-1Chapter Seven:

Cassandra attempted to appear 'all right' over the next week, but she didn't seem to be any happier. She no longer danced and sung along to the stereo in the morning, or really spoke much for that matter. Several times during his lunch breaks he would peek his head in the makeup room only to find her curled up on the couch crying, James Blunt drowning out the sounds of her muffled sobs. Sometimes though, during their daily Paper Lantern trips, her eyes would sparkle or she would smile or laugh and Daniel had hope that the old Cassandra would return soon.

One evening, after Daniel had laughed himself hoarse watching Rupert rehearse his scene where Ron and Lavender had to make out (Rupert had accidentally bashed noses with the girl, resulting in a nosebleed and Rupert losing his head completely and forgetting all his lines), Yates and their producer gathered them all together.

"Good news, you lot!" Yates clapped his hands together briskly. "We're promoting the Half Blood Prince in a convention in London next weekend. Interviews, photos, that sort of thing-"

Daniel, Rupert and Emma simultaneously groaned while Tom and Bonnie rolled their eyes in disdain.

"-and there is a rather large and extravagant After-Party at the Pazo Club following the convention," Yates finished, getting a far better response than he'd gotten before. Emma clapped her hands in excitement while Rupert elbowed her and laughed. They had a great loyalty for Harry Potter as well as their careers, but interviews and photo shoots… not fun to do. However, when paired with the words "after" and "party", they could be persuaded.

"I thought that would change your mind," Yates laughed. "Now go home and look over those scripts. If I find that you haven't learned your lines by now, you'll be learning them during the After Party. Good night all."

Talking excitedly amongst each other, they gathered their things and got ready to go back to their hotel rooms.

"So, it's at a club?" Cassandra was asking, as they devoured their lunch at Paper Lantern the night before the Promotion in London. Daniel had a script next to him, and Cassandra was sketching a costume she was designing for the film. She had brightened up considerably as Dan began explaining the event taking place that upcoming weekend.

"Yeah, a really nice one. It's two floors and it's close to our hotel. We went there for our Order of the Phoenix premiere after party. We all just danced and had a great time; Emma got pretty drunk, but it was still great fun," Daniel told her. She smiled and nodded.

"I can really go?"

Daniel threw a fortune cookie at her. "Of course, what did you think? Everyone involved in this film goes. Everyone."

Cassandra actually laughed a real laugh and threw the cookie back at him. "Then it's a deal. I'll go. But watch out… you know I can dance better than you."

"Oh, we'll see, we'll see." It was so good to see her finally laughing and joking around again, he didn't care what she said about his dancing skills.

Saturday afternoon, Daniel and most of the young cast members had just finished their press conference and were now doing some individual interviews with various magazines.

The interview was going well; so far they'd discussed the change in Harry in the new film, how his schoolwork was going and his 18th birthday. Then, just as he'd expected, the Million Dollar Question. "So Daniel, do you have a girlfriend?"

Daniel smiled coolly, "Not at the moment."

"You've had girlfriends?"

"In the past, yes," he said, with the least amount of emotion as he could manage.

Then, the second Million Dollar Question. "Oh, well are you and Emma dating or have you ever dated? Working together for so long must bring you very close together."

"No, actually, we're more like brother and sister, Rupert, Emma and I. We know each other too well," Daniel said, still smiling. The woman looked disappointed, but wished him good luck on the film and went on to ask the same questions to Emma, who was looking quite harassed after an interview had thoroughly interrogated her on whether she had dated Tom Ducker or not. He smiled and winked at her and she gave him a rueful smile. Rupert was signing a poster and talking to a reporter, looking relatively all right. For some reasons, people seemed less inclined to believe he and Emma had some kind of secret romance, so they usually left him alone about it. Rupert was also pretty easy going and laidback and never seemed to be bothered with idle gossip about his love life. Daniel appeared calm and collected, but he was pretty impressionable and did get irritated sometimes. Emma, who was very high strung, had several breakdowns where she had read some tabloid and ran to show Daniel and Rupert, shrieking and on the verge of tears. This time, however, she seemed relatively okay and even Daniel was feeling much better about the day so far and night was soon approaching. Emma left with her assistant to get ready in her hotel suite, and Rupert and Daniel were just finishing being photographed against a huge Harry Potter backdrop.

