SIX

"Oh no, I am not wearing that!"

Tess was waving a pathetic excuse for a skirt at me with a diabolically evil grin. My cousin, Lily, was sitting cross-legged on the bed eyeing us with a mixture of disapproval and hilarity. She had retreated to my dorm as a way of escaping Hugo who was challenging anyone that went within a two foot radius of him to a game of wizard chess.

He appears to have inherited our father's talent.

"Lily, tell her!" I screeched at Lily who was absorbed in reading the latest edition of the Quibbler. She glanced up lazily from her magazine.

"Tell her what?" she asked, looking at me quizzically.

"Tell her that I am not wearing that…that…" I said, struggling for words to describe the monstrosity I was being faced with.

Well, perhaps it wasn't that bad, but even so I did not want to risk falling over and flashing the whole of the Hogwarts student population my knickers.

"Tess?" Lily asked.

"Yes, Lily dearest," Tess replied.

"Please force my cousin to wear the item of clothing you are currently brandishing in front of her," she said, replicating Tess' evil grin.

Urgh. Even my own blood has turned against me.

Why did I agree to this?

"I don't want to do the plan any more!" I shouted frantically as Tess pulled out her wand, presumably to try and charm the skirt onto me.

"Come on, Rosieee!" she pleaded.

"Don't…" I started.

"I meant, Rose," she interjected, still looking at me with a pleading sad smile.

"Fine, but can't I wear something a little less…revealing?" I asked, giving the skirt a disgusted look.

"No," she said stubbornly, flashing me a grin. "It's the skirt or nothing."
"You wouldn't dare…" I said.

She raised her wand, "You know I would. So what's it gonna be the skirt, or naked."

I rolled my eyes and dejectedly grabbed the skirt from her hands.

"The skirt, I guess," I mumbled, as she smirked triumphantly at me.

"Good. Now change, and I'll find you a top," she said, delving into the contents of her trunk.

I yanked the skirt on with disgust etched all over my freckled face.

"I will make you pay, Tess Taylor," I muttered angrily under my breath as I saw the expanse of leg that was being revealed.

Lily burst out laughing at the look on my face and I just gave her an irritated glare.

Tess finally decided on a plain red top and a brown jacket, because apparently it was quite cold.

"But if it's cold, then why am I wearing a skirt?" I said, sounding astonishingly child-like.

Tess gave me a look that where it was clear she was doing everything in her power to suppress herself from rolling her eyes.

"It's not that cold," Lily piped up from behind her magazine.

I glared at her. My attempt at dodging having to go out in public in 'the skirt' clearly hadn't worked.

***

"Ok, we came to Hogsmeade, I've seen a shop. Can't we head back now before any we know sees us?" I asked Tess pleadingly.

"No way, just keep walking," she replied.

Several tall Ravenclaw guys passed us and raised their eyebrows with a smirk.

I clutched Tess' arm.

"They're laughing at me!" I wailed miserably in her ear.

She batted me away with her bag.

"Don't be so stupid," she said, "they're not laughing at you. They think you look nice."

"No they don't, they think I've taken fashion tips off the giant squid," I sniffed.

Tess stopped and turned to me with an amused smile. "Rose Weasley, stop being so bloody stupid! You look fab so stop worrying that people are laughing at you!"

I grunted in reply and we carried on walking.

Tess laughed.

"What now?" I asked grumpily, peering around Hogsmeade and inwardly begging that all the sixth years at Hogwarts had decided to stay behind for the day.

"Just…you…you're hilarious when you're grumpy," she giggled.

I punched her lightly on the arm but giggled myself.

We finally arrived at the high street of Hogsmeade, and were casually walking up it, presumably heading for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which is right up the end opposite the post office.

"Stop," Tess whispered urgently as we passed some sort of dress robe store. We pretended to peer in at the robes as Tess spoke to me in an undertone. "Wood is coming this way. Act pretty, smile and flick your hair, you know the drill."
"What drill? I don't know the drill!" I replied anxiously in a whisper.

"Just flirt," she muttered urgently back.

"But…"

She gave me a look.

Clearly she doesn't understand that I am incapable of flirting. You'd think she would know that being my best friend, but obviously not.

"Hey, Tess," I heard a deep manly voice behind me so I turned round with a small nervous smile. It was Max.

"Hi, Max," Tess said with a squeak.

