Beneath Her Skin

Chapter Twenty-Two

Alastriona placed the single small daisy pin in her hair and tapped it once with her wand. She watched in the mirror as it multiplied, the daisy's weaved throughout her wild, untamed mane of red locks. Once she was satisfied she tapped a daisy once more and the spreading stopped.
Alastriona danced her way out of the bathroom and squealed in laughter when Hannah Abbott bounded up to her and forced her into a jig around the room. 

Susan Bones chuckled at the two girls and called out, "You'll mess up each others hair!" 

This only stopped Hannah immediately but Alastriona just laughed harder, she skipped over to Susan and kissed her cheek. The door to the bathroom opened again and Darcy walked into the dormitory, Alastriona finally stood still, in complete awe of her best friend. 

Darcy was wearing a dark green gown that swished down to her calves in soft waves of flower patterned lace that covered the cotton dress and the straps going over her shoulders were very thin. A pendant dangled from her neck on a thin silver chain holding a navy blue crystal, a gift from Alastriona two years prior and morphing butterfly earrings were dangling from her lobes.

Alastriona grinned and jumped up and down when she saw Darcy,  "You look amazing! Truly fantastic, Darcy!"

Darcy's tanned cheeks glowed at the compliment, Susan and Hannah chimed in as well and Darcy started to blush heavily under their eyes.

"Okay, okay, everyone else get dressed now, please!" Darcy ordered, "I feel really over dressed!"

She was. Alastriona, Susan and Hannah were all in their pyjamas, they'd been waiting for their nail polish to dry and had finished doing their hair as well.  

Alastriona slipped into her dress. It was simple black cotton with a flat neckline and halter neck straps, there was a gold silk sash at the waist. The beautiful aspect of the dress had been created by Alastriona herself.

She'd embroidered hundreds of intricate golden snowflakes into the dress and they glimmered in the light with every move she made.
Alastriona had decided to take it to the next level and had enchanted the snowflakes and now they moved down the dress, making it look like the golden snowflakes were falling from the gold sash as her waist, once the snowflakes reached the hem of her dress they appeared at her waist again. It had taken a very long time to make the snowflakes and even longer to find the correct charm, Darcy had helped with that part.
Alastriona slipped into her little black heels with the golden shimmering bow at the toes. 

Hannah audibly gasped when Alastriona stood up and twirled around, "It looks even better now that it's on you! You did such an amazing job, Alastriona."

"Thank you, Hannah!" Alastriona grinned happily, "Can't take all the credit though, they wouldn't be moving without Darcy's help."

Darcy smiled and hugged her best friend, "That's true, I am a genius." 

Hannah and Susan got ready too, Hannah came out in a beautiful lilac coloured dress with a large black bow tied around the back and Susan emerged in a dark blue dress that had a layer of white frost lace over the bodice.

Alastriona clapped excitedly and complimented all the girls, they all looked beautiful.
"Let's go down and get Ced to take some photos for us!" She suggested, the other girls agreed and she grabbed her camera as they made their way down into the Hufflepuff Common Room. 

Alastriona was the last one to come down, she was gripping her camera tightly. Cedric Diggory was dressed in wonderful dark dress robes looking very handsome, he grinned as he saw Alastriona on the stairs.

He ran to the stairs and as she stepped on the last one he picked her up and spun her around, she squealed with laughter until he placed her gently on the ground.