━━━dress shopping!

BIRDIE LOVED SHOPPING even as a child when most kids would beg for their mom to take them home, Birdie always wanted to stay in the store as long as she could — but of course, Lily Potter couldn't stay out for more than an hour most if she had taken the polyjuice potion. Birdie of course didn't get it as a kid and would often throw tantrums which now she feels bad about when she looks back at it, but she was just a child, after all.

She'd always loved everything about a shop — how much you could tell about a person by just looking at the way their shop looks. She had a favorite shop to go to though, and that was a dress shop. She loved looking at the pretty dresses and trying them on, doing a little spin so she could watch the bottom of the dress flare up. Sometimes the dresses would be so glittery they would end up getting on her body but she didn't really mind, the glitter was pretty.

She loved finding the perfect dress after trying on like a thousand others, trying to find a purse and heels that matched it. She just loved shopping overall. She was also very passionate about opening a store.

It was always in discussion — Birdie and Lorelei had always said they wanted to open a store together, though as they grew older their interests changed, now Birdie is still into clothes but Lorelei is more into stationary, and books. Birdie reckons they could make some sort of hybrid shop if they wanted to. She knew if she was ever going to do it she wanted to do it with Lorelei.

That sounds kind of wrong without context—

Too late for that.

Eh.

Birdie stared at the letter she'd just gotten  from her parents.

'Dear Birdie,
Hope you're doing well, is Harry ok? He hasn't been responding to our letters, is he mad at us? Sirius told us his scar has been hurting and now he's planning to move north, idiotic move if you ask me. Anyway, I forgot to get you some dress robes because your fa—

There was some scribbling after that, and a few drops on ink that had fallen on the parchment, and then the handwriting changed to James's messy one.

—your father is absolutely fine, thank you very much. Though I had forgotten to tell you about the dress robes situation, but I'd like to blame it on your mother as she tried to distract me w—

Some scribbles happened again with a few drops of ink here and there, the handwriting changed back to Lily's.

—nevermind your father, dear. He's had one too many drinks, we've sent some money with the owl, try and find yourself a dress at Hogsmeade if you can, darling. Again, I'm sorry for forgetting about it, oh, and get your brother some dress robes too, I'll bet Tuney didn't give him anything other than her son's second hand clothes to wear that don't even fit him. Talk to you soon.

Your favorite parent,
Li— James :)
Lily!!!!

Birdie chuckled at her parent's childish behavior before she opened the envelope to find thirty galleons in it. That was definitely too much but she reckons her parents felt guilty for the forgetting about dress robes situation.

Their family owl — Frostie, who was a beautiful snow white owl hooted as she flapped her wings a few times, trying to gain attention of Birdie who stroked her head lightly with a finger before getting her some of the owl treats, "There you go, Frost"

Thankfully Birdie had a special map that could help her get to Hogsmeade without there being a Hogsmeade weekend.

She also had to ask Harry what type of robe he wanted with the color of bow tie and all that stuff — her fashion sense sucked when it came to men's clothing. She literally had no idea how to dress them up, because there's only two things you can do with them — dad on a golf day, or business meeting.

She stepped out of the Hufflepuff common room, aka the best common room — argue with the wall, and then made her way to the Gryffindor common room. She had always thought Gryffindor was the most plain, because Hufflepuff had a literal garden inside theirs, Ravenclaw had a whole library, Slytherin had a whole dungeon to themself and then there's Gryffindor that's just 'ooh look, a fireplace'

Pretty plain for the 'best house' if you ask her, and no she was not petty about the fact they'd won the house cup so many times because Dumbledore went on a house point spree...but only for Gryffindor. Why would you think that?

As soon as she reached the portrait she remembered that they needed to use a password to get in, yeah you see, Hufflepuff was much more secure than that — you have a few barrels you have to tap in order to get in. She probably needed someone to help her get in.

Birdie looked around and saw Hope Lupin making her way to the common room, her hands holding a poorly wrapped package, she assumed that Hope had already torn the package and seen what's inside. "Hope!" She called out to the brunette who looked so happy clutching the package in her hand — she could've been skipping.

Hope passed her a huge grin before she practically sprinted towards the older Potter, "Hey, Birdie!"

"What's got you in a good mood?" Birdie said, her mood lightening after seeing the huge smile on Hope's face.

"My dad sent me a dress!" Hope said and Birdie let out a small 'ooh'.

"Show me it!" She said and Hope nodded.

"Let's go inside first" Hope said, "you wanted to come, right?"

"Oh, yeah" Birdie said with a nod, "I have to ask Harry something"

"Cool, let's go then" Hope said and then turned Birdie around, "I'm not gonna tell you the password"

"Yeah, ok" Birdie rolled her eyes at the girl but turned around anyway.

"Get in" Hope said as she practically dragged Birdie inside and sat her down on the couch, "Ah, this dress is so pretty" Hope pulled out a pink dress that had balloon sleeves and a lot of flowers embroidered at the waist line that spread all around the skirt of the dress.

"Woah" Birdie watched the dress with stars in her eyes, this is what she meant when she said she loved dresses, she could literally get lost looking at them for hours.

"This used to be my mother's" Hope said her smile faltering just a bit, "I have a few pictures of her wearing this"

"It'll look amazing on you, Hope" Birdie said passing her a genuine smile, "Now, I kind of need to find my brother"

"Oh, yeah" Hope said, her mouth forming a small 'o', "He's probably by the fireplace with Regan and his other friends"

"Alright" Birdie said and got up making her way to where a group of teenagers sat, whispering furiously, "Erm"

Every one of them turned to look at her instantly, almost as if they were startled by someone else's presence. Harry furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at his sister.

