Tobias was an alright fellow, I guess. I’m still a little miffed that his duties were curtailed to beore or less my babysitter by my mother. Not that I’d let him stay that way. Holy, I’m surprised my mother let me hire him. No one deny that it is past time that I got a team of my own, but hiring anyone new permaly meant a great redu in my mother’s duties, which she saw as me growing up. When I first floated the idea to her after receiving Tobias’ email, she had literally cried. I temporarily dropped the idea. I couldn’t hire someo the cost of my family’s happiness. But two days ter, she came to me and said that she may have overreacted.

  But still, she wao interview a few people locally so that they could stay longer on the job. I agreed with that thinking of hers a her searore people. She talked to more thay people in Londohe few days but was not satisfied until she finally called Tobias in New York, and the rest is history. It’s weird how life works in mysterious ways. Currently, everything in my life is perfect. I ’t help but thank whatever deity sent me here. My start in life could have beeer, but as they say, all’s well that ends well.

  ing bay work for the past few months, I have been w out heavily and have been taking a pretty trolled diet. The reason for that was obvious to me (although my family may disagree with it.) I had to take a bath in the prefect’s bathroom. I like to think that I’m not an exhibitionist, but if I’m getting half-naked for cameras, at least I look my best.

  “Why ’t I be o that day?” Emma whined while pouting cutely.

  After receiving that warning from Tobias about our borderline PDA, Emma and I decided that we would meet only in one of our trailers. So here we were in my trailer, with Emma’s assistant/nanny Chloe also present in the room as a watchdog. She was hired by Emma’s father after he came to know about our retionship.

  “Because you don’t have a se that day, and everybody would think it weird that you’re there.” I poked her cheek. She huffed and pushed my hand away, whily made me chuckle more. “You are so cute when you pout like that.”

  She blushed for a moment, ready to retort when she realized what we were talking about initially.

  “Don’t ge the topic by flirting with me,” she said.

  “I’m not,” I insisted while raising my hands defensively. “If you want to see me take a bath that bad, you always ask, and I give you a good private show.” I gri her with all my charm, and seeing the furious blush on her face, it was all worth it.

  A loud clearing of Chloe’s throat told me that nothing of the sort would be happening anytime soon.

  “Hey!” Emma rebuked Chloe. “As long as we are just talking, keep your ears closed.”

  “Believe me, I don’t want to hear this either, Emma,” Chloe retorted before turning to me. “But Troy knows just the things to say to push my boundaries.”

  I shrugged ily. It’s not like I would have done anything more than what I already was doing if Chloe was not here. Maybe there would be some more kissing, but other than that, nothing would ge. Then suddenly an idea popped into my mind as I stood up from my seat and walked over to one of my drawers before ing back with my iPod Cssid handing it over to Chloe.

  “There you go. Listen to this, and then you won’t have to hear our embarrassing talks.”

  She looked ptive for a few moments before putting the offered earphones on. I grinned in triumph and pyed the first song on the pylist, [Cry Me a River] by Justin Timberke, and ked the volume to full. As Chloe started jamming with the song, I turo Emma and said, “This is how you do it.”

  Emma settled on rolling her eyes before she remembered something and her eyes lit up. “You said something about a private show.”

  I shook my head at the audacity of the girl. “She might not be able to listen to what we are saying, but she see.”

  “Didn’t know you were that shy,” she smirked.

  “I’m not,” I insisted. “But I’m pretty sure she’d report me to your parents if I do that. And I have no iion to face your father again.” I shivered involuntarily, remembering the st time I had met one Chris Watson. Mostly, Emma stayed with her mother in Oxford, but when we were shooting, she would stay with her father in London. Her parents had divorced, but that didn’t mean Chris cared for his daughter any less. He was a good father. So obviously, I hated him.

  “You’re exaggerating,” she waved off. “He’s a total gentleman.”

  “Of course he is,” I said with heavy sarcasm. “Only a gentleman would tell a fourteen-year-old how he has a big vintage gun colle that still works.”

  “He was just joking,” she waved off my s as trivial. “He is the–”

  Before we could tinue our versation, there was a loud kno the door. Hearing my shout of: “e in,” Tobias walked inside.

  “Something the matter?” I asked him.

  “The shot will be ready soon,” he said. “For both of you. The makeup team will be here in a few minutes.”

