101 Beauty Spells for the Modern Witch (OPEN)

Victoria was sitting in her dorm room, reading through what was probably the stupidest book ever written titled '101 beauty spells for the modern witch'. Even reading the tittle made her cringe. She was beyond embarrassed when she had to pick up the book from Flourish and Blotts, hiding it in her bag immediately afterwards. Thankfully, her roommate wasn't here or she would have a field day with this. Normally Victoria wasn't interested in beauty spells at all. She would scoff and chuckle at the group of girls that hovered over similar books and magazines, trying out every single spell. She vowed she would never be one of those girls - yet here she was. Reading a stupid book with an equally stupid tittle. 

She skipped through the endless pages about skin care, semi-permanent nail coloring and eye shadows until she came to the chapter about hair. It might seem silly, but all she was interested in was getting some highlights in her hair. Lately, she was under the crazy impression that her hair was too dark or at least too boring. It was just always the same! She wanted to change it somehow, but dyeing it to blonde or red seemed too radical. Besides, she would be terrible at being a blonde a no better at being a redhead. So naturally, Victoria decided for the next best thing - highlights. I mean how hard can they be? It's just a few strands of a light brown color. It should be easy really, simple.

The brunette, or soon to be brunette with highlights, stared at the spell and read it over the third time. It seemed simple and straight forward, with an easy incantation. I mean this stuff was written for idiots, right? After a few deep breaths, Victoria took her wand, followed the instructions carefully and read the incantation out loud. A tingling sensation rushed through her hair until it was quickly gone in a matter of seconds. The Ravenclaw grinned, knowing that she spell worked. She grabbed her pocket mirror and almost dropped it after seeing her hair for the first time. It was purple. BLOODY PURPLE! All of it. Victoria screamed as she examined every strand of her hair only to find that it was all colored in the same bright lavender color. Like a color you could find on a soap, her head looked like a soap!

She rushed out of her room and headed towards the girl's lavatory where she could examine the full extent of the damage done on a large mirror. Before she could enter the lavatory, Victoria heard the giggling of familiar voices. Damn it. She couldn't enter now and completely embarrass herself. Without much though, she opted for the boy's lavatory which seemed empty. Running towards the mirror, she stopped in shock when she family saw her reflection. Long locks of purple hair came down Victoria's neck. It was as if she was looking back at a stranger. She sighed, not knowing how to fix what she has done.

Normally, Ollie wouldn't complain about using the lavatories, but today he did. He had been reading a book, a muggle fiction book to be exact, and it was so unbelievably hood that Ollie even put aside his restroom breaks in order to figure out what happened in the next few chapters. Well, a chapter turned into two, and two turned into four, and before he knew it Ollie was already starting the sequel. His bladder noticed, unlike him, that he'd been drinking his usual amount of water - four glasses - as he read and it became obvious that Ollie couldn't stand it any longer. Like any other normal human, Ollie fought the urge to go until he finished that one chapter he was in the middle of. It was just getting good! The kids were barely escaping! He had to see them walk away unharmed! Truthfully, he couldn't stand it any longer so he skimmed through the last few pages of the chapter and read only the dialogue, which he found rather amusing and only made him need the restroom faster.

But the lavatories were so far away! Ollie left his book on top of his bed and ran out of the kitchens, into the Great Hall, and into the hallways. Gosh, who knew peeing was such a necessity! He ran as fast as he could, trying not to trip on the way, and wondered why there was only one place to pee in the whole castle. "A castle so big must have more than one restroom!" he thought out loud as he ran, his cheeks turning pink with the exercise and his bladder yelling at him to run faster. Finally, he arrived at the lavatories after what seemed like sixty painful years, but crossed paths with some giggly girls at the entrance. Apparently, they found his face funny or something of the sort because when he ran up they giggled and whispered stuff to each other. No matter, Ollie thought, as the only girl whose laugh actually mattered was probably in her Common Room - reading or getting smarter. Ollie finally walked up to one of the stalls and gosh, it felt so good to pee! It was like a little piece of heaven for his bladder. Finishing up, he heard someone walk in but paid no attention, he had to go back and finish his book or he was never going to figure out the rest of the story! And he certainly couldn't go around investigating the ending, what a spoiler!

As Ollie walked out of the stall, he went over to wash his wands with the nice-smelling soap and finally realized there was someone relatively close to him, to his left to be exact. Turning his blue eyes to look at the stranger, Ollie realized it was no stranger at all. Rather, the girl wasn't but the hair certainly was. Victoria stood in front of the mirror, a shocked expression on her face, as a waterfall of purple strands fell around her. Ollie's blue eyes widened, "Whoa." he gasped. He normally thought Victoria's hair was so nice, all brown and chocolate-like, but this shade of purple reminded him of stars and galaxies and planets he'd always dreamed of conquering. "Sick!" He said, grinning. "When'd you do that? It looks awesome!" he complimented her, drying his hands with a paper towel and walking over to her to examine her new look more closely.

