Paris, France
~7 o'clock

Though it seemed like it had taken forever for Erin to come up with an outfit that her mother would accept, Erin eventually wound up wearing a conservative blue dress that had long sleeves.  Erin had wanted to add a bright green scarf that clashed horribly with the outfit, but her mother was firm on the issue.   Of course, it had not taken much to distract Erin from the aforementioned scarf, since her thoughts were always moving too quickly for any one person (including Erin) to keep up.

After taking a portkey to Paris, it had been a short walk to where they were going.  Once they had arrived, Erin could not help but be amazed at all the lights, flashes, and other various things going on around her.  Not really thinking to stay with her mother one way or another Erin could already tell that she probably would not be spending too much time in one place over here.  Apparently everyone here knew her mother too.  There was just one major problem for Erin with the entire setup: She could not speak French.  She had learned a few phrases here and there, but certainly not enough to make sense of anything going on around her. 

The young lady could not help but look at awe and wonder at all of the dresses, camera flashes, and manufactured glamour.  Looking at one rack of clothing before glancing at another one, Erin had a hard time deciding which one to inspect first.  Wondering if her mom had designed any of the items, she decided to voice her question.

“Can we go look at the things you designed?” Erin asked her mother.  Though she would not be really paying attention to her mother's response, there were just so many things happening at once, and Erin had a hard time deciding what she wanted to do first.  As yet another flash went off, Erin wondered if she should have brought sunglasses.  All of these bright lights could not be good for her eyes.  She was about skip off in some direction, but her mother asked her to be on her best behavior.  She did not know if she was cut out for this level of showmanship or not, but she at least liked to look at all of the ostentatious robes and outfits.  Though admittedly, she did have withhold a chuckle when she saw a few of them.  Some of the outfits looked like that the model had stiffed the tailor – consequently he decided to puke all over the robes. After standing still for so long though, Erin had enough.  She decided to skip in a random direction, figuring that she would go find someone who could speak English besides her mother.  Or look at all the pretty dresses.  Or maybe go mess with the glitter.  There were too many bright and shiny objects in the room, and that did not bode well for Erin's short attention span. 

There are certain moments which make a parent proud of their child: the first steps, the first words, the first sign of magic. And for Audrey Chancelier-Dark,- the first time Erin took an interest in fashion. She had always wanted one of her daughters to follow her footsteps into the fashion career. Beatrix had been a loss from the moment she decided to live with her father instead of staying with the rest of the family. And Bella's chances were also crushed when it was discovered that she was just as crazy as her sister and their damned father.

But Erin...she had real promise. Sure, the girl could be a little flighty with her attention span, but Audrey was sure she'd grow out of that soon enough. Audrey would have never been able to take any of her other daughters to a fashion show; that would just be disastrous. So of course when the winter holiday came along, Mrs. Chancelier-Dark did everything she could to get Erin involved in what was going on in the fashion industry. The Paris show wasn't one of the biggest, but it was still important for the designers, and would be important for Erin as well, as she would find out later.

Audrey walked around the backstage area with her head high, Erin at her side like her own toy to show off. She didn't know what her daughter had been thinking when she tried wearing that hideous green scarf, but it had been disposed of at home as soon as Erin had turned her back. Audrey was only vaguely aware of her daughter's wandering eyes and attention, and the fact that she probably had no idea what was going on. But it was too easy for her mother to get into 'fashion-mode', especially when she was around people she had been working with for years, slipping into her native language was natural.

She introduced Erin to anyone they came across, Audrey being quite pleased with the way her daughter was able to carry herself. She retained that poise and elegance that her mother had been drilling into her for the past few years.  "Oh, she's growing up rather well! She's got your eyes, you know." Elaine Adda had nothing but praise for the youngest Dark daughter. She was probably one of the few people that Erin would know, Elaine being friends with Audrey for longer than Erin had been alive.

They had moved on from person to person and Audrey glanced at clock, knowing that she should be heading to her model area soon. She needed to make sure that things were fitting well and the girls were ready with their hair and makeup. It didn't matter that his wasn't a really big show, it still had to be perfect. “Can we go look at the things you designed?” Erin's question couldn't have been with better timing, and Audrey simply gave a nod and steered her daughter in the right direction.

Once they were in the designated area, Audrey waved Erin towards a rack of gowns and outfits, many of which would be used in the show that night. Then she busied herself with the runway coordinator, making sure that every detail was correct. "See anything you like, dear?" Audrey laid a hand on her daughter's shoulder when she returned to her. She hoped that Erin might have realized that some of the clothes were less adult-sized and more child-sized, and that they also happened to include some of the outfits which Audrey had used Erin as a model for back home, when she was still in the designing stage of the product. This night was important for Erin in more ways than one, she just hadn't realized it yet.

Erin somehow skipped towards the same place her mother was going.  She did not even realize she was being steered towards it, but figured that one rack of clothes was just as good as a next.  Since her mother asked her if she liked any of the outfits, Erin briefly went through the rack wondering why some of the clothes seemed a bit oversized.  Finally coming to a few that were closer to her size, she found a couple of outfits that looked like somebody had forgotten to pay the taxidermist when they skinned a bear.  Grabbing the cloak from that one, she wore it over her dress and decided that she could pretend to be a bear.  Erin thought she was making a fairly good impersonation of a common European Brown Bear, but wondered what the CoMC professor would say about it.  Of course after that strange egg project, Erin was not entirely sure she wanted to know what idiocy she would have to trudge through this upcoming semester.  As long as it did not involve bugs though, Erin knew she could probably tolerate it.

