The Other Black Book 4

Chapter 2 - The Invitation

By the time Aurora got to the dining room, Olivia and Taylor were already there. Aurora said good morning, and received two cheerful good mornings in response.

Aurora sat down to eat the eggs her mother placed on her plate, and helped herself to some sausage, granting a look from Olivia. It was very good, as Olivia's food always was, and the meal passed in silence as they were all too busy eating to make small talk.

Taylor had stood to clear the table of empty plates when the doorbell rang. As he was the one standing, Taylor went to get it, thanked whoever it was, then came back into the house. With amusement on his face, he held up a very stamp-covered envelope and said to Aurora, "Who would've sent this?"

Aurora, who had taken Taylor's job of clearing the table, took the envelope curiously and opened it. It was a letter addressed to Taylor and Olivia.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jackson (That's your name, right?),

We have never been introduced, but I am sure you have heard a great deal from Aurora about my son Ron. As Aurora might have told you, the final of the Quidditch World Cup takes place this Monday night, and my husband, Arthur, has just managed to get prime tickets through his connections at the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

I do hope you will allow us to take Aurora to the match, as this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; Britain hasn't hosted the cup for thirty years, and tickets are extremely hard to come by. We would of course be glad to have Aurora stay for the remainder of the summer holidays, and to see her safely onto the train back to school.

It would be best for Aurora to send us your answer as quickly as possible in the normal way, because the Muggle postman has never delivered to our house, and I am not sure he even knows where it is.

Hoping to see Aurora soon,

Yours sincerely,

Molly Weasley

P.S.

I do hope we've put enough stamps on.

"I guess she put enough stamps on," Aurora said with a light chuckle. "Can I go, please? It'll be a lot of fun!"

"Would we be able to go?" Taylor asked.

"I don't think so," Aurora admitted. "I'm sorry."

"I've talked to Molly a few times," Olivia said. "She's very nice. She'll take care of Aurora. She did the other year after that whole flying car thing, remember?"

Taylor nodded. "I suppose you can tell your friends you can go. And would you want to stay the two weeks?"

Aurora smiled and ran up to her room. She quickly wrote the affirmation on a piece of parchment, and told Cooper to take it to Ron's house.

Aurora found another piece of parchment and wrote a message to Harry on it, asking if he could go to the World Cup, then folded it into a paper airplane. The enchanted parchment began to float, and Aurora sent it flying across the street after checking to make sure Harry's window was open.

She received an answer on the other side of the paper after several minutes.

Yes.