The no longer brunette continued to stare at her hair in desperation. She ran her fingers through it only to make sure that the purple hair was real - it was. She put a small strand of her hair in the sink and poured water on top of it just to make sure that the color was permanent - it was. Victoria held her breath and tried to count to ten, or do anything really that would stop her from screaming at the top of her lugs. Stupid book! Stupid spell! Her thoughts, that very much resembled a train wreck, were interrupted by the sound of someone flushing the water. 'Damn it', Victoria though as she started panicking. She couldn't let anyone see her like this! Not while she had this thing on her head. She would call it hair but really whose hair was purple! Purple?! And if they told anyone she would so quickly be the joke of the whole school.

She turned her body to face the stranger that could potentially ruin her life as she knew it, only to see a Hufflepuff boy walking up to wash his hands. And not just any Hufflepuff boy - it was Ollie. Victoria sighed in relief as her heart rate started to slow down. Finally she could breathe again. She was so happy to see him right now that all she wanted was to give him a hug. But obviously that would make her look like a creep, so she quickly gave up on the idea. "Sick? You are right! I do look sick! I look like a giant soap!", she frowned and returned her gaze to the mirror. The color wasn't necessarily all that bad. I mean it would probably look lovely on a shirt or a dress. It's just that it was on her hair. All over her hair.

"Oh really? You think it looks nice?", Victoria asked turning to Ollie for comfort. She hadn't realized that he had meant it as a compliment. "You are probably just saying that to be nice. It didn't mean it to be purple. I am not crazy! I just... I just wanted some highlights. Some light brown highlights and instead I got this", she said angrily pointing at her hair. Pulling out the stupid book out of her bag, Victoria found the page of the spell that she used and examined it carefully once more. She did everything right, everything! Followed every step. How could such a disaster happen. This was supposed to be a book for the average teenage witch! Which basically meant it was supposed to be easy, idiot proof. But apparently not.

"Look. I used this book. Said the incantation and now it's purple! How do I get rid of it. I mean it doesn't say anything about getting color off your hair", said Victoria handing him the '101 Beauty spells for the modern witch' book, a bit embarrassed to even have it in her possession. "I know it's a silly book. I just wanted - I don't know what I wanted. Do I look really bad? You can be honest with me, really. I won't mind", she encouraged him to be completely honest. Because the worst thing she could do was go around looking like a clown without anyone actually telling her that she looked like one.

Ollie raised an eyebrow in confusion, "No, I mean it looks great! Not sick as in you look sick!" he tried to apologize for his terrible choice of words, but failed to keep a serious face as Victoria compared herself to soap. Soap! Out of all things! Forcing back a smile, he chose his next words more carefully, "Nah. You look like a space goddess or something of that sort. Soap is too boring." And really, she didn't look bad at all. He really wanted her to know he meant it, but he was trying not to be creepy, so it was best to keep his mouth shut before something ridiculous came out of it. She seemed to realize it was in fact a compliment, though, because then she accused him of just being 'nice'. Shaking his head, he let her win this small battle. He'd have lots of time to prove her wrong, because it looked like the hair color was staying for quite a while.

"Purple's a great color, though!" He exclaimed, watching as she pulled out a book from her bag and read it to herself. He knew part of the name, because he's seen other girls in his Common Room using it before, and he couldn't believe Victoria, out of all the girls, would ever go to such a book. He chuckled as she handed him the book, "But why? I mean, you don't need this." Girls were so weird. They were constantly trying to make themselves pretty when they really were pretty already. Some more than others, of course, but Oliver still had to meet an ugly girl. Ollie wasn't sure how, but he could tell she was embarrassed to even show the book to him, and it made him feel great to know that she trusted him so much. It actually brought a smile to his lips, just as she asked for his honest opinion.

