Disclaimer: I would like to point out that Harry Potter and Co are not mine nor are they Dismal's, and neither is The Phantom of the Opera, or Romeo and Juliet.
Chapter written by: yaoi-is-wowie21
A/N: Pardon the randomosity of my work. -; I tend to write without thinking ahead, which isn't always a good thing, but makes for odd events happening later on. So you'll have to forgive me in advance. I have no idea where this story is going. It's technically Dismal's baby.
That Big Chance
All Ginny could get her mind around the following couple of days was the play. It was one of the few plays she had actually read before, and she liked it a lot. If she didn't get the lead in it, the school year just wouldn't be the same!
After two days of wandering from class to class in such a daze that the others had started to worry about her health, Ginny finally announced at dinner one evening, "I'm going to try out for that play."
Harry (ever the oblivious one) didn't hear the declaration, having been engrossed in a conversation with Dean and Seamus about the state of the World Quidditch teams, but Hermione smiled at her friend.
"Is that why you've been mooning about the past couple of days?" she questioned, setting down her silverware to listen.
Ginny nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. You know how much I love Romeo and Juliet! This is my big chance to get the lead." The redhead beamed around the table before taking a sip from her goblet.
"What about Pansy though?" Neville posed this question carefully; Pansy Parkinson was something of a taboo subject when Ginny was in one of her 'theatery moods'.
Ginny however, just smirked triumphantly. "I know this story inside and out! Parkinson just can't beat me at this one." She set her pumpkin juice down with a satisfied 'thump', making everyone around her jump. Harry turned from his conversation with the boys to lean over to Ginny.
"Hey. Just don't get too overconfident, okay?" he informed her. "Because that could end up being a bad thing in the end." Ending his advice with a smile, the dark-haired boy became thoroughly engaged in his previous conversation again.
Hermione shook her head, giving Ginny a pat on the shoulder. "He does have a point. Though, I'm sure you'll do great, no matter what part you get."
Ginny pouted into her potatoes.
ooOOoo
The 6th year eagerly counted down the days until the auditions. As one day after another disappeared under the force of her large black sharpie, Ginny couldn't help but become more excited. Unfortunately for the others, this meant more daydreaming in classes and cheerful ramblings in the Great Hall.
But at least she was happy, as Hermione pointed out one morning after Ginny had begun dancing with Crookshanks in front of the fireplace.
"It's nice to see her not sitting around moping after old stories, you know?" she commented, wincing as she watched Crookshanks attempted to struggle out of Ginny's grasp.
"You mean like that music angel she used to always talk about?" Lavender questioned, lifting her head from the Potions essay she was hurriedly writing before the class started.
Hermione nodded. "But you know, I think there's some truth in that now. You remember when we did faeries in Care of Magical Creatures?" She was met by blank stares from nearly everyone. "When two of them got loose and changed Malfoy's hair from blonde to pink?" Laughter sounded across the Common Room. Now they remembered. "Well, there are faeries that enhance talents and such."
"Like muses?" Harry raised an eyebrow. People who claimed they had brilliant muses tended to also be called 'a bit batty' by muggles, among other things.
"Sort of. Actually, yes, really like muses," Hermione agreed. "That's a good connection."
"So, what if the reason Ginny's so sure of herself is because she has one of these, muse faeries?" interrupted Parvati, who had also been listening in and just now spoke up.
"That would be cheating, wouldn't it?" Neville frowned.
Hermione's pleasant expression wavered. "I...Yes, that probably would count as cheating, but Ginny wouldn't do something like that," she replied, though her tone was a little unsure. "Right?"
A loud hiss was heard from across the room, and seconds later a large ginger cat had zipped over to where the group was sitting. Crookshanks mewled somewhat wearily and curled up in Hermione's lap. Ginny appeared in front of them, looking mournfully at the annoyed cat.
"Oops. I didn't mean to make him mad," she sighed, running a hand through her ponytail out of habit.
"It's all right, Ginny," Hermione assured her, getting up and setting Crookshanks lightly down on the chair. "He's just being dramatic. Come on, let's go down to breakfast. You don't want to get sick before auditions, do you?"
