Tie Game
Chapter 7- Acting
Lily and James were sitting in the common room one evening trying to decide what they were going to do about the acting part of their competition.
"Well, I suppose we could do something Shakespearean." Lily suggested, "Oh, but of course you don't know who Shakespeare is. He's a very famous Muggle playwright who-"
"I know who Shakespeare is." James said plainly.
"You do?" Lily asked curiously.
James looked at her blankly, "Of course, he was a wizard."
"He- what?" asked Lily, taken aback.
"He was a wizard." Repeated James, "He wasn't very well liked by some in his time because he lived amongst the Muggles and divulged a little too much information in Macbeth, but he's still incredibly famous."
Lily took a moment to let this information sink in. "Wow, I had no idea, but I guess it makes sense. So it's agreed. Shakespeare."
James shrugged, "Sounds good to me, but which play? He's written like thirty-something, hasn't he?"
"I think we should do something famous, something everyone's heard of." Lily said.
"I agree, then everyone will understand it, and they'll have something to compare us to while they're judging us." Replied James, "I also think we should just do one scene, not the whole play."
Lily nodded her head, "For sure, it would be pretty difficult to do an entire play with just two people. So which scene shall we do?"
"Well, there's Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech." Suggested James.
"Nah, too many people in that scene, we need a scene with only two people in it." Lily reminded him.
For some reason James blushed, "We could do the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet." He said rather sheepishly, not meeting her eyes.
Lily smiled at him, "Ok, that works well; everyone's heard of it and it's just the two of them, yeah, it's perfect."
"Great!" exclaimed James, "I'll drop by the library during lunch tomorrow and pick up two copies of the play."
"Ok and we can do a line run through tomorrow night while we're patrolling the hallways." She said brightly.
"Brilliant." James said. He hugged Lily and gave her a quick peck on the lips, "See you in the morning."
Over the next three months Lily ad James practiced in nearly every moment of free time they had. It seemed they were running lines more often than studying for their N.E.W.T.S. When it was finally perfected, Lily and James put up announcements in the common room, everyone in Gryffindor House was invited to come and watch, and take part in the judging. They decided everyone who wanted to would vote as to who was the better actor and whoever received the most votes would get the point for the competition.
The day of the show, James was excited and enthusiastic and did not seem nervous at all, Lily on the other hand was frazzled and worried she would forget her lines. She had been in plays before, but that was back in primary school when she participated in plays like Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood, this was Shakespeare.
A makeshift stage had been set up in the common room. Lily peaked out from behind the curtain but immediately withdrew her head with a squeal when she saw how many people had come to watch them perform. Even Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore had come to watch.
She turned and saw James walking by casually. "Oh James," she said, "I'm so nervous."
"Thou dost not worry, fair Juliet, all shall go well. Calm thyself." James grinned.
Despite James' ridiculous attempt at Elizabethan language, Lily's nerves were slightly relaxed.
The performance went extremely well; neither Lily nor James forgot a single line, and everyone whooped very loudly when they executed a lovely stage-kiss.
Later that night they tallied the results… it was a tie. Lily and James had received the exact same number of votes. This was getting ridiculous…
A/N: Sorry it's so short… Next chapter is the last and it will be longer and better. I promise I'll update soon!