Chapter Fifty-Seven: Preparations

"Inside my heart is breaking, my makeup may be flaking, but my smile stays on… I'll top the bill. I'll earn the kill. I have to find the will to carry on with the show…"
-Nicole Kidman, 'Moulin Rouge.'

"Well, I'm dressed," Mitchie announced to Chloe, who was struggling with Julie's elaborate costume. The American had merely buckled a fierce-looking collar loosely around her neck.

"Don't you have to get out of your people clothes as well?" the French student retorted in annoyance.

"Nope. I can go wolfy with 'em on."

"I always thought that that tore the clothes off you," Julie remarked. "That's always how it happens in Muggle films."

"What Muggles know about werewolves you could fit very easily on the tip of a sharpened quill and still have room for what I know about French ballet. Your clothes turn with you, which is why it's so vitally important to shake yourself off whenever you get wet. If you turn person with wet fur, your clothes'll be soaking."

"Is that why you won't let me give your fur highlights?" Chloe inquired.

"No, that's why I got so sniffy when Julie and Jen gave me a flea bath." The American scratched her neck thoughtfully and picked up a third muffin. "I didn't let you give me highlights 'cause I don't want 'em."

"Stop that!" Chloe implored.

"What?" Mitchie asked, a bit distortedly with muffin in her mouth.

"We're trying to get ready to face our mortal enemy and you're getting all the raisin ones!"

"You and raisin muffins! It's not like there were any blueberry ones left."

"There's plenty of chocolate chip and I don't like that kind!"

"Neither do I! Chocolate chip muffins are anachronistic." Julie gave Mitchie a look until she had finished chewing and explained: "Muffins are breakfasty healthy food. Chocolate chips are snacky bad-for-you food. It's like having champagne with hamburgers."

"Must you?" Chloe criticized, making a face of pure disgust at the thought of such culinary impropriety.

"Yes, I must," Mitchie replied, pulling the paper off the remaining muffin. "I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner…I'm liable to get butter on my cuffs."

"You let her read Oscar Wilde?" Chloe accused Julie. "And you've not got any cuffs on that!"

"'Course not. Cuffs on a vintage rock an' roll t-shirt'd look silly."

"Cuffs on you would look silly," the first-year teased.

"Well, since we're speaking of anachronisms, why's Julie in her sneakers?"

Chloe looked and Julie was indeed wearing the ancient pair of half-worn-through Reeboks. Her look of abject disgust was enough to convulse the other two.

"Chloe, those stiletto things really hurt."

"Yeah, Chloe, why don't you change her sneakers to look like 'em?" Mitchie challenged. "Give whole new meaning to 'looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker.'"

"Why don't you?"

"Okay. Just let me finish this muffin."

A few seconds of chewing and a spell later, Julie was wearing knee-high leather boots with stiletto heels, pointy toes, and chrome zippers on both outside and inside. "I suppose to say 'ta-da' would be inappropriate?"

"She's the Dark Lady, not a call girl!"

"Oh, thanks, Chloe, I needed that image in my mind." With a slight howl, Mitchie covered her eyes before snatching another muffin.

"Actually, I really like these boots," Julie announced. "My father would send me to a convent if I wore them…can you make me a red-and-gold pair for school?"

"I have the same pair but higher and with three zippers," Jen announced, entering and pulling a three-foot-long leather object from her suitcase. "They also came with a matching riding crop and bustier."

"Dare I even ask what you went as that Halloween?" Mitchie queried.

"Just a leftover from one of Lyff's sicker fantasies…I liked the boots, though."

"You know, Jen, if I wasn't afraid of indigestion, I could seriously forget to take my potion and hide out in his room if you'd really like."

"You need to go on a diet as it is," Chloe sniped.

That was one insult the Yank had a problem with.

"Good idea, Chloe. Maybe I could try some low-calorie French cuisine this evening." Mitchie gazed at the first-year and ever so slowly ran her tongue across her teeth as if gazing at a potentially nice hor d'oeurve.

"Knock it off, Chloe," Julie whispered in her ear.

"I'm sorry, Mitch."

"No 'fense, Frenchie."

"You wouldn't really…?"

"Eat you? Nope."

But the American did put the muffin down. Julie knew full well her friend was paranoid about her weight, and only eating muffins so she wouldn't have to eat as a wolf later. Personally, she really couldn't see why, as Mitchie was thinner than a good many other girls in school, and her height made the curves look perfectly natural, if not even more grown-up than others. But around naturally rake-ribbed people like herself and Jen, as well as obsessively appearance-fixated people like Chloe, Julie could see why Mitchie would feel bad.

"I suppose you could merely pretend to have forgotten your potion and scare him into a mild heart attack," Jen observed, zipping the leather boot up to near her thigh. "That, or you could merely dress up like Geri Halliwell. He's had nightmares about her since he was six."

"Nightmares about Geri Halliwell? He is a sick person," Chloe observed. "Who's Geri Halliwell?"

"My God, and you call yourself European," Mitchie remarked in shock. "Geri Halliwell was a Spice Girl in the late nineties."

"I always wanted to be like Sporty when I grew up," Julie recalled.

"Well, Seeker, you sort of are, minus the tattoo and the whole playing-soccer thing."

"And let's face it, Chloe is Posh incarnate." Jen smiled.

"Yeah," Mitchie agreed. "I mean, deciding whether to wear the little Gucci dress, the little Gucci dress, or, the little Gucci dress."

"I have no idea what you lot are on about."

"They were this band when we were just born and little kids, bit before that, actually."

"Lyff cried when he found out Ginger had left the band."

"Really?" Mitchie crowed before suddenly blushing. "So did I, actually."

"Yeah, but you were a girl and not a boy Slytherin. That's when all the nightmares started."

"Y'know, Mitch, I bet that's why he doesn't like you, y'know." Julie indicated the mirror opposite them. "I mean, with an accent and a few blond streaks, plus take the glasses off…"

"You're mad."

"No, seriously." Julie stepped off the stool where Chloe had been fixing her costume. "Follicus rechromus!"

"Merciful peace, the resemblance is uncanny!" Jen grinned and pulled a satin sequined leotard from her bag. "Wouldn't Donaghan just drop dead if you came home wearing this?"

"And Julie can be Sporty. Lovely, Jen," the Yank remarked sarcastically, a faraway look entering her eyes. Chloe suddenly realized what the older two had in mind.

"Oh, merde…you lot are getting that weird 'we're so clever' look…you aren't-?"

"I wonder what Professor Snape would do," Jen puzzled, looking more and more conspiratorial by the second. "I believe I've got a little Gucci dress that fits me…and Chloe can wear something innocent and cute."

"Halloween is not for another seven months," Chloe reminded.

"Yeah, but the April Fools' Masquerade Ball is just one away," Julie recalled.

"It's a nice idea, but could you turn my hair back, Julie?" The fifth-year returned the blond steaks to their normal red. "We really do have some serious stuff to deal with tonight."

Absently, Mitchie turned the gold ring around on her finger a few times, thinking very somberly of what she had to lose. For the first time, Julie noticed it and wondered what it meant. Jen nodded and zipped up her other boot. Chloe put the finishing touches on Julie's robes and then put on her own. Nobody touched any muffins after that.

Seeing Michelle Tyler serious about anything was enough to keep the others silent as the grave until Uncle Ron gave them a five minutes' call.

********************************************************************

A/N: Sorry this one's so short, but I had it done and the whole thing got erased, so this is the retyped first fourth of 57. I should be done with the rest in about two days.
-j. mcn.