Amelia gazed around at the noise her classmates were making. Sure she wasn't happy with the situation at hand, but she was a seventh year and quidditch captain - she had to set a good example. Rae was counting on her, right?

Hesitating a moment, she walked over to the trunk and squatted down to look for a formal robe in the trunk. "For you Professor, that's why," she murmured in a barely audible voice. Besides, after six years of true defense training, it wasn't like one etiquette class would kill her. Pulling out one an elegant gold and black robe, she stood up and held it against her. "Is there a mirror or something?"

It was lucky Melly's mouth was so small or it would be now touching the floor. Had she just heard the word 'etiquette'? No, she couldn't have had! She was supposed to have classes related to magic! Not... etiquette! Sure, it was always necessary to know what one should do and should not do but surely it was not necessary to steal time from normal lessons to learn that, right? RIGHT?

"B-but..." She mumbled, staring at the professor in pure disbelief. Obviously, she didn't have the guts to contradict the Headmistress or any adult but still... Ugh! What was this all about?

Biting her lip once the woman started to open the trunk, Melly hoped will all her heart that the professor was going to tell her she was joking. And she did so to no avail. However, the news that the older woman gave them was too much for her little heart to handle.

Dresses? They could wear dresses? Silly or not, the first year couldn't help but let out a tiny squeal, holding her hands together and placing them under her chin as she stared at the robes that were on the professor's hands. DRESSES! She was going to wear one! And then she could be one of those princesses from the fairytales she loved so much!

"OoooOOOooOOooOh! Dress up!" Issy couldn't help herself from squealing and clapped her hands together in giddy fashion before her. Growing up, she'd always loved dress up and even now, she loved to be able to dress up in pretty dresses and shirts and wear lots of pretty jewlery. And while these weren't robes... they were still pretty!

"I'll dress up!" the small girl procalimed, stepping forward and raising her hand. Ducking her head, she eagerly approached the Professor and her trunk.

While she was utterly against the Ministry's attempt to reform them, Issy grew up in a good home, where manners and etiquette were nearly forced. Daddy expected that she behave like a little lady. Mummy expected it. When they turned their backs, she jumped into the mud and played in trees. She didn't agree with Hogwarts being a school of etiquette, but she did know it.

And she liked dressing up.

"I'll dress up, Professor," she proclaimed, happily, beaming, and reached into the trunk, to dig around for something small enough for her. After a moment, she withdrew a pretty, light blue, floaty material robe.

"Oh! Isn't it pretty?" she called to Melly and Becca, her voice suddenly childlike, as if she were an enamored five year old.

"I'll take a dress robe, Professor!" Sheeta piped up enthusiastically. Even if she was the only one with a dress robe on, Sheeta desperately wanted to do something that took her mind off of the problems being made by the ministry. How her father had survived working for them for so many years made her head hurt.

Oh crap Kayla thought she had hurt the Professor's feelings. "I'm sorry Professor I didn't mean to appear rude..."she sighed and then gritted her teeth, only for the Headmistress would she do this..."do you have one in red" she added quietly. Thank Merlin there are no boys here to see this.

Steelsheen took a peek into the trunk. Dresses. Ick. Her second least favorite thing in the world. She looked over at Kayla protesting. She could definitely feel her pain.

"Professor" Steelsheen raised her hand "perhaps you could teach us the mending spell without us having to wear the dresses?" she suggested, trying to find a compromise.

Nikita didn't like to see the professor upset - however slight. It wasn't the professor's fault that she had to teach etiquette, and Nikita didn't see much wrong with dressing up. Dressing up wasn't much to her tastes, but she saw a midnight blue robe that would be fine. She walked up to the professor and picked up the one that she had her eye on.

"Thank you, Professor," she said, trying to sound appreciative. Suddenly worried, she couldn't help but asking, "Do you happen to know if all of your lessons will be like this?" Nikita was hoping that wasn't the case, and this would be a one time occurrence.

