My Life is a Movie

Chapter 7: We'll take Slytherin

"Wow, can you believe all these people?" Ginny whispered in awe.

Hermione looked around the vast enclosure, nodding her head distractedly as she took in her surroundings. There were literally hundreds of people gathered around them. The stands as well as the gigantic field that she and Ginny were now making their way across were completely filled.

"I know," she commented. "This seems so unreal." Hermione was beside herself with excitement and admiration as she noted the huge grandstand that encompassed the entire vicinity. There were gigantic boulders jutting out every which way throughout the center and edges of the circular area, while a continuous screen of green outlined the back of the stands. "It's all so... amazing," she added. She took out the Muggle camera she brought and started taking some pictures.

The majority of the populace around them looked to be more or less the same age, and all were dressed in long, black wizarding robes. The gaiety in the atmosphere seemed to be contagious as they talked and laughed rather excitedly with one another.

However, the other inhabitants in the area were wearing Muggle clothing and were too engrossed in other activities to be talking idly to anybody else. Many were setting up things like cameras, rigs, projectors, lights and other technical equipment on one side of the enclosed space. On the other side several women were applying make-up to numerous kids while assisting them with their robes. Hermione watched in curiosity as a number of workers stood on different levels of a platform and added finishing touches to the bottom part of the stands. After several minutes a warm and friendly voice interrupted her inspection.

"Hey girls, I'm glad you made it," Todd's voice proclaimed from behind them. Both Hermione and Ginny turned around to find Todd also wearing one of those familiar black robes, complete with a green and silver patch on the upper right side of his chest and a round blinking badge underneath it. "So, what do you think of the set?" he asked.

"Oh Merlin, it's absolutely brilliant!" Ginny exclaimed enthusiastically. "I mean, it doesn't exactly look the same as the original scene looked, but that's to be expected considering no one here knows the landscaping of Hogwarts. Well, except maybe Hermione and me, but still. Wow, this is just so amazing. I can't believe we're actually on a Harry Potter set!" she prattled on. "And there are like, thousands of people here! To think they don't even know that all this stuff actually happened. It's just so crazy."

Todd and Hermione laughed at the redhead's obvious excitement. "Yeah, she's right," Hermione acknowledged. "This is really incredible. I've taken some pictures to show Harry and Ron," she admitted, holding up the camera in her hands and snapping a shot of Todd. "I know they won't believe us when we tell them how amazing this is if they don't see it for themselves."

"Well, I'm glad to have your approval," Todd confessed as he beamed contentedly towards the girls. "Anyway, shall we go see if the author is here?" At their nod of approval, the three were on their way.

Two days before, Todd had e-mailed Hermione notifying her that the author was sure to be on set for the filming this weekend, and invited her and her friends to come and watch. After informing Harry, Ron and Ginny about the opportunistic affair it was affirmed that they should indeed go. They knew that this would probably be their only hope in meeting the writer, considering they would be leaving for school in a few days. By going, they planned to get at least some of their questions about the author answered. However, much to Ron's chagrin, it was also decided that only Hermione and Ginny would be the ones to go. This resolution was due to the fact that the boys' attendance might cause suspicion because of their distinct similarities in appearance with the actors that portrayed them. Ron had thrown a fit at this decision claiming that it would be his only shot at meeting the actress that played Hermione and that it wasn't fair for the girls to go because they didn't even really like her. After several minutes of his fussing and whining, Ginny finally got him to shut up by promising to get him a picture of the actress and maybe even an autograph. So, after his grudging acceptance to the deal, the two girls found themselves on one of the magnificently constructed movie sets where the first task of the Tri Wizard Tournament was about to be filmed.

The girls followed Todd to the edge of the enclosure where several trailers were parked right next to each other. "Why don't you guys wait here while I go check if the author has arrived yet?" Todd suggested. He walked into one of the trailers, leaving the two girls to wait for him outside.

"Do you think we'll get to see any of the other actors?" Ginny asked. "I really want to meet the girl that plays me." She looked around at the nearby trailers, seemingly in search of the aforementioned actress. "I need to convince her to ask for more lines."

Hermione smiled at the younger girl's musings. Ginny had been complaining insistently about that little faux pas of the movie, alleging that her character hardly got any screen time at all. "I'm sure we'll see some of them." Hermione assured. "Besides, you promised your brother you'd get him that..."

"Hey look at that!" Ginny interrupted suddenly, a startled expression coming over her.

A little annoyed by the interruption, Hermione turned her head to focus on what had caught the redhead's attention. "Whoa," Hermione murmured, ostensibly awe-stricken.

