“Meet you at the Three Broomsticks, ‘kay?” Lily asked Emily.
Emily nodded, but was more concentrated on Amos Diggory, her date. Slowly, arm in arm, they walked towards Madam Puddifoot’s, an embarrassingly pink tea shop for romantic couples.
The four other friends, Alice, Katie, SamLin, and Lily, were left standing in the midst of the crowds. They all felt pretty dumb just standing there, but they couldn’t decide where to go.
Finally, Katie spoke up. “Wanna go to Honeydukes?” Honeydukes was their favorite shop, with sweets and candies of all kinds. The other three nodded vigorously.
They all managed to squeeze in the rather small candy shop. Lily heard the bell ring as they all entered. She looked around and somewhat groaned inwardly. She nudged Alice, who groaned loudly. This caused SamLin and Katie to turn around. Katie looked mad, but strangely, SamLin suddenly blushed.
There was a group of boys. Not just any boys, though, but Marauders. They were made up of James Potter, the co-ringleader and best prankster; Sirius Black, other co-ringleader and ladies man; Remus Lupin, the more studious and sensible of them all; and Peter Pettigrew, who basically had one word to describe him: wimpy. Frank Longbottom also was hanging around because though he was no Marauder, he was a good friend to the troublesome group.
Too bad the boys had eyes too, because they had noticed the girls staring at them. Each put on a smirk (except for Peter, who looked embarrassed and worried and Remus, who was too mature to act like that) and headed towards the girls.
“Staring at the sweets?” Sirius asked cockily. SamLin blushed harder, Katie’s hands were curling into fists, Alice looked revolted, and Lily rolled her eyes.
“You’ve got nothing better to do than pick on me and my friends?” Alice asked fiercely. Frank grinned.
“Come on, Alice. We’ve got better things to do. Plus, I think it’s nearly time to meet Emily,” Lily suggested. She said the last sentence rather loudly. All the girls turned tail on the boys and marched out of Honeydukes. SamLin was with them, but she couldn’t help but look forlornly at Sirius Black when walking out.
“Where were they meeting?” James asked as the bell tingled after the girls left.
Frank laughed. “You want to crash their little party?”
James shook his head. “Just merely curious.”
*
“Finally! You’re here!” Alice cried when Emily entered the Three Broomsticks and threw her arms tightly around her. It didn’t matter if Amos was holding her hand.
“You guys were waiting for me all this time?” Emily asked, her nose all scrunched up.
“We had, er, troubles,” Lily explained.
“I see,” Emily said, not getting it.
Amos sighed and said to Emily, “I’m going to meet the guys. I’ll leave you with yours. Have fun.” He wrapped her up in a passionate kiss. All of them turned away, and Alice made gagging noises. Finally, he left the pub.
Emily sat down, looking refreshed. “So, who’s treating?”
“I will,” SamLin volunteered, taking out her change purse. “Butterbeers?”
“Make mine extra foamy,” Alice requested.
SamLin placed the order and all of them launched into a topic of conversation Emily had just discovered.
“Merlin, can you believe it? Lizzie told me that the Potters are so rich they rented one of the biggest houses in England,” Emily said excitedly. Lily rolled her eyes. “Lils, stop rolling your eyes. Anyway, it’s kind of old and it’s called Netherfield Park. But it’s the coolest place!” Her jade-grey eyes were wide and sparkling. “I’d kill to visit it.”
“I could care less,” Alice said, reaching for just served butterbeer.
“It could be possible, Allie. Summer’s in about a month...”
“As soon as we finish O.W.L’s,” Lily groaned.
“Lils, you need to loosen up. You’re one of the smartest girls in our year, why worry?” SamLin said, patting Lily on the back. “Drink your butterbeer.” Lily gulped down most of it.
“Oh, and you know what?” Emily was horrible at trying to remain on the current topic.
“What? Did the O.W.L’s change?” Katie asked.
“Who cares about owls?” Emily asked. “You guys weren’t even talking about owls.”
“Emily, let’s just say it’s a test. A big test.” Katie explained this all very slowly. Then, out of curiosity, she asked, “What’s the info?”
“At the Netherfield Park place, you know--the place where the Potters rented for the summer, they’re throwing a ball! Merlin, it sounds so exciting!” Emily squealed.
“I wouldn’t go to a ball with any of those nitwits,” Alice snorted.
After that, they chattered incessantly about school, boys (here most of them snorted), and summer break. Finally, when all that was left of their butterbeers was leftover foam, Emily stood up. “You know what, I feel like I need something to put me in a romantic mood. Why don’t we go dress shopping?”
“Why? There’s no ball coming up,” Lily protested.
“Well, you never know,” Emily said, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
“Oh, fine,” Alice sighed.
“I guess.” Katie shrugged.
“I agree with Emily,” SamLin said.
“Fine,” Lily agreed, a little petulantly. She crossed her arms. “But we’re only doing this for fun.”
*
“How ‘bout gold?”
“But you look so fantastic in dark blue!”
“Oooh! Look at this green!”
“Geez! What kind of dress is that?”
“Wow, that’s so beautiful!”
The five girls were the only ones inside Lady LaBarre’s, the dress shop at Hogsmeade. Miss LaBarre, a woman in her twenty’s or so, looked thankful that there was at least one person in her shop. Her black hair was back in a messy bun, a pair of red glasses was perched on her nose, and her eyes looked rather weary.