Gem saw a small group of girls congregate, and she slipped towards them, taking a place near Becca. She half-opened her mouth, about to suggest what the odd arrangement might be for. Maybe they were all going to duel on the table. Or learn how to turn down a harsh business deal during a meeting. Honestly, she had no idea, and she also had no time to voice her opinions. She was cut off by the Headmistress and she turned her attention to the grim woman whose voice came out dripping with dread. At once, her soaring heart began to more timidly beat, and she could feel fear begin to creep up on her, tickling the back of her neck as the hairs jolted up. But what the Headmistress said almost stopped Gemma’s breath, and she gradually began to turn a ghastly white before, with a start, she sucked in a lungful of breath. No. No. No. Not table etiquette. Gods no! The last fine supper she’d been too… Oh Hades, Poseidon and Zeus! She was dead. More than dead. She was already twenty feet under. Once, Daddy had grudgingly taken the family out to a Christmas dinner with the “normal” side of the family. No spurts of magic escaped, but Gem did manage to make a mess of everything. And it all started with the forks. One didn’t need fifteen forks. She panicked, reaches for the wrong one, changed direction, reached for another wrong one, upset her water, jumped up, bumped the table, upset the candle… An inaudible groan escaped, and she bit her lip softly.
The next few words changed her mind. "Dress up?" She echoed, a grin immediatley stretching across her lips. "Like princesses?" Maybe she could be a fairy princess. Or a pirate princess. Or a frog princess. "I want to dress up," she breathlessly declared.

Allie walked over to the trunk, ans picked out a simple, but pretty baby blue dress. She didn't want to, but she was afraid if she protested she would make Gryffindor lose points.

Anna didn't think it was possible for her jaw to drop any more than it'd already dropped, but lo and behold - it did. They were going to play dress-up now? Nice. So, they may get cursed and killed by the Dark Arts, but at least they'd go down looking pretty and knowing how to set a table. Psh. Whatever.

She leaned over a bit and surveyed a few of the dresses she could see poking out of the trunk. She saw a pretty lavender one. Then there was a pretty rose pink one. Ewww. Was she turning into a softy over these dresses? She hoped not.

Anna heard a soft sigh coming from nearby and looked over to Kat, looking as excited as Anna about the lesson - which amounted to no excitement whatsoever. She shot Kat a smile, knowing that if she'd stayed quite so far, she must be planning on being a good sport about "dress-up time" after all.

Anna jumped a bit as she heard someone nearby protesting the lesson quite loudly. She looked back and forth between the professor and the student, wondering what the reaction would be.

Blinking oddly at the Headmistress Alexis had only one thought on her mind; "The ministry is completely bonkers." She muttered under her breath. She felt extremely sorry for Sam. This was bad for her but...for Sam? Absolutely torture. Feeling kinda bad that Professor Rae's expression fell Alexis kinda felt bad. "Oh course Prefect Vannah would love to dress up." Alexis said eying her friend as she asked the question. "Ok then....let's dress up."

Approaching the trunk with some of the others, Kat found a set of deep green dress robes and took it out for herself. She might be a gryffindor if she was gonna dress up it would be in her favorite color, she thought, catching Anna's smile and allowing a small smile in return.

"Thank you," Rae said with a grateful smile, and she gave the girl a sideways hug. "Remember that you do not HAVE to dress up, but if you want to, there are robes available. There's a mirror in the corner, and if you find the robes too long, please point your wand in a line at the level you'd like the robes to be and say, Resarcio. You'll find that a fine line of stitching will appear there, drawing your robes up to that level. With practice, you'll learn to use this stitching spell in other ways."

Jade picked out a simple, black robe and pulled it on over her clothes, happy with the fit. The cut was flattering for anyone, the sleeves long and flaring at the end, and the color seemed to be so black that it drained the light from the air around it. She smiled slightly, looking down at herself and, while she hadn't really caught anything the professor had said, was happy to have something interesting to do. She pulled her hair back into an elastic to show off her jawline, which was accented by the neck of the her formal robes. Frowning slightly at the hemline, she raised her hand and asked, "Professor? Will that work to make the robes longer?"

*Seeing so many girls already going to get dress robes, Sheeta decided to just take the initiative... since so many others already were. Sheeta, when she could take a look at the trunk full of robes, rummaged through until she could find one that complimented her hair color... a much darker red than her hair with black frills and lace.*

*Sheeta heard the teacher mentioning a spell to be used and she immediately became happy without having put the robe on yet. A spell? Even more than she wanted to learn hair potions, Sheeta wanted so much to learn different spells to use her wand. Unfortunately, when she checked in the mirror, the dress robes were in fact just her size.*

"Flobberworms!" Sheeta silently cursed to herself. Oh well! She made a mental note of the spell and put on the robes.

"Can we sit at the table yet, Professor?" Sheeta asked politely.

Squealing again as she heard Issy, Melly couldn't help but quickly walk (though for her, due to her small legs, she was running) towards her friend. She was going to dress up! She was going to dress up! Oh, she hadn't done it for so long! Last time she had done that it was in Hallowe'en and then no-one had let her wear a flowy, pretty dress or anything. They had forced her to dress herself as a pumpkin. A pumpkin for Merlin's sake!

