Chapter Twenty-One, as promised!
The next day, Araminta had to have Bollocksy help her wash her knee length hair. She brushed it out one hundred strokes in front of the fire until it shone like gold lamé. Then, Bollocksy helped her twist it into a long braid with green and gold ribbons (to match her uniform) running through it.
"You is looking like a real woman today, miss," said Bollocksy.
"I feel like a real woman, Bollocksy!" Araminta stretched her arms out and spun around in a circle. "I just hope I can keep up with my new classes." Her new schedule was sort of scary--she had every single class offered at Hogwarts on her plate.
Bollocksy brushed a bit of lint off Araminta's new robes (which were much longer and fuller through the hips and chest to fit her new figure). "Don't worry. You is the smartest girl--woman--that Bollocksy knows. You'll be fine."
Araminta sighed. "I sure hope so. Well, here goes nothing!" She left to go to her first class, Song Magic.
When she went out into the hall, she bumped into Professor Vector, who looked very distracted. He was towing a strange girl Araminta had never seen before and he looked harrassed. "You there, are you a seventh year? This girl is named Melannen, and she is a transfer from Hollywood School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I want you to show her around and make her feel welcome here. Don't worry about your classes; I'll tell your teachers to excuse you." He hurried off.
"Um, hi," said Araminta.
"Um, hi," said Melannen back with an American accent. Melannen was a little shorter than Araminta and she had big, cinnamon-chocolate-brown eyes and lots of brown, curly hair down to her shoulders with blue and purple streaks in it. She was wearing a collar with spikes and bracelets with spikes too. Underneath her too-tight robes she was wearing a pair of combat boots and she had on black eyeliner and lipstick. "Don't think that we're going to be good friends, okay? I'm here because I got kicked out of my last school for fighting. Watch your back."
Araminta stepped backward, then changed her mind and stepped forward again. "Well, I'm supposed to show you around, so let's go." She walked a little bit away but Melannen didn't come with her. "Aren't you coming?"
"Why should I follow some goody-two-shoes around?" Melannen lit a cigarette and blew smoke in Araminta's face, making her cough and wheeze.
Araminta politely waved away the first puff, but by the second puff she was angry. "Hey, that's secondhand smoke and it makes me feel bad. Could you put that out?"
"What?" taunted Melannen. "Do you really believe that you'll get cancer from smoking?"
Araminta snatched the cigarette away and threw it on the floor, then performed an X-ray Charm. "Take a look at your lungs. Do you see that black soot at the bottom? I don't know you at all, hardly, but I care about you. I don't want you to die. There's no way to get that smoke back out."
Melannen looked a little nauseous. (It made Araminta sick too.) She stomped out her cigarette. "I didn't know I looked like that inside. Thanks." She smiled at Araminta.
"It was nothing." Araminta smiled. "So, what kind of music do you like?"
"Oh, I like Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, N*Sync, the usual." She fingered her bracelet nervously. "Do you think you could show me around now?"
"I'd be happy to show my new friend around," said Araminta. They linked arms and jogged down the hall and out the front doors to look at the lake first.