Summary: Hogwarts presents Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with James Potter and Lily Evans as the leading roles. For the sake of the entire production, they are forced to cope with their seemingly endless list of differences. Can they find the true spirit of romance in and out of the play, or will Hogwarts never see love between its own Romeo and Juliet?
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Darn! It all belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling, who totally and completely deserves it. This is just going to be a general blanket disclaimer because I am terribly lazy and do not feel like recopying in each and every chapter. So, now that we've established that it is not mine, you may continue reading. Much love and adoration to everyone who does.
Playing the Part
By: Shrk-bait
Chapter 1: Confrontations
Love is simple. It's human beings who are complicated. -- Colyn Bulthaup
"James Potter! I swear . . . once I find you, you're dead!" a sharp voice rang in the wee hours of the morning bouncing off the stone walls leaving an ominous echo resounding through the practically empty common room.
An irate red-head leaped down the spiral staircase, messily clad in her wrinkled school uniform. Almond-shaped pools of emerald dangerously scanned the room for a certain insufferable git, otherwise known as James Potter. Her fist unclenched, as she came across a few distraught second-years, fully aware of what she was capable of when she was angry.
Not to be discouraged by the lack of Potter's presence, she marched swiftly across the common room and bounded up the staircase, identical to the one she had just descended.
"Potter, if you don't get your arse out here . . ." she warned, her eyes glinting maliciously.
She paused, awaiting some type of reaction from the closed doorway. Receiving none, she groaned, cursed inwardly, and pushed up the sleeves of her robe.
Grabbing the brass handle, she flung the door open, only to reveal what was supposed to be a room.
Instead, she walked into what seemed to her, an alien landscape. The barely-there floor was littered with stray candy wrappers, piles of crumpled clothes, and who knows what else.
"Ugh. You guys are disgusting." She muttered underneath her breath.
"Lily Evans. Nice to see you. What brings you here so early this morning?" a voice called from one of the beds.
Looking around, Lily caught sight of a young rogue, one of Hogwarts' resident heartthrobs – Sirius Black.
"Oh, you know. I just love to barge into a filthy room in the boys dormitories every now and then, just for fun." Lily responded sarcastically.
She noted that he looked remarkably handsome, considering he had just woken up. He sleepily rubbed his eyes and grinned cockily at her, pointing to a nearby bed.
"I think that is who you're looking for." He smirked.
Lily didn't bother to thank him. She made her way next to the bed, avoiding the mess on the floor with extreme caution.
She threw open the curtains and with a flick of her wand, sent a wave of ice-cold water upon the sleeping figure.
"Damn it, Evans! Have you no respect for the sacred institution of sleep?" James Potter sat up on his bed, which was soaked.
He ruffled his matted hair and blindly scrambled for his glasses, lying on the bedside table.
"Give it back. I know you took it, Potter." Lily stated in a business-like manner.
"Took what? Why would I ever take anything of yours? How could you possibly accuse me of something like that?"
He gestured disbelievingly, his eyes wide and innocent looking.
"Cut the crap, Potter. My charms essay, if you must be so annoyingly dense. I spent four hours finishing that, so you better return it if you don't want to get on my bad side."
"You mean, I'm not on your bad side already?" he mocked testily.
She sent him a deathly glare and tapped her foot impatiently, the grip on her wand tightening. He noticed this and sprung up off the dripping mattress to grab his wand.
With a swish of his wand, Lily's essay materialized, floating right in front of James' face.
She swiftly walked over and grabbed it. Leaning closer so only he could hear, she muttered, "Already on my bad side, Potter? You have no idea."
The tone of her voice was icy and menacing, and the look she shot him was equally alarming.
"Tootles, Evans!" Sirius called from his bed.
Immediately, her face shifted to a friendly smile as she nodded goodbye to Sirius. In an instant, her warm, inviting grin morphed into a distasteful sneer, focused purely at the form of James Potter. With that, she stalked off, leaving the boys in a state of dazed silence.
"Argh! Evans is so . . . infuriating!" he muttered moments after Lily had left, performing a drying spell on his bed.
"Like I told you, Prongs my boy. I think you may have found your equal." Sirius teased.
"Ha! Evans? My equal? I highly doubt that. She'll never measure up to Potter standards." He replied haughtily, an arrogant look on his face.
