will put them out of fear." Fred had wiggled out of the huddle and scrutinized George but said slowly:
"Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written in eight and six," George shook his head and came close to Fred.
"No make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight." Fred narrowed his eyes and puffed his chest out but Crabbe shuffled in between them.
"Will not the ladies be afeared of the lion?" Goyle hurried over as well and got in between them as well. "I fear it, I promise you," he said nervously. George shook his head and brought them over underneath his arms.
"Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to bring in-" He placed a hand to his brow, "God shield us!- a lion among ladies, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living;" he took a deep breath, the audience hanging on his every word, "and we out to look to it."
"Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion," Goyle whined.
1 "Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself must speak through saying thus, or to the same defect," George came centerdownstage and spread his hand with a smarmy benevolent smile, "Ladies," he looked back, "or," back to the audience, "Fair ladies!'-I would wish you'-" George looked back again, "or" audience, "I would request you-or-I would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble: my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it I am a man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner." Fred looked exasperated and hit a scroll against his palm.
"Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;" all attention went to him, "that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight." They furrowed their brows, scratched their heads, gave blank looks to each other. Finally something seemed to dawn on Goyle and he said slowly:
"Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?" George snapped his fingers.
"A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanac; find out moonshine, find out moonshine." Fred pulled something from a bag hanging on his waist and they gathered to look at the date.
"Yes, it doth shine that night," Fred said excitedly. The group cheered and beat each others backs.
George smiled, "Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play open, and the moon may shine in at the casement." He seemed very satisfied at these words and the group assented. However, Fred was walking off, deep in thought.
"Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is another thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did talk through the chink of a wall." Goyle shook his head and threw up his hands.
"You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?" Fred looked infuriated as the group huddled around him, expectant and awaiting.
"Some man," He looked around, "or other must present Wall: and let him have some plaster, or some loam or some rough-cast about him to signify wall; and let him hold his fingers thus," he stuck his fingers out in the middle of the half-circle huddle and made them into a kind of peace sign, "and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper." The group looked quite satisfied and Fred slumped his shoulders in resignation.
"If that may be, then all is well." He pushed his way through the group and stood in the center. "Come, sit down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake: and so every one according to his cue." The group nodded and sprinkled themselves around the stage, chatting and pretending to try and memorize lines and George, Fred and Neville gathered in the middle of the stage.
A vine lowered, revealing Harry lounging in it and another like a hammock, the group oblivious to him. He waggled his eyebrows and jumped to the ledge, and around the stage, peering at them with a bright grin.
"What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here,/ So near the cradle of the fairy queen?" He looked to the flower and watched them all, "What, a play toward!" He shrugged and looked expectantly to the audience, "I'll be an auditor;/ An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause." He winked at the audience and ran from sight.
Fred began to explain something to George and Neville, full of thinning patience, "Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth." Neville slumped and George seemed to steady himself, exhaling out breath in preparation before he boomed, arms flying.
"Thisby, the flowers of odious savors sweet-," Fred stomped on the ground and cut with his hands under his neck.
"Odors, odors!" he cried and George stiffened before nodding shakily and continuing in the same hammy voice.
"-odors savors sweet:/ So hat thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. But hark, a voice!" He leaned his hole body to one side, a hand to an ear as Neville fluttered his eyebrows. "stay thou but here a while, And by and by, I will to thee appear." He bowed with a flourish and Fred threw his head in his hands, causing the audience to laugh as George bolted off. Harry appeared from behind a large flower and looked in wonder.
"A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here." He disappeared again and Neville shuffled forward.
"Must I speak now?" he whined and Fred nodded with barely controlled impatience. Neville backed away before placing his hands to his heart and said in an airy, girlish voice:
"Most radiant Pyramus-," he trilled, "most lily-white of hue/ Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier,/ Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely," he sighed, sappy smile coming on as the audience began to laugh harder, "Jew/ As true as turest horse that yet would never tire,/ I'll meet thee Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb!" He cried out, one hand towards the heavens, one hand on his brow. Fred threw his script down.
"'Ninus' tomb man: why, you must not speak that yet: that you answer to Pyramus: you speak in all your part at once; cues and all. Pyramus, enter" Fred sighed, "your cue is past; it is 'never tire.'"
Neville nodded once and continued in the same vein, "O-As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire."
Harry popped up from a flower and whistled as George came out, his features enchanted with a black nose, elongated chin and mouth like donkeys, and long, brown, coarse ears protruding from his red hair. Dean, Crabbe, and Goyle began to back away, mouths wordless and moving as he strode onto the strange.
"If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine!" he cried out and Neville and Fred turned to him, Neville giving a girlish scream and Fred's mouth dropping open. The group began to crouch together, pointing at George.
