I'm the last one to come through the Floo since I had to remove my spell. Just as I'm about to step in, I step out and think of my favorite ombre hair. Since I'm a Metagamorphus, my hair changes back to my basic hair and I look like myself again. Every time my mom tells me to wear a dress and I'm meeting my friends, I place a charm on my clothes. They appear like a dress or whatever I pick until I leave the house. Then, they turn into shorts or whatever I'm actually wearing. The only problem with charm is that I have to remove it every time I leave the house.
When I tumble through the chimney, I awkwardly flail about for some time until I accidentally run into something and trip. Everything feels like slo-motion. As I try to prepare myself for hitting the ground and spraining something again, I snap my eyes shut. Seconds pass, and I haven't hit the ground quite yet. I open my eyes to be met with emerald green ones. Albus. His arms are around my waist from when he caught me. I can feel myself melt at his touch and my breathing slows down as I stare into his green orbs. Everyone is staring at us. Hayden clears his throat and Albus snaps out of it. He lifts me up and gives me his signature smirk "What happened to your dress Mathilda?" He calls me by my full name, knowing it frustrates me. "Not my style," I answer honestly, unable to come up with a sarcastic response after all of this. My heart's still beating a million a minute. If it doesn't stop, my heart will burst out of my chest.
I brush off any invisible dust as I make my way to the girls. "What was that?!" Gianna squeals as I reach them. "Nothing." I answer honestly "He just caught me so I didn't break another bone." "That's not what I saw." Lucy pipes up "You two were just lost in each other's eyes and too busy to notice any of us." "I so ship it! You two could be the next big thing." Rose adds. Honest to God! I love my friends but they ship me with every relatively cute guy they can find. They just try to set me up with as many people as they can before we graduate. "Not going to happen. I'm not interested and he's the biggest player in Hogwarts, second to his brother." I roll my eyes and add my leave-it-alone- tone. They must pick up on it because Gianna changes the subject. "What happened to your outfit?" She asks as we make our way down the crowded streets in Diagon Alley. "It wasn't my style," I grin.
I'm now wearing a white graphic tank with jean shorts and a plaid shirt tied around my waist. The cowboy boots have been replaced with my signature black Converse with mismatched laces, today's being red and checks. Gone is the brown hair from before, substituted for my purple hair that fades into teal with little streaks of pink and navy blue. I left my hair straight today with a little birthday crown perched on my head.
The 4 of us make our way down the crowded streets of Diagon Alley, full of busy people getting their school supplies or who have nothing to do. Pushing and shoving, we finally make our way to Lucy and Rose's cousin, Victoire's boutique, Tre En Vogue. She graduated Hogwarts and originally wanted to become a Healer, but decided to open a boutique was more suited for her. And she's really successful. Her designs have been showcased in the Witch Fashion Week in 11 different cities. I've known Victoire since I started Hogwarts since I'm the best friend of two of her cousins. I actually intern at her boutique twice a week and in return, I model all of her designs and help her fix snafus. "Is that Gianna Princeton I see with two of my favorite cousins and the best model I've ever had?" Victoire says, snapping me out of my thought. "I'm your only model, Vic." I laugh. "School shopping?" Victoire asks. We all nod in synch. She ushers us to her changing rooms and hands each of us a pile of clothes.
Hogwarts hasn't changed much in appearance over the years, just the rules. We still have Quidditch and teachers. But something mandatory is that Pure-Bloods have to take Muggle Studies for at least 3 years to graduate and Muggleborns have to take Wizarding Class to get them caught up with the wizarding world for a year. . We are now allowed to wear anything we want to class as long as we wear our robes over it. The only time we have to wear a uniform is about once a month. I don't really have a clue why we do this, but we do. Most girls try to break the rule and wear the shortest clothes they can to get attention from guys. Girls can be so desperate sometimes. I basically wear whatever I want. Mostly sweatpants and track shorts because I don't have any life effort at all.
"Tilly, get your lazy self out!" Lucy calls through the walls of the dressing room. I quickly throw on a cropped blue tie dye shirt and shorts ensemble and walk out of the door. I do a little spin as Victoire makes notes of the outfit. That's the great thing about her. Lucy, Rose, Gianna, and I always get to model her prototypes and keep them after. "Any suggestions?" Victoire asks, "I think that these should come in different colors, based on your house. So like Ravenclaw could get this in blue, Slytherins in green, so on so forth. You should also do rainbow and colors like purple and orange. And combos like purple and orange, green and pink. The shorts should be a little distressed with studs on the pockets." I note. "I'm impressed my protégé." Victoire grins. "Any notes on the rest?" At that, I turn to look at the others' outfits. Gianna's wearing a white shirt with jeans and a plaid shirt at her waist. Lucy's wearing a cute black lace tank top with a sapphire blue skirt. Rose has on a cute black blouse with a studded collar and a plaid skirt with knee high socks. These outfits describe us perfectly. Gianna's very hipster with plaid and her huge glasses, Lucy's very romantic with lace and flowers, Rose is preppy with sweaters and skirts, I'm casual with a little bit of edgy and sporty. "No suggestions," I tell Victoire. We go through all the other outfits, and I help her with small suggestions and ideas for color schemes.
