Chapter 25
Saturday turned into Sunday, and soon Ginny was being dragged around London by an over anxious, and quite determined, Hermione. Hermione was not a natural born shopper, but when it came to anything to do with her wedding she would always become zealous. She was, of course, a perfectionist and wanted everything done properly. In order for that to be complete, her maid of honor had to have proper dress attire.
It was for that reason that Ginny was standing in the rain, her arm being yanked by her best friend who was attempting to pull her into the twenty-fifth store that afternoon. It seemed like they had been to every store in London already, but according to Hermione they hadn't. She reluctantly entered the store, a small ding of a bell was heard as she stepped in and let the door slam behind her. After brushing the water off her clothes and wiping her shoes on the rug, she looked up to see a somewhat scary looking saleswoman smiling at her.
"Hello there, good afternoon," the woman said. She was a plump lady, with puffy blonde hair and large rosy cheeks. She was wearing a light pink jacket with a matching skirt and her chubby feet were squeezed into a pair of heels. "Can I help you with anything?"
Before Ginny had the chance to say one word, or even give the woman an evil glare, Hermione popped up and began speaking to her. "Yes, we are looking for a dress for her, it's for my wedding and she is going to be my maid of honor..."
They began discussing colors and dress styles, leaving Ginny to stand there alone and take a peek at the store. There were racks of clothing everywhere and near the door was a counter with a machine on top of it, a cash register. Some god-awful music was being played throughout the store, and Ginny actually considered making a run for it. Then she decided against it, because she knew that Hermione would make her go shopping again.
Now don't get Ginny wrong, there is nothing wrong with shopping, it is a perfectly normal thing to do, but it is not her favorite choice in activities. She hated salespeople who attack you the minute you enter a store and put pressure on you to buy something. Growing up in the Weasley household they didn't have a lot of money to go shopping with, so Ginny got used to not spending much money. Yes, she would have liked to get new things, but her parents simply couldn't afford it.
Plus, taking the number of brothers she has into account, it is reasonable to see how Ginny grew up being somewhat of a tomboy. She always favored Quidditch to any other activity, finding that she was just as good as her brothers were. Not only was it boring to look through stores to find a dress that fit and didn't look ridiculous, as many brides maid dresses did, but she also had to find a pair of heels-- and wear both of them at the wedding, which was a considerable amount of time to be uncomfortable.
"Ginny," Hermione said, drawing her attention back to the women beside her. "Come look at these. There is a fitting room in the back."
Hermione led her into a room in the back of the store, where there were a couple racks on wheels at the side of the room with various colored dresses on it, three mirrors side by side, and stalls for people to change in. Ginny began looking through the dresses on the rack. 'No, this one looks like a tooth fairy costume,' she mused, looking at a puffy pink dress with sequins on it. The next several dresses were less bizarre, but still pretty bad.
Hermione was looking through a different rack, and casually she turned to her friend holding up a yellow dress and said, "How about this one?"
Ginny frowned and replied, "No, too Mary Sunshine for me."
They both returned to their own racks. Hermione put the yellow dress back with a sigh and attempted at starting a conversation. "How is the love life of Miss Ginevra Weasley these days?"
Ginny glanced at the brunette before responding with a solemn tone, "What love life?" and then finishing with a small laugh and a yawn.
Hermione gave Ginny a disbelieving look with her eyebrow arched, and not getting anymore of a response from her friend despite the look she was directing towards her, so she tried a different approach. "Well, what about Malfoy?"
Ginny's head shot up at the mention of his name and she grew silent. This was a sore subject with her, especially after finding out that her feelings for him were going unreciprocated. Then she replied with the best indifferent voice she could conjure up to say, "What about Malfoy?"
Her friend kept looking through the dresses before her as she said, "You seemed like you were starting to become smitten with him not too long ago and in the Chinese restaurant you were hiding from him. What ever happened with that? I know you said that you two were never going to be together, but you certainly cannot say that nothing happened."
Without thinking about what she was saying, words just slipped out of Ginny's mouth. It was not until after she spoke them that she wished she hadn't, because now she would have to explain to her friend what they meant. "Yesterday he made it quite clear to me that he did not return the sentiment."
"What? You said that nothing happened yesterday!" her friend exclaimed, surprised at this comment. Seeing as Ginny usually told Hermione everything, her omitting such an important detail was a shock to her ears.