"Honestly?" He repeated. "I already told you. It looks amazing. It's like, a whole universe in your hair! Stars and nebulas and magic!" he told her, because that was his first thought when he'd seen her awesome new hair. "If you wanted highlights, why not just ask a professor to do it for you? Like, professor Henley. She's a girl and she's pretty." Well, it was true Lady professors surely knew about those things, specially the good looking ones. Reading over the incantation and the rest of the information on the spell, Ollie concluded that there was in fact no counter spell provided. "If it makes you feel that bad to have purple hair, why don't you dye mine a funky color as well?" He suggested, handing the book back to her. "That way we can both go looking for a professor for a remedy and not all the laughs will be directed towards you." He still couldn't believe Victoria wanted to be "pretty". She was clearly so much more than that! Pretty was too dull for her. "Though, I honestly doubt anyone will laugh." He concluded, because it really - honestly - wasn't that bad. Although, his crush on Victoria might have some bias in his answer, but he wasn't going to tell her that...

Staring back intensely at her own reflection, Victoria forgot to listen to the Hufflepuff boy next to her. "What? A space goddess?", she asked with a chuckle, trying to imagine what a space goddess would look like. Well, she wouldn't be terrifyingly ugly that's for sure. Or something to laugh at either. Did that mean that her hair looked... okay? She wasn't even fishing for the word pretty but would rather happily settle for just fine. "Yeah I guess. More for a shirt than my hair", she said shrugging her shoulders when Ollie tried to convince her that purple was in fact a great color. Victoria pulled up her hair with both hands and tried to imagine it in a pony tail or a bun, hoping that would make her change of color less obvious. But nope, even in a bun it still looked very...well purple. She sighed and let her hair loose, giving up on fixing the problem any time soon. She would just have to settle with looking like space exploded in her hair. But, was that really a bad thing?

Watching Ollie stare at that stupid and useless book suddenly made her feel even more self conscious. She wasn't the type of girl to obsess about her appearance. Hell she couldn't even count the number of times she went to class in sweats and in a horrible looking pair of boots. Not to mention her favorite sweater to wear during the holidays, which just looked like Christmas puked all over it after a bad hangover. Most of the time Victoria didn't care. But lately, the opposite seemed to be the case. "I don't know. It's just a stupid book. And it doesn't even work right!! But all of my friends were using it and singing it's praises, so I thought why not. And I didn't even want anything dramatic. Just a couple of highlights in my hair. I know this sounds silly", she said with a sign, imagining how all of this must seem insane to Ollie. At least this taught her an important lesson - that her hair was just fine the way it was.

The Ravenclaw smiled as Ollie continued to compliment her hair. And it seemed that he had truly meant it as well. She felt so touched by his kindness and being an emotional wreck from the shock of her purple hair forced her eyes to water. "Thank you, thank you!", she said leaping into Ollie's arms and hugging him tightly. He was the only thing stopping her from completely breaking down at this moment. If it wasn't for him, she would probably be balling her eyes out already. "No, you don't have to do that. I think one person with crazy hair is enough", Victoria said laughing as she pulled away from him. She couldn't understand how could Ollie be so nice to her. Any sane person would at least laugh at her misfortune. "Not unless you want to dye your hair purple as well. We can be the funky hair couple", she joked laughing, as it sounded more like a superhero due than anything else. People might think they were insane, but oh well. "But really...why are you so nice to me Ollie?", she asked with a grateful smile on her lips.

"Space goddesses are always pretty rad, so don't worry about it!" He encouraged, "Besides, purple is a great color regardless of where it is. That's what makes it great!" He watched as she pulled her hair up, and though he didn't know much about girls, he imagined she was figuring out how to make it look less weird and more pretty. Which was pretty stupid, in his opinion. "It is a stupid book, but that doesn't really make you stupid, so don't dwell on it to much, okay?" he told her, because the last thing he wanted for her to have a low self esteem, or anything of the sorts. He didn't really understand, he just wanted her to be happy with her hair and if he had to keep telling her how awesome it looked, then he would. And then she touched him. Correction: She hugged him, but it was pretty much the same thing. Ollie felt uncomfortable, maybe a bit too comfortable that it actually made him feel uncomfortable. "Uh." he hugged her back, quickly, before making sure the hug wasn't going to last very long.

Oliver's relief was probably noticeable in his face, because he really was glad he wasn't going to be victim to Victoria's hair dyeing spells. It was one thing to be Victoria and look perfect with colored hair, and another completely different to be Oliver and look like a psycho with neon green hair. He'd do it for her sake, of course, but not on his own. "Yeah...the funky hair couple..." Oliver repeated, almost too awkward with the phrasing. Did she even realize what she did to him? "I might, but maybe I'll dye mine green." He shrugged with a small laugh, because he knew that he wasn't that weird. Then his laugh died out and was replaced with a serious look on his face. How to explain this? "I like you." He shrugged again, because that made it look more casual and not too intense of a confession. He really did like her, though. And her older brother was there was a witness. He's put himself through so much embarrassment just to ask for permission to ask Victoria out on a date, which he'd been planning for a while now, just hadn't had enough guts to actually carry out his plan.