"Have you been writing to M and D recently, Harry?" Birdie asked her brother who got what she meant, it was a replacement for the words mum and dad that Harry had first used and then they both started using it to refer to their mum and dad so no one listening got to know about it, "They're worried about you"

"About twelve years late" Harry said bitterly and Birdie's eyes softened. Sometimes Birdie forgot to think about how much time Harry had to spend in the stupid Dursley house wishing his parents were alive, and when he found out they were — he couldn't even hang out with them properly.

"Look, they miss you and they're worried, just try and write back, will you?" Birdie said in a comforting voice, "I'm not telling you to forgive them — you deserve to be mad, but don't cut off communication, Harry, it won't do any of us any good"

"Like you'd know what I'm feeling" Harry scoffed, "You spent all those years with them, you had a normal life, Birdie, I never got that when all I ever wanted was just a normal life"

Birdie looked down at the envelope in her hand, a few tears of guilt formed in her eyes but she blinked them away, she plastered a small smile on her face, "Nevermind all that, you need dress robes, we can go together to get them if you want?"

"No, thanks" Harry said and Regan gave him a glare, "You can just get them for me"

"Oh, yeah, that's alright" Birdie said shaking it off, "Do you have a color in mind or—"

"Just get some dress robes, I don't care"

✿

BIRDIE POTTER WAS actually feeling so clueless right now, she was dumb when it came down to picking male clothes, she entered the shop for dress robes and looked around awkwardly. A lady — probably the shop owner — came into view with her hands folded in front and a nasty scowl on her face.

"What do you need?" The lady asked Birdie who looked surprised by her attitude but answered politely nonetheless.

"Erm, dress robes" Birdie said and then tried to remember how old her brother was, "For a fourteen year old kid? He's about this tall" she held her hand up to a little bit above her shoulder.

"Follow me" The lady said and then walked to the right side of the shop, "You should find something here"

Birdie gave her a polite nod as the lady went back to sit behind the counter again, Birdie released a sigh before she stared at the dress robes dumbfounded. She hated this. Look, if Harry was a girl she would happily be searching for a dress, but she literally had no idea what kind of clothes guys like.

I mean, her dad's like almost thirty-five and he still doesn't know how to dress properly, her mom has to pick out clothes for him.

She had gotten so frustrated with herself, she wanted to sit on the floor and throw a temper tantrum but she remembered that no one above the age of five does that. She was about to tear her hair out when a voice behind her startled her.

"Need any help?" Birdie turned and came face to face with Fred Weasley who had a grin plastered on his face as always.

"Yes, please" Birdie said and then released a sigh of relief, "You're a boy"

"As far as I know" Fred joked, "What do you need help with?"

"Well, my brother needs dress robes and I have no idea how guys dress" Birdie said, "Since you're a guy — maybe you can help me"

"Sure, I'll help you" Fred said shrugging.

"Thank godric—"

"As soon as you tell me how you got out of the castle without a teacher catching you" Fred questioned, leaning on one of the pillars with his arms crossed.

"I could ask you the same thing" Birdie said mocking him by crossing her arms.

"George and I know every nook of Hogwarts" Fred said, "It's all because of—"

"The marauders map?" Birdie completed for him with a smug grin, Fred looked at her shocked.

"How did you—"

"—because" Birdie reached her hand inside her purse and pulled out a parchment, "I've got one too"

"No way!" Fred exclaimed and then reached forward for it but Birdie put it back in her bag.

"You're not getting it" Birdie said with a frown, "I don't want you to get it confiscated by Filch or give it to an already stupid kid who can get himself into even more trouble with it than usual"

"This isn't Harry's?" Fred asked with his brows furrowed, "There are more than one Marauders Maps?"

"Duh?" Birdie said in an obvious tone, "The pinnacle of all their wizardry achievements and you think they wouldn't have made copies for every marauder?"

"That actually makes sense—" Fred spoke after a few seconds, "Where did you find that though?"

"A magician never reveals her secrets" Birdie said and then passed him a wink.

"Good thing you're not a magician then" Fred said, "You're a witch"

"Same difference?" Birdie rolled her eyes, "Now, you've got to help me with the robes situation"

"Sure" Fred shrugged, "Here" he said pulling out a plain looking dress robe that was the first one in the rack.

"Really?" Birdie deadpanned.

"What's wrong with it?" Fred frowned.

"It's so...plain?"

"What do you want him to wear? Hot pink?" Fred asked and Birdie rolled her eyes.

"I can do better than that and I've got no idea how male clothing works" Birdie said with a scoff.

"Fine, then you pick out a better one" Fred challenged her.

"Fine, I will then" Birdie said and then picked out a random one, because her indecisive arse would've never been able to pick one normally. The dress robes were bottle green in color, and even though they looked like the school uniform of Hogwarts, they looked decent, "You know these can bring his eyes out more"

"Pfft, mine are better" Fred huffed.

"In your dreams, Fredrick" Birdie said and watched Fred's eyes widen.

"How do you know my full name?"

"Holy shit, that's your full name? I just assumed—"

"I shouldn't have said anything!" Fred groaned, "You can't call me that"

"Then you can't call me Robin" Birdie said, "Let's make a deal — if you stop calling me Robin, I won't call you Fredrick" she held out her hand and stared expectantly at Fred who thought for a few seconds and then after letting out a breath of defeat, shook her hand.

"Deal."

I'm back😼