The Big Experiment

Lucie hadn't shown any interest in make-up until just after her thirteenth birthday last year. It was unfortunately for her no-one else in her family were willing to indulge her interest. Both her mother and nanna declared her too young and Lucie spent an entire week of her summer grounded for daring to sneak some from her mother's dressing table. That'd utterly ruined plans she and her best friend Meral van der Pol had for that week. It hadn't at all been fair in her opinion since the pair of them didn't get to see each other for all of the school year.

Now though with her third year at Beauxbatons almost over she decided to take matters into her own hands. Fifteen or sixteen, the ages her mother and nanna were disagreeing over as the appropriate one for make-up wearing, being far too far away, she would experiment all on her own. She would buy it in Cheval away from the watchful eye of family rather than spend all her money on sweets or meals within the village. It could easily be hidden within her luggage since packing and unpacking were both seen as her sole responsibility now.

The weekend upon which she was to visit the village couldn't come soon enough and Lucie made sure to have a big breakfast before she went. Her roommate had been good enough to come along and give her advice on what she should or should not buy. Though it had to be admitted that Lucie followed the advice of the shop assistant who was much older and with more experience rather than her contemporary who'd only been wearing make-up for a year or two.

Guilt upon her return to the palace had weighed heavily upon herself and it took an age before she could bring herself to try it. First though she needed somewhere quiet where no-one else was likely to disturb her. That and a hand mirror. One little issue was the where. She didn't do much exploring of the palace and her knowledge was mostly restricted to classrooms, the Great Hall and the kitchens. None of those held much appeal to the fourteen year old.

Eventually she decided she was just going to have to find somewhere in the palace which wasn't any of those places. First place she thought of was the indoor garden not far from the potions classroom. It was a place she'd been planning to visit but had never actually managed to get to. Thus here she was standing near a pegasus statue. It looked rather dirty and Lucie pulled out her wand and tapped it on the nose. "Clean," she said without any expectation of it doing so. After all she didn't know any cleaning spells. And so it hadn't but something else did happen. A staircase in the floor.

Lucie looked at it in wide-eyed wonder. Maybe she would find what she was looking for down there. The third year didn't hesitate any further and began a spiralling trip down the stairs until she found herself in a very dusty room. One with a fire and what looked like parchment as fuel. "Odd," she muttered and shrugged. Well she found what she was looking for even if it was a little dusty.

She sat upon a dusty sofa and put her book bag down on an equally dusty coffee table. There was only one book within its depths. One which taught her how to apply the make-up she'd bought. Lucie was trembling with excitement as she opened up it up to take out both book and all the items she'd bought in Cheval. The lighting in here wasn't the best but it was private. That was what Lucie wanted. Privacy. It was unfortunately short lived as she froze when she heard more footsteps coming down that spiral staircase.

Now that there was snow on the ground, Beauregard simply could no longer skateboard outside. He knew it was a bad idea to skateboard inside the school but figured he'd might be safe if he did his tricks in the indoor garden. After all, it was like the outdoors, but inside and he didn't think there was too high of a risk of breaking anything.

Bo dashed around on pavement between the garden plants. He missed this. Skakeboarding often times helped him clear his mind, despite not being rather good at it. He did a small grind on a stone bench, failing to land back on the board on the ground and instead falling back on his bum. He had caught his fall and watched as his skateboard dashed off without him into a bush. Standing up, he felt his tailbone throb from the fall, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. He ambled to the bush where his board disappeared to but was alarmed when another nearby bush suddenly shook as if a wild animal hiding in it dashed away. Bo rose an eyebrow. He didn't think there were any animals in this garden for it seemed unhealthy to keep any there. He grabbed his skateboard and then cautiously went after where the animal had gone.

He brushed aside some shrubbery and soon found himself in an altogether different room. The room resembled Feu's common room, but was old and faded and rather than Feu's emblem, there was a Pegasus. Bo marveled for a moment before he noticed movement again and remembered why he had came that way in the first place. He jumped, startled by the figure, but then relaxed as he saw familiarity. "Oh, Lucie," He uttered as he released the breath he was holding. She must've been what he heard in the bushes, which gave him the sense that her suspicious behavior meant she didn't want him there in the first place. "What are you doing here of all places?" He inquired, his eyes then dropping to the book before her and a small box of what looked to contain make up. Was this a girl thing? He really didn't know as he found girls incredibly confusing in their ways but privately doing one's make up seemed even more peculiar.

Lucie was at first relieved when she saw the individual in question was Bo. Then embarrassed as it also registered in her brain that he was a boy. Damn. This was as bad as being caught by either of her brothers. That was if she dared to have make-up at home. What did she do now? Her eyes fell down to the items she'd taken out of her bag so far and then back up at him. The truth would have to do. She wasn't smart enough to come up with a convincing lie.

