Chapter Thirty Two
The two witches walked side by side through the exquisite reception of the Signora di Segreto hotel, the capacious room was luxuriously decorated with ivory and gilt walls which were embellished with elaborate friezes everywhere you looked, rosso asiago red veined marble columns held up the beautifully painted ceilings and carmine-red rugs ran through the reception and up the wide sweeping staircases, Hermione caught her breath as her eyes roved around her devastatingly gorgeous surroundings.
"If my hotel is even a fraction as beautiful as yours," Hermione whispered, "I will be a very, verrrry happy girl!"
Aurelia led Hermione up two dazzling sets of stairs to the top floor, and along an equally extravagant hallway. Her room was about half way down the third floor corridor and Aurelia opened the door with a gold key card.
Aurelia's room was as beautiful as Hermione had expected it to be, it was decorated sumptuously in Venetian blue and ivory, the soft furnishings were luxurious and inviting. A seating area was placed in front of an open doorway that looked out over Venice, a waterway ran past the rear of the hotel where Aurelia's room overlooked it. Hermione watched as boats and gondola's passed by at a leisurely pace and Aurelia sat at a small cast iron table and chairs on a small balcony above the water. Hermione followed her lead.
"So, what did you want to ask me?" Hermione said, getting straight to the point.
"Well..." Aurelia said, looking a little bashful, "Remember how I told you about entering my new line into the Winter Witch Fashion Show?" Hermione nodded, wondering where this was leading, "Well... that is why I am here. The show is tonight at the Teatro la Fenice, and... well... I am in a spot of bother." Aurelia flashed Hermione a hopeful smile. "It was very difficult for me to find any dependable models on my budget as I am new to the wizard fashion scene, and... erm... it seems I have ended up one model short."
Hermione dropped her head onto the table realizing what Aurelia was about to ask her.
"I don't suppose you could be my model tonight? It would reeeeally help a girl out?" Aurelia asked sweetly with an infuriatingly impossible to resist smile on her face, "Pleeeeeeeeease?"
Hermione looked up at her friend, and rolled her eyes, "Aurelia," she said, "I am a professor of arithmancy. I have absolutely no experience strutting my stuff up and down a bloody runway. I will probably humiliate both of us if I do this for you. You do realize that don't you?!"
"Well, that sounds preferable to being humiliated all by myself," Aurelia laughed, "and besides, I am sure there is time to show you the basics, we have several hours until the show. Wanna get started then?"
Hermione sighed and rose from the table, shaking her head as Aurelia lead her back inside.