Text Cut: Comments and replies ^_^

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermione<3Ron

I like his laugh. xD

More, more, more! <3

I'm glad you do.

Yes, ma'am! ^__^

A friend is one to whom
one may pour out all the contents
of one's heart,
chaff and grain together,
knowing that the gentlest of hands
will take and sift it,
keep what is worth keeping
and with a breath of kindness
blow the rest a w a y.


Later that day, three girls sat in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express that shut the rest of the globe outside, and locked an air of cozy privacy inside.

The dark-haired Philippine, head and neck and most of her shoulders hidden, as per custom, behind a laaaarge magazine titled Runes and Dead Languages, vol. VXI, peeked out at one point, and smiled at Ariel [curled round a basket containing a small kitten, a kitten fast asleep and [thankfully] unaware of how interestedly and HAPPILY Ariel was staaaaring at it] and Ruby [re-painting her nails and looking at her reflection in a small hand mirror].

“It's nearly time," she said, putting down the paper. It made some familiar, crinkly noises as Philippine folded it neatly [Ruby hated how neatly Philippine folded papers; it just didn't seem natural, not to her] and caused both of her friends to look up. [The kitten in the basket chose this moment to open it eyes, and never realized that Ariel had been staaaaring at it all happily, all the time it had been asleep. Good for the little thing, even though Ariel didn't mean any harm, just found the kitty squishy and huggable]. "The train is going to stop any minute, now. Better change.”

Ruby's bottle of nail-polish clattered dramatically to the floor, causing the kitten to jump right out of its basket and land in Ariel's lap [Ariel SQUEE'ed and hugged it]. "Goodness, you're right." She sounded mortified, as she scrambled to her feet, and scrambled to pick up her nail-polish, and scrambled to find her flask of Madame Genelia's Luscious Curls Hair Potion. "I can’t believe – how could I have lost track of time - have to look perfect – haven't painted my toenails yet - must curl my hair – Merlin, so much to do –”

“Fashion freak and fashion emergency,” Ariel commented happily, as she put the kitten back in its basket, patted the top of its head [the kitten blinked uncertainly] and, quite unceremoniously, picked up something that looked like a pile of ironed rags. This pile of looked-like-ironed-rags happened to be one of her old set of school robes. Cameron Bonanza had tried her best to discard it [she had even sneaked into Ariel's room for this purpose under the pretense of looking for a missing sock, once] but the robes had survived, and the oblivious Ariel continued to enjoy their coziness.

It took them fifteen minutes [give or take a few, of course] to slip out of their dresses, and into their school robes - Ruby persuaded Ariel that her faded robes were a hazard to society in general, and should not be so much as touched, let alone worn - and, as the train neared Hogsmeade station, the sole source of commotion in the girls' compartment happened to be Ruby, fervently applying copious amounts of the curling potion on her hair, and attempting to set it into loose curls - being boyfriend-less at the moment after having broken up with her millionth one over the summer, she felt the need to sparkle. [Not that she had ever not felt that need.] There might, after all, be someone good-looking enough at the start-of-term feast.

Besides, that new transfer was hot. John River, wasn't that his name?

“Does my hair look okay?” Ruby held up her hand-mirror as she patted her hair, and began to apply blush-on [Ariel thought it must be a refined type of lipstick, her knowledge of fashion being a little less than zero. The one reason she sometimes ended up sporting fashionable hats and bags and other things? Those kinds of things sliiightly annoyed her mother, and Ariel had always made a business of doing things that did so. She'd always thought her mother looked simply adorable, fussing over her heckofadaughter.]

“It looks gorgeous,” Philippine's response sounded learned-by-heart. “I sometimes -"

“I say," Ariel suddenly cut through, giving Philippine an oh-so-happy, 'aren't-you-glad-I-saved-you-from-having-to-tell-Ruby-how-awesome-she-is?' look. "I saaaay, WHO is Ruby dressing up for? Didn't she and Greg break up over the summer?" Since Ruby pointedly ignored this statement, Ariel proceeded to snatch her make-up kit.

Ruby turned round and glared. “I broke up with Darren, and not Greg, over the summer,” she said, holding her head just a little too high as she grabbed her makeup kit from one end and puuuuulleddd. Ariel pulled at it from the opposite direction, and the magical makeup kit made a face and shriiieeked, causing both to let go at once and craaash --- lipsticks and whatnot all over the floor. Ruby had no time to be angry though, because a question had just occurred to Philippine.

“Wait - if Darren's the one you ditched, who in Merlin's cheese is Greg?” Philippine sounded genuinely perplexed. “To think I was so sure you were dating someone called Greg!”

Ruby, face until now frozen in mid-scowl, coloured splendidly. “I was,” she said. “For, err, a week before I began dating Darren.” Then, in a valiant attempt to ignore Ariel's smirk, and how Philippine's jaw had clanged open, she said, “You're going to help me pick up all of those thing, both of you, since it's not my fault that they're on -”

All three of them jumped as the train screeched to an unexpected, jarring halt. Something crashed to the floor in the compartment next to them, and Philippine made a dive for Ruby, pushing her out of the way just in time to avoid the trunk that slipped from the top berth, and crashed to the floor, landing at the exact spot Ruby had occupied only moments ago.



Reference:

[] "A friend is one to whom -" 'Tis an Araaabian proverb. Yo! =D