"Well I'm having a make-over session," she said as brightly as she could, "and I didn't want anyone else to see until the look was complete." she returned to pull out the final item. A mirror. "Could you help me with this?" Lucie held up the mirror. "I need my hands free or I'll end up awkwardly looking on the surface of the table." There was still the lighting problem. She glanced down at her wand. Well that might work but there was still the need for free hands. "And do you have your wand with you?" she asked.

Beauregard had only two sisters, of which one vowed to not touch make up for she admired the beauty of being natural and the other being too young to take interest in smearing an assortment of powdered minerals on her face for some sort of cosmetic enhancement. Regardless, he thought makeovers were a thing girls liked to do as a group at sleepovers and yet here Lucie was alone, in the drabbest of places in the school. Her explanation did little to undo his confusion, but before he could ask any questions, he was taken aback by her request.

"I don't really know how..." he started, cautiously, but then fell silence as he accepted the mirror she asked for him to hold. He tried to hold it steady and at a reasonable height so it would not be awkward for Lucie to look into. "Yeah, I have my wand," He answered. Of course he did. He always carried it. "Why?" he inquired. He didn't know too much about makeup application but he was sure it was possible without magic, but then again, girls tended to be unexplainable.

"Oh good. Could you light it please?" With these requests she'd placed upon Bo, Lucie thought she was beginning to sound rather bold. Certainly much bolder than she felt. Applying make-up with nothing but the aid of an instruction book in front of a boy no less was possibly the boldest thing she'd ever done. Not even trying out for Quidditch after only one flying lesson could compare to this.

Thinking of the outcome of that crazy decision she decided she could do this too. Lucie opened up the book to the first page. Nope. It was all boring introduction stuff so she flicked through till she came up to the actual instructions complete with pictures. She smiled at the page with it's moving pictures. So much easier than any she might have gotten at home with their still photos which wouldn't have told you anything without reading the text.

"Oh," she said a little downhearted. "I don't have any foundation." That part didn't sound very good anyway so she skipped the first steps and went straight for the blush. She held up a brush which looked similar to the one in the picture and then at the compact of busher. "Do you think this looks a little too red? I was sure it was just a light rose when I chose it in the shop." She held out the compact to Bo to inspect.

Bo rose an eyebrow at her request, but after a moment, he moved the mirror so that he held it with one hand and with his dominant, fishing his wand out of his pocket and casted a simple lumos charm. He held both objects steady as Lucie uttered something about not having any foundation. He hadn't a clue what she meant. Foundation was the base of a house. Perhaps she meant it metaphorically.

He eyed the rouge as she asked his opinion of it. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, for he didn't know what to say. Half of him just wanted to half-ass an answer, but that would only annoy Lucie, which he didn't want to do since she was his captain. "I really don't know," He hesitantly answered. "I mean, it's hard to tell just in a container," He added, which at least sounded like he was trying to be helpful. "I'd have to see it on skin to be able to tell."

Bo did have a point and Lucie shrugged. "Okay. I'll try it that way." She coated the brush with the blusher and leaned forward so as to have a better view within the mirror. She dusted each cheek lightly with the brush and frowned at her reflection. "I think I look like a clown," she said and sat back. This was not working quite as well as she expected it to. Maybe she should have taken the time to read all the text instead of relying on the pictures.

Lucie shook off that thought and went onto the eyes. She squinted at the page and watched the witch in the photo applying eyeshadow and the next shots using an eye pencil and mascara. Her own eyes watered at the pencil business. "This is harder than I thought," she muttered. She squared her shoulders and reached for the eyeshadow. That was the easy part. Soon it was smeared over her eyelids but it didn't look anywhere near as good as the picture. "Are your arms getting tired?" she asked before reaching for the mascara. There was no way she was going to use any pencil to do that drawing thing she saw in the picture.

Bo watched as Lucie brushed some of the dark pink powder onto her cheeks and bit his lip at the outcome of it. He knew better than to insult her, but the color was simply not flattering on her. "I wouldn't say clown, but I think a lighter shade might look better," He put as gently as possible. She looked like a china doll with how deep a pink she had on her cheeks.

The mirror wasn't exactly heavy, but the weight of it was starting to strain his arm. He rested his elbows on the table and continued with patience as Lucie regarded her book of instructions on make up application. He never thought make up was that complex. She was applying make up to her eyes and he didn't want to say anything, but it didn't look so good. "Oh, uhh, no I'm fine," He answered, as she asked whether or not his arms were getting tired. They were, though. His muscles felt like they were screaming to be relaxed. For some reason he didn't want to show weakness and simply quietly dealt with the pain.