The tall slender woman in a somber buisness suit and high heels entered the room that contained twenty hopeful actors, all pale, of varying heights, eye colors, and hair colors. All anxious for her to read the yellow sticky note in her hand. They watched her like vultures circling their prey.
"The Director says that he would like to cast you all for this role, but he's chosen his top three. Will Mr. Daniel McCormick, Mr. John Stevens, and Mr. Adam Smith please follow me, the director would like a word with each of you personally. Thank you for the others that have tried out, and I would like to remind you that tryouts for other priciple males tomorrow." She said in a peppy voice. There were moans from those who did not get cast, and general chatter as they filed out of the building.
Daniel McCormick gathered his bag, which had his water bottle, a sweater, and a small lunch of fruit that he'd packed, and walked into the next room and sat down on the bench, running his graceful fingers through his hair, and waited. All three of them were trying out for the part of the villan's servant... a part he knew well.
As the hour passed and the two men ahead of him walked out, grins on their faces, confident that they had the role. Meekly, Daniel entered, with grim amusement at himself. He eyed the office appraisingly, it was fairly stark, which made sense since the man behind the desk had just set up office.
"Sit down Mr. McCormick," The average sized man with average gray hair, with large glasses. "Now, I like to get to know any of my prospective actors, and can you call me Steven." The Director or Steven said with a broad smile. "So tell me about yourself... things that aren't on your resume. Let's start with why you want this role, and why I should give it to you."
"I guess first off the bat, I'd like to say I'm a wizard, so you can drop the obtuse human act, even though you aren't one of us, you must know about us, Steven. You must have guessed where some of your actors and actresses could do so much and be so extrodinary, and your workers be able to pull off things that are nothing short of miracles." Daniel said calmly, smirking at the Director's shocked face as he nodded numbly. Daniel leaned down into his bag and pulled out a dog eared and ragged book, and placed it on the Director's desk. "I... I have a deep understanding of this book." He said tapping the book, which was what the movie that he was auditioning for was based off of. "It's rather... detailed. I assume you have read it sir?" Daniel said mildly.
"Yes, several times... quite marvelous aren't they?" Steven said admiringly. "So would you care to tell me about your family?" He said leaning over the desk.
There was something about this mysterious Daniel, that made you just want to crack him apart and see what made him tick, Steven thought to himself. That urge was only increased in Steven's mind when Daniel gave a cold laugh and a wan smile.
"Yes... them." He said, as if restraining the urge to spit. He stared at the book on the desk. "There is only one fault in those books, Steven... well, despite the fact that they've been set about ten years ahead of when they actually transpired." He said, his pale brow creasing.
"What do you mean by that Mr. McCormick?" Steven asked nervously, beginning to wonder if he should call security.
"Oh please, that's not my REAL name... I changed it, you won't find a Daniel McCormick anywhere. Now, I must ask you to be patient. First, I must tell you how I came to be in acting, which will tell you about my family and my childhood, although I promise to refrain myself from becoming lengthy, and in the end it will tell you why I know this book so well." Steven really felt he ought to call security... but somehow he was... hypnotized.
"I became an actor, because I've acted all my life. Not on stage or in commericals or the telly... no, far from it. I was an actor in my family, since I was old enough to speak. My father was... what you would call very... influential, and I was merely an ornament in his image, as was my mother, who died shortly after I was born, as well as his many other wives. I swear the man had a wife for each season." Daniel said with a bitter laugh. "But... but father wasn't what you'd call a good person, never a good person, and there was absolutely no reason for it, and he worked for some very powerful, and very evil people, pushing his way to the top. And that's what I was trained to be, as soon as I was four years old, exactly like him, never mind the fact that a four year old would agree to anything their father told them, especially when he's holding his belt above his shoulder, fully prepared to hit you..." Daniel drifted off, and looked away for a second, before fixing Steven with his sharp silver eyes meeting his.
"And then, when I was eleven I went to school, told exactly how I was to act, to each type of person, I'd always been told that people of well, what you would call different breeding were to be scorned, especially if they were half-breed. The reason I didn't understand at the time, but I obeyed, as I did all through my school years. In later years I found out it was because my mother... my mother herself was a half-breed, and father had felt hoodwinked, even though it was his own fault for not doing his research." He gave a grim smile.
