I OWN NOTHING.

As usual… more A/N at the end of the chapter! Hope you like it!

Chapter 5 – French Eyes and Spanish Lies

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Harry stood in the corner of the musky room, his eyes fixated on Hermione's frustrated face. He pitied her, but couldn't help chuckling to himself at her misfortune. It would certainly be interesting to see how well they could pretend to like one another.

His eyes wondered over to the blonde girl from Beauxbatons and her scene partner – a tall, sandy-haired boy who was chosen to play Lucentio. -  It was evident from the bored look on the girl's face that he wasn't a very talented actor. His chair was lazily tilted backwards and his arm swinging nonchalantly from side to side as he droned out his lines. The girl, with her elbows on her knees and her chin propped up on her hands, seemed to be eyeing his chair and wishing that it would fall backwards.

Harry moved out of the shadows a bit to see her face more clearly and was immediately struck by her beauty. She reminded him of a princess from Muggle story books, with long, curly golden hair that fell around her shoulders, and an aura of elegance. He was smitten.

It should be illegal to be that gorgeous, Harry thought to himself, staring into space. A loud crash and a surprised shriek jerked him back to reality.

"Oh dear! Oh my goodness! Professor, he just…FELL! I couldn't help him! Is he okay? Oh I feel like this is my fault…" The pretty girl was rambling, shaken by the sudden fall of her scene partner, who was massaging his shoulder and cradling his arm a few feet away.

Moody examined the boy's limbs and looked up grimly. "I'm afraid it's broken. Unfortunately for us, Madame Pomfrey is on vacation in Cancun," he rolled his eyes, "so I will have to send you to a Muggle hospital."

The boy grimaced, but hauled himself to his feet, and with Moody's assistance, disappeared in a handful of floo powder.

The old professor turned around, his brow furrowed in meditation. "What to do…what to do…" His twitching eye caught Harry slouched in the corner. "Potter!"

Harry's head whipped up and he jumped to his feet, slightly scared of the older man.

"Potter, you will be Lucentio. You haven't really missed anything."

Harry stared at him, dumbfounded.

"What's wrong, Mr. Potter? Did I stutter? Off with you!"

He shooed Harry away with his wrinkled hands and resumed his visitations to each group. Harry slowly walked over to where the blonde girl was sitting with her head in her hands.

"It wasn't your fault, you know…" he began, wondering how to start a conversation with this fallen angel. She raised her halo of curls and looked at him with warm gratitude.

"I know, but I still feel awful about it." She shook her head, but tried to make polite conversation. Standing up, she presented her slender fingers to him, expecting a handshake.

"My name is Aviva Vertueux. And you are?"

He took her hand and kissed it, smiling at her French accent and small giggle. "Harry Potter. It's nice to meet you, Aviva."

She smiled back at him. "Well, I suppose the great Harry Potter must be a good actor as well?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Not really. I'm actually pretty mediocre at everything, especially schoolwork. Just ask Hermione." He pointed at his friend across the room, who -he noted- appeared to be growing increasingly aggravated with Malfoy. His gaze shifted back to Aviva's questioning brown eyes.

"Shall we?" She motioned to a seat beside her and handed him the script. "So, Harry," she began, being careful to pronounce his name correctly, "Before we begin, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself."

Harry wracked his brain for something that would impress her, momentarily forgetting his whole "defeating Voldemort multiple times…"

What types of guys do girls like? What should I say…?

He panicked. "I…eeerrr…speak Spanish…"

He immediately wanted to kick himself and then put his foot in his mouth. Spanish?! What the bloody hell was he thinking? He only knew a few phrases that he had learned from Hermione, and that was IT.

I am such a stupid git…She'll see right through THAT…

He was surprised when her eyes lit up in genuine interest. "Spanish? Really? I have always wanted to learn Spanish.  My father was going to get me a tutor. It would be so nice if you could help me learn! At least I actually know you!" She clapped her hands in excitement. "I'll call Papa and ask him. But wait," she paused, putting her hand on his arm, "I'm sorry – I was too excited and I never asked you. Would you be interested? We could have sessions after our drama class."

She looked at him hopefully and he became lost in her gaze, drowning in the deep brown pools.

"Sure…I would be happy to help you."

WHAT?!?! Merlin, I'm in trouble…

"Wonderful!" She looked at him adoringly, and he couldn't help but think that it was worth it – even if he couldn't speak Spanish. Spending time with Aviva would be absolute heaven for him…He became lost in a daydream.

"Should we go over our scene?"

Harry snapped back to reality at the light sound of her voice and nodded happily.

She began to read the background information in a tone that reminded Harry of the jingling of bells. After a while he stopped hearing the words, content in listening to the sound itself and only catching a few phrases here and there.

"Let's see…apparently you, Harry are one of my three inquiring suitors…" she giggled and he smiled to himself. "Your name is Lucentio and you want to have a chance to woo me…you pretend that you are a teacher, hoping that my father will hire you and you will spend time with me…"

He sat up straighter. "What am I pretending to teach you?"

"Latin," she replied. "Even though you can't speak a word!"

She seemed to find this amazingly hilarious and collapsed into a fit of laughter, leaving Harry to shift his weight nervously.

What a coincidence…

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What do you guys think? Here is my A/N. as promised:

Rocky: sooo…does it still fit? I hope so! Thanks for your review – I'm always happy to get new readers!

Vamp Queen: Thank you so much for volunteering to beta for me, but I found someone literally minutes before I read your review. I hope that you'll still continue giving me tips and suggestions though! *hugs*

PsYcHoJo: Home sick? That stinks. I hope you feel better. Thanks for always being a faithful reviewer and I hope I keep you entertained!

Melisa-malfoy: Thanks so much for your comments! Although I've already found a beta, I would still appreciate your input! Please keep reviewing and let me know if you have any ideas, cuz every thought counts!

Devin-Jamie: Hee hee…yay! I'm glad you liked it.

Flexi Lexi: I'm so glad you like my idea for the play. At first I thought about Romeo and Juliet but then Draco didn't seem too much like a Romeo. When I thought about chauvinistic, arrogant, mean males, "Taming of the Shrew" just popped into my head. Just so you know – I like Beauty and the Beast fics, too! SOOO CUTE! This whole Shakespeare thing is a bit harder than I thought, though – a lotta research…hee hee, and I'm finding that I'm learning a lot more about the play. Anyways, let me know if you (or your friend) have any suggestions! Thanks for reviewing!

Hibernia: AWWWW MK thanks sooo much! Even though I forced you to read it and review (heh heh…I'm evil), I still appreciate your comments! I hope you keep reviewing!

The kath: Thanks! I love new reviewers and I hope you liked this chapter too!

Whew…ok that's it. I kept my promise of replying to all my readers, and now I'm exhausted so I'm going to bed. *grin* But don't think I forgot – big hugs and mucho amour to my beta-reader, without whose patience and hard work this story wouldn't be half of what it is. I luv ya Haley!

Xoxoxo *yawn*

Kate