Her musing on her academic prospects was interrupted by yet another camera flash, and Erin wondered if it was magically possible to run out of lumos spells.  Though she had never heard of any such thing happening before, she was pretty sure this place was certainly making a good go at it.  Erin had never seen so many bright flashes of light in rapid succession, and wondered how anyone could actually see anything after these events.  Deciding that she would definitely need to invest in either some ocular charm or form of eye protection, she would have made a comment to her mother about the rather curious amount of lumos spells, something else unsurprisingly grabbed her attention.

Skipping once more to her destination, Erin made it about halfway to a counter full of glitter and other sparkling objects before she saw another set of flashes go off, and decided to head back to the direction she came from.  Remembering her previous thoughts on them, Erin decided not to think on it too much.  If she actually made sense of it, her head would probably explode.  This time, however, she took a brief moment to go through the rack her mother pointed her towards and found a dress that she liked, mainly for the color, which was a dark shade of green.  And because it had sparkly-stuff.  Erin knew it was impossible to go wrong with sparkly-stuff. 

Deciding that the combination of the two would probably work pretty well, Erin decided to skip over to her mother before figuring out how she could ask her mother if they could take a few of these things home.  Or at the very least, try them on here. 

“What do you think of this?” Holding up the sparkly dress while wearing the bear skin like a coat.

Audrey watched her daughter, sighing internally. Maybe this wasn't such a great idea. The girl was all over the place, going from one rack of clothes to the next, to the counters of jewelry and back again. However was she supposed to get Erin to concentrate on one thing if the girl's mind was going off in fifteen different directions. Calm down, Audrey, you can work on it. She had to work on it, there really wasn't any other choice. Erin was the only daughter in whom Audrey cared to see any potential. The French fashion designer just had to keep reminding herself that Erin was still young, and had a lot to learn. She could train her to control her wandering thoughts, it just took practice.

Practice which would have to work, today. Audrey could only imagine the embarrassment that would ensue if actually got Erin up on the runway, only to have the girl get distracted by the flashing pictures and end up diving off the side or something. This day had potential for a lot of disaster, and Audrey was hoping to avoid it all.

"What do you think of this?"

The dress was nice, a perfect choice for her daughter, but not with the bear skin addition. Mrs. Chancelier-Dark did not do furs, of any kind. That just wasn't her style. And she for sure wasn't having her daughter walking around in one either. Audrey swiftly grabbed the fur in question and put it back on its appropriate rack. "The dress-yes. The fur? Definitely not. Come on Erin, focus with me for a moment."

Somewhere, deep down, there was a loving part of Audrey Chancelier-Dark. It had surfaced in the past, and was just buried by desires and goals and all sorts of corrupt things that happen to a mind when it's been focused on money and social position for too long. But she did care for her children. At least, for Erin. Perhaps somewhere in her heart there was a little section reserved for the twins and Mikey, but it was hardly ever seen. Right now Audrey was trying to access that part which was reserved for Erin, to remind her that she needed to be loving to her daughter. Or at least, she couldn't bite her head off because Erin wasn't paying attention to what was going on.

Audrey took another deep breathe before speaking again. "Erin...I've got a very important role for you today, if you're up for it." So many different potential outcomes for the day....and Audrey was hoping for the best. "How would you like to model some of my designs out on the runway today? I've got the models for my younger line, but I thought it would be a good experience for you to get out there as well. What do you think?"

"The dress-yes. The fur? Definitely not. Come on Erin, focus with me for a moment.".  Erin thought that was not very nice.  Erin thought she made a perfectly reasonable impersonation of a teddy-bear, and wondered why she could not get a shirt that said Cuddly on it.  Still, her mother asked her to do something and Erin tried to do it.  Erin did adore her mother, and tried to do as she wished, but ultimately her attention span usually got the better of her.  Though she could take a potion for it, her mother opted not for her to take it this morning, which meant she wanted Erin bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Mustering all of her willpower, Erin did manage to focus on her mother, even though she was tapping her foot.  It was about as close to standing still as Erin had ever gotten, and she and her mother knew it.  As her mother took a deep breath, Erin actually paid attention to what her mother was saying. 

"Erin...I've got a very important role for you today, if you're up for it." .  Inwardly, Erin was beginning to have a panic attack.  Her mother was relying on *her*.  Wondering if there was any possible way this could end well, her mind was off shooting at a thousand different tangents a minute.  Ironically, this made her stay still since she her mind was extremely preoccupied.  Erin was about to respond to the query, but her mother beat her to the punch.  After Erin realized what her mother asked her, she almost tackled hugged her mother.

“I’d love to!  Do you have something in particular you’d like me to wear or is this green dress good!?  Say – there’s this boy I like – you think I can get a couple of copies of the photos for him too!?  Oh this’ll be fun!” Erin rambled at a thousand words a minute, not really thinking about what she said in her state of euphoria.  She was almost ready to sprint over to the dressing room and start trying things out immediately, but remembered she was still hugging her mom.  Letting go of her, she skipped over to the rack her mother pointed out and rifled through it once more seeing a few things she liked, but wanted to know which ones her mother had preferred.  Finding several in her size, Erin once more spoke, this time settling for nine-hundred words per minute rather than a thousand.

“Oohh- What do you think of this?  Or maybe this one?  How about this one?  Or would that work?” Erin asked her mother, more excited than a niffler at Gringotts.  As she waited for her mother to respond, Erin could not stay still.  She was almost jumping in place with excitement.  As she rifled through the dresses, she admired the various patterns colours and styles.  Erin could not help but grin.  She knew this was going to be great.