Open Fashionably Late

[Blake Lodge]

Open after @Harper Alston


Blake started getting ready at five, following her usual beauty routine, that is like a pre-preparation, which would make her ready to start actually getting ready at seven. At seven thirty she started to do her hair and at nine she got a little indecisive about what dress she was going to wear.

Finally, at ten to ten, she was in front of the Great Hall doors with a tight black dress with a really cute pattern of black and white lace dress that stopped a bit under her knees. Wearing her trademark heels, this time they were black Louboutin stilettos craved with Swarovski diamonds. If there was a place where she could show off her outfits it was there.

Shehad only two hours and ten minutes to enjoy the ball so she quickly opened both doors to the Great Hall making a movie entrance where the giants doors open andthere's only one person arriving. She was probably the last, fashionably late like her mom taught her. She saw so many beautiful people and lovely dresses but of course she thought she was prettier than everyone else. Every girl always thinks like that.

She did a hair whip with her hand putting it behind her shoulders and headed towards the table with the drinks. She filled herself a cup of nonalcoholic champagne and chugged it, she served herself another and did the same, it was like a ritual for her before she got into party mode. She put the cup on the table again and was about to head towards the dance floor. This was just like one of her mom's parties, she had to show up, have a good time for one or two hours and then go back to her room, except that this party would actually end in two hours. She wanted to go to the dance floor but she had to wait for the slow dance song to end first.

 

[Harper Alston]

It turned out her brothers were wrong about school dances. Harper had been having fun for the past couple of hours. To be fair, magic had probably helped. Instead of a gross gym, the Great Hall — complete with enchanted snow — served as the setting for the Yule Ball. And there were no lukewarm sandwiches or greasy bowls of off-brand chips. The house elves had worked their usual magic, crafting decadent treats. Harper wanted to take a photo of everything and send it home. Maybe she'd find the photographer she met earlier at the dance and ask him for a copy of one of his photos.

Harper had spent most of the night catching up with friends and bouncing along on the dance floor. The DJ mostly played wizard music, but she still enjoyed dancing along and trying to sing the choruses. Now, however, the DJ was playing a slower, more romantic song. Harper hadn't come to the dance with a date (and she'd always thought slow dancing was boring), so she'd waved goodbye at her friends who were slow dancing and headed for one of the tables off to the side. She needed a break anyways; she was a bit out of breath from dancing earlier.

As Harper approached the table, she inched her way past another blonde girl to reach for an empty cup. "Excuse me." Her gaze briefly flickered toward the girl, and Harper realized that she knew the other blonde. "Oh, hey Blake," she said, giving her roommate a smile. It looked like the other Gryffindor had just arrived since her hair looked untouched and perfect — unlike Harper's which was already starting to curl. Blake also appeared to be taller, and Harper glanced down to see her wearing a pair of incredibly high heels. "Wow, now I feel even more under-dressed," Harper said with a small laugh. She was wearing a simple pair of gold sandals and a blue sundress her Mum had forced her to pack. Harper rarely wore dresses, so she'd thought the outfit was fancy enough. A lot of the other younger girls had also shown up wearing more informal dresses. But Blake had clearly not gotten the memo. Harper didn't know much about fashion, but she could tell that Blake's outfit was expensive. "How'd you even make it down from Gryffindor tower in those shoes?"

 

[Ruben Right]

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[Blake Lodge]

Blake was so abstracted by her own thoughts that she didn't even noticed the other girl arriving. When the other girl said her name she snapped back to reality looking surprised at her for being caught off guard, she had to think about what she might have just said before answering back "Hey Harper" the young Gryffindor said with a smile.

Harper wasn't wearing her usual clothes and she looked a little uncomfortable on those clothes but looked lovely. Blake laughed at the other girl's comment "Go big or go home, right?". Harper didn't even imagined that Blake was about to wear her princess dress and look even more fabulous buried in layers of fabric but then she decided to wear a simpler dress at the last minute.

She was a little surprised at Harper's comment but if she gave it some thought Harper had only hung out with her at the dorm, in which she walks barefoot, and probably didn't really paid attention to her in class "I always wear heels. I think I was born with a pair attached" she joked.

Her mom forced her to wear heels for all the social events so by now she was more comfortable wearing heels all the time than sneakers "Besides, my mom says the make a great weapon" she said lifting her finger to stop the other other girl from saying a word "Before you ask, I don't know why she said that or if she ever used them as one" she concluded laughing.

