but she was cut off when the other woman started shaking her head.

"Don't," she said sharply. "I'm going to mess it up. I'll spill my drink on him, he'll hate how I've done my hair, the restaurant will be too cold, he'll have a problem with me being Welsh…"

"What?" Hermione laughed, as Gwen checked her reflection again. "Why on Earth would he have a problem with you being Welsh?"

"I don't know," muttered Gwen. She patted her hair down and rummaging around in her handbag as she spoke. "My accent will annoy him halfway through the starter or something. There's no way that I'm ordering the lamb!"

Hermione chuckled incredulously, but stopped when Gwen turned to her, brandishing her lipstick. "It isn't funny. You English girls never have to thinkcausing Gwen to shake her head. "You should have seen me when I first realised he had asked me out on Halloween. I seriously thought I'd have to wear a costume."

As Gwen gradually became more like her bubbly self and not a nervous wreck, Hermione paid less and less attention. She looked at the cubicle behind her in the mirror as something Gwen has said had started a memory playing in her head - a memory that had taken place in a bathroom a very long time ago.

The rest of Gwen's ramblings became nothing more than static in the background, Hermione simply nodded and smiled until Gwen left the bathroom in a considerably better state than she had probably entered it in. Finally alone, Hermione looked into the