A/N: Happy last day of July! For those of you that will be reading this tomorrow, Happy First Day of August! Whoo! I kinda wanna make tie dyed pasta using food colorings...Anyway, I don't own anything. If I owned something, this would be canon. Is this canon? No, it's not. So I own nothing. I doubt that I even own my OC's, just because they exist in a world I don't own. So...yeah...
Friday evening, 8:50 PM. Everyone was heading back to their common rooms, as curfew started at 9. Ari was walking with Fred, George, and Reb. As the quartet began to split, Fred stopped Ari.
"Hey, you said you'd go out with me tomorrow, right?" He said.
"Yeah, I recall agreeing to something along those lines." Ari replied. "So it's a real date after all?"
"Yup! A real live, non blind date! Meet me here at ten?"
"You're going to sleep in and be late, aren't you?"
"Probably. But still, ten."
She shrugged.
"See you then."
"Later."
"Later."
The two parted ways, each heading to their own separate common room. When Ari entered her dorm, she found Reb going through her stuff.
"What are you doing?" She asked, surprised.
On Ari's bed lay a pair of jeans, which were probably the best jeans Ari owned. Then again, of the clothing she had brought to Hogwarts, they were one of two pairs of jeans. She didn't change out of her uniform that often, unless it was a weekend or a break where she stayed at school.
"Well, I'm picking out your outfit for tomorrow. Where's your purple shirt?" Reb asked, digging through her trunk.
"What purple shirt? I don't think I own a purple shirt." Ari said, sitting down on her bed.
"Yes you do. It's kinda V-neckie, really soft. You wore it a lot last year."
"Oh! That? That's at home. I didn't bring it this year." Ari said, remembering it.
"Dang it. I wanted to borrow that tomorrow. By the way, you're wearing this shirt." Reb said, holding up a light blue, long sleeved t-shirt. "And I'm pairing it with this bracelet."
Reb threw a bracelet at her. It was the bracelet, the bracelet that had appeared on her pillow last week, the one that kept popping up everywhere with no rhyme or reason. Ari, having caught it, stared at it for a moment. She didn't like the feel of them. Maybe it was their shade of blue. Ari had always preferred green to blue much more. Yeah, it was probably their shade of blue.
"Hey Reb." Ari said, looking up from them. "You know where these came from?"
"Yeah, they came from the top of your trunk. That's where I just found them." Reb replied, looking up.
"No, I mean, where they came from originally. They're not mine and I coulda sworn I got rid of them a while ago, but they popped up on my pillow last week for no apparent rhyme or reason."
"Maybe you forgot to get rid of them and they wound up under your bed and then some house elf was cleaning under there, found them, and put them on your pillow for you. They're pretty. Keep 'em." Reb said. "Where's your blue eyeshadow?"
"Probably." Ari said, sliding them onto her wrist. Maybe not her shade of blue, but Reb was kinda right. They were sorta pretty. Just not her favorite color. She looked up. "I don't own blue eyeshadow."
"Why don't you own blue eyeshadow? Everyone needs to own blue eyeshadow!"
Ari blinked at Reb. Reb might own blue eyeshadow. Reb had blue eyes. Ari did not. Ari had hazel eyes and blue eyeshadow and hazel eyes looked ridiculous together. Many a makeup mishap in second year proved that. Though why they even had access to make up at 12 was beyond Ari.
"Reb, you seem to forget that I have hazel eyes. Hazel eyes look horrible with blue eyeshadow." Ari stated.
"Oh yeah! That's right! You have to wear boring brown eyeshadow and nothing fun!"
"Yup, pretty much."
"Well, I'm still doing your make up tomorrow! Even if I have to use your make up!"
"Ouch, I feel insulted by that."
"You should."
Ari picked up her pillow and threw it at Reb, who squealed and threw it back at Ari. This began a ten minute game of pillow hot potato between the two girls, which resulted in Reb grabbing her pillow and hitting Ari with it. Which then started a pillow fight. As more girls filtered up stairs into the dorm, the pillow fight grew until it became another round of "Pillow Fight: Ultimate Showdown to the Death". Which a dorm mate called Lenore won. This happened a lot, with Lenore usually winning.