"O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted." Fred was frantic, "Pray, masters! Fly masters! Help!" He yelped and they scattered, running off separate entrances. Harry ran from his spot center stage and looked around him eagerly. He grinned devilishly.
"I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,/ Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:/ Sometimes a horse I'll bee, sometime a hound,/ A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire:/ and neigh and bark and grunt and roar and burn," His voice went higher, faster as he jumped up in the air, floating momentarily, "Like horse, hound, boar, bear, fire at every turn," He burst down the center aisle again, leaving George alone as the audience roared.
-
The lights went up again, revealing Snape lounging, Oberon crown slightly askew as he drummed his fingers languidly from the ledge he lay on. A girl gasped in ecstasy and he didn't even raise an eybrow before propping his chin in his hands.
"I wonder," he demurred, "if Titania be awaked;/ Then, what it was that next came in her eye,/ Which she must dote on in extremity." He grinned fiendishly to himself and Harry burst in from the center aisle, grabbing a vine that had been lowered and swinging, with an in-air somersault, to the higher ledge. Snape didn't even look up.
"Here," he sat up, smiling broadly at the also laying Harry, whose head was propped in his hands, looking eager to share something, "comes my messenger/ How now, mad spirit!" Harry laughed musically and Snape leaned forward, "What night-rule now about this haunted grove?" Harry leaned in as well, looking conspiratorially around him before coming in front of Snape's face, mouth to his ear.
No one saw Snape shiver slightly at the breath of Harry.
"My Mistress with a monster is in love." Harry breathed, as if a secret and leaned back, Snape's face lit up like a Christmas tree, awaiting more. Harry slithered down from the ledge and made it to the ground, kneeling up to the relaxed Snape. "Near to her close and consecrated bower,/ While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,/ A crew of patches, rude mechanical, That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,/ Were met together to rehearse a play/ Intended for great Theseus' wedding day." The audience watched, feeling almost voyeurish at this otherworldly, yet benignly intimate fairy meeting as Harry levitated up and got on the other side of Snape, laying his chin in hands on Snape's taut chest as the older man listened in laughter. "The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,/ Who Pyramus presented, in their sport/ When I did him at this advantage take, An ass's nole I fixed on his head;," Snape let out a growl of laughter and Harry was encouraged on, standing, his feet straddling Snape's sides. The audience watched in rapt attention, muddled feelings all blending together. "Anon his Thisbe must be answered,/ And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy," his voice grew high-pitched, excited as Snape's eyes glittered in anticipation, "As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,/ Or russet pated choughs, many in sort/ Rising and cawing at the gun's report,/ Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,/ So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;" Bending down, he said in a low, glee-filled tone, "And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls; He murder cries and help from Athens calls/ Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,/ Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;/ For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;/ Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch." Harry straightened again and gestured to himself with both thumbs to chest, looking very pleased, "I led them on in this distracted fear,/ And left sweet Pyramus translated there:" He opened one eye and said each word slowly, a grin playing on his features as he leaned slowly closer and closer with each word to Severus, "When in that moment, so it came to pass, Titania waked and straightway loved an ass." He dissolved into laughter and Severus laughed, low and hard as Harry rolled backwards onto the ground. Snape leaned over, propping himself up, observing Harry with a warm smile.
"This falls out better than I could devise./ But-," He got down and pulled Harry up, taking him under his arm, "has thou yet latch'd the Athenians eyes/ With the love-juice, as I bed thee do?"
Harry waved him away, an indignant look on his face, "I took him sleeping- that is finish'd too-" He sounded cocky and continued to Snape, "And the Athenian woman by his side:/ That when he waked, of force she must be eyed."
Hermoine then stumbled in, pulling at her dress and looking angrily behind her as Seamus tripped in next, falling flat on his face as Hermoine huffed as she continued on. The audience laughed and Snape pulled Harry by his shoulder away, "Stand close: this is the same Athenian." Harry bent forward, squinting, but then his mouth dropped open and the crowd laughed.
"This be the woman, but not this the man…" he said slowly and they hid behind a flower, their heads sticking out from both sides.
Seamus wearily got up from the floor and looked pleadingly to Hermia who shot him venomous glare as she inspected her dress. "Oh why rebuke you that loves you so?/ Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe." Hermoine smiled sarcastically and turned away from him, towards the audience.
"Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,/ For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse," She turned onto Seamus, jabbing her finger into Seamus who backed away in fear as she growled out, "If thou has slain Lysander in his sleep,/ Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,/ And kill me too./ It cannot be but thou has murder'd him; So should a murder look, so dead, so grim." She gave him a little push and he gave a pouty look, spreading his hands.
"So should the murder'd look, and so shuld I,/ Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:/ Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,/ As yonder Venus, in her shimmering sphere." With a moony look, he gave her a wishy-washy smile and she let out a cry in exasperation.
