BOTH ALIKE IN DIGNITY
By: geekinthepink
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I claim nothing as my own, except perhaps my iPod.
Chapter Three – The Scene Shakespeare Forgot Including Scene V
It was a desperate and perhaps futile attempt to avoid each other that rewrote a scene in the monumental play of ultimate love and fate as neither Romeo nor Juliet ever wanted to admit, even under pain of death, that they knew each other in any sort of way. It was a way of wondering whether or not Juliet would have committed suicide for Paris as the redheaded girl sunk back into the shadows and the forgotten chair sitting cold in the corner.
In this era's unladylike manner she leaned against the armrest, her elbow resting on top of it with her chin cradled in her palm just watching the crowd of people. She was supposed to be in love right now, sprouting out sonnets and poetry about pilgrims, love, and kisses. Of course, bloody James Potter had once again ruined that for her and she was brooding and pouting in the only way that she knew how to cope with this.
He, however, seemed to get over the lost fairytale love with the greatest of ease. He had already sunken back into what he was familiar with, casual conversation with numerous girls and the attention of two boys that reminded her of James's lackeys back home. Of course, these were probably Benvolio and Mercutio which added to Lily's brooding, depressed demeanor.
"And palm to palm is holy palmers kiss." She muttered vehemently under her breath as she watched her dimension traveling companion send one of Shakespeare's female creations into a fit of unladylike giggles. She wasn't jealous, oh no, that wasn't it at all, but he had been the one to rob her of her fairytale, her solitude in the common room and it wasn't fair that he didn't seem to be fazed at all. That's what was driving her mad.
James didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he was rewriting one of the greatest works of literature of all time as he spun the bubbling girl around in a move he was copying off of everyone else. It was unnecessary to say that dancing in this era and the 1970's varied drastically and Lily desperately hoped that he was grasping at straws. She hoped that he was suffering in some way, even if it was as feeble as dancing patterns. Actually, she hoped that he hated this, that he would forever spite her and even her offspring simply because of all of the pain and suffering that he was going through.
Unfortunately, the git was grinning at the girl cheekily and Lily flushed in anger. He couldn't even have the common decency to hate the Shakespearean tragedy that he was stuck in.
"My lady," a friendly courtier woman curtsied at her feet. "It despairs me so to see you look so offended." Lily sent her a look of disapproval and quickly pasted a small smile to her pale pink lips. The change in dimension certainly hadn't changed her complexion and she came to the realization that the flush spread quickly across her almost transparent skin, showing her troubles to the entire court.
"It's fine, don't worry about it." Apparently the casual dismissal of her time and dimension didn't fit because it caused the courtier to look at her even more peculiarly. "All is well, ma'am. No cause for distress." She corrected hurriedly.
With another low curtsy the woman left just as abruptly as she had came and Lily pursed her lips together, sitting up straight in the chair. If a simple courtier could see how absolutely disturbed she was by this whole situation, then she would have to take matters into her own hands. Even if that meant waltzing up to a dragon, who in this case had horrible eye sight and hair that was even worse.
Said dragon still was content spinning the bubbling girl around and took no notice of the redhead's arrival. She was forced to clear her throat loudly to be heard over the music and the infernal racket of the giggles. James stopped abruptly mid-spin.
"Yes?" he questioned shortly.
"Can I cut in?" she questioned easily as though this was a common occurrence and his touch wouldn't burn her skin.
James looked at the girl who he had been occupying his time with and gave her a small smile before nodding at Lily. He released his hold on the other girl's hand before taking Lily's and tugging her towards him so quickly she thought the inertia would knock him flat on his back. Correction, she had hoped that the inertia would knock him flat on his back.
She was surprised to find that his touch didn't burn but instead sent repulsive chills down her spine that she suppressed, but just barely. She looked up at the hazel eyes just out of her own line of eyesight to find that he was looking at her with the same look that he used on Sirius Black when he couldn't quite understand the nonsense that spilled out of the boy's mouth.
"What?" she questioned innocently.
He shook his head. "Nothing really, simply curious."
"I am too," she admitted, "I don't know what could have possibly sent us here; it's not any magic that I know."
"That's not what I'm talking about, Evans." He told her abruptly as she was just about to continue her previous stream of consciousness.
"Oh," Her tone gave away the lack of shock that should have been present in her voice.
"Were you jealous?" he questioned with a smirk. Lily allowed a scowl to rise on her features.
"Only you would be so absolutely disgusting to believe that the reason why I came over here, the reason why I'm actually dancing with you, is because I'm jealous." She laughed far too loudly for the Elizabethans and Shakespeareans alike.
"Well then, why did you?" he retorted, clearly believing that he had a point.
"As sorry as I am to admit it, you and I are both in this situation together and as much as I would like to leave you behind I don't think Professor Dumbledore would appreciate that. Besides, there's too much work called for in conditioning a new Head Boy and the homework I'm going to have after this whole ordeal is finished is going to be atrocious." Despite the fact that his hand still rested on her waist while his other held her own in perfect form, she dismissed him with her words as though she had just crossed to the other side of the ballroom.
"Or you just wanted to dance with me." The familiar smirk made its way back to his lips.
"Excuse me while I go retch." She said coldly as she made to turn her back on him. She didn't get far before James' hands were once again at her body, pulling her back into the frame of the dance.
"That was uncalled for," Lily sincerely hoped he was speaking of his own words and not her actions, "And you have a point. We are stuck in this together and it would be too much work conditioning a replacement for either of us. Are we calling a truce then, Evans?"
Lily appeared to be chewing the thought over before responding, letting the music and James's hands spin her around the dance floor in elegant patterns. She idly wondered how he had gotten so good at ballroom dancing. Taking a deep breath, she nodded.
