"I don't really feel comfortable pretending to stab Ron on stage." Fred declared with a wince. "I mean... he is an annoying little swot-"

"Hey!" The younger brother cried in afront.

"But he's not that bad." Fred finished.

"Good! Use that!" Hermione cried with a beaming smile.

"Use it?!" George cried in horror.

"She's gone bloody barking." Fred pointed out in horror.

"The whole point is that the murderers are beset with foul conscience! The fact that you don't want to do it will make the performance more real!" Hermione insisted.

"Who made you the director anyway?" George argued.

"We voted on it, you idiots." Blaise barked from where he was getting tied into his costume. "It was either her or Bell."

"Jokes on you lot, I would have been an awesome director." Katie harped in annoyance. 

"Sure," Hannah agreed. "But Hermione had the entire thing memorized in old and modern English," Katie grumbled under her breath about show-offs before she went back to helping Dean paint the sets on the dirt.

"Alright, everyone!" Hermione cried. "Places please! Dress rehearsal part three! Act 3 scene 7! The 'convincing' of Richard!" The stage cleared with both Fred and George still grumbling under their breath about their previous scene.

"I am not an annoying swot!" Ron hissed to them with a growl. 

"Shhhh!" The various members of the crew hissed at him. Then Hannah dropped the settings. Harry limped out onto the stage from the right, looking anxious. He was pacing, in an uneven gait. Then a door on the back of the set opened and Blaise rushed in, with a smirk.

"Tell me, tell me, what did the citizens say?" Harry demanded desperately, grasping the man's elbows. Blaise took a deep breath.

"I swear by the holy mother of our Lord-the citizens didn't say a word." He finally let out after a pause. Harry dropped his arms and took a step back, face conspicuously blank.

"Did you mention that Edward's children are bastards?" He demanded sharply. Blaise took another breath and began to pace in front of the villain, delivering to the 'crowd'.

"I did. I brought up his earlier engagements-to Lady Lucy, who bore him a child, and Lady Bona in France." Blaise listed plainly

"And I described the insatiable greediness of his lust, and his rape of citizens' wives." Harry sneered at that line with a disgusted frown.

"I reminded them of his harsh punishments for trivial offences, and said that he was nothing like the duke your father, as the duke was away in France when Edward was conceived." Harry nodded harshly here.

"Then I brought up your own appearance and suggested that you were the spitting image of your father, both in your looks and in your noble mind." Blaise turned his head a portion to Harry here with a gentile smile. Harry remained snooty-faced and scowling in response to the compliment.

"I described all your victories in Scotland, your discipline in battle, your wisdom in peacetime, your generosity, your virtue, and your noble humility." Here Blaise's face was... surprisingly sarcastic. Hermione frowned a bit. Here Blaise was engaging in a bit of crowd work, knowing that the crowd surely would find such a description of Richard entirely false.

"Indeed, I didn't leave out anything that might have helped your case at all!" He said with another smirk. 

"And then when my speech came to an end, I asked those who loved their country to cry, 'God save Richard, England's royal king!'." Blaise finished passionately. Hermione was grinning ear to ear watching his performance. Blaise really was the perfect Buckingham.

"And did they do it?" Harry demanded, stepping forward with a scowl. It fit Richard's character to be a bit cynical of Buckingham's boastful nature, another reason that Blaise was a perfect choice.

"No. So help me God, they didn't say a word, but just sat there like silent statues or breathing stones." Blaise admitted, finally turning to Harry with a grin expression.

"They looked at each other and turned deadly pale, and when I saw this, I scolded them and asked the mayor what they meant by this stubborn silence." Here Blaise scowled and rolled his eyes.

"The mayor said that the citizens weren't used to being spoken to except by the town's official recorder." He added a little huff of irritation.

"So I made the recorder repeat my tale. Everything was "the duke said this" and "the duke means that," and he added nothing of his own opinion."

