Chapter 6
"Where's the bloody brush at?" I yelled.
"It's in the drawer to the right of the mirror, behind the cards and Rach's make up bag!" Rebby yelled back to me. There is now a total of five girls staying in a room made for three. We're a little crowded and a little rushed.
We had come back to our room to get ready to go out tonight and had realized that Rach didn't have any clothes with her here, because she had only come to Diagon Alley for the day to pick up her books for school. So we pooled our clothes together and found some things that fit her and that she liked. We had invited her to stay with us for the night as well, and tomorrow she was going to go home and pack her trunk and join us here until we went back to school in a couple of days. Mikki and come completely prepared to crash in our room with us. She had even brought a sleeping bag to crash on the floor with.
However, Rebby and Becca had a different idea. They pushed the three big beds together against the far wall and set them up like on big huge bed, spreading the gigantic sleeping bag that Mikki had brought over all three and then covering that with all of the other blankets they could find. They did all of this while I was in the shower and when I came out they proudly presented it to me as the 'love nest' before racing to the bathroom door to try to be the next to get a shower.
"Here it is!" I grabbed the brush out of the drawer where Rebby had said it would be. As I brushed my hair, Rebby, plopped down on a chair next to me and began drying her hair out with her wand. Mikki soon joined us on my other side. "So what am I going to do with this mess of hair?" After I had dried it with my wand and brushed it out it looked like a giant puff ball. I looked like a red headed bride of Frankenstein.
"Here, try some of this on it. It's should get rid of the friz." Mikki handed me a bottle of hair stuff.
"Do you want it straight or curly tonight?" Rebby asked.
"I don't know. I was thinking I'd wear it down though."
"That'll be a first." Mikki commented.
"Hey!" I exclaimed. She was right though. I always wear my hair up in a ponytail or in a French braid down my back, other wise it gets in my way when I'm trying to take notes, or just walk. My hair is a bright copper red color and is so long that it practically reaches my waist now. Usually it's really wavy, but I sometimes straighten it or curl it. Most of the time, when I try to wear it down, I end up throwing it up into a ponytail five minutes later without even realizing I'm doing it.
"Why don't you wear it curly tonight?" Rebby suggested. "You can use this gel stuff and the curls with hold better.
I took the gel from her and applied first the de-frizzer stuff that Mikki had given me, then liberal amounts of gel before using my wand to curl my hair. When I was finished, it looked pretty good, but it kept falling in my eyes, and if it kept doing that I know I'll end up putting it in a ponytail. "It keeps falling in my eyes. Now what?" I threw my hands up into the air in exasperation. The whole make-up, hair-do scene was not exactly my specialty. I'm more of the quiet well behaved tomboy than anything else.
"Here, use these clips to keep it back out of your face." Becca, who had come out of the shower while I was busy curling, handed me two little beaded blue and green clips and sat down in the chair that Mikki had just vacated. I attempted to do as she said, but there was just too much hair, and the plan failed. "Hmm… here, let me at it." She stood up and, holding the clips in her mouth, used both hands to select a couple strands of hair on either side of my face and pull them around behind my head and clipped them in place with the two clippies. "There you go. Much better."
I turned and looked in the mirror. It was a lot better. The strands she had selected curved softly around the side of my head and where they met in the back they twirled together to form on big ringlet of hair. "Thanks." I said to Becca as she began working on blow drying her own hair with her wand.
Now for an outfit. "Where exactly are we going? Am I dressing casual or dressy?" I asked Mikki who had been put in charge of the plans for the evening.
"Casual dressy."
"Which is what?"
"Jeans and a blouse."
"Oh. Okay." I turned to my trunk and started digging through the clothes I had inside. I found a nice pair of dark blue jeans and threw them on before digging around and finding a green and blue blouse that both matched my eyes and my hair clippies. The blouse was long, ending just below the zipper on my jeans, and had four spaghetti string straps, two that tied behind my neck and two that went over my shoulders and connected with the back of the blouse. I grabbed my jean jacket as well in case it got chilly out later and went to put on my strappy 2 inch high heel sandals. When I was finished getting dressed I turned to the others, all of whom were dressed and ready, including Rach who had somehow managed to shower, do her hair, and get dress in half the time it took the rest of us and still look great, and asked "How'd I do?"
They all nodded their heads in approval and asked for opinions on their outfits as well in turn. Becca had ended up wearing her hair down with its natural wave. She had on a pair of dark jeans with a red, yellow and light blue bird that sort of resembled a phoenix embroidered on her right pant leg with a light blue v-neck blouse that tied behind her neck. She had on a pair of big black boots, her favorite shoes other than her converses, under her jeans and her favorite necklace on around her neck. The necklace was a blue and green gem with flakes of gold that seemed to be floating inside of it on a thin silver chain. She also wore a conglomeration of silver, blue, green and red home made bracelets on her wrists and a white gold ring with an aquamarine stone set in it. She told me once that the ring was her grandmother's senior ring from when she was at Hogwarts. When Becca had gotten her letter, her grandmother had given her the ring. Later that year her grandmother had been murdered by Lord Voldemort. Becca had asked me to keep it secret, and so I had. She told everyone else that her grandmother had passed away peacefully in her sleep and had harbored a grudge against Voldemort ever since.
