Loving in Red

Chapter Three~ Guess Who?

Chapter Three

Guess Who?

   “Ouch!”

“Shut up, you look beautiful!” Olivia was trying to do something weird with Rose’s hair (what she had no idea, just that it hurt) as the minuets to the ball ticked away, and she became more and more uncomfortable. This whole thing was a terrible idea, and it was only going to end badly.

“Are you done yet?” she asked, blowing a stray curl out of her eyes as she prayed Olivia wasn’t doing something odd with her hair. She hadn’t inherited the frizzyness of her mother’s hair, but she had inherited the curl along with her father’s red that was signature in the Weasley family.

“Almost, and…yes! Take a look love, those boys are going to go wild!”

Rolling her eyes, Rose looked into the mirror-and instead of wanting to strangle Olivia for turning it into a rats nest, she actually liked it. Her red curls were large and full of volume, framing her face nicely. Olivia had forced her into wearing some sort of dark lipstick and other kind of guck, and Rose had to admit she looked…almost pretty.

“You like?” Olivia smiled happily; tossing her own extremely straight brown hair over one shoulder “Now, put your mask on and let’s see how it all looks.”

Using a temporary sticking charm to make her mask stay on, Rose felt the black lace of her mask and wondered if she would feel braver, better, when no one knew who she was. Her hair would probably give her away, though. “How do I look?” she asked, standing so Olivia could see.

“Oooh! Rose you look so gorgeous!” squealed Olivia “Your Mum really knew what she was doing!”

Rose glanced in the mirror to see a different person, a person with snow white skin and no freckles. Her dress was black chiffon and strapless, longer in the back than in the front. All of Olivia’s silly makeup made the blue in her hazel eyes that stared back at her: Rose had to touch her face to make sure it was real. “I actually look…okay. Thanks, Liv.”

“Great!” smoothing out her own strapless pink dress, Olivia gave a slight twirl before strapping on the black heels and charming her own mask, which was a swirl of black and pink on silver. “Now come on, I know you don’t have a date, but you can come in with Albus, Ian, Leanne and I…Al says Scorpius Malfoy is going stag.”

“No, Liv.” They passed through the portrait hole and continued down the stairs, Rose’s dress flying out behind her like black wings. She froze though before descending the marble staircase, Olivia still walking forward.

“Rose, what-why are you just standing there? We’re going to be late!” crossing her arms and tapping her foot, Olivia sighed “I know you’re not used to the make up and the hair and stuff, but suck it up!”

“It-it’s not that.” Rose breathed, pressing her back against the wall “You go ahead, I’ll only be a second.”

Sighing again, Olivia shrugged “Fine, but you better show up.”

“I will,” said Rose, closing her eyes briefly, listening to the click of Olivia’s fade. She remembered her mother telling her how she had gone to her first ball –it was the Yule Ball, for Christmas…much fancier than this, but still- and how she’d gone with former Quidditch star Viktor Krum. How she had watched Ron the entire dance, and that they had fought at the end. Ron had said he was absolutely green with envy, stewing in jealousy. That was usually when Ron would take Hermione in his arms and dance her around the room, saying ‘that’s what I would have done if I’d actually plucked up the courage to ask you really, love.’ Then they’d kiss right there in the kitchen, Hugo making faces and Rose pretending she didn’t love it when they acted like that. She had never been a girly girl, wearing pink and bows or dreaming of her first ball or kiss or day dreaming of her wedding and prince charming…until she’d met him.