~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vendetta Chapter 3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Old friends
A/N: Sorry that it took me so long, had a math test and school is really shitty now. Alright this is not a useless fill in chapter to conceal the lack of plot. Believe me! Thanks to all reviewers I love you all! Reread OOPh and I love it! Go anarchism, go the revulution! This is how you really should react when a regime takes over and deprives you from your rights. Damn if only Fred and George were real and could give me their inventions once. Ahhh the possibilties..... But on with the story, right? Right.
As soon as Pansy had left Hermione called up Parvati and Lavender, who had a little but successful designer label in London named Paravender, and no the name did not hinder their business. They still tried Sibyll Trelawney´s way of fortune telling, a habit that guaranteed a cup of tea everytime she went in there. And that she would soon meet her prince charming, who happened to look different every time. They also claimed they could successfully see the new trends for the upcoming season. Hermione was a bit surprised how well that worked out most of the time.
"Lavender? Hello this is Hermione, I need you for a little styling session tomorrow. Are you too busy?"
Most people wouldn´t have considered Hermione the type of woman that liked styling sessions. She would have agreed, but Ron´s dinner parties were famous throughout the city for being very snobbish. She had the connections, the money she earned over summer and the time, so there was absolutley no reason to look like the broke and bookish student she was most of the time. It was like Halloween, really.
"Hermione, dear, how are you? Oh, I would just love to do that, it´s been quite a long time since our last one. There´s so much I have to tell you, everything changes so fast. Oh and did you know that last sunday the Weird Sisters were at our store? It was so exciting, we had to throw everyone out and close it just for them. They spent a fortune, I tell you. Oh, Parvati is just dying to speak to you, ´til tomorrow then, seeya sweetheart!"
Hermione got along with them much better since they stopped sharing a dorm. She really looked forward to their meeting, since gossip was bearable for a few hours. Plus they gave her food for talk at the dinner party. They sometimes rivaled Rita Skeeter with their throughout knowledge about the rich and the bold.
"Mione, didn´t think I´d hear of you again. You have to call us on a more frequent basis. So another session, huh? What´s the occasion?"
"Dinnerparty at Ron´s "
Parvati squealed. The woman just could not express her emotions in a proper way.
"Ohh, lots and lots of rich, single businessmen. I have just the right dress for you, it is perfect. I think I even had you in mind when I designed it."
Another advantage about having designers as friends was that you sometimes got the flattering honor of being a muse, thought Hermione with a smile. Life was great sometimes.
"Parvati you know that I won´t dress up to get a man. I do it for myself so I spare me the shaming experience of being underdressed in a room full of preps who talk about your appearance for the rest of the night."
That had been a very hard evening, she had come in the naive thought it would be some nice little party with 50 people at most, all in casual outfits. Boy, had she been wrong. But after a few shots of various crystal liquids, things hadn´t been quite as bad. Ron still made fun of her behaviour on that particular evening, but she didn´t care. So what, everyone could lose her wand in the mousse au chockolate and yes she had to use her hands to retrieve it. So what!
"That was quite a trauma, wasn´t it? You´ll get over it one day. After all you have us on your side."
"And I´m thankful for that, believe me. When have you time?"
"All day long if need be. It´s our free day, before I portkey to Paris to promote our new collection. "
"I assume that business is good then?" Hermione asked with a sigh. Successfull friends were great, but not if you stayed behind so much like she.
"Business is good!" agreed Parvati. "Let´s say about 3 o´clock? We will have to do your hair to, since you avoid hair stylists like Slytherins. Bring your shoes, will you? Bye"
"Bye Parvati and greet Padma and Sean if you see them."
"I will, till tomorrow."
With her styling problem solved and not in the mood for studying, Hermione called Fred Weasley for a pre-party drinking session. They had discovered that the best way to avoid a terrible hang-over was to drink the day before. The second time you grew cautious and were rather abstinent, never mind ant- hang over potions . And at Ron´s parties she didn´t want to be so aware of most people there anyway. Some still recognized her.
