((hope you all like Broadway! Because if you don't then these next parts are gonna suck for you, I'm sorry. I just got so inspired by the musicals I saw while I was in New York that I had to work it into a part or two somehow. Anyway.... ENJOY THE CHAPTER!))
For the most part, going back to public school sucked, but it wasn't all bad. Despite all the bad things, (y/n) did enjoy doing theatre in the public high school. (y/n) thought that auditioning for the school's musical would be a good way to make a few friends and introduce herself to the school. The musical ended up being Phantom of the Opera, and somehow (y/n) got cast as the Phantom. The school thought it would be interesting to have the roles all switched, supposedly because of her, but she didn't believe that. Rehearsals were a good distraction from the world across the ocean, back in Hogwarts where all of her friends remained. (y/n) still wrote to her friends, of course, she sent her owl -Lassie- out almost every day with letters to Hogwarts, she tried to give her owl as much rest as she could but she felt bad if she didn't write back quickly. That was why the musical was good for her, if she missed writing letters because rehearsal ran too long then she could let her owl rest a little longer and she would have a good reason to postpone the letters by a day or so.
The musical was supposed to be performed soon, it was the last week of practices, with tech and dress rehearsals scheduled for the entire week, and (y/n) found herself really excited to have Newt, Jacob, Queenie, and Tina all come to see her perform it. She wouldn't tell anyone that she actually used magic a few times during the show because she trusted herself more than she trusted the tech, but that was her little secret. She didn't think anyone else important would come to see her perform, but she didn't really care, she was still excited.
"Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind...In this darkness which you know you cannot fight.....The darkness of the music of the night....." (y/n) sang as she walked back and forth across the stage, her male counterpart pretending to be absorbed in her words as he watched her pace. (y/n) spaced out as she continued to sing, not focusing on anything, in particular, she stared blankly at the empty seats in the auditorium, imagining people actually sitting in them. She pictured Newt, Tina, Queenie, and Jacob all sitting in the front row, right behind where she saw them seated she pictured Ray, Luna, and Luca. She didn't see Draco in the images of the auditorium that went through her mind. She felt herself shiver like there actually was a phantom haunting the theatre, "To the power of the music that I write...The power of the music of the night..." She turned to face the boy, she found it easier to play her part when she pretended it was Draco she was acting with and not someone else, so instead of the senior that stood in front of her, a popular kid at the public school, she pictured Draco in front of her when she cupped his face softly in her hand.
The few people that were sitting in the seats began to clap, there weren't many people, mainly other actors and the drama and choir teacher, but their clapping sounded like it was coming from hundreds of people. She was worried that with a lot of people in the theatre that the clapping would be too much for her to listen to, but she decided to just ignore the clapping altogether. It was so weird going to school in New York. The city was insane. You walked everywhere and the streets always had people on them. The buildings touched the sky and if you looked straight up the buildings looked as though the were bending towards you. It was so weird for (y/n) to find herself back here when there was snow on the ground and the sun never showed through the clouds. (Y/n) liked New York, she thought the city was beautiful, not the same that Hogwarts was beautiful but beautiful for its own reasons. After rehearsal (y/n) collected her things and went outside, Newt was waiting for her when she came outside.
"There's my little Bowtruckle," he teased, Newt ruffled her hair and took her school bag, making sure he couldn't be seen as he secretly put it into his case. "How was practice?" he asked as they began to walk towards the apartment.
(y/n) nodded, "it was good," she stated simply, "do you think you'll be able to come see it?" she asked hopefully. "I'd like it if you all could come see it," she smiled at him.
Newt thought for a second, "I think we may be able to come out one day," he stated, "I'll have to check with the others, but if they can't I'll still come see it," he promised.
(y/n) smiled, she had been working so hard on the whole musical thing, it's been a good distraction from being kicked out of Hogwarts, and she felt really proud of how everything was coming out. She wanted everyone to come see it, at least, everyone important to her.
Newt and (Y/n) walked all the way to the apartment, the busy streets of New York reminding (y/n) of walking to her classes when she was in Hogwarts. You didn't have much room to move around, but you still had enough room to make a path to get to wherever you needed to go. When they reached the apartment building they climbed up the stairs, carefully dodging Mrs. Estizito as they climbed the steps, and went into their apartment. Tina and Queenie were already there preparing dinner, Jacob must have still been at the bakery.
"Hello," Queenie greeted them both with a warm smile, she was using magic to combine ingredients in a large bowl in front of her. "How was school hun?" she asked.
(y/n) smiled back, "It was good," she sat down at the table and watched the two sisters cook, "how was work today?" she wondered aloud.