"And that's exactly the thinking that got you doing a jig on the dining tables, singing off-key in Potions class, pushed into the lake . . ." another voice chimed in. "Need I go on?"
Turning around, James saw Remus Lupin emerge from the bathroom, donned in Hogwarts robes with a wise look upon his face.
"Okay, okay. I get the point. I still say she's a bothersome wench who can't take a joke." James insisted stubbornly, pouting.
Remus and Sirius both glanced at each other, snickering. James, on the other hand, did not think that it was funny at all and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
"What happened? Who's there? Where's the fire?" another boy sprang into a sitting position on his bed, his eyes wide open.
Remus glanced over at him and strolled out the door, shaking his head in shame.
"Just go back to sleep, Peter." Sirius sighed, rolling his eyes.
Shrugging, Peter Pettigrew slumped his shoulders and fell back onto his bed, completely unaware of the events that had taken place earlier that morning.
The Great Hall was alive with the students eating (naturally), leafing through the Daily Prophet, catching up on the latest gossip, and in Lily Evans' case, complaining about what an ass her fellow Head Boy, James Potter, was.
"He's so arrogant. What an ego he has. I honestly don't know how he manages to stand, let alone walk. I have absolutely no idea why Dumbledore chose him to be Head Boy." She grumbled, violently spearing the leftover eggs on her plate.
"Who knows with Dumbledore. They say he's the greatest wizard of all time. Not that I doubt that, but they also say there's a fine line between genius and insanity." A pretty fair-haired girl next to Lily replied.
"Kira, do you suppose there is some promise for the future, some depth to James Potter that Dumbledore sees, and that I've always missed?" Lily asked herself, more than Kira.
Kira remained mute, but followed Lily's gaze to the far side of the Great Hall, where the Marauders were cruelly taunting a far-from-innocent Slytherin with dark greasy hair and an unsightly hooked nose.
"No," Lily reasoned. "There must not be one decent bone in Potter's body."
"Oh, come on Lily. You can't say that! He can't be that bad." A voice insisted from behind her.
The brunette took a seat on the other side of Lily and brushed back her dark locks with the swipe of a hand. She stared, awaiting Lily's answer as she slathered thick syrup on her fresh Belgium waffle.
"Charlotte. Look at them. They're torturing Severus Snape for absolutely no good reason. They haven't changed one bit." Lily fumed, her eyebrows furrowed and the need to give them a piece of her mind nagging at her conscience.
Her eyes narrowed and darkened as Potter let out a triumphant laugh. The pair of them – Potter and Black – had managed to trip Snape, sending him sprawling onto the stone floor.
And they had the nerve to laugh. Furthermore, the majority of students witnessing the brutality before them did nothing to restore justice.
The supremacy of the Marauders extended far throughout the school. And Lily couldn't stand it any longer. Her hand clenched into a tight fist.
"I'm stopping this. They're out of line – again." She said decidedly as she rose from the table.
Kira and Charlotte watched her retreating figure swoop down upon the boys.
"Get ready for early morning entertainment." Kira muttered.
"She's going to go off the deep end again. You almost have to feel sorry for Potter and his goons." Charlotte added thoughtfully.
Kira sent her a skeptical look, her left eyebrow cocked above her other.
"I said 'almost'." Charlotte clarified, smirking.
"Prongs." Remus whispered urgently.
"Not now, Moony. I'm just about to kick Snivellus while he's down." James chortled, sneering down at Snape, who was desperately rummaging around for his fallen wand.
"But Prongs . . ." Remus repeated, trying desperately to be subtle.
"Give us a sec, Moony! We're just getting to the good part. You know, the part where Snivellus runs and Prongs and I hunt him down like the scum he is." Sirius replied, not taking his eyes off Snape.
"OY! LILY EVANS IS HEADING OVER HERE AND SHE DOESN'T LOOK TOO HAPPY." Remus yelled, the irritation apparent in his voice.
"Damn. Why must Evans bother us? Could Dumbledore have chosen a more frustrating Head Girl?" James cursed quietly, so only their small group could hear.
Sirius groaned, grabbing at the collar of Snape's robes and hoisting him up from the ground.
"Okay, Snivellus. You're off the hook for now, but if we catch you calling another Gryffindor, or anyone else, a m-mudblood . . ." Sirius threatened, his mouth barely able to form the words. "You'll wish you'd never met Sirius Black."
