Drama Class

CHAPTER 2

Remus Lupin sighed as he looked over the diminished number of students the next morning at breakfast. He was back for his third year of teaching, being the first teacher in over two decades to teach two consecutive years in the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Since the upheaval following Harry Potter's fifth year, culminating in the wizarding world acknowledging Voldemort's return, Cornelius Fudge had been sacked in favor of Arthur Weasley, Dumbledore was the leader of the Great War, and all of Hogwarts' professors had been members of the Order of the Phoenix. During Harry's sixth year, Harry managed to defeat Lord Voldemort by using his own magic against him. He used a complex spell that had been created the joint efforts of Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Hermione, and Draco Malfoy. Draco had worked with Snape as a spy following the death of Pansy, and managed to find the chink in the armor of Voldemort's supposed immortality. Voldemort had been siphoning the magic from his Death Eaters, and Draco managed to get a hold of the spell he used. He took the spell, and Harry used it against Voldemort, briefly becoming the most powerful wizard in the world. The spell Hermione and the two professors had made enabled his body to hold that amount of magic. Without the spell, which they decided to call the Armourate spell, Harry would have been consumed whole by the magic. The war leading up to Voldemort's defeat was violent, and resulted in the death of many wizards and witches, including Percy Weasley, Sibyll Trelawney, the Dursleys', Lucius Malfoy, and of course, Pansy Parkinson.

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Draco glanced around the Great Hall at his fellow students. 'There are so few Slytherins,' he contemplated. The thought saddened him. He had always been so proud of being a Slytherin, for of all the houses, Slytherin was the most loyal, if only to each other. Now, with Voldemort's defeat, most Slytherin parents had pulled their students from Hogwarts in favor of Durmstrang, where they were less likely to be harassed about their ties to the Dark Lord. Draco turned to the only real male friend he had ever had in the Slytherin house, Blaise Zabini. Draco and Blaise had been childhood friends, yet had been forced to separate once at Hogwarts because of Lucius Malfoys insistence that Draco hang around with Crabbe and Goyle. Now that Draco had no orders to follow, he could reform his friendship, and Crabbe and Goyle moved on to form their own lives.

"Blaise, look at the Gryffindor table for a minute. Does the littlest Weasel look different to you?"

"I dunno, sure. Draco, I thought you were getting along with the dream team. Why insult her?" Blaise said all this in a distracted manner. Blaise had a reputation as a flirt. At the moment, he was trying to catch the attention of a pretty girl at the other end of the Slytherin table. He thought she looked familiar, but couldn't place her. Now if he could only figure out why the thought of chess kept popping into his head...

"I get along with Harry and Hermione yes, and I can deal with the big Weasel, but that girl's different. She's mouthy and obsessed with Harry. She has no real personality. Also, she isn't part of the dream team as you so nicely put it. She's just a wanna-be groupie. And--"

"Jesus Draco, I was just saying that I thought you were getting along, not that you were getting married. And if you hate her so bad, then why are you asking about how she looks? Anyway, I was wondering if you knew who that girl is at the end of the table, the redhead. She looks familiar." Blaise was starting to get irritated with Draco's attitude. That was the third time that Draco had freaked out that day. Blaise was starting to be a pro at the whole distraction thing. He was mostly a laid-back kind of guy, but he hated getting snapped at. He got enough of that at home. Laid-back doesn't always mean insensitive. Blaise was a master at controlling his emotions, and often used it to his advantage.

"That red-head is Aluthera Mcnair. I thought you would recognize her, seeing as you two played chess almost every night of the school year last year. She's a year below us, right?"

"Holy Hell, yeah. I can't believe I didn't recognize her! Well, actually, I do, she looks so different. When did she turn all punk?" Blaise sounded completely shocked. The Aluthera Mcnair he remembered was a short girl who dressed mostly in black under her robes. Also, she had worn glasses and had been a quiet, subdued, and intelligent girl who was a master at chess. Blaise played her regularly, because none of the others in the Slytherin common room had the skills, or the concentration. They were mostly obsessed the previous year with trying to keep away from their Death Eater parents. This new Aluthera Mcnair was wearing her school robes open, so you could see her black corseted top and her dark green "artfully" torn skirt below. Her hair was multi-layered and had about seven different shades of red in it. In her hands was a new copy of "Wizards In Glass" a book written by a wizard named Stephen King. (Though he is commonly assumed to be a Muggle, it isn't so!) Blaise was instantly attracted to this new facet of her personality.

"I don't know, I and I don't care!" snapped Draco, bringing Blaise back to reality with a thump. Draco felt a sudden twinge of guilt for looking at other girls, especially Ginny. He sighed, thinking of what Pansy would say if she were there. Probably something along the line of 'Stop acting so stupid, Draco! There are more important things to be thinking about right now. For example, why is Dumbledore acting like there is still a threat?' That was his Pansy, always good for a reality check, and always good for a quick kick to the ego. His Pansy....

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Ron glanced at the Slytherin table, and noticed the depressed look on Draco's face. He almost felt sorry for the git. Almost. Harry and Hermione may have been getting along with him, but Ron knew that Draco wasn't to be trusted. Not after the way he used to treat Hermione. Ron had finally realized his feelings for Hermione the year before, but he had never told her about it. He knew that Draco was trying to be good, but he was suspicious, and, though he would never admit it, he was afraid that if Draco had ever bothered to try to get Hermione's attention, then Ron would have no chance.

"Is Malfoy still pining over Pansy?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Yes, the poor dear. It's so romantic, in a totally tragic way," Hermione said with a sigh. She knew perfectly well that Ron liked her, and she liked him as well, but she refused to do anything about it until he admitted it. Well, she would do some things, like drive him crazy with jealousy, she thought with an internal smile.

Ron's mind began to race frantically. 'She doesn't LIKE him, does she??'

"You do realize that that poor dear is the same Malfoy that tormented you for five years, right?" he asked nastily, trying to gauge her emotions. Which was not something he was good at...

"Mal- Draco isn't like that anymore!" snapped Harry. "You know he changed last year, and you know he's on our side. And anyway, we have more important things to worry about, like why Quidditch was cancelled. After breakfast, let's ask Professor Lupin."

Severus Snape looked at the papers in his hand, muttering under his breath. "Damn that Dumbledore... Muggle play... Potter and his gang... Revenge..." He was in the process of trying to pick a Muggle play suitable for his class. He had found one that he liked a lot, but he wasn't sure if it was appropriate. The play he liked so much was A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. He muttered to himself some more, and then made the decision in his head. This was the play that they would do, and it would be a masterpiece. Now he just had to figure out who would be cast, and how you directed a play, anyway.