"Yeah," Ginny affirmed. "You certainly don't see that everyday." She and Hermione found themselves staring at a small group of young men, all wearing similar black robes, but with different badges on them. Of course it wasn't that the group consisted of all boys that caught the two girls' interest. No, it was who the boys were that left them both mesmerised.

There, standing in front of them was Neville Longbottom, Vincent Crabbe, Ron Weasley, and Gregory Goyle. Well... at least that's who they looked like. They were talking and laughing jovially with one another as they made their way towards the trailer that Todd went into. Hermione found herself unable to tear her gaze away from the divergent gang of boys. Like Ginny said, it wasn't everyday you saw two Gryffindors and two Slytherins hanging out together voluntarily. She found that aspect incredibly... disconcerting.

As the boys drew closer, Hermione saw Ginny take a few steps towards her from the corner of her eye. Once the two groups were a few meters away from each other, one of the boys caught sight of them and took the initiative to make an introduction.

"Hullo there, and who might you be?"

Ginny grabbed on to Hermione's arm nervously and moved to hide slightly behind her. "'Mione, is it my imagination, or is Vincent Crabbe being polite to us?" she whispered in the other girl's ear. She sounded somewhat apprehensive to be in the proximity of the usually doltish son of a Death Eater.

"Don't be ridiculous Gin," Hermione said softly so only Ginny could hear. "That's not Crabbe. He's just some actor." She felt Ginny relax the grip on her arm a bit and continued. "Just remember that these aren't really the people we think they are. Just because they look similar doesn't mean they act similar."

Ginny gave the boys an uncomfortable look, noticing how her brother's look-a-like seemed to be staring at her explicitly. She gave a slight little shudder and turned back to her friend. "It just seems so... weird," she commented. "I mean, look," she gestured slightly towards the group with her head. "It looks as if Ron is standing right between Crabbe and Goyle and they're not even glaring maliciously at each other. And Crabbe actually completed a coherent sentence!" she exclaimed. "I never would have imagined that happening in a million years."

The boys looked on at the girls confusedly as they shot them several looks of apprehension and continued their exclusive conversation.

"I think you scared 'em mate," the guy that looked like Neville Longbottom accused when the girls gave them another hesitant look.

Crabbe, or the actor that looked like Crabbe replied, "No I didn't. You scared them." He nudged Neville's double in the side.

"They probably got scared because of Russell," the brown haired boy insisted, pointing to the actor that looked a lot like Ron. "He's always scaring girls off." At that, all the boys excluding Russell began to snigger openly.

"Hey that only happened once," the redhead replied, affronted. "Besides, it's not my fault that some British expressions have different meanings to Americans." His contrite expression only fueled the other boys' laughter.

Just then, Todd came out of the trailer, but before he could even look at Hermione or Ginny, one of the guys spotted him and caught his attention.

"Oy, Todd," the Goyle look-a-like called, motioning for Todd to come over and join in on their fun. "Remember at the New York premiere when you were all naffed off and Russ told you to 'keep your pecker up' in front of those American girls, and they gave him a look and shot off?"

Todd smiled, chuckling slightly at their banter. "Oh yeah mate, that was brutal!" He slapped Russell on the back good-naturedly and received a hard glare in return.

"And when he was telling Dave about his little 'cock up' at the after party and those same girls passed by at the exact same moment," Crabbe added, replaying the scene clearly in his head. "That was brilliant!"

"Shut it James," Russell responded, rolling his eyes as the boys continued laughing at his expense. He caught sight of Ginny and Hermione who had been standing there listening to their conversation the whole time. "Don't you think it's rather rude of us to be laughing about such frivolous things while ignoring these lovely young ladies?" he asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject, indicating to the two girls.

Hermione and Ginny smiled meekly when they saw that the boys were now staring at them in expectation. Todd returned their smile and signaled for them to come over.

"Sorry about that, ladies," Todd apologized. "We didn't mean to leave you standing about all by your lonesome. Let me introduce you." He moved to stand in between the girls. "This is Mike, Jonathon, Russell, and James," he said, pointing to Neville, Goyle, Ron, and Crabbe, who waved happily at the girls.

Although Hermione and Ginny felt a bit eerie being introduced to people they seemingly already knew, but they returned a friendly greeting nonetheless.

Todd smiled at the girls' small discomfort, but continued with the introductions. "Mates, this is Herm..." He paused to look at Hermione, wondering if it was safe to be using their first names. "Er..."