"Ha! I am the champion of the sixth year Ravenclaw dorm! All shall tremble beneath my might!" Lenore shouted, as she stood in the middle of the room in a victorious pose.
"Usurption!" Reb shouted, as she jumped on Lenore's back. "I AM QUEEN! BOW TO ME OR ALL SHALL SUFFER!"
"Someone's gone mad with power." Ari commented, as she got into her PJ's, getting the clothes that Reb had picked out off of the floor, where they had fallen during the fight. She quickly folded them and put them on her trunk, grabbing what was mostly her pillow and climbing into bed.
The rest of the girls had begun doing the same thing and in less than thirty minutes, around 10:30, they were all either in bed or sitting on their bed in their PJ's talking. Ari kept swearing that June was giving her dirty looks, but she wasn't sure if that was her imagination or if it was a fact. She decided on the idea that it was her imagination.
At about 11, Ari drifted off to sleep, amidst girls talking about the Tournament, what they were doing the next day, how excited they were for Easter to come even if Christmas had just passed. At about 9 the next morning, she woke up to Reb shaking her.
"Wake up! Ariel! Wake up! ARIEL DEBRA GORDON, WAKE UP!" Reb said, progressively getting louder as she went on.
''REBECCA ANN HALL! See, I can scream names too." Ari said. "Lemme sleep more. Ragh. Go away."
"No." Reb continued her shaking of Ari.
"Rargh. Fine, I'm awake." Ari said.
"Good, get dressed. You've got a date." Reb said, stepping away from her and tossing her the clothes Reb had picked out.
"What? Nah, never. I totally did not know about this." Ari said, sarcastically as she got out of bed.
"Well, whatever. Get dressed. I've got about an hour to make you gorgeous." Reb said, looking her over. "And you've got a zit. Three in fact, or at least three that I can see. Your hair looks like crap. You've got bags under your eyes. You're slouching. You look so attractive already."
"Thanks." Ari mumbled, throwing on her clothes and the mysterious bracelet that Reb was going to force her to wear. She sat down on the edge of her bed and Reb went to town. Reb somehow managed to cover up all her blemishes, do something with her hair, put on decent make up and give her time to spare.
"There. I'm done." Reb said, stepping away from Ari. She sniffled a little. "I promised myself I wouldn't cry."
Ari touched her hair.
"Reb, I ever tell you that you're a miracle worker? A beautiful, gorgeous, amazing miracle worker?"
"No. Tell me more things about me!" Reb said, bouncing down next to Ari and hugging her. "I like hearing about me. It's the best subject there is."
"Obviously. After all, it's about you." Ari said, rolling her eyes as she laughed with her friend. She stood up and smoothed her shirt. "I look ok?"
"You look more than ok. You look beautiful. More than beautiful, stunning. Because I worked on you. Because I made this possible. Me. I did this." Reb said.
"You...umm...You love yourself, don't you?" Ari said. But Reb had a point. Fred and her probably never would be here if Reb hadn't made them go out on that stupid blind date three months ago. So in a way, Reb was right. Ari would give her that.
"Yup! Can you tell?"
"Nope, not at all."
The two girls looked at each other and started laughing. Ari got up and grabbed a coat and a scarf, as it was February in Scotland. Cold. Oh, so so cold.
"Go! Go!" Reb said, between laughter, pushing her out of the dorm. "You've got a date!"
"Ok!" Ari said. "What are you gonna do?"
"I've got something planned of my own. Now go before I murder you!"
Ari was given a final push outside of the dorm. She ran down to the common room and then ran out of the common room, into the fairly busy hallway. She managed to find a kid with a watch and get the time. 9:50. She headed down to the meeting place at the bottom of the stairs before the Great Hall a minute before the meeting time. Fred was no where to be seen.
He ran up about ten minutes later and found Ari, who was leaning on a wall.
"You're late."
He smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah...Well, ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. Where to?"
"Zonko's first, Milady, and then to The Three Broomsticks." He said, offering his arm. She took it.
"Well then, Good sir, lead the way." She answered, laughing.
They began the walk to Hogsmeade together, heading out into the snow.