A Magical Nightmare Before Christmas

A Magical Nightmare Before Christmas

star of light

Part I

Draco Malfoy was a seventh year. He was smart. Cunning. Witty. Handsome. He knew that every girl in school wanted him. And, of course, he was completely evil in all ways the word could be used. In fact, he had just gotten branded- a brand new, straight-from-the-tip-of-the-wand Dark Mark was on his lower left forearm, still stung as a matter of fact. The initiation had occurred two days ago during winter break, a complete surprise. His father´s way of saying, Merry Christmas and Welcome to Real Life. A sudden crash from in front of him brought him back to reality.

Sinking lower in his seat in the Great Hall and wincing at the sight he was seeing, he turned to his right, and asked Goyle, "D´you think she realizes that she just broke a stool, and that when she was singing, my eardrums nearly popped from the shrieking?" The sight he was witnessing was not very pretty. Auditions for the school musical, a new addition to the Muggle Studies course, were currently being held, and Draco was having a immensely wonderful time pointing out errors with the people auditioning. Goyle grunted in reply and shook his head, no. Draco turned back to the stage with a smirk on his face. The girl currently up there was a fifth year Slytherin, one who had once climbed into his bed in the middle of the night. It was a shame that her singing voice, dancing skills, and acting technique were nowhere as excellent as her devious plans to get in his pants.

He turned to Crabbe, about to ask him the same question he had offered Goyle, but before he could get a word in edgewise, someone cleared his or her throat behind him. Groaning, Draco knew exactly who it was. An arch nemesis. There was only one person in this school who would dare clear his throat behind Draco Malfoy. He turned around to face McGonagall, and got a look so severe, even he winced a bit from it.

"Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall began, "I am supposing you aren´t here for the extra help I offered you? With your grades, you could use it."

"Ahhh, no, Professor," Draco replied. He needed a reason to be there. He needed one. And then. It just popped out of his mouth before he even knew he had thought it: "I... er, we," he said, motioning to his cohorts, "would like to audition." A complete bluff. A farce! What if she took him seriously?

Looking at McGonagall´s face, he noted her surprise and hesitation as she questioned him further, "There were numerous meetings, Mr. Malfoy, that you failed to attend. You don´t know the dance routine, the song, nor the lines that are required for an audition. How do you plan to do it?"

"Dear Professor McGonagall, I was hoping that, merciful lady that you are, you would give me an extra days´ time to prepare. I mean, I wouldn´t want to let you miss out on your best unknown actor merely because I am not prepared!" Draco argued lightly, a smug grin upon his face.

"I belong on stage...unlike these fools." Oh, god, he thought to himself. If my father ever finds out about this I´m dead. Completely, utterly dead. Despite that, Draco fearlessly (or foolishly, depending on how one might look at it) trundled on.

"The lights, the audience, dear Professor, look at this face," he told her, pointing at his own pale cheek. "It belongs in front of millions." He stopped ranting a moment to look at the teacher and found her gaping in disbelief.

"Ahhh... Al-alright, Mr. Malfoy, you can act- er, audition," she informed him. "In here, tomorrow afternoon at three o´clock. Do not be late." She turned away slowly, and walked back to the stage with an air of shock. When she was easily out of hearing distance, he sneered to Crabbe and Goyle, "Thank God. I never thought she´d leave." He turned to the doors leading out of the Great Hall and was not able to suppress a groan when he heard McGonagall shout his name.

"Draco Malfoy! Do not leave this hall! You shall watch our next performer and then begin to learn your dance from her!" McGonagall shouted at him. She looked down upon a long roll of parchment in her hands and found a name near the bottom that had not been crossed off. "Ginny Weasley!" she yelled out to the group sitting in chairs near the stage. "Please, come forward and begin your audition!" Draco´s blood ran cold. Work with a Weasley? The woman had to have lost her nuts. A Malfoy could not work with a Weasley, it would be below the Malfoy´s station. In this case, far, far below his!

"Ms. Weasley?" McGonagall called again. She waited a beat and when still no one stood up or shouted out, she went back to her parchment and crossed off the weasel´s name. "In that case, as Ms. Weasley was not able to make it-"

McGonagall was cut off as the doors flew open and a female voice called, "Wait! I´m here! Wait!" It was Ginny Weasley, a whirling dervish of books and bits of parchment, also weighed down with Quidditch pads, her broom and what had to be nearly everything the poor weasel could possibly own, or so Draco Malfoy thought. She looked a fright, her bright red hair with its impossibly brighter orangey highlights frizzing out in a cloud around her freckled face.

She dropped a book as she rushed to the front of the over-sized room; then a piece of parchment, then her broom. By the time she had reached the stage, she had nothing in her hands but a wrinkled script and a sugar quill. The aisle behind her was liberally littered with her belongings, and Draco couldn´t help but snort with laughter at the Gryffindor´s disorganization. She unfortunately heard him, and looked over her shoulder, throwing him a death glare. He was startled to see that, unlike her multitudes of brothers, her eyes were a deep brown, yet blazed with an angry fire nonetheless. He controlled himself enough to not visibly flinch, but that proved difficult as he felt it three times as strongly in his mind.

