MONDAY MORNING
Hermione tapped her foot impatiently, insanely bored of the incessant queuing and nonsensical chatter, both seemingly necessary characteristics of Fashion Week callbacks.
Phaedra Marcello was famed amongst models for her melodramatics, specializing in screaming pre-show rants and chain-smoking pale pink 'bitch stick' cigarettes. Her bony fingers would pinch and criticize each model's; posture, body, face, hair, nails, skin, weight, eyes and on one memorable occasion, a poor witch's eyelashes.
Had Hermione's agent not stressed the importance of remaining on Phaedra's radar, she would have given up long ago in search of a well-needed caffeine fix, however the designer's influence amongst fellow fashion houses was indispensible.
"Next ten move forward. Portfolios out and jackets off."
A loud nasal voice reverberated around the large atrium, rebounding off the decorative high ceilings and cool marble-slab floor. The army of genetically blessed witches marched forward, each clutching calling cards and shrugging off top layers to expose the pseudo-model uniform of plain white and black t-shirts, paired with paint-on, second skin jeans.
Hermione slipped off her fur jacket and unzipped her dragon skin portfolio case, checking her Polaroids and contact details for any discrepancies. Lilah Huppler turned and gave her arm a squeeze before moving towards the desk, leaving her at the front of the queue.
Lilah, a fellow model, was a reasonably good friend of the girls'; having walked in numerous fashion shows over the years, with both, Pansy and Hermione.
Having finished with Lilah, the slightly drained looking woman behind the desk motioned for Hermione to move forwards, extending her arm for the necessary documents. Quickly panning the photographs, she dismissed Hermione with a curt nod, gesturing for her to move through to the room on the right.
Upon walking into said room, she was met with yet another smaller queue of models; each clutching their previously disrobed jackets, preparing to walk for an additional panel of judges.
Hermione exhaled, psyching herself up for the runway portion of the audition. Stretching her neck side to side she prepared for a long morning of sore heels and cluster headaches.
"Pans my head huuuuurts"
Hermione whined and grimaced as she slid into the seat opposite Pansy. Crossing her arms on the table she threw her blonde head down before groaning, leaning up slightly to remove her bulky sunglasses, and then resumed previous position.
Pansy rubbed Hermione's arm, attempting to bolster her exhausted friend, although on reflection she was equally just as shattered. Their favourite café, Kaffeine, was busy as usual: a popular coffee haunt for young creative types in Soho with a penchant for indie music and minimal but comfortable décor.
"Tell me about it, Mione. I was at Marcello's for three hours before anyone even glanced at my portfolio where I was then kindly informed that not only was I already signed onto the show, they also already had my information and measurements from the swimsuit campaign last month!"
Pansy sighed as she recalled her morning's activities to the comatose Hermione, still face down on the table.
"Wait, why did you have to hang around if you were already signed on?" Hermione was confused as to why Pansy had voluntarily undergone the most trying of activities; queuing.
"Apparently the intern they hired to distribute the booking documents, broke up with her boyfriend and therefore has been 'as useless as a chocolate broomstick' for three weeks, which in my opinion is not a valid reason to semi fuck-up my morning."
Hermione snorted slightly as Pansy's Spanish voice lilted with annoyance and frustration. Moaning, she sat up, blinking slightly at the brightness of the sunlight streaming through the large, unadorned windows. Shaking her blonde hair back, she sipped at the cappuccino Pansy had so thoughtfully ordered for her tired brain.
"I'm meant to be going to Viper Lounge tonight with Draco if you wanna join by the way."
Pansy shook her head slightly before lowering her coffee cup and replying,
"Thanks hun, but I have an overdue date with my bath and a slim line Gin and Tonic. Oliver optional. He's on preseason at the moment and absolutely exhausted bless him, although apparently they're getting a new trainer or coach or something soon which he's excited about."
Hermione nodded, still sipping the holy grail of coffee, irrationally jealous of Pansy's plans to do absolutely nothing but relax.
