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chapter fourteen

A MINOR INCONVENIENCE

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     Emilia had been doing some thinking.

     She knew it was dangerous, the act of sewing thoughts together. But the idea forming in her mind was a decent one, or at least she thought. And, again, she knew it was a little strange and a little out-of-the-blue, but the more she thought about it, the more the idea warmed to her.

     Clothes and shoes and jewellery were all things that she truly loved, even if it was one of those things she didn't think about often. She didn't think much when she found an ugly dress in a charity shop and turned it into a pretty skirt. She didn't really think about it, it was just one of those things that she enjoyed and she found exciting without properly addressing it.

     But now, she wanted to address it. She had been thinking about it a little over the past few days, and she knew that wasn't much time to get anything going or to decide anything massive, but it was a starting point.

     Marisol Salvatore's fashion house closed in 1951, the same day that she died. No one was interested in keeping it going, and at the time, it was under fire for being affiliated with Grindelwald, since Marisol's husband once helped the man. There was also the issue with using actual animal skin and fur, but that wasn't much of an issue at the time. Still isn't really, but the idea of using it freaked Emilia out, personally.

     Maybe she could re-open it? Maybe she could bite the bullet and ask her uncle for some business advice? He's been helping with that other business over the past few years. And, really, Emilia knew enough of it anyway, and it stated it was what it was — a rebirth of a fashion house that was once controversial and disliked, but wasn't anymore — she felt like it could, maybe, eventually, become a little successful?

     She didn't know. But, she liked the thought of it. It felt right. It felt nice.

***

     "I don't think it hurts as much as it normally would, but it's still pretty painful," said Emilia, the spellbook sitting next to her on the floor in the prefect's bathroom. Both her and Sirius weren't supposed to be in there, since neither were prefects in the slightest, but it was either they snuck into this one, or they used Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and, although Emilia figured she must be lovely once you got to know her, Em thought Myrtle was a little bit annoying.

     No, not a little. Very.

     Sirius frowned. "Where's the fun, then?" he asked. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he smiled back at her. "I'm kidding. It doesn't hurt, then? But it's the same as going to one of those muggle places?"

     "And it's free," said Emilia, grinning. "You can turn into a walking Guggenheim without breaking the bank."

     "But, then, isn't it the pain and the money that stops from getting them done?" said Sirius. Again, she looked at him in confusion. The mermaid in the stained-glass window was flipping her hair around, and Emilia could see it in her peripheral vision.

     She sent him a look. A questioning (and slightly suggestive?) look. "You know, if you don't want the tattoo, I'm fine not helping you out with it," said Em. "I bet Carl the Tattooist Biker's going to love you when you're eighteen and legally allowed to get one."

     "I could ask my parents for permission," he said. They both looked at each other, and within a matter of seconds, they both burst into laughter. Sirius put an arm around her as they laughed together, and the side of her head pressed into his shoulder. The mermaid in the window looked a little confused at the boy with messy black hair and the girl with curly blue hair laughing at something that wasn't really that funny.

     Emilia calmed down first, a smile still sitting on her face as she put the spellbook in her lap. "You brought the eyeliner, right—?" She was cut off as he rummaged through his school robes, nonchalantly slipping the eyeliner pen behind her ear. She rolled her eyes at him. "You didn't have to do that."

     "It looks nice, though, oddly," said Sirius. Emilia looked confused. She was confused. "You look like you're about to start designing clothes, or something."

     "Funny you should mention that, actually..." Em let out a laugh as she saw the confusion on his face, and the way he tilted his head. "I'm thinking about re-opening the fashion house my grandma used to run. It closed when she died, and it was slowly dying because of the whole thing with her husband helping Grindelwald, but I think I could bring it back. And if it's successful, then hopefully, some of the profit can go to helping the people Voldemort's already hurt."

     "You're such a—"

     "Hufflepuff?"

     "Oh, we're finishing each other's sentences now?"

     "It's more like you say it almost every conversation. That, and fuck, Salvatore!" Emilia made some wild hand gestures for the last part. He was still smiling at her. She liked it, quite honestly. It felt like a handful of stars were shining at her. "But, um, anyway, the eyeliner isn't permanent, it's just that the spell needs something to turn into the ink to get into your skin, and I figured it was better to use eyeliner than a Sharpie."

     "Better for the skin."

     "And we all know you don't want to ruin your complexion."

     Sirius grinned at Emilia. She rolled her eyes.

     The original design had been drawn on a piece of paper, which had been slotted behind Emilia's ear like the eyeliner, only this time, it fell through her hair within seconds of it being placed. "Could you be a doll and move your sleeve up—?" Em blinked. "Or take your top off, OK, cool."

     "It uncomfortable if it's rolled up at the top," said Sirius. Emilia raised her eyebrows in a questioning manner, putting a hand on his arm to steady it, as she began to draw the tattoo design out.

     "You just want me to see you topless," said Em.

     Sirius gave her a look, to which she rolled her eyes at. "The idea sounds really cool, though, with designing clothes," he told her. A small smile sat on her face. "Although, you might want to be careful with publicly saying you're against him, just in case he goes after you."

     "I'll worry about that once this thing is concrete," said Em. She paused the tracing of the tattoo to change the way she was sitting on the bathroom floor, pushing her hair over her shoulders to keep it out of her face. "I make a lot of my clothes anyway. It's something to do in the holidays, you know? You won't remember, but the dress that I would've worn to Mona's going-away party? I made that a couple of weeks before it."

     "No, I remember," said Sirius. "You looked pretty."

     Em narrowed her eyes at him, a small smirk on her face. "You know," she said. "I can't take any compliments seriously when you're half-naked."

     "Well, pass me my t-shirt, and I'll say it again," he said.

     "But that makes no sense."