"What's this to my Lysander? Where is he?/ Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?" She pleaded, sidling up to his chest. Seamus gave an unpleasant smile and waved something away.
"I had rather give his carcass to my hounds." Hermoine looked disgusted and shot away from him, hugging herself around the abdomen.
"And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?/An adder did it; for with double tongue/ Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung./"
The squeeze that was shared between Harry and Severus was invisible behind the flower at this line.
"You spend your passion on a misprised mood:/" Seamus looked at her angrily, "I am not guilty of Lysander's blood:/ Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell."
"I pray thee, tell me then that he is well." A begging voice, ragged and pleading as Hermoine looked to him. A smile spread across Seamus' face and he looked eager to her.
"An if I could, what should I get therefore?" Hermoine stormed up to him and blew up into his face.
"A privilege never to see me more./ And from thy hated presence part I so:/" She began to run off, crying out behind her, "See me no more, whether he be dead or no." Seamus looked like he was going to say something but just slumped his shoulders and shook his head.
"There is no following her in this fierce vein:/ Here therefore a while I will remain./ So sorrow's heaviness doth sorrow owe:/ Which now in some slight measure it will pay If for his tender here," He gestured down and stretched out on the ground, "If for his tender here I make some stay." He lay, turned his back to the audience and feigned sleep.
Snape stiffed from behind the flower and Harry slunk away, hunching downstage left, biting his nails.
"What hast thou done?" Snape roared and the audience jumped back as Harry squeezed his eyes shut and Snape advanced, "thou has mistaken quite/ And laid the love-juice on some true-love's slight:/ Of thy misprision must perforce ensue/ Some true love turn'd and not a fals turn'd true."
Harry kept his eyes shut and cried out nervously, "Then fate o'er rules, that one man holding through/ A million fail, confounding oath on oath." Snape spun him to face him and Harry opened his eyes.
"About the wood go swifter than the wind/ And Helena," he emphasized, "of Athens look thou find:/ All fancy sick she is and pale of cheer,/ With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:/ By some illusion see that thou bring her here:/ I'll charm his eyes against she do appear./" It was an order and Harry nodded frantically, backing away.
"I go, I go, look how I go,/ Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow." He ran off upstage left. Oberon shook his head resigned and slunk over to Seamus, bending over him with the flower.
"Flower of this purple dye,/ Hit with Cupid's archery,/ Sink in apple of his eye./ When his love he doth espy,/ Let her shine as gloriously,/ As the Venus of the sky./ When thou wakest,/ if she be by,/ Beg of her for remedy. /," he chanted softly, standing as Harry burst in from downstage right.
"Captain of our fairy band," he said excitedly, "Helena," a squeal, "is here at hand;/ And the youth mistook by me,/ Pleading for a lover's fee./ Shall we there fond pageant see?/" He dissolved in raucous laughter, slapping his thighs, "Lord what fools these mortals be!/"
Severus exhaled exasperatedly and grabbed Harry around the waist lifting him as he walked off, the audience murmuring and muttering to themselves, "Stand aside; The noise they wake,/ Will cause Demetrius to awake."
Harry kicked his legs but put his chin in hand, brow furrowed in thought as he slowly said, contemplating, "Then will two," he counted on his fingers, "At once woo-," he paused and his eyes lit up, "one;" Snape took him slowly behind the flower and he continued the speech, eyes eager, "That must needs be sport alone;/And those things do best please me/ That befal preposterously" he winked at the audience and the two disappeared again behind the flower.
Lavender entered in from a side aisle at a run, Ron following doggedly at her heels. She grabbed a stick from the ground, oblivious to Seamus, and stood her ground fiercely against Ron. Ron began in catching his breath, "Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?" he sucked in breath and continued quickly, "Scorn and derision never come in tears:/ Look, when I vow I weep: and vows so born/ In their nativity all truth appears./ How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?" He leaned on his knees, gulping in air. Lavender swung her stick pathetically, hunched and fierce.
" You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills turht, O devilish-holy fray!/ These vows are Hermia's," She let her guard down slightly and Ron came forward but she swung it again, "will you give her o'er? Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:/ Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,/ Will even weigh and both as light as tails." She pleaded almost with him and he shook his head in earnestness.
"I had no judgement when to her I swore," he pleaded.
"Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er," she spat back.
"Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you," he tried again. Before Lavender could say anything, Seamus had risen and was kneeling over to Lavender, her stick clattering to the floor, her and Ron's mouths open in shock.
"Oh Helen," Seamus said in wide eyed awe, a breath of adoration, "Goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!" The audience roared, most getting it, "To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?/ Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show/ Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!/ That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,/ Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow/ When thou hold'st up thy hand: O let me kiss/ This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!" He grabbed her hand, lips puckered, as the audience drowned out all other sound with their laughter.
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