A Lily By Any Other Name

Act III: James

"No. No way. Not happening, Prongs. I wish you the best of luck, but I am definitely not going to be part of the tights-troupe. Have fun with that."

"Oh come on, I'm sure all the ladies would love to see it."

It was breakfast and the normally-exhausted night owl by the name of Sirius Black did not seem to be having any of it. 'It' being whatever was causing James to be beaming, nay, sparkling, about. Sirius grabbed a triangular piece of toast and held it up in front of him as if it would ward away James. When James countered with snatching the toast from his hand and happily eating it, Sirius turned to Remus in a dramatic flourish.

"Sweet, sweet, Moony, can you please knock some sense into our delusional friend here who has clearly lost his mind?"

"I don't know, Padfoot, it sounds quite spectacular. And it would definitely be an eye-turner." Remus mused.

It was moments like this where James could see the mischievous side of Remus that he hid so very well. He wasn't a Marauder for no reason.

Sirius gave him a look of utter disbelief. "I have never felt so betrayed than this very moment. Wormtail, can you please help me with removing this knife..?"

He had turned so that his back was facing Peter.

"If nothing else, you definitely have the melodrama down." James smirked. "And anyway, don't forget that you owe me."

Sirius turned back around so that he was facing James again, who was sitting across from him. He frowned. "Since when do I owe you?"

James motioned to his head.

Sirius groaned. "That was a month ago! You're not seriously holding me to that?"

James bit on another piece of bacon. "Of course not."

Sirius breathed a sigh of relief too soon.

"The Bludger incident will be repaid in locker cleaning after tomorrow's practice. I just thought you might want to know how long you'll be on jersey-washing duty too in addition to that." James said casually.

Sirius had never changed his mind about something so quickly.

------------

Muggle Studies was their last class of the day and James couldn't wait another second. As soon as he handed in his Potions essay, he was out the door. He was so excited that he hadn't noticed a certain red-head giving him a weird look as he left the classroom, trailed by an exasperated Sirius Black.

After entering the Muggle Studies class, he went over a few more details with Professor Budam as the rest of the class filed in. When he saw that everyone was seated, he took his place in the front of the class. Despite being fairly popular and sociable, he was not incredibly big on presentations. Talking with people felt a lot different than talking in front of people. However, he would definitely have to get used to it if his idea passed. Sirius gave him a thumbs-up from the back of the class and he took a deep breath.

"Hi, everyone. Professor Budam gave me permission to pitch my final assignment to all of you. You might be wondering why, which is fair. The answer to that is because I can't do this on my own." James allowed for a few seconds of confusion before continuing. "There's a poet and playwright by the name of William Shakespeare; perhaps you've heard of him. He is quite renowned for his contributions to literature in the Muggle world and I found myself being really intrigued as to how his works were so influential to the point that they were even read in Muggle classes for school. After reading a few of his works, I realized that a project done around him would be great for this class. But I wasn't sure how to present my appreciation for it, and Muggles in general.

"It got me thinking that maybe the best way to honour it would be to recreate what Muggles our age would do in school: perform it. Perform it in front of the entire school in costumes, with a set, memorizing the lines and acting out different parts! It would be a lot of hard work, but I think we can pull it off. Professor Budam even said we would have class time to rehearse and work on it and he would be giving bonus marks if we choose to work together as well, so..." He took a breath. "What do you all think?"

James eyed his classmates eagerly, nervous what they would say. He couldn't do this without them, and he was worried that they might not agree now that it had been a few weeks since their initial proposals. Budam had told him that no one else in the class had a firm idea for their project so it wouldn't be major problem, but it was something that was starting to seem like a severe lapse of judgement. However, if they did agree, he could picture it being pulled off spectacularly. It was definitely no small feat, but he was a believer in how teamwork makes the dream work.

Everyone whispered to each other; nothing that James could make out. One voice did stick out though, a voice that tended to make other people listen.

"Prongs, I still think your head's not completely there, but that's not saying this isn't a brilliant idea. I'm on board with it and I will be more than happy to help with whatever I can. I'll take making props over washing jerseys any day." Sirius grinned his toothy, wide smile and James couldn't help but match it.

The rest of the class followed suit in voicing their agreements, although there were more than a handful of worried people.

"I think it's a really cool idea, but wouldn't we need more people? There's barely ten students in this class and doubling up on roles might be too hard with all of our other classes. Plus from what I know about stage plays, you'd need a ton of people specializing in areas other than the acting. Like you said, there's costumes, sets, props..." Mary bit her lip anxiously as she trailed off, growing increasingly more nervous.

James nodded, thankful he had planned out the details in advance. "You're right, we will need more people. Which is why Professor Budam is also allowing me to extend the invitation out to anyone who would want to help us. I ask that you only go to your closest and most reliable friends for this, though. Can't have slackers in this production, after all. We'll be performing this at the end of the school year, on the second last day of the term when exams would be over and we would also have a day or two to throw a dress rehearsal before the big day. Which is roughly seven months from now."

"What Shakespeare play are we doing anyway? Is it Tempest?" Sky, a Ravenclaw he didn't know too well, asked excitedly.

He shook his head. "I wanted to do the truly authentic Muggle-school experience." James smiled at his classmates, all of whom he was incredibly grateful for at that moment. "Have any of you heard of Romeo and Juliet?"