Macbeth: Act One, Scene Three

Disclaimer: Anyone who thinks I own Macbeth is going to get very seriously laughed at, as I am not male, called William, or dead. Anyone who thinks I own Harry Potter is also going to get seriously laughed at, because although I am both female and alive, I'm not called Joanne.

Thanks for 73 reviews goes to: jules37, midnight-blue, willowfairy, brettley, Madam Midnight, Orchid6297, SycoCallie, Kou Shun'u, Flexi Lexi, mesmer, citcat299, RedWitch1, KrystyWroth, I-luv-Harry-Potter-Romance, Scaz85, ablakevh, Meghan, SPARKLING EYES, Storm079, foxer, gummybear, Go10, kurt (x3), draconas, cherristiz, heavengurl899 (x2), sugar n spice 522, Janie Granger, MsLessa, Genevieve Jones, PhAnToM-ChiK, ToOtHpIcK (x2).

A/N: Congratulations to everyone who spotted Snape's reference to the 'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...' speech!

Oh, and before I forget, I have to correct something: I don't have anything against Americans whatsoever. I know at least one of you thought that because I had Seamus doing the soliloquy in an American accent, but I also had him doing it in a Scottish accent, and while I'm not Scottish myself I'm probably as close as I can get, having a Scottish surname and owning a kilt in my family tartan. So really, it's nothing personal against the American or Scottish peoples; its just that, to an English person, it would sound amusing to hear something like Shakespeare read in an accent they're unused to. Try imagining the same soliloquy read in an English accent and see if it doesn't make you smile.

Those of you who are starting to get Macbeth and Fallen confused had better take a few seconds to get them straight now, before they read the first line. That really confused one of my betas...

Got them straight? Excellent. On to the fic: enjoy!

The wizarding world was overdue for a Death Eater attack.

Since the fight in the Department of Mysteries when Voldemort's return had been revealed to the world, the Death Eaters had no longer needed to operate in secret. Every week, or every fortnight, there was an attack of some kind. Usually just one or two families; a Dark Mark on the front of the paper and a day spent on edge, twitching at the noise of every shadow.

There hadn't been a small attack for two weeks, and the last large scale attack had been just over two months ago, shortly before the beginning of term. The Daily Prophet had been filled with articles on the sudden decline in attacks. In their eyes it could mean only one thing: the Death Eaters were preparing for something large.

It was with this in mind that the population of Hogwarts sat down to eat dinner in the Great Hall that evening. The ceiling was already a restless black, smoke-like clouds writhing across the sky and obscuring the distant stars. The conversation was quieter than usual, slightly muted, although there was still the occasional outbreak of laughter at a joke, still an undercurrent of lively chatter.

It was because of this that, when Dumbledore slowly got to his feet, the room was silent before he'd fully stood up, all eyes on him and all the students fidgeting. He gave them all a kind smile, to show that he didn't bear bad news, and began.

'I have been asked by the seventh-year Muggle Studies students,' he said, 'to ask those of you who auditioned last week to remain behind after dinner for the announcement of the casting.'

There was an instant of tension before whispers broke over the Hall, nervous and excited and terrified. Hermione, sitting with Ron and Harry at the Gryffindor table, bit her lip and tried to stay calm.

It was a horrible feeling; she both wanted to know if she'd got a part and desperately wanted to avoid having to find out. And the waiting; the anticipation was almost worse than the event. What if she hadn't got a part? What if she'd got some tiny, minor part, and had to watch at rehearsals as the better actors paraded across the stage? Could she stand that without being horribly jealous? What if she got a large part, a major part, and then couldn't handle the rehearsals and learning her lines until she had to opt out, letting everyone down?

Ron must have noticed her nervousness, because he gave her a reassuring pat on the back and said, 'Don't worry, you'll have done brilliantly.'

She gave him a smile before returning to her food, but she'd lost her appetite. Harry, sitting opposite her, appeared to have lost his as well.

The meal somehow managed to pass both too quickly and excruciatingly slowly; rather like a combination of continental drift and light-speed. But eventually the younger students began to drift off in ones and twos, and the directors shared glances over the house tables. Megan got up first and made her way to the front of the Hall, where only Dumbledore and McGonagall were remaining. Stan, Ruth and Olivia followed, with Adrian joining them a short time later. Hermione watched them nervously from the corner of her eye as the final few students left.

'I bet you've got one of the really good parts,' said Ginny, who had come to sit with the seventh years as the table cleared. Hermione picked at a piece of carrot and waited as Dumbledore smiled benignly at Megan and left, shortly followed by the bustling McGonagall.

