The Forest - R.L.

Chapter 38 - The Frenzy

With the ball only "Two months, Grace. That's practically three seconds" away, Abbey was beginning to get into a bit of a frenzy. To say she was excited was a massive understatement.

"And everyone's going to be all dressed up, and it'll be so magical, and romantic and-"

Grace cut her off with a fake gagging noise.

"Don't be like that," Abbey said with a small laugh. "It'll be fun."

"Yeah, I know. I just genuinely can't be bothered. How the hell am I supposed to find a dress?"

"Go to Gladrag's next Hogsmeade trip," Abbey suggested. She had already bought her dress during the summer holidays because she knew the ball would be coming up this year. That and she was just an extremely organised person. Grace on the other hand, was not.

"There is no way I'm going in there any time soon. Do you want me to get an eye clawed out again?" Grace exclaimed, remembering the last Hogsmeade trip when Abbey had tried to drag her into the shop, which was full to the brim of girls and some guys trying to find the best dress robes or dresses. Fights broke out more than once when two people spotted the same dress, and Grace had ended up in the middle of one. "Yeah, no thank you. And have you even seen the dresses they have? Everything's too tight or too frilly or just plain weird. I don't understand fashion. I'd much rather wear a potato sack."

"You are not wearing a potato sack!" Abbey yelled, laughing again..

"Why not? I'm going to start a new fashion trend. Before you know it, everyone will be wearing potato sacks to the ball. Even you."

Abbey snorted. "Yeah, right."

It was Monday afternoon and the pair of them were sitting in the Hufflepuff Common room - which was a surprisingly easy place to sneak people from other houses into – having finished their homework already. The full moon was that night, and Grace was beginning to feel slightly anxious about it, so she had gone to visit her friend and take her mind off of it.

"So, Abbey, who are you planning on taking to the ball?" Grace asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

She just looked at her deadpan. "You know who I want to take." It was no secret that Abbey had developed a bit of a crush on her close friend, Sam.

"So have you asked him if he wants to go with you yet?"

"No," Abbey answered with a nervous laugh. Charlie, Abbey's now adult Fire Fox sat in her lap.

"Why not?"

"Well, because... I.... I don't know. Why haven't you asked Remus yet?"

"Remus!?" Grace exclaimed, a blush forming on her cheeks. "Why would I ask Remus?'

"Because you like him."

"No, I don't," Grace stammered. "Why would you think that?"

"Well, for one, you're having such a hard time talking about him now. You are allowed to have feelings, you know."

"I do have feelings, I just... don't like talking about them. I don't know," Grace sighed. "Like that time when you were crying because you super stressed about everything and all I did was sit there and awkwardly pat your shoulder. I suck at feelings."

"Yeah, you do," Abbey agreed, running a hand through Charlie's bright orange fur. "But that doesn't mean you can't ask Remus to the ball."

"I can't ask him, anyway. Peter, James, Remus and I are going as a group. And, theoretically," Grace began, giving Abbey a pointed look. "Theoretically, even if I did like Remus a tiny little bit, I couldn't do anything about it because he's my best friend. If I told him it would just make things awkward. Gosh, I'm starting to sound like you!"

"Yeah, you are," Abbey agreed, watching as Charlie leapt down from her lap and played with a loose string on the couch beside them. "Aw. Oh well, if you're going as a group, you're still kind of going together, aren't you? That's something at least. Sam will probably end up going with some pretty sixth year or something."

"Not unless you ask him to go with you!"

"You know I can't do that," Abbey sighed. "He doesn't see me like that. In fact, the other day, he literally asked me if I knew anyone that he might be able to take."

"What did you say?"

"I just told him that I didn't know and that he'd find someone, but it took all of the self-control in the world to stop me from saying 'yeah, me'. Oh that reminds me, I have something to give you," Abbey said suddenly, bending down and pulling out a piece of paper from her pile of school books. "A Ravenclaw girl was handing them out during Astronomy. Her parents own the shop."

Abbey handed it to Grace. It was a small catalogue for a shop called Twilfitt and Tattings, covered with moving images of women in different dresses.

"The name sounds vaguely familiar."

"Yeah, it should. It's that little fancy one at Diagon Alley with all the really expensive stuff. However, they're currently having a huge sale on all of their dresses so I thought that might be handy. You can order everything through the mail. I thought that might appeal to you."

"Absolutely. And a few of these aren't half bad."

"See? You'll find something."

Grace flicked through the catalogue some more, before they both headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.

---

So I'm back from America and y'all will finally get some more updates! Finally!

ye

- Grace