- Chapter Twenty-Seven -
"Dresses?"

The days went quicker than Elladora would've ever thought they would.

It was now Christmas Eve and they had been at the Potters for four days already. They were spent with Sirius counting down to Christmas everyday, awkward dinners for Elladora at the start but it quickly got better.

"Dinner!" Euphemia called and the four sat upstairs in the 'Marauders man and woman cave' came trotting down the stairs. Elladora had stood politely behind her chair, whereas everybody else sat.

"Dora." James whispered and tugged on her shirt, she looked down at him and he gestured to her chair, allowing her to sit down hesitantly. "So, mum-"

It was safe to say that Elladora was taken aback that he had talked at the dinner table, she was so shocked that she froze and glanced worriedly at James when he kept talking.

"- what are we doing for Christmas Eve?"

Oh he was in for it now, he would be banished up to his own room and wouldn't be allowed to come out for days. You never talk at the dinner table, ever. If you want something, you get up and get it yourself. That's what it's always been like.

"Well," Euphemia swallowed her potato that she had been eating. "the Ellis family are holding a party and I thought we might all go." She smiled, looking around for agreements, which she got from everyone. A wide smile graced her face. "What about you, Elladora?"

Elladora looked up in alarm, eyes wide. This was dinner, what are they playing at. She slowly chewed the chicken she had been eating and nodded slowly. Euphemia's face brightened up even more if possible and she clapped her hands together.

The dinners certainly got better after that, but she was still quiet, used to the consequences that came after she talked, but the families slowly got her out of her shell again. Then the marauders baked some days, cookies and all sorts.

"Sirius stop eating the cookie dough." James demanded, taking the bowl out of Sirius' hands, who whined. "We need it." He scowled, putting the bowl back down and brushing his hands on his apron.

Elladora had never seen anyone so passionate about baking that wasn't a house elf. Remus must've also though the same thing as he ate a chocolate chip, facing away from James, whilst Peter took one too.

"Sirius and Peter, the trays are in the cellar." James pointed his thumbs behind him, gesturing for the boys to follow him. They both rolled their eyes and started to follow sluggishly until the bespectacled boy's clapping startled them. "Chop chop! Hurry up, we haven't got all day!" He called and the two hurried, leaving Remus and Elladora in the kitchen.

She tapped her fingers rhythmically on the counter whilst Remus started to clean, grabbing the bowl that still had a lot of flour piled into it. He was beginning to walk over to the sink when she abruptly turned and they collided harshly.

It seemed like it all went in slow-motion as the bowl tipped and the white flour poured all over Elladora's dark grey hoodie. Remus stood with his mouth agape as he stared at the material, white powder covering it as she stared down, unblinking and actually filling Remus with a little bit of fear.

Then something happened that he definitely didn't expect.

A cracking sound filled his ears. Elladora had reached onto the counter and grabbed an egg from the carton, and actually smashed it on his head. Remus scoffed quietly, before getting a handful of butter and slapping it on her flour-covered shirt, dragging it down the rest of it.

She clenched her jaw slightly and reach for the butter again, grabbing the slippery ingredient and cupping Remus' cheeks, dragging her hands down so they were stained with butter. Though she looked angry, as always, there was definitely amusement in her eyes as Remus grabbed some sugar and sprinkled it into her hair.

The two engaged in a massive food fight, both covered in different ingredients. Elladora's hoodie was littered with everything, from butter to the eggs. Remus had his hair stuck together from the egg whites and the butter that the girl had run through them but they were still going, flinging flour and sugar at each other as Remus laughed and she merely let her eyebrow twitch, feeling the corner of her lips twitch slightly too. She froze at the sudden movement, bringing her hands up to her lips, but apparently Remus hadn't seen this and instead pelted another handful of flour at her.

When she was about to drag some more butter through his hair, clanging of metal stopped her and the two in the kitchen turned their heads to see James, Sirius and Peter. James was stood with his hands on his hips, putting his weight on one leg as he clicked his tongue. Sirius was stood banging two trays together, eyebrows raised all the way up onto his hairline and Peter was just frozen, they had left for not even ten minutes and they come back to this.

"Want to explain?" James demanded, tapping his foot on the floor. Remus started to laugh and cover his mouth as he snorted slightly.

"What's going on in here- oh!" Euphemia entered the kitchen and Remus' face went serious almost immediately as he straightened up, now realising the mess they had made in her kitchen. His eyes widened considerably and so did Elladora's as they stood watching Euphemia look around at the kitchen.

Then she started laughing, making her way over to Elladora and brushing the sugar out of her hair. "Food fights." She sighed. "What fun."

James raised his eyebrows at his mother's behaviour and narrowed his eyes at her. Something told Elladora that if this was him, she would be acting quite different.

"Well, Elladora, I was coming to ask you whether or not you wanted to go shopping for dresses?" She grinned, clasping her hands together.

"Dresses?" Elladora repeated slowly with her eyebrows furrowed together slightly. She had never worn a dress before, maybe once when her mother needed her to attend a ball for formal reasons but none that she could remember.

