Ch. 2
"Where is she?" "What happened" "How are we going to tell-" "SOPHIA!" Lord Bonchance stood in the doorway of his daughter's room, clinging to the frame as if it were a life raft. "Where is my daughter!" his voice was ragged and low, with a dangerous edge. No one had heard him use that tone before. Mary, Sophia's maid, stepped forward, head lowered. "Sir, she disappeared in the night… We searched the house-" A broken voice emerged from Henri's lips "Why didn't anyone wake me?" Without waiting for another word, he turned on his heel and strode downstairs, looking particularly insane in his pale blue night robe. He didn't bother to get dressed, but rather went straight to the stable and mounted a random horse bareback. He took off just as a sleepy hostler entered the stable.
Harry and Ron hurried over to the fallen woman and hoisted her up, carrying her over to the couch. "Harry, what are we going to do!" Harry looked hopelessly from the door to the fireplace. We could go to Flourish and Blotts… maybe look for a reversal?" Ron nodded reluctantly. "But they're bound to get suspicious- and I'm sure we broke one law or another." Harry sat down hard on a chair. "Probably more than a few." Inspiration struck. "What about George! He gave us the spell, he can help us reverse it!" Ron considered it, and agreed. "He'll never let us live this one down," he said glumly.
The constable couldn't do anything. The mayor of Paris couldn't do anything. If he had been able, he would have marched over and seen Napoleon himself! Henri would have to do it himself. He was still in a state of shock, even as he entered the sprawling office of Paris' best private investigator. He told the man everything he knew, everything he didn't know, anything that could help. He was glad and slightly surprised he hadn't broken down altogether and wept on this man's Persian rug. The investigator promised to do anything and everything he could- for a price, of course. Henri readily agreed.
Ron apparated to his brothers' joke shop in Diagon Alley, and a few minutes later he was back with a pop! signifying his arrival. "So, what's the deal?" Harry asked nervously. Ron took a deep breath. "He said bring her over… we'll have to take the tube. Damn, I hate muggle transportation." Harry shrugged- he didn't mind it much. "We'll have to wake her ladyship up," he said lightly. Pulling out his wand, he muttered Enervate and Sophia opened up her sapphire eyes. "It was real, eh?" Both Harry and Ron nodded in glum unison. "We're going to see his brother," Harry jerked his head towards Ron. "He might be able to help. But, we're going to have to- well, this'll really freak you out, but it's ok- anyway, try not to faint. Sophia steeled herself for whatever horrors awaited her once she stepped out of this dream-like room. "Wait!" She flung a hand up. The two young men looked at her expectantly. "I- I can't go out there like this. I mean, I shouldn't-" What was she talking about! Two complete- male- strangers had seen her in her nightgown! Sophia may have been a liberal, but proper is proper, and she was never indecent. Ron cocked a fiery eyebrow and rushed off into his room for a minute. He had a pale blue dress, about knee length, on a hanger. "It's Scarlet's," he said by way of explanation. Sophia had never seen anything like it. She merely looked up at him with a puzzled expression. "Where's the rest of it?"
Sitting in the study, a bottle of brandy on the desk, Henri moped. He didn't even bother getting a glass to drown his sorrows- the bottle would do just fine. Having not touched booze in over a decade, the sudden disappearance of his beloved Sophie pushed him toward the liquor cabinet Why him? First God had taken his wife, his love, his friend, and now He had taken away his daughter? Henri made a terribly rude gesture to the ceiling, and hiccupped. Where had everything gone so wrong? His only hope now was the investigator- God had clearly shown the poor man He didn't like him very much- and Henri had returned the favor. Back to his booze…
Tugging on the bottom of the horrifically short dress, Sophia was not in the slightest bit comforted by the two men assuring her it was fine, that a knee length dress was more than decent in this day and age. She had on black boots with a thick heel- also Ron's lover's- and she couldn't stop goggling. Goodness, everything was so strange, so alien, so mystifying; it was much like the year she had spent in India- upon first arrival, everything stupefied her. She loved it there. But this- this was different. Strange things scurried around the crowded streets… everything was loud… whoa! She stepped out off of the strange grey path and was nearly run over by one of the cataclysmic contraptions. "Oh- that would be a 'car'. And don't step out in front of it, if you please- they usually don't stop." Sophia nodded wordlessly in the direction of Ron. Ron! Harry! Oh no! Where were they! A strong hand grabbed her wrist, and before she had a chance to fight back, she was on a less crowded rock-path. "Not much further, Sophia."
A split-second later, it seemed, they were hurrying down stairs. Harry gave a handful of coins to an elderly man in a window randomly set into the wall…The three of them suddenly stood in front of a vast, metal snake… this was too much! "It's a bit like a train… you have those, eh?" Sophia looked puzzled. "A what?" Harry shook his head. "Nah, Ron, trains didn't really come into play until the 1850's." He gave a hearty wink to Sophia. "Tell your father to invest in trains- there gonna be big!" Sophia couldn't help but smile.