Chapter 37 – Ball Planning
I was sat in my new room with Hermione, Luna and Ginny planning and designing our Wizard Ball dresses. The three girls were excited about the prospect of designing their own dresses. When I had received my magic I put it to use by making my own clothes designing program on my IPAD complete with a mannequin of my figure so I could see what the items were like on me without actually trying them on. Before we got stuck into planning I conjured mannequins of the three girls and gave them an IPAD each which featured the design program.
"So what do we do?" Ginny asked sitting crossed legged on Hermione's bed.
"Right well just click on dresses then start choosing what sort of shape you want, length you want, and colour you want. As you plan it'll appear on your mannequin so you can see what it looks like for real." I explained tapping on my own IPAD.
"Can we make our dresses glittery and add bows and stuff too?" Luna wondered.
"Yep you can do all of that once you've got the shape and colour picked. All you have to do is click on materials and extras." I answered holding up my IPAD to show them. You could pick everything from the material your dress is made of then you can add glitter, bows, studs, sequences and writing to name but a few.
"Or if you want animal print for example, just choose prints and there are loads to choose from."
"This is actually brilliant." Ginny chirped clapping her hands excitedly.
Fred and George had gone to work so left us ladies to clothes designing.
First of all we discussed what ideas we had for each of our dresses.
"I want something long and elegant." Hermione stated.
"Yeah I want something long too." Ginny added.
Luna and I decided on knee length dresses. I wanted a deep pink dress as pink is my favourite colour. I opted for thin straps and a bodice in a heart shape neck line, showing minimal cleavage. To jazz the top of my dress up I added loads of pink, silver and white sequins and diamanté in the shape of flowers. It was made of chiffon material that was floaty, coming to just above my knee with deep pink lining. For shoes I went for sparkly silver heels which had two straps on them and about a 4 inch heel.
Luna was up next. Luna in my eyes has always had a quirky sense of style and she loves to be different, not caring about what people think of her, which is a trait I wished I had. For Luna's dress we started off with a nude chiffon material with thick straps. She then added two layers of ruffles and a net underskirt, coming to above her knee. To jazz her dress up she added loads of wine, gold, silver and black sequins to it in rows. As the shape of the neck line was rather low, Luna put a peach coloured under top into it. Luna seemed so happy just sitting designing her own dress, in her own little world. She'd stop the odd time and she'd ask us our opinions on her dress.
"You and Laura could start up your own little business." Hermione suggested looking up for her IPAD.
"That would be so cool." Luna answered dreamily.
"The clothes designing I could handle, the business side of it not so much." I added.
"Fred and George could own the shop and do all the business side of things and you do all the designing." Ginny suggested.
Now that sounded a little better. Luna decided on gold sparkly shoes which a low heel that had a bow on them. Her accessories too were gold, sparkly with bows, her earrings were dangly bow ones and her bangle did too. Ginny was up next and decided on a deep purple, floor length, strapless gown with a heart shaped neck line. The bodice of her dress had silver diamantés on it across the top and middle with bands criss crossed on the front too. It showed off her amazing figure perfectly. She was teaming her dress up with multi coloured sparkly shoes which had a bow on them. Unlike Luna and me, she went for a 6 inch heel.
Hermione was last, mainly because she had no idea what she wanted. She spent about an hour scrolling through designs and dresses online to get some inspiration. She finally decided on a floor length black and deep red, one shoulder diamanté dress. It was red at the top and black in the skirt. The top was pleated with rows of diamantes and stones. It was the same shape as Ginny's at the bottom and the same material.
"Girls what do you honestly think?" she asked us admiring her dress.
"It's gorgeous Mione, honestly you'll look amazing in it." Ginny answered.
Luna and I agreed with Ginny.
"To be honest Mione you could wear a bin bag and still look good." Luna said.
Hermione decided on black suede heels which had a red heel and platform on them, complete with a red and black rose on the top. Once we were all happy with our dresses, we decided to try them on.