"Yes! For the Christmas party tomorrow. We'll head into Diagon Alley." Euphemia nodded, her face lit up like the bright decorations around her house. Elladora gulped nervously and looked around at the boys who nodded encouragingly.

"O-Okay." She said and the woman clapped her hands together, running her fingers through the girls hair slightly and cringing at the ingredients in it.

"Maybe we should wait for tomorrow and you can go and shower." She suggested and Elladora nodded. Euphemia looked from the girl to Remus and cringed again. "You too, Remus. You can take the one in our room and Elladora can take the one in the landing."

He also nodded, thanked her and then dragged Elladora upstairs, both of them looking forward to getting the gunk out of their hair.

•*•*•*•*•

It was the next day and Euphemia, Penny, Hope and Elladora were all wrapped up in thick coats, walking through Diagon Alley. The coat that the youngest girl was wearing, was far more well-fitting than the one that Sirius made her wear before they left for Christmas.

Elladora had not been to Diagon Alley for 5 years, since she got her wand from Ollivanders. There were only little parts of the street that she could remember, like the narrow path or the book store. For the most part, it was completely new to her, so new that she often found herself stopping to gaze around at the shops meaning that Euphemia had to drag her along a little bit with their linked arms.

Hope, Remus' mother, coughed and pointed to a purple shop with the name of 'Madam Malkins Robes for all occasions'. She then smirked as best she could at Elladora and linked her other arm, pulling her away from Euphemia and into the shop, leaving the two other witches to follow.

Inside there was a short plump witch in mauve clothes, folding up a piece of material. A bell rang above them as they entered, making Elladora look up with furrowed eyebrows. When she looked back, the woman in mauve was stood in front of her, a large, friendly smile on her face.

"What can I do for you lovely women?" She grinned, glancing between them all.

"We would like a lovely dress for Elladora here." Euphemia told her, gesturing to Elladora who curtsied formally to Madam Malkin.

The woman laughed and grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the mothers. She then walked around her, examining her body as she walked forward and requested for her to take her coat off. Elladora did so and Madam Malkin hummed, disappearing away and came back with three dresses in hand.

"There's a room back there where you can try them on." She grinned. "One at a time."

Elladora took them and gave one last wary glance at her friends mothers before disappearing behind a curtain. The first dress was a long-sleeved red one. The torso was Lacy but the skirt was just a plain red. It was quite a struggle as she tried to pull it up without undoing the zipper. She quickly realised her mistake and unzipped it, pulling it over her body.

It was quite beautiful, but she didn't really like the look of the high neck of the dress. She exited the curtain nonetheless to see Euphemia, Hope and Penny sat with Madam Malkin, cups of tea in their hands. At her movement, they all looked up and gasped at the teenager, placing hands to their hearts.

"Why, you look beautiful." Penny smiled. Madam Malkin stood and came behind Elladora, zipping the back up and turning her to the mirror that stood behind her.

She was actually quite shocked at how nice she looked, she had never worn a colour quite this bright before. "I don't really like the neck." Elladora said quietly, her fingers tracing the lacy material.

"No problem, deary, you can try the other two."

So she did, the next one was a black dress with the sleeves on the side of her shoulders instead of on the top. It was another long one and it was glittery, she didn't really like the feeling though, it was rough and not as soft as she would liked it to be. The women sat in the other room had dismissed it and told her try on the other one.

This one was by far her favourite. It was a another lacy one, and it was long again, but the skirt wasn't that poofy and instead fell down her sides naturally. The sleeves fitted nicely and lines of material were stitched onto the back of her shoulders. She almost teared up at how nice she looked. These bright colours were something that looked unnatural, but beautiful on her and all her life she had known to just wear black.

The curtain opened once again as she made her way out. Madam Malkin practically squealed as she stood abruptly, gasping as she came towards Elladora and lightly picked up the long skirt. The others were practically speechless as they stared at the beautiful young girl.

They turned her around to look in the mirror and once again she looked and felt quite odd but at the same time it felt...right, to be in these bright colours. Euphemia put her hands on the girls shoulders and grinned at her through the mirror, letting the stitched material at the back of the dress slip through her fingers.

"Beautiful." She whispered. "What do you think, Elladora?"

She took another look at herself and felt pretty. Not just pretty, she felt confident and she loved the way that the dress fell down her figure, fitting comfortably and not outlining her curves or bigger parts like the things that her mother made her wear did.

"Beautiful." Elladora whispered and turned to Madam Malkin, nodding, with pure happiness swimming around her eyes, her lips twitching up slightly again, but it was gone as fast as it came.

Madam Malkin smiled warmly and disappeared around the corner as Hope, Penny and Euphemia continued to gush over how gorgeous the girl in front of them looked.

None of them had ever had a daughter of their own.

•*•*•*•*•
A/N: okay but I loved loved loved writing this chapter, just her bonds with the mums and the boys make my heart go ✨whoosh✨
This is the last dress I was imagining, which is the one she'll be wearing for the Christmas Eve party.
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Im also going to set this gif as the gif for the next chapter too. I think your hearts are going to burst with cuteness for the next one and I'm determined to write it well so it might take longer coming out!! Enjoy x