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CHAPTER 5.
If Hermione hoped the next day was going to be easier, or at least less dramatic, then it certainly didn't begin that way. She had awoken, washed, and was rummaging through her trunk for some clothes when the realisation hit that her that none of them would fit anymore.
After some experimental transfiguration, and much swearing, she realised that there was only so much magic could do in this situation, and that she needed to go shopping, badly.
When she shared her problem with Ginny, who had been watching her struggles with amusement, the red head beamed, she had been waiting for the part veela to realise this since her transformation the previous evening.
Ginny walked over to Hermione's trunk, and then proceed to try and find something that fit her, without her looking like, in Hermione's words, "A bloody whore!"
In the end all that could decently cover her anymore where her hardly ever before worn black yoga pants, which where stretchy, but now clung to her curves in a way that was almost indecent, and now fell to just bellow her knees, instead of mid calf.
Her knickers were very tight, and dug uncomfortably into her now larger backside, and her black sports bra, which was the only bra she had that fit her anymore, was snug, and her clevage spilled out of the top, she tucked her pendant securely inside.
Ginny went to fetch a quiddich jersey belonging to one of her brothers, if the name on the back was any indication. It was ill fitting but covered her better than any of her own tops. Whilst it was loose on her shoulders, and fell off one, it was tight on her chest, with the wide v-neck showing to top of her ample clevage, and lose everywhere else untill her hips, where it was snug, falling to the tops of the thighs. It must have belonged to one of the weasley boys in their younger years, she decided, for any of the more recent ones would have swamped her petite frame like a dress.
Oh well, she thought, at least my socks still fit.
It was nearly quarter to nine by the time the girls made it to breakfast after the clothes debacle, and so everybody else was already seated at the breakfast table as they entered the kitchen.
As the girls did enter however, Ron took one look at Hermione, got up and left, something that hurt her feelings more than she cared to admit, really, she thought, she should be used to Ronald's childish behaviour by now.
"Don't worry about him," said a compassionate Ginny, "He'll get over it."
"Ahh, good morning Girls, there you are, I was about to come and call you." Said Mrs Weasley from her posision cooking bacon on the stove.
Ginny snickered, "Hermione ran into a couple of issues," the red head chuckled, then noticing the confused looks on many of the faces in the room, she supplied, "It would appear none of her clothes fit her any more." Eyes dancing with mirth, whilst Hermione sat in-between Fred and George, grumbling quietly.
"Actually my socks fit fine." she replied childishly. Apparently, everyone found this to be quite funny, if the snickering was any indication.
Finally Tonks piped up, "No worries Mione, we'll just have to go shopping, won't we?" She asked, rubbing her hands together gleefully, today sporting her customary bubble gum pink hair. Ginny and Fleur, who sat either side of her emphatically nodded their agreement.
"Oh bloody hell." Hermione muttered under her breath causing the twins, who were the only ones close enough to hear, to choke on their food, and laugh raucously.
"Shut it you two." She grumbled good naturedly, grinning fondly, at them, however this only seemed to make them laugh harder, whilst the rest of the table looked at them oddly, Hermione raised both her hands, as if to indicate they where nothing to do with her.
"Not to worry dear", Mrs Weasley interrupted, "We planned this just before you two came down, the girls will take you to diagon alley today, seeing as it can't realy wait until the book lists arrive." Hermione just grimaced and nodded, this time the rest of the table laughed along with the twins.
"C'mon Mi," Ginny said, "If you're good, we'll lt you go to the book shop once we're done." She said, to the continued laughter of the group, Hermione did however feel a bit better.
The girls, it transpired, consisted of herself, Ginny, Tonks, Mrs Weasley and Fleur, four of whom where far too excited about this, in Hermione's opinion, but she kept quiet, and grimaced at the others, who had escaped this sure torture, as she was dragged by the arm from the kitchen, mutch to the amusement of its inhabitants.
"Have fun." called Fred.
"Nobody appreciates your sarcasm Weasley." Hermione grouched back, to renewed gales of laughter from the men who had escaped her fate, and therefor, in her opinion, had no right to mock her.
As Hermione was dragged into her fourth store in Diagon, she mused that this wasn't a bad as she had originally thought.
