Oh Hex No

Serena had commissioned her dress for the Mondhaven solstice party two months before the holiday, and she decided she could look for a suit for Erik when she went to pick up the dress. She could pick something and put it on hold so he could see it beforehand, like he’d insisted. The seamstress was a tiny old woman with fluffy silver hair and big glasses.

“Ah, Miss Bellwood,” she said, pushing said glasses up her nose when Serena entered the shop. “I have your dress ready in the back. Let me fetch it for you.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Moony.”

Serena wandered over to the counter to flip through the books with design sketches and fabric samples. Mrs. Moony came bustling back out, a dress bag in her hands. She opened the bag to show Serena the gown, asking if it was satisfactory.

“You know it is,” Serena said with a light laugh. “Your work is always beyond reproach.”

“Aren’t you a sweet thing.”

“I actually need to commission something else from you. I’m sorry it’s so last minute, but I need a suit. A friend is joining me at the party and he needs something to wear.”

“Ohh, you have a date this year?” Mrs. Moony adjusted her glasses and looked at Serena with interest.

“Oh, it’s not a date,” Serena replied, going pink. “He’s a friend.”

“Hm. Well when this ‘friend’ sees you in this dress, he’ll become a date,” Mrs. Moony told her.

“Um. Well, anyway. He wants something simple, but I said I’d let him see it before I buy. I was thinking maybe this style here, and maybe this navy fabric? Do you think you could put it together and then I can bring him in so you can make the necessary adjustments? I’ll pay extra for a rush order.”

Mrs. Moony looked at the fabric and suit design Serena had chosen and nodded approvingly. “You have good taste. I can make that for you no problem. Come back tomorrow with your friend, and I’ll check his measurements to get it just right.”

“Thank you.”

Serena paid for her dress and carried it back to her dorm, hanging it up neatly in the closet. She felt a nervous little flutter at the idea of going to the party with Erik wearing it, but she tried to shake it off. She wished people would stop assuming that she and Erik were some kind of couple, because she was trying to keep it a secret that she got butterflies whenever she saw him. Eventually all her blushing was bound to give her away, and she didn’t want to make Erik feel weird. She didn’t figure a frilly, spoiled princess like her was remotely his type, but at least she could enjoy their lessons together while they lasted.

She headed out to his apartment, intercepted by a cheerful Bea.

“You were gone for sooo long,” Bea complained.

“It was a week,” Serena replied, knocking on Erik’s door. “And I got you presents.”

Bea brightened as Serena gave her some fancy chocolates and a stuffed bear with a velvet bow around its neck. Erik had barely gotten the door open before Serena pushed inside.

“Tomorrow we’re skipping the lesson so I can take you to see your suit,” she said. “So we better get right to it today.”

“You’re still sure you want me to go with you to this party?” Erik asked, then held his hands up in surrender when she gave him a stern look.

“You’re going,” she said. “I got my dress and picked your suit and everything. It’s great. It’s gold and embroidered with flowers.”

He gave her an unamused look and her deadpan facade cracked. She laughed and shoved his arm.

“I’m kidding. I promise, you’ll like it.”

He still seemed a little wary as she dragged him off to Mrs. Moony the next afternoon. She was standing behind on the desk on a tiny stool, working on some bookkeeping when they came in.

“So this is your friend you’re going to the party with, is it?”

“Yes, this is Erik.”

Mrs. Moony glanced between them for a moment, her gaze seeming particularly probing behind her thick glasses. She made a faint “hmph” sound.

“Well come on back then, young man. I’ll get the suit tailored and then you two will be all set.”

Erik reluctantly followed her back and returned ten minutes later clutching the suit Serena had picked out.

“Well, enjoy the party, you two,” Mrs. Moony said as Serena gave her the money for the suit. “Try to have too much fun.”

“She’s a little intimidating for being four feet tall,” Erik remarked after they left and Serena laughed.

“She’s been a highly sought after seamstress for years. She knows she’s the best. She uses magic of course, to help make the clothes. But there’s just a certain flair in her clothes that other magical clothes makers just can’t seem to match. The party is tomorrow evening, so you can meet me at my room and we’ll walk over together. I’m on the top floor of this building.”