She couldn't deny that heels were extremely heavy and would probably make a concussion to anyone but her mother was a difficult person to understand so she didn't quite knew if she only meant it like that.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper shook her head as Blake explained that she always wore heels. "No, I know." It was probably one of the first things she'd noticed about Blake. After all, what girl their age wore heels? Even at her old school, none of the Years 7s or Year 8s wore heels. Then again, Helensville, NZ wasn't the most fashion-forward place. "You just look even taller tonight," Harper said with a light laugh. "Aren't you ever afraid of falling and twisting an ankle?" she asked curiously. Harper had always prided herself in having good balance, but the idea of walking around the castle's uneven surfaces in mini-stilts was kind of terrifying. She didn't need to wear something that made her even more injury-prone.

Blake explained that her mum said high heels made for great weapons, and Harper's eyes widened. "She sounds interesting," Harper said. She couldn't imagine her own mother ever encouraging either her or Lila to wear heels. Her mum already spent enough time lamenting that Harper and her sister were growing up too fast, and they weren't even teenagers. "To be fair, I wouldn't want to get hit by the pointy end of one. But the real question is, have you ever used your heels as weapons?" she joked. She immediately thought of a scene in a book she'd read, where the villain had worn stilettos with actual stiletto knives attached to the heel. Maybe if high heels came with hidden knives, she'd consider wearing them to fancy events like this ball. It would be a bit like being a secret agent.

 

[Blake Lodge]

Harper made a good point, she trued not to think about that often. Fashion was the kind of thing you do stupid sacrifices for sometimes. "Try not to think about it a lot but I like to think I have a lot of experience besides, a good part of shoes were bought in shops where they enchanted them to be twisted ankle proof" she said trying to tranquillise both her and Harper. She smiled after "If that's your way to say I look pretty, I appreciate it. You look very nice too" she chuckled.

She looked at the other students dancing, she would love to be one of them dancing in the arms of a pretty boy and have a magical night but tonight was all about independent woman vibes and how she didn't need a boy to have fun. She quickly turned her head back to Harpermaking her hair fly a bit "Interesting is one word for it" she said with a weak smile. Her mom did have her cool moments but she wasn't usually a person you'd like to be around of.

"Oh yeah!" she said as the pointed that the edge of a heel could used to hit someone. Probably it would only do some damage in a soft tissue, like an eye. "The only time I used my heels for other thing that walking was to steal one of my mom's bracelets that was really high in her closet and out of reach. So I used the shoe to help me catch it, in my defense it was a really nice bracelet" she said more seriously like that excuse made total sense. She ended up letting out a laugh since Harper probably would never understand that reason and quite frankly, even for Blake it was a bit absurd now.

 

[Harper Alston]

Wow, magic really could fix any problem. Still, Harper wondered if enchanted heels were uncomfortable. She didn't really see how magic could change the fact that high heels required walking around on your tiptoes, which sounded painful. Blake's compliment caught Harper off-guard as she really had just thought Blake looked a bit taller tonight (Harper was secretly a bit too pleased with the fact that she was tall for her age, which was why she noticed whenever others were taller). But she didn't bother correcting the other Gryffindor, instead smiling easily. "Thanks!" Besides, Blake did look pretty tonight. She always looked nice.

Something seemed a bit off with Blake's smile, but Harper decided not to pry. Instead, she turned toward the table and filled her cup with some berry punch, listening as Blake recounted a story about using her heels for something other than walking. "Wait, how does that even work?" Harper was trying to picture the series of events Blake had described. "Like, you used the pointy end to hook the bracelet towards you? Wouldn't using a meterstick be easier?" She frowned slightly, suddenly realizing what they were discussing. The thought of Blake stealing a bracelet from her mother just because it was nice didn't sit well with Harper, who had never gone near her own mother's valuables growing up. The most she and her brothers ever did was pilfer lollies and biscuits from the upper shelves of the pantry. "Did you get caught?" she asked, keeping a neutral tone.

 

[Blake Lodge]

"I used it as hook yes" Blake said. She wasn't going to go into the physics of the whole act, mostly because she did not know much about physics and also because physics and balls are things exactly like brown and black, they should never be mixed together. "A meterstick doesn't have a hook, it would be a lot harder" the girl said trying to picture the whole thing.

Blake gave her a mischievous smile and then look forward like the topic had suddenly ended. The girl let out another wicked grin and lifted her right arm showing the girl a golden bracelet. At first sight it was a rather simple one, that looked like one that could be selled in a thrift store but if you peered closer you would see the handmade design on it "This bracelet is estimated to be forty six hundred dollars." she said in a way to tell the girl that even tiny simple things could be worth a lot of money, she stood with arm like that for a bit so Harper could examine it if she wanted "I guess this answers your question" she finished with a laugh and returning the arm to it's previous position.

