A/N: Here's a really long chapter to quench you Dramione thirst!
I read something the other day that said the Dramione / Harry Potter fandom is dying, let's not let it die!
Chapter 7 - Perfect
"Hermione, you cannot wear that to dinner tonight."
Hermione turned around to see Pansy stood in the doorway of her bedroom where she was currently looking through her wardrobe for things to wear and the only outfit suitable to have dinner with the Slytherins was a blue dress that even Hermione could admit was extremely dull.
"But I have nothing else to wear." She complained. It sucked having been deprived of a social life where she could have bought herself new clothes.
"Well lucky for you, Narcissa and I were planning on taking a trip to Diagon Alley today and you are coming with us." Pansy told her, coming to stand next to her, looking at her pathetic wardrobe.
"Yeah but with what money? I have hardly any, you know as well as I do that I'm saving for the school." Hermione sighed.
"Well I have money, along with Draco, he'd be more than happy to give you money. He has plenty of it."
"I can't just take his money to spend on clothes! I'm not Lavender Brown!"
"Well obviously you're not because Draco would never let Lavender Brown stay with him. Now I'm going to go and find Narcissa so she can help me on what needs to be removed from your god-awful wardrobe." Pansy said sternly, turning towards the door. "So pretty much everything."
"Yeah thanks for that Pansy." Hermione called after the girl as she walked out of the room to find Mrs Malfoy. She heard a chuckle as she turned back to her clothes. Pansy had a point, they were shockingly bad.
Less than five minutes later, Hermione was in the company of Pansy and Mrs Malfoy who were criticizing her fashion sense tremendously.
"Hermione dear, you've got such a gorgeous figure so why don't you show it off a bit?" Narcissa asked. "Okay we need to go to Diagon Alley; we have a lot of work to do."
After Narcissa demanded that Draco give some money to fund their shopping trip, or as Pansy liked to call it, 'The Hermione Granger project fund', which he only allowed after knowing it was for Hermione, they apparated to Diagon Alley.
"Where shall we go first?" Pansy asked excitedly.
"Let's go to that new store 'Zeldas' by Flourish and Blotts, I've heard it's quite the treat." Narcissa said.
Hermione had also read about 'Zeldas' in Witch Weekly, it was 'quite the treat', the expensive kind. She reluctantly followed the two witches to the boutique and she glanced longingly at Flourish and Blotts, wishing it was there that she could inevitably spend hours in. With no such luck she went into the clothing store.
Hermione had never been in any shop like it. She just went to basic clothing stores and was done with it. But this was a whole new experience. The big store, painted cream with one wall covered in vintage wallpaper, had plush sofas, dashing chandeliers and beautiful mirrors dotted around. As for the clothing, there were gorgeous dresses, from formal to casual, blouses that looked like models would wear them, skirts to die for. The shoes lining the back wall was another story completely.
Snapping out of her daze from the magnificent store, a saleswoman walked over to the trio. "Hello and welcome to Zeldas, is there anything I can help you with today?"
Hermione normally declined help in clothing stores but the other two obviously seemed to think that she needed all the help she could get. "Yes, Hermione here is going out tonight and needs a new outfit. She also needs an entire new wardrobe along with it." Narcissa was always straight to the point.
"Okay, I will be sure to help. My name is Olivia and if you need anything let me know." The brunette woman said. "So the outfit for tonight, let's start with how formal is the venue?"
"Probably very formal, knowing Malfoy." Hermione commented.
Ignoring Hermione, Narcissa spoke up. "I believe they're going to The Bluebell round the corner, so smart casual I would say."
"Well we have some dresses over here that might be suitable." Olivia led them over to some cocktail dresses. Apparently their idea of smart casual was not quite the same as Hermione's.
The other three women started piling dresses into their arms until she almost couldn't see over them. She had no chance of looking for clothes herself whatsoever. Hermione managed to catch sight of one of the price tags and there was no way she could ever afford any of these clothes. But looking at the other witches, who were totally in their element, she decided she might as well try a few of the clothes on for their sake. They were beautiful dresses.
Hermione was ushered into one of the spacious changing rooms at the back of the shop, whilst Narcissa and Pansy took a seat on one of the white, puffy couches just outside. She picked up a plum coloured dress first, which had diamante pretty much everywhere. Not particularly Hermione's cup of tea.
She walked out to the 'fashion critics' for their verdict.
"No!" Pansy bluntly said.
"Not classy enough." Narcissa added.
So she went back to try on a brown own, followed by a red one, then thirteen other dresses. Out of those, five were a possibility and up to Pansy and Narcissa's standards.
"Let's keep those dresses to one side and try daytime wear now." Pansy suggested.