Ron had called this measure extreme, but then he never reached Fred or her level of partying. They understood each other surprisingly good, once out of school and rules out of the way. Besides Fred just needed to take his mind of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes once in a while. Yet another successful friend, but he was down to earth and really cool.
"Fred? It´s Mione, are you invited tomorrow at Ron´s?"
"But of course, what do you think? Ickle-Ronniekens wouldn´t dare not to invite me, he wouldn´t survive it!"
"So up for a pre-drinking session?" "I wanted to call you this right moment, sweetie. We meet in the Rebels´ Lounge at 9:30, right?"
"That´s grand, see you." "Bye"
Oh yes, guys were great for that, no I-have-five-other-meetings-next-week- maybe, just I come or I won´t. And drinking with them was also fun, because a) you sometimes got your drinks paid and b) they didn´t launch into a crying session once they were drunk and feeling loneley. So they repressed their feelings, Hermione didn´t care. She had too much to do with her own anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
The Rebels´ Lounge was a good club for drinking. Not too loud music, no pop or techno, not too clean and the guests were not too picky either. You could pull quite a stunt here, before you recieved any attention at all. And none of the people they knew frequented it.
As she entered the room she was greeted by a rather beaten up looking Fred Weasley. She noticed the deep black circles under his eyes and the crumpled state of his robes didn´t indicate him having a good time eithter.She commented on it lightly:
"I see you have taken a time out. You look good, really. I´d probably consider a career as a businesswoman as well. It does be good for the teint."
"Shut up, you have no idea of what I´ve gone through. Hours and hours of talks with Malfoy, but the bugger won´t give in. Claims that he´s the only one able to help us."
"Oh, the man is a real pain in the ass. What are you wanting from him anyway?" Hermione seated herself across the redhead. Although the red contrasted in a strange way with his grayish skin colour.
"We want to conquer the asian market, but we have no knowledge, strategy, contacts or the faintest idea how to do it, but he does. Damn it. I really don´t know why he behaves like this. I thought there had to be something like a good core."
"The name Malfoy attached to the ferret face of his is quite selfexplanatory, don´t you think? There is no need for reasons to behave like a git for Malfoys, their inbreeding has made sure of that."
"My, my, you have become quite bitter, haven´t you? University isn´t the right place and we always have a job for such a brilliant researcher like you." he looked at her quite concerned.
Life at University was hard, since everyone seemed to think her good grades and her stipendium were given to her, because of her close relationship to Harry. Plus she was muggleborn. It wasn´t that they treated her espescially rude, but they made sure she never forgot what they thought of her. Fred´s and Ron´s offer that she as a potions student should join their team as a researcher was tempting, but unwise. It made her dependent without a real title and she wanted to learn much more before working for the rest of her life. And she planned to end her law studies with a work about the legal statues of non-humans in the wizarding world. S.P.E.W. would change the world, eventually. "Thanks Fred, I´ll get back to that once I´m finnished. Just wait a little while longer, will you? Hey you!" she shouted to the waiter, who didn´t mind her rudeness as it was the only way to get his attention. "Bring us four double vodka magics, will you?! Thanks."
A few drinks later Hermione was crying on Freds shoulder, he patted her lightly on the shoulder and tried to calm her.
"Hush, Mione. They can´t hold you down, you´re too brilliant for that. It´s alright, really."
"Bu..but you are are all so su successful and I haven´t even accomplished half of what I could have done. I.. I.. ju..st can´t get into the courses, no matter how early I am. They.. I .. murder..." she sobbed in a heartbreaking way.
Fred was trying to comfort her, but he really had no idea how. His overworked brain was not really able to come up with a proper solution and that he was drunk didn´t help either. She looked at him with her watery eyes, and reminded him a bit of Moaning Myrtle. He patted her gently on the back and hoped that unconsciousness would take either him or Hermione.
**************************************************************************** **************
The waking up was as usual a painful and exhausting business. Even more straining was the strive for memory, as it had left her about 12 o´clock. Had they tested any of his new devices? She hoped not, but since she seemed to have gotten home safely, probably not.
