Out of my League

Chapter Nine

Recently a new boutique has opened up at Hogsmeade. Therefore it will be packed full of students buying their dress robes and ball gowns.

Hermione, Luna, Lavender, Ginny and I all planned to go together so we can give each other our opinions.

It's only mid November but all of the good dresses will be taken if we don't get there early.

McGonagle is apologizing to Harry once again for not allowing him to go on the Hogsmeade trip. I don't know how she still hasn't figured it out that he uses the invisibility cloak.

When I found out about it, it was quite funny. To me at least.

I was standing outside of one of the shops last year when someone rudely walked right into me. But when I looked nobody was there, however I could hear Harry's devious laughter. So I assumed he was using some kind of spell or something. I punched in front of me to see if he was really there or if I was going crazy and I ended up breaking his glasses. It was hilarious, I swore not to tell anyone about the cloak when he admitted to seeing me the night before sneaking out of the common room even though we were on lock down because of Sirius Black, who ended up being innocent and also Harry's godfather? That's what Hermione said at least.

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"What about this one?" Lavender asks excitedly, pulling a bright orange dress towards her and putting it parallel to her body.

I can tell Hermione's biting her tongue right now. It's awfully ugly to be honest but none of us want to hurt her feelings. Except for Ginny maybe.

"That's ghastly." She says carelessly as she approaches a different rack of gowns.

I can practically see Lavender's heart sink into her chest. At least we know she won't be showing up in that thing.

I've been having an especially hard time finding a dress that fits perfectly and that is up to my standards. I already know the style that everyone else is going to wear but I want to do something different, especially because there's a large change that all eyes will be on me because of who my date is.

I just want to get my dress and leave but they're all too long or the fabric is too itchy or the shoulders are too broad.

I can see one that's on display that's pretty. It'll probably be a little more expensive but I might as well try it on even if I don't plan on buying it.

"I'll be right back, I'm going to use the changing room for this." I call to the rest of the group. They give me some nods and continue looking for their own perfect dress.

Once I lock the door to the dressing room I can actually look at each specific part of the dress. It's really beautiful, it's a steel blue layered fabric but it isn't puffy at all, and it has this mahogany ribbon that goes around the waist and then falls freely on the front of the dress. Then at the top it has a v-cut, which isn't too revealing and it has little baby pink and blue flowers embroidered on the top half and down the mesh sleeves.

I handle it carefully while putting it on not to rip it. Once I finally stop finicking with it I can look in the little body mirror.

"Mione come here." I call anxiously.

"What?" She asks nervously.

"Look at this, I really like it." I say stepping out of the small box room.

Her worried look melts away into a smile "that looks extravagant on you! Get it." She insists.

"But it was on display, it's got to be at least 70 galleons." I sigh. "My parents would kill me if I bought a dress that was over 80 galleons." I admit.

"I'll check the price tag for you and if it's too much I'll just tell you." She suggests. I nod and hand her the paper tag with the price scribbled on it.

I watch her eyes widen as she rereads the price to make sure she's got it right.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing. It's too much." She answers.

"Well maybe I can ask Oliver if he has left over money that I could pay him back for." I propose. She shakes her head rather vigorously. "Just let me see the price." I say taking the tag out of her hand.

My heart nearly stops when I read the messy writing

145 Galleons

"I told you it was too much." Hermione says crossing her arms.

This is probably the most perfect dress I could possibly find and it's way too expensive. My parents gave Oliver and plenty of money. But it's divided up into sections and we can only spend so much per marking period. The most I could spend is 100 Galleons and that's not going to cover it.

Oliver and a few of his friends walk into the shop. I wave him over so nobody else sees the dress on me in case I really can wear it and ask if he's already bought his robes. He nods his head.

"Do you have any money left over?" I ask anxiously.

"Yeah about 10 Galleons." He replies while handing his extra money to me.

"That's not enough, it's fine I'll get another dress. They have other ones that fit me." I say, going back over to the dressing room to take it off.

"I could pay for the remainder." Someone says from one of the other dressing rooms.

It's Harry?

"Why?" I ask.

"Because it looks good on you and I want to. I also still feel horrible for the other day." He admits.

"No it's 35 Galleons. That's way too much." I inform him. He shakes his head and reaches in his pocket.

"I've got plenty, here." He hands me 45 Galleons. I try and give him 10 back but he won't let me. He points over to the shoes and accessories. "I'm assuming you don't have any shoes or a bag or whatever you'd like to go with that." He says. My heart begins to twist and turn and I feel my face start to burn red.

"I would feel so guilty though." I say. Hermione pinches me. "Fine, I'll pay you back next marking period." I say.

He smiles "Don't bother."

I wanted to argue back but he walks away quickly so I can't.

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145 galleons, if I did the math correctly should equal to:

$962.80

€809.10

Just so you can get an idea about how expensive it really was. And remember they're only 14 years old so it's a bit extensive to get a dress that's worth that much money.

Also here's the dress, I'll put the picture again plus the shoes and hair for the Yule Ball chapter but I just figured you'd want to see what I was describing.