73: In Which We Get A Wedding Suit
There are some places men just don't belong. And this is one of them! Snape looked around the Patils' dress shop. Fabrics, fashion magazines, dress forms, and two identical smiling women surrounded him.
"I see Hermione got you to come," one of them (Padma? Parvati? Hell, how am I supposed to have remembered which was which after all this time?) said to him.
"Don't worry Mr Snape; we'll take good care of you. Come, sit, have a cup of tea, and let's talk suits." They led him to a desk towards the back of the store, plied him with tea, and began to pile pictures in front of him.
"Hello." The word echoed from the front, and much to his relief, Arthur and Ginny came back to join them. They all greeted each other.
"I hope you don't mind me crashing the party, but Hermione wanted someone to keep an eye on you, so I jumped at the chance. She's got the kids, and I've got some instructions on what to get you."
Snape raised an eyebrow, and both Patils looked interested as well.
"Instructions?" Parvati looked amused at the idea.
"Nothing too big, things like what flowers the guys will be wearing, and a reminder that Hermione hates yellow and orange."
Padma looked Snape up and down. "We wouldn't put yellow or orange on him."
"He'd look like a bleeding Halloween decoration," Parvati said.
"I concur. That's why no one has ever seen me in either of those colours."
"What kind of flowers?" Parvati asked.
"The women have black calla lilies, the men white roses."
"She sent you here to make sure that his suit matched something black or white?" Padma looked like she was about to laugh.
"She sent me to spy and report back."
"Well, then, let's get onto doing something for you to report back. We do however have a few rules for you Mr Snape. We have promised your beloved that we will not put you in black or in anything that can billow."
Arthur and Ginny both valiantly tried to keep from grinning and almost succeeded.
Once more Snape's eyebrow rose. I haven't worn anything that billows since I was at Hogwarts! Okay, that one coat, and maybe that robe, but it's not like I do it all the time these days. "We will keep buttons to a minimum, and the color has to actually make you look good." Padma took a sip of her tea, and her sister took over.
"That said. We've collected a selection of fabrics we think will suit you. We'd like you to go and pick one out for a suit, one for a vest and tie, and one for a shirt. We've also selected a collection of suit patterns that we think will do well with your physique. Once you've got fabrics, we'll measure you, and then we'll show you what the finished product will look like."
"Now get to it." Padma sent him off.
He and Ginny walked to the section of the shop the Patils had set up for him. Parvati grabbed Arthur and began to measure him. He heard them talking in the background about how the groom usually chooses the colours, and the best man wears a matching suit. Snape could see three distinct sections. Suit fabrics were in muted colours: greys, blues, greens, and a few maroons. The second sections he assumed was for shirting; the fabric was lighter weight, and the colours ranged from white to jewelled tones. The next section had to be for the vests: the same range of colours at the shirts, but in heavier, silkier, shinier fabrics, many with paisley patterns upon them.
"This could take hours," he said to Ginny.
"Let's make this as easy as possible then. What colours won't you wear?"
"Light blue, light green, any of the pastels." Ginny used her wand to remove them from the selections. Snape stared at what appeared to be a staggering array of fabric. "There's still too many. I usually buy off the rack."
Severus Snape, Master Spy, Potions Master, Teacher of Dunces, Man Who Survived Nagini's Kiss, looked like he wanted to curl into a ball and hide. The women looked at him and took pity. "Go look at the suit styles, we'll pick some colours for you," Padma said and began to put together collections for him.
Snape flipped listlessly through the pictures. They all looked pretty much the same to him. He could see that some of the suits had two buttons, some had three, some were cut a little tighter, some a little looser. They're all pretty much the same. Jacket, trousers, shirt, vest, and tie. Maybe I need to try and convince Hermione she really does want to apparate back to Vegas and get this done in out street clothing. He was brought out of his thoughts by one of the Patil twins coming back to him.
"We've got the fabrics set. Let's see what you think," Padma told him, and then led him back to the section of the store that until moments ago had been filled with fabrics.
"We each picked a color palette for you. Now you pick the one you like best," Ginny told him.
He looked at the colours and began to feel relived. Each of the women seemed to know what she was doing. A dove gray suit weight fabric, charcoal gray shirting, and scarlet and silver patterned silk for the vest and tie made up the first selection. Next to it sat a navy suiting, a white shirt fabric, and cerulean tie and vest with a very thin maroon pinstripe. Finally a suit of hunter green, with a cream shirt, and a slightly darker cream vest and tie.
He felt torn between the gray and the hunter. He liked blue, but he liked the other two better. "Can I see what the green and the gray would look like put together?"
"Certainly," replied Parvati. She finished up Arthur and showed Snape to the raised area in front of the mirrors. "We've got to get you measured." Measuring tapes began to float about him, measuring him more thoroughly than any time since the morning he went to Olivander's. Behind him in the mirror he saw Arthur studying one of the sewing machines with great interest.
"I think you'd look better with a three button suit," Padma said to him, and as he looked at the mirror one of the suits he had glanced at appeared on him. Then with a swish of her wand it changed from black to hunter green.
"That looks really good." He liked the green and cream. It made him look less sallow.
"I'll look like a Christmas tree in a green suit with red hair," Arthur said, looking up from his examination of a sewing machine.
"Sorry Dad, I forgot this would have to look good on you, too. Try the other one," Ginny added.
The colours changed and now he was in the gray suit; that looked good too. Now what? Get two? You can't wear both of them to the wedding, and it's not like you'll need two suits for much else. He looked at Ginny. "Did you have this much trouble picking out Hermione's gown?"
She smiled at him. "Nope. We've pretty much learned to let the ladies do what they want with us. It always looks fabulous."
"Speaking of which, Padma, switch to 34-c," Parvati called to her sister while looking critically at Severus. A new suit appeared, and the colours rapidly switched to the greys. Parvati walked around him, and then began to speak, "This is a much better cut, it makes your shoulders look broader, waist trimmer, and legs longer. You should stay with this style."
Snape thought he looked good. He though he had looked good in the first choice, but now he could see this one was better. "How can you tell?"
Parvati looked at him curiously. "Tell what?"
"How can you know what will look better on me by looking at the picture?" He saw a smile form on her face, an evil smile, and could sense the retort she wanted to say, something along the lines of any dunderhead could see what would look better on someone, just like any moron could brew a potion from one read of the ingredients list, but she didn't say it out loud.
"It's a skill. The more you practice, the better you get," she answered.
"Ahh… So, my friend tells me you are an expert at what looks best, so which should I choose, green or gray?"
"Get them both. They both suit you, but wear the gray to the wedding. It'll look better on you and Arthur. Wear the green the next time you take Hermione somewhere nice," Parvati answered.
Padma added one last instruction, "Wear the vest if it's a really nice place and just the tie if it's kind of casual. Come on Mr Weasley, let's get you back up here and pick the style that will look best on you. I'm thinking we'll go with the same general shape as Mr Snape's suit, but not quite so slim a cut…"
Which is how Severus Snape ended up with two suits, and Patils' Pretties added menswear to their list of services.