Rach was wearing a long jean skirt that reached the floor with a pair of high heeled sandals and a long red top with red curvy designs on it. Her hair was worn down and straight with a little clip holding her side fringe so that it fell across her forehead and was pinned just in front of her ear. She looked fabulous, and I told her so.
"You look great, Rach!"
"Thanks." She responded. "I don't usually wear skirts, but I figure, what the hay, I got asked out by Remus today, might as well flaunt what I got for him."
"Um, 'Flaunt what you got'?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah… I've been around my brother's girlfriend too much this summer."
"Just a bit."
"What about my outfit? How is it?"
Rebby was wearing a long sleeved black shirt with red, white, and pink faded roses printed on it. The neckline was really wide, exposing her shoulders and neck, barely catching on the very edge of her shoulders. She wore light faded blue jeans with little rhinestones on the back pockets in a wavy design and silver ballet slippers that, somehow, looked more dressy that casual, though I know from experience (I've borrowed them on more than one occasion) that they are some of the most comfortable shoes you can ever wear. She also had on her friendship bracelets and a locket containing a picture of her and her brother. I told her she looked great and moved on to Mikki.
Mikki had thrown her waist length hair up into a messy bun that she somehow managed to make look elegant, rather than messy as the title would suggest. Her top was a white peasant blouse with gold threading here and there. It had two gold and white straps that tied at the back and two gold and white straps that tied around her neck as well. She had on a blue jean skirt that reached just above her knees and a pair of white sandals. Her ever present gold necklace and gold ring were in their place as well, and she had spiced things up by wearing a pair of gold looped earrings as well. I told her she looked awesome as well and congratulated her on actually wearing earrings for once, then turned and headed for the door.
"I'm going to go and see if the boys are ready, okay? Why don't you show Mikki and Rach the balcony and we'll meet you up there?"
"Okay." Becca and Rebby said together and began dragging the other two girls out of the window and up the stairs. I left the room and walked down the hall to the boy's rooms. I went to Sirius and James's room first, not knowing exactly which room belonged to Remus and Peter. I knock and was greeted by a "Come in." from inside.
I opened the door to see Sirius messing with his hair in the mirror and James lying back on his bed reading the Daily Prophet. Both boys were freshly showered, shaved, and dressed and ready to go. "Are you guys ready?" I asked.
"Yeah." Sirius replied turning away from the mirror and smiling at me. "Where is the rest of the gaggle?"
"Up on the balcony waiting for us."
"Well then, I'll just be on my way. I'll get Remus and Peter on my way over." Sirius slipped past me and out of the room.
"So, let's see if you're well enough to come along tonight or if I got all dressed up to play babysitter to a whiney 16 year old."
"Hey I'm not-" James, who had been concentrating on the news article, turned to look at me and argue about my comment, stopped mid sentence and stared at me.
"What? Am I turning purple? Did I grow an extra head? What?" I asked him. That was at least the thousandth strange stare I had gotten today, and it was getting annoying.
"No, um, it's just, you look so beautiful is all." James blushed and suddenly became very interested in making sure his newspaper got rolled up just right.
"Um… thanks." I said walking over to his bed. "Okay, now how do you feel?"
"That medicine finally kicked in and my headache went away. My chest was a little soar from you pounding on it earlier, but the medicine helped with that too I think. And I stood up to go to the bathroom earlier and wasn't a bit dizzy." He stated proudly.
"Okay then, stand up." He did as I told him and stood beside his bed. "Now bend over and touch your toes and then stand up really quickly again." Again, he did as I said, and when he came back up he stumbled and bumped into his bed.
"That was dizzying. Do I fail the test?"
"No, I just had you do that because I thought it would be amusing. You're fine, but you'll probably be a little soar in the morning, and you'll need more Tylenol, too, later."
"Oh. Okay then. We better get a move on, before the others get antsy." He said and tried to walk past me to get to the table by the window where he had left his wallet. There wasn't much space between the beds, and it was made even more crowded by a couple of chairs that had been moved over earlier, so James was forced to slip past me, our chests nearly touching. He was so close I could smell his cologne; it was intoxicating. For a moment I closed my eyes and just smelled his cologne, then I mentally slapped myself in the face. Bad Lily, bad! This is James Potter you're thinking about. You can't be all week kneed after smelling his cologne, it's not allowed! Allowed by whom? I asked the voice in my head. Allowed by you, you dolt! Oh, right, I knew that. I suppose I'm not allowed to like how his dress shirt is unbuttoned at the top slightly either, am I? Or the nice ass in those jeans, huh? NO! BAD LILY! You're doing it again! Stop being an idiot and get your act together woman!
I shook my head slightly and followed James to the door. He held it open while I walked through and then waited for him to close the door and lock it behind us.
"Shall we?" He asked, holding his arm out to me. He was being such a gentleman tonight. How odd.
I eyed him suspiciously, but, finding nothing out of the ordinary, placed my arm in his and said "I suppose we shall, but if you're up to something I swear… What Becca did to Sirius earlier will be nothing compared to what I'll do to you." James stopped and looked over at me with genuine innocence on his face.
"I'm not up to anything, I swear. I'm just trying to do as you suggested to me and, I quote, "Grow up, James Potter."" He said, starting down the hallway again.
"Hmm…" I said "Okay, if you say so."
The two of us walked up to the balcony and, after a small argument over whether we were going to eat first or go see the movie first. We headed out of the Leaky Cauldron and into the muggle world for a night on the town.