It's A Hair Dressers Life For Us
By: PepsiAngel

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from the Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling. Nikki, Tonee, and Jessica belong to me. The plot of Crossroads belongs to whoever directed it. Rachel is based on my good friend and fellow Potterette, Twix. Also, Moulin Rouge belongs to Baz Luhrmann.

Chapter Ten: Introducing Rachel

A downhearted Nikki slowly made her way into the salon, feeling as though just a squeak from the Wonder Pair would take her over the edge. And nobody wants to see Nikki when she cracks, because someone or something will die.

Tonee and Jessica had been watching Nikki for a little while and she seemed to be down in the dumps, just flopped across an overstuffed couch in the backroom. They approached her with caution.

Nikki peeked up to see who had the nerve to bug her, when she saw it was both of them she groaned aloud. "Yes, what do you need?"

They both stood, still as mannequins, and nudged each other until finally Jessica spoke, "We noticed you look…"

She looked at Tonee helplessly for assistance and Tonee obliged with, "Like a Gloomy Gus!"

Jessica nodded vigorously. "Serious Sally," she chided in a sickeningly cheerful voice. "Turn that frown, upside down!"

Nikki screamed and sat up quickly, leaning forward and aiming her long, pink fingernails at Jessica's neck. Try for the jugular! A repulsively jolly voice in her head thought. (It sounded remarkably like Tonee.)

Jessica squealed and backed away, right into Tonee's legs. They looked thoroughly frightened of her, and Nikki had to smirk. "Oh, girls, I am upset but you do not have to say such cheesy things to cheer me up!"

"Oh," began Tonee in uncertainty. "What do we do then?"

Jessica elbowed Tonee. "I think the question she meant to ask is, what's wrong with you?"

Nikki shook her head, "It's really personal. Actually, it is just plain brainless of me."

"Don't be so hard on yourself!" Scolded Tonee. "We will not think bad of you, no matter what."

Nikki still wouldn't budge but began talking, almost to herself. "I cannot let myself fall in love, I never have and that's the way it should be. I need to just do people's hair and live my pointless existence."

"No, you need love," exclaimed Jessica quickly. At the same time Tonee disagreed, "Your life isn't pointless. Individuals need you to do their hair, you are helping make a difference in the fashion world!"

"I suppose," shrugged Nikki, but she was smiling. "If I tell you though, you'll surely think I am pathetic."

"Never!" Exclaimed Jessica, her eyes becoming large. "Tonee and I are your friends Nic, we would never think bad of you. Or at least we'd never show it." She said all this extremely sincerely and it made Nikki just want to hug her.

"Okay, I am positive you'll have only negative thoughts about what I am going to say but…" Jessica and Tonee were on the edge of their seats (relatively speaking) and were going to die of curiosity if she did not continue. Sadly, Nikki took pleasure in drawing out suspense to the point that Jessica and Tonee could hardly breathe because they were getting ready to scream when she told them.

It got to the point where Tonee savagely shouted, "TELL US!!" Jessica would have glared at her, but she too felt the urgency to know.

"Alright," said Nikki with a sheepish grin. "I have a crush on Gilderoy."

Complete silence.

"I really truly like him."

Total hush. You could here an ant crawl over the floor because of the utter quiet.

"I am madly, deeply, passionately IN LOVE WITH GILDEROY LOCKHART!" Nikki hollered at the top of her lungs. At this point Tonee's eyes had bugged out of her head and Jessica was mouthing silently.

Were they going to say something? Nikki started to panic. What was wrong? Was the idea of her and Gildy that ludicrous?

However, she was proved wrong at this moment. Jessica and Tonee began shrieking and screeching. They hugged each other and laughed madly. They seemed extremely, almost scarily, happy about this

.

"I knew it! I knew it! I told you Jess, didn't I?" Tonee kept yelling over and over, her words slurred by laughter.

"No, you didn't," called back Jessica jumping up and down. "We thought she detested him!"

