7th February 2006
Over 3 years later, Emma was up at six o'clock in the morning and being driven to the Leavesden Studios in Watford, London, by her chauffer Vinnie. You'd have thought that she'd be leaning against the window half asleep, but she was as wide-eyed and awake as she could be at the ridiculously early hour.
It was the first day of filming for the Order of the Phoenix, and Emma – as usual on the first day back after the two month break – couldn't wait to get back on set and see all the cast and crew, whom over the years had become like her second family. She had missed them all terribly. It was when she burst through the double doors and was greeted to a chorus of happy hello's, hugs and indulging in a pointless, hilarious conversation with Dan and Rupert did she feel truly at home.
"You've cut your hair Em!" Rupert said after about an hour after her arrival.
"Just realised Rupe? Tom noticed as soon as I came in!" she started laughing. "I can see you've had a haircut though. It was way, way too long on the last film!"
Rupert grinned broadly and rolled his eyes. "You said that to me at the premiere. But c'mon, it wasn't that bad!"
"It was! All of the boys needed it chopped, especially you. You were practically spitting it out of your mouth!" she exclaimed, swatting him playfully.
"I wasn't!" Dan yelped defensively, "I thought my hair looked amazing actually."
He bat his eyelashes and pretended to flick long, imaginary hair over his shoulder. The others laughed, Emma shaking her head as she did so.
"Bonnie!" she called across the room. "Bonnie!"
When she caught the Ginny actress's attention she dramatically beckoned her over, shouting, "these two are saying that their hair looked amazing in the last film!"
Bonnie laughed loudly and jogged over to where they were lounging. A girl with white blonde hair followed her nervously.
"Don't kid yourselves, they were bloody awful boys," Bonnie teased.
Dan and Rupert exchanged wearily amused looks. They always knew when the new film process had begun when the traditional game of teasing started. Everyone on set and behind the scenes knew about the on-going game that occurred between the foursome. It was, and had always been, Dan and Rupert versus Emma and Bonnie. Since literally day one of their Harry Potter journey.
To cut a long story short, the whole 'tease' came about when nine year old Emma watched Rupert's rapping audition videotape and, in absolute hysterics, spat out her orange juice everywhere. Then Bonnie started laughing and together the pair were uncontrollable for ten minutes. Rather than being embarrassed, Rupert saw it as a challenge – a competition if you like, to have one over on the girls. So, with Dan to help him, it had continued since then. Of course – it was only playful banter, possibly a hint of flirtatious teasing between close friends, but that's how they were. Always. To this very day.
Rupert shot Dan a sly wink, coding for 'we'll get them back!'. Dan immediately understood and smirked knowingly. One way or another, they always did.
"You must be Evanna! You're Luna aren't you?" Emma squealed, jumping up and hugging her tightly.
"Yes I am," the girl replied, smiling in surprise and hugging her back, "but you can call me Evy."
Evy was so nervous her already pale complexion was as white as a sheet, and understandably so. She had just been hugged by Emma Watson and was standing metres away from Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe. You'd have to search far and wide around the world for someone who didn't know who they were.
"Lovely to meet you. I'm Emma," Emma said kindly, and rather unnecessarily. "How are you finding your first day? Have you been shown around and everything? If you haven't, I'll show you. Some the sets are really amazing-"
"Alright Em, let the girl breathe!" Dan chuckled.
He stood up and also hugged Evy, all the while gushing about how much he loved her accent.
"I mean it's really great, I love the Irish accent! I can actually understand what you're saying! Because sometimes with Devon – you know, Seamus? – Yes him… well sometimes I don't have the faintest idea what he's going on about. Not in a rude way or anything, it's just his accent can be quite strong-"
"Alright Dan, maybe you should let the girl breathe!" Rupert said, snorting with laughter. He followed suite and hugged the newcomer. "Hi. I'm Rupert. You can call me Rupert."
Evy laughed, and together they walked over to introduce her to Tom Felton and the Phelps twins. On their way they were quickly interrupted by the calling voice of David Yates, their new director. He was ordering the cast to collect their filming schedule and go straight on to hair and make-up, ready for the first shoot of the day.
Emma seized Bonnie and Evy by the hands and practically charged over to the crowd surrounding the centre of the common room, all collecting their schedules.
"I have the shoot outside, it's the carriages going to Hogwarts or something, but that's not till tomorrow," Evy said disappointedly, "have either of you got anything today?"