As the nausea left her enough to lift her head and look around she realized that the huge four poster Hogwarts esque bed was not hers. The fact that her clothes were lying across the whole room and she therefore was almost naked did not help her memory in the least. To her left snored happily a slightly drooling Fred Weasley, whose skin looked a bit grey-greenish. She hit him to wake him up, but was trying to do it silently since sounds were risking giving her a huge headache.
"Hey Fred." He woke up and groaned loudly. Then he realized that the sound was no good to him and his companion. "What did we do last night? Do you still remember?" "Mmhh, you were crying your heart out, while piss drunk. I had to take you with me, since I didn´t remember where you lived. I had trouble finding my home, actually."
Great. So she had whined about her life all night long and couldn´t even remember what she had been telling. Awful behaviour she despised in everyone else.
"Oh" an embarassing silence settled between the two. After three minutes of fighting her headache and bad previsions she asked:
"What did we, I mean what did I tell you?"
"That you had trouble in University, that you sometimes feel ugly because you haven´t had a date in months. You try but you don´t get any credit for you work whatsoever and that this feeling is getting to you." "Oh, so I just did a little soulstrip in front of you. I´m sorry, I never meant to. It´s just that... things are...difficult." Hermione suddenly bore a remarkably resemblance to a tomato.
"That´s what friends are for. I´m glad if I can help you. No reason to be ashamed, better to talk about it than to throw yourself off the next bridge."
"Why are we in the same bed? Your house surely does have a couch or something." Hermione´s brain was again working and their sleeping arrangements struck her as a bit unusual.
"I was very drunk and I think I tried to take advantage. I don´t know, as I was as if not drunker than you. " "Oh.And did....?" "What? Oh, no. No, we probably fell asleep." "But this incident is not influencing our friendship, yes? We´re above that" "Yes we are. We just have to be a bit more careful. "
Hermione hugged Fred in a very friendshiply way, then left to find an anti- hangover potion and a shower.
**************************************************************************** **************
A few hours later Hermione stepped in the store of Paravender, where she was greeted by a very happy and entusiastic Parvati that stood in an absolute designerish store. Which meant there were no clothes to be seen.
"Oh, dear, how nice of you to take the time. You look fabulous, really!"
"Hi Parvati. You are a very good liar, I han´t slept more than 4 hours and that´s just exactly the way I look. You on the contrary truly look fabulous, how did you accomplish the colour of your hair?"
Parvati´s head seemed to sparkle and shine, the hair illumed her like a halo. She could have played a saint anytime with it. The colour was hard to describe, somewhere between bloodred and bottlegreen maybe. Her dress seemed to match it very well, it was the same robe-dress thing cut that Pansy wore yesterday.
"Oh, yes. That was quite adventerous, but it´ll pass. Now, I have exactly what you need. Lavender is very sorry, but she had to meet with a very important business partner and says that next time she´ll have loads of time just for you" She cried as she vanished through a red-blackish door. The store itself was very fashionable with white walls and black yellow striped curtains everywhere, but unfortunatly also very ugly. But nobody listens to the voice of reason in fashions and nobody would have listened to Hermione anyway.
"Look dear, isn´t it fabulous? Isn´t it wonderful? Isn´t the greates dress in the world?"
Parvati was the Queen of overstatements, but the dress was beautifull. It was a very deep blue with a slit to her hip, which was not quite Hermione´s style.
"How.. Why... Parvati I cannot possibly wear it. It´s too showy for me."
And half an hour later Hermione knew exactly why Parvati and Lavender were so successful. While she stood at the table with Parvati, who gave her a generous 25% discount , and payed for the same exact dress, feeling slightly ripped off. Just at what time had the exact moment been when her denial had changed? When she tried it on? When she saw herself in the mirror? When she heard Parvati´s praise?
"Thank you, Hermione. It´s always a pleasure with you, you give me always the artistic freedom I need. Now, let´s see to your hair."
