for tiggs (stop requesting anything)
541 words by google docs
"Are you kidding me?" Penelope stared at her reflection in the long mirror. Her frame was on the smaller side, usually, anyway, but in the school cloak, her frame was completely non-existent, drowning in a sea of black cloth and robes. She tried to take a step towards Madam Malkin so that maybe it be made smaller, but she nearly tripped on the hem.
"Ah, that looks perfect, dear," Madam Malkin said, patting Penelope on the shoulder.
"Perfect?" she asked in response, confused. Were the school uniform supposed to drown you and make you feel like you're standing in a sea of black? Penelope wouldn't know any better, though—she had never worn any Wizard's robes before. She gave Madam Malkin a little smile and handed her the few gold coins she had gotten from the bank to pay for the robes. Hitching the bottom of the robes up a little bit, she walked outside, not bothering to take them off and stow them away in her bag. If she needed to wear these huge things for the rest of her school year, she was going to bring them out for a test run.
She walked down Diagon Alley, holding half of the robes, looking for the next shop—Flourish and Blotts, the book store. She walked for a few minutes before realising something terrible—the robes were made out of heavy material and they were black. The hot August sun, shimmering in the sky, beat down on Penelope, catching in the black and making her sweat like a pig. Still, she walked on, reasoning that a magic school like Hogwarts would have something as normal and useful as air conditioning; she'd be perfectly fine wearing hot robes at the actual school.
She wiped sweat off of her face and finally found Flourish and Blotts. The inside of the store was so beautiful, books going up to the ceiling, that Penolpe temporarily forgot about the robes. She asked one of the store clerks for her books, and, with a swish of a wand, they came flying down next to Penelope.
She was amazed by magic and stood there for a moment, in awed silence, until a boy came up next to her and asked, "First year as well?"
She shook herself a little and turned to face the boy, who had messy ginger hair and a freckly but friendly, face. She nodded, looking at his robes, which he was also wearing. They seemed to fit him perfectly well. They were even a bit small, exposing some of his ankle. Maybe this person had learned some family secret in fixing robes.
"Thought so, from the books and the lack of a house on your robes."
"House on my robes?" she asked him. She had assumed that Hogwarts would have houses, like a lot of British schools, but how would it show up on on her already made robes? Would they have a big sewing class? When she voiced her thoughts to the boy, he laughed.
"No, no," he said, smiling. "The robes are magically designed to have your house show up on it after sorting."
Penelope gasped aloud. They were magic? She'd never think ill about them again. The robes were so much cooler, then.