"Of course not!" Ginny exclaimed, grabbing Hermione's hand and heading for the portrait hole. "Don't be late, you guys!" she called back to the others, who had gone back to what they were doing before talking with Hermione.
ooOOoo
The following Saturday dawned bright and early --- and so did Ginny. Unlike on normal weekends, she was already down in the Great Hall before many of the others, starting on a breakfast of eggs and bacon. Hermione had to blink slowly several times to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
"Scarfing much?" Harry teased as he sat down beside her, Hermione already on the opposite side. Ginny glared at him, an act made even funnier by the amount of food in her mouth. She swallowed carefully, reaching for her glass.
"I'm just excited, okay?" she retorted, taking a long drink from the cup. "Have to be all ready for the tryouts today."
"Don't worry, you'll do fine, remember?" Hermione smiled, reiterating the fact that she had stated over and over since they got to school.
"Yeah. I will, won't I?"
At three o'clock, Ginny hurried down to the Great Hall once more, where the auditions would be taking place. Hermione and Harry had of course been badgered into coming with her, though both declined her invitation to try out for a part as well. The professor's table had been cleared out of the way, and a simple backdrop had been magically suspended to add a little to the atmosphere. Professor Flitwick was standing on the makeshift 'stage' with several other students milling around him. Ginny caught sight of Pansy talking very quickly and amiably to the short professor. What was she trying to do, smooth talk her way into the play? As if.
"Hey, look," Harry hissed not at all discretely, pointing across the hall. "Malfoy's here too. With Parkinson, no doubt. And that Zabini boy."
The girls followed Harry's gaze. The dark-haired Slytherin appeared to be talking to another boy from his house, but Malfoy's behavior was all but cheerful. In fact, he looked like he'd rather be watching paint dry somewhere than be at these auditions.
Then again, that's Malfoy's normal expression, but still, it seems somewhat intensified now, Ginny mused.
Flitwick's chipper voice, loud but still squeaky, broke through Ginny's ponderings. "I'd just like to start off by thanking you all for coming, today! There's a lot of work to be done, but I think that this year's play will be one of my best!"
Harry rolled his eyes, and Hermione gently elbowed him in the side.
"We are, of course, doing Shakespeare's famous Romeo and Juliet!" Flitwick continued. "So, let's get started with the leads' parts, shall we? Ah, yes, all right --- anyone auditioning for the part of Romeo, please come up now."
As the three Gryfindor's settled down at one of the dining tables to watch the auditions, Ginny couldn't help but grin. Her heart was already racing so fast, she'd hate to see what it did when she actually had to go up and perform. She glanced over at the Romeo hopefuls. So, one of them was going to play opposite her, hm? (This was, of course, assuming that she got the part of Juliet. And brothers always did use to say, "Never assume. It makes an ass out of you and me." Ginny had very high spirits, however.)
The Ravenclaw head had finished handing out copies of the script and had then stepped aside, motioning for the first auditioner to go to the middle of the stage. As what looked like a Ravenclaw fifth year read the passage highlighted before him, Ginny sighed. He was okay, she had to give him that, but there were surely better actors than him. Soon her mind began to wander, gaze slipping from the guys trying out to one of the large windows across the hall.
Ginny had always wanted to lead a play, ever since her father had given her a volume of Shakespeare's works when she was little. Unfortunately, whenever she got the chance, it seemed that Pansy Parkinson always outshone her. Well, today was when that was going to stop, and she was going to outshine Pansy.
"--- O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Had hath no power yet upon thy beauty:"
A new voice rang out across the Great Hall, so sure and clear that it took Ginny a moment to register who was reading it.
"Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favor can I do to thee,
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy?"
"I hate Shakespeare," Harry mumbled to no one in particular. "Can't understand a bloody thing." Hermione shushed him loudly. Ginny stared in wonder at Blaise Zabini, who stood on that makeshift stage as if he did things like this every day, and it was nothing new. Ginny's eyes lit up. So this was to be her Romeo. She didn't know much about the boy, except that he was Slytherin and in Harry's year. That did not bode well, however wonderful he did read the part.
"Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here I will remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes ---"
"That's all right, you may end there!" Flitwick interrupted the speech, causing a few people in the room to frown involuntarily. "Very good, very good indeed... Ah, who would like to go next?"
Several others tried out, but it seemed painfully clear who would be chosen. Ginny stared at Blaise as Pansy crowded close to him, most likely congratulating him and telling him how great it would be to work with him, while Draco merely nodded to him and went back to sulking.
"Well, that's great," Harry whispered to Ginny not long afterwards, "you'll have to do scenes with him if you get the part of Juliet."