Artistic freedom! Hermione almost snorted in disgust, thought elsewise and asked Parvati nonchalantly:
"So, anything new in the world of the rich and the bold? I have to be up to date tonight, you know?"
While Parvati was totally absorbed in her hair, but she almost drowned Hermione in the endless flow of information. She tried to memorize it, for the lack of knowledge had also made for quite a few embarassing scenes. How could she possibly know that the husband of so and so went out with some model? How was she supposed to know that this was the wife of him?
".. and Draco Malfoy, or heart ripper as we call him after the worst breakup this year, is now going to study law to ripp other people better off, the git, but oh my doesn´t he look hot, I would go for him if not for Pansy, who is one of my best costumers...."
Damn. Not law. Not when she was studying that. Not now. Quite a few four- letter words came to her mind and she thought about the possibilities. She would see him, since she hadn´t managed to complete at least half of the first part. And he would get into all the courses with no trouble at all. The pureblooded ferret. Oh and never forget the endless remarks about how she had failed without Harry or Ron.
"Hey you´re done! And this time you truly look fabulous. Terrific! Marvelous!"
Hermione looked in the mirror and as every time barely reckognized herself. Her hair was for once neat and shiny, but not too straight. It was perfect and it did match the dress, because it was not overdone or ugly. Which was lucky if you thought about anything in fashion terms.
"Thanks Parvati, I would commit social suicide over and over without you. When I make a fool of myself next time at least I´ll look good!"
"Oh dear, you´ll be the star! I swear it. You look so wonderful, it´s a shame that you don´t dress up more often!"
Hermione hugged Parvati nearly suffocating her and feeling really thankful. With people like her she would manage any social event without trouble.
A/N: Now, what will happen? Coming up: Ron´s party and why you should not talk on toilets. Liked it ? Want more? Either find out my address and send me loads of money ( to all copyrighters: this is a joke, right? yes, there you go.) or and now listen up you can SAVE MONEY when you REVIEW! So, some things are for free, isn´t that fabulous?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Old friends
A/N: Sorry that it took me so long, had a math test and school is really shitty now. Alright this is not a useless fill in chapter to conceal the lack of plot. Believe me! Thanks to all reviewers I love you all! Reread OOPh and I love it! Go anarchism, go the revulution! This is how you really should react when a regime takes over and deprives you from your rights. Damn if only Fred and George were real and could give me their inventions once. Ahhh the possibilties..... But on with the story, right? Right.
As soon as Pansy had left Hermione called up Parvati and Lavender, who had a little but successful designer label in London named Paravender, and no the name did not hinder their business. They still tried Sibyll Trelawney´s way of fortune telling, a habit that guaranteed a cup of tea everytime she went in there. And that she would soon meet her prince charming, who happened to look different every time. They also claimed they could successfully see the new trends for the upcoming season. Hermione was a bit surprised how well that worked out most of the time.
"Lavender? Hello this is Hermione, I need you for a little styling session tomorrow. Are you too busy?"
Most people wouldn´t have considered Hermione the type of woman that liked styling sessions. She would have agreed, but Ron´s dinner parties were famous throughout the city for being very snobbish. She had the connections, the money she earned over summer and the time, so there was absolutley no reason to look like the broke and bookish student she was most of the time. It was like Halloween, really.
"Hermione, dear, how are you? Oh, I would just love to do that, it´s been quite a long time since our last one. There´s so much I have to tell you, everything changes so fast. Oh and did you know that last sunday the Weird Sisters were at our store? It was so exciting, we had to throw everyone out and close it just for them. They spent a fortune, I tell you. Oh, Parvati is just dying to speak to you, ´til tomorrow then, seeya sweetheart!"
Hermione got along with them much better since they stopped sharing a dorm. She really looked forward to their meeting, since gossip was bearable for a few hours. Plus they gave her food for talk at the dinner party. They sometimes rivaled Rita Skeeter with their throughout knowledge about the rich and the bold.