"Oh, I know," hooted Tonee. "I should have seen it though, they are so perfect."

This is when the tears came, pouring down like there was no tomorrow. Only they were not Nikki's tears, and they were not tears of sadness. They were cries of immeasurable delight, tears streaming down their cheeks symbolizing the bliss and ecstasy of love. Jessica and Tonee continued jumping around, laughing, and crying for several minutes.

Nikki grinned the kind of grin you cannot stop, no matter how hard you try, as she watched their display. "But it doesn't matter, he's gone." Her voice had grown soft and her smile faded.

Jessica looked at her as if she was insane, "So? We'll go find him!"

"That's right," agreed Tonee. "We know he went to Hogwarts, so let's just head there."

Nikki squealed and hugged them both, a little too hard for you could hear something pop. They winced but she didn't notice, "Oh no… but we still do not know how to reach Hogwarts!"

"Yes, that could become a dilemma," frown lines creased Jessica's normally smooth forehead. "I'm not sure what to do about this one. Tonee?"

"Let's ask someone how to get to Hogwarts," suggested Tonee wisely.

"Do you honestly think that will work?" Inquired Nikki in doubt.

"We'll see," shrugged Jessica. They looked around for someone, anyone, to ask. They decided to be spontaneous and just ask the first live thing they saw. Well, it had to be human but that was the only requirement. After seeing several trees and many birds, Nikki's eyes finally fell upon a petite adolescent girl.

They hurried over to where she stood, feeding a pigeon bits of stale bread. "By any chance, do you know how to reach Hogwarts school of Wizardry and Witchcraft… or Witchcraft and Wizardry?" Asked a hopeful Tonee.

The girl glanced up at them, her gray eyes questioning and full of suspicion, "Why?"

"We need to get there," said Jessica in desperation. The girl paused in her answering so Jessica added, "And we really should make it snappy."

Ignoring Jessica's hints, she replied, "I need to know your names before I continue speaking to you."

Nikki frowned at her before saying, "I am Nikki Mason."

"This is Tonee Freeman," she gestured at Tonee.

Jessica stuck her hand out and smiled, "And I'm Jessica LeClair."

The girl shook her hand and said smoothly, "I'm Rachel Wood."

"So, Rachey," continued Tonee sweetly. "Would you be doll and help us get to Hogwarts?"

Now, this could have resulted just the way Gilderoy's discussion with that man had gone. But there was a distinct difference between Rachel and this guy: She was a muggle born witch who had recently graduated from Hogwarts while he had been completely ignorant to the fact that wizards even existed.

"Not to be offensive or anything," began Rachel in matter-of-fact like tone. "But you guys act like giant muggles. How do you know about Hogwarts?"

"How do WE know about Hogwarts?" Repeated Tonee in disbelief. "I cannot believe you just asked that."

"Yeah," agreed Jessica. "And calling us giant muggles? Totally out of line!"

Nikki nodded, as if reluctant to see eye to eye with them. "Tell her how we know about Hogwarts, Jess."

Jessica stared at Nikki, at a loss for words. "Er…um. Well, we know." She offered, after stuttering a bit.

Rachel smirked at them, "Yes, I realized that. I'm so brilliant, I pick up on these things."

Tonee didn't detect the sarcasm in Rachel's voice and thought it best to humor her. "Right, you sure are. Genius, really."

"As we were saying," Nikki steered them back to the original topic. "Tonee is going to enlighten you with how we know of Hogwarts School!" From the way you she said it, you would think Tonee was going to do a magic trick.

"But…no. I thought Jessica had that pleasure?" Asked Tonee through clenched teeth.

"I cannot handle such pressure, you do it Tonee," responded Jessica, pushing the task back to Tonee. She was going to return the favor and send the duty Jessica's way again but Nikki was tired of the little game and stopped her with a death glare.


"Right," Tonee stalled for time. "The truth is a guy who used to work at Hogwarts came to our salon a few days ago and we gave him a job. He was an itty bit mad but Nikki fell in love with him anyway…"

"So we're trying to find him so she can be with her true love," added Jessica.