She was rather startled when Adrian suddenly spoke, his tone sharp and irritated. 'Okay,' he said, 'I'd like to get this over with, so anyone who didn't audition, get out. Now.'

He glared at a pair of Hufflepuff second-years, who scurried away from their table, before Ruth caught his elbow and whispered something. He shook her off and turned his glare onto an innocent Ravenclaw.

'I'd better go,' Ron muttered, giving Hermione, Harry and Ginny a grin. 'Don't worry. I'll be waiting outside for you, alright?' Surreptitiously, he half-pulled a flesh-coloured string – an Extendable Ear – out of his pocked, winked at them, and walked off.

Only the people who auditioned were left now; they slowly began to gather round the front of the Hall while Megan and the other directors clambered onto the slightly raised platform on which the teachers' table stood. Hermione glanced around the crowd, and was slightly relieved to find that she wasn't the only one who looked nervous. Harry's lips kept tugging back into the corner and Ginny's freckles stood out sharply. Even Malfoy looked afraid; he was ghostly white and kept worrying at his lip.

Stan stepped forwards to address them. 'Thanks for staying behind, petals,' he began with a wide grin, the kind that immediately made everyone feel reassured. 'All your auditions were just wonderful, and we had a really hard job deciding who should get which part. Megan's going to read out the list in a moment, and before you get upset, sweets, it's just in the order we picked the characters in, and we reversed it so that the smaller parts came first and the big parts came last because it's so much more exciting that way. And I just want to say that absolutely everyone...'

'Stan?' Megan said quietly, stepping up behind him and tapping his shoulder with a small smile. 'Perhaps I could actually read the cast list?'

'Oh, of course, sugar,' he said, stepping back to let Megan take centre stage. The tension, momentarily lessened by Stan's speech, began to build again.

'Without further ado,' Megan said, 'I'd like to announce the casting. Lennox will be played by Terry Boot; Menteith by Seamus Finnegan...'

The two boys immediately let out a loud whoop that forced Megan to pause; their respective friends congratulated them, patting their backs. Hermione fidgeted nervously, wondering if she would get the same congratulations, or be consoled on not getting a place.

Megan finished with the various lords and continued. 'The Gentlewoman will be played by Padma Patil, the Old Man by Michael Corner, and the Porter by Zacharias Smith...' More cheers, more congratulations, more screams. Hermione's awareness of the lists of names and parts began to wear thin; she listened intently, but only for her own name or the names of her friends. All other information passed straight through her brain, lost as useless information.

'The First Witch will be played by Blaise Zabini, the Second Witch by Ginny Weasley, and the Third Witch by Luna Lovegood.'

Ginny shrieked and grabbed hold of Luna, half-whirling the Ravenclaw around. Luna smiled, disturbingly widely, and said she was pleased. Harry congratulated Ginny too, giving her a warm smile, and Hermione gave her a hug. Ginny was a good choice, really, and Luna would pull off a mystical Third Witch rather well. Blaise Zabini was an interesting choice, though; Hermione didn't really know much about her except that she was in Slytherin.

'Banquo will be played by Justin Finch-Fletchley, Lady Macduff by Susan Bones, and Macduff will be Harry Potter.'

Harry looked absolutely amazed; it was Ginny, still on a high from her own casting, who half-leaped on him and hugged him tight. Harry absently hugged her back, a grin slowly splitting over his face as he realised what had happened. As soon as a beaming Ginny loosed her grip, Hermione hugged him herself.

'That's brilliant,' she told him warmly, 'Macduff! It's a brilliant part, oh, you'll be wonderful! I have to find this article I read...'

He gave her a cheeky grin, beaming like the cat that got the cream. Hermione felt genuinely pleased for him; the same pleasure she felt when Harry or Ron got exceptionally good marks on a test. She liked it when her friends did well.

'Macbeth,' Megan began, and the room fell instantly silent, 'will be played by Draco Malfoy.'

Hermione gasped, there was an outbreak of whispers, and the Slytherins cheered and clapped Malfoy on the back. Malfoy himself seemed to be taking the role as his due, smiling easily and lazily and accepting the congratulations of his fellows as though they were trifles.

'Wonder who he bribed to get in?' Harry muttered close to Hermione's ear, green eyes narrowed.

'And finally, Lady Macbeth will be played by Hermione Granger.'

