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the-al-chemist · 7 months ago

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Penny’s Special Day

A/N: Artemis in formalwear never goes smoothly. A delayed WBW instalment, based on this ask from @drinkyoursoupbitch:

The dress in the story was entirely inspired by the one in the photo above. As for choosing it, though…

Warnings: None.

A long time had passed since Artemis had last been to the Haywoods’ family home. The house was larger and brighter than the one she herself had grown up in, with a garden that stretched all the way around its walls, and a driveway on which a Muggle car was parked. The street outside the front gate was wide and tree-lined, and three children were riding bicycles up and down the length of it. There were rolling hills in the near-distance, so green and calm that it was hard to believe that London was only a stone’s throw away.

Everything about the house’s exterior was neat and polished in appearance, from the short grass to the paint on the front door. Artemis smoothed down her hair and clothes before knocking. A moment later, a figure appeared in the frosted glass of the door, which opened to reveal a young witch with butterscotch-blonde hair and legs that went up higher than Artemis’ waist.

“Long time, no see,” said the witch. She cocked an eyebrow and grinned mischeivously. “Are you emotionally ready for this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, Bea.”

“Then, by all means, come on in.”

Artemis followed Beatrice Haywood inside the house, moving quickly to keep up with her long strides.

“Everyone’s in the living room, we’ve all finished getting ready. Except for Penny, obviously, she’s still in her room making herself pretty,” Bea explained as she led Artemis through the hallway and up the stairs, the pale pink material of her dress swishing around her legs as she moved. “You can get ready in the spare bedroom, if you like, as long as you don’t mind sharing with all of Tonks and Chiara’s stuff.”

“Not at all.” Artemis was used to that, having shared a room with both Tonks and Chiara at school.

“It’s a bit of a sardines situation. I’ve had Aurélie in my room with me, and Skye and Lizzie are sharing the study.”

Artemis frowned. “There are a lot of us, aren’t there?”

“What were you expecting? This is Penny we’re talking about.”

“Let me guess, she couldn’t pick so asked everyone she knew?”

“A bit of that, but also she just wanted all of it, and it is Penny’s special day, after all.” Bea stopped in her tracks and widened her eyes. “Oh, but you must know that it is actually very lucky to have seven bridesmaids,” she said in a high-pitched and breathless voice, before snorting. “Honestly, I am just looking forward to tomorrow when this is all over. Anyway, you’re in here. Chuck your dress on and I’ll steal Andre off Penny to do your hair and make up for you.”

Bea nodded her head at a coat hanger floating in mid-air in the corner of the room, from which a padded material bag was hanging. Artemis took the bag from the coat hanger, lay it out on the bed, and opened it. Immediately, she pulled a face.

“Everything alright?”

Artemis wrinkled her nose at the dress. “It’s a bit pink, isn’t it?”

“Tell me about it.” Bea sighed. “But it’s what Penny wanted us all to wear.”

Managing to pull her eyes away from the sea of whitish-pink fabric on the bed, Artemis took another look at Beatrice. She was wearing the exact same colour, the exact same dress, as the one in front of her. Despite the colour, it looked quite nice on her. Maybe the dress wouldn’t look so bad once Artemis put it on.

Unfortunately, her first impression was proved to be correct once she stood in the mirror. Not only was the dress pink, but there was both an awful lot of it, and yet not enough. The skirt, which came down to her mid-shin, had layers of a mesh material beneath the main fabric that caused it to stick out slightly from Artemis’ waist like a ballerina. Though the bodice was tight, it did not have any sleeves to hold it up, and Artemis barely dared to move in case the entire dress slid down her body to the floor.

“I know Penny chose them, but—”

“Yes, you do have to wear it. We all do,” said Bea. “I wouldn’t have chosen it, either, but I’ve come around now.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You actually look alright in it, I just look like a meringue.” Artemis took a deep breath. “Hopefully Andre can do something to make it look better.”

But Andre’s response to the sight of Artemis in the dress did nothing to fill her with confidence.

“Oh, dear.” He grimaced as he looked her up and down. “Oh, no.”

“The dress is horrible, isn’t it?” said Artemis. To her surprise, Andre shook his head.

“The dress is lovely, Artemis. It just looks horrible on you.”

“Brilliant. Can you make it look good on me?”

Andre laughed. “Darling, I can do make up. I can do magic. I cannot work miracles.”

He conjured a chair out of mid-air and pushed the now-scowling Artemis down to sit in it in front of the mirror. Confronted with her own face, it was painfully obvious how tired she looked, with her skin the grey-ish yellow of someone quite unwell.

“That’s the colour of the fabric,” Andre informed her, when she pointed this out to him. “It does absolutely nothing for your skin tone. You look even more washed out than poor old Tonks, but I don’t think that had anything to do with her dress.”

Artemis did not reply. Tonks’ skin had been pale and her hair mousey all month, ever since her new not-quite-a-boyfriend had unceremoniously ended things with her, but Artemis didn’t want to be the one to pass on that piece of gossip - especially not if Penny hadn’t already done so. Andre was apparently non-plussed by Artemis’ reticence.

“Still, that’s what a good foundation and blush is for,” he carried on. “And it could be worse. At least you don’t have that tragic fringe anymore.” He sighed. “Honestly, darling, I’m surprised no one guessed it was all going tits up with Davies, what with that cry for help attached to your forehead...”

