Chapter 8


(A/N – This chapter gets slightly more interesting! Well, in my weird mind it gets more interesting).


"Yeah, you think?" I beamed at Victoire and the lady who owned the store. I looked down at my dress. If only there was a mirror in front of me to see how I looked.

"You need to get that dress!" Victoire told me, "it looks perfect on you!"

"That dress makes your red hair look darling!" the owner complimented me.

I laughed, "I don't even know how it even looks on me, so I can't really say, can I?"

"Well, you're getting back in that dressing room and looking at yourself and for sure we're getting that dress, Rose. There is no way you're going to show up at the Yule Ball without that dress on," Victoire said to me, her blue eyes growing wide and there was a huge grin on her face.

"Okay, okay. I guess we'll buy this dress then," I said to Victoire. She seemed pretty passionate about me wearing this dress to the Yule Ball and her opinion on style and dresses and clothes were important to me now because well, I couldn't trust my own opinion. I wasn't really big on clothes and dressing to look good.

"You know we are," I heard Victoire call as I walked back to the dressing rooms in the back of the store to change out of the dress and into the clothes I was wearing before.

Once I got back into the dressing room and shut the door behind me, I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. Victoire was right: this dress did look good on me, in my opinion. The green complimented (if you could say) my red hair and it didn't make me look washed out like some of the previous dresses I've worn made me look.

I slid out of the dress and back into my old clothes. After changing, I looked at the pile of green dresses that were lying on the bench and that I didn't try on. The dress that I wanted to buy for the ball was in my hand. Picking up the pile of green dresses so I could return them to the front and pay for the one I was to buy, I exited the dressing room the way I came in: pushing it open with my shoulder as my arms were full.

I walked out to the front of the store. "Here are the dresses," I said to the owner, holding out the dresses.

"Oh! That's great. You could just put them on the counter," she pointed at the counter, "are you ready to pay?"

"Yeah." I nodded and turned to Victoire, "unless you want to buy anything or something."

Victoire laughed. "No. Do you want me to pay or do you have your own money?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I have my own money. Thanks for offering though." I smiled at my cousin, happy that she had offered. I had basically brought half of my life savings, not to sound hyperbolic, but about ¼ of the money I possessed and had available to me. I had remembered throwing in about 9 or 10 Galleons and a couple of Sickles into the Muggle airmail coin pouch I had gotten over the summer.

I'm pretty sure that was more than enough money, after all, it was just a dress right? Usually on trips to Hogsmeade, I just brought around 1 or 2 Galleons and a couple of Sickles and that was always more than enough.

Victoire and I walked up to the cash register to pay. I laid the dress out on the counter for her to fold or do whatever it is the people do at clothing stores when you pay for them. "7 Galleons, please," the owner said to me.

I nodded as I reached into my pocket to pull out my coin bag. It wasn't very big and was pocket-size. I unzipped the zipper and pulled out a few Galleons. I laid them out on the countertop to see how Galleons so far that was: 4. I counted out three more and put them on the counter.

"Thank you! Have a great day. Do you want a bag for your dress?" the owner said to me once she collected up all the Galleons.

"Yes, please," I answered her. I couldn't imagine how it would be if I didn't have a bag to carry my dress in and I was walking around Hogsmeade with a dress in hand. I'm not exactly the neatest person in the world and I tend to get things dirty. A lot.

She pulled a clear bag out from below the counter top and slid the dress into the bag. "You're very welcome! Have a great day!" she beamed at me.

"You too!" I answered and Victoire smiled at her as we walked out of the store and back into Hogsmeade.

"We did it! We finally found a dress for you!" Victoire squealed happily once we were outside. She made it sound like we had to go to at least 6 stores and I couldn't find a dress at any store.

"You make it sound like it was impossible to find a dress. We only went to one store," I chuckled. I was happy that it wasn't so hard to find a dress. In fact, the experience I had with buying my Yule Ball dress was easier than how I envisioned it inside my mind.

"But we did find you a dress! You look so beautiful in it, Rosie! I wish our entire family could see you in that dress," Victoire gushed as we started walking back to the more "populated" part of Hogsmeade.

"I'll promise to owl you guys pictures! One of my dorm mates has a camera that takes instant pictures. Of course I'm sending all of you guys pictures," I answered Victoire. Yeah, it was true. Lizzie had a- I think it was called a polaroid camera and we spent most of our time taking goofy pictures of ourselves and Spellotaping them up on our wall in our dormitory so basically the walls of our dormitory were made up of pictures of me, Summer, Zoe, and Lizzie.

"You better. Or I'm gonna make sure someone in our family'll send you a howler," Victoire joked with me.