"Mione, didn´t think I´d hear of you again. You have to call us on a more frequent basis. So another session, huh? What´s the occasion?"
"Dinnerparty at Ron´s "
Parvati squealed. The woman just could not express her emotions in a proper way.
"Ohh, lots and lots of rich, single businessmen. I have just the right dress for you, it is perfect. I think I even had you in mind when I designed it."
Another advantage about having designers as friends was that you sometimes got the flattering honor of being a muse, thought Hermione with a smile. Life was great sometimes.
"Parvati you know that I won´t dress up to get a man. I do it for myself so I spare me the shaming experience of being underdressed in a room full of preps who talk about your appearance for the rest of the night."
That had been a very hard evening, she had come in the naive thought it would be some nice little party with 50 people at most, all in casual outfits. Boy, had she been wrong. But after a few shots of various crystal liquids, things hadn´t been quite as bad. Ron still made fun of her behaviour on that particular evening, but she didn´t care. So what, everyone could lose her wand in the mousse au chockolate and yes she had to use her hands to retrieve it. So what!
"That was quite a trauma, wasn´t it? You´ll get over it one day. After all you have us on your side."
"And I´m thankful for that, believe me. When have you time?"
"All day long if need be. It´s our free day, before I portkey to Paris to promote our new collection. "
"I assume that business is good then?" Hermione asked with a sigh. Successfull friends were great, but not if you stayed behind so much like she.
"Business is good!" agreed Parvati. "Let´s say about 3 o´clock? We will have to do your hair to, since you avoid hair stylists like Slytherins. Bring your shoes, will you? Bye"
"Bye Parvati and greet Padma and Sean if you see them."
"I will, till tomorrow."
With her styling problem solved and not in the mood for studying, Hermione called Fred Weasley for a pre-party drinking session. They had discovered that the best way to avoid a terrible hang-over was to drink the day before. The second time you grew cautious and were rather abstinent, never mind ant- hang over potions . And at Ron´s parties she didn´t want to be so aware of most people there anyway. Some still recognized her.
Ron had called this measure extreme, but then he never reached Fred or her level of partying. They understood each other surprisingly good, once out of school and rules out of the way. Besides Fred just needed to take his mind of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes once in a while. Yet another successful friend, but he was down to earth and really cool.
"Fred? It´s Mione, are you invited tomorrow at Ron´s?"
"But of course, what do you think? Ickle-Ronniekens wouldn´t dare not to invite me, he wouldn´t survive it!"
"So up for a pre-drinking session?" "I wanted to call you this right moment, sweetie. We meet in the Rebels´ Lounge at 9:30, right?"
"That´s grand, see you." "Bye"
Oh yes, guys were great for that, no I-have-five-other-meetings-next-week- maybe, just I come or I won´t. And drinking with them was also fun, because a) you sometimes got your drinks paid and b) they didn´t launch into a crying session once they were drunk and feeling loneley. So they repressed their feelings, Hermione didn´t care. She had too much to do with her own anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
The Rebels´ Lounge was a good club for drinking. Not too loud music, no pop or techno, not too clean and the guests were not too picky either. You could pull quite a stunt here, before you recieved any attention at all. And none of the people they knew frequented it.
As she entered the room she was greeted by a rather beaten up looking Fred Weasley. She noticed the deep black circles under his eyes and the crumpled state of his robes didn´t indicate him having a good time eithter.She commented on it lightly:
"I see you have taken a time out. You look good, really. I´d probably consider a career as a businesswoman as well. It does be good for the teint."
"Shut up, you have no idea of what I´ve gone through. Hours and hours of talks with Malfoy, but the bugger won´t give in. Claims that he´s the only one able to help us."
"Oh, the man is a real pain in the ass. What are you wanting from him anyway?" Hermione seated herself across the redhead. Although the red contrasted in a strange way with his grayish skin colour.
"We want to conquer the asian market, but we have no knowledge, strategy, contacts or the faintest idea how to do it, but he does. Damn it. I really don´t know why he behaves like this. I thought there had to be something like a good core."
