Dislcaimer: From now and all future chapters, the disclaimer can be found in the Prologue.
Sorry for the wait, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, or whatever religious festival you celebrate and a wonderful start to the new year.
Chapter One – The summer before Sixth Year
Draco Malfoy stood at the back of the dance hall away from the rest of the class, still within earshot of the stage. The Gryffindor mud-blood, Hermione Granger, happened to be in the same class. He was not pleased about it. He was, however, getting used to her presence in the class. It was three weeks into the class and the skills training was over. The instructor had called them all together to make an announcement. The students varied in age with Draco and Hermione being the youngest students in the class.
A petite blonde woman walked across the stage and sat on the edge, looking down on her class. All of them were good actors, some were better than others but they were all good.
'Good afternoon class. I hope you had a good day yesterday. Today we will not be acting.' There were several groans of disappointment coming from the class. 'I know you won't like it but if you want to do the performance you must read through the play. Will you please go over to the table and grab the script that has your name on it. Do not open them yet, please.'
The instructor, Freya, waited and the class took it as a sign to go and get their scripts. Draco headed over and grabbed the script with his name on it. Quickly glancing at the title he read the words 'Moulin Rouge' which were in bold with a picture of the famous windmill below it. Once everyone had their scripts the instructor continued.
'Your characters have already been chosen and there will be no changing of characters. Today we will also be watching the movie so you can get a feel for the play. As you can see, the play we will be performing is 'Moulin Rouge'. For those who don't know the story it's a tragic love story about a courtesan and a writer. It's similar to Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. Now the costumes are being made for you. Hopefully, you can remember from the start of the course I got you to write your measurements down. Thank you for that by the way. Those who haven't written their measurements please give them to me by the end of the class.'
Quickly gazing over the class, Freya called upon Jacob, her assistant, to set up the DVD while she finished talking to the others.
'Now could you please open up to the first page of your scripts, there will be a folded piece of paper with your name on it. Do not lose this bit of paper, as it tells you your characters' name and profile.'
The sound of murmuring and rustling was heard as everyone opened their scripts and paper. Draco quickly flipped his paper over and read the name of his character – 'Christian'. He groaned – he was the leading man. He quickly wondered who would be the 'courtesan'. He wasn't thick – he knew exactly what a 'courtesan' was – he father had had several of them. Freya spoke up once more.
'Would Christian please come to the stage?' Draco groaned and walked to the stage and hopped up. Looking over the crowd he noticed that Hermione had gone pale. She looked him in the eye and he smirked. This was going to be good; she was going to be a secondary actor. She was hopeless in her acting, at least he thought so.
'So Draco here is our Christian and thus lead actor and now would our lovely leading actress, Satine, please step forward.' No one stepped forward and Draco was smirking on the inside, this was great. Freya looked directly at the leading actress, but to Draco, who was standing behind her, couldn't see where she was looking 'Satine, step forward please.' It wasn't a question it was an order.
After a short pause, Hermione started to move forward and walk up to the stage. Draco's jaw dropped. There was no way that mud-blood Granger was the leading actress.
'No way!' he called out and temporarily forgetting he was in the muggle world he said, 'I'm not being paired with the mud-blood!' The other actors looked at him like he was crazy and that he should be happy that he was paired with a beautiful girl. Hermione however, had expected this after finding out she was Satine and was angry for a moment (which showed on her face and the instructor saw it) before quickly retorting. However, she was more careful about references to the magical world.
'Shut your mouth, ferret or I'll be forced to do it for you! I'm sure you remember Professor Moody's punishment in our forth year. I can do a lot worse and you damn know it. Look at your father! Look how he turned out!' Hermione was getting angrier now and she needed a release, especially since she had been biting her tongue - figuratively and literally - for the past three weeks.
Freya just let them go at it; if the fight got too severe she would break it up. She noticed the tension between the two of them when they first spotted each other on the first day, so she figured there was some bad history between them and if they were to work together as leads they needed to be on good terms.
'I knew it! I should have you thrown away to Azkaban for what you did!' hissed Draco now completely forgetting that he was in the muggle world.
'You fool! Are you thinking at all? Did you forget about present company?' screamed Hermione, pointing to the muggles in the room, who were all confused about the reference to the wizard prison. 'Because it seems like you did! Besides, it was your father's boss that got him sent in there. Not Harry or Ron, not the Aurors or the ministry or I, it was Riddle! Goddamn it! Think! You stupid ferret.' Hermione started to have trouble breathing. Draco was in a semi state of shock. Perfect Granger was swearing! This was something new to him. He didn't say anything; he just glared at her, waiting for her to continue.
