For the Daily Prompt Challenge at The Golden Snitch, with (word) unbreakable. Points shall go to Durmstrang's Pirin!
Ginny felt strange amongst her dormmates. Being the only girl back at home didn't make her more feminine but a little bit masculine, and at the Burrow that didn't matter. Mum was always complaining about her dressing like Charlie, but underneath those complaints, Ginny knew Mum was glad she never asked for dresses and skirts. New clothes, girl clothes, were expensive.
Her first year she had been distracted. Her dormmates were uninteresting, at least when compared to the memory of a dark wizard trapped in his unbreakable prison, and Ginny never spent more than a couple of minutes in their presence unless they were sleeping. At class, she rather sit with Luna Lovegood, that girl from her childhood who never cared for the clothes Ginny wore.
She remembered that with a smile. Luna was always the odd one, out of the two of them, but she still dressed like a girl with lovely, flowing dresses the colour of sunshine. Ginny... Well, she had a predilection for Charlie's Kenmare Kestrels ripped T–shirt.
It was only natural, she thought, to find herself uncomfortable when in front of a mirror, looking at herself from all angles to find the slightest flaw in her body. The pale blue dress she had on made her look like a little girl on a Tchaikovsky play, like the one she went with her father when she was twelve and he kept trying to take her mind away from the diary.
"That just doesn't work," Gabrielle said, coming into the dressing room without minding that Ginny could have been in her underwear. Ginny found that agreeable with her; she didn't mind it at all because when other girls took her eyes away from her, Ginny always wondered if there was something wrong with her body. Besides, a small part of her wondered what would Harry say if he saw them like that. "Take it off, Ginny. You're hurting my eyes."
"Your blinding neon dress from the last store hurt my eyes," she said but complied and took off her dress, immediately feeling more comfortable.
"We really should do something about that underwear," Gabrielle said as she took off her own clothes and put on a teal–coloured sequined mini–skirt and a plain black silk blouse. "I don't know how Harry puts up with that."
Ginny laughed at the girl's remark and threw the blue dress at her. "Well he's usually busy taking these off, you know?"
It was Gabrielle who laughed now, modelling in front of the mirror.
"I look très bien," the girl said without bragging. "I think this is what I'll buy."
Ginny sighed. "Now we have to find something for poor old Gin–boy."
"Don't. You're a beautiful woman, Ginny. If you actually thought of yourself as a boy we'd be at the other side of the store, shopping for man clothes."
"Could we?" Ginny said, pouting exaggeratedly.
"Stop it. Try on those clothes I left for you in the corner."
"Boo," Ginny told Gabrielle but she took the clothes provided to her and grinned. "Burgundy and dark grey. I like it already."
"And don't forget the shoes," called out Gabrielle, stepping out of the changing room and leaving Ginny there to try the new clothes.
She sighed once more before putting a smile on her lips. She could do it. The fact that she had spent the first part of her life with her brother's hand me downs and the second with her mother's teenage years clothing didn't mean she couldn't find her own style. And she actually thought Gabrielle could help.
The French witch had a sense of style unlike any others Ginny had seen. Gabrielle didn't wear pale silks like Fleur, she didn't like flowing dresses like Luna's and she abhorred Hermione's formal businesswoman attire. Instead, she wore eye–catching pieces, heavy velvet mini–skirts with muggle sneakers and strange headpieces with lace and small crystals.
Ginny didn't like that for herself, but the clothes she had on right now were perfect.
She put the jeans first. They were dark grey with black dragon skin hems and fit her as well as her Quidditch gloves did. The blouse was button down and the colour of sweet berries. It was a colour Ginny always thought would clash with her hair but it actually didn't. The shoes were plain black pumps that made her look taller and her legs slender. Ginny loved it.
"I look—"
"Stylish," Gabrielle said, peeking in and giving an approbatory glance. "That's what you needed, Gin. Not Ron's ripped shorts."
"Do you really think I look good?"
Gabrielle grinned. "You look invincible and unbreakable, Ginny. And that's exactly how you are."
Ginny laughed as she twirled in front of the mirror. Now, she hoped she could recreate it without Gabrielle.
"Now come on. We need to buy Harry something that goes with your outfit. Have you actually seen the rags he wears? It's as if he took fashion advice from Ron..."
He did, but Ginny didn't tell Gabrielle that and, instead, laughed once more.
