One: The Premiere
Emma
The crowds were horrendous, and the paparazzi even more so as me, Daniel, and Rupert walked hand in hand down the red carpet. Tom Felton was already here with his girlfriend Tanya, and making witty quips to the reporters. But I almost could not process being here in Hollywood, and enjoying the Californian warmth of the early evening.
Alan was gone, and it was only knowing that he was gone, and buried that I realized that I had more than a girlish crush on him. The funeral had been a month prior to the movie premiere of the second part of The Deathly Hallows. I was still so sad, and my boyfriend Billy had broken up with me over my 'obsession.' Whatever, I was better off without him, to be honest, he was kind of a prick to break up with me over email, because I was grieving over a beloved co-star who meant the world to me.
The limo pulled up to the curb, and already paparazzi and fans were screaming either my name, or calling me Hermione. I signed my autographs and took selfies with fans. But inside, I felt like I was on autopilot, honestly.
Daniel greeted me, and he pulled me aside, "Hey Ems. How have you been since...you know?"
I shook my head. "Not good, but I don't think Alan would want us to mope and cry over him, especially with the premiere going on."
Daniel nodded, "Yeah, I know."
Tom found us, and Tanya greeted us in her usual flippant kind of way. What Tom saw in her, I had no clue, but that's love, I guess, take it or leave it.
Tom gave me a hug, and Tanya scowled. He frowned at her. "Ignore her, Ems. Do you want to sit with me?"
I blushed at that, wondering why I felt a flicker of my old crush for him coming back. Was it my grief and the need to be comforted? I had no clue, only that I really liked being in Tom Felton's company right at this moment in time.
We all entered the Chinese Theater, and Tom sat beside me, while Daniel sat on my other side. Rupert sat with his own girlfriend Debra, a very pretty ginger haired lady like him. The movie came up on the screen, and it felt surreal seeing me and everyone we worked with on the screen. But seeing Severus's death scene really brought genuine tears to my eyes.
I felt my heart constrict inside me to the point of it being painful. All of us were crying, and when the movie ended, people clapped.
"Excuse me, I...I need to go to the loo," I excused myself.
"Oh? I'll go with you," Tanya offered. "For you know, girl talk and stuff."
"Tanya, just butt out of it," Tom confronted her. "Okay?"
She sulked, "Fine. But Tommy, baby, you promised you wouldn't like talk to her while we were here."
"I didn't say anything of the sort!" Tom snapped. "Whatever. I don't need this shit right now. Emma is my friend, alright? Now, I'm going to talk to her. That's it, just talk."
She tossed her brown hair in that stupid, prissy way of hers. "Fine! But we're done. I knew I couldn't compete with her anyway."
She stalked off, and Rupert rolled his eyes. "Wow, mate. She is such a head case. Do you want us to come with you?"
"No, I'm good," Tom said, going up to me. "I'll catch up with you guys later for one of the award parties."
Tom found me washing off my makeup in the bathroom. I saw him and he wordlessly hugged me. "Hey, hey, I miss him too," He murmured against my hair. "Dan and Rup were really worried about you back there."
I wiped at my eyes, and nodded, "I just...I don't know if I can go to any parties, Tom. I mean, they'll have posters of all of us in character everywhere, and especially of Alan as Severus Snape. I don't think I can look at pictures of him like that."
He understood. "Okay. Do you want me to take you back to the hotel? I kind of said I would join the others for the award parties."
I looked into his big blue eyes, and felt a little bit better. "Yeah, I think I need your company now. Just...not all night, I have to go to that theme park Diagon Alley thing in the morning, and I heard Florida is humid as hell this time of year."
Tom chuckled, "Ems, Florida is a hot box over half the year."
"Oh hush, you know what I mean by that," I chided him.
"Yeah, I do. Come on, let's go."
We left out the front door, and of course, the paparazzi tried to cover us as a damn couple as Tom Felton led me to one of the waiting black limousines. He gave the directions to the driver, but we stopped for coffee briefly, and as we got to my hotel room, some weird tension fell between us, and before either of us knew what was up, we ended up having hot sex most of the night...
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Three Hours Later....
"Thank you, Tom," I said sleepily, watching him change back into his tuxedo. "I didn't plan on this, but--"
He pressed a kiss to my lips as I laid in bed. "Me neither, believe me. But I've always kind of liked you, Emma. I mean that," He admitted. "Look, we don't have to decide on anything now, but I just want to say that I like you."
My heart warmed to hear those words, but I just did not want to hear them now, my grief was too fresh. "I like you too, Tom, but I just...I can't decide on anything now," I confessed.
"I know. I'll call you.""Thanks for understanding.""Yeah, you bet."
He left me then, and I curled up into a ball and cried myself to sleep. Sure, the comfort sex helped, but the ache in my heart was still very much there deep down inside of me. I didn't know if anything would ever make this deep seated pain go away, save for going back in time and giving my secret crush some miracle cure for his cancer. But that was before something remarkable happened that brought me into a world I never thought existed, and made me realize that magic was indeed, very, very real....