"Herma?" "James asked for clarification. He wasn't sure if he heard the name right or if Todd had sort of forgotten the girl's name.

Todd and Hermione looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: What the hell do we do now?

Once again it was Ginny who saved the day with her quick mind and valuable aptitude in 'distorting the facts', a.k.a.: lying. After giving a wink to Hermione and Todd, she came up with the first thing she could think of.

"It's Hermia actually. You know, like from Shakespeare," she replied, remembering the quaint little Muggle book she read the year before about four young lovers, some fairies, and a guy with the head of an ass.

The boys nodded their heads in false understanding, and Todd and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. While Ginny, who was also relieved that the boys had bought her lie, stood smugly with a satisfied smile on her face. That is until the sound of her brother's voice fell on her ears.

"And what's your name?" Russell asked Ginny, stepping closer to her and giving her an amorous gaze.

Ginny's smile was temporarily replaced with a horror-struck look before she took a step back to hide behind Todd. Eww, eww... that's just WRONG, she thought to herself.

Russell stopped in his tracks with a surprised expression on his face. He was starting to think that maybe he did scare girls off.

"Oh, erm," Ginny started tentatively. She felt a bit guilty for making him feel bad, but the look he was giving her made her want to barf just a little. "My name's Jenny," she said kindly, trying hard to block the image of her brother looking at her so intently. She gave another involuntary shudder and forced a small smile on her face.

"Anyway," Todd interrupted, noticing the discomfort between the two redheads. "It seems like we have some good news and some bad news," He looked to Hermione. "Which one do you want to hear first?"

The two girls turned to each other with questioning looks on their faces. Ginny made an impassive face and shrugged. "I don't really care. Whichever," she answered.

Hermione frowned and turned back to Todd "Erm, let's have the bad news first," she suggested, figuring it would be better to get the bad news over with first.

"Are you sure?" he asked her, an unreadable expression on his face. She glanced at Ginny and the group of boys around her. They all looked to be wondering what exactly the bad news Todd was talking about entailed.

"I guess I'm sure."

"Ok. The bad news is that the author isn't here yet." he informed.

"Oh," Hermione responded, obviously unaware as to why that would be considered bad news. "Well, when will she get here?"

"She won't."

"She won't what?"

"She won't be getting here."

"Oh," Hermione muttered with a crestfallen look on her face. "Bugger."

Their only possible chance at meeting the author was now nonexistent and she had no idea what to do now.

At Hermione's dejected expression, Todd piped up. "However, I do have some fantastic news that I expect would have you both chuffed!"

Hermione, Ginny, and all the other boys looked at Todd inquiringly.

"You guys get to be in the movie!" Todd explained cheerfully, his face full of mirth.

***

"Slytherin?!? Are you kidding?" Ginny asked appalled. She looked down at the black and green robes Todd was holding out to her and Hermione. She had been ecstatic when Todd had announced that they would be able to be extras in the movie and had been jumping for joy until this very moment.

There is no bloody way I am going to be a Slytherin, she thought to herself.

"It's just for the movie" Todd reasoned. "Besides, I'm sure Slytherin house isn't that bad." He looked between Ginny and Hermione, amused to see disbelief on their faces from the comment he made.

After finding out that the author wouldn't be on set that day, Todd had felt extremely guilty for dragging the girls all the way over here for nothing. So, after pulling some strings with the director, he managed to land Hermione and Ginny spots as extras. They were now in one of the wardrobe trailers picking out the clothes the girls would need to wear for their scene.

"Not that bad?!" Hermione exclaimed. "Now you've got to be kidding."

"Look, you don't know what the real Slytherins are like," Ginny put in. "Not only are they snotty little ingrates that would waste their own mums without a second thought, they're also so extremely daft that they wouldn't even know their own arse from their elbow!" she exclaimed. "I would never be caught dead wearing Slytherin robes! Right 'Mione?"

Hermione nodded her head agreeably. "Yeah, I'd rather not wear Slytherin robes either," she said, looking disgustedly at the sordid robes. "Even if it is just for the movie."

"All right, all right," Todd replied, chuckling a bit at their passion against the green and silver house. He put down the set of robes and walked to the other side of the trailer to find a pair of robes from a different house.

"Ah ha!" he exclaimed after a few minutes of searching. "It looks like you get another choice," he said. He held up two pieces of black cloth with yellow and black crests. "It's either Slytherin or Hufflepuff," he announced.

Hermione and Ginny looked at each other, both thinking the same thing.

"We'll take Slytherin," they declared simultaneously.