Chapter 22

Mr. Smith's Fine Dresses was one of London's upscale dress shops, with tailors and several attendants on hand. It was clearly out of Hermione and Ginny's price range, but they did enjoy looking at the resplendent dresses that lined the walls of the shop. Hermione's favorite was red taffeta dress with a princess waistline and v-neckline.

After Hermione and Ginny had finished browsing, the boys dragged them back out onto the street.

"There's nothing there that we can afford," Draco complained loudly. "Let's go to some hole in the wall place."

"We could borrow dresses," Ginny suggested. "Then we wouldn't have to spend any money at all."

"Who would have dresses that we could wear?" Hermione said hopelessly. "Unless we wanted to wear vintage clothing-"

"That's it!" Draco crowed triumphantly. "I know just the place, it sells muggle vintage clothing, and it's absolutely lovely. It's called A Page Backward. Ninian recommended it."

Hermione looked at Pan and they both rolled their eyes. "Draco," Hermione said patiently. "Your family is stinking rich, they can afford fancy vintage clothing."

"No, no," he said emphatically. "This shop is very affordable, my mum only bought their really expensive stuff. But most of it is quite cheap, and in good condition too. Come on, you can't turn down an opportunity like this…"

Hermione looked at Ginny and Ginny shrugged.

"Why not?" she said, looking at the ground and scuffing her feet. "It wouldn't hurt to look."


The outside of A Page Backward was disappointing to say the least. It seemed like any regular muggle shop; and if Hermione hadn't known, she would have thought it owned by muggles. But as they were walking there Draco had briefed them on Madame Woodson's great work with

"Should we go in?" Pan said hesitantly as they stood clumped in front of the iron door.

"Why not?" Ginny said, shoving Hermione forward. Hermione pushed the door open, and they filed into the shop.

Racks and racks of muggle vintage clothing covered the floor shop. Hermione let her mouth drop, it was stunning to see that wizards and witches would wear muggle clothing occasionally.

She turned to Draco, and whispered in his ear, "Do witches and wizards actually wear this stuff? I had always thought that the wizarding world was rather priggish about mixing worlds."

"Some of us are," he said with a grin. "But check out that great Regency jacket. With magic we can keep this clothing in good shape, muggles can't do that."

"You should wear that to the ball," Hermione said suddenly. "Wouldn't it be quite cute?"

"I suppose," Draco said slowly. "But I think I shouldn't do anything drastic yet until the war with Voldemort is over. Wearing something like that would declare my allegiance, and that would be potentially dangerous to you and me."

"I suppose," she said quietly. "I'll go look for a dress."

"Ooooh," Ginny squealed, holding up a knee length black dress made of taffeta. "It's so beautiful."

"That is pretty," Hermione said admiringly as several muggles entered the store. "How much is it."

Ginny looked at the tag. "It says £11."

Suddenly there was someone behind them.

"Look on the back of the tag," a very bossy voice said from behind them. They turned around to see a tall buxom woman with long black hair eyeing them with a strange smile on her lips.

"Hello," Hermione said, holding out her hand. The woman shook it suspiciously.

The woman looked over Hermione's shoulder and narrowed her eyes. Hermione followed her gaze and found that the strange woman was staring at Draco.

"Do you know Mr. Malfoy?" the woman asked as Ginny flipped over the tag.

"Yes," Hermione replied, unsure of where the conversation was going. Suddenly Hermione remembered that she shouldn't have recognized him, he was under the illusion. "How could you tell that it was Draco?"

The woman smiled. "When you have known his family for as long as I have, they simply can't fool you. They're all very similar, personality wise."

"Ninian recommended us to this store," Hermione said, hoping this was the right thing to say.

"I should think so," the woman said, and it seemed to Hermione that she was like a cat, ready to pounce at the smallest slight. "Ninian buys all her dresses from me."

Ginny looked up from the dress, her eyes wide. "You own this store?"

"Of course," the woman purred. "I am Madame Woodson."

The name meant nothing to Hermione, Pan, or Ginny, but they bowed out and hurried into the racks. It seemed to Hermione that there was something vaguely familiar about this Madame Woodson...


Hermione, Pan, and Ginny browsed through the dresses with much attention to detail. Ginny seemed to have found the dress she wanted to wear, but Hermione and Pan were at a loss for ideas.

They were shifting through the dresses in the nineteenth century section, and Hermione was drawn to an regency dress with a long skirt and high waist-line.

"That would look very good on you, Hermione," Pan said, clapping her hands excitedly. "You simply have to get it."

"But the end of the year ball isn't a costume ball," Hermione scolded. "And I don't want to buy it if I'm not going-"

"Oh do be quiet," Pan said, shoving her toward the counter. "We're going to have a ball at the house on Knockturn Alley, with a ball room like that, how could we not? Let's say next Christmas, just to plan ahead, and you'll have to wear it then."

"Oh, I suppose," Hermione said, placing the dress on the counter. "But what am I going to wear to the end of the year dance?"

"We'll find something," Pan said strictly, as Hermione pulled out her wallet to pay Madame Woodson. "Perhaps Persephone can lend you something."

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione scoffed. "Persephone's dresses are all from ancient times, and I doubt they would look good at a formal dance event."

"You have a point," Ginny said. "But who's this Persephone chick?"

"Ah never mind," Hermione said, grinning madly. "She's dead."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Not even going to ask."

So, Hermione, Draco, Ginny, Harry, and Pan all hurried back out onto the street, and Ginny was the only one to have found suitable clothing for the dance.

"This is turning out to be much more work that I thought," Harry grumbled to Ron. "Who cares about how we look, I'm already wearing my dress robes."

Ron nodded. "Remember the last dance? God that was awful, boy am I glad that Fred and George bought me decent dress robes."

"Me too," Ginny remarked sourly. "You looked like Nearly Headless Nick in those old ones."

Everyone laughed, save Ron, but as they walked down the street talking spiritedly, Hermione's mind continued to stray back to the mysterious Madame Woodson.


A/N: Sorry my two week sabbatical ended up being three, but I needed a break from this story to get my groove back. I've been working on this story since last March, and believe me, even Hermione and Draco can get a bit dull. So now that I'm over my writer's block, I hope to bring it all back in full force. Terribly sorry about the dull chapter, but I was at a slow spot in the story, and I couldn't just skip a sort of important bit, introducing characters and all. I know, it's getting confusing, and hopefully everything will straighten out with the meeting of the Society of the Dead, and we'll discover who the other Hogwarts Necromancer is... So, leave a review, or don't, take your pick. :)