"I'm willing to risk that, don't worry," Ginny joked back, patting him on the shoulder consolingly. However, this did strike up a good point. If --- no, when --- she got the part of Juliet, she'd have to do love scenes with the older boy, wouldn't she? She swallowed nervously. Oh well. You had to sacrifice things to fulfill dreams.
Pretty soon (too soon, it felt) Flitwick was calling for all the girls auditioning for the role of Juliet. Harry and Hermione wished her luck as she got up and went over to Flitwick, who handed her a stack sheets with different parts highlighted on them.
"I'd like each of you pick out the part you'd like to recite," Flitwick was telling them, but Ginny wasn't listening very well. Her eyes were on the sheets, scanning for a part that would let all her talent be seen. She settled on a small bit that, while serious and somewhat disturbing, always made her smile.
Ginny volunteered to go first, hoping to get the upper hand by impressing Flitwick before anyone else could. An indignant Pansy settled off to the side with the couple of other girls trying out. One was the same year as she was, and the other a year older. Ginny bit her lip nervously, but as soon as she was out in front reading the passage, everything felt completely perfect. All she could her as she spoke was the emptiness of the hall, filled with her own passionate voice.
"O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless-skulls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble;
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love."
"Lovely!" Flitwick pronounced when she had finished reading, clapping his hands happily. "Very nice. Who would like to go next?"
Ginny hurried from the stage as quickly as she could, feeling breathless. That had been marvelous! She just knew she was going to get the part this time, regardless of Pansy's performance. As the latter took her place on the stage, Harry and Hermione were congratulating Ginny, who was wearing such a wide grin that it looked to big for her face. She considered completely ignoring Pansy's audition, she was that happy, but something told her she better pay attention. As all eyes focused on the pompous Slytherin girl, she began to speak.
"Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;" she said, throwing her arms out wide and adding many many dramatics. "For thou wilt lie upon the wings --- Aah!"
Pansy's speech had hardly begun when it turned into a piercing shriek, and everyone could see why. The backdrop had collapsed down upon the girl, and her angered shouting could be heard even from under it. While it was only a large cloth that had fallen and nothing heavy or dangerous, it seemed that the whole room went into a panic. Flitwick, squeakily worrying and running back and forth with his wand extended, slowly floated the canvas off of Pansy. The girl, pale from either shock or anger, stumbled out from underneath it.
"What was that! Sabotage?" she yelped, furious.
"Pansy, I highly doubt anyone would try to sabotage a school play," Draco drawled, sounding not in the least bit concerned.
"It was probably an accident," another student pointed out, clearly not knowing of the extent of Pansy's wrath.
"An accident? Well, I'd like to see how well this play goes if more accidents like that happen!" she declared, waving the papers in the air before her.
"Professor! There's a note here," called a young girl who had been digging around through the fallen backdrop.
"A note? Let me see!" Pansy stomped over and snatched the sheet from the girl's outstretched hand. "'This was only a greeting gift. Expect many more like it if you don't cast the lovely Ginny Weasley in the role of Juliet,'" she read. "Why, I never!" Everyone seemed as shocked as she was, Ginny most of all. As all eyes turned to her, she nearly fainted.
"What? I have nothing to do with this!" she cried, wringing her hands in front of her. "Sure, I want this part a lot, but I'd never do anything like that!"
"Is there a signature?" Harry asked, taking the note from Pansy without waiting for an answer. The bottom of the message was blank.
"Well, if Weasley didn't do anything, who did?" Blaise finally dropped the question that no one else seemed to want to say.
TBC...
A/N: Great. First I had to drag out my HBP to check what Blaise looked like, then I had to drag out my Unabridged Shakespeare Collection to look up Romeo and Juliet. You're making me do too much work, Dizzy. xD I guess it's okay though. If you couldn't tell yet, I'm a sucker for Shakespeare.
Mwaha! Fear my horrid use of cliché! Yes. Anyway, con-crit is lovingly appreciated, of course. Drop us a note. You know you want to.
A/N (Dizzy): Okay, so we would like to get some reviews on this story. As motivation for reviews, we are going to wait until we get 5 reviews before we put up the next chapter. Just comment on how to make the story better, or something like that, and we will be VERY happy.
O, random thought. MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 2 DAYS! YAYSES! XD okay, so yea, randomness.
-!Dizzy!-