Lost and Found (You Found Me, Book #2)

Chapter 32: The Rough Night

Aurora's POV

When Harry and I returned to the UK the following week, we were torn between happiness and disappointment. Harry had to tell Hermione about the case. She was disappointed as well, of course, but understood we had done our best. The look on she gave us reminded me of all dragon and werewolf tamers' faces; it made my heart ache a little at the sight of it and I wished mentally there was more we could've done. But, despite, putting the case down, my head still thought about it continuously.

On a happier note, by the second week we had come back, Harry and I had told all of our friends about our plans to get married. Mrs. Weasley was so overjoyed and excited when we first told her about it all she could do was hug us and cry, frantically fanning her face, and telling Harry how proud she is of him. There was nearly the same reaction when we told Hagrid, as he burst into tears, giving the two of us a bone crushing hug. "'Arry, I'm so happy for yeh!" he cried, releasing us and rubbing his face. "I can't wait, I jus' can't wait!" he wailed.

Whomever made the decision to label Hagrid as a 'terrifying beast' when I was in school was unmistakably wrong. He hugged Harry again, holding his head and gently ruffling his hair, then he said he'd better get going for there was Hogwarts business he needed to take care. As he walked away, pink umbrella in hand, we could still hear his sniffles.

The months went by and the work got a bit longer every day. But the wedding was getting closer and I'd come to the point where it was all I could think about, filled with a mix of nervous and excited emotions. Nearly two weeks before, I was trying on my dress with Fleur and Hermione and almost started bawling like it was end of the world. It fit in odd places and in other places it didn't. Fleur noticed me biting my lip, trying not to cry at all, and did a simple charm to make the corset top formfitting but not confiding. It was a beautiful dress. That was the second time I had actually put it on. They did my makeup and my hair, and tried multiple hairstyles and eyeshadow colours on me before we all agreed on a combination. Fleur tried all sorts of accessories to go with my veil: pearls, flowers, feathers. I initially ended up deciding on white flowers. I thanked Fleur and Hermione for their help, and doing that for me in general.

Afterwards we went shoe shopping, me needing to buy wedding shoes and them simply wanting to look at what the stores had to offer. There were all sorts of things, ranging all styles from flat to platform. It was evident that I was stressed, so the girls didn't mind taking me to even the more expensive stores and letting me run rampant. At one imparticular, there was a lady with sleek rose gold robes and a large feather sprouting from her head. On display were a pair of , almost identical in colour to her robes, but far more pretty.

"Are you interested in buying these?" She asked, eyeing my clothes and hair that was beginning to stick out in every direction.

"Yes," I answered, pretending I didn't know she was trying to determine my social class.

"Well, these are very expensive. They are 114 gold galleons, no less."

I refrained from letting my jaw drop.

Fleur gently set her hand on my shoulder. "Aurora, are you sure about zis?"

"Nooo, but ... oh, what the hell."

I reached into my bag, sifting through packaged and books. When my hand came to a pouch, I pulled it out and set it on the counter. "Around 500 galleons right there. I'll be here while you count it out. If you take more, just know I work for the Ministry of Magic Interrogation Unit, and it will not slip me by."

The woman gawked at the money bag for a moment. Perhaps she hadn't expected anyone to buy the shoes and kept them to herself as a trophy of sort.

"As you wish," she managed to say.