"Oh, I'm with you for that scene I think!" Emma grinned, "And today I have…" she scanned her finger over the paper, "Oh! Today I have the Grimmauld Place Kitchen scene…"
"Yes, I have that too," Bonnie nodded excitedly, "should be a good one shouldn't it? All of the adult actors are in it!"
"Like who?" Emma asked her, "Mark and Julie? Yeah they are, if you're in it then they will be."
Mark and Julie played Arthur and Molly Weasley, and Bonnie and Emma always had such a great time with them. They were two of the kindest and most down-to-earth people she had ever met. Bonnie frequently voiced that they felt like her parents in her past life.
"Yeah, they must be. Oh I love them so much! Wait till you meet them Evy, they are so funny, just brilliant – but that's not all - Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Natalia Tena and Gary Oldman are in it too!"
But Emma had stopped listening. Out of nowhere, Tom Felton had come up behind her, picked her up and threw her easily over his shoulder in a fireman's carry then marched off.
"Tom! Put me down this instant! TOM!"
Her embarrassed begs to be put down faded the further she was carried away, but his laughter didn't. When they reached the hair and make-up rooms, he finally lowered her to the ground.
"I'm sorry Em, I saw the opportunity and I seized it. It was too good to miss," Tom said charmingly.
"Well I hope you savoured it because it won't be happening again!" she warned him, in a very Hermione like voice.
"Oh really?" he quizzed her, cocking his eyebrow and moving closer to her as if he was about to pick her up again.
"Really!"
"Really?"
"Yes, REALLY!"
"Really-?"
"Okay please stop," Emma said.
There was a second of silence before they fell about laughing at the immaturity of their conversation.
"Emma!" the voice of David Yates called, "you're due in hair and make-up now! Get in there please!"
Tom glanced at her. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then."
"Yep," she nodded.
"That's - right – see you," he said awkwardly, unsure whether to hug her or not.
In the end he settled on a one armed hug that was more of a pat and hurried away.
"Well that wasn't even a little bit awkward!" came a voice from somewhere behind her. To her horror, it sounded very much like Rupert's. And he sounded thoroughly amused. Their tease game floated in her head, and she shut her eyes in mortification. They could not get one over on her.
She spun around.
"Rupert Grint, don't you say a word-!"
Rupert had already sprinted for the door and burst through it with frantic excitement.
"EMMA AND TOM HAVE GOT A LITTLE THING GOING ON!" he roared happily.
At least fifteen actors were already being tended to in the make-up chairs, and at the ginger's outburst all of them had turned around.
Two hours later, every walking body in the studios had heard about Emma and Tom, and many, many people had come up to her quoting the rhyme Rupert had shouted. Of course that was annoying, but she laughed it off. It was only a game after all. But what really annoyed her was that there was absolutely nothing going on anyway! He was just a friend who she could talk to and have a laugh with, and if this rumour leaked out, the press would grab hold of it in no time and before long the world would think that Emma Watson and Tom Felton were an item. She had never had a false rumour printed in the press before, but she suspected if word got out about this, she would receive a lot of hate mail from hard core Draco Malfoy fans. After all, Tom was eighteen and had that cute cheeky-chappie look going for him which girls swooned for.
She groaned into her hands and laughed out her humiliation. She had to focus. She was on the set for goodness sake, in The Grimmauld Place kitchen where they would be shooting in half an hour or so.
A hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up expectantly.
To her shock, it was Gary Oldman. She didn't recognise him at first. The last time she had seen him was at the Premiere of the Prisoner of Azkaban back in 2003, but three years on and he hadn't changed much. He still had the same dark brown hair, (which she assumed he had re-grown long for his role as Sirius), the same goatee and smattering of dark stubble. He was already his Sirius Black costume, wearing a suit with a maroon shirt and waistcoat.
She couldn't describe how he was looking at her. It was strange. He was smiling at her, but it was in such an amused way that it made her think he knew way more about her than he was letting on. Still, she found herself smiling confusedly back at him.
"So I don't have my dressing gown anymore," he said.
She caught on to what he was talking about after five or six seconds, remembering what she said to him the first day they met. It was funny how he was using it as a conversation starter. Any other person would of just said 'hello'.
"Oh? What happened to it?" she asked.
God, she really wanted to laugh, but didn't know whether it would be appropriate to.
"I got rid of it."
"How come?"
"Apparently people thought it was a costume."
She was the one that said his most prized possession looked like a costume. There was an uncomfortable, stretched silence between the two of them which seemed to drag forever. She could only imagine how embarrassed she must have seemed, and yet, she didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
Gary's smile twitched into a wide grin and he slammed his hand against the kitchen counter, laughing. She sighed with relief.