'...Oh,' she managed to say, very quietly, before Harry let out a wild cheer and practically jumped on her with delight. It took Hermione a few seconds before her brain stopped feeling as though it had completely ceased to work; and then her first thought was panic: how would she balance rehearsals with schoolwork, what if she messed the acting up, what if she kept forgetting lines, or couldn't act any scene other than the audition piece...

'I told you you'd do brilliantly!' Harry said, beaming, while Ginny took her turn giving Hermione a congratulatory hug before slipping off with Luna into the crowd. 'Lady Macbeth, I knew you could do it...'

'Thanks,' she managed, still feeling rather overwhelmed. 'I'm still not sure I'll be good at it, really, I mean... oh no.' Hermione's eyes had fallen on Malfoy, who was leaning against the wall on the other side of the hall and giving her a very amused smirk. Her heart sank. 'Malfoy.'

'What about him?' Harry looked confused for a moment, then realised. 'Oh. He's Macbeth...'

Malfoy, seeming to have noticed that the two Gryffindors were talking about him, raised an eyebrow and fixed a malicious gaze on Hermione. All her dreams about acting, glorious and confident in front of a crowded audience of spectators, began to melt and blacken as her imagination began to fill in the details of the scene: Draco standing before her, smiling that same evil, cruel smirk under the bright glare of the stage lights and how could she act the part of his wife when she hated him so much.

'Hermione?' Harry was asking, and she forced herself back to the real world, where Harry was standing in front of her looking concerned. 'Are you okay? I mean, he can't do anything really bad, they'll throw him out of the play...'

'He'll do something,' Hermione said sharply. 'Just look at him. He's going to do something, you can tell...'

'Hermione,' Harry said in a placating tone, 'you'll be fine. Just tell the directors or one of the teachers if he does anything. Do you have even have many scenes together?'

'Four with just us two, and two more with lots of others on the stage,' Hermione said after a second's thought, 'and he's going to make it hell, he's going to be there in all the rehearsals and he isn't going to let a chance like this go past without doing something... even if he just insults me all the time, that'll be bad enough...'

'If he does that, just go to one of the directors,' Harry said again. 'They won't let him stay if he really messes it up...'

Hermione wasn't listening; her gaze with locked with that of Malfoy and she was glaring back at him. 'I've made a decision,' she said to Harry, 'I'm not going to let him ruin this for me. I'm going to ignore anything he does to annoy me.'

'Good idea,' Harry said, 'and I think...Rachel, was it? She's trying to get your attention, anyway.'

Hermione glanced sideways and saw Ruth standing by the side of the stage, beckoning to both herself and Malfoy. 'Her name's Ruth,' she said. 'I suppose I'd better go... wait for me?'

'Sure,' Harry nodded, and she began to make her way over to the Hufflepuff; on the other side, from the corner of her eye she could see Malfoy doing the same. They reached her at the same time, and Malfoy tilted his head to one side and gave her a distinctly amused look; Hermione glared back and turned her attention onto Ruth.

Ruth gave them both a warm smile, her cheeks dimpling as she did so. 'Firstly, congratulations on getting your parts,' she said. 'Your auditions were both spectacular, and we're confident that you'll make a very good Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.'

Malfoy acknowledged this with a nod; Hermione with a smile. Ruth continued. 'Secondly, we are aware that you two have rather a... history of not getting on together, shall we say. We hope that, as you're both sixth-years now, you'll be able to get over that for the sake of the play.' Hermione nodded, but doubted very much that they would: she was perfectly willing, but any hand of friendship she extended towards Malfoy would be quickly transfigured into something slimy.

'You will, of course, be working together quite a bit – being the two main characters of the play – so we expect you to meet up outside rehearsals when you can and discuss your parts, how you're going to be acting them, do a few practices... things like that.' Ruth said. 'There's going to be a meeting on Saturday to discuss rehearsals, scripts and so forth, so I suggest the two of you meet sometime before then to discuss things. This evening?'

'I can't,' Malfoy said smoothly, 'I'm busy. Too much homework...'

'Tomorrow evening? In the library, at seven?' Ruth was persistent.

'That's fine with me,' Hermione said quickly, and Draco nodded his assent.

Ruth smiled at them again. 'Good. Congratulations again!' she said, before turning to leave.

Draco threw Hermione a smirk. 'See you tomorrow, my lady,' he said mockingly, before turning and swaggering towards the doors, leaving Hermione frowning after him.

