Disclaimer: Harry Potter and characters are owned by J.K. Rowling and Romeo & Juliet is courtesy of William Shakespeare or possibly Edward de Vere or whoever it is you want to believe wrote it. I don't care, it was beautiful and let's leave it at that.

A/N: I've been playing around with the idea of writing this fanfic for a couple months now and I finally decided to put it on paper…I mean Microsoft Word. Anyways, I really like Romeo & Juliet, but I really disliked the way that the characters were really two-dimensional and were the same inside and out. So I've taken Romeo & Juliet and have added new characters with more emotional depth and the story is going to take place over a longer span of time than the original five days and is going to span the real original nine months (it took nine months in the story that Romeo & Juliet was based off of). Anyways, I'm rambling now, so without further ado…

Prologue

"Two households, both alike in dignity

(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

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-crossed lovers take their life,

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, naught 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."

"Is it just me or do Dumbledore's speeches get weirder and weirder every year?" Ron whispered to Harry.

"Honestly Ron, he was reciting the prologue from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Even though Shakespeare was a muggle, his plays are still quite famous in the wizarding world. Leave it to you to not know anything about Shakespeare."

"Well I'm sorry if I don't spend all my time reading some dead bloke's poetry." muttered Ron.

"Well you should," stated Hermione matter-of-factly, "because I know for a fact that Professor Dumbledore is arranging a school play to take place a week after Christmas break. It'll be the first school play Hogwarts has ever seen and I for one think that it will be a great opportunity to introduce muggle culture into a society that-"

"Harry, are you going to sign up for the play?" asked Ron, ignoring Hermione's ramblings.

Hermione sent a glare to Ron, but offered her opinion on the matter, "Yeah Harry, are you? It'll be a great experience and if all three of us join, it'll give us a chance to spend more time together."

"Oh yes, because we don't spend nearly enough time together. Only like all the time every day." added Ron sarcastically.

"Shut up Ron, you know what I mean." retorted Hermione.

"Well, I don't know guys…" spoke Harry hesitantly when the two finally stopped their bickering and turned to him, awaiting his answer, "acting isn't really my thing."

"But Harry, theatre isn't all about acting. If you don't feel comfortable with acting, you could always work backstage or something. It doesn't matter what we're doing as long as we're all doing it together." beamed Hermione.

"Yeah, mate. I'm not much of an actor myself either. We could both work backstage or something." suggested Ron.

"…alright." sighed Harry, "I could use something to keep my mind off of the whole Voldemort-trying-to-kill-me thing that happens every year. Besides, unlike Voldemort, a little theatre won't kill me. Right?"

A/N: Oh Harry, you should have learned by now. Anything you do is life-endangering. Next chapter will appear whenever I feel like it. It may be tomorrow…or in a couple months.