Pansy continued,
"Lu might be game, she was saying that she and Yuri hadn't ventured 'out, out' since they'd been home."
"Yeah, I'll text her as soon as I regain some will to live."
Hermione paused before adding,
"Speaking of, have you spoken to her properly since she's been home? Like, how the whole LA situ went after moving purely for Yuri's movie?"
"No, I literally have not had a moment to even think since she's been home. My life feels one long list of call times and call backs at the moment. We should do Yoga and brunch on Sunday, make some actual time to just be the girls back together again."
Pansy's eyes lit up with the excitement of a girl's only date, a welcome haven in what felt like an overwhelming sea of work commitments.
Her blonde companion nodded fervently, keenly anticipating a battery recharge with her girlfriends. Blowing slightly on her drink, she closed her eyes before gulping deeply from the wonderful energy-inducing beverage.
Across town Luna inhaled deeply, focusing purely on her measured breathing and form. She moved slowly into the next position, the dim light enhancing her feeling of self-consciousness.
This TriBalance Yoga class, held in a disused warehouse in Chelsea was a favourite of both Yuri's and Luna's, with a sister studio next to Yuri's beach house in LA.
Clad only in a white vest, glitter black yoga leggings and bare feet, Luna had scraped her blonde hair into a messy bun on the top of her head, a few floaty, rogue wisps framing her serenely concentrated face.
Behind her stood Yuri, moving gracefully through each position, an impressive feat for a man of his height and size. He had pushed his wavy, blonde hair away from his face and was enjoying the relaxation of mind, body and spirit meditation after a hectic few months in LA.
Oliver, next to him, was not having such an enlightening experience. His Quidditch team, the London Lions, had hired a new physiotherapist and a provisional request was that he, as Captain, attends a Yoga class to demonstrate to the other players exactly how beneficial it could be.
Hardened by 4am practices, rain soaked uniforms and gruelling drills; Oliver had predicted that Yoga would be a walk in the park, a fact he currently, severely regretted.
Pre-season had wrecked his toned body, his teammates regularly vomiting after each session, eagerly anticipating the day their bodies would return to peak fitness and the torture could end. The deep tissue focused nature of TriBalance Yoga had stretched muscles Oliver had not previously been aware he possessed, grateful only for the dim light to hide his confusion at not immediately being naturally capable at a physical activity.
Moving back into position one, the class chanted the closing affirmation, before bowing to the teacher and falling out into soft murmurings and smiling at the feeling of complete limberness. Luna stretched down to the ground, pushing out her slim hips, before rolling up slowly, turning to the boys, a glowing smile lighting up her pretty face.
Yuri held out his arm, grabbing Luna's silver-bangled wrist and puling her in for a cuddle, softly kissing her forehead as she purred contentedly.
"Ol, how do you feel?"
Luna's melodic voice drifted over to her Scottish friend, an amused look in her eyes as she observed how confused he looked at what had just occurred.
"I'm not gonna lie to you lass, that was the weirdest two hours of my life. Not including when Pansy got drunk and made me write her memoirs."
Luna laughed, at the now infamous story of a highly inebriated Pansy demanding Oliver author her life story, despite the fact he was stone cold sober and half asleep.
"Bro, I promise in a couple hours you will feel like heaven incarnate. Like just so loose."
Yuri lived up to his Californian roots, completely zenned out on the good vibes released from his favourite Yoga class, before stretching his arms over his head and grinning.
"Okay boys, shall we head to Jamba for a juice and a sit in the sun? It looks so beautiful out."
Luna snaked her arm around Yuri's waist before leading the two men out of the warehouse, into the bright springtime sun.
"Mister Zabini, you have a visitor at reception-
"I'm not a bloody visitor, I'm his girlfriend-
"M'am you are technically a visitor-
"Why can't I just go through? I have a key-
"That's not protocol Miss"
Blaise and Draco laughed as Blaise's newest secretary's voice entered the recording studio, punctuated with Ginny's annoyed tones.
"Let her through Mia, and in future she doesn't need to be buzzed in. Unless she looks angry in which case you need to give me some pre-warning."
