The Houses Competition
House: Hufflepuff
Class: Head of House
Category: Drabble
Prompt(s): (object) red dress
Word Count: 883
Warning for fluff and a bit of out of character. This is also a Muggle/Fashion Designer!AU. I would like to thank everyone who beta read this story for me. It truly means a lot that you would take the time out to help me like that. So, thank you all very much. I hope you all enjoy Flirting with Fashion.
If there was one dream that Lavender had ever had, it was to be a fashion designer. She'd always had a knack for picking out outfits for others. She also, to everyone else's surprise, was very experienced at sewing. She'd even made some of her own clothes during her teen years. But this was something much more different.
"Miss Patil will see you now," said a woman, who looked around the same age as Lavender, as she opened the large oak door that would lead to Lavender's future.
Lavender fidgeted nervously with her portfolio as she stood up from the uncomfortable wooden chair. If the objective of the uncomfortable seating was to make an applicant feel nervous and unappreciated, fashionista Padma Patil had done a wonderful job at it. She straightened her ruby red dress. The dress was one of her own designs. It was one of her favorite patterns that she'd thought of after a breakup with one of her first boyfriends.
"Miss Brown," the receptionist said impatiently, sounding like she had a lot of business to handle.
"I'm sorry," Lavender said, walking towards the door. "I'm just a bit nervous about this meeting."
The woman, whose desk nameplate read Pansy Parkinson, looked like she didn't care what Lavender was nervous about. Lavender normally wouldn't have blamed the woman for her uncaring attitude. But this was regarding her future and the least this woman could do was make some attempt to be professional.
"Miss Brown," said the Indian woman from behind her desk, standing up from her comfortable-looking chair, "I'm so pleased to see that you've accepted our job interview. I've seen some of your work and am ecstatic to see more of it. I hope you've brought your portfolio of work with you."
"You've seen some of my work?" Lavender asked, not realizing that her tone of surprise had registered with Padma. "I wasn't aware that anyone besides my friends from school had seen them."
"Why don't you take a seat?" Padma said, motioning to a rather more comfortable seat across the desk from her.
Lavender crossed the rather fashionably decorated office to the indicated chair. She'd never seen such elegant furnishings in her entire life. The sleek, paisley-printed leather of the chairs was an interesting touch. The large, dark oak desk was polished to a fine shine. Everything pointed to the fashion and design sense that one Padma Patil had.
"Here is my portfolio," Lavender said, putting the large black folder upon the desk and sliding it over to the dark-haired woman. She watched as the black folder was taken up by the other woman who looked rather familiar to Lavender.
Padma flipped through the portfolio as she looked with great interest at the designs and fabric swatches in the book. She seemed to be taking everything in with the greatest of interest.
"These look pretty good," Padma said, putting Lavender's portfolio down on the desk. "You have quite the eye for design."
"Thank you," Lavender said, blushing at the compliment.
"Is the dress you are wearing one of yours?"
Lavender looked down upon the ruby red fabric that covered her body. She nodded. "Yes," she said, smiling.
"What was your inspiration?" Padma asked, looking very interested in the answer.
Lavender knew that her future as a designer depended upon how she answered this question. She went into deep thought upon how to word her answer. "Well," she said, thinking about how she'd felt when Ron had dumped her for Hermione, "I designed this dress when I was in high school. My ex-boyfriend had left me for another girl and I wanted to make something that would get some attention. And this was what came of it."
Her hand fell over the form-fitting red of the fabric. The nearly non-existent straps of the dress were very thin and wire-like even though the fabric was soft velvet. She'd rounded out the outfit with a pair of knee-length black boots and a golden necklace. It was true that the dress was rather short and for a moment she almost regretted wearing it to her job interview. But this was the piece that she was the proudest of.
"Heartbreak is a prominent catalyst to bring out creativity," Padma said, nodding and taking in the outfit with a practical eye. Lavender could sense something else under that practical look. "Perhaps you can model some more of your work for me later on? Maybe after a nice dinner meeting?"
Lavender smiled. "Of course," she said, feeling like her heart was flying. She hadn't expected to get another interview this soon. But she was happy that she had.
"I can tell you that I am planning on hiring you," Padma said, smiling in a friendly manner. "I like what I've seen so far and look forward to seeing more of your work. I'll have Pansy send you the information for our evening meeting later."
"Thank you, Miss Patil," Lavender said, holding out her hand to shake Padma's.
"Padma. I insist upon it."
"Thank you, Padma."
"You're welcome. I look forward to seeing more of you."
Lavender smiled as she left the office. This was going to be the beginning of what seemed to be a rather lovely relationship. But that is a story for another time.
Also written for the following items on the following forums:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:
365 Prompts: 50. (object) Chair
Costume Party: It Balloon (color) red
Hot Air Balloon Rides: (object) dress
The Spooky Express: Pitchfork Point (color) crimson
Moony's Neon Cafe: Genres Drama
Showtime: Morticia (color) gold
Film Festival: Making Christmas (Song Lyric) My hopes, my dreams, my fantasies
Buttons: (characters) Lavender Brown
Days of the Year: 25th October International Artist Day - Write an Artist!AU
World Farm Animal Day: Chicken (trait) anxious
Colors: Crimson
Ravenclaw Characters: Padma Patil
International Wizarding School Competition:
Practice Round 2: Theme Aspiration - Write about someone with lofty goals. Prompts (event) a meeting at work
Monthly Challenges For All:
Link Maker: Same fandom, 883
Fall Bingo: 1E (Graditutde) 883
Settings Bingo: 1D Business Meeting) 883
Community Garden: Reader Digest (Your Major Fandom) 883
Hangman: Phrase 2 Reverse Meme, No restrictions, Guessing the letter S, 883
I hope you all enjoyed Flirting with Fashion as much as I enjoyed writing it.