"The name Malfoy attached to the ferret face of his is quite selfexplanatory, don´t you think? There is no need for reasons to behave like a git for Malfoys, their inbreeding has made sure of that."
"My, my, you have become quite bitter, haven´t you? University isn´t the right place and we always have a job for such a brilliant researcher like you." he looked at her quite concerned.
Life at University was hard, since everyone seemed to think her good grades and her stipendium were given to her, because of her close relationship to Harry. Plus she was muggleborn. It wasn´t that they treated her espescially rude, but they made sure she never forgot what they thought of her. Fred´s and Ron´s offer that she as a potions student should join their team as a researcher was tempting, but unwise. It made her dependent without a real title and she wanted to learn much more before working for the rest of her life. And she planned to end her law studies with a work about the legal statues of non-humans in the wizarding world. S.P.E.W. would change the world, eventually. "Thanks Fred, I´ll get back to that once I´m finnished. Just wait a little while longer, will you? Hey you!" she shouted to the waiter, who didn´t mind her rudeness as it was the only way to get his attention. "Bring us four double vodka magics, will you?! Thanks."
A few drinks later Hermione was crying on Freds shoulder, he patted her lightly on the shoulder and tried to calm her.
"Hush, Mione. They can´t hold you down, you´re too brilliant for that. It´s alright, really."
"Bu..but you are are all so su successful and I haven´t even accomplished half of what I could have done. I.. I.. ju..st can´t get into the courses, no matter how early I am. They.. I .. murder..." she sobbed in a heartbreaking way.
Fred was trying to comfort her, but he really had no idea how. His overworked brain was not really able to come up with a proper solution and that he was drunk didn´t help either. She looked at him with her watery eyes, and reminded him a bit of Moaning Myrtle. He patted her gently on the back and hoped that unconsciousness would take either him or Hermione.
**************************************************************************** **************
The waking up was as usual a painful and exhausting business. Even more straining was the strive for memory, as it had left her about 12 o´clock. Had they tested any of his new devices? She hoped not, but since she seemed to have gotten home safely, probably not.
As the nausea left her enough to lift her head and look around she realized that the huge four poster Hogwarts esque bed was not hers. The fact that her clothes were lying across the whole room and she therefore was almost naked did not help her memory in the least. To her left snored happily a slightly drooling Fred Weasley, whose skin looked a bit grey-greenish. She hit him to wake him up, but was trying to do it silently since sounds were risking giving her a huge headache.
"Hey Fred." He woke up and groaned loudly. Then he realized that the sound was no good to him and his companion. "What did we do last night? Do you still remember?" "Mmhh, you were crying your heart out, while piss drunk. I had to take you with me, since I didn´t remember where you lived. I had trouble finding my home, actually."
Great. So she had whined about her life all night long and couldn´t even remember what she had been telling. Awful behaviour she despised in everyone else.
"Oh" an embarassing silence settled between the two. After three minutes of fighting her headache and bad previsions she asked:
"What did we, I mean what did I tell you?"
"That you had trouble in University, that you sometimes feel ugly because you haven´t had a date in months. You try but you don´t get any credit for you work whatsoever and that this feeling is getting to you." "Oh, so I just did a little soulstrip in front of you. I´m sorry, I never meant to. It´s just that... things are...difficult." Hermione suddenly bore a remarkably resemblance to a tomato.
"That´s what friends are for. I´m glad if I can help you. No reason to be ashamed, better to talk about it than to throw yourself off the next bridge."
"Why are we in the same bed? Your house surely does have a couch or something." Hermione´s brain was again working and their sleeping arrangements struck her as a bit unusual.
"I was very drunk and I think I tried to take advantage. I don´t know, as I was as if not drunker than you. " "Oh.And did....?" "What? Oh, no. No, we probably fell asleep." "But this incident is not influencing our friendship, yes? We´re above that" "Yes we are. We just have to be a bit more careful. "
Hermione hugged Fred in a very friendshiply way, then left to find an anti- hangover potion and a shower.