Back in his hotel suite, Daniel finished getting dressed and was pretty pleased with the result. He was wearing a tailored black suit with a red dress shirt, white tie, and new black dress shoes. Rupert was in his bathroom, attempting to tie his tie by looking at his reflection. Finally he gave up and walked into Daniel's bedroom with the tie dangling off his neck, pulled the tie off and flung it at Daniel's head.

"Don't know why I have to wear this bloody thing," Rupert grumbled. "I can't put it on, and I'm probably not even going to be able to take it off." Daniel smirked and made a show of smoothing down his perfectly knotted tie. Rupert noticed and rolled his eyes.

"You don't have to wear a tie," Daniel pointed out, lying a little. Both of them knew that this after party was a very posh event and everyone would be dressed their best. Rupert couldn't very well go dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, even though he probably wanted nothing more than to be able to. Rupert was about to reply, when there was a knock at the door. Daniel went and opened the door and found Emma standing there, tugging her dress up subtly.

"Hey! You look great. Are you both ready?" She asked, walking in and checking herself out in the mirror and then seeing Rupert with the tie in his hand and a mutinous expression on his face.

"Rupert! Honestly, you still can't tie a tie? You've been going to premieres for like seven years!" Emma snatched the tie from his hand and Rupert scowled at her as she expertly knotted the tie and carefully tucked it underneath his collar. "There, that's better, isn't it?" Rupert stuck his tongue childishly at her and turned around to smooth back his shaggy auburn hair which was starting to stick up in odd places. Emma stood beside Rupert at the full length mirror and began to reapply her lip gloss. Daniel looked affectionately at the both of them preening in his mirror, and bumping each other's hips to get more mirror space. He had close friends from back home, but in some way, they were his best friends; his Ron and Hermione.

"Oi! You both look great, let's get a flaming move on!!" Daniel called, rolling his eyes. They both did look great; Rupert was wearing a dark gray suit, a blue dress shirt, and that blasted patterned tie that he hated so much. Emma looked beautiful as usual in a gold colored strapless dress with a black ribbon that wound around her thin waist, with her hair in ringlets.

"Where's the fire," Rupert grumbled, following them to the door and they walked down to the lobby.

"Is Cassandra coming?" Emma asked, a knowing twinkle in her eye. Daniel ignored it, and shrugged nonchalantly.

"I think so. Why?"

"She's been acting quite strange, hasn't she? Leaving Lucia's the moment she got there," Rupert said.

"You jerk," Emma shoved Rupert, who shouted "what did I say?" as he staggered into a cardboard sign.

"Cassandra," continued Emma, sighing, "broke up with her boyfriend. They were going out for almost a year. Of course she was upset." Emma shot Rupert a look, who was now steering clear of her.

"Yeah, she told me about it. She's been feeling better, though." Daniel said, as they reached the lobby. The driver escorted them to the white stretch limo which was parked right outside the hotel.

"Yeah, talking to you," Emma said pointedly. "Where have you two been disappearing off to anyway?"

"What's it to you?" Rupert asked rudely, clearly still annoyed with her. Emma flipped him the bird. "Fancy her?" He asked Daniel, winking, while Emma whacked him with her pocketbook.

"I was just wondering. Some people actually care about their friends, Rupert." Daniel laughed, and put his arm around Emma before she continued her assault on Rupert.

"If I hear anyone ask me if I fancy anyone, after that interview today, I won't hesitate to use Emma's deadly pocketbook on them," Daniel said to Rupert in a mock-stern voice.

"All right, all right. But she is quite…" Rupert trailed off and looked out the window. Daniel and Emma both laughed, and this type of silliness ensued the entire limo ride to Pazo.