Harry Potter FF Chapter 3.

Read, enjoy, and review. I need some reviews.  Thanks a lot. - ManiacMouse.

Summery : Harry goes to the first play practice.

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2 hours later, we were all back in our dormitory's. Draco had left half an hour earlier to make sure he was on time, and we had not seen him since.

"He used to never worry." Lavender complained.

"He loves Quidditch. I don't think he could bare to loose it over something as stupid as a detention." I said. "Speaking of witch, we have to play him. First game of the season. It starts…in 2 weeks." I said, counting off the days in my head.

"Who should I root for?" Lavender asked. "My boyfriend's team or my house team?"

"House." We all said in unison.

"Ok. It's settled." Lavender smiled. "Well I'm going to bed. I'm beat. Talk to you all in the morning." Lavender yawned. "Coming Parvati?"

"Yeah. Night guys."

"Night." Ron and Dean said. I merely nodded, and stood up to hug them both. The girls grinned, and made their way up the stairs.

I sank back onto the couch, and yawned. Ron clambered over the back of the couch to join me. Dean remained standing.

"Night dudes." He said. "I need to catch up on my sleep. Busy day tomorrow."

"Fine. See you tomorrow." Rom said. I lifted my hand in a little wave. Dean smiled, and disappeared into our dorm.

I sat on the couch, slumped over my charms paper half an hour later.

"Dude there's Hermione." Ron said, propping himself up on his elbows. He was lying on the floor, reading a potions book.

"So?" I asked, not looking up from my homework.

"What if she tries to talk to us?" he asked.

"Why would she? She hasn't before." I reminded him, glancing up at Hermione. She was walking up to where we sat.

"What's she doing?" Ron asked.

"Hi Harry." Hermione greeted us. "Hi Ron."

"Hi." We both mumbled under our breaths. We glanced around; making sure no one saw us talking to her.

"What's up?" she asked, forcing conversation on us that we didn't want to be having.

"Not much." I said irritated. "Just working on some homework."

"Well, I just felt like saying hello." If she picked up on the scorn in my voice, she didn't show it. "And I just wanted to remind you Harry, that we have play practice on Friday."

"I remember." I said quietly. Trying to sound like I was ending the conversation.

"Ok, good. Professor Dumbledore said that if you blow it off…"

"I know." I hissed. "I'll be in even more trouble then I am in now." 

"Good." Hermione said. "Well I need to do some homework."

And without another word, she raced across the common room, grabbed her bag, and came back to sit in the chair next to mine. I rolled my eyes, as Ron looked confused.

"Right, so…What are we gonna do about Draco?" he asked, trying hard to strike up a conversation. "I mean he can't be nervous about that all the time."

"I know man. We'll talk some sense in to him." I assured him. "He'll be back to his old, daring self in not time. Hi Dean!" I yelled out, as Dean stumped back down the stairs, in his pajamas.

"Hey." He said, forcing a smile, but I could tell that he looked a little pissed at something. He dropped down into an armchair.

"I thought you were 'catching up on your sleep.'" Ron said, turning a page in the potions book he was reading, and tapping his quill against the side of his head.

"Do you know how hard it is to sleep when Longbottom is snoring like a chainsaw in the bed next to yours?" Dean moaned. I felt a sudden wave of guilt. We used to be friends wit Neville Longbottom until third year. Then he got to nerdy for us. But the guilt passed quickly.

"I know. He's so loud. I tried putting a pillow on his face, but he just shakes it off. He sat up, and cast his book aside. "I give up. This junks impossible"

"Snape's a jackass to give us this much homework." I said, frowning at my own Potions book that lay in my bag. I usually waited until last to do my potions homework.

"Well at least tomorrows Friday. And it's a Hogsmede weekend."

"Easy for you to say. After Hogsmede I need to go to that stupid play practice." I growled.

"Ooh. Sucks for you." Ron said.  "But you knew this was coming didn't you? I mean how many times are they just gonna give you a detention? They were bound to make it a bigger punishment sometime."

"No this is just Dumbledore trying to make Harry out to look like a juvenile delinquent, who gets in trouble all the time." Dean said. "Or he wants his Precious Harry Potter to be more polite."

"Shut up. I'm not his 'Precious Harry Potter.' I'm just a person who happened to be famous, and he takes it upon himself to look after me. But I know for a fact that my dad was just like this when he was my age." I said testily.

No one said anything, but I heard Hermione sigh, and I could tell it was taking her a lot of will power not to say anything.

"Well speaking of Dads." Dean said after a minute. "I need to owl mine and see if he can send me a new broom. The front of mine got broken off at the last practice."

"Quidditch season hasn't even started yet, Dean." Ron reminded, shifting though a pile of parchment trying to find his "Cannons" magazine.