McGonagall broke through the gaze with her penetrating voice, saying, "Ahm, Ms. Weasley, are you ready to begin your audition?" Ginny whipped her head back around and nodded. The professor guided her up the stage stairs and explained how the audition would work - acting first, memorized lines were preferred and could be any monologue from a Muggle play. Second would be singing, a song from the musical with piano accompaniment; and finally dancing, the one they had learned a week earlier. Ginny sat down on a stool placed about two feet back from the edge of the stage, slightly towards stage right. She cleared her throat, swallowed two or three times, and shot a friend in the audience a small, impish grin.

"The passage that I picked," Ginny Weasley began in a strong, clear voice, "is from Shakepeare´s Romeo and Juliet." She cleared her throat again, and closed her eyes for a second; long, light lashes on pale, pink-tinged skin, and began her monologue.

"`Two households, both alike in dignity; In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,´" the fourth-year began to recite clearly, in a powerful yet feminine voice that reached out to the rafters of the roof high above, echoed, and came back down clearly,

"`From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Whole misadventured piteous overthrows

Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.´"

Her voice had been highly dynamic. There had been no hand gestures, no movement about the stage, no prancing around to look like a fool; it had just been Weasley´s voice, and naught more. Draco sat in a daze, wondering how she could be so good at something when she was merely... a weasel´s sister. The youngest weasel in a whole gaggle of them. He shook himself, and looked to where McGonagall sat. Even the professor had a slightly stunned look upon her face.

"Ms. Weasley," McGonagall said, nearly forcing herself to speak, "Please sing the song you have chosen." Ginny grinned and nodded, then got off the stool and walked to the center of the stage.

"This is the song Sally´s Lament, or Sally´s Song," Ginny began, reaching up and tucking some of her wild hair behind her ears.

"`I sense there's something in the wind

That feels like tragedy's at hand

And though I'd like to stand by him

Can't shake this feeling that I have...´" she trailed off for a second, and looked out into the audience. She raised her eyebrows at the realization that they were all surprised. They, Draco himself included, were literally sitting in shock of a Weasley having talents other than making fools of themselves, losing money in idiotic ways and generally being the lowest class of wizards possible. Like they could be anything besides that, he thought with a grim smile. He listened as Ginny continued the song, becoming slightly enchanted yet again by her lyrical, smooth voice.

"`Try as I may, it doesn't last

And will we ever end up together?

No, I think not, it's never to become

For I am not the one...´" she held the note for a few extra beats, letting her voice naturally die out, and then took a subtle gasp for air. Draco snorted at her, and earned himself a few looks from the other people around him. He smirked at them all, winked at a Slytherin girl who was quite nice-looking and frankly, openly staring right at him without so much as a blush, and turned back to the stage to see Ginny Weasley dance.

She added an element to it that none of the others had been able to: grace. The first girl he had watched, a whale of a Hufflepuff, she had made the whole room shake. The second had done it so stiffly that he had almost believed her a marionette. And the third... well, she had stumbled about, tripped twice and landed flat on her face quite stupidly. So Draco was quite impressed to realize that Ginny Weasley not only knew the dance, but knew it well enough to add her own little thing to it without messing up. She hit the last step on a piano chord and threw her arms up in the air. Applause rose from the audience, and one boy stood up. Draco groaned realizing that it was none other than one of Potter´s other harem: Colin Creevey.

Ten meters away, Draco could hear him cry, "Ginny! That... that was amazing!!!" He hugged the weasel, and they walked over to where Creevey had piled her things, intent on picking them up and leaving. Draco was praying that McGonagall would be so dazed about the weasel´s performance that she would forget to tell her about the little problem Draco was having, and end up assigning it to another girl, possibly that cute Slytherin. But he had no luck whatsoever.

"Ms. Weasley, could I see you one moment, please?" McGonagall shouted over the melee of people congratulating Ginny on her audition. The fiery head flew up, and Draco observed it nodding. His heart sank and his temper broke; working with a Weasley could hurt him. His brain could be permanently ruined, his looks could suffer, his hair... for all Draco knew, just standing next to a Weasley could get it dirty. But what was his largest fear was his reputation. It was obviously a test of the loyalty his friends had towards him. A test to see if they trusted him enough to be in the presence of a weasel and not become like a weasel.

"Ms. Weasley," Draco heard McGonagall saying as he shoved through the students to stand near them. "I have a question to ask of you. We have a late-comer, someone who shows... great... er, promise, one might say. I would like you to help him tomorrow to prepare for an audition at three o´clock in the afternoon. He needs to learn a song, the dance and a monologue... I realize that it is a lot to ask for, but you will be exempted from all of you homework for today and tomorrow and from you classes tomorrow to help this boy... prepare."

Weasley looked astonished, as if she didn´t know the reason that she would be asked to help another actor, as she answered, "Um, of... of course, Professor. I´d... love to - just who is it, out of curiosity?"

McGonagall´s face drained of all color as she tightly answered, "Draco Malfoy." The professor turned around and walked away as quickly as possible, busying herself with the other students. Draco watched as Ginny´s face paled, as she sat down on a chair and contemplated what had just happened.

Draco felt a smirk cross his face as he turned to leave. If he had to spend a whole day with the weasel, he might as well begin concocting plans to make it as miserable as possible.