"You think I'm being serious don't you?" he chuckled, still shaking with laughter.
"Well, you are at the moment," she grinned back, gesturing to his character costume.
He laughed again, shaking his head. "You won't believe how many people say that to me. The joke will get old one day, if it hasn't already. Are you going to be able to think of some new ones?"
Emma dropped her jaw comically, then fought back. "Well, no joke can be as old as you."
Gary raised his eyebrows. "Fuck me, really?"
He was laughing though. Emma fully laughed too, more genuine than she had in a long time. "That was so harsh wasn't it? I'm so sorry."
"Don't apologise to the old man, I'll be dead soon ay."
"God, stop." She couldn't stop laughing, he was worse than her.
"I would say that makes us even."
"What?"
"Well, you know," he smirked, coming closer to her, "you said an untrue thing about me, I said an untrue thing about you… we're even!"
"I was thirteen when I said that to you! A silly misunderstanding about a dressing gown for goodness sake!" she shook her head, "I hardly know you, but what I do know is that you are being really immature Gary-"
"Oho! Keep these insults coming, Em."
"It's Emma to you."
He burst out laughing again, much to her annoyance.
"Right, Gary, Em, you ready?" David Yates called to them, waving his clipboard, "We're about to start the shoot."
Emma started making her way to her position at the table ready for the first take. Her seat was next to Oliver Phelps (Fred Weasley) and opposite Natalia Tena (Tonks) like it had been in rehearsals. She smiled at both of them, cracked a few whispered greetings and drew out her seat to sit down.
"Yeah, all sorted Dave. I was just helping Em get into character," Gary shouted back. He settled himself at the head of the table and kicked the chair back as if he owned the place.
She glared at him, and he grinned more. She was quickly realising that she did not like Gary Oldman much.
"See?" he said to the others, "she's completely in Hermione's mind set. It's fantastic."
Rupert, Dan and the twins all agreed and joined in with Gary's chuckling, but she ignored them and dropped her eyes to the table. There was all the props in front of her - a plate, a set of cutlery and a half empty glass of orange juice. Most people had the same, apart from Gary, Mark and Natalia. Their characters, (Sirius, Arthur and Tonks) were drinking beer. She suddenly wondered which sort of pubs Gary Oldman drank in, what his drink order would be, until the director snapped her out of it.
"Right everyone!" David called over the noise, "take up your positions! Yep, sit still there Rupert – Gary don't lean back on your chair at the start – perfect. Okay!" he cleared his throat, "Take 1, Act 2 Scene 3! ACTION!"
The camera flashed and the table occupants immediately started to pretend they were eating. Julie Walters (Molly Weasley) was bustling around them all, serving up the dinner.
"This is very, very peculiar," Arthur said, "It seems that your hearing at the ministry is to be before the entire wizarding committee."
"I don't understand, what's the Ministry of Magic got against me?" Harry asked him.
There was an awkward silence around them all.
"Show him," Moody growled, "he'll find out soon enough."
Hermione and Ron exchanged glances as Kingsley passed Harry the Daily Prophet newspaper. 'The Boy Who Lies' was the headline, with a smiling picture of Harry taken at the Triwizard Tournament underneath.
"He's been attacking Dumbledore as well," Sirius told him, "Fudge is using all his power… including his influence at the Daily Prophet to smear anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned."
"Why?"
"The Minister thinks Dumbledore is after his job…" Remus explained.
"But that's insane!" Harry exclaimed, "no one in their right mind would believe that Dumbledore-"
"Exactly the point!" Remus cut across him, "Fudge isn't in his right mind. It's been twisted and warped by fear."
Silence fell over the room once again.
"Now, fear makes people do terrible things Harry… the last time Voldemort gained power he almost destroyed everything we hold most dear."
Sirius dropped his eyes to the table in reminiscence.
"Now he's returned, and I'm afraid that Fudge will do almost anything to avoid facing that terrifying truth."
"We think Voldemort wants to build up his army again…" Sirius said, "fourteen years ago he had huge numbers in his command and not just… witches and – and wizards but all manner of dark creatures. He's been recruiting heavily and we've been attempting to do the same… but gathering followers isn't the only thing he's interested in… we believe Voldemort maybe after something…"
Moody cleared his throat in warning, and Mrs Weasley's stabs of the knife on the breadboard sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet of the room. The slicing of the knife suddenly stopped abruptly, followed by a very loud shriek, which caused the camera man to jump and nearly fall over.