"It iiiiis!" The eleven-year-old said, absolutely in love with the dress Issy had picked. "I love it!," She proclaimed in pure adoration. "You have to help me find one, Issy!" She beamed, looking down at the trunk and staring at the dresses, too scared to take one out.

Horror stuck Becca's face. Etiquette? Was she serious? A loud gust of air was released from her lungs and she did not suck in anymore air. She just stood there, staring at the formal robes and the idea of her wearing them. What would the girls on her soccer team think if they had ever even heard that she, of all people, was learning to be a 'proper young lady?'

Her chest swelled up slightly and Becca finally realized that she wasn't breathing. She eagerly sucked air back into her lungs and looked at Issy. "I don't like this. Can I leave?" she asked her best friend quietly, who then ran off to play dress-up. Ugh, she was in this on her own. If she stayed, she figured she would end up causing chaos. Like, persay, tripping an extra annoying girl that was acting like she was the best. ...Maybe I should stay, she concluded. That would be pretty rad if she made some stuck up girl fall flat on her face.

"Vannah, poke me the next time I speak out of term okay?" she asked, no longer smiling happily as she once was. Taking a breath, she wakled over to the trunk and closed her eyes, not caring what colour dress she picked. she felt the material in her hand and opened her eyes to see... a bright yellow dress. "Hmm..." she muttered, shrugging before walking over to the wall again. "I can have fun with this." she said to herself nodding.

She grinned as she put the dress robe over her head and dropped it, pulling her hands through the sleeves. It fell to the floor with a small flump and she chuckled, "I'm like a big bird." she giggles, her green eyes sparkling as she pointed her wand at the point by her ankles and said with a clear vioce, "Resarcio. " Weith it be her good mood once restored or just her ignorance of emotions, the spell worked perfectly on her first try, the hem of the robes going straight to her ankle, where her running shoe poked through. She frowned slightly as she saw jagged lines running aross the hem but shugged, ready for the next part.

Kayla dragged her feet slowly over to the trunk and looked inside. "Oh" she whispered looking unhappy. "Is that the only red one there?" she asked rummaging through the rest of the dresses, she was not wearing pink and that was definite.

Allie put on her dress, and went over to the mirror to look at herself. She didn't feel very comfortable in the dress, since she normally wore jeans. BUt, the dress seemed to fit her nicley, so she tried her best to put a smile on her face, and wait for the class to start.

"I can assure you that this is my only lesson on etiquette. I'll be sure there's lots of opportunity to use your wand in the next lesson, I promise."

"Only if there is an existing hem," Rae shrugged. "If you need some length that doesn't already exist, that would take a stretching spell or an addition spell that is a bit more complicated. We can discuss it later. For these purposes, I think the hemming spell should work."

"Please pick a dress if you want and return to the wall."

So they didn't have to dress up, but eh, in the spirit of things - and because everyone else seemed to be - Anna walked forward and chose a set of lavender dress robes. She was a shorty, so no doubt she'd be putting Recarcio to good use. She slipped her dress robes on and proceeded to the mirror they'd been directed to. She looked like a lollipop. Lovely. Tha's just what every 15-year-old girl desires to be - a lollipop.

She used to wand to work up a good place for the robes to be hemmed to, then muttered, "Resarcio!" Hmmm, it actually worked. If anything, at least she'd learned that spell.

Seeing Amelia lead the way towards the trunk, Rapunzel shrugged and decided to follow. She was so excited about the robes that she almost skipped there, but stopped abruptly when she remembered the rules. Really. That was the most bothersome rule in the whole school - no skipping. Hmmph.

Upon reaching the trunk, Punz dived right in and started sifting through them. So many soft, silky materials...so many colors....ah! But there it was - an orchid one. Long, flowing, and with little silver sparkles woven right in. Perfect.

She slipped the robe on and shook out her shoulder-length hair. And it looked like it was her lucky day too - the robe was just right for her. No hemming needed.

Feeling pretty, Rapunzel refrained from skipping back to the wall. Instead she practiced walking with perfect posture. She could get used to the princess life....

Jezz reached down and grabbed a nice robe. She put it on and looked into the mirror, making a face. The robe was too long. She pulled out her wand "Resarcio!" She hated that she was so small, but it gave her an excuse to use magic. She wondered if the teacher knew how much of a sacrafice this was for her, but she wanted to be a good rolemodel to the younger students. Still, it was pink.

"I'm sure I saw other red robes in there." Sheeta smiled nervously and returned to the wall as she had been instructed.