The death of summer was heralded with a shower of gold.

It was peculiar to think he’d never been to the Cole estate after all this time. For years he’d not thought it peculiar, thought the distance between his friends in general and with him in particular had been perfectly normal, but then his life had taken a turn both downright bizarre and inherently more normal.

‘We should do this more often.’

Even though there was hardly anyone in the office, even though he knew the Minister couldn't be doing anything that couldn't be interrupted, even though it was a late night and he was working at his behest, Tobias still knocked and waited before entering Kingsley Shacklebolt's office.

Sweeney fell like a sack of potatoes when the red sparks of the Stun hit him in the chest and he almost landed on top of Tobias.

‘We’re back to square one,’ Katie wailed, burying her face in her arms as Aurors buzzed and prowled around the bullpen down in Canary Wharf. 'If the wife didn't do it, who did?'

It had been a week since Valerie Phelps' murder. And the investigation team was only making marginal headway.

Tanith didn’t make Gabriel scream with surprise when she was discovered as a pile of blankets on his couch. Because it wasn’t Gabriel who discovered her, it was Jen, and she swore loud enough to wake the dead when the bundle on her sofa moved.

The trial of Bernard Lackardy was a quiet affair.

There was only darkness outside.

‘Knock, knock.’ Tobias stuck his head in round the door to Jen’s office and lifted a wrapped sandwich as she looked up.

‘What is this place?’ Tanith squinted as she peered around the empty rooms.

Normally, Gabriel would have been pleased to see Cal. But as he opened his flat door to see his friend standing apprehensively in the corridor, he could only scowl. ‘What do you want?’

The spell rocketed out of the end of the stolen wand and struck its owner straight on - or so it seemed, but then Tobias blinked and everything changed.

'You’d think I’m crazy.' Tanith took a swig from the bottle of cider and let her feet dangle over the pier. ‘Out here like this. At night. In the cold. And the wet. It’s totally raining. But I guess we need to talk.’