Hello, sorry for the delay since the last update, I have no excuse other than my own laziness. The weddings coming up so let me know what you think:)
The day before the wedding dawn bright and early with my screams.
"SIRIUS!" I screeched, racing into the kitchen, dressed only in a towel. My hair was dripping over one shoulder, long...And undeniably green.
"Whoa!" Sirius's eyes were like saucers as he ran them over me. I could almost feel him undressing me with his eyes and flushed scarlet despite my fury.
"How DARE you spike my sham-" -poo with extra-strong green sap I finished in my head.
"Cor," James cut in, "You're green."
I breathed heavily in through my nostrils, held it for a moment, then spat it back out. "No shit Sherlock."
Peter had a confused expression on his face as he scratched his chin. "Why are you green?"
Clenching my fists I pointed directly into Sirius's laughing face. "Ask HIM!"
"Arty honey, we're back - Oh my sweet Merlin what happened?" My mother stood in the doorway, holding hands with Martin on one side and little Tonks on the other; her mouth hanging open.
"Sirius-spiked-my-shampoo-with-everlasting-green-sap-which-dyed-me-hair-this-horrible-colour!" I wailed, all in one breath without stopping. My mother just stared at me, obviously not having understood a single word.
"Sirius-" I said again, attempting this time to use words with less than two syllables, "-spiked my-"
But I was cut off as my mother dropped her husband to be and Tonks' hand, and raced around the table to pull me into a tight hug. "Oh darling, I always wondered but never dared hope...But now, oh darling!"
"What?" I stammered.
She released me from the imprisonment of her arms and stepped back. Her smile dimmed a couple of molars. "Your metamorphic genes are finally here."She said, sounding confused.
Oh crap.
"Oh, erm, no! No. Not at all. Actually what happened was-"
"Ah, I remember the first time I changed my hair colour. I must have been, ooh, seventeen years younger than you but then again, you've always been a late developer..."
She prattled on, not noticing the flush, that had only previously graced my cheeks, was now creeping down my neck.
"Mum," I said, slightly more firmly than I intended to. "Stop."
Amazingly, my sharp tone worked and she did. I took a deep breath and tried to explain.
"My hair isn't green because I'm a metamorphmagus because I'm not one and, honestly? I think the genes would have come out way before now. No my hair is green because someone dyed it that way."
"But honey? Why on earth, would you willingly change your hair to that colour? It looks like a particularly unpleasant shad of vomit."
"Gee thanks Mum," I said sarcastically, "That's really what I need to hear right now."
"It's the truth," She protested.
"It was Sirius. In fact, it's always Sirius."
"Siriusly." James told my mother with a perfectly straight face.
"You're not helping," I snapped, "Lily, control your boyfriend."
"You think I can Siriusly control James?" She asked, her face pulled into an expression of consternation.
"Urgh, enough with the Siriusly jokes already!" I moaned and buried my face in my hands.
"Yeah, Siriusly," Remus agreed, "It's getting on my nerves."
I let out a loud, anguished cry and left the room. It was just too hard to be dignified dress only in a towel, with green hair and a red face.
-o-
"I still can't believe, I'm letting you do this to me." I whined, from the chair in front of the mirror on my bureau.
Tonks told me to be quiet and I fell silent. After almost a week with Tonks around I could tell when it was just easier to go with her. Tonks had that brand of pig-headed stubbornness that meant, instead of running away from conflict like any normal person, she sped towards it and then overtook it entirely.
And I didn't need any more stress right now. Not with the wedding less than four hours away and my mother a nervous wreck, alternatively driving everybody crazy by organising every single detail from the confetti (which it wasn't too late to change) to the seating plan (which was) and crying noisily in her bedroom every few minutes when something went wrong.
That was what was happening now. After chipping a nail trying to move the kitchen table a little more to the left (to add to that bistro effect) and my, helpfully intended but not the right thing to say at the time, comment about how she could just metamorph it back, she'd collapsed in a chair, tears streaming down her face. I'd cast a panicked look at Martin who had walked into the kitchen at that moment, the tent man beside him, and he'd smiled reassuringly at me before leading my mother upstairs to lie down.
I had thought it was better, after that bungled attempt to help, to stay out of the way and had been waylaid by Lily on the stairs. She had taken one look at my face, which I guess must have looked pretty guilty, and whisked me off to my bedroom where Tonks was waiting, what looked like a hairdressing salon behind her.
So now I was sat, eyes tightly shut as Lily picked up the scissors and opened and closed them a few times before reaching up and picking up a lock of my hair. A second pasted, then I heard the unmistakable sound of a snip. I swallowed.
"Perhaps this isn't such as good idea." I said, without opening my eyes.
"Are you doubting my hairdressing skills?" Lily asked. There was another snip and another lock fell to the ground.
"It's just, I haven't had my hair cut since, well, ever practically."
"Yes, and have you seen the disgraceful state of it? You must have at least three-thousand split ends. Now, be quiet and let me concentrate or you'll end up with it way shorter than I mean."
When Lily had finally finished, she told me to get into the shower to wash away all the tiny hairs that had fallen down my neck and were tickling like crazy. I didn't dare look in the bathroom mirror as I turned on the water and stepped into the shower. My head felt strangely light and my fringe, that had always previously been hanging in my eyes, was gone.
When I got back to the room, dressed in a bathrobe, Lily had swept up the hair and told me to sit down before expertly drying and styling my hair into some semblance of a style.
"Open your eyes." She told me and, after a pause, I did.
My face was staring back at me but the thick hair that usually dripped down my back was gone. Instead, the curls only just reached my chest, framing my face and making my cheekbones seem sharper. My long hair, with its boring style, had always made me look childish, like a twelve year old who'd had a stretching spell put on them but now I looked older.
"Whoa."
Lily, who I could see in the mirror behind me was beaming. She stuffed a cup of coffee into my hand and surveyed her handiwork as I took a sip. She reached out a hand and smoothed a wayward curl then walked over to the bed where she picked up a make-up bag. I blanched, but only slightly then turned my head, staring at the dress hung on the back of the door.
The light blue satin seemed to be rippling slightly as the light caught it, the darker sash hanging beside it. My mother had chosen to only have two bridesmaids. Myself and my soon to be sister-in-law, Rhoda. She was around seven years my senior, in her middle twenties, with looks very much like her Muggle brother, tanned skin, light hair and eyes. The complete opposite to me, with my white skin and dark eyes. I think that that had been my mother's plan. The total contrast and yet connected too, through her.
Now, as Lily began to dust blusher across my cheeks, I kept my eyes on the dress and watched the light glint across it like water.
So there we have it, a new chapter after all this time.
R&R please!