Outfit

Sundays were typically quite boring. Since Winifred Leigh Oliver did not make it a habit to complete her school work on time- if ever at all- she was not (like other students) scrambling to complete the assignments due the following day. As such the people in the common were constantly shushing her- or asking her nicely (or not so nicely) to go away! For some reason people did not want to socialize with her- or with her beautiful kitten Lord Fluffybutt.

Lucky for everyone working on their homework, Winifred happened to receive a package from an owl which contained a large box stuffed full of new outfits for her beloved kitten. She had forgotten about ordering them from a catalog a couple of weeks ago. So Winifred tucked the package under arm, scooped up Lord Fluffybutt, and left the common room (and in the process creating a room full of happy Hufflepuffs) and made her way up to the great hall. It was between lunch and dinner so the great hall should be relatively empty.

Once there, Winifred set the package on one end of the Huffepuff table. "Oh Lord Fluffybutt! You're going to be the handsomest cat at Hogwarts, Duchess will be so pleased!" Duchess was, of course, her dear friend Imogen's cat- and Lord Fluffybutt's girlfriend. Winifred first put Lord Fluffybutt in a sweater wth a monkey on it, and then walked further down the long table. She clucked her tongue at him to come toward her. "Come here Lord Fluffybutt! Model your new seater for mama!" Winifred watched as the little kitten waddled to her and giggled, clapping her hands.

Elizabeth sat towards the middle of the Hufflepuff table.  She wanted to check her homework and make sure everything was done before dinner.  After all, there really wasn't anything else to do on a Sunday afternoon.  Her owl, Wooly, was already off delivering a letter to her family, so there really was no use writing another one.  As she flipped through her various sheets of parchment, she made a mental note to either pace herself on her homework or start doing other things that might occupy her time.

On the second go-round with her homework check, someone caught Elizabeth's eye.  She was wearing bright orange and green with something rather furry tucked up under her arm.  Elizabeth loved to people-watch so she surreptitiously observed what the girl was doing.  She'd seen this girl in the common room before and she reminded Elizabeth of her little brother, Aedan.  She had this child-at-heart nature that during idle moments made Elizabeth smile to herself.  She wondered what this girl was up to now.

It turned out that the furry thing tucked up under her arm was a small kitten.  It was almost as if the bulk of the kittens weight was in fur, it was so fuzzy and cute!  The girl proceeded to put a little brown sweater on the kitten, coaxing it to walk toward her.  Lord Fluffybutt??, Elizabeth giggled inside.  As she gathered up her homework and stuffed it in her bag, never taking her eyes off the kitten, the little thing put its little tail in the air and proceeded to waddle toward its fashion guru.  In its waddling, it tended to lean this way and that in order to get good balance with the sweater on its back.

She couldn't contain her laughter, Elizabeth scooted down until she was within talking distance to the girl and her kitten and gave a soft clap.  "Good show!!"  She scooted down a little further.  It was never very hard for Elizabeth to make friends and judging by the intrigue that this girl had caused and the way she made Elizabeth smile, she hoped she could made a new one!

Winifred smiled at the other Hufflepuff girl whenever she laughed, glad that she at least seemed entertained by the idea of a cat fashion show instead of mocking. Winnie had a feeling Dax would like a cat fashion too. Naturally his interest in Lord Fluffybutt had been nothing more than an excuse to speak to her. (The third year had, at this point, convinced herself that Dax Fayette had a secret crush on her that he could do nothing about because she was so much younger than he was. What a shame!)

"His name is Lord Fluffybutt," she informed Elizabeth. "He was my birthday present. I always wanted a kitten and my parents wouldn't let me have one for the longest time. But I said to them- I said 'Mom, Dad, if I'm old enough to go to Hogsmeade and have more responsibilities at school then I am most certainly old enough for a cat!' And they said to me, 'Freddie dear, you are a genius and a marvelous, beautiful, perfect child and we agree with you!'. So we bought him right before we got on the train for Hogwarts this year." Winifred may or may not have put a few words in her parents' mouths with her explanation, but the other girl would never be able to prove it.

When he finally reached her, Winifred picked him up and nuzzled him gently. Then she walked back to the end of the table. She peeled off the brown jacket and put it away. Then she found a red outfit to put on him instead. "I'm Winifred by the way," she told Elizabeth. "But everyone calls me Winnie or Freddie. I don't remember your name," she confessed somewhat sheepishly (as sheepishly as was possible for her at any rate). "You're in Hufflepuff too, aren't you?" Winnie asked. It was harder to tell on weekends whenever uniforms weren't required. But only a fellow Hufflepuff could genuinely enjoy and appreciate a cat fashion show.