"SHIT! Ouch – oh! - sorry everyone – I-I caught my finger!" Julie chuckled, shaking her hand painfully and glaring at the knife.
The room erupted into laughter. Emma choked on the drink she was pretending to swallow and James had to smack her on the back to clear her throat.
"This video has got to be added onto the special features DVD!" David Yates chortled, "classic, absolutely classic!"
Everyone nodded and laughed in agreement.
"Is your finger alright Jules?" Mark called to her, smiling ear to ear.
"My chopped off one you mean? Oh, fine!" she giggled back.
"Someone get her some plasters or tissues!" David Thewlis chuckled, "before it's unsalvageable."
"Julie!" Emma exclaimed in mock-huffiness, "you ruined an amazing take!"
"Alright for you to say Em, Hermione doesn't say anything!" Dan teased, "all you do is sit there looking pretty-!"
"If only Tom could see you!" Rupert mimicked in a girly high pitched voice.
"Oh give it a rest!" Bonnie quipped.
Emma had her head in her hands. "Honestly!" she sighed to the room, "It's a load of rubbish!"
Rupert winced when he received a well-deserved slap from Emma and Bonnie.
"You really brought out the Hermione side in Emma, Gary," David said very loudly, "I'm impressed. Maybe I should have you two argue every time before we start filming."
"Excuse me?" she shot at them.
"I told you," Gary grinned at her, the same amused, teasing grin he had on his face earlier. "I was helping you get into the character of Hermione! And I think it worked."
"And I think that I don't like you very much," she retorted and stubbornly turned away from him.
"If not liking me will win you an Oscar one day, then my darling I'll let it be so."
The older actors smiled at his jest. It was common knowledge in the industry that Gary had been denied many an Oscar in his career. He was yet to even receive a nomination, much to the outrage of film lovers and his fans. His thought process was cut off when Emma threw a chopped carrot across the room at him, and he had to duck quickly to miss it hitting his nose.
"Alright fuck," he said, loudly again.
David hushed them, and once they had settled down, they started the take all over again. They eventually completed the scene the whole way through on Take 5, because certain actors kept coming out of role when they caught each other's eyes…
After they had completed the scene, Emma and the others strolled back to the common room for a much-deserved break. She settled herself in her favourite corner of the room, smiling when Tom jogged straight over to her asking how the first shoot went. She said it went well, and then begged him to make her a cup of tea. He rolled his eyes and left for the kitchen.
A minute later Gary Oldman plopped himself on the sofa beside her and stole the last digestive biscuit she had on her lap.
"Hey!" she exclaimed when he munched it down in one, "go and get me another one!"
"No, because I'd probably end up eating that one as well," he replied lightly.
"Are you acting like Sirius Black or Gary Oldman now? Because I'm getting the feeling that they are the same person."
"And I'm getting the impression that Hermione Granger and Emma Watson are the same person. Are you always this annoyed and angry?"
"Are you always this irritating?" she bickered back, shaking her head in exasperation.
He shook his head in the same manner. "Are you always this accusing?"
"Are you always so up your own arse?"
"Are you always this stubborn, assertive?"
"Are you always so reckless and uncaring?"
"Let's stop with the rhetorical questions now shall we?" Gary said.
They fell silent for at least ten seconds, Emma pursing her lips together and Gary messing up his dark locks. They'd certainly thrown around more than a few insults at each other today. Seconds later they both cracked and began to laugh.
"Don't you know a question when you hear one?" she teased.
"Can you not go one sentence without asking a question?" he teased back.
"Can you?"
They both laughed again, clutching their aching stomachs.
"Will you stop it?" he coughed, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"Nope, what's wrong with me?"
"I'll take you to the hospital shall I?"
They didn't calm down until five minutes later, when Tom came over to them asking Emma how many sugars she wanted in her tea. This got them laughing again, by which time they were literally breathless and heaving for oxygen.
"No more, no more," he inhaled heavily.
"I know!" she sighed, fanning herself from the heat, "I can barely breathe."
"I haven't laughed that much in ages," he beamed at her.
"What are you two laughing about?" Dan asked them, collapsing on the chair next to Gary, followed by Rupert and Bonnie. "We could hear you from outside!"
Someone's phone started ringing, 'Hello Goodbye' by the Beatles was the ringtone. They all exchanged looks as if to say 'is it yours?' but it was Gary who dug into his pocket and gestured to his ringing phone, quickly excused himself with an apologetic look.
"I thought you didn't like him?" Rupert said as soon as the door closed.
"I don't," she answered simply.
I will be updating very soon! In the meantime, a massive thank you to you all. -S