Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(70) Yule Ball

Snuffles,

Mum mentioned that the accessories that came with my dress were from you. Thank you so much, they're very lovely. Although I cannot imagine how much trouble you got into for placing that order yourself. Merry Christmas to you and Remus. A piece of advice: you'd want as much of mum's eggnog as you can drink. I've heard that it's good.

Hoping you are well,
         Florence

--

The great hall looked oddly different when they had sat down for breakfast and lunch that Saturday morning and afternoon. Their lunch was cut exceptionally short, and all of the students who stayed for the ball were ushered out of the hall which was going to be turned into the venue for the Ball.

The girls' dormitory room looked like a warzone of powder, red lipstick and any other thing that they could use to color their faces. A lot of them ran up and down the stairs, barreling into room after room to see if anyone else had spare ribbons or accessories.

Nicolai waddled out from behind the changing screen with the ribbons at her back hanging loose and untied. "Will you give me a hand, Flo?"

"I can't move," she said from the stool that she was forced to sit on. Thea had her face a mirror, and was merrily braiding a portion of her front hair. Florence was perfectly fine without doing her hair, but her roommates were excessively extra and refused to let her out if she didn't agree to it.

"I'll do it," Gabriella volunteered after one last swipe at her eyelids, which were now a rich color of gold. She grabbed the two pieces of ribbons, yanking on it hard, making Nicolai gasp.

"What the hell was that?" she wheezed, her insides feeling as if they have been smushed together with how tight the fabric wrapped around her torso was. She glared at Gabriella, who looked totally unapologetic. "What? This is a medieval styled dress, meant to make their waists look very skinny."

Nicolai rolled her eyes in a condescending manner "Well I don't want to look very skinny, obviously. With how tight this is, it is surely going to pop with how many glasses of punch and finger foods I'm planning on having tonight."

Gabrielle huffed, before readjusting the strings, giving Nicolai atleast a bit of breathing space.

Gabriella then proceeded to grab odd looking cylindrical things from a pouch, before she started wrapping  strands of Nicolai's hair around it. She jerked back, mortified with what she was trying to do. "What the hell is that?!" she questioned, jabbing the tiny pink cylindrical object in Gabriella's hand.

"A hair curler," she said, "Honestly? Have you never had your hair curled before?"

"I have," Nicolai replied, "But not with that monstrosity. How is that even a hair curler? Why don't you curl my hair like how normal witches do? Use your damn wand, not those scary muggle contraptions."

"It's more fun this way," Gabriella insisted, before continuing to do Nicolai's hair as she frowned in her seat, "I swear to god, Higgs, if this pulls out all of my hair, I'm turning your hair pink in mid dance."

"Jeez, Nic," Florence snorted, "You're such a pureblood sometimes."

"Like you aren't, McKinnon-Price."

Nicolai wore a beautiful circlet to go with her red velvet dress, which was sent to her along with a threatening letter from her mum which went along the lines of 'If you lose this even for a second, your great nan will come back and haunt you.'

Florence wore a flower crown to accessorize her head, along with a long gold necklace that fell down to her belly button. She shrugged on her cardigan, thirty minutes before the Ball began, while Nicolai was busy finding her shoes, practically tearing the whole room apart.