Blue Eyed Girl

Roxanne just stared in disbelief at her friend. "You've gotta be kidding me," she said to her.

"I swear I'm not," Katie said, "I heard it with my own ears."

"Well, then I think you may need to have your hearing checked," Roxanne said, dismissing any thought of Draco Malfoy having feelings for her.

"You don't believe me?," Katie asked, slightly taken aback that Roxanne would think she would make something like this up.

"No, it's not that I don't believe you," Roxanne said, knowing what her friend must have been thinking, "it's just..." She was silent for a moment, then said quietly, "I don't know. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Maybe those girls just had no idea what they were talking about."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Katie said, relaxing again and returning to Roxanne's makeover. "It could be true."

"Yeah right," Roxanne laughed, "like Malfoy would ever like me."

"Well, why wouldn't he?" Katie asked. "Why is it so hard to believe that he may like you?"

"Okay, first of all I'm a Gryffindor," Roxanne argued.

"Okay...so what? He's a Slytherin. It's not the end of the world," Katie pointed out.

"Fine. Second of all, I'm an American, which according to him is as bad as being a mudblood, which he thinks is pretty bad," Roxanne argued back.

"Did he actually tell you that?" Katie asked incredulously.

"Yeah, actually he did," Roxanne said, proving her point.

"Oh," Katie responded dumbfounded. "Well you know what they say..." she continued.

"No, what do they say?" Roxanne asked, amused.

"There's a very fine line between love and hate," Katie smiled and winked at Roxanne.

"Whatever," Roxanne laughed, "can we just forget about it for now?"

Katie smiled again, "Sure. I'm finished anyway."

"Really?" Roxanne asked, excited and nervous at the same time. One of the reasons she never wore makeup was because every time she tried to, it looked terrible. She didn't exactly have a lot of self-confidence, but she had total confidence in her friend's ability. She couldn't help feeling nervous though, because even though she didn't admit it to him, she did want to look good for George tonight.

"Yup," Katie said as she stood up. "Man, I'm good!"

Roxanne smiled and turned to look at herself in the mirror. Her face was covered in powders, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, blush, and lip gloss. She could barely recognize herself.

"You hate it don't you," Katie said disappointedly, when she saw Roxanne's face in the mirror.

"Hate it?" Roxanne asked turning to her friend. "Are you kidding me? I love it!"

"Really?" Katie asked.

"Of course," Roxanne said as she jumped up and hugged her friend, "thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Katie laughed, returning the hug. "We should probably finish getting ready."

"Yeah," Roxanne said, and with that they walked out of the bathroom and back into their dorm room to get dressed. Thirty minutes later, they were finally ready.

"All set?" Katie asked Roxanne as she took one last glance in the mirror at her emerald dress robes.

"Yup," Roxanne replied as she grabbed her handbag that matched her burgundy robes.

"Let's go then," Katie said as she started out the door, "everyone's waiting in the common room."

"Okay," Roxanne said. "Oh wait, I forgot my bracelet," she said as she went over to her trunk to find it.

"Do you really need it?" Katie asked. "We're late enough as it is."

"You go ahead," Roxanne said as she furiously tore apart the contents of her trunk.

"All right," Katie said as she left, "but make it fast."

Roxanne didn't answer as she intently searched through her belongings that were now sprawled all over the floor. Her hand stopped over a picture she had of when she was twelve. She barely looked like the same person. The girl in the picture was overweight, but she had a huge smile on her face. This picture was obviously taken before the girls at school had turned on her; before she became miserable; before she decided to do something about it. She was just so thankful that she had Delia, who had been so supportive of her all along, even though she sometimes nagged her about her eating habits. She finally saw the silver charm bracelet that her parents had sent her for the occasion, grabbed it, and ran out the door.

"I found it, Katie," she said as she was walking down the stairs, clasping the bracelet around her wrist, and listening to the excited buzz of conversation among the Gryffindors, "I told you I would." She was nearing the bottom of the stairs, and when Katie didn't respond, she looked up to see most of the students in the room looking at her. Some of the girls were smiling at her, and most of the boys were staring at her, captivated.

"What?" Roxanne asked as she stopped on the stairs, confused. Why was everyone looking at her like that? A few of the girls looked over at their dates and jealously elbowed them, and told them to stop staring. Roxanne noticed Katie smiling widely at her along with Angelina who were standing by Fred and George, who had the same dumbfounded look on their face as most of the other boys. The conversations began again as Roxanne cautiously made her way over to her friends.

"What was that all about?" she curiously asked Katie, who had walked over to meet her halfway.

"Wasn't that outrageous?" Katie chortled.

"Why was everyone staring at me? Do I have something on my face?" Roxanne asked insecurely as she brushed at her face.

"No, of course not," Katie answered. "Rox, you're a knockout."

"What?" Roxanne asked, surprised. Roxanne? A knock out? She didn't think so.

"Of course," Katie continued laughing, "didn't you see the way everyone was looking at you? That was the best! Man, I'm good!"

"You keep saying that," Roxanne chuckled, beginning to feel a little more secure in her appearance. Maybe there wasn't anything on her face after all. Still, she didn't really understand why everyone reacted to her the way they did.

"Well, I promised Roger I'd meet him outside the Great Hall," Katie said, referring to her date who was a sixth year Ravenclaw, "so grab George and meet me down there, okay?"

"Okay," Roxanne said, as she and Katie separated. Roxanne saw George finishing up a conversation with Lee Jordan, and she walked over to him.

"Hey, George," she said as she walked up to him.

"Rox...you look...wow," George said, speechless. He didn't think she could have looked more beautiful than she had earlier that afternoon, but she proved him wrong.

"Thanks," Roxanne answered shyly, as she blushed slightly. "You look great too," she complimented him on his sleek black dress robes.

"Why, thank you very much," he said as he bowed to her, his sense of humor coming back to him. "Shall we?" he asked as he offered her his arm.

"We shall," Roxanne answered, smiling brightly as she looped her arm through his, and they made their way through the crowd and out the door, off to a night they'd never forget.