IWSC Summer Camp 6- Critically acclaimed. Write an AU about someone starring as an extra in an advert

Word count: 1495

Cabin: Weasley

Warnings: death mentions and character death

Author's Note: This was written with the amazing support of the rest of the Weasley cabin (Charbo2567, DrarryMadhatter, and Hummus and Peeta). We all took such a different approach to this one but we each decided to include an action board in our stories.

I'm gonna tell you a story. Something I witnessed back in 1938 in good ol' Twinkle Town. Between all the glitz and glamour and starlets and camera flashes most people were going out to see a picture every week. The west coast had only been home to the big players of the film industry for around ten years or so, dragging all industry away from its New York home. The new developments in films, the talkies, meant that a lot of the small studios were left behind in mergers until we had just the big boys left, you probably know a lot of them. Frank Capra won the Oscar that year, though I'm not sure that's really relevant.

I was working as a waiter in one of those swanky hotels that all the stars stayed in. You know the ones I mean, with room service lobster and crystal chandeliers and polished flooring. I'd take the food up to the guests and clear them away again once they were done, sometimes I took up a shift being a porter to bring in a little extra cash, them were some good tips. You know, I met my wife doing that, she was one of those fancy guests but she wasn't like the others. She was gorgeous with hair that reached her mid back in curls like she just came out of the ocean. She always looked like she'd just spent a day on the beach having the time of her life. But I'm getting off track again.

It was when I was working at this hotel that something weird started to happen, something not quite right. Now, you see, people like me could get away with hearing anything back then. Those stars seemed to think they were untouchable by us humble folk, but I learned a lot in my time there. There was something rattling them that summer, lots of hush hush conversation, you know? So I bided my time and waited till I heard something. Now I wasn't a nosy fella by any means, just curious. You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat and all, but they always miss that satisfaction brought it back.

So I was serving some lobster and a filet steak to a couple in one of the rooms but when I knocked on the door I got no answer. Now usually that meant a couple was, you know, having their alone time, and to each their own I would never do that in a hotel but then I'm a little old fashioned I guess. So I tried knocking again, like I was told to when I was being taught my job. I still got nothing. We were meant to just leave the food outside in that case or bring it back down. But I'm a curious man by nature and really I heard nothing in that room. I swear to ya, on my mother's grave I thought that room was empty.

It might have been. I don't remember what I saw that day, just one of the girls coming round the corner and screaming and security coming running. It was in the papers the next day. They were both dead. Natural causes, it claimed, undetected health issues. It didn't go into too much detail, I don't think they wanted to. It was a tragedy, yes, but people moved on pretty quick and we're back to watching a picture a week in no time.

But I was, well, I was changed. By something I don't even remember. You can imagine how frustrating that was, to know I knew something but not know what. My wife, Lily, she saw it, she saw I'd changed and she tried her best to get me out of whatever I'd fallen into. She managed it for a while. She got her father to give me a job at his company, he supplied costumes and materials to the big film studios. She got me work as a seller, a point of contact for the studios to reach. So I fell back in with that Hollywood crowd.

Whatever it was that I had seen that day was still active for the next few months.

I was on a set once and one of the extras couldn't make it. Now, I wasn't a bad lookin' guy. Hell, if you asked Sirius he'd say he'd bed me given the opportunity. Found myself fearing for him a lot back then, was a bit too brazen with his preference for men. Sometimes in the wrong places. But me? Nah, I didn't mind. You see, me and Sirius went way back. We moved out to Hollywood together when we was barely sixteen. Said goodbye to me Ma and Pa and off we went. Sirius didn't get along with his family and had been livin' with me and mine for a few years by then.

But I'm getting off topic, aren't I?

You see, an extra couldn't make it and they had a line in this ad. Some kinda toothpaste I think. I didn't pay all that much attention, see, I didn't think it was ever gonna be important. Boy was I wrong. So the actress, lead lady in the commercial, I forget her name now, well she had a little flirt with me and the director decided to put me in the ad.

Well I never thought I'd be on a screen but there I was. Standing like some painted doll or something and I said 'teeth so white' and then she said something after me and that was that. Had a bit o' a laugh with some of the crew and we went again. They had this action board, you know? Little black slate thing with some white on it. Made an awful sound. Made me jump right out of my skin I tell ya! Coulda frightened a ghost with that thing. Maybe if I'd had one with me on set later that day I coulda saved her.

After we finished filming, well everyone left. Home time, get back to the missus and kids. But I had another job to do for Lily's father, see? So I was there after the whole thing ended. And I saw it.

It didn't have no face. Not one I could see anyway. It were leaning over her like some kinda thing. An alien or something I guess you could say. But it was all shrouded in darkness. I'm sure if the stage lights hadn't still been on I couldn't'a seen it. I think it mighta been floatin' but my memory is going now. That's why I'm saying this now on this here recording device, Harry. Want you to have a piece o' your dad when I'm gone. And this story, well, it ain't never felt right keepin' it to myself.

It looked like it was eating her face. But not biting it, like it was sucking the life right outta her. And the room felt so cold I could see my breath foggin' up. Well I hightailed it outta there as fast as I could, I tell ya!

Next day her death was in the papers, same as the others. Natural causes, it said. Natural causes my eye! There was a creature that did that to her.

Well I took you and your mother and we got the hell outta Dodge, son! Your mother, Merlin rest her soul, she didn't question me. But when I left the deaths stopped. It was a weird coincidence and I don't know what did it but I'm glad no one else suffered.

It was the start and end of my small screen career. And I hope it serves as a warning for you, Harry.

Hollywood ain't all it's cracked up to be. Stay away from that whole place if you wanna stay safe.

I love ya, son.

James Potter ended his recording and leaned back in his arm chair with a groan. The years had taken their toll on the handsome young man. The loss of his wife had aged him and now his son, his only family, was nowhere to be found. James didn't mind much, Harry had other things to do. But James knew his time was coming. He knew it when he saw the shadow of something he thought he had left behind him in Hollywood. James wasn't scared, the cold was some kind of comfort to him. He had felt he was missing a piece of himself since he saw the first two bodies, and it had only become worse with his second close encounter.

"Hello, old friend." James greeted the figure. "Thank you." He said. And that was the last thing that left the mouth of James Potter.