Daniel Radcliffe sighed heavily, his robe suddenly feeling constricting, “I know. I’m just really, really tired.”

“Well, I would be too if I’d had the night you had,” grinned Rupert Grint, laughing slightly and playing with the tie that was carelessly strung around his neck.

“What do you mean?” Dan asked curiously, watching Rupert carefully.

“Er----nothing.” Rupert looked desperately around, searching the crowd of on-lookers for Christopher Columbus, the director.

Dan took a step towards Rupert and lowered his voice, “What do you know that I don’t?”

Rupert glanced over Dan’s head at Tom, who grinned back helpfully. He cast him a withering look, “You are SO helpful, Tom.”

“Don’t I know it,” replied the older boy with an innocent smile on his lips. He was about to run a hand through his long blond hair, but realized it was gelled to the fullest extent of gelling and his hand would get stuck if he did so.

“What’s the problem, guys?” Chris asked cheerfully, looking at the faces of his three staring actors.

Dan shrugged, “I’m exhausted. Could we have a ten minute break? I need to sleep for a bit.”

Chris checked his watch doubtfully, “We’ve only been shooting for five minutes, Dan. Grab some coffee and come right back.” He turned to the crew, “Ten minutes!”

The younger boy nodded agreeably and pranced off to the catering table where he seized a 6 liter bottle of coke with such zest that it would have battled even the most awake person for most caffeine intake. Dan unscrewed the top and took a very long swig of the calorie infested liquid before setting it back on the table and gasping for breath.

Tom waltzed over and tapped him on the back before taking a rather large bite out of a jelly donut which someone had carelessly left in his eye range. “Easy there, tiger. Don’t want to choke to death.”

Dan raised an eyebrow, “You should talk.” He pointed to the donut which had previously not had so many bite marks in it. “You’re inhaling that thing.”

Tom shrugged, “We only have seven minutes.”

“So? You can eat a small donut such as that leisurely in seven minutes.” Dan said pointedly, unscrewing his coke again and taking another gulp. He sputtered a bit because the bubbles hit his throat and tickled it, but he recovered quickly. Dan looked up at the blond boy, who was at least a head taller than him now and put on his best inquisitive expression, “What was Rupert going on about back there?”

“Ruppy?” Tom asked, cocking his head in the direction of the red haired boy, “He’s just jealous, probably.”

“Of what exactly?” Dan questioned, dreading the answer.

Tom cleared his throat, as if he was uncomfortable with this new line of questioning, “Well, Emma told us this morning what happened last night---”

“WHAT?!” Dan demanded, setting his coke down on the table with hard precision and spilling it all over the paper tablecloth. A woman bustled over and began to clear it up; neither boys noticed. “What are you blabbering on about, Tom?”

Tom gawked at the raven haired boy and then shook his head, “You mean, you---”

“I was home last night. Well, not home exactly…but I wasn’t with Emma.”

“Where were you?” He asked pointedly, leaning a hand on the table so his eyes were directly in line with Dan’s. “Or who were you with, then?”

“I went to that rock concert…snuck in, actually…with this girl, Jenny----” Dan trailed off, “What did she tell you?”

Tom’s eyes glided away from Dan and landed on Rupert who was talking animatedly with Emma, who was draped all over him across the room. “Er…she said, well…um…ask her?”

“This is the first time you’ve ever not been articulate,” muttered Dan, talking another drink of his coke as if it were a very potent alcoholic beverage.

“That was a double negative sentence, but I’m not here to correct your grammar,” Tom waved his hand around dismissively, “We’ve got four minutes, go talk to her.”

“I don’t want to,” he replied stubbornly, “You go talk to her.”

“I don’t want to talk to her either,” stated Tom evenly, “And I don’t have to.”

“You are really starting to sound like Draco, did you know that?”

Tom grinned deviously, “HA HA! So my plan has worked!”

Rupert stepped up to them just then, having detached himself from the younger girl. “What are you two talking about?”