"I meant my last practice. Since I'm a Muggle born, I can't practice during the summer, so I need to have extra practices. So I got Parvati and Lavender to come with me." Dean explained, taking a piece of parchment out of his bag, and began to write. "But a bludger hit the front of it."

"Hmm." I said. "Under my bed I have a Quidditch Broom magazine. You could borrow it if you wanted."

"Thanks. I want a Nimbus 2002 or 2003."

Ron laughed, and then stopped himself quickly.

"What's so funny?" Dean asked.

"If you have Muggle parents then how do you expect them to get you a broom?" Ron asked.

"My older brother is a wizard; he could find one for me. He got out of school last year." He scratched something out on his paper. "Dear, Mark." He said. "Ok satisfied?"  He set his quill down, and read it over.

"Yes." Ron chuckled.

"Good. Well I'm tired, so I'm going to bed." He got up, and stuck his letter back into his bed. "Remind me to send that tomorrow."

"Sure thing." Ron said, yawning. It was a moment before he could speak again. "I'll join in. I'm exhausted also. Night Harry." He said getting up.

"Night." I said, wishing that he wouldn't leave me alone with Hermione. But I still had homework to finish. So slouched in my chair, and re-read my charms essay to make sure it was what Flitwick had wanted. After a minute I was happy with the essay, and I set it aside, to start my potions essay. Suddenly I became aware that Hermione was speaking to me.

"What?" I asked, opening my potions book, then realizing it was Ron's, felt around for my own.

"You aren't very nice around your friends." She repeated.

"Yeah? What's it to you?" I asked coldly, slightly startled by her words.

"Ok, so you don't care about classes or graduating. But you like school because you're popular, and if you are nice to people like me, you'll never be on top again."

"That's fairly predictable." I said, and smiled.

"Your act only works on an audience." She raised her eyebrows at me, and then walked away up to the head girl's dormitory. I rolled my eyes, and sat back, concentrating on my homework.

Twenty minutes later I finished, and I staggered up to my bed. Ron was snoring lightly, and Longbottom had been turned over on his stomach, which stifled his snores a bit. I changed into my pajamas, and fell into my bed. Ron let out a particularly loud snore, as I drifted off. I could hear laughing coming from Deans bed, that woke me up.

"What's so funny Dean?" I called out, a bit irritated.

"Nothing." He said, giggling softly. "I'm just reading a letter from my mum. She sent it to me last night, but I haven't had a chance to open it."

"Good for you." I said groggily. And I fell asleep, half listening to Dean laughing.

"Harry get up!" I heard the next morning.

"Go away. Good dream." I said into my pillow.

"Hogsmede trip today." Ron said, shaking me.

"Fine." I snapped. And I opened my eyes. The light was blinding.

"Finally. I was shaking you for like ten minutes." Ron said, walking back to his own bed. I mumbled, "Shut up," under my breath, but he didn't hear me. I dressed quickly in my robes, and cloak. Ron was talking to Dean, who was searching for something in his trunk.

"Good morning Harry. You didn't happen to see my left shoe did you?"

"Sorry." I said, tying my own shoes and straightening up. Suddenly the dormitory door swung open, and Lavender came into the room.

"Dean will you please tell me why your shoe was in my bag?" She said, laughing slightly.

"There it is." He said, walking over and grabbing the shoe.

"It was in my bag." She said.

"Really? I have no idea why it was there." Dean replied, shoving his foot into it, and lacing it up.

"I saw Draco earlier." Lavender said, referring to her daily snog fest she has with him each morning in any empty classroom they can find. "He seems back to normal. Either his dad took back his treat, or he's not afraid of him anymore."

"Well that's good." I said. "I'm ready."

"So am I." Ron and Dean said together.

All four of us left the dorm, Lavender receiving some stares from the other boys. I rolled my eyes, as we came to the common room. Parvati was standing by the fire waiting for us.

"Let's go." She said when she saw us.

We met up with Draco in the great hall, and we set off for Hogsmede. Ron complaining about not having breakfast.

"We can get something when we get there." Draco reminded him. But Ron was still grumbling as we arrived in the town. I turned to the youngest Weasley boy, and said.

"Fine, go back to Hogwarts and get some food." Draco let out a barking laugh, and it seemed to shut Ron up.

We walked into the Hogshead, and sat down.

"I'll get the drinks." Draco said. "Ok so that's 5 firewisky's. Right." And he walked up to the bar.

"You swear this stuff tastes good." Ron said, as Draco set the drinks on the table.

"Yes." I said, taking a drink for myself, and taking a swig. Ron drank some, and coughed loudly. "Ugg. Bitter." He said.

