Shopping time!

[prof_stargazer]

Date: Tuesday, February 5th
Time: around 2pm
Location: Tresor Litteraire, then Diagon Alley
Rating: PG, I'm sure
Characters Involved: Stella Sinistra and Charlotte Finnigan

Stella had been elated, on Friday evening, to hear that Caleb had asked Charlotte (and she had agreed) to stand up in the wedding.  Stella knew that Caleb had come to cherish

Comments

[beautesolitaire]

Charlotte was excited to get out and help Stella. She looked up at the door dinged. She was working on getting Constance all bundled up. 'Stan' as her daddy had taken to calling her was going to be spending the afternoon with daddy over at the pub while mommy went shopping with Stella. As perpetual mother time was beginning to set into Charlotte's life. She was annoyingly unpunctual. Before she had had Constance, Charlotte was annoying punctual, usually early to everything

[beautesolitaire]

"But it is your wedding, mon amie." she replied with a laugh.

Finally, it was modeling time. Charlotte just made a somewhat disgusted face. She didn't like getting naked at the moment yet, which was a large disappointment to her husband. It was one thing when she had been pregnant, now she was just too flabby for her own liking. She was highly critical of herself, but the girl had been a twig before she'd gotten pregnant.

She wasn't going to disappoint Stella though. She modeled each dress and nixed the idea of any strapless dresses immediately

[prof_stargazer]

Each time Charlotte stepped out of the dressing room, they both studied the dress critically- Charlotte looking in the mirror, Stella studying it from all angles as she walked around her. A few they dismissed immediately- it was easy to tell the ones that Charlotte didn't like, due to the rather amusing look that would come over her face.

They held onto a few of them, trying them on again and comparing them back-to-back. Eventually, they were left with two that Stella liked best- a floor length, halter-top dress that wrapped around a bit, or a shorter, knee-length dress that gathered a bit at the front.

"Well," Stella said, as Charlotte stepped out of the dressing room for what seemed like the hundreth time. "Which do you like? Long or short?"

[beautesolitaire]

She had looked at the dresses rather critically. She liked them both, "Well ze shorter one will not 'ave to be 'emmed like ze longer one." she said, quietly, looking at each in turn.

"Ze bot' 'ide my tummy, so I like zat on bot'." she said, looking at Stella to try to gage which gave her all hearts in the eyes, "I t'ink zat ze short would be ze best, plus it would give me an excuse to buy some pretty new shoes."

[prof_stargazer]

Stella couldn't help but laugh at Charlotte's 'covering the tummy' comment. "Charlotte, the wedding is a month and a half away. I think your 'tummy' will be completely gone by then!"

Still, though, she was glad that Charlotte liked both the dresses. Stella was leaning a bit more towards the shorter dress, though, and was glad when Charlotte seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"I like that one too," Stella nodded, smiling at Charlotte. "And it looked just adorable on you. Besides, any excuse to get some new shoes, right?" Stella laughed, remembering how difficult it had been for Charlotte to get used to wearing flat-heeled shoes during her pregnancy. "Some nice heels, I think."

[beautesolitaire]

"Oui, beautiful little strappy ones that make me taller again." Oh yes, it was no secret that Charlotte loathed her 5'3" stature with a passion. She could wear heels again without breaking her ankles or hurting her feet. She was going to be happy to get her beautiful shoes out of the bottom of the closet again.

"Someti'ng with sparkles. I deserve zem." she chuckled, sliding her little feet back into the pretty flats.

Her flats weren't ungly by any means, but they didn't meet the height requirement to ride the ride. She wasn't tall enough without her heels!

[prof_stargazer]

Stella giggled at Charlotte's shoe-ramblings. Not that she blamed her at all- what girl didn't love a pretty pair of shoes?

"Yes- beautiful, sparkly, strappy red heels," Stella agreed. "I haven't found shoes yet either- I just have to be careful to get ones that aren't too high- if I do, I'll be taller than Caleb, and we can't have that!" Most of the time, Stella loved being so close in height to Caleb- it meant that she fit in his arms perfectly. And, most of the heels she had made them nearly the same height. Still, it would not do to be taller than her groom on their wedding day!

"Perhaps we can go shoe shopping next week?" Stella laughed, glancing at her watch. "I do need to be getting back to Hogwarts, unfortunately." Trying on all those dresses had taken up quite a bit of time, and Stella wanted to get a few things done before her evening classes tonight.

[beautesolitaire]

"Oui, later for the shoes. I need to get 'ome too for ze baby." she said, oh yes, there was a distinct lack of comfort when she didn't feel the baby regularly. Plus she doubted that Constance would be happy about not getting fed regularly. She liked to eat, that was for sure.

She took the dress to the register to pay for it, getting it all wrapped up and ready to go home with her and paid for it. She didn't even think of letting Stella or anyone else but her. It was going to be her dress. She was going to pay for it. She had lots of jewelry that would match too. Maybe she could wear her mother's necklace...

[prof_stargazer]

Stella tried to protest as Charlotte and the clerk walked towards the register- Stella had wanted to purchase the dress for her as a gift, but Charlotte was being as stubborn as Stella herself could be.

She resigned herself to brainstorming what else she and Caleb could get for Charlotte as a thank-you gift. Perhaps a bracelet or some earrings...

They chatted and laughed as they made their way back to Finnigan's, and Stella gave Charlotte a hug before the new mother went in to fetch the baby.

"Thank you, again, for doing this. It means the world to Caleb- to both of us," Stella said, giving Charlotte a kind smile.