"When he was done, some of my own followers at the end of the hall threw their caps in the air, and ten or so voices cried, 'God save King Richard!'." Blaise delivered with a smile. Harry allowed himself the tiniest of smirks as he drew his posture as straight as the character allowed.

"So I pounced on that feeble opportunity and said, 'Thank you, noble citizens and friends. This public applause and joyful shouting clearly shows your wisdom and your love for Richard.' And then I broke off my speech, and came straight here." Blaise ended, eying the villain with an expression somewhere between intrigue and worry. Harry was chewing on his cuticles through Blaise's whole speech, a quirk he and Hermione had agreed on to make the character seem more shifty and nervous. But once Blaise finished he dashed his hand away from his mouth with a snarling scowl.

"What tongueless blockheads! Why wouldn't they speak? Will the mayor and his fellow citizens not come here?" Harry demanded furiously. Suddenly the door opened, startling Blaise out of his next line.

"Ah!" Hermione cried with a twitching smile. "Professors! Hello again! DON'T!" she shrieked at Professor Umbridge loudly. "Step on the sets! Please, professor." She said at a lower volume. The pink-clad woman had jumped slightly at her shriek then looked down and made a little yelp as she jumped a bit away from the wet canvas set. 

"Professor Vector tells me you have begun dress rehearsals for your new play. I came to... sit in." She declared before she flicked her wrist and conjured a squat pink stool to perch on. "Just to be sure everything is... in order." She finished.

"Just pretend we're not here." Septima declared firmly as she conjured her own high-backed chair.

"Right," Hermione said before she cleared her throat. "Continue!"

"Right..." Blaise said slowly before he gave Harry a look. After a few moments, he huffed. "Line!"

"The mayor." Nigel cried from the side as the male understudy. Blaise nodded before taking Harry's arm and pulling him towards another door in the back of the set.

"The mayor is on his way and nearly here. Pretend to be afraid, and don't let yourself be spoken to until we plead with you." Blaise insisted, half-shoving Harry towards the door.

"And get a prayer book in your hand and stand between two priests, my good lord. I'll use that to improvise an argument for your holiness." He picked up said bible and shoved it into Harry's hands.

"But don't be easily won over by our requests to be king. Be like a coy virgin: refuse for a long time, and then finally accept." Blaise insisted as he pulled the door open. Harry was nodding through this whole exchange, a smirk growing wider as Blaise spoke.

"I'm going now. If you're as good at pleading on their behalf as I am at saying "no" to you, then there's no doubt this will end well." Harry delivered with a hand on Blaise's shoulder. Then someone knocked on the door Blaise had entered through.

"Go, go, up to the balcony. The Lord Mayor knocks!" Blaise hissed with a slight nudge. Harry nodded with a grin. Then he dashed through the door and rushed up the stairs behind the set to the balcony on stage left. The door opened, admitting Ron as the Lord Mayor and a cluster of others.

"Welcome, my lord. I'm just entertaining myself and waiting for an audience with the duke. I don't think he wants to be spoken to." Blaise said, looking contrite. Seamus entered next, coming from the same door Harry had left through. Blaise let out a sigh of relief. "Now, Catesby, what does your lord say to my request?" Seamus sniffed.

"He asked your Grace to visit him tomorrow or the next day. He's inside with two priests. He doesn't want to be disturbed by anybody." Seamus delivered.

"CUT!" Hermione shouted furiously, once again startling Umbridge. The tall lights went up as Blaise and Ron both let out furious growls.

"Seamus!" Harry barked, coming onto the balcony with a sneer. "You were supposed to have memorized your lines!"

"She was supposed to draft a modern script!" Seamus bellowed back angrily, flapping said script in Hermione's direction. "It's all flowery and confusing!" He picked up the script and found the line. "'He doesn't want to be disturbed from his holy labours by any worldly business.' How the bloody hell is that modern?!"

"Would you prefer:

'He is within, with two right reverend fathers,

Divinely bent to meditation,

And in no worldly suits would he be moved

To draw him from his holy exercise'?!" Hermione demanded with eloquent recitation. The Irish boy winced with a scrunched-up face.