  Chloe, who had removed her earphones after seeing Tobias, stood up as well and motioned Emma to e with her. Seeing as it was only the four of us irailer for now, I kissed Emma on the cheek and said, “See you o, love.”

  She didn’t say anything, only blushed before nodding and leaving the trailer.

  When Emma and her assistant had left, Tobias let out a tired sigh, “You are incible.”

  “And proud of it,” I announced. As my makeup artist came in, I took my chair.

  (Break)

  The world is full of perverts. Now I know for sure. It wasn’t just Emma who was ied in seeing me half-naked. Most of the crew members, who usually didn’t bother watg the shooting and whose work wasn’t even directly involved in film produ, came to watch my se.

  As I looked around the tightly packed surroundings while donning my bathrobe, I turo Alfonso, “Why are there so many people here?”

  He shrugged. “They must be ied to see the shooting. We didn’t close the set because we didn’t think it would be required.”

  Seeing the hundred or so people standing there, gawking, I made an instant decision. “It is required,” I said. “Please clear all those people out who are not required.”

  “Seriously?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I insisted. “Listen, man, I don’t know what sort of perverts they are, but I’ll be much more rexed if they didn’t get off on seeing me half-naked.”

  Alfonso was surprised by my words but didn’t waste too much time because he kime was money. He immediately turo all the ADs and barked instrus to clear the set. I waited patiently as they did, while my assistant came up to me and offered me a bottle of water, which I deed immediately.

  “Just wait for a few hours, Tobias,” I said. “I ot drink water right now.”

  “You’re being stupid,” he summed up eloquently. “No one cares if a teenager has a toned body or fully visible abs. What you’re doing is not healthy.”

  “I care about my body. That's why I am sulting a doctor for this diet,” I emphasized. “Now don’t talk to me. It makes me thirsty.”

  When Alfonso came to know about my desire to get ier shape for the bath se, he postpohe se for a few months. Initially, it o be shot in January, but thankfully, they were shooting it now in April. A nutritionist and a physi had been hired for me, who carefully monitored my diet and water intake a few days before the se was to be shot, and since yesterday, I had not had even a single drop of water.

  As the se was finally cleared of unwanted crew members, only fifty people remained behind because their work was “absolutely necessary for the se,” in Alfonso’s words. Getting instrus from him, I dropped my robe, which was immediately grabbed by Tobias, who stepped out of the camera frame. Looking down at my chiseled body, I couldn’t help but feel proud of my hard work. This was the first time I saw some noticeable muscle development in myself, and I loved it. My arms were double the size of what they were st year. While my chest wasn’t that big because of my age, my abs and pecs were quite toned.

  “Admired yourself enough?” Alfonso asked to the amusement of multiple people.

  “Yes,” I answered unabashedly. “Now we begin?”

  He didn’t say anything else; simply walked out of the frame while I took my position on the edge of the bathtub, wearing only skin-colored underwear to hide my modesty. That was done because I was meant to be butt-naked in the pool. That’s movie magic for you. I looked around the set and thankfully this time no one was ht gawking at me. I wasn't fully fortable with the se even now, but this was just a job for me and had to be done.

  “Lights! Camera! A!”

  Hearing that magic phrase, I sat on the edge of the tub with a big golden egg. A few crew members were sitting near me, but out of the camera range, creating small bubbles in the air for that perfect magical bath effect. But I didn’t care about it at all. All I could think about was the puzzle in front of me. Then I jumped into the tub, which was filled to the rim with warm water and a lot of bubbles. I turned back to look at my golden egg and said, “I must be out of my mind.” Then I ope. Its insides were painted neon green so that effects could be pced oer. I acted as if the egg was making a horrible screeg noise and shut it close again. “I’m definitely out of my mind.”

  Then I turned around to find the actress who ying Moaning Myrtle sitting there.

  “I’d try putting it ier if I were you.”

  “Myrtle!” I excimed in surprise.

  “Hello Harry,” she said in an overly sweet feminine voice. “Long time no see.” She ed her o make me as unfortable as she could. I tried gathering some bubbles around me so the visibility of my lower body was as loossible for the ghost.

  She tinued rambling some ihings that were of no sequeo me, so I brought her back to what was.

  “Myrtle, did you say try putting it ier?”

  “That’s what the other boy did. Cedric,” she giggled while ing near me. I tried to back away from her nervously, only to hit the edge of the bathtub. Then I saw the egg behind me and put it in front of me to preserve some of my modesty.