The song was now over and an up beat tune started playing and Blake wasn't going to waste another second in there "I know you probably just came from the dance floor but do you wanna go dance?" she said giving two steps forward and extending her arm to Harper as a way to invite her.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper stared at the golden bracelet, unsure of what to say. It was probably one of the most valuable things she'd ever seen in person, and Blake acted as if it was just like any other old object. "Wow." She didn't know if she was more surprised that Blake had essentially taken four thousand dollars from her mother and gotten away with it or that such a simple bracelet was worth so much money. "It looks nice," Harper said politely though she couldn't tell what made it cost so much. Maybe it was the gold? "And your mum didn't notice it was missing?" She couldn't fathom being that rich.

A lively song started up, and Blake suggested they go dance. "Okay, just a sec." Harper drained her cup of punch, wincing slightly at its overbearing sweetness, before tossing the cup in the trash. She took Blake's hand, letting the other girl guide them towards the dance floor. Once there, Harper let go and tried to focus on the music and not on the story Blake had just told. It wasn't that hard as the song was catchy and easy to dance to, though Harper's "dancing" consisted of a lot of jumping up and down and spinning around. "I don't know why people think school dances are lame," she said before doing a spin. "This is fun!"

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake laughed "We have a pretty big house" she said with no intention of sounding braggy "Things do tend to get lost" she said hinting that this wasn't the first thing she had stolen from her mom's closet "Don't worry. She doesn't bother looking for it if it costs less than ten grand". Blake was aware that what she had just said made her look too much like the typical rich girl that is super superficial and that was not her but hopefully Harper already had enough interactions with her to know that.

They went to the dance floor together and Blake couldn't help but laugh, Harper didn't really knew what she was doing, she was just jumping and spinning but neither did Blake. The girls was used to more formal things that didn't allowed her to go wild so she just limited herself to dance like she saw teens doing in the movies so she was doing body rolls while moving her legs a little and lifting her arms. She was laughing at both Harper and herself, they were both being totally random but the good thing was that everyone was being completely random too and doing weird things since they were not all professional dancers. For the first time in a long time Blake felt free of her mom's thought on how silly she was being and all her worries washed away.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper was having a grand time. She was just letting the music take over and guide her limbs, sending her bouncing around the dancing floor. It had been so long since she'd had a chance to dance like this. It had been so long since she'd simply had music. Her phone didn't work here, and she didn't own a magical radio. Before Hogwarts, she used to have her earbuds in constantly — on runs, while doing chores, during study sessions. But for the past four months, her soundtrack had been silence. It wasn't until tonight that she'd realized just how much she had missed music, and now she was determined to soak it all in even if she looked a bit silly doing so.

The song was ending, and Harper attempted one last double turn. The soles of her sandals were a bit slippery, so she lost her balance and stumbled into Blake. "Sorry!" she said sheepishly, though she couldn't stop smiling, still flushed with happiness from all the dancing. Another upbeat tune kicked in, and Harper tilted her head, listening. "Do you know what band this is?" she asked Blake. It seemed to be another wizard song. "Don't wizards ever listen to Muggle music?" Though the music so far had been pleasant enough, it'd be nice if they played something she recognized.

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake was dancing and laughing when suddenly Harper almost fell and stumbled onto her. Blake quickly tried to offer her some support so she wouldn't fall or something, dances can get a bit crazy sometimes. Especially at her house where there was always someone that had too much to deink started some drama, usually related to cheating with maids or having an affair with a woman from a rival family, a true reality show.
Blake couldn't her Harper very well so she had to get her ear really close to Harper's mouth so she could understand her "I have no idea" Blake answered. She wasn't that into music and since she lived in the muggle world, even though neither of her parents were muggles, she wasn't very familiar with wizards' music.

She had to agree with Harper, Muggles actually had some pretty good songs that were much better of whatever was playing right now "I guess not? We can always go there and do some karaoke" she said teasing Harper. She was secretly hoping that the other girl wouldn't say yes, Blake didn't have the courage to sing in front of the whole school, she wasn't even used to sing except on the

 

[Harper Alston]

Blake didn't seem to know the name of the band either, and now that Harper thought about it, how did wizards learn about other bands and discover new music? She couldn't imagine just sitting next to a radio all day, and she doubted she'd find anything about magical music on the internet. It was just another curious way in which the magical world seemed to lag behind the muggle world.

Harper laughed lightly at Blake's suggestion. "Are you sure you want to hear me sing?" she asked, singing the last few words in an exaggeratedly pitchy voice. She could carry a simple tune, but she doubted anyone would want to hear her. That's why the only singing she ever did happened when there was a speaker blasting music. "It would be fun to sing along," Harper mused. "Too bad we don't know the words." She looked at Blake curiously. "Do you sing?" Their conversation earlier had made Harper realize that she barely knew anything about her roommate aside from the fact that she loved fashion.