“Tom’s plan to rule the world,” answered Dan quickly, walking past Rupert, “Discuss it with him, will you? He needs some smart input.” With that, Dan stormed off in search of the girl who liked to ruin reputations.

Emma Watson was sitting casually in a director’s chair with a beauty magazine lain across her lap. She was sighing every few minutes and flipping to the next page while a woman worked on her hair.

Dan awkwardly stepped up to her chair and cleared his throat. “Emma.”

She looked up, her hair swinging around her shoulders and her face broke into a pleased grin. “Daniel. Hello.”

At fourteen, she had grown up on screen having played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies since she was ten years old. The quartet were now filming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which was a two part movie and would be released together, with an intermission between the two parts) and they had not yet signed up to do a fifth movie of Harry’s adventures at Hogwarts.

Dan, still awkwardly nervous around the press even at age fifteen, had grown considerably since his first appearance of the wizard. His hair was longer, more shaggy and more Harry-like, and he continued to grow at an alarming rate. His voice, the press noted, had deepened quite a bit. Of course, that’s what puberty does to you.

Tom, who was now seventeen, and Rupert who had just had his sixteenth birthday, were competing for tallest Harry Potter actor. Rupert and Tom were both nearing six feet now, which was alright…because Ron was tall in the books; Draco, however, was supposedly shorter than the rest of his class. This was brought around in the British papers, but dismissed by Chris Columbus; he would not replace Tom for any other actor because Tom was the embodiment of Draco Malfoy and if he replaced him…there would probably be a price on his head. Tom had quite a female following, and it was no wonder why with his fair hair and piercing blue eyes. Rupert, in his own right, had a large following of ladies. His humor and very easy grin won him legions of fans.

Dan continued to stand out from the rest, but only because he was the hero of the films. His politeness and adorable nervous nature were prized in teen magazines…something that sill made Dan a bit queasy. He didn’t like the thought of young girls having his picture on their walls, but he lived with it.

“Emma, you need to tell me what’s going on.” Dan crossed his arms across his chest nervously and tapped his foot to a beat inside his head.

Emma closed her magazine slowly and looked up at him with big, brown eyes. “What are you talking about, Daniel?”

“What’d you tell Tom and Rupert?” Dan demanded, more forcefully than he’d originally intended. The woman who had been doing Emma’s hair stepped back and surveyed her handiwork. Emma’s long brown hair was curled in locks that hovered all around her heart-shaped face.

Emma brushed her hair off her shoulder and stood up, “Excuse us,” she said to the woman and grabbed Dan’s elbow, pulling him into the nearest dressing room. Which, incidentally, happened to belong to him.

She stood across the room from him, looking bored and annoyed.

Dan glanced around, recognizing where they were, “We can’t talk long, Chris’ll have my head if I waste more than the time he’s given me.”

Emma surveyed him blankly. She didn’t seem ready to carry the conversation.

Clearing his throat, Dan flopped down onto a large sofa and sighed heavily. “Did you tell Tom and Rupert that…that…that we slept together?”

Emma chuckled, “Honestly, Dan, you’re fourteen. You don’t have to be so nervous around me anymore.” She took a step towards the sofa. “And, I’d like to know what you’re implying.”

“What I’m implying?” He squeaked out, sounding slightly angry. “You know very well what I’m talking about. I wish you didn’t act so stupid sometimes.”

If this comment hurt Emma in any way, she didn’t show it. She simply plunked herself down in the chair beside the sofa and gazed at him through her long eyelashes.

Dan rubbed his temples harshly, “Last night I was at a concert. Where were you?”

“Home,” she answered simply.

“Why would you tell them we were together?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said airily, waving her hand around, “I like to make Tom jealous.”

“Sadly, it backfired. Tom wasn’t the jealous one. In fact, I think he was rather pleased…” Dan coughed, “He didn’t seem to care.”

“He wouldn’t, would he. He seems content to gaze lovingly at those horrid, huge fish and not at any girl…maybe he’s got some issues we should consider?”

Dan raised an eyebrow, “I highly doubt it. And this isn’t about him and fish, by the way. This is about you and lying.” He sat up. “Just stop it, okay?”