Right as we are about to leave, Victoire slaps her head. "Tilly and Gianna? I'm getting married to Teddy in 3 weeks and I'd really like for you to be at the wedding. We have only 2 bridesmaids and groomsmen, so you don't need to worry about being left out. Can you please come?" Victoire begs. "But I don't have anything to wear." Is the only reason I come up with. Victoire's smile should be contagious "You must forget that I own a boutique. Now come on!" She drags Gianna to the dressing room with an armful of dresses.
When Gianna returns, she's wearing a dark blue dress with a bright pink statement necklace. She looks gorgeous, like always, but it doesn't quite suit her. "Try something white. Or green." I suggest. Victoire and Gianna disappear and Gianna reemerges wearing a dark green dress with lace sleeves. "How about a skirt." I throw in. Once again, Gianna leaves and returns, wearing a white blouse with an olive green skirt and a chunky gold necklace. It's absolutely perfect. "I love it!" Gianna shrieks. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She squeals.
As soon as Victoire puts all of the clothes Gianna tries on, she comes back with a devilish look on her face. I'm dragged to the dressing room where she blindfolds me and pokes and prods me with what I assume is a needle as she adjusts something. Victoire grabs my hands and drags me out, where there are no mirrors and pulls of my blindfold. I walk towards my friends and show them my outfit. "It's great," Rose says awkwardly, "I don't really think it fits you," Lucy states bluntly. Gianna just looks plain uncomfortable. Victoire guides me to a mirror where I give myself a good once-over. The dress I'm wearing is pretty, but it doesn't really suit me. It's more Rose's style or Lucy's. The same thing happens with the next couple of outfits that I try out. They're all either not my style or I just really don't like them. Some are too dressy for a wedding and some are too casual.
Finally, I walk out, about to give up hope. Lucy, Rose, and Gianna are all talking fervently until they spot me. Their eyes stay glued to me until I ask "How is it?" "Perfect!" Lucy smirks, "It's just you." Gianna adds "Dream dress." Rose smiles. At that moment, my brother and his friends choose to walk over to the dressing rooms. "Where's my sist-" he stops dead in his tracks. "What on earth are you wearing?" Hayden yells. "I think it's just fine, Hayd," Albus smirks, his eyes raking over my body. "Hey! Eyes off mate! That's my sister!" Hayden retorts as he elbows, Albus. "It's for Victoire's wedding." Rose pipes up, "It's absolutely perfect." Lucy expresses, trying not to laugh. Feeling awkward, I stumble towards the mirror, where a gasp escapes my lips. The girl I'm staring at is wearing the shortest dress on the planet. It barely covers me at all, it's completely black and strapless. No wonder why Hayden was going haywire. I stalk back out, "Seriously Vic." I roll my eyes, "You couldn't help it could you." Victoire grins "Just making sure you get attention from the boys, Till." I can see Hayden tense up at that sentence across the room. "If it makes you feel any better, you look hot." Gianna pipes up. "I think that you're the only person who can pull that off." Lucy laughs. "Yeah right!" I sarcastically retort.
I realize that in all this argument, my biggest rival in argument, Rose is gone. As I scan the room, I notice that Scorpius is gone too. That's no coincidence. I'll bet my life that they're together snogging somewhere, and they used this trip as an excuse to see each other. I've been pushing for them to date since 3rd year when Rose admitted her feeling for him. Less than a year later, Scorpius told me at one of my mother's infamous parties that he had fallen for Rose. Oh, my god! They're so freaking cute together! Albus, James, Fred, and Louis aren't really going to be too happy. As the older boy cousins, they take it as their responsibility to threaten every girl that gets close to any of their siblings or cousins.
Just as I'm about to give up hope, I find it. Victoire instructs me to close my eyes and takes out my blindfold far from any mirror. We'd gone through so many outfits that she just started showing them to me in the mirror. I walk out, feeling like I could grow wings and fly at that moment. This was it! I could feel it! When I walk out, everyone's eyes following me. I spin a little before hesitantly asking "What do you think?" Which was mainly directed towards my brother? Everyone but the one person whose approval I'm seeking answers. "You look gorgeous, Till." "Remind me why you're not a model again?" "Knock em dead and go get someone." I send a vicious glare towards Lucy, the only human being who would say that. "Hayden?" I ask, daring to look at him. His face is emotionless until he finally cracks a smile. "When did my baby sister grow up?" He asks, "I'm not a baby, 1. And 2, you're only older by 5 minutes." I whine. With everyone's approval, I walk back to the dressing room, where I finally take a look at myself. Instead of a dress, Victoire's put me in a breathtaking crop top and skirt combo. I love it!
Satisfied, I grab my clothes and head to the checkout counter, where Vic waits for me. I pull out my wallet to pay when Victoire protests "No! It's on me." I argue with her for a while before hesitantly accepting her offer. I walk out of the store with a happy mind, ready to see what else the day has in store for me.
So I decided to give you guys another update! I seriously am not going to post until Tuesday now. But I've had a really long day and I'm so ready for the weekend. I need a super long weekend or a sick week. Either one would be really nice.