After lunch I got stuck into filling in my forms for the wizarding course.
"It's on special paper so it'll know if you lie." Hermione told me as the four us made ourselves comfortable in the living room.
I began filling in my personal details such as my name, address etc. The questions then got harder, such as
'why are you applying for this course?'
'How do you feel, it would benefit you?'
'Since gaining your magic, how have you used your powers?'
'What do you hope to gain from the course?' and so forth.
I have never been good at filling in any types of forms so I was glad I had the three girls to help me. Somehow our conversations turned to Ron. Ginny had informed us that after the drama of Hermione breaking up with Ron, he went straight to Grimmauld place to cool off. He spoke to Harry and ranted to Sirius about what all had happened. He had stayed there that night. He had thankfully cooled down by the morning and went to work fine.
"I didn't really speak much to him. I tried to stay away because I knew he'd annoy me, especially as my hormones are all over the place." Ginny said. "I didn't see him before he went to work but Sirius told him to catch a grip basically."
Ron hadn't contacted Hermione since and Hermione was glad of that. She had opted to stay away from the burrow but Molly had sent her an owl to see how she was.
"Ron came back to ours last night after work with Harry but Tonks and Lupin brought Teddy round so I didn't get a chance to speak to him. He seemed in good enough form though. He's apparently not going to the ball now. If Mum has her way he'll be there, if she has to drag him there herself." Ginny said.
"It definitely won't look good if one of famous trio doesn't turn up. Rita Skeeter will have a feel day." Luna said.
"Rita Skeeter?" I wondered.
Surely the horrible journalist woman wasn't still working for the Daily Prophet.
"Yes, she's still working for the Daily Prophet. She got her job back after the war. She hasn't been too bad surprisingly but you don't want to give her an excuse to write about you." Hermione answered.
"What is Ron going to do while everyone is at this ball? Sit at home with a tub of ice cream, drowning his sorrows?" Ginny wondered with a slight giggle.
The three of us burst into a fit of giggles.
"What's so funny?" A voice asked sharing the hell out of me.
I turned around to see George standing in the doorway looking smug.
"Oh nothing, we're just speaking about Ron not wanting to go to the ball anymore and him drowning his sorrows with a tub of ice cream and a girly chick flick." Ginny answered.
George just shook his head.
"Well if he doesn't go he's going to be Billy no mates as everyone will be there." George answered.
"Tonks and Bill might ask him to baby sit." Hermione said.
"Chance will be a fine thing. This is Ron we are talking about. I wouldn't trust him looking after my kids on his own. He'd probably fall asleep on them or something." George answered sitting down on the sofa beside me.
"Can we forget about that idiot younger brother of mine? What have you girls been up too all day?" George wondered changing the television to some sports program.
"Planning our dresses for the ball." Ginny answered proudly.
"And you've finished already?" George questioned looking shocked.
"Yes big brother, we've finished already and we're all set for tomorrow night." Ginny answered.
"Wow I'm impressed. I thought you'd be still be planning everything an hour before the thing starts." George giggled earning him a hit on the arm from Ginny.
"So can I see them?" asked George.
"No. Why would you want to see them anyway? Are you wanting one for yourself or something?" Ginny asked curiously.
"HA very funny sis! I actually want to know the colour of Laura's so I can sort of match." replied George.
My eyes lit up at his answer.
"Mine is dark pink." I answered.
Ginny raised an eyebrow at her brother. I then realised that pink would clash horribly with George's ginger hair.
"You want to match...right." he smirked.
"Speaking of the ball, who are you going with Luna?" George asked the blonde haired girl.
"Seamus." was all she answered.
"If Ron does go, who the hell is he going to go with?" George wondered.
"Do you know something, I really don't care. It definitely won't be me." Hermione answered. "He can go with Umbridge for all I care."
"Even though he's a git, I wouldn't want to subject him to that old bat." George answered.
Our conversation about the ball continued for a short while until Luna left to go and meet Seamus. Ginny also left as Harry was home from work.