Elizabeth patiently listened to the girl's story, the embellishments making her smile.  It was exactly as if Aedan were telling her a story.  One time he told her that a ferocious bear was in his closet (which happened to be his teddy bear) and if he cleaned out from under his bed (which was his weekly chore) he would become a prisoner of the Sock Goblins and be given to the bear as tribute. 

"I'm Elizabeth...well," she hesitated.  "Everyone calls me Liz."  It wasn't easy for Liz to admit something about herself, even something as simple and mundane as a nickname.  She spent so much of her time either flying under the radar or focusing on the needs of her friends.  She looked away from Winifred to hide a slight blush and held her hand out to the kitten, letting it smell her.

The kittens fur was incredibly soft.  It reminded her of Dinah, the cat from Alice in Wonderland, with its wide eyes and inquisitive purr.  The little red outfit Winnie had put on Lord Fluffybutt was almost as adorable as Fluffybutt was himself.  "Is he the self-same kitten that was so dashing in his tuxedo at the Ball?"  She looked into the eyes of the kitten and let it rub up against her.  "You looked so handsome," she said to him.

As Winnie began to undress him again, Liz found herself talking idly.  "You remind me of my brother, Aedan.  He's six.  He's been begging Dad for a puppy all summer."  She chuckled and then, as a thought occurred to her, her smile faded.  "Not that you're six, I mean...you just, umm...I love your imagination."  She had just started to make a new friend and she didn't want to start off that friendship with what might be considered an insult.  "Anyway, I've seen you in the common room.  You're in your third year, right?"

"Liz," Winifred repeated with a resolute nod of her head. She would do her very best to remember that, but Winifred often had a hard time with names unless they were people she socialized with on a regular basis- or the names of cute boys. And there seemed to be quite a few cute boys at Hogwarts these days, which made it even more difficult to keep track of their names. So many people to keep track of!

She was surprised to hear Liz mention the ball. The Hufflepuff hadn't been sure whether or not others had taken notice of their dear little kittens. "Yes! He was! The white one in the red dress is his girlfriend Duchess. Imogen and I decided they should have a proper date for once. They were very well behaved at the ball too. They barely scratched anyone and didn't try to steal food from anybody." Winifred then put her face in the cat's face and made baby noises at him before planting a loud kiss on his nose.

Winifred watched, amused, as the girl tripped over her words. She wasn't offended at the comment. "Well I am a little sister, so I guess that's why," she said. "My big brothers are fifth years. Earnest is a Hufflepuff too. He's really smart, I always tell him he should have been a Ravenclaw." The real reason, though, that Earnest was so smart was because he worked so hard at it. "Zeke's a Gryffindor. But nobody likes him. He's mean."

After making sure that the red outfit fit, she pulled it off of the cat and then stuffed him in a dragon costume. "Yeah, third year. It's an awful year to be. It's like we aren't little kids anymore but nobody takes us seriously either. I can't wait until I'm a fifth year! Or older." Maybe then boys would like her. For some reason older boys had something against third years- even though Winifred was the same age as some of the fourth years.

"Have you got a cat?" Winnie asked. "Imogen and I set up play dates for our cats. If you have one you could come too! Duchess and Lord Fluffybutt like other cats. It's nice to have friends sometimes, you know? They don't get on well with toads and owls though. Fluffy ate my brother's toad in the beginning of the year. He was really mad about it. But I told him it's not my fault that frog legs are delicious to kitties."

Liz giggled.  Indeed, she was going to like this new friend a lot!

As they talked, Liz's mind went to Earnest.  Earnest was, indeed, a bright Hufflepuff fifth year.  When Liz found she was struggling with a particular spell or potion in her studies, she usually called upon him for help.  If he was awake and not in class, he was usually reading or doing his homework.  Through their studies, they had gotten quite close.  They weren't so much close friends as they were guaranteed study-buddies at this point.  He only ever socialized with a small group of his fellow Hufflepuffs, owing much to his  lack-of-time and confidence in new social settings.  He was beginning to teach her Wizard's Chess, a game which she had not even been able to master in the Muggle world.  She had to admit though, it was far more interesting now that the pieces moved and seemed to have personalities of their own.

"I had that trouble too, when I was a third year," she said.  She did feel that awkwardness when she was in her third year, sure enough.  Perhaps she didn't feel it quite as strongly as Winnie did, being a younger sister rather than an older one.  Liz always felt older than her years-of-life tended to indicate.  She hoped her early years at Hogwarts would not fade away when it was Aedan's time to be sorted.

