Hey guys!

First of all... happy April! Spring is here and I have a new laptop. Second of all I can only apologise for my unscheduled lack of midmonth updates. Unfortunately my Grandad passed suddenly passed away and, as you can imagine, I was rather a mess for a while and the last thing on my mind was updating and writing but I'm back now and here's some updates at long last.

Lots of love,

LSH xx

Finally Belonging Somewhere-Part 90:

Aurora, somehow, looked even smaller as she went into the witness box with Astoria and the two sat down before they were asked to stand and say their names and dates of birth.

"Astoria Catherine Greengrass, born 12th September 1982."

"Aurora Rosalie Malfoy, born 16th March 1984," Aurora said before they were told that they could sit down as they were asked the questions they would be asked. Astoria sat down with Aurora on her lap as she wanted to make sure that Aurora was close to her.

"Miss Greengrass… we shall come to you first. What do you remember of the day at St. Mungo's?" the interrogator asked.

"Well Lord and Lady Malfoy had taken Aurora to a Healer's appointment, one of the numerous ones she had to attend at the start, and they were speaking to the Malfoy Family Healer in private so I took Aurora as instructed to the tearoom," Astoria told the courtroom, "the tearoom was the obvious choice so Aurora and I could just sit and have something to eat and drink and Lord and Lady Malfoy would know where we were."

"Thank you for that Miss Greengrass. So you were just sat there and then please inform the court what happened."

"Suddenly there was someone next to us and I instantly sensed that Aurora was nervous so I went to pull her into my arms. It all happened so fast," Astoria said as she looked around the courtroom, "Aurora was snatched from my arms and she ran off and then I caught sight of the accused, Madame Lestrange, being restrained by the Aurors or the hospital security."

"So you're saying that once Aurora was freed she ran off and hid?"

"That is correct sir. She was scared and had probably realised it was Madame Lestrange who had tried to take her again and she ran off before I could grab her properly."

"Can you confirm that the accused is sat in that chair?"

"That is Madame Lestrange sir," Astoria confirmed before the interrogator turned to Aurora.

"Miss Malfoy…"

"I am not Miss Malfoy. I am Aurora. Please call me Aurora," Aurora said and the interrogator looked and nodded,

"Very well Aurora," he said, "who are those?" he asked as he pointed to her doll and unicorn teddy.

"Arabella and Princess Sparkles," Aurora smiled, "they go everywhere with me," she said and something changed within the interrogator and he softened his tone.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you all as well. Now could you tell me about the day Madame Lestrange tried to take you from Astoria?"

Aurora nodded softly,

"Yes I can. We'd been to St. Mungo's and Healer Jones looked at me and then Astoria and I went to the teashop to have something to eat and drink," she said, "mummy and daddy had stayed with Healer Jones. Astoria and I were sat down and then somebody came up to me."

"And how did they make you feel?"

"They scared me. There was something about them that I didn't like. Astoria grabbed me but the person grabbed me and began to pull me away from Astoria and then I was dropped so I kicked out to get the person away from me," Aurora said, "then I saw Bellatrix being arrested and I ran away and hid."

"Why did you do that?" the interrogator asked.

"Because I was scared and wanted to feel safe. It reminded me of the orphanage," Aurora said.

"The orphanage in which you were taken after you were taken by Bellatrix from the hospital?" A nod from Aurora, "and how did the orphanage treat you?"

"Not very well," Aurora said, "I was pushed down the stairs and bullied. They didn't care about me at all."

The interrogator turned to face the Wizenagomort.

"As you are fully aware the orphanage has now been closed down but, from what has already been discovered, the orphanage had been chosen because the accused had set it up to not care about any of the children and that included Aurora here. Also the fact of the matter is that Aurora has health problems that stem from her treatment at the orphanage," he turned back to Aurora, "one final question Aurora. Could you look at the accused and confirm that it is Bellatrix?"

Aurora nodded before looking over at Bellatrix and then she pointed,

"Yes. That is Bellatrix," she said and then there were no more questions for the girls so they were allowed to leave the stand.

Narcissa moved to let them back in before looking at Lucius as she knew what was about to happen.

"Narcissa Malfoy to the witness stand please." Narcissa looked back, ignoring the screams of shock from Aurora, who was soon being comforted by Lucius and Astoria.

She reached the stand and confirmed her name and then she began to answer questions, her eyes flickering between her sister and her daughter, who was now being held by Astoria. She looked at Aurora as she spoke to her and knew she'd have to do some explaining to do to Aurora afterwards but she focused on answering the questions that she was being asked. She was doing this for Aurora… so she could see that the bad people deserved to be punished.

Once she was allowed to leave the stand there was a break and Narcissa headed back to her family and Astoria before sighing. That had drained her more than she thought it would but all three of them had now given their statements.

"This is going to go on for a while and I think you two should go back to school and wait for us to come and tell you what the verdict is," Narcissa said to Astoria and Aurora as they left the courtroom.

Astoria nodded and kept Aurora close as they headed to a private room. Fudge had agreed the girls could use his fireplace to Floo back to Hogwarts. Narcissa knew it was the best thing to do and watched her daughter go hoping that the next time she saw her daughter she'd have some good news for her.