     "Yeah, it does."

     "But—" Emilia frowned. She pointed the eyeliner at him. "You'll put the t-shirt back on, you'll say it again, and then you'll have to take it off again for me to finish this off, but by that point, the runes will have smudged on your arm—"

     Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Do you just want to keep it off?"

     "I don't want to draw this again," said Emilia.

     "Right."

     "You're the one that took it off in the first place!"

     A little exasperated, Em continued drawing the last of the runes onto his arm. She couldn't remember what, exactly, they meant, but she did remember that she almost tricked him into getting piece of shit tattooed instead of some fancy set of runes with a fancy meaning.

     "Those aren't even a part of their alphabet?" Sirius had said the day before, as the two sat in the library. Several books on Ancient Runes were spread out on the table, so they could check he wasn't accidentally tattooing something stupid onto his arm.

     Across the table, Em had been laughing. It was the kind of laughter that was silent, but she had tears in her eyes because of it, and she was this close to having her head on the table from leaning forwards as she laughed. Thank Merlin her laughter tended to be quiet, or else they'd have the librarian after their heads.

     "I know that!" she said. "I just drew them so they looked like runes. You almost bought it, though, so who's the real sucker here? The answer's you, Black."

     Sirius shook his head. "You know, I didn't expect you'd be like this," he said. "Not that I mind. Even more attracted to you, Salvatore."

     "What'd you think?" said Em. She quirked an eyebrow. "That I'd be just the shy and friendly Hufflepuff? You do realise my house is the one that stirs the shit, right?"

     "I do now," said Sirius. He leaned back in his chair, and Emilia was close to mentioning something about falling backwards and cracking his head open. "I think if anyone got close to you, they'd be aware."

     Em wiggled her eyebrows, leaning forwards on the desk. "We've gotten close, then?"

     "Well, I like to think I'm close to someone after I've had their tongue in my mouth on a couple occasions—"

     "OK, OK, fair point," she said, and she laughed. "But you made it sound like I'm some sort of mafia boss. Which I'm not. Or am I an heir? Who knows, with Capulet."

     And the two had laughed at that. That felt like a recurring theme in their conversations and jokes; both didn't have the best families, and by this point, it was better to make a joke out of it than to lull on the worry and the pain it caused.

     Emilia finished the last of the runes, and she put the cap back onto the eyeliner. She grinned at him, slipping it behind her ear. "Right, so, it might hurt a little bit, but it goes away quickly," she said. "Like getting your ears pierced? It hurts a bit but it mostly feels weird, you know?"

     "I'll take your word for it," said Sirius. He smirked. "Or should that be our next—?"

     "I'm not piercing your ears," said Emilia. "I'll go with you to a muggle place to get them done over Christmas, but I'm not being given the job of stabbing your ears."

     Sirius shrugged. "It's not like you're giving me a tattoo."

     "It's different!" said Emilia. "There aren't any spells for piercing ears. I wish there were. I fainted when I got mine done."

     His eyes widened in wonder. "You did?"

     "Yeah, and Dinah had to catch me before I hit my head or something," Emilia told him. Her gaze moved down to the spellbook, holding onto her wand. "And, three, two—" She started to utter the incantation, just like she had done with Dinah, and Dinah had with her.

     A couple minutes passed, and his arm was finally covered with the proper ink used for tattooing, sitting firmly in his skin. At some point, he had moved to hold onto her free hand, but she doubted that was because it hurt.

     "There you go."

     "Shit, Salvatore!"

     "That's new!"

     Sirius kept on poking at the runes on his arm. He grinned at her and pulled her into a hug. Very quickly, Em realised that she was now sitting on his legs, and she couldn't help but think how Melanie would react once she found out.

     "I think," said Sirius, moving some of her hair out of her face. "That you should open this fashion house, but also, in the basement, have a tattoo parlour."

     Em laughed. "You know, I'll think about that."

***

     The next morning, Em plucked a heaped plateful of croissants off the Hufflepuff table and went to sit at the table dressed in green, where her friends were waiting for the delivery of croissants.

     "Oh, Em," said Carmilla, as she began to butter the inside of her croissant. "We checked the Owlery before breakfast, and you've gotten a letter."

     Emilia nodded. Melanie handed her the strawberry jam to slather on the croissant's insides. "Oh, I'll check before lessons start—"

     "Shhh," said Melanie. The letter landed on Em's plate, narrowly missing the croissant and the knife coated in sticky jam. "What friends would we be, noticing that you've gotten a letter but not taking it to give to you? Please. Saves you a trip up those steps."

     Dinah nodded, and mumbled, "Yeah, Carm almost broke her leg."

     "I think I broke my butt, though," said Carmilla. "Can you break your butt?"

     "You're the one that wants to be a doctor," said Melanie. She smirked at her. "And, anyway, good thing there's still time until Christmas. Jonathan would be a little upset if you had broken your—"

     "Shut the fuck up!" said Carmilla. She moved her knife with a little too much force, and a blob of butter landed on Melanie's nose. Both started to laugh.

     Emilia opened the letter, a mouthful of strawberry jam and croissant in her mouth as she read.

     Emilia Elodie,

     Would it be possible for us to meet your next Hogsmeade trip? It's incredibly important that I tell you in person, and as soon as possible. Please let me know when your next Hogsmeade trip is.

     Your Uncle Capulet

     "Oh, shit." 

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ok i'm very aware that em is a little similar to sofia's character in descendants but tbh it's uncommon for people to make characters interested in fashion? which confuses me profoundly because have you seen some of the stuff on the runways omfg but yeah like, i thought the aesthetic of foetus!em sewing herself pretty dresses and the whole idea of taking her grandma's company and making it something good felt nice + something em would do

(but you read the preface so lol it won't)

i hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you thought! :)

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