"Lydia, I think we should take Daniel up on his offer to go to Diagon Alley," Ron told his daughter on a Sunday morning at the breakfast table, just a few days after they had arrived in the home of his parents. "It'd be good for you to go with a friend."

Lydia's low spirits lifted slightly for the first time in days. "Okay," she agreed. "I'll call him." She took a forkful of eggs and jammed them into her mouth along with the ketchup she'd insisted on decorating her eggs with.

Her grandmother cocked her head. "Call him?" she asked, puzzled.

"You mean, with a phelley-tone?" Arthur Weasley asked excitedly, waving his egg around on the end of a knife and spraying the wall behind him with yellow yolk. He turned to look at the wall and frowned.

"Telephone," Lydia corrected. "Yeah." Then she squinted at them and said, "You do have a phone, don't you?"

"Actually, no. Though I've been thinking..." Grandpa wheedled, getting up to get a towel.

"No, Arthur," Molly said firmly, looking at him sternly.

"Well then, how am I supposed to ask him?" Lydia asked in a slightly disrespectful tone.

"You walk next door and ask," Marie said severely. "Is that too hard?"

"No," Lydia retorted. "Let me go upstairs and change." She got out of her chair, carefully avoiding Arthur, who was wiping the egg from the wall, and went upstairs into her room. Once in front of her bathroom mirror, she carefully took out of a drawer a small bag of makeup she had bought without her parents' permission. Out came mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow, cover-up, lipstick and lip gloss.

She took a long look at herself in the mirror. Brown – nearly black – hair, slightly, wavy, brown-green eyes, sloppily tweezed eyebrows, full lips. Her lips were the best part of her face, she decided. The eyebrows needed work. Fingers she wished were steadier held tweezers aloft, then she pulled out a hair.

"Ow!" she yelped, then, gritting her teeth, pulled another. After several more yelps and evening out of the different brows, she scrutinized her reflection. With a slight gasp of horror she realized her eyebrows were now a different shape and much thinner! She groaned, feeling like she might cry, then took a deep breath and told herself it wasn't too bad and she needed a change anyways. They were more even now, at least.

She took out the mascara brush and slowly brushed it against her upper eyelashes. To her dismay, her hand slipped and a black line appeared on her eyelid. Toilet paper wiped it away, and she tried again. Finally she got a coat on – clumpy, but it had to do.

Simple pink gloss covered her lips, and then she realized the red spot on her chin wasn't a dab of lipstick.

It was a zit, pure and simple. She'd had acne before, but not often. She pushed on it, but it didn't go away. It popped.

"Ewwwww!" she cried. It turned much redder than before. She picked up the cover-up and applied a bit. The cover-up didn't match by at least two shades, but she had to make do, so she smeared it a bit. Well, you could tell she was wearing cover-up, but it was better than a red spot on her face.

With a groan she took an overall look at her face. Lumpy mascara, cover-up...once again, she decided her lips were the best part of her face.

Why was she doing this? a voice asked suddenly inside her.

Because I want to look good.

Why just now?

Because I'm going to see Daniel...

"I don't think I have a crush on him," she told herself.

"Crush on whom?"

Lydia spun around. Her mother stood there, cocking her head much like Molly Weasley. "What do you have on your face?" she asked suddenly, coming closer.

"Nothing," Lydia said, turning her head and rushing past.

"No, I want to see!" her mother said, catching her arm and spinning her around. Her eyes darted across Lydia's face. "Where did you get makeup?" she asked.

"I...I bought it," Lydia confessed angrily.

"Lydia, you're not allowed to wear makeup at fourteen. Take it off."

"Why not?" Lydia shouted.

"Because you're too young. Now go wash that stuff off."

Seething, Lydia obeyed, but left on a bit of the cover-up. "I'm going!" she yelled, then left the house, slamming the front door. She knew the house to her right was Daniel's, and she walked over to the door and rang the bell.

After a moment, the door opened. "Oh, hey," Daniel said as her heart suddenly beat faster.

"Hey...you want to go to Diagon Alley for supplies sometime soon?" she asked.

"Sure... Hey, Phoebe!" he called. At his side appeared a short, blond-haired girl with a body Lydia instantly envied.

"Yeah?" she asked. "Who's this?" She smiled at Lydia.

"Lydia...uh, your last name is Weasley right? Oh, yeah, of course, since your dad's the...yeah, anyways, this is Phoebe McCrey."

"We're just about to go to a movie," Phoebe said. "Can this wait? No offence, Lydia, but we're going to miss the movie if we don't hurry." She flashed a friendly smile to show she wasn't trying to shoo Lydia away.

A movie? Lydia asked herself, then brushed the thought away. "Oh, okay, but so when can we go?"

"How about tomorrow?" Daniel asked.

"Fine by me," Lydia said.

"I'm gonna get my purse," Phoebe told Daniel, briefly kissing his cheek...awfully close to his lips.

Lydia's heart sank faster than an anchor. Trying to keep the unhappiness out of her face, she asked casually, "So, you guys going out?"

"Kind of..." Daniel said. He leaned closer to her. "I don't really like her, but she asked me out, so..."

Instantly the previously sunk heart was filled like helium and rose. "Oh," she said, not successfully keeping the relief out of her face. "I see... Well, you guys have a great time! See you tomorrow...around two?"

"Sure. See ya."

She made a daring move and smiled flirtatiously. He stared for a second, then laughed. "You're funny," he complimented her. At least, she thought it was a compliment. Actually, she wasn't sure what it meant.

When she got home, she marched to the nearest mirror and reproduced the smile. Then she knew why he'd laughed. When she smiled like that, it looked like she was baring her fangs and widening her eyes – and her nostrils flared. At first, she hit her forehead with her palm in exasperation. Could the day get any worse? It did look quite silly though, she admitted to herself, and giggled in spite of herself. Then her thoughts shot to Phoebe. Did Daniel really not like her? She seemed so...perfect.

Just then Ron came up to Lydia. "I bought this for you a while ago, but I guess now is the time you'll need it most." He shoved something into her hands. Lydia looked, and saw a silver and black cell phone. Her eyes widened with delight, and she threw her arms around her father, saying, "Oooooh, thank you Daddy!" She hadn't called him "Daddy" since she was little, but her very own cell phone...

"Take good care of it, and don't go over your ten thousand minutes a month," Ron reminded her.

"Ten thousand minutes?" Lydia shrieked. "This will be so cool to use at school!"

Ron's mouth quivered upward slightly. "Ah... Okay, you go ahead and bring it to school... Not much use it'll be though..." And he walked away.

Not much use? Did they ban cell phones? She hoped not. Now she could call Daniel! Abruptly she realized she didn't have his number. Then her phone rang. Hesitantly, she pressed the green button and held the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Lydia." It was Daniel!

"Funny, I was just wondering what your number was."

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm on Phoebe's cell; we're in a long line for the movie. We'll probably miss some of it, and I decided to call the number your dad gave me." Then he told her his home number.

"Great," she said. "I'll program it into my phone right away."

"Oh, we're buying tickets now, gotta go!"

"Bye!" Then the line went dead.

She grinned suddenly and hung up. A cell phone! Now, she decided as she punched in several numbers, to call my friends...