By the time Andre had finished with Artemis’ hair and make-up, she may have still resembled a meringue, but at least she no longer looked so sickly.

“And are you sure there’s nothing you can do to make the dress look better?” she asked Andre. “Maybe put some sleeves on it, or something?”

“Like I said, darling, the problem isn’t with the dress. And besides, this is what Penny wants, and it is Penny’s special day. Talking of which, the bride asked me to send you to her room once I was done. She has her own idea for a finishing touch for you.”

Artemis wasn’t sure she wanted any more input from Penny on her outfit, but she could hardly say no. She made her way across to Penny’s old bedroom, still decorated the way she remembered it from their teenage years, with gingham curtains and white broderie bedsheets and a small collection of toy horses on one of the bookshelves.

In the middle of it all was Penny herself, dressed in a white dress that skimmed over her body and pooled on the carpet. A silver tiara perched on top of her hair, which was intricately braided back from her face and fell down her back in waves of golden honey. Her eyes were bluer and her cheeks rosier than Artemis had ever seen them before.

“Wow,” said Artemis. “You look…”

She had been about to say ‘pretty’, but that wasn’t right. Penny had always been pretty, but today she looked more than just pretty. Today she looked…

“Beautiful. You look beautiful, Pen.”

Penny smiled, both genuinely and nervously. “You really think so?”

“I know so.”

“And you definitely can’t tell at all?”

Penny looked down at her abdomen, the gentle bulge of which was hidden by the flowing material of the dress. She exhaled as Artemis shook her head, clearly relieved. Artemis stepped towards her.

“Andre said we needed to get our last something from you before we leave.”

“Oh, yes. I’ve had something made for each of you to wear today, and to keep after, if you wanted to. You don’t have to keep it, of course, but I wanted to give you each something. Here.”

Penny sat down on her old bed, and tapped the bedcover next to her. Artemis sat beside her, and Penny summoned a small satin pouch from her dressing table. She handed it to Artemis, who opened it and tipped its contents into the palm of her hand.

The item inside the pouch was a dainty silver bracelet, designed to look like a branch or vine with slim leaves made out of green jewels.

“I know it’s silver, but you can turn it gold after today is finished,” said Penny, as she looped the bracelet around Artemis’ wrist and fastened it. “And the gems are emeralds. I thought that they’d match the green in your eyes, and they’re your birthstone, you know? And the leaves, well… I asked the lady to make them look like rowan leaves. I hope you don’t mind.”

Artemis blinked and shook her head, almost rendered speechless.

“Of course I don’t mind,’ she managed to say. “I… I love it. Thank you, Penny.”

But Penny shook her head. “No, it’s to thank you, silly!”

“For what?”

“For being my bridesmaid, of course.”

“All I had to do was turn up and put on a dress.”

This seemed a bad point in time to mention how much she hated her dress, so Artemis did not mention it. Penny sighed.

“It’s more than that, though,” she said. “You’ve been one of my best friends for years. For half my life, would you believe it? And you still are, even now, even though we… Well, we are rather different, aren’t we?”

This was undeniably true. Artemis nodded. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

“I know that you don’t always understand me, and I know I definitely don’t always understand you, and that we both exasperate one another at times. It would have been easy for us to have grown apart once we left school, and I’m so glad that we haven’t.” Penny’s smile was still strong, but there were tears in her eyes. “I really do love you, you know.”

“I love you too, Pen,” said Artemis. As Penny hugged her, she heard her sniff, and could feel tears stinging her own eyes. “But don’t cry about it. You’ll ruin your make up and then Andre will kill us both.”

“Oh, goodness, you’re right.” Penny broke apart from Artemis and blinked rapidly. “There’s no time for it to be redone, either. We have to go. Would you mind helping with my train on the stairs?”

Artemis frowned as she looked around the room. “Train? What train?”

It turned out Penny was talking about the long material of her dress, which Artemis held up behind her as they made their way down the staircase of the Haywood’s house. In the hallway downstairs, Penny’s parents, sister, Andre, and the other five bridesmaids applauded at the sight of the bride descending the stairs to join them. Penny’s mother had tears in her eyes, there wasn’t even a hint of mockery in Beatrice’s smile, Chiara had a little colour in her usually pale cheeks, and Tonks had managed to inject a strawberry blonde hue into her mousey locks.

At the very bottom of the stairs, there was a narrow mirror, and Artemis caught a glimpse of her own reflection in her periphery as she passed it on her way to join the other bridesmaids, each wearing a slightly different variation of the bracelet Penny had just given her. She couldn’t say that she was any more enamoured with her dress, or that she looked any less like a meringue, but she could at least say that she looked like part of a team, a team that Penny had chosen herself based on years of friendship and fidelity, of shared experiences and shared laughter and shared love. It was a shame that Penny had chosen this dress for them all to wear, of course, but it was Penny’s choice, at the end of the day.

“It’s Penny’s special day,” Artemis muttered to herself, so quietly that no one else would hear her little reminder, before joining the rest of the bridal party to celebrate the happiness of her friend.

#artemis hexley #hogwarts mystery #hphm fic #penny haywood #Bea Haywood #andre egwu #hpff #🍲#wbw

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