Melody Riddle and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 3: Dress Shop.. Drama

Mom and I made our way into the robe shop, which I hadn't been in for about three years because my height was only slowly rising. I was going to need to be fitted for dressrobes and new school robes since I finally grew a bit bigger.

Please don't let me be short like mom, I thought as I studied our height difference. Despite my worries, I was already a head taller than her. However, that didn't matter so much as that I was still proving to be shorter than my friends. Marcus, Vincent and Greg were already the tallest; but even Becky and Draco had gone through rising growth spurts.

Madam Malkin, a squat witch dressed in maroon robes walked over to us. "Hello, hello — Hogwarts?"

"Yes, I need new school robes and some dressrobes for –" I began to explain... but since I didn't even know what the dressrobes were for, I couldn't properly clarify the reason.

Madam Malkin gave a knowing look — of course I wouldn't be the only student asking for dressrobes. "Right ... allow me to bring you back here so you can be fitted. Do you know what color fabric you'd like for your dressrobes?"

"Erm..." I thought in dismay. What color do I want? Curse it, why didn't I think of this? "Mom?"

"You have always looked good in baby blue," she remarked with a small smile.

"Okay then," I said quickly, turning back to Madam Malkin. "Baby blue, please."

She smiled, gushing as she bustled toward the back of her shop. "I can see it now... you would look good with baby blue. Hold on for just a few minutes."

Twenty seconds later, it occurred to me that I don't have any clothes in the color Madam Malkin was retrieving. I turned to mom, "I never knew I looked good in baby blue. When was the last time I even wore any blue unless they were jeans?"

"I haven't seen you in baby blue for a while..." she replied thoughtfully. "I bought so many clothes for you when you were a small toddler. You were such a beautiful baby girl. Everyone had to comment about how good you looked in baby blue, and they were right. I'm sure you will still look good in it." According to the tears that had built up in her eye, mom was getting emotional again. I'm fourteen, I'm not leaving you anytime soon... well, I mean I'm not moving out of the house soon, I'll still visit for summer...

A stout woman with really curly black hair came in with a nervous-looking young girl. The girl looked nothing like her – she had wavy brown hair and a small nose. The woman had an extremely large nose by comparison. She wore a rose dress with a dark blue background while the girl looked as though she were in rags, the pants had large holes in both knees and the dirty white shirt looked two sizes too small. Both of them just looked out of place in the wizard world.

I pointed them out to mom as Madam Malkin shouted out to them, "I will be with you in a minute!"

She came back to me in a rush with a roll of baby blue fabric. I could already see her pace had quickened before her hands started shaking as she unraveled the roll.

"Are you working alone today?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. When I saw that it wasn't as big of a crowd today, I let my helpers have the day off..." she said, fiddling with some needles.

"Don't hurry yourself," I said quickly as she dropped a few needles. "Please, slow down. You can do that young girl first. I can stand to wait until I'm fitted, it's no problem."

"Oh, I wouldn't dare! You got here first!" she said, looking at me in shock.

"And she's new, probably just about to start Hogwarts... oh, please, Madam Malkin, allow her to go first. Don't rush to get her fitted either, take as much time as you need. My mom and I can decide while we wait about what style I can have."