A/N: Sorry for the delay once again, I've been busy, since school is starting next week and I have a lot to do. Anyway, thanks for the wonderful reviews, I love getting reviews, and I'm glad people actually like my story. Anyway, I'll just point out that the stores name in this, Evening Stars, it wasn't until I reread this that I realized that that name is similar to LotR...so ya, I wasn't trying to put that in there as a reference to LotR, something I also love. It just happened by coincidence. Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 4 - Shopping with Ron
Both Monday and Tuesday passed with Hermione, Ginny, and Molly tidying up the garden. Fleur, who had helped for only two hours on Monday, had given up and decided to "oversee" their work. That job consisted of telling them what they were doing wrong and reading Witch Weekly. By Wednesday, the garden had been emptied of garbage and weeds, but there was still a lot of work to do. Needless to say, everyone was looking forward to getting their dresses on Wednesday.
Well, everyone except Ron. Ron would be the only male going with a four females shopping. For a whole day. And with Hermione and his mother. He shuddered at the thought. For the past two days, Ron had sat in his room, saying he was working on his speech. Which was true, but not entirely. He had also been reading comics and thinking about Hermione.
The morning of Wednesday arrived, in rain and humidity, one of those odd days of summer. The morning started off typically, with everyone eating breakfast and then doing whatever they wanted until Molly finished all the things she did daily. This could take anywhere from an hour to four hours. Usually it would take three hours. But it seemed that Molly also wanted to get out of the house, so it was at 11 o'clock that they were ready to leave.
"So this store you want to go to Fleur, it is in London?" Molly wanted to know.
"Yes, 'eet 'ees near Diagon Alley, but we must go to Gringotts first to convert our money to muggle money."
"Well then, I guess we had better all use Floo Powder to get there, as Ginny isn't old enough to apparate yet." Molly took the flowerpot filled with green powder off the fireplace mantle. "You go first Ginny."
Ginny grabbed a handful of the powdery green stuff and strode over to the fireplace. Stepping into it, she dropped the powder and yelled, "Diagon Alley!" A rush of green flames engulfed her, carrying her there.
Following her was Fleur, then Hermione, Ron, and finally Molly. They all arrived in The Leaky Cauldron.
"Now," Molly began, after making sure everyone was there, "You three wait here while Fleur and I head over to Gringotts. We shouldn't be more than fifteen minutes."
"Alright Mum, we'll be fine." Ginny replied. Ron grunted.
As Fleur and Molly headed off to Gringotts, Ginny turned excitedly to Hermione. "So, what type of dress do you want? Do you know what colour? Because I think green or blue would look great on you."
"I doubt I'll get to choose the colour let alone the dress," Hermione replied, "But I guess we can hope that Fleur will choose something good, no offense, but your dress looks pretty horrible."
"Yeah, and it'll look even worse now that she's added more bows," Ginny replied sullenly, "But lets talk about your dress, at least yours will be more normal."
Ron grunted. "Can't we talk about something else?" He complained, "Like quidditch?"
Both girls turned and glared at him. Ron suddenly wished he hadn't spoken at all.
"We'll talk about what we want," Ginny declared, "And you don't have to join the conversation. And it's your own fault you had to come with us, you could've gone on your own to buy a suit, or with Dad when Mom made him go buy a new one."
"Well, I didn't know he was going!" Ron snapped.
"Well that's your own fault," Ginny replied, turning back to continue her conversation with Hermione.
Ron grumbled. He hated clothes shopping, why did girls find looking at clothes so interesting? They were just...clothes. He grumbled again, and hoped that this trip would only at least take an hour and a half.
It was around 11:30 that Molly and Fleur returned, all their wizard money having been successfully converted into muggle money. "Alright, so are we ready to go?" Molly asked.
"It took you half an hour to get money? I thought you said it'd be fifteen minutes!" Ron burst out crankily.
"Yes I did, but there was a line," Molly replied.
"And she could've taken longer," Ginny added, "So we're actually getting a longer time to shop, so that's even better!"
"So we're ready to go then? Molly asked again, ignoring the suffering look on Ron's face. "Fleur, you know where it is, so lead the way."
Fleur led them out of The Leaky Cauldron onto the busy muggle street.Looking around, she started walking along the rightside of the street. Everyone quickly followed her, earning a few odd looks from people passing by. Fleur led them to a store just off the street Diagon Alley was on. It had a beautiful sparkly purple dress in the window. The sign above the store read Evening Stars - Dresses and Suits for Special Occasions. Underneath that, another sign read 50 Off - Closing Sale.
"That dress is so pretty!" Ginny squealed, seeing the purple dress.
