"Hello! I'm Troy." I shook hands with the man who had an eerie resemblance to me. He was slightly taller than me but had the same build and hair color. One major difference was the age. The man was eight years my senior.
"Of course, who wouldn't know you," he beamed at me while shaking my hand vigorously. "I'm Raymond Clark, but you can call me Ray. My siblings, who are much younger than me, are huge fans of yours. We were having a 'Troy Marathon' last week where we watched all your movies in one go from morning till late in the evening."
There was something called a 'Troy Marathon' out there? That's bizarre, yet oddly satisfying.
"That must be quite a day. How come you don't hate my face already?" I joked eliciting laughter from him. After a few moments, I continued, "Now you can be a part of the next film in the 'Troy Marathon' as well."
He nodded enthusiastically. "And I'm very happy to do so."
"I'm a little curious, though," I asked him. "Don't you feel afraid when you're in such a dangerous line of work?"
He shrugged before replying, "I'm used to it by now. I did my first stunt when I was just eighteen. So it's been four years now. It helps that our pay increases by a lot if we are injured."
It is a worrying thought that these stuntmen have no care for their health if it pays well. Better to nip this tendency of his in the bud. "If you complete this film without getting injured even once, I'll pay you more than what the production would pay you if you do get injured," I said in an attempt to save him from any deliberate accidents.
His eyes widened. "You serious?"
"No, I'm Harry," I quipped. Seeing his confused expression, I sighed at my stupidity. Of course, he wouldn't know the reference when the third film hasn't been released yet. He must not be a book reader. Then again, stuntman. "Forget it. Yes, I'm serious. I will feel very guilty if you get injured doing a stunt for me."
"Alright then," he grinned confidently. "No getting injured. When do we begin?"
"Not in my hands, man," I said while looking behind me where the crew was running around wildly. "Ask one of the ADs if you wanna know."
"Nah, I'll just wait to be called," Ray replied as together we waited for the equipment and props to finish setting up.
The scene we were doing today was the dragon fight scene. More like a dragon avoidance scene. It had been changed drastically from the intense chase sequence that the original film had where the dragon ended up falling to his death. Instead, the dragon and Harry never leave the stadium. I had nothing to do with this change, so I'm assuming this is because of Alfonso's involvement.
"Alright there, guys?" Alfonso asked as he walked over to us.
"Yup," I nodded.
"Splendid," Ray agreed.
"Good," Alfonso said. "Then here's what we'll do. Because the scene can be a little risky, Troy, you'll sit this one out until the final portion of the scene where your face will be visible. Other than that, it will be mostly Ray who will be doing this, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," I nodded in agreement easily. I wasn't one of those actors who got off on doing his own stunts. Why should I risk my life when I have someone else to do it for me? Moreover, if I got injured because of my arrogance, the shooting would get halted or delayed depending upon the severity of the injury. So many people are relying on me to keep myself fit and healthy because if the film is delayed, their employment would be affected as well.
That day, I found that shooting an action scene was not as glamorous as they show it on the screen when you have a stuntman doing most of the parts. I shot the opening scenes before the dragon attacked me, but everything after that was done by Ray. The parts on the broom had already been shot because they didn't pose that much danger to me. But the parts like the dragon's tail striking where I'm standing, or me doing a barrel roll on the ground to save myself from dragon fire were all done by Ray.
Truly, stuntmen are great.
(Break)
Finally, after six months of training, it was time for me to do the diving scenes for the second task. I like swimming a lot, but I was a little hesitant about staying underwater for an extended period initially. Thankfully, I had a wonderful instructor in the form of Bernie, who had made a full plan for teaching us diving. From being unable to hold my breath for even half a minute when we began, I am now able to hold my breath for up to four minutes, which is much better than most people (as per Bernie). He even said that as I grew older, my capacity would increase even further.
As I stepped out onto the set of the Great Lake for the first time, I felt a little self-conscious all over again. If fifty crew members were a crowd for me earlier, now there were even more, and for good reason. I wasn't the only actor they had to shoot a scene with today. For some reason, Alfonso wanted to free all the other actors first so that the majority of scenes that involved me could be shot later on.
