Blue Eyed Girl

Roxanne slowly ambled back to the Gryffindor dormitory. She was in no hurry and was enjoying the quiet emptiness of the school. When she had reached her room, she grabbed a towel and her robe and walked to the girls' bathroom, which was conveniently located down the hall from the sixth year girls' dormitory. She pushed open the door to the bathroom, and the muffled sound she had heard in the hall instantly elevated into the din of voices that belonged to the girls of Gryffindor House. The spacious bathroom was filled to capacity. There were girls everywhere primping for the big night. Roxanne seemed to have been behind the curve. Younger girls surrounded large, full-length mirrors that hung on the walls, while some of the sixth and seventh years crowded around vanity tables that Professor McGonagall had conjured up for the occasion. Roxanne walked through the cloud of perfume and hairspray and around the corner to the showers. She took a long, hot, relaxing shower, dried herself off, wrapped her warm, soft robe around her, and walked over to the vanity tables. Miraculously, there was one open, so Roxanne sat down, and ran her towel through her hair to get out most of the moisture.

"Hey, stranger," a cheerful voice behind her said. Roxanne saw the reflection of Katie standing behind her in the mirror.

"Hey yourself," Roxanne said as she swiveled in her seat to face her. "You look nice," Roxanne complimented her friend.

"Thanks," Katie said excitedly as she sat at the now vacant table beside Roxanne. Katie had obviously spent a lot of time preparing already, because her usually straight hair was now curled into dozens of ringlets that fell softly over her shoulders. "I've been up here all morning," she continued, "Would you believe that there is no spell in existence to curl hair? I really think someone should look into it. It took me forever to do this," she said as she brushed one of the curls behind her shoulder.

"Haven't you eaten anything all day? It's like five o'clock," Roxanne asked incredulously. She understood that some girls liked to take their time when they were getting ready for an event as special as the Founder's Day Ball seemed to be, but she knew that Katie rarely missed meals for anything.

"Well, I had a piece of toast this morning when one of the house elves brought up some breakfast for us, but I haven't eaten since then," Katie answered somewhat regretfully. "I guess I'm turning into you," she finished jokingly.

"Yeah, sounds like it," Roxanne managed a weak laugh.

"Well, I don't know how you do it, because I'm starved!" Katie exclaimed..

Roxanne laughed, "Why don't you go down to the kitchen and get something to eat? You look like you're pretty much ready, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Katie said as she examined herself in the mirror. "I just have to put on my makeup and get dressed. Okay, I'll see you in a little while," she finished as she left the bathroom.

Roxanne turned back to the mirror and studied her reflection. She hadn't yet decided what she was going to do with her hair. She looked around at the other girls, hoping for some inspiration. Angelina and Alicia were each sitting at a vanity, which were side-by-side. They were chatting happily as Angelina was fastening the last strand of dark hair into an elegant bun, while Alicia straightened her hair. Standing along the walls by the mirrors was Hermione Granger surrounded by Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown who were furiously trying to tame Hermione's bushy hair.

Roxanne turned back to the mirror in front of her, and stared at her reflection again. She tried pulling back different strands of hair, then all of her hair. She let go in frustration. She didn't like how anything looked, which wasn't unusual. She eventually decided to just let it air-dry and see what happened.

After a while Roxanne's hair had mostly dried, and it fell in curly tendrils over her shoulders and down her back. She was semi-pleased with how it looked and decided not to mess with it any more. Just then Katie returned.

"Hey," she said, sitting down at the vacant vanity next to Roxanne. "Wow, your hair looks amazing! What did you do to it?"

"Um...nothing," Roxanne replied, not really knowing what to say.

"You mean your hair just dried like that?" Katie asked astonished.

"Well...yeah," Roxanne replied. Roxanne thought her hair looked fine, but she wouldn't call it "amazing." It was just hair.

"Wow, you are so lucky to have such great hair," Katie said jealously.

"Uh...thanks," Katie said, feeling uncomfortable. She hated when people made a fuss over her, good or bad. "So what took you so long?" she asked hoping to shift the subject from herself.

"Well, I took my time getting down to the kitchens," she began as she took out her makeup bag, "and then the house elves took a while to get my food ready for me, but it was definitely worth it. It was so good!" she continued, "and then I had to stop by our room to grab my makeup bag," she finished applying some kind of makeup Roxanne had never seen before. This wasn't surprising however, because Roxanne never really bothered with makeup. Katie must have noticed Roxanne looking at her strangely because as soon as she turned to her Katie said, "What?"

