chaos ~ fred weasley

42. & fauna

                  Hogsmeade is bustling with frustrated looking students from both Beauxbatons and Hogwarts when Allie, Angie and I embark on our dress expedition the next day. We start in Hogsmeade with low expectations and are met with even worse results—there is one clothing shop in all of Hogsmeade, and the fanciest dress it has is a short, bright orange number with a sequined bust and ruches galore.

"Vee, please tell me you thought of another place we can go to?" Allie asks as we step out of the store, burrowing further into our coats as we look around the crowded streets.

"Of course I did," I reply nonchalantly, rolling my eyes. I glance at my watch and nod to myself. "As long as you both are fine with breaking Hogwarts rules."

Angie looks pointedly at me and says, "when have we ever not been fine with that?"

"Fair enough," I say, laughing a little. "Alright, let's go."

**

"Merlin's beard, I didn't know there was a passage there!" Angie exclaims as we emerge into Diagon Alley, brushing the soot off our jackets and looking around the snowy high street. "How did you find out about it?"

I shrug, leading them in the direction of our first dress shop. "I have my ways."

We stop in front of a large shiny window to look at the new brooms in the display, much to the chagrin of Allie. To repay her for letting us gawk over the Quidditch gear while she waited, Allie makes Angie and I wait for her while she leisurely browses a book shop. When she finally emerges, she has a small bag that's filled to the brim with worn, paperback copies of classics.

"Alright, ladies," she says with a grin. "Let's go."

We look at a few shops on the main highstreet, but some of them are so busy we can't even see the clothes they're selling. Others just sell cloaks and robes—I double over in laughter when Allie seriously points to a sapphire robe with velvet dicks on and suggests that we buy it for Dumbledore. Since the dick cloaks aren't exactly appropriate for the Yule Ball, we ditch the store and head for the last one on our list— Madame Flora's Formal Fitters.

It's at the end of the street, and Angie snorts as we spot it in the distance. "Classic. What a trope! This is either gonna be some bloody creepy store, or it's going to be a hidden gem filled with amazing dresses."

"I'm just hoping luck goes our way, girls," Allie says under her breath, walking in between Angie and I and linking her arms with ours.

Madame Flora's Formal Fitters turns out to be the latter of Angie's predictions, thank Merlin. When we approach the building, the sign on the outside doesn't look like much, and neither does the storefront— a modest blue sign with an orchid symbol beneath it, and a small selection of simple cloaks and plain dresses. When we walk inside, however, that's a whole different story. The shop is spacious, running deeper than one would expect when looking at it from the outside. I gape at the selection of formal attire—the shop is split in half with one side being for men and the other for women, and in the middle there's also a range of cloaks and other gender-neutral items that shine along with the rest of the clothes. Everything in the store glimmers under the soft rose lighting, even if the fabric isn't sequined. Rose walls run along the expanse of the shop, a mixture of red, white, pink, and yellow. Floral garlands of yellow orchids dangle from the ceiling, swaying softly in the breeze that wafts through when we open the door.