Queenie smiled at (y/n) as she continued to cook, "I had a wonderful day at work today, thank you, sweetie," she put her dish into the oven. "I'm sure Tina can tell you both about the woman who came in today," she looked back at her sister.
Tina nodded, "yeah, I will over dinner," she promised. She began to set the table, she handed some plates to (y/n) to set up.
(y/n) put the plates on each placemat that was on the table before she began to pour everyone a glass of water. "Is Jacob on his way home?" she asked while she poured.
"He should be," Queenie stated, "he just wanted to go get something from the bakery, he shouldn't be too long," she promised. She began to prepare more food for dinner, whisking more things together in a bowl and putting more things in the oven.
(y/n) nodded before she sat down at the table again, putting all the glasses in their spots before she sat down. She watched as Queenie and Tina used their magic to prepare dinner and clean up before it was ready. (y/n) loved watching them use magic, especially because she 'wasn't allowed' to use her magic in the states.
"Is something wrong little bowtruckle?" Newt questioned as he sat down next to (y/n) at the table. He was no longer wearing the classic dark green-blue trench coat that he wore everywhere, he must have taken it off while (y/n) was helping set the table.
(y/n) snapped out of her trance and looked to Newt, "no, I'm fine, just thinking," she forced a smile.
Newt raised an eyebrow at her, but before he could say anything else, Lassie flew through the open window with a claw full of letters, presumably all from Hogwarts.
(Y/n) jumped up, running over to her owl and collecting the letters from her claws. She looked through them quickly seeing who each one was from; there was one from Luna, one from Ray, another from Luca, one from Hermione, and one from Draco. Practically ignoring all the others, (y/n) tore open the one from Draco and began to read it.
Hello princess, I hope you're doing well in the states.
We all miss you here, don't worry, I've been keeping an eye out for Luca and Ray for you, I know how worried you are about them. They sent you letters too, you probably already read them at this point. Snape is still an arse, Umbridge is an even bigger one, you're not missing out on too much anyways. Umbridge has come out with a bunch of new bigoted rules, like no music during study hours, and boy's and girls must be more than 8 inches away from each other. It's insane, we're all going mad here without you, especially Ray, he told me to ask you to... call him... he said you'd know what he meant. I miss you, bloody hell I miss you. I wish you where here, I wish you were with me, I'd rather have you 8 inches away rather than 8,000 miles away. I hope you do well in your musical, you said you got a lead right? I'm so proud of you, I know you'll do just smashingly!
Now, I better go, Umbridge moved curfew up, lights go out in six.
I miss you, I love you my treasure,
Malfoy.
(y/n) felt her chest tighten as she read Draco's note: It made her so happy she couldn't help but hold the paper tightly to her chest and smile. She missed him. More than she'd care to admit, but she definitely missed him. She was suddenly snapped out of her trance when she heard Jacob call out to her.
"Dinner's ready!" he called with a chuckle, "hurry before it's cold."
(y/n) smiled again at the sound of Jacob's voice, "coming!" she called back before setting down the note and running back into the dining room.
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The Phantom of the Opera overture was the most intense, yet thrilling, and terrifying thing (y/n) had ever listened to. It didn't matter that she listened to every night, every time she heard it she felt more and more mesmerized by it. (y/n) didn't come out onto the actual stage until the third song so until then she'd pace back and forth between the levels of the theatre, up and down the aisles of seats. (Y/n) really enjoyed playing the part of the Phantom, as twisted as the character was, some scenes were really fun to do if she was angry or stressed at all. Sometimes she would pretend that she was talking to other people, to make her reactions seem more realistic, which was another great way to relieve anger and stress.
It was the final run through of the show before the first performance, and everything needed to be perfect. If it wasn't perfect now it wouldn't be perfect at curtain call and (y/n) knew it, probably more than anyone else. It was the same as casting a spell. If she didn't know exactly how to pronounce the spell, how to move her wand perfectly, and how quickly to do both at the same time then the spell wouldn't turn out right when she actually went to do it. That was exactly like how this performance would work.
She watched as two students pulled the chandelier up to the ceiling while the band played the overture in the pit. The sound resonated strongly throughout the auditorium, and (y/n) felt a shiver go down her spine. This was the first time the chandelier was actually added to the show, and it made the whole thing feel so much more real. (y/n) took a deep breath and slid her half face mask over her head. She wasn't in full costume, but she did have on the coat and mask, the important parts of her outfit. She began to walk back and forth, imagining people sitting in the seats as she walked around, she made sure to at least pretend that she was watching what was happening on stage while she walked around. Then it was her turn, she made her way backstage to make her real entrance: the mirror.
