Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
WWritten for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments): Astronomy (Assignment 2)
Prompt:
If you want to be noticed then the most important thing is how you look. It's no good if people see you but think you look awful. You have to look perfect all the time. You have to make sacrifices. Any time you want to go anywhere you have to set aside at least half an hour to prepare.
Everyone can look pretty, but some people have to try harder than others. Often, the feature you hate most about yoir face is the thing that others find the most striking. Besides, magic can fix anything that's really awful.
Professors think I'm stupid or lazy because I never study, but I spend my time researching more practical things. Surely it's much more useful to know how to give a perfect manicure than to know who started the 57th goblin war thousands of years ago?
I know more beauty spells than anyone else at Hogwarts. Often on a Friday night I'll sit in the girl's bathrooms on the second floor and there will be a queue of girls waiting for me to do their make-up, to check their outfit. It's not complicated magic, but most people just never think to use magic. All the muggleborns obsessively smear horrible greasy creams over their skin every morning, even though a pimple potion clears your skin almost instantly.
My sister, the quiet, disapproving, studious sister, thinks it's a frivolous waste of time. She's wrong. I make the girls look good and then they feel more confident. They'll enjoy their evening more (and to be honest in most cases their dates would thank me too). It's just a simple thing that makes people feel good about themselves.
I love nothing more than walking down to breakfast, knowing that I look good, that people are watching me, and that tomorrow all the girls will have the same hairstyle as me, that they'll follow my lead. I might be vain or shallow, but I don't see what's wrong with wanting to look nice.
Every morning I get up before everyone else in my dorm. This means I'm always first in the shower and can take as long as I want. Washing my hair is the one thing I do by hand, partly because It would be weird to have my wand in the shower, but also because I find it relaxing, brushing out my long hair and letting the water beat down on me. If course, I don't use muggle shampoo- like all the other products I use I've spent years testing various shampoos to find the best. A drying spell dries hair out perfectly, and super quickly, and once that's done I can work on my make-up.
My uniform's a little modified- I can't bear the ugly robes we have to wear. Nothing too immodest, but with magic I can make my skirt just a little shorter, my blouse a little tighter.
When I leave school I think I'd like to own a salon. I could have a muggle part and a wizarding part. Then I would get paid for doing what I love. I could do people's hair and make-up for big events and maybe design clothes. It would be wonderful. I can't tell my parents though. They think my caring for my looks os a vain obsession and they'd only tell me that I was being unrealistic and that I needed to choose a real job. They want me to work in the Ministry but I know I'd be rubbish at that. I want to have fun, not spend all my time reading boring papers.