"I didn't realize this store was so close to Diagon Alley," Molly commented. She turned to Fleur, "And it is affordable?"
"Yes, 'eet 'ees very affordable, and there 'ees a sale going on."
"Well then, let's go in," Hermione said. She was rather excited about getting to try on these dresses, even if she ended up with one that wasn't that great.
The store wasn't that crowded when they got inside. In fact, it was empty except for a few people who worked there. Ginny looked around excitedly. "Mom, can I try on some dresses? I know I already have a dress, but can I please just try on a few?"
"After we see how your dress looks, and Fleur is satisfied with it." She turned to Ron and Hermione. "Now, I'm going to go with Fleur and Ginny to see what Ginny's dress looks like, because it's in the back where they do the alterations. While we're looking at it, you two can stay here, looking for the things you need. That way, we'll have some idea of what you want when we're done with Ginny's dress." She turned and left them standing in the middle of the store.
Hermione looked at Ron. "I'm going to go look at the dresses, so...yeah." She then proceeded to look at the rack of dresses in the front of the store. Ron stood where he was for a minute, then decided to join her.
"I didn't know you were looking for dresses," Hermione said once she saw him. "Is there something your not telling me?"
"Ha, ha," Ron replied sarcastically. "Hermione, can you help me find a suit?"
"Why can't you do it on your own?" She asked, pulling out a dark green dress.
"Because I'm probably going to choose the worst suit possible for a wedding."
"Yeah, you probably will," Hermione answered, now looking at the green dress.
"Can you do it? I want to get out of here quickly, and if you choose it, then we won't have to stay here that long. You'll do a good job choosing it."
Hermione looked at him. "I will?"
"You're a girl, you know what guys look good in," Ron answered impatiently, "What is it with shopping that girls love about it?" He added on, going into a rant. "I mean, why do you have to look at everything in the store? Anything would look good on you, so why do you insist on taking forever to find the one thing you think is most perfect?"
Hermione stared at him. Ron started to think that she was mad, and he had insulted her by saying she took to long shopping. "I'm sor -" He began as Hermione said, "Oh alright, I'll help you find your suit, but only because of your compliment." She smiled at him and headed into the suits section.
Ron was confused. He didn't know what he had said that was complimentary. Were girls just crazy? The whole time Hermione was helping him pick a suit, he was thinking about what he had said.
"Alright, this one would be good on you." Ron stopped thinking about his compliment and looked at the black suit Hermione was showing him. "Oh, okay," he checked his watch, "And it only took you ten minutes to find it. I would've been here all day."
"We still have to see if it fits, but I think it will." Hermione grinned and turned away, slightly blushing. Ron had complimented her not once, but twice. She felt so happy.
"So you've found Ron's suit?" Molly appeared out of nowhere, holding a package. A happy-looking Fleur and disgruntled Ginny followed behind her. "So then we only need to find Hermione's dress. We'll look while Ron tries his suit on."
For the next half hour, everyone looked for a dress while Ron tried his suit on. After he was done trying it on, he had no choice but to follow the rest of the women around as they searched for a dress. They had already found many that Hermione had liked, but Fleur had hated all those and wouldn't allow Hermione to buy them. It was finally Ginny who spotted the dark green dress Hermione had seen earlier.
"How about this one?" she asked. Fleur answered at once, "I like 'eet. 'Eet is very pretty, and 'eet will go with the flowers."
Ginny turned to Hermione who looked at it again. It was a spaghetti-strap dress, with the top part being really dark green. Around the waist, the dark green part split into two pieces that went down along the side of the legs, and around the back of your legs. In between these two pieces in the front was a lighter green colour. It was shiny on the light green part. The dress was a bit medieval looking. Hermione loved it.
"Excuse me." A voice said.
Everyone turned to see who had spoken. It appeared to be one of the cashiers. "We're going to be closing in five minutes, so if you're going to buy that, then you should now."
Hermione looked at the gown again, and checked the size. It was her size. It would fit, it should anyway. She turned back to the cashier. "Alright, I'm going to buy this."
"Are you sure?" Ginny asked, "You haven't tried it on."
"I will when we get home, and it is my size, so it should fit."
Hermione went to make her purchase, as did Molly with Ron's suit and Ginny's bridesmaid dress. They then headed back to The Leaky Cauldron, so that they could floo home in time for dinner, Ron celebrating the whole time, as he had survived an afternoon of shopping.
Hehe, no, you won't see Hermione in her dress until the wedding...Anyway, I hope I did a good job of describing the dress, I hate describing clothing...anyway, please R&R!