Dressing in Magic, Part 2
When the day of the ball finally hit, Hermione dragged Penny from her studies in the library, early, to the girl's dormitory at the top of Gryffindor tower. She cloaked her in an oozing layer of a magic potion Penny was unfamiliar with, and spoke an incantation Penny didn't catch because she was spinning around in circles. When she finally stopped spinning, Hermione was gaping at her.
She widened her eyes in horror at first, afraid of what she'd see because of Hermione's surprised look, but as her friend steered her toward the mirror, her eyes widened further in astonishment. From her head to her feet she was dressed in a beautiful dark red gown with gold beaded trim. The waistline was accented softly by gold beads embroidered into the dress robe.
"Oh Hermione! I can't thank you enough! Dra...uh...my date's going to be so surprised!"
Hermione snickered softly. She'd caught Penny about to say Draco, and it didn't surprise her at all that Draco had been the first to ask out this pretty girl named Penny. She was quite surprised that Penny had had no more than Malfoy's invitation to the ball, for even as a small girl, Penny was developed nicely, and she had the swaying hips that attracted so many stares, including a few from professors three or four times her age. On top of all that, she lacked the usual acne problems common to first and second year students.
Hermione nodded, "Sit down and I'll fix your hair. The Gown will last until well after the ball is over, but once you take it off, it will fade. You'll need to take a shower and clean up once it does, because you'll be sticky. That's one of those things I couldn't avoid with the spell, but I doubted you could pull enough gold from your pockets to buy a dress robe. Tell me if I'm wrong in assuming that?"
Penny remained silent while Hermione braided and pinned her hair into a delicate plait on the top of her head, and laced that with some of the material, chanting a quick spell with her wand aimed at it. A few gold beads and some red ribbon laced itself into the braids and accented her hair a little more.
Hermione grinned, and motioned to her bag of makeup. "Go ahead and pick whichever things you think you want to wear while I dress, I'll help you put some on when I am through..I wouldn't advise trying it on your own if this is your first time." she warned as she disappeared and reappeared with her own dark green dressing gown.
She picked up the bag and looked at the selection that Penny had dragged out of it. "Good choices..do you need help?" she asked, but Penny shook her head no. She knew enough about makeup to know that all that was needed was a dusting..a small amount that was visible only to someone who knew what to look for.