"Oh Merlin. I wonder what a Howler really is like. I mean, I heard it's scary and stuff and embarassing, but really? Have you ever received a Howler?" I asked my cousin. I had heard of people getting Howlers but I had no clue what it was really like. I had never received a Howler in my life so I guess I didn't have the first-hand experiencing, but I had no idea if Victoire had ever gotten one.

"One of my friends got one in our fifth year. Seriously, never try to get one. It's bloody embarassing and people will remember you for it," Victoire answered me.

We finally made it back to the "center" of Hogsmeade, where the Three Broomsticks, Honeydukes, ect. were.

"So I guess this is 'bye' now?" I asked Victoire as we stood in front of the Three Broomsticks. Then I realized that I shouldn't have said that. Victoire was my cousin and maybe this trip was a chance for us to catch up and it was like I was pushing her away and I wasn't grateful of her company, which I totally was!

"Getting rid of me already, huh, Rose?" Victoire smiled playfully. She didn't look like she was offended by that or thought it was bad.

"No! I didn't mean that," I blushed, "I meant you probably don't want to stick around her forever and watch me do nothing in Hogsmeade, right?" Even though I was smart in class, I wasn't the smartest with my words.

Victoire laughed, "It's okay. I know what you meant. I was just joking." She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug.

"Thanks for everything, Vic. Have an awesome rest of the day," I answered her as she let go of the hug.

"You too, Rose. Bye! Tell me everything about the Yule Ball and don't forget to write to me, telling me all the crazy stuff you're up to at Hogwarts now," Victoire replied back.

"Bye, Victoire!" I gave her one last hug before she Disapperated away.

What was I to do now? Victoire was now gone and hanging out with my cousin was the thing I was looking forward to the most.

My friends were probably around her somewhere. I decided to head over to the Three Broomsticks to get a Butterbeer or something.

"One Butterbeer, please," I answered to the waitress once I sat down on a stool near the front of the shop and a waitress approached me to get my order.

"Hot or cold?" she asked me, scribbling down the order.

"Hot, please," I answered, smiling.

"6 Sickles please," the waitress answered back. I dug into my little coin pouch and pulled out exactly 6 Sickles and placed them on the counter for the waitress.

"Thanks. Your order will come shortly," the waitress answered and went off somewhere to get the Butterbeer.

I nodded. "Hey, Rose?" I heard my name being called somewhere. I turned around to see who it was that was calling my name.

"Oh, hey, Andrew," I answered once I saw who it was. It was Andrew Warner, a guy in my year. He had light brown hair and eyes and he was tall. He was a Ravenclaw and I had seen him around in my classes and I was sure I had talked to him at least once in my four years at Hogwarts, but we were never like close friends. We were more like aquaintances.

He walked up to me and sat down on the stool next to me. "Hot Butterbeer?" the waitress returned with a steaming glass of warm Butterbeer. My mouth started to water once the waitress placed the glass down in front of me and I could smell the rich and creamy, familiar butterscotchy smell.

"Thank you so much," I thanked the waitress.

"That looks good," Andrew answered, smiling, looking at my Butterbeer glass.

"Yeah, I know." I lifted up my glass and took a sip of the warm and creamy drink that I had always adored, "what's up?" It wasn't everyday that Andrew Warner came up to talk to me, even though we had talked at least once and like I said, I recognized him around the school.

"Well, you know how the Yule Ball is coming up, right?" He asked me. I set down the glass immediately once I heard the words come out of his mouth. He's going to ask me to the Yule Ball, I thought to myself. It just felt like he was going to ask me for some reason. But again, don't get me wrong, I won't mind if Andrew asked me to the Yule Ball. He was a nice guy and he played Quidditch as well.

"Yeah, what about it?" I nodded and I tried to hide my smile. He's not going to ask you, he's not going to ask you, I thought to myself quickly to try to get myself to calm down. He's going to think you're a weird ginger who was dropped on her head when she was born.

"Well, I was thinking, do you want to go… with me?" Andrew asked slowly, "unless you're already going with someone!" He added quickly.

I knew it. "Of course I'll go with you," I answered gratefully and happily, "it's going to be really fun. I can't wait."

"So is that a yes?" Andrew asked hopefully.

"Yes," I answered beaming, "I'll go to the Yule Ball with you."


A/N –

I was halfway done with this chapter around 3 weeks ago, but with me being lazy, I didn't upload it and I finally finished it today! How about we get the review count up to 5? You're my best friend if you review *gives doe eyes* But I feel like the ending of this chapter was a little rushed and the story is really slow, so I'll try to quicken the pace. Anyways, with a three day weekend, expect an update around next week, or the week after, depending on how lazy I am. Thanks so much for reading and please review! I don't mind constructive criticism. Bye, guys! J

- Juliet.