THE EIGHTH YEAR
CHAPTER 3
Hogsmeade
By: hermioneeeeeee
"Dress shopping today!" Ginny squealed. Hermione, Ginny, Astoria, Hannah, and Luna were all going to shop together to find dresses for the Autumn Ball.
"It's too bad that we won't be able to know who our partners are." Astoria sighed.
"Hermione knows a way!" Ginny said.
"Oh. I think that you have to kiss your partner in order to figure out who it is. But that's purely a guess. I just happened to see Professor McGonagall shuffle through some papers and I was walking by and then I saw a jumble of words that looked like 'kiss partner'. So, yeah." Hermione said.
"Oh! Sneaky." Astoria said.
"Let's go!" Hannah said and the girls rushed off to get in line.
Everyone was at Hogsmeade now.
"Oh! It's snowing." Luna said as white flakes adorned her hair.
"I know the best place to get dresses." Ginny said.
"Where?" Hannah asked.
"Occasions. It's got plenty of dresses and the prices are pretty good." Ginny responded. The group walked together to the store and went inside.
"Hello! Welcome to Occasions! My name is Genevieve and I will be assisting you lovely ladies today." Genevieve said.
"Please walk through this scanner. It lets you know what colors would suit you best." she continued. Ginny went first, then Hermione, Luna, Astoria, and Hannah. Their colors popped up on the screen next to their names.
Ginny Red Black Navy Grey
Hermione Navy Red Emerald Black Grey
Luna Sapphire Black Silver Grey
Astoria Green Black Silver Grey
Hannah Yellow Gold Black Grey
Genevieve waved her wand and five racks of dresses appeared with a selection of the chosen colors. Each girl took a rack and looked at all of the labels.
"They are organized by price. If you need any help, I will be over at my desk. Enjoy!" she said and disappeared behind many racks of clothes.
"Let's all choose a dress that we like the most, regardless of price, and try it on and then we'll all give feedback." Hermione suggested. The others nodded. Ginny chose a red dress that went down below her knee and had thin straps. She checked the label and it read:
Color: Fireflower
Price: 65 Galleons
Specialties: grows with the wearer, protection against 'Expelliarmus', never rips or fades
Ginny put it on immediately. Hermione looked through her rack of dresses and selected a navy dress that went down to the floor and was sleeveless. The dress's tag looked different from a muggle one so she checked it to make sure that the dress was fine.
Color: Midnight Sea
Price: 67 Galleons
Specialties: grows with the wearer, protection against fire and water, never tears or shrinks
Hermione changed into it and smiled. Luna chose a dress that caught her eye and took a look at the price tag to find that the tag had more than just a price on it.
Color: Sapphire Waves
Price: 70 Galleons
Specialties: grows with the wearer, protection against wrackspurts, never will get lost
Luna waved her wand to put it on and admired the transparent, mesh long sleeves and over-floor length skirt. This was it. Meanwhile, Astoria was checking the label on a green and black sleeveless knee-length dress.
Color: Salazar's Gem
Price: 62 Galleons
Specialties: grows with the wearer, protection against minor hexes, never tears
Finally, Hannah was garbed in a vibrant yellow dress and was currently checking the label on her attire.
Color: Sunflower
Price: 66 Galleons
Specialties: grows with the wearer, protection against water, never fades or gets dirty
The girls all gathered together and marveled at each other's choices.
"Ginny, that suits you so well!"
"Hermione looks fabulous!"
"That one is perfect, Luna!"
"I wish that I looked as good in green as Astoria!"
"Yellow is so Hannah's color!"
Over 300 Galeons later, the girls exited Occasions and stood out in the snow with their dresses safe under dress-covers.
"I can't wait to show the boys!" exclaimed Ginny.
"I know! It's a shame that the teachers will have to alter everyone's gowns so that no one knows who someone is." Astoria said.
"I'm glad that I got my dress. It even has protection against wrackspurts! It's like this dress was made for me." Luna gushed. Meanwhile, as the girls were talking about makeup and hair, the boys were having trouble choosing the right robes. The rowdy conversation sounded a bit like this:
"Too black."
"Well, how many shades of black are there?"
"Does this matter?"
"Yeah, we're all going to look different anyway because of the teacher's spell thing."
"He's right."
"I still want to look decent."
"Yeah, some of us actually have girlfriends."
"No need to rub it in!"
"Shove off."
"Rude!"
"Hey!"
"Stop it."
"Colors hate me."
"I agree, there's no way that you can look okay in any color besides black."
"And you can?"
"Is anyone actually trying anything on?"
"I bet the girls are doing this really logically."
"Stop thinking about them! Worry about yourself."
"I've had more things to worry about than you."
"Like you can compare yourself to moi."
"I can and I did."
The rest of the hour was spent talking loudly and quietly trying on. Finally, the boys were ready. They walked out to meet the girls.
"You did show up after all! It only took you a thousand years." Ginny complained.
"We didn't take that long!" Harry said. The two playfully argued for a little while before Draco asked a question.
"Did you guys get pictures?" he asked. Ginny handed him a wizard photograph of all five of them smiling with their dresses on. She saw him eyeing Hermione carefully as if looking at her dress would help him figure out what she would look like. Professor McGonagall called everybody back to the carriages and the eighth years all rode back to Hogwarts.
"I can't wait until the ball." Draco whisper-said into Hermione's hair. The two embraced before separating into their own dormitories.