The Harry Potter set had become a second home to me. Everyday, I would tell Mrs. Harrison that I was going over to a friend's house to do homework after volleyball practice. Well... I had no friends. So I would just go with Tom to the set. In three weeks, I had gotten to know Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, Matt Lewis, James and Oliver Phelps, Michael Gambon, and Maggie Smith. You know what? I lied about not having friends. I did have friends. And they were all celebrities.
Aside from Tom, Rob and Dan had become my really good friends. Since Dan was usually busy with something, though, being the star of the movie, Rob and I had become really close. Turned out he was really shy which explained why he hadn't really said much the day that we met. He was also two years older than me and four years older than rest of the younger cast members. Yeah, I was one of the oldest people that came to the set, surprisingly. I always thought that everyone was the same age. Guess not.
One perk of always coming to the set was the fact that the director of the movie, Mike Newell, had gotten to know me. That meant that I could pretty much be on any set, in whatever outfit and he wouldn't think twice about it, using the excuse, "She didn't have classes that day so she wore muggle clothing," if I ever got in a scene more than just in the background. But most of the time I was just placed in Hufflepuff robes and played a part of Rob's (Cedric's, actually) friend group. I would have been able to play part of Tom's Slytherin group, but that had pretty much been set since the first movie and people would notice if some random brunette entered it. Mike was also very grateful that I had worked on a set before as an actual guest star of a show.
Last year, I played the staring roll in my school's fall play, West Side Story. It just so happened that a casting man who knew a casting director was in the audience and thought that I would be perfect for a roll his friend was looking to fill. I had no idea this roll would be on one of my favorite shows, Drake and Josh. I set in an audition tape the next week and got a call back from Dan Schneider saying that I had been cast as Lucy, Drake's current girlfriend with a knack for fighting. Nickelodeon had flown me out to LA to film when I told them about the money situation and the money I had received as pay had been enough for me to get home and keep living over here in England without having to borrow too much from my parents or the Harrisons.
"Are you going to be working as an extra today?" Tom asked me as we walked to our next class, AP Physics.
"If Mike lets me," I replied.
Tom laughed. "If Mike lets you? Mike probably wished you were in the major cast, McKenzie. Of course he's going to let you play an extra today."
"Do you even know what you guys are doing?"
"We get dance lessons today..." Tom said using fake enthusiasm and making a face.
"You don't like dancing?"
"Not particularly... Do you?"
"Well, I've been in dancing and singing lessons since I was six so..."
"So you're a professional."
"Basically."
Tom laughed. "What do you dance? Like, what genre? Is that even possible? Genres of dance, I mean. I'm clueless! Just listen to me!"
Now it was my turn to laugh. "Yeah, there's, like, hip-hop, ballroom, and all that. I stick to hip-hop and Latin dancing. I started with tap and ballet but those were absolutely horrible."
"Hip-hop... so do you dance to Eminem and Dr. Dre?"
"Ew! I hate Eminem!"
Tom looked genuinely shocked. "I'm sorry, McKenzie, but we can no longer be friends." He then quickened his pace.
"Tom, shut up!"
I ran to catch up with him to find him laughing. As payback, I hit his shoulder, making his books shake in his arms and almost fall.
"Let's just hope that the dancing we do tonight doesn't have any Eminem then," he concluded as we got to our class and took our seats.
The rest of the day seemed to lag on now that I knew I would be dancing on the Harry Potter set. It had been forever since I had been in a studio due to volleyball so I was thankful that Coach Pennington allowed me to skip out on practice. The "I have too much homework and need to keep my grades up if I want to stay at this school" excuse never failed me.
"Okay, all," Mike announced as he walked into the room, followed by a group of people I didn't recognize at all. "You all know why you are here, in muggle clothes, and not in your Hogwarts' robes." A few people laughed at how he referred to our clothing as 'muggle clothing'. "Today is the first day of Yule Ball dance lessons. I've brought with me the masters behind the art of the waltz. Help me welcome Cate Brackpool, Claire Cunningham, and Laila Diallo as the dance instructors and Jasmine Fitter and Odette Hughes as the choreographers."
Everyone clapped as the dancers each did a pirouette and curtsy while their names were said. I was impressed. They all looked really talented. More talented than anyone I had, anyways. And that was merely based off some basic skills that they had just demonstrated, skills that we wouldn't even need in a waltz.
"They will become your best friends for the next month. Anything they tell you to do, you will do. By the end of these lessons, I want to be convinced that I have a group of dancers hired as actors, not actors hired as dancers. Good luck! I'll check in occasionally."
Mike waved and then was out. I was sitting in front of Tom, Rob, Rupert, and Josh Herdman (Vincent Crabbe), and next to Emma. None of them looked excited, although Em did show slightly more emotion than the boys. I turned and tapped Tom's knee to get his attention.
"You excited for this yet?" I asked as he bent down to I could whisper to him.
He just shook his head and chuckled since the dance instructors were beginning to talk. Each of us were instructed to pair up, a boy and girl, to learn the basics. There were at least 100 people in the room. How were five people supposed to teach us all? For their sake, I hoped I wasn't the only one who had ever had a dance class.
"McKenzie." I turned and saw Rob had called me while I was waiting for Tom to get down from his seat. I was assuming we were dance partners even though he hadn't asked me. "Would you like to be my dancing partner?" Obviously Rob and I weren't on the same page.
"I, uh, um..." I looked at Tom. He seemed to hear and was waiting for my response. "You can practice with Emma, right, Tom?"
"Uh, yeah... sure," he replied with scrunched eyebrows.
I gave him a small smile then took Rob's hand, ready to begin. Dancing with Rob felt fine. It was just like gym class in grade school when I always danced with my guy friends. Plus, he wasn't terrible at dancing. Tom and Emma looked awkward.