Sirius forcefully thrust Snape towards the exit of the Great Hall. The Slytherin scurried off muttering curses beneath his breath, while the Marauders straightened themselves out and prepared to face the wrath of Lily Evans.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Potter?" she hissed, addressing him personally.
"I honestly have no clue what you're talking about, Evans. We were just enjoying some good old-fashioned entertainment this fine morning." He responded coolly.
"Do you really think I'm tha tdaft? Don't answer that . . ." she snapped, as he opened his mouth to let out some cocky comeback. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"Relax, Evans. Breathe. Don't get your knickers in a bundle." Sirius butted in, valiantly trying to take some of the slack off of James.
"Relax? Breathe? How can I do that when I'm Head Girl and I'm supposed to be keeping everything in order and making sure that students don't get into more trouble while the Head Boy, who is supposed to be doing the same thing is torturing another student simply because 'he exists' in the oh-so-unforgettable words of the biggest prat of earth, James Potter." She said in one breath.
"Like I said, BREATHE. You're much too uptight."
"I'd say I have a good enough reason to be, don't you think?"
"And the reason would be?"
"All of the aforementioned."
"Oh. Right. Good point. Look at it this way, Evans. At least you don't have to deal with meas Head Boy. Could you imagine how much worse it would be?"
"I shudder at the very thought. You'd make a horrible Head Boy, not that Potter is really any improvement."
"Precisely, so what say you lay off my best friend and be thankful it's not me standing next to you during Prefect meetings?"
"Hm . . . nice try, but I don't think so."
Sirius turned his head to James, who was scowling at Lily for interrupting the morning.
"I tried, mate. Honestly, I did." Sirius announced, dejected.
"That's alright. Everyone knows that Evans has to have everything perfect." James replied coolly, his volume magnified so as to reach the ears of a certain Head Girl not so far away. "She's just angry because she has no control over me."
As expected, she stormed over and placing her hands vehemently on her hips, began telling off James, who was clearly not listening.
Yes, it was yet another morning for Hogwarts – an amusing confrontation from the Head students on display approximately half-way through breakfast as usual.
Suddenly, Dumbledore's voice rang throughout the Great Hall. His deep tones got the attention of every student in the hall and silence immediately ensued.
"Eh hem. Will the Head Boy and Girl please follow me to my office? Immediately."
With that, James stared at Lily inquisitively, which Lily simply ignored.
She walked out of the enormous doors and headed towards Dumbledore's office, James following a few feet behind.
"Wonderful. You're both here!" Dumbledore greeted. He picked up a candy dish and held it out in front of the both of them. "Lemon drop?"
"No thank you, sir." Lily declined politely, her back the epitome of good posture.
"Erm . . . no, that's okay." James mumbled, leaning back slightly in the chair.
The contrasting positions of the Head Students were merely a taste of the conflict between the pair. Noting this, Dumbledore devised his own ingenious plan to sew the tears threatening Hogwarts' apparent lack of unity, starting with the Head boy and girl.
"Well, what I wanted to inform you, was the fact that Hogwarts is having a feast for the Minister of Magic and some of my colleagues at the end of the semester."
"Right. Hogwarts' First Ever Gala Dinner in honor of Aremus Diggle, Minister of Magic. You told us, well me, before."
"Quite right you are, Miss Evans. Well, it just so happens that the Minister is quite fond of what Muggles call 'plays'."
"Plays?" James asked, still bewildered. "Perhaps you can refresh my memory on the subject of plays, Headmaster."
"It's rather difficult to explain. People act and pretend to be a character, interacting with other characters. It's all written out in a script, which the actors must memorize. They dress up and everything. It's quite nice, actually." Dumbledore explained kindly, his blue eyes twinkling.
"What kind of play?" Lily inquired curiously.
"Well, after much deliberation, the staff has chosen a play that we believe will depict the bonds of friendship and comradery. We believe it will show the evils of jealousy and deceit. Above all things, it will emphasize the strength of love and all that comes with it. What do you think?" he asked excitedly, gazing at each of them, awaiting their reaction.
"Erm . . . okay. But Professor Dumbledore, what play?" Lily asked patiently.
"What else? The classic tale of two tragic lovers, Romeo and Juliet."
AN: has been deleting stories for lyrics. I sincerely hope I don't get deleted for quotes. But I just might. I really hope I don't though . . .