“Am I even allowed to go in there?”

“There aren’t rules about boys and girls going into each other’s dorms,” Serena smirked. “Of course you can come in.”

“Your roommate won’t mind me showing up?”

“I don’t have a roommate,” Serena said, suddenly a little embarrassed. “I have a private dorm to myself. Just come over around seven.”

Serena started getting ready a little early the next day, so she’d be ready when Erik got there. She waved her wand over her head and her hair pinned itself into a chignon with a few wispy curls framing her face. She put in a jeweled clip her mother had given her, and then pulled out the earrings Erik had given her. She felt a little swoony again and tried to push the butterflies away as she put the earrings on. Then she did her makeup and took her dress and shoes out of the closet.

The dress was a soft rosy pink, with a skirt made of swishy silk and a rather dramatic slit up the left side. The bodice was sleeveless with a sweetheart neckline and was crushed velvet in the same shade as the skirt, with tiny crystals stitched into it. She put on a pair of pearlescent heels and was just slipping a long coat on over her dress when there was a knock on her door. She opened it to find a nervous Erik. He had a coat on too and his hands were stuffed in the pockets.

Serena pulled them free. “Don’t look so terrified. It’s just a party. I want to see how the suit turned out.”

He sighed and shrugged out of the coat, standing there self-consciously.

“I look dumb, don’t I?”

“You definitely do not look dumb,” Serena said. “You just need one more thing.”

She turned to her vanity and rummaged in her jewelry box, pulling free a pair of gold cufflinks and helping Erik put them on.

“Why do you have cufflinks?” he asked.

“They were my dad’s,” Serena explained. “I have a few things of his that I always bring to school with me.”

“Serena, I can’t take these.”

“Of course you can. They look perfect and he would’ve been happy to let you wear them. Come on, let’s go.”

They crossed the snowy grounds to the ballroom, and once they were inside someone came to whisk their coats away. Serena smoothed her dress and realized Erik was looking at her. She flushed slightly.

“I know it probably seems a little gaudy,” she said, gesturing to the dress almost apologetically.

“No, it’s nice. You look grice.”

Serena cocked her head and he grimaced.

“I was going to say nice and then I was going to say great.”

“Oh.” Serena laughed softly. “Thank you.”

They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, their faces red. Then Serena shook herself and smiled.

“Is the suit as non-flashy as you’d hoped for?”

“I should be virtually invisible.”

“I very much doubt it,” Serena said. “It may not be a flashy suit but you look very handsome.”

He seemed flustered at the compliment so she steered him into the party. She spotted Meldry and a few of her snooty friends, and they had clearly spotted her and Erik too. Serena ignored them, making polite small talk with professors and alumni who came over to chat with her. She’d survived half an hour of chatter before she got a break, and she glanced over and smiled when she saw how nervous Erik was.

“You need to relax,” she said.

“I just feel like everyone is thinking I don’t belong here,” he mumbled. Serena faced him and straightened his jacket.

“It doesn’t matter what they think,” she said. “You do belong. You’re better at magic than half the people here.”

The party finally started getting into full swing once all the guests had trickled in and collected flutes of champagne. Enchanted instruments played themselves and some of the professors put on a magical indoor fireworks show. Candles inside glass holders floated around the room, casting everything in a sort of soft, jewel-colored light. Through the giant windows they could see that it had started snowing outside.

Serena drifted over to the window and she and Erik talked while they watched the snow; enough people had gotten caught up in drinking and doing magic tricks that she wasn’t being constantly accosted with boring small talk. After a while Erik offered to get them something to drink, and as soon as he was gone Serena was annoyed to find Meldry and a few other people approaching her.

“Evening, Serena,” Meldry said with fake sweetness.

“You’ve never brought a date to one of these parties before,” Ambrose Harrison added. “You finally have one, and you pick that guy?”

Meldry and her friends smirked and Serena rolled her eyes.