Ok, so finding clothes that she could ware and feel comfortable in, that didn't make her look like a mini Lavander Brown, or a muggle on halloween had been tricky.
Sure, she was being ogled by every male she passed, and some of the females, but with fleur next to her, she could delude herself that all the attention wasn't directed at herself.
She had also supplemented her wardrobe nicley, with the help of the other women who had addmitedly chosen the lion share of her purchases, all of which she stored in her magically enlarged beaded bag.
It had been unanimously decided by the others that Hermione needed a drastic change in style, or as Tonks had put it, "We're gonna make you dress like a woman for a change, I know your best mates are blokes, but come on Mione, you don't need to look like them."
As a result, all of her clothes where now much tighter, and more form fitting than they had previously been. Everything was taylor made for her, fitting snuggly to her ample bosom, tiny waist and curvasious hipps.
Not to mention she now owned an alarming number of dresses, which would be perfect for hunting death eaters, she thought sarcastically.
After being forced to buy yet another pair of silk lounge pants, Hermione put her foot down, and snuck several pairs of jeans, and hooded jumpers to buy while the others weren't looking, horror of horrors she even got some tracksuit bottoms, which she would never wear in the presance of these four women, she solemnly promised herself. She also snuck several pairs of flat shoes, and trainers, something the other women seemed to think she no longer required.
Fleur had also dragged her into the wizarding aquivelant of 'Boots', or thats what it looked like, where she chose all new shampoo, conditioner, soaps and body washes, creams, and goodness knows what else for Hermione. The sum totall of the input Hermione had here was "Vanilla or cherry?"
After much careful deliberation, she chose vanilla.
The four women had caved to Hermione's constant pouting about half way through their shopping agenda, and had let her go to the book shop early, where she had spent twenty glorious minutes browsing the newest arrivals. She struck up a friendship with he man behind the counter, who suggested many good books for her to look at, he even offered to order some new volumes in for her.
What a nice man, she thought, not in an way oblivious to his oagling.
In the end she bought some twelve new books, which she payed for, and placed lovingly into her beaded bag, before being dragged harshly back to the torture...shopping.
Having restocked on more than enough clothing to last her for the rest of her Hogwarts career, the last items on her list, much to Fleurs excitement, where underwear and night clothes.
Upon arriving in the small magical boutique, it was decided that they would split forces, with mrs Wesley and Ginny going to find sleeping clothes, and the remaining three to find undergarments.
No sooner had this decision been made did Hermione regret it.
The three of them were joined by an exreemly blonde shop assistant, who seemed to subscribe to the Fleur and Tonks method of shopping, judging by the amont of clothes she brought for Hermione to try.
The older witches gave her the most embarrassing things to try on, all silk and lace, with frills, some of it she couldn't even look at, let alone contemplate wearing. What exactly where they envisaging for her when they chose these?
She soon realised however, that this was a battle that she was not about to win, and so conceded, all be it with poor grace, much to the smug satisfaction of the women who seemed intent on corrupting her innocense.
"You'll thank us for this deary." The shop assistant (Gabby) smirked knowingly.
"Trust us, you'll owe us for life once these have been seen by a certain Dragon Tamer." Tonks said, making the other women giggle, whilst Hermione turned scarlet and dove back into the changing room, she could hear them giggling madly from behind the curtains.
Charlie? They thought that she and Charlie...?
Well, she thought, at least she know knew where they were coming from, no matter how deluded. Hermione continued to try on everything that was passed to her, no longer paying attention, her mind wandering back to a run in she'd had with said dragon tamer that morning...
Hermione was standing in the hallway outside her room in the yoga pants and sports bra, waiting for Ginny to re-apear with a top for her. She heard a noise from the end of the hall, but it wasn't the red head she was expecting.
She froze, her face burning as Charlie took her in, slowly. When he cought her eye, he winked at her, making her blush harder.
He walked towards her down the coridoor, purposfully keeping her eyes locked with his, leaving her no-where to hide. He came to stop a few inches in front of her, raising his large calloused hand to brush the curls from her face, keeping his palm against her cheek when he was done.
He leaned in to her ear, Hermione was suddenly extreemly aware of how loud her breathing was, and she was sure he could feel the heat radiating from her flushed skin.