"Not a chance..." he muttered with a weak grunt. Hermione let out a long sigh before she turned to the professors with an irritated scowl. 

"I'm sorry professors, but it seems practice is over for today. SOMEONE still has to memorize his lines!" She growled. Seamus was already reading the script, muttering the lines under his breath with a bit of stumbling here and there. 

"Got tied into this coat for nothing!" Blaise hissed in irritation as he marched off stage. 

"Well," Umbridge began with a sniff. "What I did see was... rather good." She admitted quietly. "Mr. Zabini's performance was inspiring." She smiled. "You did well to cast him as the lead."

"Oh, he's not the lead." Septima clarified. "It just happens to be a Buckingham-heavy scene. Mr. Potter is playing the titular Richard."

"What?!" Umbridge cried before the door to the set opened, admitting a cross-looking Harry, pulling off his modified coat with a sour expression.

"I'm going to smother Seamus with his own script soon!" He barked angrily. 

"Steady on!" Dean shouted from the ground where he was painting. Harry rolled his eyes before he pulled his hair up and out of his face.

"I see..." Umbridge said with pursed lips.

"His delivery of Richard's first soliloquy is awe-inspiring," Septima added. "Chills you right to the bone."

"Indeed?" Umbridge murmured, still eyeing Harry with distrust.

"We'll probably be ready to perform this play in May, professor," Hermione said, stepping up to the pink professor with a grin. "We're all planning to do a lot of work over the holidays." Her face scrunched up slightly. "We had intended to perform something at the Christmas going away fears, but... well..."

"I look forward to seeing it." Umbridge finally muttered before she turned and started strutting away.

"That's not going to end well," Harry argued as he stood above Hermione and Septima with a worried expression.

"We're leaving in two weeks," Hermione said firmly. "There is nothing she can do about it right now. I'm not concerned. You! Just need to focus on memorizing your last few lines! Seamus will be my only hurdle, do you understand me!"

"Yes ma'am," Harry said with a grin and a salute. The young witch huffed and rolled her eyes. 

"He wonders why you have assembled such a large group of citizens to come to him without warning him. He fears that you mean him harm." Seamus recited.

"Better," Hermione muttered. "But you forgot the honorific."

"Makes me sound like a bloody death eater," Seamus complained bitterly. Hermione huffed.

"It's important for continuity!" She insisted as she went back to her arithmancy homework. Then the portrait opened.

"Thanks, Philomena!" Lucy said with a wave as she skipped into the common room.

"Hey, Lucy!" Neville said happily. "Do you need to study more herbology?"

"No, but thanks again for last week," Lucy said happily. "I got an E on the test, which I'm told is pretty good."

"It's an 85%." Hermione clarified without looking up.

"Oh! That is really good!" Lucy cried with a grin.

"What up?" Harry asked casually.

"I need help with my history homework," Lucy admitted with a sigh. "You were right, it is almost impossible to stay awake..." Harry's face fell slightly as she spoke.

"I miss Professor Vance." Nigel suddenly blurted out with a melancholy expression. The entire common room went silent as both Lucy and Harry looked at their fellow student with pained scowls. He flinched and buried his face into his script. Lucy sighed and flopped onto the couch next to Harry and leaned against him with a sad expression. Harry took a deep breath before he sat up and rolled up his sleeves.

"Enough moping," he declared firmly. "Let's get to this studying!" Lucy smiled and pulled her books out of her bag. The common room let out a sigh as everyone went back to their work. They stayed there for a long while, long after Lucy had finished her history work. She helped Seamus finish memorizing his lines and she laughed and joked and shared candy with Ginny, Katie, Neville, Ron and Harry. And she was still there when Dean and Hermione returned from their prefect duties.

"It's almost curfew for first years Harry," Hermione reminded him with a slight frown. "You should take Lucy to Hufflepuff soon."