“You’re just mad because you’ve tried to get me to come with you for three years, Ambrose,” Serena said. Ambrose made a sour face but Meldry was studying Serena’s outfit.

“Not surprising, judging by those cheap earrings,” Meldry scoffed.

“Ah, so that’s the explanation,” Ambrose said. “Our uptight Princess Bellwood wanted to try slumming it.”

Meldry snickered and Serena was seriously considering setting all their underwear on fire when Erik came back, looking a little uncertain because of the extra people.

“Uh, I grabbed you this champagne-“

Serena swept the glass out of his hand and promptly threw it into Ambrose’s face. He spluttered and flailed back, his carefully groomed hair now a sticky mess. Meldry squeaked in alarm and tried to hop out of the way of the weaponized champagne, but Serena snatched the other glass Erik was holding and threw that one at Ambrose too, with such force that it splashed Meldry too. Erik stood there with wide eyes as Meldry snarled a curse word at Serena and hurried away with her friends in tow to fix her hair.

“You might want to go freshen up, Ambrose,” Serena said stiffly. He glared fiercely at her and then skunk out. A few people had noticed the incident and were whispering and giggling to each other.

“Do you not like champagne?” Erik asked after a moment.

“I like champagne just fine,” Serena replied calmly. “In fact, I have an idea. Come on.”

She marched over to the refreshments table, a bewildered Erik following her. Serena grabbed a full bottle of shimmering pink champagne and walked right out of the ballroom with it.

“Did I miss something?” Erik asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Serena said. “I just have a low capacity for hanging out with the other prissy snobs.”

“You’re not like that,” Erik frowned, ducking when Serena wrestled the cork out of the champagne and it almost smacked him.

“I got you in trouble the first time we met,” she pointed out, sipping champagne from the bottle.

“It wasn’t on purpose. Besides, Jorgensen hates me.”

“He’s the worst. Here, have a drink.”

He cracked a smile and accepted the bottle. There was a garden and several greenhouses on the school grounds, and the flowers were enchanted to survive the winter. They were currently strung with lights for the holiday festivities and there was a snow-free path so they wandered leisurely through them while they drank the fancy champagne. Serena took off her heels and carried them while they passed the bottle back and forth, making jokes about Jorgensen and some of the other professors.

Serena laughed so hard at one of Erik’s impressions that she almost fell and he had to catch her and put her back on her feet.

“Maybe you should sit down,” he said.

“We can go back to my room, the dorm building is right there.”

Serena ran across the grass as fast as she could since only the garden paths were clear of snow and her feet were almost numb by the time they got to her room. She shivered and Erik used a spell to light the small fireplace. She forgot she was cold and grinned.

“Look at you with the confident casting,” she laughed. “I told you you just needed to stop being so unsure of yourself.”

They sat in front of the fire and Serena started getting feeling back in her feet. The champagne helped too.

“You shouldn’t let people make you feel like you’re less than them,” she said. “You’re smart, and once you graduate you’ll probably do greater things than anyone else in our class.”

His ears turned red. “That’s the champagne talking.”

“No it’s not,” Serena insisted, pushing some loose strands of hair behind her ears. “I barely even drank any.”

“But you’re a lightweight.”

“Am not,” she said, offended. She tried to shove his shoulder and almost toppled into his lap. He held her up and looked like he was trying not to laugh.

“You’re wearing the earrings,” he said, his expression turning surprised.

“Well yeah, you gave them to me.”

“They’re not as fancy as other things you own,” he said.

Serena shook her head slightly. “But I like these. You got them for me so they’re special.”

“They are?”

Serena just meant to say that it was sweet that he’d thought of her when he bought them, but instead she leaned up and kissed him. He went so still it was like he’d been frozen and the crackle of the fire snapped her out of her temporary insanity. She flinched away from him and scrambled clumsily to her feet.

“Sorry,” she squeaked, her face bright red. “It’s getting late, I should probably go.”

“But this is your room,” Erik said as she bolted for the door.

“Yep. Good night.” She ran out into the hall and closed the door behind her.