A knock sounded at the door and then a rushed, angry voice called out, “DANIEL!”

Dan jumped off the couch and turned back to Emma, “Just stop.”

**

“Well,” Tom laughed, “What happened in your dressing room?”

Dan shrugged his coat on and pushed open the door to the studio. “Normally what happens in there is I read my script, drink, eat, get my clothes on. That sort of thing.”

“I meant what happened with Emma,” Tom clarified, walking outside into the frigid winter weather that bestowed London.

Rupert was waiting for them in his car, tapping his fingers against his steering wheel. Tom and Dan, as they walked to the car, could hear the blare of the bass, but couldn’t make out what song was playing.

It was Friday afternoon, and each Friday after work, (Fridays were short days) the three boys hung out together. They de-stressed, reflected and partied like any other working teenagers did.

“Nothing. I told her to stop it.” Dan pulled open the backseat of the car and then shut it quickly. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were blasting from the speakers and it hurt his ears momentarily. He could hear Rupert turn it down considerably and then wave them in.

Tom jumped in the passenger seat as Dan got in back. “So she lied.” He stated, pulling his seatbelt on.

Dan shrugged, “Yeah. That’s pretty much the short version.”

“Who lied?” Rupert asked, constraining himself from singing the lyrics.

“Emma,” answered Tom easily. “She and Dan didn’t get it on, as she implied…and we suspected.”

“I wish you’d get your head out of the gutter for one minute,” muttered Dan, leaning his head back as Rupert pulled out of the parking lot.

“Not going to happen,” he said, “I’m seventeen. I don’t know how to get my mind out of the gutter.”

Dan’s head snapped up, “You know. She fancies you.”

“I suspected as much,” replied Tom evenly.

“And?” Rupert said, “That’s it?”

“I’m not interested in her,” he said, “And you know it.”

“Right, right,” grumbled Rupert. “Momentary lapse of sanity or some such bull.”

Tom sighed, as if he’d explained this many times before and was very tired of the discussion. “I was young. She was hot. There is nothing else there.”

“She’s still hot,” Rupert pointed out, swinging into traffic.

“To you,” Tom declared, eyebrows raised. He shook his head, letting his now un-gelled hair fly around his face.

“And to about fifty other billion blokes in the world,” Rupert muttered, then stiffened and looked around. “Where are we going?”

“You’re driving,” said Tom, chuckling. “I think you should know.”

“He shouldn’t,” Dan argued lightly, “He has no idea what he’s doing.”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Rupert replied blandly. He turned the corner, “I’m thinking about asking Emma out.”

“You should,” Tom replied, “You’d be good together. She’s too young for me, but she’s a good age for you.”

“I’m not sure she’s good for anybody,” Dan mused with raised eyebrows. Rupert gave him a stern glance and then turned back to the road.

Rupert sighed, “You’re just put-out ‘cause she’s lying about your so called relationship.”

“If she’s lying about it to you two, she might lie to the press. I don’t want to deal with all the ‘Dan, are you dating Emma?’s’ that I’m sure to come across if her mouth should open.”

“I can’t blame you on that one,” Tom said, “When we had that one date…the press went mental. Not to mention the internet.” Tom shuddered at the memory, “I have nightmares still.”

“I’m sure there are pros to dating Emma,” Rupert stated, “There must be.”

“I’m sure you can think of some,” Tom laughed. He turned the laugh into a cough when he saw Dan’s expression. “I didn’t get any pros on our one date, in case your line of questioning was headed in that direction.”

“It wasn’t, but thanks for clearing it up. I’m going to call you Gutter Mind from now on.” Rupert rolled his eyes, “Honestly. Think about fish again, or something.”

“Mmmmm fish,” Tom joked, “I could go for some fish. And chips.”

“Yeah, me too, I’m starved,” Dan sighed heavily, “I need some food to cheer me up.”

“Should we invite Emma?” Tom wondered, cocking his head to the side in curiosity.

“No,” Dan replied sternly, “And that topic is now officially out of order.”

|