Harry came up behind Hermione, a raised eyebrow asking what Ruth had wanted. Hermione sighed. 'She was basically saying she wanted us to bury the hatchet, as it were,' she explained. 'And we all know the only way to get Malfoy to bury the hatchet would be if he was burying it in my head. Anyway, we're supposed to be meeting tomorrow evening...'

'What for? To kill each other?' Harry shook his head. 'You can't make friends with someone like Malfoy. He's pure son-of-a-Death-Eater scum, he'll never change.'

'I know, so I'll just have to put up with him,' Hermione sighed. 'And look on the bright side, you get to kill him in the play.'

'I do?' Harry asked, and grinned. 'That'll be good. Maybe I can accidentally use a real sword instead of the fake one and run him through... that'd solve the problem.'

Hermione laughed. 'Except that Macbeth dies offstage. You do get a bit of a swordfight, though; you could do it then and claim it was an accident.'

'A miserable and tragic accident,' Harry nodded. 'Come on, Ron will be waiting.'

'Bloody Malfoy.'

Hermione sighed, taking a sip of her Butterbeer. 'Yes, Ron, we know,' she said. 'We know you want to cut him into little pieces and feed him to the squid, we also know you hate his guts, stomach and pretty much every part of his anatomy. Forget about Malfoy, will you? We're supposed to be celebrating.'

They had been celebrating almost all evening. Hermione had once again had to help Lavender console a miserable Parvati, but once she'd pointed out that just because she didn't have a part didn't mean she couldn't do anything to help with the play (I'm sure they'll need people to help backstage, Parvati. Or you could ask if you could help design the costumes!) Parvati had cheered up.

Afterwards, Hermione had returned to the common room to find her friends celebrating around the fire. Ginny had persuaded Harry to sneak down to the kitchens under his Invisibility Cloak and get some Butterbeer, and now almost everyone had a bottle. They'd saved one for Hermione, of course, and had insisted on yelling 'All hail, Hermione!' when she came in the room. After that they'd gathered round the fire to discuss various people's parts and the play in general. Of course, Malfoy's role had been a major topic of conversation, and Ron had been grumbling about it for half the evening.

'Sorry, Hermione,' he said, giving her a faintly apologetic half-smile. 'But I bet he bribed someone to get him in, it's exactly the kind of thing he would do....'

'Maybe he blackmailed them,' Seamus said, grinning wildly with the light of a conspiracy theory in his eyes. 'Maybe he snuck into the bathrooms and took photos of them all naked... oh, hey, Lavender,' he said as the slender girl approached them. 'How's Parvati?'

'Still a bit upset,' Lavender said, 'but she's okay now. Doing some homework before she goes to sleep. Hey, is that Butterbeer? Any left for me?'

'I think so, Harry has it,' Seamus replied. 'Oy, Harry!'

Harry was sitting right next to the fire, rather deeply immersed in a book Hermione had leant him. It discussed the role of various different characters in the play; Harry was quite deeply immersed in the chapter on Macduff. Seamus's shout caught his attention, though; he looked up, blinking slightly, and asked, 'What?'

'Pass Lavender a Butterbeer, would you?' Harry did so and returned immediately to his book. Seamus frowned.

'Is it just me, Harry,' he asked, 'or is your hair turning brown?'

'Brown?' Harry asked, forgetting his textbook again and pulling a strand of hair in front of his eyes, examining the colour with quite a worried look on his face. 'It looks as black as ever to me...'

'Really? I could have sworn you were starting to turn into Hermione,' Seamus finished with a pointed look at the textbook, earning him a round of laughter and a righteous cushion in the face from Harry.

'What were we talking about?' Harry asked, putting his textbook down.

'Malfoy,' Ron said promptly. 'And how he bought his way into playing Macbeth.'

'Or blackmailed. By taking photos of them naked.' Seamus was quick to add.

'Or perhaps he's genuinely good at acting,' Ginny offered. 'We may never know.'

'Good at acting?' Ron asked, looking mystified. 'The ferret?'

Ginny shrugged. 'He could be.'

Lavender, meanwhile, was looking thoughtful. 'Megan Montgomery was one of the directors, wasn't she?' The others nodded, and Lavender looked pleased. 'Well, that explains it. I heard that in the summer after second year Megan spent ages at Draco's house.'

'So they were friends? Are friends?' Ron asked. 'And he got in because he knows one of the directors? That's bloody typical.'

'I don't know, Megan seems nice,' Hermione found herself saying. 'I don't think she'd let someone in just because they were her friend. Not into a lead role, anyway, perhaps into a very minor part, but...'

'Are you suggesting the Ferret's actually good at something?' Ron asked in mock horror.

