Tickling the Giant Squid and other Grand Adventures

29. Avila

I spun around in the dress, testing its comfort. In my past experiences, anything sparkly or sequined was unbelievably uncomfortable. This dress, however, was amazingly comfy, and I suppose it's because this had been handmade for me, with comfort in mind. "Where's the mirror?" I asked Karou, ready to see myself.

I was pointed in the right direction and got some amazed glances from the other people in the common room when I passed them.

I stepped in front of the mirror apprehensively. I wasn't used to people looking at me the way people were right now. I looked at myself and my breath caught in my throat.

"Whoa," I said quietly.

"Exactly," Karou snorted. "I don't do cosplay for nothing." Her voice faded into the background as I stared at myself.

With some makeup and hair dye, I would be completely unrecognizable, but the just me in the dress itself was amazing. Karou had somehow managed to recreate the dress almost exactly, with minimal changes for my size, and the purpose of the dress. I was practically glowing from the natural light in the Hufflepuff common room, and the sparkling of the jewels integrated in the dress. I looked amazing, and I felt powerful in a way I'd never felt before - like a commander of a kingdom with loyal subjects. I liked the feeling.

I spun around, admiring how the dress flared out and then swished around my legs when I stopped moving. I felt good. I smiled at myself, just a small one.

"All I need is white hair," I said aloud.

"And shoes, unless you intend to go barefoot," Farid said, cheek resting in her hand as she watched me, finally torn away from her paper. She returned to it after another minute of staring, quill scratching across the parchment.

"That depends. If the shoes are heels, I'm definitely going barefoot. For the hair, my dad sent me some hair dye, and I should probably do that soon."

Karou cocked her head to the side like a puppy, the way she always did when thinking. "I have some white boots that I used for a cosplay that you can wear under the dress. They're, like, military grade, though. And we can use magic to dye your hair, Marissa excels at that." She straightened her head and smiled. "Your call, though." Her smile dropped and she frowned. "Wait, you want to use muggle hair dye? Why?"

"The boots sound awesome, but wouldn't they be too small for me? And I'll use this cause I don't want to waste it - someone did pay for it for me. I'll let Marissa dye my hair next time. I didn't know there were spells for that."

Karou gave me her signature are-you-completely-stupid look and shrugged. "Magic, Winchester." She turned around and began sweeping stuff into piles, neat and proportionately too-long fingers sorting things.

"Well sorry, I'm still not used to magic!" I snapped playfully, giving her a small laugh. Especially magic that's not being used by evil witches that don't use wands. I thought to myself.

Karou wrinkled her nose in return, a happy reaction that I'd never seen anyone else have. It was honestly pretty darn cute. "Well, I suggest you get more comfortable with it, or I'll leave you in the dust!"

"I'll be used to it by New Years, I swear!"

Karou threw her head back, tiny face contorted and chest heaving as silent as the grave. I stared at her as she laughed. She looked so cute with her head thrown back but making no sound. Her hair was hanging loosely behind her, swinging with the movement of her body, flicking forward as she brought her chin close to her chest, gasping for breath.

I felt my heart beat a little faster and looked away, forcing a small laugh through my lips. I glanced around the common room to distract myself.

There weren't many other people in the room, but there were a few scattered about. They sat in an armchair or on a couch, or at one of the tables to the left, where there was a good handful of people doing homework. Several of them had looked up when Karou had announced my costume finished, but by now, most had returned to what they were doing before.

I stepped away from the mirror, suddenly uncomfortable. "Shall I take it off to keep it clean?" I asked Karou. "I can dye my hair while you work on Farid's costume. Fair warning, there'll be a strong smell of bleach while I'm doing it."

She looked up after a few minutes of catching her breath, still smiling. "Um, yeah, yes." She moved behind me, standing on her tiptoes to undo the buttons that started at the small of my back and moved all the way down to the end of the bustle-thing. I carefully wiggled out of the dress, the fabric occasionally catching at my tank top and leggings.

Karou continued her train of thought in her traditional rambling manner. "We probably shouldn't dye your hair in here if it smells as strongly as you say, and I'm sure the other girls wouldn't appreciate it if we stunk up any of the girl's bathrooms. We should probably use Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. What do you think, Farid?"

I turned my head in time to see Farid simply shrug in response. "As good a place as any," she said, rolling up her scroll paper and sticking it in her bag. "Did you want any help cleaning this up?

I stepped out of the dress as Karou started issuing orders, looking between the two girls. Farid stood up and started collecting her things as Karou ran up to her dormitory to gather Farid's costume and put mine away.

"Moaning Myrtle?" I asked Farid as we waited.

Farid looked up from her bag. "A former student who haunts the first-floor girls' lavatory. She was killed sixty-something years ago by the basilisk Harry Potter defeated in his second year."

"And she hasn't gone crazy? Impressive." I muttered. "Lead the way."

I followed the two girls to the first floor of the castle, and into a girls' bathroom that had an 'Out of Order' sign on it. The sign was old and dirty and seemed like it had been there for decades. I supposed that was because there was a ghost haunting it. We walked in anyway.

"Welcome to Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom!" Karou announced as the door swung shut behind us. "Myrtle is probably in here somewhere, or in the lake - it's where the pipes lead."

"Oh. I see." I nodded. "Welp. Time to dye my hair." I plodded over to the sink and started opening the box while the other two made themselves comfortable. In the mirror, I saw Farid watching me with interest. "You've never dyed your hair have you?"

Farid shook her head. "I've never had any experience with the changing of hair colour, magical or otherwise."

I nodded at her with a smile. "Well, I'm sure that magically, it's quite easy, but I do believe anyone would benefit from experiencing it the muggle way. Would you like to dye a strip of your hair?"

Farid shrugged. "It would be interesting to learn."

"I'd love to dye your hair. I think I'll have just enough to do a strip like Karou's since my hair is so short. I'll do it after I do mine, ok?"

Farid nodded. "Alright."

I set everything up and glanced back in the mirror. The head of a girl was poking through the door of one of the stalls.

I spun around and saw her floating in the same spot. "Are you Myrtle?" My voice startled Karou, who had been focused on her work, and Farid, who had been inspecting what I'd pulled out of the box. Both girls jumped, and Karou gave a shout.

"Yes," The head said in a melancholy tone. The rest of Myrtle's body came floating out of the stall and over to us. "It's been quite a while since anyone's come in here."

"That must've been rather lonely," I said, trying to be friendly, despite all my instincts shouting 'THROW THE SALT! FIND SOME IRON! BURN THE BODY!' I'd learned the ghosts here were all friendly, for the most part, and none of them could hurt us. I was still curious as to how that was possible, but I didn't dare bring up the topic in front of my friends, who were still recovering from their shock.

"It was peaceful." Myrtle sniffled, though she didn't sound all the convincing.

"Well..." I glanced at my tools. "We're here so I can dye my hair without getting yelled at by anyone because of the smell. Is that okay?"

Myrtle floated closer and glanced at my things. "I guess so. It's not like I can smell anything anyway." She shrugged and floated over to Karou.

"Thank you!" I called after her as Karou started up a conversation.

I turned back to the sink, noticing that the temperature hadn't even dropped. What kind of ghosts were these? I shrugged it off and got started on my hair.