The Forest - R.L.

Chapter 42 - The Dress

"It's four o'clock, Abbey! We have three more hours until it starts. We don't need to start doing anything now."

"Yes we do. Do you know how long it takes to get ready for these kind of things? And if we start now and something goes wrong or something, we have plenty of time to fix it."

The Hufflepuff fifth year girls' dormitory was bustling as Lily and Abbey and Abbey's dorm mates Rose Campbell, Jaqueline Terrell and Adelina Zepeda were flitting around the dorm, grabbing things from here and there and laying their dresses out on the beds. Grace sat on the floor, watching them all walk past, with Rayna Zepeda, the last occupant of the dorm and Adelina's non identical twin sister, sitting beside her. They were also joined by Lily Evans.

"Or maybe we could spend another hour lying on the floor and doing nothing. A much more valuable use of time if you ask me," Rayna said, running a hand through her thick curly hair.

"Or we could work on that stupid Herbology assignment that Professor Eischeid gave us a week before school finishes," Grace suggested, flicking the pile of books she'd brought with her. "But let's be realistic, there is no way that's going to happen."

"Even I don't think I'm going to do that assignment. She literally gave us an hour long lecture about how Shrivelfigs have no use at all and then asks us to write an essay about the uses of Shrivelfigs," Lily huffed, dumping a small bag of products on Abbey's bed.

"Lily Evans not doing an assignment!?" Rayna cried with mock horror. "Why that's just outrageous!"

"Rayna, I don't think you've ever finished a single assignment in your life!" Adelina laughed. "In fact, I'm surprised you even know what the word 'assignment' means. You are the laziest person in the whole entire school."

"I can't understand where you'd get that idea," Rayna replied, leaning back to lie on the floor. "Not at all."

"Okay, who wants me to do their hair first?" Rose asked, with a chair and a pile of hair products both magical and muggle in front of her.

Two and a half hours later, Abbey, Lily, Rose and Adelina were all sitting with their hair and makeup done wearing their brand new dresses whilst Grace rushed around the dorm. Even Rayna had managed to get herself ready over the span of a few minutes and was now back to lying on her bed, all dressed up.

"I can't find my other shoe! What the-" Grace yelped as she stubbed her toe. "Ah! Has anyone seen a navy blue boot lying around? Anyone?"

Abbey just laughed. "And this is why we started getting ready earlier."

"I haven't even done my hair yet and- found it!" Grace called as she pulled out her shoe from under Rose's bed and jammed her foot into it. "Okay now for the hair."

Eventually, she got everything together and was ready in front of the Great hall with the other girls five minutes before seven o'clock.

"We kind of look like a rainbow," Adelina pointed out, and she wasn't wrong. With Grace in navy blue, Abbey in light blue, Lily in a dark green, Rayna in yellow, Rose in maroon and Adelina in lavender, they almost formed a complete rainbow.

"Where are you meeting Sam?" Grace asked Abbey.

"In front of the suit of armour over there, but I can see from here that he hasn't arrived yet," Abbey replied, fiddling with the swooshy skirt of her baby blue dress. "I still can't believe that he asked me! After all that time wishing he would, and then it happened, and now the ball's here and Merlin's beard I'm so excited."

"Do you want to talk any faster?" Grace laughed.

"I also can't believe that you told him too. I really could kill you for that, but I suppose it worked didn't it? And if I killed you, you wouldn't be able to dance with Remus tonight and then-"

"Oh shut up," Grace cut her off, her face gaining a red tint.

"And then you'll kiss and fall in love and-"

"Is that Sam over there? I think it is. You'd better get going," Grace said quickly, the blush now completely covering both of her cheeks.

Abbey immediately turned around and spotted Sam, all dressed up in his dress robes, waiting for Abbey on the other side of the corridor.

"It is too. Bye!" Abbey called, before practically skipping of through the crowd to meet him.

Over the next few minutes, the rest of the girls went off with their dates, and into the hall. The last one to leave was Lily, who, much to James' dismay, was going with a handsome sixth year named Basil Bateman, leaving Grace alone in the corridor.

James, Peter and Remus arrived ten minutes past seven, out of breath.

"Only ten minutes late, that's got to be a record for you lot," Grace said as they arrived shaking her head. It was strange to see them all dressed up – Peter in a set of old grey dress robes with lace spilling out everywhere and his hair neatly combed back, James in his stylish black robes and his hair still a floppy mess on top of his head and lastly Remus in a set of tattered dark brown robes and neatly combed hair. Grace had to admit, he was one of the few people she'd seen who could wear old brown dress robes and still look good. The colour really brought out his eyes.

"You're actually wearing a dress? I thought you were joking when you said you'd bought one," James asked. "Where's the potato sack?"

"Well, believe it or not, I do actually wear dresses on the rare occasion, and this just so happens to be one of them," Grace answered before turning towards the door. "So are we going to go to this ball or not?"

---

Any guesses as to who Sirius' SeCrEt DaTe might be yet? Normally, I'm a huge Wolfstar shipper but for obvious reasons, that can't work in this book, so Abbey and I came up with another idea...? I'm not sure if it's too weird or too something, but you'll see.

- Grace