"My father is allergic to cats," she said, sadly.  "He made the mistake of telling Aedan he could have a puppy instead of a kitten without being specific as to when.  Poor Aedan, he thought maybe that meant Dad would pull a puppy right out of his back pocket.  He's been bugging Dad ever since.  I got a tawny owl in my second year and, out of pity, I let Aedan name it.  Unfortunately," she chuckled, "the only thing he could come up with at the age of three was 'Wooly' because of her soft feathers.  So the name stuck!"

Winifred was glad that her new friend seemed to commiserate with the problem of being just a third year. But the year was nearly over, and even though fourth year wouldn't be much of an improvement, it would be enough to make things at Hogwarts less awkward (she hoped). And maybe some of the boys in her year would actually be cute. She supposed Blake was kind of cute- but he was young, and he was Ayla's, and you weren't supposed to think your best friend's crush was cute or have a crush on him. It was Against The Rules.

"Allergic to cats?" Winifred repeated. "How absolutely awful! I love little cats. I mean, I like puppies too, and I would have one if I could bring it to Hogwarts. But I mean when you're options are a cute kitty, an icky toad, or an owl- which they have in the owlry if you need one- why not choose a kitten? Even if you're allergic they make potions for that. That way you can have one and you won't have to sneeze and itch and stuff." It made perfect sense to Winifred- but then again, maybe the girl's dad wasn't a wizard?

"I mean- even muggles have allergy medicine," she added quickly. "My mom told me so. She likes to talk about muggles, and I like to listen when she talks about them! Because they're so cool. Are you a muggle?" Winifred asked hopefully. She needed some more muggleborn friends so that she could learn more about them and hopefully get a better judge on her muggle attire she had been experimenting with lately. "Cause if you are that's really awesome! And I would love to hear all about it sometime!"

Elizabeth's eyes were shining.  She loved making new friends!  Winifred began talking about allergy medicine and she laughed.  Truthfully, she had talked to her father later that night about getting a kitten.  She had seen Aedan going to bed with such a bittersweet look on his face.  He had looked forward to having a kitten in the house, that's for sure, but he wasn't at all opposed to having a puppy either.  She had weaseled her father on her brother's behalf that night, just to come up with some kind of solution.  Her father had pretended there was no such thing as allergy medicine, that she was making it up.  He thought to put her off by being ridiculous, or distracting her by making her laugh.  She let him think he was winning.

"As a matter of fact," she said, "I am muggleborn.  It's just been the three of us...well...if you don't count Hannah, our housekeeper.  She's sort of been like our nanny too, taking care of us when Dad is away.  My mother died when Aedan was born, you see."

It was getting on to dinner time and those students eager for food or with nothing else left to do slowly began to file into the Great Hall.  As Elizabeth talked, she transfigured her quill into a fuzzy string of yarn, proceeding to levitate it with her wand so that Lord Fluffybutt could be entertained.  "By the way," she said, looking Winnie up and down, "I love your outfit.  It's spectacular!"

Elizabeth often judged her own fashion sense against those of others.  It was a habit she had gotten into since she was in grade school.  She and her mother always used to pick out her wardrobe together, and since her mother's passing Elizabeth had a hard time keeping up with muggle fashions.  She loved the casual clothes that she was currently wearing (blue jeans and a simple three-quarter sleeve brown top with a sweetheart neckline), and the school uniforms made things easier, but she had trouble when it came to much nicer coordinations.  She wasn't very good at putting things together off-the-cuff and was always on the look out for inspirations of what-looks-good.

Winifred bounced. "You are? That's wonderful! Muggle studies is my best class!" Winifred announced with massive pride. "It's the only class I get lots of good grades in- and it's nice to be good at something. And I just love it! Muggles are so smart!" she exclaimed. "You guys don't have magic and even though you don't have magic you know how to get things done without it! And I mean- I don't understand how a lot of stuff works, like electricity, so it's kind of like magic to me... But Yeah." Winifred paused and took a deep breath. She hadn't breathed once in her excitement. And then realized what she had said about her mom. She frowned slightly. "I'm sorry about your mom," she said seriously. "But it's good you still have your daddy and your brother."

She watched as her New Friend transfigured the yarn and levitated it, laughing when her cat began to paw at it (although he was pawing a bit lazily). "Do you mean it?" she gushed, whenever Elizabeth claimed that she liked her outfit. Nobody ever told Winifred they liked her clothes and said it like they really meant it! Oh this was just shaping up to be a wonderful day.

Winifred turned and noticed the other students, too, so she carefully packed all of Lord Fluffybutt's clothes away into the box and set it down on the floor next to her feet. "Wizard fashions are just so..." she trailed off, twirling her hand in the air. "Traditional! And stuffy. And I don't like long robes and hats- they're obnoxious. And I trip a lot anyway, and robes don't make it any better. And hats just don't look good on me." She used to like wearing hats until her big brother Zeke told her that it mad her head look fat.