  “Well, go on,” she prodded. “Open it.” I submerged the egg ihe pool and then, after a few seds of hesitation, lowered my head uer as well. After a few seds, I came out of the water, coughing out soapy water.

  “Myrtle,” I turo the ghost. “There aren’t merpeople in the Bck Lake, are there?”

  “Very good,” she tittered. “It took Cedric ages to figure it out.” With each word, she inched closer to me. “Almost all the bubbles were gone.” I started gathering more of the distant bubbles between us while going as far away from the creepy ghost dy as possible, but it was not meant to be because she ended up resting her head on my shoulder by the end of the se. In hindsight, the se was more than a little gross because Shirley Henderson, who pyed Myrtle, was 38 years old pared to my 14. Not that Shirley was a bad actress, but I still don’t uand why Chris even hired her to py Myrtle in the sed part. Were all teenagers in the world dead?

  “And cut!” Alfonso called out. “Perfect se everyoroy, let’s do it one more time without Myrtle.”

  I nodded and took my position again. Since I was already wet and Myrtle came out only when I was iub, only those parts had to be shot again. My dedicated makeup artists ran up to me to dry my hair, and I redid the se all alohis time.

  (Break)

  “Troy,” Alfonso called out some half an hour ter when the se was done, and I was all dry, ba my bathrobe, and sipping on a bottle of water. “I think you should see this se.”

  “I trust you, Alfonso,” I said. If you ask directors to watch a just-shot se, they usually don’t like it because it means that you don’t trust them or their vision t out your best performance. But I ot deny that I was more than a little curious to see how this would turn out.

  “e on,” he insisted.

  Nuing any further, I walked over to the monitor s Alfonso was standing near, where he repyed the video from the start. I watched how I sat on the edge of the pool and how I went in to solve the puzzle. It looked genuine, but most importantly, my body looked fab. They had used special lighting to make sure that my muscles popped out way more than they usually did. That, when added to everything else, like my increased workouts and water and diet trol, made me look the best I have ever looked.

  Holy shit! This is too good. I knew Alfonso was good at filming the human body (like [Y Tu Mamá También]), but I didn’t know that even I could look this good.

  I turo Alfonso, “Man, this is the best se I’ve ever seen of myself. The lights, the camera angles, everything is perfect.”

  “Just wait until I correct the crading in post-produ,” Alfonso said fidently. “This clip gave me some ideas about the tour ses.”

  “Which part?” I asked curiously. Usually, we shoot the CGI part first and the rest ter, but since [Goblet of Fire] would be released a year after [Prisoner of Azkaban], there was no such rush to finish CGI at the moment. As a result, all three of the tour events—dragon-fighting, uer rescue, the maze—and the climax would be shot at the very end.

  “The part for which you have been trainilessly for months,” Alfonso said as if it was the most obvious thing. “I had this idea that I wao float by you. What if the three male testants shot the uer ses shirtless?”

  “Why?” I asked the obvious question. On paper, it may look appealing, but the problem with that was I’d have to tinue my training and dieting for a lot more days. Not to mention, shooting shirtless for nearly a month uer is just asking for trouble. That was how long time had been allotted for the filming of the sed task.

  “Because your audience is maturing with each film,” Alfonso pointed out. “That’s the theme that Rowling is adopting in her future books as well. The oheme most on in teeories is puberty and ing-of-age. The girls will go crazy for you if we were to do that whole sequence shirtless given how good you lht now. After all, I’m here to deliver what the people want to see.”

  I didn’t expe auteur director like Alfonso to choose style over substao shoot such a se. But then we weren’t making some Oscar-bait film, so it made sense in a way. With the amount of hard work I had put into my body, I didn’t mind showing it off to people as long as they weren’t gawking at me in person.

  “The decision is fully yours,” Alfonso tinued when I didn’t reply immediately. “I’m asking you first because if you agree then only will I talk to your father and the Warner Bros executives that this is the best route to go. Take your time and tell me in 2-3 days.”

  “I don't o,” I said firmly. “We’ll do it just like you are envisioning it. I don’t want to be the oo hinder your vision. This is your movie first and foremost, not mine, so if you wao be shirtless, I’ll be shirtless.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked food measure.

  “Yes,” I waved off his s. “Just make sure that the set is a closed set like today, and we’ll be fine. I don't want any unnecessary gawkers.”

  “Perfect then,” he gri me. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything. We’ll make this into the best Harry Potter movie of the series.”

  _____________________________________

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