As I approached where the scene was to be shot, I saw Jamie and Emma talking to each other. Emma's back was to me, so she didn't see me, but Jamie did. Seeing that, I put a finger on my lips, signaling him to be quiet. Getting my point, he kept talking to Emma while I crept behind her carefully before I held her shoulders and shook her violently.
"Holy shit!" Emma jumped in her spot before turning around immediately.
I didn't bother controlling my laughter, and Jamie joined in with me.
"Troy Armitage!" Emma kept hitting me hard across my forearm. "You're an arsehole!"
"Aww, don't be like that, Em," I said while trying to hug her close to my chest. Trying is the keyword here because she pushed me away violently. Seeing her panicked look, I realized the reason for her hesitance. It might be a closed set, but still, there were more than 70 people present.
Jamie, being the oldest one of us, diffused the tension by changing the topic, "Even after all this time, I still can't believe that you two are together. I used to consider you both like my siblings. Now I feel as if my brother is dating my sister." Then he shivered at the mental image.
"Stop acting as if you don't have a girlfriend of your own," Emma said pointedly before turning to me. "I saw his phone. There were very naughty messages there. Before I could see who they were from, he snatched it away from me."
"Really," I grinned at the fresh gossip. "You never told us, Jamie."
He scoffed, "It's nothing serious. Just a fan."
I paused for a moment before asking slowly, "So you're sleeping with a fan? Girl, I'll assume?"
He gave me an irritated look and shouted, "Of course, it's a girl! Just because I did that one gay role with you in [Billy Elliot], it doesn't make me gay."
"I know," I tried placating him with raised hands. "Sorry bro, just asking. Do you have an NDA signed with her?"
Now it was his turn to look confused, so I elaborated, "What if she went and told the media that you did something bad to her? Then she could ask you for a lot of money to clear your name."
His eyes widened as the reality of the situation dawned upon him.
"Can it really happen?" he asked worriedly.
I shrugged. "I don't know. But you have to be careful, man. Especially when you are with someone unknown. Go to your lawyer and tell him everything. He'll handle it." Then I turned to Emma and, despite her reluctance, draped an arm over her shoulders. Just so she didn't feel weird, I draped an arm around Jamie as well. "That's why I think a little incest isn't that wrong. You don't need a lawyer for that."
Hearing that, Jamie pushed me away hard. "You are a sick person, Troy. You need a lobotomy."
This time Emma and I were laughing at Jamie's reaction.
As much as I wanted our mindless fun to continue, I knew we couldn't do that anymore because we were there to do a job.
A job that involved getting wet for a prolonged period.
Today the set was packed tight as many actors had a scene to shoot. It didn't take long for one of the ADs to come running over to us and assign all of us our marks to begin the scene. I still had a little prep to do, so I first shrugged off my bathrobe, standing in just my Gryffindor red swimming shorts. I ignored if anyone was staring at me and focused on preparing for the scene. Because I was meant to be just coming out of the lake, I took a dip in the water to get my body and clothes wet. An action that was soon followed by a few more of my co-actors who were also coming out of the lake, including Jamie and Emma. It didn't take long for all of us to be ready for the scene.
"Action!"
As the camera zoomed in on my face, I coughed out loud, splashing water everywhere. I had put some water in my mouth before the scene could begin for this purpose.
"Harry!" Michael Gambon said worriedly as the actor who played Seamus draped a towel behind my neck. "He's alright," Gambon let out in relief. "I want all the judges over here now."
As Gambon stood up, he was replaced by Lea, who played Fleur Delacour. She bent down in front of me and said gratefully, "You saved her, even though she was not yours to save. My little sister!" Then she moved forward and kissed both my cheeks.
"Cut!" Alfonso called out. "Kiss him again, Lea."
She nodded and went into character, kissing my cheeks again.
"No," Alfonso called out again. "It didn't look that good. Let's change things a little. Why don't you kiss him on the lips?"
