This was SOOOOOO exciting!!!! Putting on a play of one of her favorite Bard stories was totally going to be one of the beeest non-creature things to happen at Hogwarts this term! Emmeline was stoked; she had even braved the library for hours looking for the perfect monologue to read from, mhm. Not that she had read the rest of the play she was actually reading from -- she just knew a summary and HER scene, which she had learned by heart. It had been a good distraction from...things, too. The second year bounced up and down on the balls of her feet as she waited impatiently outside of the no-longer-secret Come and Go Room for her turn to audition. It was kind of a miracle that she'd even figured out where on the seventh floor this room even was; she'd finally managed it by tagging along behind some of her older Housemates.

Every second seemed to drag on for YEARS until Professor Myers finally called her name. Thank Merlin, 'cause she really wanted to get this audition done before Christmas, you know? Also, she was kind of getting a weird feeling; she was used to butterflies treating her tummy as a vacation home any time she was nervous, but now her hands felt all cold and sweaty too. It was like how she'd felt waiting for her date outing with James on the Merlin's Pride. Still, the Gryffindor was able to put some of her usual bounce into her step and practically fly up to the stage.

Emmeline cleared her throat a little bit, and stared Professor Myers right in the face as she announced in a cheery tone: "Hiii, Professor Myers! I'd like to audition for the role of Amata, please. And I'm gonna do a monologue from the Muggle play called Anna Christie." Which hopefully he would notice was super appropriate and totally similar to Amata's character too, mhm. 'Cause they both had lost love and were feeling all terrible and desperate for a solution to their veeery sad love lives, mhm.

The twelve-year-old took a deeeeep breath, shook her head a little bit to clear it, and moved to the center of the stage where she assumed an angry expression. Like the angriest face she could make ever. Okay, now she could start!

"I s'pose if I tried to tell you I wasn't- that- no more you'd believe me, wouldn't you? Yes, you would!" She spoke the words in an angry, yet clearly hurt tone of voice as she walked a few steps closer to the audience. And and, she made super sure that the last three words were practically LOADED with obvious sarcasm.

"And if I told you that yust getting out in this barge, and being on the sea had changed me and made me feel different about things,'s if all I'd been through wasn't me and didn't count and was yust like it never happened- you'd laugh, wouldn't you?", she made her voice colder and yet sorrowful sounding as she said these words. She spread her arms out in front of her in a wide, sweeping gesture to indicate that she had changed. The bad stuff in her past wasn't her, and Emmeline made super sure to emphasize that point by letting pure determination show through on her face and in her voice as she took another step towards Anna's invisible boyfriend on the stage.

She PAUSED for dramatic emphasis here before continuing: "And you'd die laughing sure if I said that meeting you that funny way that night in the fog, and afterwards seeing that you was straight goods stuck on me, had got me to thinking for the first time, and I sized you up as a different kind of man- a sea man as different from the ones on land as water is from mud- and that was why I got stuck on you, too. I wanted to marry you and fool you, but I couldn't. Don't you see how I'd changed?" The mixture of hurt and anger made her voice stronger as she tried to portray what Anna had felt , but it was HARD to act out 'cause this whooole monologue was just Anna talking to her boyfriend, mhm. Still, Emmeline infused the first bit -- the bit where Anna was saying that she saw her boyfriend as a different kind of man -- with some hope in her tone. She arranged her features like she was talking about someone surprising and wonderful and so unexpected that she could hardly STAND it. And then when she got to Anna's confession about wanting to marry him, Emmeline strained her face like what she was saying HURT. She put a hand over her heart to drive the point home that Anna had wanted to marry him, to love him. BUT...

" I couldn't marry you with you believing a lie- and I was shamed to tell you the truth- till the both of you forced my hand, and I seen you was the same as all the rest.", she said the first words (until "truth") in a quieter tone, almost like the tone of voice she used when she realllly, desperately wanted someone to believe her and she was embarrassed allll at the same time. And then on the bit where the men had forced Anna's hand, Emmeline slowly raised her voice until she was loud but not yelling. She took a couple of steps back from where Anna's boyfriend would stand, pulling her face into a frown and trying to convey hurt and disappointment and anger. So much anger.

Now for the veeeery last bit: "And now, give me a bawling out and beat it, like I can tell you're going to. Will you believe it if I tell you that loving you has made me- clean? It's the straight goods, honest! Like hell you will! You're like all the rest!" The first sentence was uttered with complete DEVASTATION and LOSS in her voice, and a couple of tears sliding down her face. Anna's question also wreaked of devastation and a longing for the boyfriend to just believe her, which Emmeline tried to show by again stepping back with a totally crushed look on her face and her hand making a fist over her heart.

The last two sentences, though, were different. Emmeline STOMPED forward a few steps with her forehead wrinkled in anger and her eyes flashing as she said those words. The words that showed the depth of Anna's hurt and anger and loss. Just like Amata. Sometimes just like Emmeline herself.

That was why she wanted this part sooo much -- this one or Altheda's. She could relate to these witches, even though they were way grown up and stuff. Emmeline stayed in character after the end of her last lines, evident by her angry stance and the fist over her heart, showing a DRAMATIC pause. And then she let her face relax into a smile and aimed it in Professor Myers's direction. That had been okay, right? "Thanks, sir!! Byeee!", she chirped as she jumped off the stage and scurried out of the room.