Daytime wear? Judging by this shop that was going to be a ball gown. Although this time, Hermione was allowed to choose some of her own things to try on. With about thirty pieces of clothing crammed into the changing room, she changed again. She was going to need to lie down after this.
After choosing fourteen outfits that were "socially acceptable" (Pansy's words, not hers), Hermione moved onto shoes. She had one pair for tonight, three other pairs of 'going out' shoes, two pairs of boots and two pairs for 'everyday' wear. Apparently the boots were for casual wear and yet, they were still about four inches high. How many pairs of shoes did one person need?
"That will do for now I suppose. We can come back and get some more next week." Narcissa contemplated. Obviously that amount of shoes isn't enough. Obviously.
The more important question burning on Hermione's brain though: "How am I going to pay for this?"
"Oh don't worry about it dear, my treat." Narcissa brushed the question away. Treat? Treat? Hermione dreaded to think what she got for someone who was actually family and had known for longer than a week. She was just a pain in the butt for Narcissa's family.
"Narcissa, I couldn't possibly, it's way too much-"
"Nonsense! You, along with every other girl, deserve nice clothes. Well, apart from that girl Mr Weasley was with, but let's not get into that."
Fair point she made there. And Narcissa Malfoy was not someone you can say no to.
Once she had paid for Hermione's things generously, Narcissa led her and Pansy out of the shop, thanking Olivia for her help. They walked down the cobbled street of Diagon Alley laden with shopping bags (the other two had at least gotten something for themselves) and turned down another street that Hermione didn't recognise. Looking around, she understood why the other two witches she was with knew about it.
This was not like the rest of Diagon Alley. The buildings were taller, they were newer, and they were more expensive. Because of Ron taking all of her money after the war, and despite the fact that she now had her Gringotts key, she still didn't have much money and she did not feel like she was in her comfort zone here, unlike the other two.
She was led into a large salon with frosted windows at the front. It was a white building with colourful flowers outside and a sign that read 'Formositas'. As soon they walked inside, there were big white sofas with big colourful cushions that looked way too pretty to sit on in case you ruined it. There was a big marble welcome desk with a glamorous looking receptionist sat behind it. Behind the desk was a waterfall separating the waiting area from the rest of the salon. Hermione couldn't afford to pee in a place like this, let alone have a treatment.
Narcissa walked up to the receptionist. "Hello Louise." She looked up to Narcissa and smiled warmly at the elder witch. "How are you?" After making small talk, Narcissa got down to the point. "Hermione here is in need of your help, she's going out tonight with Draco and his friends and she's getting a makeover." Louise looked surprised to see Hermione Granger standing in the salon. "Is Paolo here?"
"Yes he's here; he should just be finishing with a client. You can go on back." Louise said.
"Thank you Louise." Narcissa said, once again leading Pansy and Narcissa through to the back, past the waterfall. Hermione thought the front of the salon was impressive, but the main part was magnificent. There was white marble everywhere and the whole place was pristine. There were individual booths complete with hair brushes, products and irons. There was a row of sinks with shampoos behind. There were big mirrors in front of every comfortable looking chair that lit up. There were more booths for makeup and manicures and pedicures. At the back of the big salon were rooms that led off to tanning and waxing parlours. She wouldn't be surprised if there were Jacuzzis and swimming pools as well.
"Paolo!" Narcissa exclaimed brightly when she saw a tall (dyed) blonde man, talking to one of the hairdressers, who was fashionably dressed and was the obvious owner of 'Formositas'.
His face brightened when he saw Narcissa and waltzed (or rather, minced) over to them, kissing her on both cheeks. "Narcissa, what a pleasure to see you, but I thought you weren't coming in for another week."
"Yes well you see, I've brought Hermione here last minute. They're all going out tonight."
"Hermione Granger, wow, I feel honoured to meet you at last." He said, placing a kiss on her hand, making Hermione blush slightly. She wasn't used to this sort of attention having been practically locked away for several years.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too." Hermione replied.
"And Pansy, it's lovely to see you again honey." Paolo said honestly turning to the Slytherin girl.
"You too Paolo."
"So, where are you going ladies? There must be another reason as to why you're here other than paying the wonderful Paolo a visit." Paolo looked at the three women.
"Well Hermione here is living with Draco now and we're going out in celebration for Hermione to have gotten rid of Ron Weasley." Pansy said.
"You're living with Draco? Is he still the charming young boy I remember? It's been a while since I've seen him as he refuses to have his hair cut by me, I have no idea why though." Paolo said glumly.
"You know how he is, doesn't want a fuss really." Narcissa sighed.
"Anyway, let's crack to work. What do you want to happen?" Paolo asked, assessing Hermione. "I'm thinking a trim on the hair, some layers, give a bit of life to it. I'll get my team to work on makeup, eyebrows, nails, the works. Hermione Granger, we're going to go all out."