"It's not called 'firewisky' for nothing." Dean said, taking a deep drink, and pulling a face. "But you get used to it. Right Harry?"

"Yeah." I said, taking another sip, watching Draco chug his.

"Slow down, Malfoy." I said. Draco pulled his drink away from his mouth.

" 'Slow down, Malfoy'" he mocked. "You slow down."

Dean laughed loudly.  

"I don't get you Draco."

Draco smirked, then buried himself in his drink again.

The sun was setting, casting long shadows across the ground. Lavender looked a bit green as we made our way back to the castle. The firewisky hadn't agreed with her, and she still looked sick. I glanced at my watch, and to my dismay saw that it was 7:40.

"Crap." I said. "I'm going to be late for the play practice." I said, starting to run. I could hear my friends jogging along behind me.

"Why the hurry?" Draco asked, hurrying to get beside me. "You've never cared about being late to class before."

"Dumbledore said if I didn't show up I'd be in trouble."

"He said if you didn't show up you'd be in trouble. Not if you were late." Ron reminded me. "So let's slow down."

I nodded reluctantly, and slowed my pace down to a fast walk. Fifteen minutes later we reached the castle doors, and I sped in the door. I said good-bye to my friends, and I walked towards Professor Flitwicks class room. I could tell by the voices inside that it had already started. I opened the door, and walked in. The woman in the front of the class stopped talking and the class looked at me as I walked in.

"Mr. Potter, nice of you to join us." The woman said. She had red hair, held back in a bun. Her long skirt looked old and worn out. Her face was wrinkled, and she had too much makeup on. "My name is Mrs. Macon. I will the director for this play. Please take your seat."

"Ok." I said, in a board tone. But when I looked around the room, my board feeling turned into annoyance. The only open seat was the one right next to Hermione Granger. I sighed, and sat down. Hermione didn't even glance up, she just kept her gaze at Mrs. Macon.

"Yes, as I was saying. We are doing a play called, 'Witch.' It's about Merlin, and in the play, he falls in love with a mortal witch one day. And he has to decide whether to get married to the immortal witch that he is engaged with, or this mortal. It's a romantic play."

I groaned inwardly. A romantic play? I couldn't do romantic plays. I just couldn't be romantic. My main pick up line for girls was: "I like your shirt." Or "What kind of shampoo do you use, cuz your hair smells good." So as you can probably tell, I don't get that many dates.

"So Mr. Potter you will play Merlin."

That brought me back.

"What? No, no see I didn't plan on acting or anything." I said, smiling sheepishly.

"Nonsense. Everyone here acts. I would be thrilled to get that part." Mrs. Macon said.

"What ever." I mumbled.

"Good. Now Hermione Granger, you will be playing the Mortal witch, Gwenna Handspring.  

I groaned, this time out loud. She would be playing the person I fell in love with. How would I explain this to my friends? Hermione looked over at me, but she looked to happy to be mad.

"Thank you, Mrs. Macon." She said, grinning. I rolled my eyes, and slumped down in my chair.

"You're welcome, my dear" Mrs. Macon said. "Now, Mr. Smith, you will be playing Merlin's best friend.

   At the end of the practice, I staggered out Flitwicks room, grumbling to myself. This was worse then I thought. In the play, I have to tell Hermione that she's beautiful. I mean how could I tell her that? She wasn't beautiful. But Mrs. Macon said that I had to say it like I meant it.

"Harry?" A voice said, and I twisted around. Draco was standing in the shadows of a statue.

"What?" I asked, walking over to him.

"How did the play practice go?" Draco asked.

"Sucked." I replied bitterly.

"Oh…I'm sorry. Well I was just down in the kitchen getting some food. Do you want some? I have a lot." He said, shaking his pockets.

"No thanks. I don't feel like eating. But I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ok. More for me." He laughed, and started to walk away. "Bye." He called over his shoulder as he disappeared down another hallway.

I started walking again. My thoughts drifted back to the play. We had gotten a book of lines to memorize, and I had the most lines off all the people. And I couldn't even remember information for a test. How was I supposed to memorize all my lines, in two weeks?

"Ron?" I asked when I walked through the portrait hole.

"Yeah?" He asked from the arm chair he was sitting in.

"I need help. I have two weeks to memorize all my lines, and I have like a million to memorize."

"And you want me to help you learn them." Ron finished for me.

"Yeah." I said, walking over to him.

"Well dude, I'm not good at memorizing stuff either, but I'll help." He stood up, and looked over my shoulder at the lines.

"Thanks." I said. "We'll start tomorrow.

"Good, cuz I've got a lot of homework that I didn't finish." Ron said, flopping back down in his chair.

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-ManiacMouse