"Wake up." Remus called to his dorm mates on the first Saturday morning after the cast list had been posted. "Rehearsal starts in 20 minutes."
"What time is it?" James said sleepily as Sirius and Peter dressed themselves.
"It is eight-thirty in the morning," Remus said as he took out a paper bag out from under his robes. "I got breakfast from the kitchens. Eat quickly."
"Do we have to get up this early?" James yawned. "Even with Quidditch, I don't have to get up until quarter after ten."
"Show some commitment, will you?" Sirius said, now fully dressed in his Hogwarts uniform.
"Like you can talk." James retorted. "You've broken Hogwarts record for the amount of girlfriends you've had."
"It's not my fault that I happened to be the best looking guy in the school and the girls like me. It's also not my fault that I'm too nice and actually agreed to go on dates on all those that asked me out nicely." Sirius said. "But that's irrelevant. Lily's going to be there. In fact, she might be there already."
James wolfed down his bagel and nearly choked on his pumpkin juice as he bolted out the dormitory door.
"So very like him." Sirius laughed as he took a bite out of his egg bagel spread with lox. "Pass the pumpkin juice, Moony."
After taking 10 minutes to eat their breakfast of bagels and pumpkin juice, Sirius, Remus, and Peter arrived at the spare Charms classroom where the rehearsals take place. They entered and found the room about five times the size of a normal classroom, which was plenty of room to hold a rehearsal.
"Rehearsal starts in 10 minutes." Professor Flitwick said to them as they entered.
The three immediately spotted James and walked over to him. "So, how's life 10 minutes without us?" Sirius said jokingly.
"I was rejected." James said dejectedly. "By Lily."
"Prongs… please don't go emo on us." Remus said. "Especially not when rehearsal is about to start."
"This is the four-thousand-nine-hundred-and-thirty-fifth that I got rejected by Lily." James said. "None of you had to go through that."
"True. But don't be emo. Have a cookie, Prongs." Sirius said. "Cookies make everything better." And he pulled out a cookie from nowhere.
"Thanks, Padfoot." James took the cookie and took a bite. It was amazingly good.
"There. Feeling better now?" Sirius said. James nodded.
"Padfoot…where'd you get the cookie?" Remus asked in an undertone. "I don't remember bringing any into our lunch bag…"
"I figured that this will probably happen, knowing Prongs… so I ripped off a piece of my bagel and transfigured it into a cookie." Sirius said. " I'm not his best friend for nothing, y'know."
"Rehearsal will be starting in 5 minutes." Announced Professor McGonagall. "People who have lines in Act One, Scene One, go to the area to my left. Others, please go to Miss Artemis Kyo on the right for measurements for their costume."
"We will be running through the script today." Said Professor Flitwick.
"Have fun fighting my brother, Moony." Sirius said as he, James, and Peter walked to the right side of the classroom towards Artemis. "He can be a bit ferocious."
"I'll keep that in mind, even though we're only going through the lines." Remus said as he went to the left side to read his lines as Benvolio.
On the other side of the school, in a spare Arithmancy classroom, holds the meetings of the "Official Sirius Black Fan Club of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry", a rather large group of girls from every house in Hogwarts, including Slytherin, who has a crush on Sirius Black. The meetings are held every Saturday morning before breakfast, so the girls can figure out new ways to ambush Sirius every week. Sirius was well aware of the club's existence, but can do naught against it.
The leader of the club was a Ravenclaw 7th year, Aria Sampson, whose twin brother, Eric, plays the role of Sampson in the school play. Being a Ravenclaw, she was intelligent and comes up with the best ideas for the club to ambush Sirius. And her plans work about 80 percent of the time.
"We will go to the rehearsal today." Aria announced to the club. "Sirius is in the play as Mercutio."
The club all nodded in agreement. Exiting the "meeting room", Aria led the fan club towards the Charms corridor to where the rehearsal was being held.
"This should do." Artemis said as she took Sirius's measurements. "And are you sure you don't want a pink frilly dress? You'd look great in one." She joked.
"I'll pass, but thanks anyways." Sirius said. "Maybe another time." He joked back.
"By the way, you have to do something about your hair when you are actually performing." Artemis said. "It's almost as long as mine."