"But in school, school was different. I could not say I was popular, nor was what you would call unpopular, I was hated. With good reasons of course, and ones I can't justify with my family life, I was simply doing my role, as father, the diva and director and author dictated, and I played it well. Of course I had friends, and an ally. Of course those friends were blockheads, and couldn't combine their wits together and top a dead rabbit... but my ally... my ally was the closest I ever got to a true friend. He was much older... he and my father went to school together, although I must admit that they despised each other, father was always muttering nasty things about him when I came home." Steven noticed the way Daniel gripped the rests of the chairs tightly, turning his knuckles whiter than they normally were. Daniel sighed and let go of the arm rests.
"Maybe that's what attracted me to him at first... he was one my father couldn't bully... he was the one who saw what was going on behind the happy family... but that might have been because he was trapped in his own role. And maybe that's why he would encourage me in more... normal activities that I was interested in, such as those different cultures that father was so insistant that I be so hateful towards, as opposed to father, who wanted me to be the perfect son, and gave me a tongue-lashing for even the winnings, saying that weren't good enough. He encouraged me to at least be myself when I when ever I felt like it, which I could be, when my 'friends' were sleeping after stuffing themselves like fools. And maybe that's why I am who I am today. Anyway, I must bore you by now, I graduated eventually, and continued to be father's puppet. I wanted to cut the strings, but I didn't know how... and maybe I was scared that I wouldn't be accepted as I was... people accepted the facade that had become associated with me... but could they accept me?" Daniel said, staring into his lap.
"And then... and then my ally... my ally." Daniel said with barely restrained emotions. "He... he... killed himself." He said in a choked voice. Steven wanted to touch him, reassure him, he looked like a small child, but he was afraid the whole scene would shatter like delicate glass. By that time Daniel seemed to have regained control of himself. "You see, my ally knew my game, because it was a game he played himself. Then the pressure of playing it and trying to keep himself alive began to wear on it. His note said that he felt that he'd lost himself, the real him in this twisted game, and he couldn't live with the person he'd become. And then there was a note for me, it said 'Get out.' that's it. Get out. And that's exactly what I did. I packed up some clothes, and just left home on foot, and ther was nothing father could do about it. Of course I did go to his funeral, my ally's I mean, the only one that did. Most couldn't see what he'd sacrificed for the school, although one might accuse that he was doing it for himself, and those benifits were merely flukes... but they couldn't see past the mask.
"Then I had to find myself some work. I'm not a people person, and my education isn't traditional, and I wanted to be as far away from my reputation as possible. And I realized that I could use my already honed and tested skills to earn my living as an actor... it was hard to break in... but I wasn't classically trained, which means didn't know the villan or hero sterotype engrained, I knew real villans, and real heros... and villans that were heros." Daniel said, standing and collecting his things, startling Steven, who'd been enchanted.
"You might consider this setting the record straight. I wasn't here to try out for the part of Lucius Malfoy, it'd be too complicated." Daniel picked up the novel with a smirk. "While she knew a lot about us and what happened, she heard it from only one source, while the rest of us... well... we're harder to find. She had an inkling about us, very rarely did anyone discover a deeper meaning." He said tapping the author's name, before dropping it into his bag. He sighed as he stood. "Good day Mr. Spielberg." He said, slinging his bag over his shoulder, and heading out the door.
"Wait, who are you, if you're not Daniel McCormick?" Steven asked, desperate to know who this strange man was.
'Daniel' stopped in the middle of the doorway, and with one hand on the wall, he looked over his shoulder with a smirk. "Draco. Draco Malfoy." Before walking out without another word.
Steven sat in his chair, stunned for a few seconds as he began to right his world that had been turned upside down by a single man, in a half an hour. Slowly he leaned over to the button on his phone that gave him a direct link to his secretary.
"Patty, call in Steve Klove... we've got some characters to talk over... and try and see if you can find a Draco Malfoy in the phone book. Thanks." Steven said, trying to contain his amazement in his voice. Patty gave an affirmitive, and said that Steve Klove was due back in his office in a half an hour and that she'd leave a message.
Forty-five minutes later his secretary entered.
"Mr. Klove said he had talk to Ms. Rowling about that very thing, Mr. Spielberg." she said looking at him up through her glasses. "And I researched that Malfoy character of yours... according to the phone book, and parliment, he doesn't exist." She said apprehensively.
"Thank you Patty," Steven said. "Could you please call Mr. Klove again and Ms. Rowling and tell them I'd like to have a meeting with them tomorrow... a cafe of Ms. Rowling's choice... it's going to be a long talk... we've got some last minute changes to make."
The End