Izzy and I step into the dress shop, and luckily since we woke up early enough there aren't many other people in here.
Last night, Izzy and I had thought that we should wake up early, in order to avoid the crowds that we knew would begin to form later on.
There are dresses of all colours, shapes and sizes hanging everywhere, and my attention is grabbed by so many that I really don't know where to look.
Then, the shopping marathon begins...
"This one?" Izzy asks, holding up a dark grey number and pressing it against her body.
"It's nice! But I think you could do better!" I reply, and Izzy dives back into the shelves.
"How about this?" I ask, selecting a navy blue dress that comes in nicely at the waist and then has a floor length flowing skirt.
Izzy shakes her head, and then I start browsing again.
About six more dresses are held up, tried on, and rejected, and then Izzy lets out a gasp.
"Oh Andromeda! I think that I've found the dress for you!" she says excitedly, gently picking it up and handing it to me.
Oh Mother if Merlin, it's gorgeous. Everything that I would ever want in a dress.
Slightly lost for words, I mutter, "I'm going to go and try this on.".
I turn into the dressing room, and slip into the silky material. I look in the mirror and...wow.
I...I've never seen myself like this before. It's like I'm looking in the mirror for the first time.
I feel new, different, confident. Like anything that I was insecure about has just faded away.
It is a beautiful deep green, and is very form fitting. It just...fits, and flows beautifully.
It's like it was made for me.
With one last look in the mirror, I step out of the dressing room, and Isabella turns around to look at me.
Her jaw drops, and instantly I blush shyly.
"Wow Andromeda. Just...wow! If you don't buy that - I'll buy it for you! You HAVE to get it!" she rambles, still in awe.
"Oh trust me Izzy! I'm getting this dress!" I assure her, and then, with a twirl, I step back into the dressing room to reluctantly take the beautiful green dress off.
When I step out, slightly annoyed to be in my normal clothes again, I find Isabella holding about six different dresses.
"'Dromeda. Help me! I don't know which one to try on first!" she says, struggling to hold them all. With a laugh, I reach to help her, setting half of the dresses down on the nearest empty seat.
More people have come in now, and the shop is beginning to get busy.
"Here Iz! Try this one on first!" I say, gesturing to a light blue dress, "I'll go and pay for this!".
With that I go up to the till, and pay for my dress.
Much to my surprise, it really isn't very expensive - 25 galleons for a dress is next to nothing in today's market!
I head back over to my seat outside Izzy's changing room just as she steps out.
The dress is truly gorgeous, but I'm just not too sure.
"I like the dress, just not how it looks on me!" Izzy remarks, unsure of what to do.
"It looks great, Izzy! But I really think that you should try in this one!" I say, walking over to one of the dress racks and lightly fingering a beautiful dark red dress.
"Try this on please!" I ask her, and she nods, heading back into the dressing room.
When Isabella reappears, I know that she's found her dress.
It's a satin red dress, with a low v neck and a reasonably big skirt; perfect for Isabella.
"Well I think our work here is done!" I say, and Izzy laughs in agreement.
She gets changed again, and we put all of our rejected dresses back, and then she goes to pay for her dress.
After saying goodbye to the shop owner, we step out into the cold wintry streets of Hogsmeade, with freshly laid snow on the ground, holding our shopping bags with immense satisfaction.
We spend the rest of our day just wandering around Hogsmeade, looking in some of the shops and browsing, before having afternoon tea and a lovely cafe and heading back up to school.