"I love your face when you blush." he whispered huskily against he shell of her ear. He grinned wickedly when she blushed harder, still frozen to the spot.
His husky, rumbling chuckle made her go weak at the knees, he tugged playfully on one of her curls, teasing her.
"Excuse me." His voice rumbled low in his chest, his eys on her face, placing his hand onto the bare skin of her lower back, as he brushed passed her down the hallway, keeping his body very close to hers as he did so.
When he had dissapeared down the hallway, she collapsed against the wall, fanning herself with her hand. That was when Ginny arrived, taking in her apperance and asking;
"Are you ok, you look a bit warm?"
Hermione had just waved a hand at her, sure her voice wouldn't work yet, Ginny had just shrugged however, and handed her the red jursey.
Hermione was pulled back from her day dream by Fleur calling through the curtain, saying that she could put her clothes back on.
Suddenly, the new underwear didn't seem like such a bad idea, what with the way Charlie had looked at her earlier. He couldn't have been teasing her...but had he really been flirting with her? With her? she wasn't sure.
By the time she was done, Hermione was in possesion of a collection of lingery that would make her dorm mates, Parvati and Lavander, the griffyndor sluts blush, or more than likley want to start talking to her about fashion, the latter was deffinatley worse in her opionion.
Not only underware in various colours, all of silk and lace, been she been forced to buy, but also numerous stockings - Fleur had a thing against tights unless they where woolen, Hermione didn't understand it either - some black, some sheer, all with a seem running up the back of her leggs, she cringed mentally at the reaction those would get. Several garter belts, all with some sort of ribbon or lace somewhere, that were all awkward to walk in, and a few suspender belts too.
Really, why the hell did she need all of these?
After meeting up with the two red heads, who had chosen dozens of sets of pjamas, again all in various colours, and of course all silk and lace, (When had they decided to boycot all other fabrics?) and paying a small fortune - it was lucky she thought that she had just come into her inheritance, for this shopping trip would have bankrupt her otherwise - they were done, and headed to find a place to dissaparate from, deciding on the building that Fred and George where currently turning into a joke shop.
They where just leaving the small shop, when they heard drunken jeering, and saw a group of wizards exciting Nockturn alley, staggering slightly.
Fleur made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, and wrapped an arm protectively around Hermione's shoulders, speeding their pace, Mrs Weasley had done the same to Ginny, whilst Tonks had subtly reached for her wand, just in case.
The group of women did their best to ignore the drunks, readying themselves to dissaparate, Ginny with her mother and Hermione with Tonks.
However, just as they where about to leave, a large hand clumsily grabbed Hermione's shoulder, ripping her borrowed shirt, dragging her roughly back.
Staggering backwards, she felt hot breath on her neck and cheek, that smelled of cigarettes and cheap liquor. She cringed away, pulling herself free from the hulking stranger's grasp, but in the process also further away from her friends.
"Don't be like that sweetheart." Crooned a sickly voice, and the man stepped towards her once more, leering. He was big, tall and solid. He had dark, shoulder length hair, and a heavy stubble on his rounded jaw. H was dressed shabbily, his robes dishevled, covered in staines.
The fumes from his mouth were putrid, and his heavy lidded eyes survayed her hungrily. taking her in from head to toe, slowly, as if she were cattle to be purchased. He took another threatning step towards her.
"Leave me alone." Hermione managed, her voice low, deadly.
The man merely smirked. Then several things happened very quickly, gigantor lunged for her, his huge frame dwarfing her delicate one clumsily, but she reacted just as quickly, spinning fluidly out of is reach, with a grace she hadn't known she possessed.
Then, using his surprise to her advantage, she did something that shocked everyone, including herself. She punched him square in the face. Hard. So hard in fact that she felt a blinding pain flare in her hand, this guy was a lot bigger that Draco Malfoy had been in her third year.
For the second time in two days, Hermione found herself thanking her cousin from the depth of her soul for those lessons.
Not hanging around to see the re percussions, Hermione dove passed the man, who was now clutching his nose, with blood spurting from between his fingers, to the rest of the women who where staring at her in shock.
"C'mon." she said desperately, using her good hand to grab on to Tonks, and they disappeared.