The Theatrical Production and the Boy who Lived

Megara stood behind Moira and Jasper, trying to look into the Great Hall.

Over the past week, it had become unrecognisable. The banners of the four Houses had been hung in front of their respective tables; the black badger in a yellow background, the haughty eagle, flapping its wings imperiously in blue, the roaring lion with a mane of gold standing nobly in front of scarlet, and the twisting, cunning serpent, its beady eyes glinting maliciously in a banner shimmering of silver.

The Headmistress sat at the High Table, between Longbottom and the Head of Hufflepuff, Professor Despard, her arms crossed. Megara spotted a few, to say, important parents sitting at their former Houses' tables; she saw Harry Potter himself at the Gryffindor table, with puny Lupin near. He saw her looking and smirked. She smirked back at her cousin.

"Time to advance," Professor Prince said.

"Are you nervous?" Moira asked her friend.

Megara shook her head confidently, but ran a hand through her pale strawberry blonde curls, anyways.

The memorial service began by the choir singing a few Latin hymns, Megara expertly playing the harp with Jasper on the harpsichord, and then Professor Prince directed the Macbeth song "Something Wicked this Way Comes", which was a subtle tribute to Voldemort's rebirth and his second reign after that. Megara sang along softly at that. It was one of her favourite songs.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble
Something wicked this way comes

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble
Something wicked this way comes

In the cauldron boil and bake;
Fillet of a fenny snake,
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble

Something wicked this way comes

The audience clapped, and the choir exited. Megara got a short break during which she, Jasper, and Moira got dressed into their costumes. The blonde girl dressed into her black cloak and pulled the hood over her face, then took an invisibility cloak.

"Can you see me?"

Jasper and Moira shook their heads.

Half an hour later, Professor Prince announced, "And for our last act, we present the tale of the three brothers, of Beedle the Bard."

Megara noticed that Harry Potter sat alerter in his seat.

The group filed in quietly, conscious of all eyes on them, and disappeared into the stage that had been made behind a temporarily moved High Table.

Janice began her narration, in her hoarse from too much yelling in the Quidditch pitch voice: "There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight."

The curtains parted, and the audience could see three hooded figures making their way slowly from the left of the stage.

"In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across."

Behind the stage, Professor Prince waved her wand and a likeness of a turbulent river appeared on the scene.

"However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water."

Jasper, Auguste, and the Slytherin boy waved their wands, and someone "helped" them make a stone bridge appear. It seemed as if it were Longbottom.

"They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure."

That was Megara's cue. She unveiled herself from the invisibility cloak and stood onto the bridge.

"And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travelers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning." Janice looked at the Ravenclaw and waited for her to speak.

"I am remarkably amazed at your feats," Megara said. "Your magical skill is simply astounding, and thus you have each earned a prize for having evaded me."

Professor Prince nodded.

"So the oldest brother, a combative man, asked for the most powerful wand in existence."

"If it should be like this, then I desire a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who has conquered Death; needless to say, a wand of prodigious power," said Jasper.

"So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother."

Megara snapped a branch off from the Transfigured tree and pretended to make a wand, then handed it to Jasper with a small smirk.

"Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death."

"If I should be able to conquer Death," declared Auguste, who was a Gryffindor, "then I should like to give others that power, necromancy, as well, to be fair."

"So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother."

"This stone," Megara said, tossing it to Auguste, "will have the power to bring back the dead."

"And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust Death."

"I would like something that will enable me to go forth from one place without being followed by Death," said the Slytherin third year boy.

"And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility."

Megara picked up the cloak lying on the floor and practically threw it into the boy's hands. He folded it and put it in his robes.

"Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death's gifts."

The boys slowly began walking, and Megara went backstage. She watched Jasper pretend-duel and pretend-kill a fifth year boy, then get pretend-killed. She appeared briefly, with another invisibility cloak on, and snatched Jasper. They looked at each other and could barely repress their laughter.

She came again after Moira the ghost seemingly drove Auguste mad with longing, and snatched the Gryffindor.

"But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him."

Megara mimicked searching. The Slytherin was still under the cloak.

"It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son."

The snake took it off, and gave the cloak to a first year Hufflepuff.

"And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life."

The third year put his arm around her shoulders, and she put hers around his, and walked off the stage.

The Great Hall erupted in applause.

Backstage, Professor Prince was congratulating her students. "That was perfect," she said. "Now, go on the stage again and bow. It is a courtesy that actors take."

They obeyed. Megara was leaving with her friends for Ravenclaw tower when she heard a male voice call: "Malfoy! Could you come here for a second?"

She turned and saw Harry Potter gesturing to her.

"Wait for me in the common room," she instructed to her friends, and went to see him.

"What is it?" Her Slytherin side told her it wasn't a good idea to be flippant with the savior of the wizarding world.

"You're Draco's daughter," said Potter.

Megara nodded.

"What's your name?"

"Megara," she said, "Malfoy. Why? Is this for the Auror Office?"

Draco had warned her that some of the heroes of Hogwarts might want to interrogate her for being his daughter.

Potter shook his head, and had a kind smile. "You're in Ravenclaw."

"Yes, I'm in Ravenclaw, and not Slytherin."

He was quiet for a second, then his bright green eyes posed on her grey ones. "Smart performance you had, as Death."

"Thank you very much, sir."

"Teddy told me what you told Julia, at the club meeting."

"Really? I had had the impression he wasn't present."

"His friend, the boy that played the third brother, told him."

"Oh." Megara made a mental note to have to watch that bloke, in the future. "Mr Potter, you must have known my father at school? He told me you were in the same year as he."

"Yes, I did know him," said Potter, closing his eyes for a moment pensively, "but we weren't... friends."

Megara looked at him, amused. "You can tell me if you were enemies. Honestly, I don't murder people."

"All right. We hated each other downright."

Megara glanced longingly at the eagle knocker and then said, "Why do you come back here, year after year, sir?"

Again, Potter closed his eyes. "Well," he said, "I think I like seeing the skits; they are very amusing. But the thing I like the most is seeing how this old place heals better, year after year. I knew lots of people who died for the Cause."

"Do you think I don't?" Megara was suddenly irritated. "Just because my father and granddad and grandmother fought for the other side, doesn't mean we didn't lose anybody! We probably lost more people than you lot, to Azkaban, and other things."

"I didn't mean that." Potter sighed tiredly and looked at her straight in the face. "Be grateful that you don't live in wartime, Megara. War is a dirty, dirty game, and believe me, you don't want to know about it." He stuck out a hand. "It was a pleasure to meet you."

Megara shook it and smiled at him. "You too, Mr Potter."

He walked away without looking back and she went to the eagle knocker.

"When I am heated I ascend, when I am cooled I descend. What am I?"

Megara frowned and said after a moment's thought, "The concept is density."

"Very good!"

She entered. Moira and Jasper were finishing their essays for History of Magic. "Hey," the boy said as he got a glimpse of her. They cleared a space for Megara to sit down.

"What did Harry want?" asked Moira; her father was an old friend of Potter's.

"I don't know, really."

Megara looked at the wide circular room in which she was seated, the midnight blue carpet under her feet, the bookshelves, and the domed starry ceiling. She realized she felt right at home. Then she suggested that they go pay tribute to the dead of the Battle of Hogwarts in the Memorial Room the next day, even though it would be a day late.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" was taken from .com/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes.

The excerpts of "The Tale of the Three Brothers" were taken from "The Tales of Beedle the Bard".

This is compliant with the Penetrator of Darkness - it explains a bit about Megara's past.

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