"Correction, I said that it was nothing worth talking about," Ginny retorted, damning herself for mentioning it at all. Having to explain what happened would be like reliving it over again, and she already wished it hadn't happened to begin with.
"Wrong again, this is definitely something worth talking about," Hermione replied curiously and still speaking in an amiable tenor. "But if you don't want to then I'll let it go, it's just that you usually talk to me about this sort of thing."
"I'm sorry," Ginny said to her friend, turning away from the rack beside her. "It's just that I'm not ready to talk about it."
Hermione nodded her head understandingly and gave her friend unconditional affection as best friends have for each other. "If you ever want to then I'm here for you, whenever."
Feeling grateful to have a best friend like Hermione, Ginny gave her a smile and then proceeded to change the topic to one of more cheerful quality and happy countenance. "So, approximately how many people are going to be attending this wedding of yours?"
Hermione smiled and answered her with a rough approximation, which also happened to be very close to the exact number that showed up. "Roughly eighty-five or so."
"You settled on close family and relatives only then?" Ginny asked, knowing full well that her family alone held enough people to populate an entire country. She wasn't sure how many were in Hermione's family, but hers had to be smaller then the Weasleys'.
"Yes, we can't afford anything bigger than that," Hermione answered swiftly, pulling a blue dress off the rack and holding it up to her friend. Shaking her head she put the dress back where it was and continued. "It is enough as it is that Ron has five best men."
"Five?" Ginny asked, completely giving up on the search for a dress. She let Hermione look through them as she stood there inactively distracting herself with mild conversation pertaining to the wedding ahead.
"Yes. First there is Harry, of course, and then Fred, George, Bill, and Charlie," Hermione named, counting each one off her fingers.
"Every one except Percy," Ginny mused out loud, picturing the expression he would make when he is watching the wedding from the groom's side of the seating arrangements. "He still refuses to speak to dad."
"Mrs. Weasley did convince Ron to invite him, but there was no discussion about him actually being involved in the wedding," the brunette replied, pulling out yet another dress from the rack. This time the color of it was a light green. She held it up to Ginny, and after being satisfied that it went well with her hair color, handed it to her to try on.
Ginny took the dress after some hesitation and entered one of the nearby stalls. She quickly changed into the dress, only to find that it was too small in some parts and too large in others. Hermione requested that she see her in it, to judge for herself, and so Ginny exited the stall wearing it. They gave each other looks before they both broke out in laughter, agreeing with each other that the dress was definitely not the one for her.
Before heading back into the stall Hermione handed her another dress, and Ginny heaved a sigh as she changed into it. This one actually fit her and when she showed her friend she received a smile. "It looks great. I think we finally found a winner."
Ginny looked at herself in the mirror and agreed. This dress was not bad at all, and didn't make her look in any way embarrassing. The dress was a beautiful shade of lavender, and went well with Ginny's skin color and complexion. It had spaghetti straps, a small dip in the front, and it came to a stop around Ginny's knees.
Deciding that this was the best match they were ever going to find, the two friends bought it right away and only had one task left for the day- finding a pair of shoes to go with it. Shoes were usually the easier assignment of the two, but sometimes depending on the dress it was hard to find a pair that would compliment it.
They left the store in a hurry, and only had to walk across the street to make it to a shoe store. Now that she had the dress she had something to go by, and only had to look for a pair that went with the dress. Then again you have to take into account the comfort factor, although she was unlikely to ever find a pair of dress heels that were comfortable.
There was some more conversation on the topic of the wedding, as Hermione freely gave Ginny information. Her other brothers were making their way there, and should all be there for the wedding rehearsal the following day. She was excited to them again. She wouldn't be surprised if Percy didn't show, for although he still speaks to their mother, his relationship with their father was abysmal. He still ignored his father's presence. Then again, he might just show up to get on everybody's nerves.
Practically everything was already arranged. Hermione was a very detail-oriented person, and seeing as she decided to plan her own wedding, she didn't miss a thing. All of the witches and wizards attending were already informed of the situation, and were advised to not use any magic or even speak of such things. The Muggles coming, of course, had no clue about the other type of people who were coming. It was best that things remained that way.
Ginny was relieved that she finally found apparel, all she had left to do was go through the motions.
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing! I'm sick, got a cold and so I stayed home yesterday and came home early today, giving me time to update again as I sneeze and cough to death. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, probably tomorrow or Saturday, if not then by the latest Sunday.
Please review!! (Make a sick girl happy, lol-thanks in advance)