**************************************************************************** **************
A few hours later Hermione stepped in the store of Paravender, where she was greeted by a very happy and entusiastic Parvati that stood in an absolute designerish store. Which meant there were no clothes to be seen.
"Oh, dear, how nice of you to take the time. You look fabulous, really!"
"Hi Parvati. You are a very good liar, I han´t slept more than 4 hours and that´s just exactly the way I look. You on the contrary truly look fabulous, how did you accomplish the colour of your hair?"
Parvati´s head seemed to sparkle and shine, the hair illumed her like a halo. She could have played a saint anytime with it. The colour was hard to describe, somewhere between bloodred and bottlegreen maybe. Her dress seemed to match it very well, it was the same robe-dress thing cut that Pansy wore yesterday.
"Oh, yes. That was quite adventerous, but it´ll pass. Now, I have exactly what you need. Lavender is very sorry, but she had to meet with a very important business partner and says that next time she´ll have loads of time just for you" She cried as she vanished through a red-blackish door. The store itself was very fashionable with white walls and black yellow striped curtains everywhere, but unfortunatly also very ugly. But nobody listens to the voice of reason in fashions and nobody would have listened to Hermione anyway.
"Look dear, isn´t it fabulous? Isn´t it wonderful? Isn´t the greates dress in the world?"
Parvati was the Queen of overstatements, but the dress was beautifull. It was a very deep blue with a slit to her hip, which was not quite Hermione´s style.
"How.. Why... Parvati I cannot possibly wear it. It´s too showy for me."
And half an hour later Hermione knew exactly why Parvati and Lavender were so successful. While she stood at the table with Parvati, who gave her a generous 25% discount , and payed for the same exact dress, feeling slightly ripped off. Just at what time had the exact moment been when her denial had changed? When she tried it on? When she saw herself in the mirror? When she heard Parvati´s praise?
"Thank you, Hermione. It´s always a pleasure with you, you give me always the artistic freedom I need. Now, let´s see to your hair."
Artistic freedom! Hermione almost snorted in disgust, thought elsewise and asked Parvati nonchalantly:
"So, anything new in the world of the rich and the bold? I have to be up to date tonight, you know?"
While Parvati was totally absorbed in her hair, but she almost drowned Hermione in the endless flow of information. She tried to memorize it, for the lack of knowledge had also made for quite a few embarassing scenes. How could she possibly know that the husband of so and so went out with some model? How was she supposed to know that this was the wife of him?
".. and Draco Malfoy, or heart ripper as we call him after the worst breakup this year, is now going to study law to ripp other people better off, the git, but oh my doesn´t he look hot, I would go for him if not for Pansy, who is one of my best costumers...."
Damn. Not law. Not when she was studying that. Not now. Quite a few four- letter words came to her mind and she thought about the possibilities. She would see him, since she hadn´t managed to complete at least half of the first part. And he would get into all the courses with no trouble at all. The pureblooded ferret. Oh and never forget the endless remarks about how she had failed without Harry or Ron.
"Hey you´re done! And this time you truly look fabulous. Terrific! Marvelous!"
Hermione looked in the mirror and as every time barely reckognized herself. Her hair was for once neat and shiny, but not too straight. It was perfect and it did match the dress, because it was not overdone or ugly. Which was lucky if you thought about anything in fashion terms.
"Thanks Parvati, I would commit social suicide over and over without you. When I make a fool of myself next time at least I´ll look good!"
"Oh dear, you´ll be the star! I swear it. You look so wonderful, it´s a shame that you don´t dress up more often!"
Hermione hugged Parvati nearly suffocating her and feeling really thankful. With people like her she would manage any social event without trouble.
A/N: Now, what will happen? Coming up: Ron´s party and why you should not talk on toilets. Liked it ? Want more? Either find out my address and send me loads of money ( to all copyrighters: this is a joke, right? yes, there you go.) or and now listen up you can SAVE MONEY when you REVIEW! So, some things are for free, isn´t that fabulous?