"I really don't want to be a nuisance, if you have other things to be doing..." Hermione started.
"Don't be silly Hermione! There's nothing I would love to do more!" He said, taking her jacket and leading her to a hair booth. She sat down in one of the chairs that proved to be as comfortable as it looked. "Now, we're not going to colour your hair because it's such a gorgeous colour already darling." He turned her away from the mirror. "Nope, you're not allowed to see until the end." Paolo began washing her hair and he was true to his word, she didn't see until the end.
During Hermione's manicure and pedicure, where she was sat next to Pansy who was also having hers done, Paolo unfortunately changed the subject from being a war hero to Malfoy. And Hermione normally hates war conversations.
"So, you're living with Draco now after splitting up with Mr Weasley?" Hermione nodded. "How's that proving?"
"Okay, I guess..."
Pansy intervened. "Rather well if you ask me, he got all of us to go and get Hermione's stuff back from Weasleys and Drake was sticking up for her the whole time. He punched him as well so I believe. So quite well considering their past."
"Oh so it's going extremely well then?" Paolo asked.
"He was just doing something nice for me after everything that had happened to me." Hermione reasoned.
"Honey, doing something nice would be letting you stay at his house for a few nights before you figured something out. Not punching your ex-boyfriend and letting you live with him."
"Well I will move out, when I've got money and can find somewhere to live." Hermione argued, denying that Draco would be that nice.
Paolo turned to Pansy. "What's the bet that she ends up staying?" Pansy laughed. "You're the smartest witch I have probably ever met Hermione and Draco is very intelligent. I'm sure you'll get along really well." Paolo said, his eyes glistening.
"No, he's just doing me a favour."
"Whatever you say sweetie." Paolo laughed.
After having her hair and nails done, Hermione was waxed (extremely painfully) and then her makeup done. Pansy handed her a black dress with some black heels from their purchases earlier that day. The dress came to just above her knees and was simple yet elegant. It went in at the waist and floated down but hugged her in all the right places. To put it simply, she was eye candy.
She stepped out from the changing room in the strapless dress and heels. Narcissa gasped and Pansy grinned. Paolo looked like a proud parent/
"Perfect." Narcissa smiled.
"Can I look in a mirror now?" Hermione asked, getting agitated.
"Yes." Paolo said, leading her to a full length mirror.
Hermione gasped in shock when she saw herself. Her hair was wavy and smooth, looking nothing like it ever did in her school years. Her makeup was natural but with a light amount of liquid eyeliner on her lids and some mascara on her lashes. Her nails were shockingly red, making Hermione think of the Gryffindor colours. The dress flattered her perfectly and the shoes showed off her legs.
Hermione was finally able to dress up properly like she should have been doing before, but not being able to as she was under strict orders from Ronald Weasley. And she loved it now.
"That'll show Weasley." Pansy commented.
"I'll bet." Paolo added.
"You look beautiful Hermione." Narcissa said, the other two nodded in agreement.
Hermione turned to Paolo. "How am I going to repay you? I can't afford this, how much will it cost?"
"Do not worry about it Hermione, it's on me." Paolo said.
"No I couldn't possibly-"
"It's been my pleasure, to repay me just make sure you come back again and keep up the makeup and hair styling. I'll see it all in Witch Weekly Hermione!"
She laughed. "Thank you so much Paolo."
"Enough of that, you need to get to this restaurant."
"What time is it? We'll never make it in time!" She panicked.
"Don't worry, I owled Draco telling him we'll meet them at the restaurant." Pansy reassured, who had now changed into a navy blue dress herself.
"But what about all of my shopping? I can't take it to the restaurant."
"Do you just not want to go to this restaurant or something?" Pansy demanded.
"I think she's nervous." Paolo suggested.
"I'm not nervous." Hermione denied.
"Hermione, I will take all of your stuff back to the manor and you can come and collect it from me, in fact you and Draco could come for brunch tomorrow." Narcissa suggested.
"Fine, if you don't mind, of course."
"Oh it's no trouble Hermione."
"So..." Pansy began, gripping Hermione's arm, leading her to the door. "...We need to get going because Draco will be wondering where you are."
"Why would he be wondering where I am, what about you?"
Pansy glanced at Paolo and Narcissa smirking. "Because you're his roommate and you know, he wants to make sure that we've not killed you or something."
"And we wouldn't want him to think that." Narcissa said. "Now stop delaying and go to the restaurant before you're really late, I'll see you tomorrow Hermione. Goodbye Pansy."
And with that, Pansy dragged Hermione out of the salon to walk down the street to the restaurant leaving Paolo and Narcissa smirking like Slytherins.
"I give it a month." Paolo murmured.
"I think he'll be persuaded after tonight."
"You got that right Mrs Malfoy."
A/N: Please Review!