'I was nearly killed that night and I know damn well that you don't care, but let me tell you something Ferret! If I died tomorrow at least I know that I will have people who actually will miss me! I have people who will mourn for me after my death. You on the other hand will not! Your father is rotting away in jail and your mother …'
'Don't you dare talk about my mother! How dare you! I ought to send you to….' Draco cut in angrily, the other actors just following the argument, some amused although they were all quite confused as to what the two teenagers were talking about.
'How dare I? How dare you? You weren't there when your aunt Bellatrix killed Sirius! Her own cousin! You were not there when your father nearly killed Ron! You weren't there…'
'I get the point you filthy mud-blood! I wasn't there! So what? What does hell does it mean to me? If I remember correctly it was you who left me with the female Weasel! Not that would have wanted to go along anyway!' Draco yelled back at her, his hand gripping his wand that was hidden in his pocket.
'Her name is Ginny! And I'm glad I left you with her! For all I know you could have gone to join your father and his boss! Not that I would have minded kicking your ass, again! Remember third year!' Draco actually winced at the reference to her slapping him, hard, in third year. Hermione's breathing was starting to get worse, like she was having an anxiety attack. Draco watched as she placed her hand on her chest and tried to calm her breathing down; she stumbled and collapsed on the floor breathing heavily, while coughing hard.
'What's wrong mud-blood? Finally realised that I am, and will forever be, superior to you and your weasel friends as well as bloody scar-head?' Draco sneered. This was turning out great. Granger looked like she was in a lot of pain, crouching down at his feet where she belonged. Freya, however, had had enough of the fighting.
'That's enough you two.' Looking down at Hermione, who was now being supported by one of the older students. She was slowly getting over the coughing fit.
Turning back to Draco she continued, 'Draco, I don't care what your history is with Hermione but you will put it aside for the duration of the class and performance. You are both the leads and you will deal with it as adults, or you can leave the class and not come back.'
Draco scowled at Freya and nodded. 'Only if she agrees as well.' Glaring at Granger he watched as she nodded, still being supported by the other student.
Looking into Draco's eyes, she said to him, with difficulty, 'No funny business.' He just gave a short nod. She meant no magic, which was fine with him as he father would have found him if he used it anyway.
The instructor looked quickly between them before turning to the rest of the class, finally able to start watching the movie.
'Now that that drama is over with and our leads have finally decided that they will work together, we can move on. Jake is the DVD set up yet?' The assistant nodded, so she continued. 'If everyone will take a seat we will watch the movie that we will be performing at the end of August.'
The class moved quickly to the seats, the first actors there grabbing the better seats, with the rest filling up quickly. Draco, still smirking over his little 'victory', took a seat up the back of the group, as far away from Granger as possible. Once everyone was seated, Jake started the DVD and the opening sounds started to play the opening bars to the movie, suddenly coming to a sudden stop with the opening words, "Paris, 1900". The movie had started and Draco was now going to see for himself what his role entailed.
After the movie was finished, Draco was a little paler than usual. He was semi-shocked at what he was to perform. He actually had to…, no there was no way he could do that with the mud-blood! There was one consolation though, the outfits that the mud-blood would be wearing. Sure, as much as he hated her, he still wondered what she looked like under all those robes and her clothing that she had been wearing over the summer didn't reveal much more than her school robes. He was a typical teenage boy, and he would be sure that there were other students in the male populace at Hogwarts that had wondered what the mud-blood hid under her robes – correction; he would bet a hundred galleons on it.
Freya then spoke to the group; some of the women had a small tear in the corner of their eyes. Their homework was to read the script and highlight their parts and start learning their lines. Draco got up to leave with the rest of the class when he heard his name being called by the instructor. Sighing slightly he stayed behind, groaning quietly when noticed that Granger was also staying behind as well.
Facing Freya, who, amazingly, looked like Professor McGonagall at the moment with her pursed lips, and stern eyes. Looking between the two leads, she regard each with a look that would have made even Dumbledore shiver.
'Draco, Hermione, I don't know how you to know each other, but after that little display today, one could only imagine that it's at school. However, I want you to put aside your differences for this show, you two are both the leads actors whose characters love and care about each other, and the way you two are behaving is not how one shows that they care' Sighing, she rubbed her temples lightly, shaking her head slightly, she could feel a small headache coming on.