Rachel held her hand up to stop them. "Did you say it's for the sake of love?"

"Well, yes," began Nikki starting to feeling uncomfortable. "Will you help?"

"Love? True love?? Of course! Love is like oxygen! Love is a many splendored thing! Love lifts us up where we belong! All you need is love!" After this sudden outburst that took even drama queens Tonee and Jessica by surprise, she persisted in a rendition of the Elephant Love Medley.

The thing about Rachel Wood that you must know is she's not a very good singer. Frankly, the girl is dreadful and the other three hurriedly stopped her performance before any of the nearby pigeons took their own lives.

"Er, that's really good." Tonee lied blatantly to save herself from the torture that Rachel was inadvertently causing.

Rachel pushed a lock of strawberry blonde hair away from her eyes and commented sincerely, "I do what I can."

And believe me, dear, you've done enough, Jessica thought resentfully. Out loud she said, "Would you like to come with us to Hogwarts?" Of course, Rachel kind of had to come but Jessica didn't let her know they were depending on her. No siree, she was not going to let this girl that barely hit puberty be a deciding factor in Nikki's fate! That would be all up to her and Tonee.

This was a much safer place for Nikki's fate to be, of course.

"Would I ever!" Exclaimed Rachel, who immediately winced. She sounded like an extremely cheesy actress from a cheap movie.

Nikki felt greatly relieved, "Okay, then I suppose we should be on our way." She gazed at each of them in turn.

When she looked at Jessica and saw her whispering with Tonee, her heart sank. Those two planning something was never a good thing.

Tonee twisted around to face them, "We have an idea!" She gestured at herself and Jessica. "It's totally amazing, so try not to be completely blown away by our supreme brilliance and superiority."

Nikki raised her eyebrow and silently wondered if Tonee understood what she just said. "Oh?"

Jessica took over from here, ready to deliver the mind-blowing news to them. "We decided that we should make this journey to Hogwarts entertaining…" A huge grin spread over her features.

"Britney style!" Tonee added in glee.

If Nikki's heart was plummeting before, this was nothing compared to then. Her heart was sinking faster than the Titanic. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"A roadtrip, of course! It will be marvelously Crossroads too. We can take my convertible and listen to Nsync!" Jessica was talking so fast that not even she could understand herself.

Tonee continued their plans. "The only thing missing will be a hot guy to drive us! But I guess Gilderoy can be the hot guy we are chasing after… so we'll just have to alter it slightly."

Rachel smiled, thinking they were joking but Nikki knew better. As disturbed as she felt, she was sure her facial expression was dreadful.

"What, do you not like our idea?" Tonee's voice was a mixture of hurt, shock, and annoyance.

This was when Rachel realized how serious they were. Luckily, she did not mind very much and actually thought the trip would be fun, in a cutesy way. But she would not listen to Nsync! Okay, maybe she would. Under the condition, they would play something off one of the Moulin Rouge soundtracks though.


Nikki would have been revolted by the idea, seeing as she loathed anything you could relate back to Britney in six degrees, but she was so used to their cockamamie schemes that the initial shock had already begun to wear off.

"I have no problem with it," Rachel told them and held up her hands for emphasis.

"So, let's get this party started," said Nikki but her voice lacked the enthusiasm the words should have brought with them.

The four of them made their way back to the salon and Nikki locked up the shop. She flipped the sign so it read 'closed' while the others piled into Jessica's vintage convertible.

Nikki hopped in and they took off, ready to finally reach Hogwarts and more importantly, Gilderoy.

* * *

A/N: I know, I know, I'm drawing it out! This isn't such a good chapter but I made the beginning leading up to the roadtrip so long that I feel the actual trip needs it's own chapter.

*I offended a reader (Kathlene Burnell) and I feel badly about it. I didn't think about insulting anyone when I wrote the scene with Seamus doing an Irish jig. I hope you'll forgive my thoughtlessness and continue reading this story.