The rest of the run through went by with a blur, nothing went wrong and everyone remembered all of their lines, so as long as no one got bad stage fright then the whole thing would turn out alright. There was an hour and a half left until the first performance began, so (y/n) got into her full costume, the all black outfit with her long black cape-like coat and half face mask. She had her hair braided by another girl in the cast before she put on her black fedora to complete her costume. She was ready. She was the Phantom of the Opera.
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"say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime, lead me, save me, from my solitude," (y/n) sang, the musical was coming to an end, it was almost over, but she didn't want it to end, she sighed to herself and got down on one knee, pretending to propose to the boy standing in front of her. "Say you want me with you here beside me, anywhere you go let me go too, Christain, that's all I ask of..." She felt tears begin to roll down the sides of her face, she didn't plan on crying, yet there she was, crying on stage in front of almost three hundred people.
The actor in front of her rips her mask off of her face, revealing the scarily convincing stage makeup of the Phantom's deformity, (y/n) covers her face with her hand and secretly wipes her eyes. A bunch of things happens on the stage around her and she runs off in fear, strangely, the fear wasn't fake, she was scared of this ending. She needed this, it was the only thing keeping her from thinking of Hogwarts all the time.
Time seems to skip and (y/n) is suddenly singing one of her final lines of the show. The boy playing Christain is walking up to her to hand her the ring she gave him in the previous song. She takes it solemnly, "Christain... I love you..." she sings, and suddenly she see's Draco in the boy's eyes, tears begin to fall again, but she continues as though they weren't covering her face. She shook her head and sat down on the throne that stood in the middle of the stage, "you alone can make my song take flight, it's over now, the music of the night," she sings before vanishing off the stage. Seconds later she hears the crowd burst into applause, it was over, night one was over. There would only be two more shows before it was all done. Shaking the thought out of her head she went back onto the stage for the final bow, where she was met with applause and cheering from tons of people in the auditorium.
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(y/n) found Newt outside the auditorium once she got off the stage. She ran up to him and gave him a large hug, he wasn't wearing his normal teal coat, instead, he was wearing a nice black suit. "what did you think?" (y/n) asked excitedly.
"It was wonderful," Newt proclaimed hugging her back, "I loved it, you did amazing," he stated as he smiled warmly and proudly at her.
It made (y/n) feel really good to know that Newt liked the performance, Newt had told her that he hadn't gone to the theatre much at all, and the fact that he liked this one made her feel really great about it.
"What was your favorite part?" (y/n) asked, she bounced on the balls of her feet in anticipation, she wanted to know what he liked the most. There were plenty of parts that she liked, but those didn't seem as important to her at the moment.
Newt had to think about it for a moment, putting a finger to his chin in thought, "you know, I think my favorite part was when you ran up to that one boy and started crying," he chuckled. He got a stange, almost devious, sparkle in his eye, something that was really uncommon for Newt.
(Y/n) raised an eyebrow in confusion, "that never..." (y/n) was cut off when Newt stepped aside and revealed a person standing behind him. (Y/n) gasped and ran up to the person without really thinking and jumped on them in a hug.
Draco chuckled and spun around with (y/n) in his arms, "wow, if I didn't know any better I'd say you actually missed me," he teased setting (y/n) back down on the ground.
(Y/n) rolled her eyes and chuckled through her nose, lightly punching Draco on the shoulder. "you're such an idiot," she sighed in annoyance.
Draco hugged (y/n) again and kissed her gently on the cheek, "an idiot wouldn't have convinced Umbridge to let him come visit to watch their girlfriend perform in a musical now would they?" he questioned raising an eyebrow.
(y/n)'s breath caught, she smiled and shook her head, "I'm sorry," she chuckled, "could you.. repeat that?" she asked.
Draco rolled his eyes, "I called you my girlfriend you bloody bigot," he chuckled. "Is that okay? am I allowed to call you that" he asked teasingly.
(y/n) smiled, "I guess," they were interrupted by Newt tapping (y/n) on the shoulder and pulling her attention towards Jacob and Queenie, who were making their way through the crowd to them.
Draco took (y/n)'s hand in his and squeezed it gently, when she glanced over at him he smiled and let go of her hand, letting her run up to Jacob and Queenie. Once (y/n) was out of earshot Newt stepped up to Draco, leaning closer to him so he could hear what he was about to say.
"We need to talk," Newt whispered to Draco, "but not here," he wiggled his case in his hands "after dinner," he seemed to command, "you'll know where to go," he nodded before he walked away.
((dun, dun, duuunnn! Lol, sorry I couldn't help it. Anyway, sorry about the constant musical references, I'm a bit of a broadway theatre nerd and it was only amplified by my trip to New York. This proably isn't the end of the musical references, so.... forwarning. Okay, I love you all, I'll see you on Friday.))