"What are you doing?" Roxanne asked inquisitively.

"What do you mean?" Katie asked obviously confused.

"With that...stuff," Roxanne said as she pointed at what Katie held in her hand.

"What, foundation?" Katie asked.

"If that's what it's called," Roxanne said, trying her hardest not to appear totally clueless, even though she was.

"Well, it's to even out my skin tone and be the base for the rest of my makeup," Katie answered simply.

"Oh, duh...right," Roxanne answered hoping to come across more knowledgeable than she felt.

"Haven't you ever worn makeup before?" Katie questioned.

"Of course I have," Roxanne said certainly, after all, lip balm could count as makeup, right?

"You're seriously telling me you don't wear makeup?" Katie asked confoundedly, not believing Roxanne. "Ever?"

"No, I don't," Roxanne answered. "I have four older brothers, remember? I grew up playing quidditch and wizard's chess and exploding snap. I never really got into the whole 'girly thing'." Roxanne wasn't trying to be mean, or anything; she was just trying to explain herself in a manner that wouldn't make her more embarrassed than she already was.

Katie smiled, "Okay, okay. I get it."

"All right," Roxanne said, relieved that she didn't have to explain herself any further, or mention anything about the girls in her old school.

"Why don't you let me give you a makeover?" Katie asked suddenly as she excitedly turned to Roxanne.

"Huh?" Roxanne said, dumbfounded. Makeover?

"Yeah! It will be so much fun!" Katie said, becoming more excited with every passing second.

"I don't know," Roxanne said uncertainly.

"Please, please, please!" Katie pleaded as she got down on her knees in front of Roxanne with her hands clasped in front of her.

"Fine," Roxanne surrendered. How bad could it be?

"Yes!" Katie exclaimed as she jumped to her feet. "This is going to be great!" she continued as she dumped some of the contents of her makeup bag onto the table in front of Roxanne, and then Katie set to work. Over the next hour, Katie used every moisturizer, powder, and gloss from her makeup bag to complete this makeover.

"How much stuff do you have in that bag?" Roxanne exclaimed after Katie continued pulling cosmetics out of the seemingly bottomless bag.

"Compared to Lavender and Parvati over there, this is nothing," Katie informed her as she pulled a pair of tweezers out of the bag.

"Whoa, what are those for?" Roxanne asked becoming a little apprehensive..

"You'll see," Katie dismissed her, while kind of humming to herself.

"Ow!" Roxanne yelled after Katie had plucked a stray hair from Roxanne's eyebrow, "that hurt!"

"Sorry, babe, but beauty is pain," Katie shrugged.

"Are you sure there's no spell for this 'beauty' thing?" Roxanne whimpered and flinched as Katie plucked another hair.

"I'm afraid not," Katie answered, "because, trust me, if there was a spell, I would definitely know about it." Roxanne just sighed in response.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered," Katie said after a few more minutes. "I heard the strangest thing when I was down in the kitchen a while ago."

"Really?" Roxanne asked, interested. "What was it?"

"Well...I don't know if you're going to like it..." Katie began as she pulled away a little.

"Tell me anyway," Roxanne urged.

"Okay...well, there were a few Slytherin girls already in the kitchen when I arrived, and they were gossiping with each other..." Katie said then paused.

"Go on."

"At first I didn't know what they were talking about. I just heard them say things like 'I can't believe he would ever go for someone like her, especially because of where she's from.' And they kept going on and on about how cute whoever this 'he' was," Katie said and paused again, unsure if she should continue.

"Okay..." Roxanne said, waiting for the strange part. Gossip was certainly not a strange occurrence at Hogwarts.

"Well, they eventually used the names of the people they were talking about in their conversation," she continued.

"And...who were they talking about?" Roxanne asked, slightly losing interest. She was hoping this gossip would be a little more interesting than the usual "who likes who".

"Okay...the he was Draco Malfoy," Katie said, and stopped yet again.

"And the she?" Roxanne asked, somewhat curious. She couldn't imagine Malfoy having feelings for anyone, so whoever it was must have been extremely worthy.

"You."