'Well, he'd have to be, to get the part,' Hermione replied thoughtfully, taking a sip of her Butterbeer. 'I hope he is, anyway. It'll be a lot easier acting with him if he's at least half-decent at it. At any rate, I'm not going to let him spoil this for me. We'll just... have to learn to work together, that's all.'

'You've got more chance of getting me to think spiders are cute,' Ron said darkly.

'Well, spiders are cute,' Seamus said. 'Lee Jordan's tarantula was cute. All furry. And it had these really sweet little fangs, and eight hairy legs...' Seamus gave Ron a mischievous grin; Ron turned quite pale and shuddered.

'Oh, leave him alone, Seamus,' Lavender cut in. 'It's not nice. Phobias are horrible things...'

'Do you have one, Lavender?' Hermione asked, curious.

'Snakes,' said Lavender, shivering. 'And heights.'

The conversation turned to phobias after that and then to Boggarts, and then to professor Lupin, and then to Defence against the Dark Arts in general, and then to a competition about who could come up with the most creative way of using hexes, Hermione barely even noticed the group around the fire dwindling as, one by one, people got up from their seats and said their goodnights before heading to the dorms. Finally, after Ginny excused herself from an intensive conversation on the merits of cats as opposed to owls, Hermione realised that the common room was almost empty except for herself, a few stragglers from the various years, and Harry, who was still sitting in his place by the fire, staring at his book in a way that suggested he wasn't even seeing it.

'Harry?' Hermione asked, frowning, getting up from her place to walk over and take the seat beside him. 'I thought you'd gone to bed hours ago... Harry?' He wasn't paying attention: she waved her hand in front of his face and he jumped.

'What? Oh... Hermione,' he said, blinking at her, then scanned the common room looking confused. 'What time is it?'

'Just past eleven,' Hermione told him. 'You should go to bed... are you okay?'

Harry didn't answer for a moment, looking down at his book; he ghosted his fingers along a line like a caress. 'Yeah, I'm fine,' he said quietly.

Hermione had known him long enough to be able to tell when he was blatantly lying. She followed his fingers across the page to see what had caught his attention: When acting Macduff, possibly the hardest scene to perform is Act IV, Scene III, in which Macduff learns of the death of his family.

Hermione bit her lip, suddenly realising he incredible irony: Macduff's family was all murdered, and so had Harry's: first his parents, when he was a baby, and now Sirius. Tentatively, she reached out a hand, rested it on his arm.

'Harry...' she began, not knowing what to say. It had been months since Sirius' death; Harry had been miserable and angry and guilty, especially over the summer, and Ron and Hermione had worried about him a lot. After returning to school he'd been better, normal most of the time, but sometimes there was a look on his face or a moment like this one when something would remind him, something would show that the memory of Sirius' death hadn't completely gone. Hermione doubted it ever would; Harry would always bear some mental scars from that day.

'I'm fine,' Harry said again, looking up and giving her a sharp smile, one that looked like broken glass in the ruddy light of the dying fire. He closed the book. 'Really. It's just... sometimes I remember, and it's hard to...'

He broke off, and Hermione slipped her arms round him and pulled him into a tight hug before she had time to think. 'Just remember you can talk to us,' she said quietly. 'Ron and I, we're always here...'

'I know,' Harry replied, patting her back before drawing away. She bit her lip, and he gave her a nervous smile. 'I'm fine, I promise. And thanks. I think I ought to go to bed, it's late...'

'Okay,' Hermione said, nodding, 'if you're sure. If you need to talk...'

'I know, Hermione, I know,' Harry said, with what was almost a real smile, before getting up and heading off to the boys' dorms with a warm, 'Goodnight.'

Hermione watched him go, frowning and wishing she could do more to help than offering him a hug and a reassurance. But, realistically, there was very little she could do. And Harry would be okay in the morning.

AN: Yes, Hermione and Draco's parts were completely obvious, but the scene had to be done, didn't it? Macduff!Harry was also a casting which couldn't be resisted... Obviously due to space constrictions, I didn't put the whole cast list in this chapter, but rest assured that I have the entire thing saved on my computer and colour coded by house of the actor/actress. Because organisation is fun.

Anyway, no prizes for guessing what I'm going to say now: review! Next chapter is up on Monday, and there will be some good solid Draco/Hermione interaction. Review, or I'll send the Gryffindors to hex you so you can speak in nothing but Shakespeare quotes. Which... would actually be really fun, but might get annoying after a while. So review!