"Yes Sir-
"Blaise you fucking twat, I can hear you!
"I'll send her straight through-
"YES THANK YOU MIA"
Ginny swung open the enormous glass doors, entering the recording space to see Blaise and Draco laughing at her slight altercation with said secretary.
Swooping down she kissed Draco on both cheeks before turning to her amused boyfriend who pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her petite body.
"I didn't expect to see you this morning Gin?"
"Yeah, I thought I'd come on my way to the studio before I was horrifically harassed by your extremely attractive new minion."
Blaise held her body firmly in place as his melodramatic girlfriend attempted to swivel around and begin her diatribe on exactly why his new receptionist was so genetically blessed.
"Baby, I love you but I would appreciate it if you could pretend to be nice to my employees, despite how funny your 'disagreements' are."
Blaise rested his chin on the top of Ginny's head, rolling his eyes slightly at Draco, out of sight to the sensitive girl in his lap.
Mumbling incoherently, Ginny huffed in frustration before perking up again.
"Also, to add injury to insult there is about 5 million paparazzi staked out in front of this building, who now all have a beautiful picture of me in my dance leo and sweatpants."
Ginny laughed lightly as she gestured at her tight bodysuit and dark Nike tracksuit bottoms, uncaring of the press attention.
"Don't stress G, Blaise and I were spotted coming through this morning carrying an unhealthy amount of McDonalds so I think we all look as bad as each other."
Draco assured Ginny that she wasn't alone in paparazzi humiliation and stood up from the sofa, before moving into the recording space and donning a pair of headphones.
Blaise shifted Ginny more comfortably in his lap and prepared the sound deck for recording The Heartbreaker's front man's vocal track for their newest single, whilst Ginny settled in to reply to emails and enjoy the feeling of her man holding her.
SATURDAY
"Could we please have another jug of Pimms?"
Pansy smiled devastatingly at the waiter, who seemingly drifted away on a cloud to place their order. The four girls were happily settled outside of Koko's Bistro having picked a beautiful day to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the good weather.
She lowered her Céline sunglasses back onto her eyes, before smiling around at her friends, happily laughing at Ginny's tale of Blaise's newest bitchy receptionist.
They had recharged and refreshed their extremely worn out batteries with their favourite yoga trainer Jango, who was exceptionally discreet when it came to the privacy of his celebrity clients and then moved on to Koko's for a cocktail fuelled ladies brunch.
They were happily satiated, empty plates in front of the stunning beauties with the possibility of an ice cream later lingering around the table. Luna's laugh tinkled above Hermione and Ginny's happy giggles, before she poured herself a large glass of water, dehydrated by the warm sun.
"Girls, I'm just going to pop to the bathroom, do I need to order anything else on the way through?"
Everyone declined, full on the delicious food Koko had served them and Luna moved swiftly through the French doors and into the restaurant.
Thinking she could catch up with Luna, Pansy excused herself to head to the bathroom and left Hermione and Ginny lamenting over the bloody paparazzi; having both been caught out this week in sweatpants and minimal makeup.
Pansy slipped inside and headed down the cool, stone flagged steps, entering the bathroom quietly in her sandals. She moved towards one of the empty cubicles, but froze, stock still as she heard the unmistakable sound of Luna vomiting in the stall next to her.
Shaking her head she progressed silently into the adjacent stall and gently stepped up onto the slight lip, around the edge of the compartment.
Peering over, Pansy could see her friend bent over; forcibly regurgitating the brunch they had all so thoroughly enjoyed just minutes ago.
Heart beating wildly, Pansy left the bathroom quickly and quietly, slipping back into her position at the table outside and taking a large gulp of the water Luna had poured before leaving.
She drummed her fingers nervously against the table and tried to fight off the worried tears threatening to fall for her troubled best friend. Pansy would have to make a plan, and she'd have to make it quick.
A.N Another update, I'm shocked too! Please review, it genuinely makes my day/week/life. Thank you so much for review love on the last chapter after my severely long hiatus xo