"In a bit," Harry assured her. The pair were currently engaged in a round of exploding snap. 

"Oh alright." Hermione relented with a slight huff before she yawned and went to her dorm for an early night in. But then they started talking about SCAM and the lessons that were planned for the battle scenes. Dismaring spells, shield charms, this one spell he found that made your skin impervious to cuts which would be super useful. Blaise knew a spell that could turn feathers into knives that still weighed as much as the feather. He was going to research to see if you could have a sword instead and then teach the group, the first time a Slytherin other than Tracey would be teaching. Luna had taught them all a very clever charm to create a thick fog that obscured vision. Neville had been instrumental in the creation of the Romeo and Juliet set, as he knew a spell to conjure flowering vines. The concept of everyone getting a chance to teach something had turned out marvellously. 

"I've been thinking though," Harry muttered. "You know how in act five all of these ghosts come to torment Richard and encourage Richmond?"

"Oh yes!" Lucy cried happily. "I love that part, it's like a big wave of catharsis!"

"I've been thinking... maybe we could do it with patronuses," Harry muttered thoughtfully.

"Patronuses?" Lucy asked in confusion. Harry smiled and drew his wand.

"Watch," he took a deep breath. "Expecto Patronum!" With a bright flash, his impressive hippocampus flowed out of the top of his wand. Then he blinked and smiled. "Go to mum, tell her: Hi mum! Hope you're doing okay. We all miss you a ton. Looking forward to seeing you during the holidays." The horse-fish hybrid tossed its head then shrunk into a ball and zipped through the nearest window. Lucy was staring at the space where it had been with a wide mouth. "That," Harry said, stowing his wand. "Was a Patronus. It's primarily used to fight off dark creatures, but if you're particular enough you can send messages with them. It's a bit flashy though, so not great if you're trying to be stealthy..." he paled. "Oh damn... I forgot about the spell ban!"

"I'm sure it'll be fine!" Lucy argued. "Just tell Umbridge it was for the play!"

"Hopefully she won't even ask," Harry muttered wearily. Lucy nodded emphatically.

"Miss. Mathers." Minerva McGonagall piped up from the portrait hallway. Both Harry and her jumped a mile. "Mister Potter, it is nearly 11 o'clock at night. You should be in bed, and Miss. Mathers should be in Hufflepuff." 

"Oh geez," Harry cried with a wince as he turned to look at the clock on the shelf. "Sorry professor, we lost track of time." Minerva took a deep breath.

"It's fine. I'll inform Pomona where Miss. Mathers is for tonight. But this will not be a common occurrence, do I make myself clear?" She demanded, peering at them over her spectacles. 

"Yes, professor!" Both cried with wide smiles. Minerva smiled to herself.

"Ten more minutes, then you should head to bed, Mr. Potter." She finally replied. 

"Right," Harry promised with a small smile.

"Also, the signup sheet for Christmas will be posted tomorrow. I took the liberty of adding your name immediately." 

"Thanks, professor," Harry said in relief. The head of house then turned and went for the first-year dorms. Lucy turned to the fire and gained a small sad smile. Harry saw the look and grew worried.

"What's up?" He asked as casually as he could.

"I... I don't think I want to go home for Christmas" Lucy said sadly. "I can't remember the last time my Christmas was actually... good." She twisted up the blanket Harry had thrown over their legs a while ago into knots in her lap. "But... I also really miss Miss Emmeline. And Christmas would be the perfect time to see her again." Lucy sighed sadly. Harry hummed in thought.

"Well... you can always spend the whole Christmas holidays with us?" He offered before he winced slightly. "Provided Dad is cool with it."

"Do you think he would be?" Lucy asked with a touch of hope.

"Couldn't hurt to ask," Harry argued, but he had a sneaking suspicion the answer was yes. With that, he wished his honorary little sister a good night and went to bed. That night he dreamed of patronuses, his mother's pheasant descending from the sky and wrapping around him in a soft blue cocoon of love and protection, keeping the demons at bay.