"Can I take you for a drink? Or perhaps you'd like to visit Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" he asked, flashing her a glimpse of his perfect white teeth.

"I'm with a friend," Tess said motioning towards me, in what I perceived to be a completely obvious and suspicious manner. I frowned at her.

Max looked at me once, then turned back to Tess.

"I'm sure she won't mind," he said.

Tess looked extremely worried that her plan wasn't successful. I knew it wasn't going to work from the beginning.

Before I could even say 'Hey, mate, actually I do mind!' Max had whisked Tess off to the joke store.

She turned round and gave me one last panicked and slightly apologetic look before being pushed into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

I didn't really want to abandon her, but nor could I really see what I could do to get her away from Max. Besides, the shop was completely packed as it was and it would've taken me hours to squeeze through the crowd to find them.

I began to walk, slightly miserably, down the high street with the intention of returning back to the castle to find Lily, or maybe Al.

But, wait. Wasn't that him there?

Sure enough, despite having told us he wasn't going to Hogsmeade today (Quidditch practice I had assumed), Al was standing outside the sweet shop eating a chocolate frog.

I walked quickly over to him.

"Hey, Al!" I said, as cheerily as I could muster.

"Hey…Rose?" he choked on his chocolate.

"Are you ok?" I asked giving him a pat on the back.

He nodded, then looked wide-eyed at me. "You're wearing a skirt!?" he exclaimed incredulously.

"You have your sister to thank for that," I said.

He continued to stare open mouthed at me. I tugged down at the hem of my skirt involuntarily then muttered, "What are you staring at?"

"Nothing…I'm just shocked, that's all. Where's Tess?" he asked.

"Whisked away by Max," I replied and he frowned.

"I thought she didn't like him?" he asked, apparently worried.

"No, she doesn't. He just dragged her off before I could do anything," I said and he looked a little consoled.

"Ahh, she'll be fine. If a little bored, his quidditch tales are dull. Do you wanna go grab a butterbeer?"

I nodded and we headed off to The Three Broomsticks. Just as we neared the door, Zabini and Malfoy walked out. Malfoy glanced at me and then sneered at Al.

"Isn't she a bit out of your league, Potter?" he asked, looking from Al to me and then back at Al again.

I blinked.

Hold on…was Malfoy suggesting…

Err….GROSS!

Al and I exchanged looks and then burst out laughing. Malfoy and Zabini looked completely stumped as to why we found it so amusing.

Seriously, are they into incest or something? Or maybe they just don't recognize me?

I swear I don't look that much different.

"Malfoy…why…would I date…Rose?" Al spluttered through his laughter.

"What has Rose got to do with this?" Malfoy asked angrily, his grey eyes flashing.

Al stopped laughing and we once again exchanged a look. Though this time our faces displayed pure confusion. Did Malfoy honestly not recognize me?

"Err…hello?" I said, waving my hands in front of eyes.

"Hi, gorgeous," Malfoy said, throwing me a casual wink.

Seriously. Can he not keep his hideous albino hormones at bay for one second?

"Uh…Malfoy…?" Al said smirking. Malfoy turned to look at him with a sneer.

"What is it Potter?" he snapped, clearly surprised that he wasn't reacting to Malfoy hitting on his apparent girlfriend.

Ahh…the irony!

"It's me…Rose," I said, pointing at myself. Zabini's mouth dropped open – I was worried it was going to hit the floor – and Malfoy choked on…apparently nothing. Al covered his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter.

"My mistake," Malfoy said, staring at me incredulously. "I thought you just said you were Rose."

"She is Rose, you moron," Al said, pushing me into The Three Broomsticks.

"Weasley?" Zabini managed to stutter out. "Well, you look…different…" he said looking from my flip flop clad feet to my loose hair. I suddenly felt very aware of how short my skirt was.

The look on Malfoy's face was absolutely priceless as we shut the door in his astonished face.

We sat down at a free table, took one look at each other's face and then burst out laughing. When Tess arrived five minutes later, after apparently escaping from Max we continued to laugh hysterically, trying to tell her what had happened through our peals of laughter.

"Malfoy hit on you!" she exclaimed when we'd finally finished relating the tale to her.

We nodded, our stomachs aching from all the laughter.

"At least one good thing came out of this make-over!" she said with a grin.

"Err…good?" I asked with my eyebrows raised.

"Yeah…you have evidence against him next time he insults your hair colour!" she giggled.