"You are not saying that I cut it, right? Because you know I wouldn't do that." Sirius said, a bit panicking. He's been growing his hair out for years and liked it long. There was no way that he will cut it.
"Of course not. I know you love your hair almost as much as I love my pencil. I'm saying that you just need to tie it up… it looks more in character that way." Artemis said. "Plus, it looks good with what I'm going to design you."
Sirius sighed in relief. So he doesn't have to cut his hair. He'd rather wear a pink, frilly dress rather than cut it, and that's saying something.
"Act one, scene four up please." Professor Flitwick announced to the people in the waiting area.
"See you later, Art." Sirius said as he, James, and Remus walked towards the rehearsal area to read their lines.
"Here it is." Aria said to her group of girls. "Let's go in."
"Are you sure?" Said a Hufflepuff 4th year. "We have over 20 people."
"This is the largest classroom in the whole school." Aria informed her. "It has no problem holding over 100 students. There's only about 25 people in the whole play, so I don't see the problem of an extra 20 people."
No one had any objections, so silently Aria pu shed open the door and walked in, followed by the rest of the Fan Club members. No one noticed them, as their attention was towards Sirius, who was delivering the famous "Queen Mab" speech.
"O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Over men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs,
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
Her traces, of the smallest spider web;
Her collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams;
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film;
Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on curtsies straight;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are.
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice.
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.
This is she!"
Sirius read through the whole speech without noticing his fan club, as he was absorbed into the speech himself.
"This the first time I heard someone do a monologue so perfectly on their first try." Said Professor Flitwick, who applauded. The whole room followed suit. Sirius gave a bow and then, looking up, noticed his infamous fan club. Faster than lightning, he dashed behind Artemis, who came over from her corner to watch. Sirius, hard to believe as it was, generally does not like being mean to girls, even his Fan Club. Of course, Artemis happened to be around, and she can easily scare off a bunch of wimpy fangirls. That's one of the reasons what friends are for, right?
"Help me." Sirius whispered.
"I'd be glad to." Artemis stood up from her easel, walked over to the fan club, clicked her pencil, and from within drew a full-length katana.
"Sirius does not welcome you. So unless you have a part in the play, leave now or I'll literally kick you out." She said. The fangirls cowered then bolted out of the room at once.
Sliding her sword back into her pencil, Artemis walked back to her seat and said, "There. Now you are safe."
"Thanks. How'd you draw a sword out of that pencil anyways?" Sirius asked.
"It's charmed so I can carry around my sword and wand easily, and the graphite never runs out. It also changes thickness and hardness, as well as between ink and pencil, and colors." Artemis clicked the mechanical pencil again and the lead/graphite came out, so she can go back to designing. "Got it for a birthday present last summer. Too bad you couldn't come to the party… Now go back to read your lines. Got to make your costumes, y'know."
"Act two, scene two." Professor McGonagall announced.
"Start." She said to James, who had the first lines in the scene.
"He jests at scars that never felt a wound." James read. "But soft…Wait….what about soft?"
Remus shook his head. "It means 'behold'," he said, "continue reading."
"Okies." James said as he went back to his script and read, "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks… wait, they're breaking windows? Sweet!"
"No James. It's just an expression. As much I'd love to break some windows we're not going to, okay?" Sirius, who's standing on the side, explained to James.
"Funny I should hear you say that, Padfoot. I thought you'd be breaking a window now." James said.
"Go back to work. You can't impress Lily if you keep going this way," was Sirius's reply.
Hearing this, James quickly went back to look over his lines, so he can get them down right. Then, with his best efforts, he read, "But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Lily is the sun."
Remus and Sirius positively palmfaced.
"Think he gets it this time… but he's getting it a bit too much." Sirius said, half laughing.
"Hey! I can compliment Lily however I want!" exclaimed James. "Too bad she isn't responding."
"James… pretend Lily got a name change and is now called Juliet, okay?" Remus suggested to James.
"Okay. Let's start over." James said cheerfully and read, for the fourth time, this time correctly, "But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."
"He's finally getting it." Sirius sighed out of relief.
All this time, Peter has been standing in a corner, oblivious to James's mistakes, happily nibbling on a cookie.