Lily looked around the shop. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so grouchy. The dresses were so tempting. They all looked beautiful. It didn’t matter if she would never wear them.
“Lils, look at me!”
Lily turned around. Emily had disappeared into the changing room and now came out. She was dressed in a strapless, satin, floor-length dress that fanned out across the floor. The light blue color with stripes of green and purple looked great against her pale skin. What really concerned Lily was the long slit along the sides that went all the way up to her hips, but Emily definitely wouldn’t care. Emily had even put on the tallest, skinniest silver spike heels Lily had ever seen. But Lily had to admit that her friend looked awesome.
“Merlin, Em! You scare me sometimes,” Lily complimented. The others were impressed, too. Emily had a gigantic smile on her face as she walked back (a little clumsily) into the changing room.
“My turn!” SamLin declared when Emily came out. She grabbed a dress off the rack and headed towards the changing room.
While SamLin changed, Lily, Alice, and Katie browsed around for a perfect dress to impress everybody. Lily spotted some nice ones, but none really captured her attention. She also spotted Emily talking to Miss LaBarre and handing her several Galleons.
“Emily! You’re going to buy it?!” Lily asked in disbelief.
“Why not? It looks fantastic. Plus, I think with some persuasion I could snare us invitations to the Netherfield Ball,” Emily replied nonchalantly. Lily still looked unsure.
Emily turned to face her. “Look, we brought enough money. Don’t you ever want to get something that makes you feel special?” Emily smiled and sat down on the couch, watching her friends. But Lily had noticed the strain in her eyes as she smiled, clearly longing for Lily to believe her. She sighed and went back to looking.
Soon, SamLin emerged from the changing room. She wore a dark, dark blue (almost black) dress that that reached just below her knees. The strap that held it up was almost like a silk necklace. The sparkles scattered on it looked like stars in a beautiful night sky. It made SamLin look older, but not too old. She looked more like a beautiful, young witch that was attending yet another fabulous party. She glanced at her friends, unsure of what they thought.
Alice flashed a thumbs-up sign. This seemed to relieve SamLin as she walked back into the changing room. But before she entered, she turned around to Alice and said, “It’s your turn.” Alice gave a moan of protest, but Katie picked up a dress Alice had been eying and pushed her gently into the changing room.
When she emerged, her arms crossed and looking a bit like a cross between insecurity, rage, and surprise, Lily and everyone else in the shop were flabbergasted. The dress, like SamLin’s, ended just below her knees and had small slits about two inches long. It had two thin spaghetti straps and it was the color of gold with tons of frills and bows. It amazed Lily how much Alice looked like a...well, girl.
“Alice Laurel Swith has a body!” Emily exclaimed. Alice rolled her eyes, but they could all see a faint blush forming.
“You look awesome, Allie,” Katie said a bit enviously.
Alice smiled, but only a little. She took Katie by the arm and pushed her into the other changing room. Alice grabbed a dress from the section where Katie was browsing in and threw it over the top of the door. Miss LaBarre looked like she was about to faint from all the excitement going on.
A few moments later, Katie came out. “Ta-da,” she announced in a bored tone. But actually, she seemed pretty pleased with Alice’s selection. The dress reached to the floor like Emily’s and was also strapless like hers. But the dress was white with red designs of swirls around the cuffs, neck, waistline, and hem. Emily seemed disappointed that the dress had no slits at all or anything that was considered totally revealing, but Katie (being Katie) liked that too.
SamLin made Katie turn around in circles and then she walked around her. Finally, she seemed to come to a conclusion. “It’s hot,” she proclaimed, and then plopped down next to Emily.
Katie smiled her half-smile and put on her raised eyebrows look. “Lils! It’s your turn!”
Lily did not want to try on a dress, but she didn’t want to look like the cowardly lion in front of her friends. Was she afraid that a dress wouldn’t fit her right? Or was it the fact that she doubted any dress would look so beautiful on her?
Finally, she grabbed a simple white dress and headed into the changing room. As Lily slipped it on, she wondered what her friends would think. Would they say it was awesome or awful? She could only wonder.
When Lily emerged from the small changing room, her friends had expressions on their faces much like when they saw Alice. Dying to know the truth, Lily rushed towards the tall oval mirror. She gasped when she saw what was in front of her.
The dress turned out not to be that simple. Sure, it wasn’t anything fancy, but it wasn’t too plain. The dress had round, puffy things that connected the dress to its long sleeves. Her sleeves were see-through and had swirl-like patterns on them. But as Lily looked at the dress part, she was stunned. It was more like a vanilla cream white with real pearls sewn into the silky fabric in the swirling design. The dress clung to every inch and limb of her body. Lily immediately fell in love with it.
“This dress is mine,” she said to Miss LaBarre, then went into the changing room. When she appeared again, she marched right up to the register and paid many Galleons for it. Lily didn’t mind.
Her friends stood by the door holding their bags with the dresses in them when Lily joined them.
“Ready?” Alice asked.
“Let’s go,” Lily said, and all three walked away, arm in arm, back to Hogwarts castle.
Is it Pride or Prejudice? by Stormbringer
Chapter Notes: Though most of the drama comes later, Lily and her friends go dress shopping.