Both of us turned to him as if he'd gone mad.
"Are you serious?" I asked.
"What's the harm in trying?" he asked. "It will be just one take. We can always use a different one while editing. It's not like you haven't kissed anyone before." He raised a challenging eyebrow in my direction.
That wasn't the issue at all. The issue was that my girlfriend and Lea's boyfriend were both just a few feet away from us. Yes, you heard it right. I was the best wingman in the world who united Lea Seydoux and Henry Cavill. Henry was a little cagey about how that happened after that disaster of a first meeting, but I'm sure it helped that both of them were drop-dead gorgeous. The cheapskate had yet to fulfill his promise to treat me, but I hadn't pushed him on it too much.
I looked at Emma, who had crossed her arms across her chest and looked as if she didn't care at all about it, but I knew deep down that she would feel bad if I kissed Lea without her permission. Seeing my gaze on her, Emma nodded once, and I had gotten my approval. So I turned back to Lea and gave her the go-ahead.
"Action!"
Lea said her line again before moving forward and kissing me on the lips. I felt as if my whole world was rocked for a moment. I wanted to extend that kiss longer, but Lea was a consummate professional because she stayed in character and finished her scene by kissing Jamie next, but for him, she stuck to kissing on the cheeks. Don't get me wrong, I love Emma, but… I was conflicted. Lea was so hot, and of legal age, while Emma was…Emma.
"Cut!" Alfonso stopped before we could move on. "Lea, kiss Troy again. On lips. It looks much better on camera."
What followed was take after take of Lea kissing me again and again and again. Honestly, I was enjoying it a little, but deep down I was also worried for my health when this was all over.
"Cut! Well done! Let's move on."
No one could have been happier that the scene ended. I looked up at my beautiful girlfriend to see if she would be angry with me, Alfonso, or anyone, but she looked pretty calm. The next scene was hers, so maybe she was suppressing her rage.
"Action!"
She moved forward and hugged me tightly. "Oh Harry!" she cried. "Are you alright? You must be freezing!" She then took a towel off her shoulders and draped it over me. "I think you behaved admirably."
"I finished last, Hermione," I said, shivering from the cold.
Then she surprised me by kissing me on the cheek as well and said, "Next to last. Fleur never got past the Grindylows." We grinned at each other.
"Cut!" Alfonso called out. "Yes! Perfect, let's move on."
"On the first take?" I asked Emma with a raised eyebrow.
"Apparently, we have amazing chemistry," she said as a matter of fact.
"That we do," I grinned at her.
The shooting went on like normal from that point on. When we had completed the scenes for the day, and everyone was going back to their trailers, I insisted on accompanying Emma back to her trailer. I was in dry clothes now, so it didn't matter to me that much. As soon as I closed the door of the trailer behind me, Emma latched on to me, planting her lips on mine. I reciprocated with equal fervor before separating because the door to the trailer opened again, admitting Chloe, the villain. Okay, I was being a little too harsh on her, but I didn't like her presence here.
"What was that for?" I whispered to Emma as she sat beside me on her couch, noticing how Chloe walked over to the nearby table and picked up an iPod. Yeah, she wasn't that bad.
"That was to tell you that I don't mind," Emma smiled. "You should have seen your face when Alfonso changed that scene to a kiss."
"Why don't you mind?" I asked. "Because I know I wouldn't like it if you kissed someone else."
"You will have to ignore it," she said seriously. "Just like I did. Aren't you doing that film, [The Perks of Being a Wallflower]? If it is as per the book, it will have many kissing scenes. When I was reading the book, I had made up my mind that as long as it's for a role, I won't tell you what to do or what not to do. But then I expect the same courtesy from you as well. Can you do that?"
I nodded slowly, but that was a lie. I knew that if she kissed someone else, even for a role, I would absolutely hate it. I may not tell it to her, but I would. Call me a hypocrite or whatever, but that's how I felt.
_____________________________________
AN: Visit my Pat reon to read ahead, or participate in free polls about the story.
Link: www(dot)pat reon(dot)com/fableweaver