"I suppose we have to, don't we?" The question was rhetorical and he treated it as such, refusing to answer her.
"Do you have any ideas of how to fix this?" he questioned her instead.
She shook her head sadly. "No, like I said, I don't have any idea how this all could have happened. And I highly doubt that playing out this act the way that its written is going to help either of us. Actually, it would probably be pertinent if we didn't act it out."
"I thought you said that you weren't supposed to change Shakespeare?" Now he was just teasing her.
"If you would prefer to poison yourself at the end of this whole thing, be my guest, James."
He stopped moving abruptly, causing her to stumble over his feet but his grip caught her before she could fall ungracefully to the ground. "What was that for?" she questioned in a harsh whisper, trying not to draw any attention to them as they were still a Capulet and a Montague.
"You just called me James." He was nearly grinning and Lily retaliated with a frown.
"Don't look at me like that." She chided. "We agreed on a truce, besides, it would seem strange for me to call you Potter while stuck in this play. Actually, I should probably just stick to calling you Romeo." It was finally her turn to tease him and his reaction was exactly what she had hoped it would be. He scowled, obviously associating the name with the merciless teasing of love-struck boys in their own time period.
"Then it would only make sense for me to call you my fair Juliet, would it not?" The teasing continued in banter and the thought that it was hardly fair for him to be so quick to recover his wit crossed Lily's mind.
She ignored him forcibly. "What are we going to do about all of this?"
"I honestly don't know. Can't we just ignore the whole Romeo and Juliet story? Forget the whole thing and just go on as though your character and mine had never met?" It seemed like a simple enough idea, which is why it obviously wouldn't work.
"If we're going to figure out a way to get home we have to work together and with you as a Montague and I as a Capulet, that's impossible. We'd be sneaking around anyway." Though there would be no confessions of love or sonnets of the similarities between Lily and the sun. Once again she inwardly cursed James Potter for ruining her fairytale. She cursed him and his ruddy hair, poor eyesight, broomstick and funny Shakespearean trousers. A smile couldn't even be hidden at that.
"Why are you grinning?" He actually sounded worried, as though some diabolical plan was being cooked up by his dancing partner.
"Your trousers." She pointed out with a small laugh. It was a pleasure to see his ears flush red as a pink covered his cheeks as though someone had attacked him with blusher.
"Nobody finds out about this." He warned firmly. A sigh of frustration at the humiliation of this all passed his lips before he remembered the original topic before Lily was so rudely distracted. "If we need to sneak around, so be it. We need to get home; I don't know how much more I can take of this." Lily missed the quick glance he made at the aforementioned trousers.
She looked a little wary at the idea of sneaking around. Things were so much simpler when you could just read about them and not have to worry about having to live them out. However, the balcony scene is perhaps the most famous of all so in all reality, they have all of the routes to sneaking around that they needed. It was almost like seeing the future.
James chuckled at her expression while the song finished and slowly the crowds dispersed leaving the two of them standing in dancing stance off to the side. "You're afraid of breaking the rules. In a play. A fictional play, at that."
"I am not a Marauder," she spat out the word like it had poisoned her tongue. "Breaking the rules is not an every day occurrence for me. It doesn't mean that I won't do it; I'm simply saying that it's a little nerve wracking. And these are a lot of rules that we would be breaking."
"I've done worse." He said simply. She glared at him and didn't dare question what he meant by that, it was better just not to know.
Coming to the realization that the people had parted and were spending the time between songs chatting with their friends, Lily quickly broke apart from James and moved out into the hall where they had been before. He followed her easily catching the drift; it would not be wise for the two of them to be caught together now.
"We can't risk talking anymore at this party; we've spent too much time together to cause suspicion as is." Lily pointed out softly, not to capture the attention of any of the nearby partygoers though it appeared to be almost in vain as they kept looking over at the pair every so often.
"When else will we be able to talk then?" he seemed genuinely curious. He felt that there was no other time than now because every second he stayed here the more he missed the comforts of his own bed in the Gryffindor tower.
"Haven't you read the play?" she looked at him pointedly. "The balcony scene, just be outside after the party, you'll find me on top of the balcony."
"Don't expect me to speak of how you are as beautiful as the sun then."
"I would surely hex you if you did." Her words were sharp. For the third time that evening she was reminded of how horribly James Potter has destroyed her fantasy of a star-crossed love.
The attention of those around them continued to fall on them and with the superstitions of the time radiating on high, the word "hex" flashed in neon lights. Lily took a step closer to James so that their conversation would not be overheard. "I do not expect you to follow this play word for word; I would actually rather you not. However, it's not a bad place to look for ideas. Romeo and Juliet snuck around to see each other and if it worked in the play, it'll work for you and me." She was close enough to him now that the warmth from his body reached her own skin and just as she was about to take a step back she heard the familiar sound of someone clearing their throat impatiently.
"Juliet," Nurse began as the redheaded girl and her partner leapt apart. "Your mother wishes to speak with you." Lily knew she should have seen this coming and nodded before taking her leave down the hall and away from James and Nurse. The Nurse eyed him curiously and James grinned at her in his cheeky sort of well. "Well… Bye." He told her before turning back into the ballroom where the crowd was slowly fading.
Not-Remus found James quickly and informed him that it was time for them to take their leave as well. The pondering thoughts of how absolutely absurd this whole thing was hit James with the same familiarity as a book having been thrown at the hand of Miss Lily Evans. Neither one of them knew how to correct this terrible mistake and they both knew that they couldn't act this play out without falling to a terrible fate. James was so caught up with his own thoughts that he hadn't realized that despite the additional scene they had accidentally added, the play was still running the same course.