'The pair of you will need to spend more time with each other, a hour or two a day, the latter is more preferable. You will also need to either stay behind after class or come back in the afternoon or evening to do vocal training and singing practice.' She held up a slender hand to stop the protests that were about to issue from the two teens. 'If you want to at least act the part, there must be no animosity between you. I have been thinking for a few days now, since I decided to cast you both as the leads, how to get the two of you onto better terms with each other.'
Draco was frowning, this was not at all what he wanted – there was no way that he was going to get to know the mud-blood, and by the look n Grangers face there was just as much disapproval and dissatisfaction as well.
'I can see that neither of you are happy about this and I'm sure that there may be many good reasons why you don't want to get to know each other, but for the sake of the play and for your roles, it is necessary.'
At this, Draco saw that Hermione shifted a little nervously. She then spoke up. 'What do you mean by 'for the sake of the play and for your roles'? You don't mean…' she didn't finish, her voice slipping away so that if there was any wind, the words would have been carried away.
'I do Miss Granger. If the two of you do not cooperate with each other and do not put aside any animosity that you have then you will be expelled from course and therefore will not be performing on opening night, or any night at all.'
Draco groaned in frustration, now, not only was he the lead of the play with Granger, he had to actually get to know her and be nice to her. This was not turning out to be a good day.
'As long as it is fine with Malfoy,' Granger shot him a dark look. 'Then I have no problems with the arrangement.' Turning to face him, she held out her hand to finalise the agreement.
Draco pondered the situation for a moment. If he stayed he would have to be nice to a mud-blood, a big no-no in the Malfoy family rulebook, however, if he didn't stay he would never know if he was good enough to fool his father and the Dark Lord about his allegiance. Another rule that his father had drilled into him flittered across his mind at that very moment – Malfoy's don't give up and they don't fail ANYTHING. His mind was made up, he would do it. He quickly shook Granger's hand and retracted it quickly to wipe on his jeans. She rolled her eyes.
Freya smiled slightly, it wasn't much but it was a start. 'Now since class starts at 9am and goes till midday, you may want to go and have lunch and use that time as your two hours together, then come back here and you will have your two hour vocal and singing practice. Does that suit you both?' Draco nodded; as long as it kept him away from his father then he was willing to do anything, even if it meant having the mud-blood with him. Hermione also nodded.
'Excellent, you both start your vocal training tomorrow at 2pm. I shall see you both in class tomorrow morning. Have a good day to you both and please do remember what I said.' With that Freya turned away and went to put away the movie projector.
Draco turned to Granger and sneered, albeit not as Slytherin as usual. 'So what now mud-blood?'
She sighed. 'First, stop calling me 'mud-blood' because it doesn't have the same effect that it had when you first used that when we were in second year, and second, I guess we had better go and 'get to know each other' for the sake of our roles.' Draco scowled, and she noticed it. 'You promised Malfoy, now suck it up and let's go, best start now so that the sooner were 'friends', the sooner I can forget this ever occurred and move on with my life. However, knowing you I doubt you will actually cooperate.' And with that she stalked out of the dance hall. Draco shook his head and followed closely behind.
'Oi! Wait up! Where are you going? I thought you were going to 'get to know me', Granger.' He called out behind her. She stopped and turned to face him.
'You were actually serious about that? Oh my goodness!' She frowned slightly and came up to him to place the back of her hand against his forehead, checking for his temperature. 'Nope, no fever, so you can't be sick. Is everything secure up there Malfoy?' She tapped his head lightly with her knuckles. 'Or have you been hit with one too many hexes?'
'Cut it out Granger.' He hissed, swatting her hand away. 'Everything is fine. I am quite sane. As you so said, 'best start now so that the sooner were 'friends', the sooner I can forget this ever occurred and move on with my life.' As soon as we go back to school, all shall be forgotten.'
She was still looking at him rather strangely, as if he was some odd animal from the zoo, but decided to dismiss it for now. 'Very well Malfoy, follow me, as I am sure you don't know your way around Muggle London, and I would not risk going into the wizarding world to have lunch with you, what would everyone say? It'd be all over the Evening Prophet, and if not that soon, th Daily Prophet.' Sighing, knowing that she was right, Draco followed her around the streets of London, not talking until they got to their destination, a small café a few streets up from the dance hall.