Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

Charles Artois

Chapter Four

21:47

The girls' dormitory was a mess.

They had only entered the place for the first time again three hours before, and already every nook and cranny was scattered with piles of discarded party clothes, makeup palettes, potion bottles and hair clips. But, for once, none of the girls minded as this was the first night in their lives that they were determined to look cool at a Gryffindor common room party finally...

Rosie was lying on her back in the middle of her bed, focussing on trying to cast a drying spell on her half-wet hair from the shower, and she was just getting to the final layer when a sudden noise made her jump. "No, no, no!" came a shriek from inside the bathroom.

"What is it Mar?" Lily droned, clearly only partly caring about her friends mysterious problem as she struggled with the zip on the back of her white Go-Go boots – it wasn't exactly uncommon for Marlene to be seen acting rather dramatically.

"I've broken the damn heel on my new damn gold shoe!" her voice cried from behind the closed door. Though, it didn't stay closed for long as the irritated blonde came storming into the room with the mangled shoe and a bottle of Hairspray in either hand, her hair still looking quite a bit more dishevelled than she probably would've liked.

"Oh, calm down, Cinderella," Mary said sarcastically, chuckling at Marlene from the foot of her own bed, where she was extra-carefully applying some new green eyeshadow she'd been given by an aunt for her fifteenth birthday. "I'm sure you'll still get to go to the ball."

"What are you going on about?" Marlene asked flippantly, swishing around to glare at the side of Mary's head in frustration, still waving around the damaged shoe as if it would become magically fixed again.

"What? Wizards don't have Cinderella!?" Mary scoffed, looking over to Lily with wide eyes of surprise and letting her makeup brush hang limply in her palm. "What on earth do your lots' children read when they're young?"

"We have proper children's stories," Marlene said moodily with narrowed eyes, finally stopping stomping around the room and folding her arms impatiently across her chest. "Cinderella sounds like some sort of... disease!"

Mary's mouth opened in offence while her own eyes narrowed, preparing to retort when Rosie jumped up from her bed and rolled her eyes, "For goodness' sake..." she muttered, jogging up to the blonde. "Alice, can you finish our hair? Lily and Mary, you can touch up the makeup and I'll brush up everyone's outfits!" she commanded, waving a finger around as she spoke.

The three girls nodded as they rushed around the room, grabbing brushes and palettes from the floor - Mary even found her hairbrush in the knicker draw.

"What about me? I'm having a bit of a problem here!" Marlene shouted, waving her broken shoe about as her cheeks stained pink in frustration.

"Calm down, Mar, just use this spell," Rosie summoned a Charms book and opened it as she tied Marlene's bow on the side of her jumpsuit.

"Oh, alright. Thanks," she smiled, waving her wand and fixing the shoe in a matter of seconds.

"So you really made all of that fuss over a spell?" Mary scoffed. "Sometimes, I still can't believe Wizards actually exist."

"Oh, shut up, MacDonald," Marlene said, causing Mary to smirk as she turned back to what she was doing.

Rosie finally rushed back to the dresser as the others finished each other's looks to put in her dangly earrings and smooth out hair slip dress.