Staring at the book that Ollie was holding in his hands, Victoria realized that he was right. Not only was it a stupid book, but it was useless one as well. She didn't need it at all! No sane girl did. Even the silly tittle seemed to be mocking her. What would poor Rowena say if she knew that one of her students was reading that. She would probably banish her from Ravenclaw, for a good reason too. "No, I won't dwell on it. In fact, I am going to get rid off it. Right now", she said with a determined expression on her face. Victoria grabbed the book out of Ollie's hands and pondered its destruction. So many fun options to choose from! She could burn it, but the other students might smell the smoke coming from the Boy's Lavatory. And she wasn't exactly supposed to be here. Or she could shrunk it and flush it down the toilet. But ah that sounded boring and just not cool enough. She could make it explode! But again... the loud noise is the problem. Until she figured out the perfect solution.

"Come! You will love this", she said with a grin on her face when the idea was finally set. She pulled Ollie, and the book with him, towards the two large windows that were opposite the sinks. Opening one of them, Victoria came close and leaned over to see how high up they were. High enough, she determined. This way she could have her fun explosion without involving herself in the incident. It was perfect! Turning to Ollie, she gave him an encouraging smile before proceeding with her plan. People sometimes thought that Victoria was a bit strange, but she never understood why that was. Anyway, she stood at the edge of the window and catapulted the book high up in the air. It flew upwards at a sharp angle until, by the laws of gravity, it started to drop. First slowly and then a lot faster as it picked up speed. Victoria waited for the perfect moment until she took out her wand, aimed it at her target and yelled "Expulso!" Thankfully, the curse hit the book perfectly and it was blasted into dust and tiny pieces of parchment that slowly floated downwards.

"Well. That made me feel better. And so did you too Ollie. Thank you, really", she repeated her gratitude. She didn't know that many, if any at all, guys that would be as understanding and patient as Ollie was to her. Most would just look at it as a stupid thing girls did or tell her to suck it up. But not Ollie. "It's alright! You don't need to dye your hair green. I think we are the funky couple even without the crazy hair", she said laughing, although she was touched that he had offered to dye his as well as a sign of support. But Victoria liked his hair as is, it would be a pity to changed it. His next words made her smile which quickly turned into a grin. "Oh Ollie, I like you too! Of course I do! You are like the best friend ever", the Ravenclaw said with a sweet smile, truly meaning what she had said. Who better could she wish for a perfect friend than Ollie?

READ:

Ollie watched as Victoria contemplated something unknown to him. Maybe she was thinking of what he had said, about her not needing a silly book like that. And how could she need it anyway? She was so beautiful! Oliver would have said so, he would have told he he had never seen any girl with more beautiful eyes, or a brighter smile than her, but that would easily make things awkward and that was not what he wanted. He chose to keep those thoughts to himself. A grin appeared in his face as Victoria looked up at him, determined to get rid of the book. She grabbed the book from his hands, and Ollie thought she was going to burn it but she just held it. Raising an eyebrow, he watched her think.

Next thing he knew, she was pulling him towards the windows. He never got theeaning of such massive windows in the Boys' Lavatories. Out of all places, they had to put those exact windows in the place where the guys peed. He smiled when she turned to him, ready for whatever it was that she was planning to do with the book. He stood beside her, watching her throw the book up in the airair and making it explode. As it did, Ollie laughed at the way such a terrible book ended. "Yes!" he high fived her, a grin spreading across his face. "Great aim, by the way." Was there anything she couldn't do?

"I'm glad." he smiled as she told him the explosion as well as he had made her feel better. That was pretty much the reason he even lived for now. Actually, that was a bit dramatic but he did enjoy making her happy. "I was kidding, I love my hair the color it is." he joked, though he did like his hair. Really, OliverOliver only had a self-esteem issue when Hunter VanDerberg was around. Other than that, he was the only teenager who was happy with his body and seld-image. And then there was a terrible pain in his chest as Victoria spoke again. The beet friend ever. Had he just....did she just....friendzone him? It was as if he had fallen into the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland, and his smile suddenly disappeared. He wasn't even sure why he felt like those words were worse than they actually were. What could be better than being Victoria's best friend?

Actually, there was something better. And Ollie wasn't it. Stuttering, something he had never done before, Ollie struggled to find something to say. For a second, he just stood there, seeing her smile so genuinely that it was physically painful to just stay there. "I have to go." he muttered, unsure if Victoria had heard him, and hurried off to the Common Room. Spending the rest of the day with his friends was sure to keep his mind from coming back to what had just happened.