Bill Weasley sat in Dumbeldore's office and waited curiously.
He had been bemused as well as confused when his dad had asked him to go and see Albus Dumbledore about a delicate task he required assistance with.
The elegant woman who left the office just as he arrived had only added to his curiosity.
Dumbledore had apologised for the secrecy and the urgency and had inquired politely about his return from Egypt, though Bill sensed he was distracted and not fully paying attention to his reply.
He turned at a knock at the door and was surprised to see Remus Lupin enter. He shook hands with his former professor and noted that he seemed tired and strained.
As they both sat down, Bill realized that Dumbledore was staring at him. But it was Remus who spoke first.
"Did she have any information for us?" Remus asked, cutting straight to the point and avoiding small talk.
Dumbledore smiled and replied "Ghislaine has just left." He paused and turned his attention back to Bill.
"Bill, what you are about to hear may not be secret much longer. But these decisions are not ours to make. Even if you do not agree ..."
"Yes" Bill blurted out, then blushed as his former headmaster smiled at his enthusiasm.
"Ghislaine MacDonald is the high priestess of the most important coven in the world!" Dumbledore announced dramatically.
Bill was startled. Covens were just muggle playgroups weren't they?
Sensing his confusion and leaving Bill to compose himself, Dumbledore turned to Lupin. "They have located, and agreed to help us retrieve Minerva."
Bill was now really confused and scratched his head. Minerva McGonagall? He jumped as he realized that the headmaster was talking again.
"Covens guard the gateways between the muggle and magical worlds," he explained. "They do not interfere between us and ensure that, on the whole, we remain ignorant of each other."
"They have long since argued that we should think of integrating more. You can imagine the problems the Ministry have with that idea." Shaking his head he privately thought that Ghislaine was right. Magic and "evil" did not just exclusively exist in the magical world anymore. Muggles had been fighting and dealing with demons and other such horrors for centuries now. He thought a gradual exchange of information would benefit both worlds. The Ministry was missing a golden opportunity to inject new blood and ideas into their world. But that was an argument for another day.
He turned back to Bill, suddenly tired and rubbed his hand over his eyes before speaking again.
"Bill, we want you to go to California and bring Minerva home" he stated simply.
Bill's chest expanded with pride as he listened to Dumbledore and Lupin explain the events of the last few days: the latest attack on Severus, Minerva's disappearance, Narcissa's revelations ….
"Time is of the essence," Dumbledore continued. "we cannot take the time to use muggle transportation. You will need to apparate there and back."
Bill was shocked. No-one, absolutely no-one, had apparated that far before. But Dumbledore had one further surprise for him.
"The covens have agreed to help. They will sent up a "chain-link" from here to California allowing you to apparate over smaller distances. From here, Ghislaine will link to a coven in Iceland allowing you to make the first jump. From there to Greenland and then across Canada and down to California."
"When you reach the coven in California they will guide you to a Rupert Giles, a librarian from Sunnydale. We believe he may have Minerva, but the coven are aware of some of his activities and believe he is looking after her and is not a threat to us, or working for Voldemort."
He went on to explain that they had fitted the pieces of the puzzle together after a Rupert Giles had contacted the owner of a magic shop in Los Angeles and had asked careful questions about magical societies in Scotland, demon cats and potion bottles.
At the same time, a Willow Rosenberg had contacted a magic shop in San Francisco, asking the same questions. (Xander had called a freight shipping company in New York and Buffy had called Deep Sea World.)
The owners had not been able to answer them but had reported the telephone calls to their local coven leaders . This had been reported back to Ghislaine who had decided to approach Dumbledore direct. She had thought this could be the opportunity they were waiting for to bridge the gap between the two worlds.
When she learned about Minerva's disappearance, it had not been too hard to put two and two together.
Though neither understood how the witch had been able to transport herself that far they thought it may have had something to do with the mysterious potion Narcissa had mentioned.
Dumbledore was worried that she still appeared to be in cat form, but had been re-assured to learn that when the coven had checked she appeared to be healthy, but was surprised to learn that she had been digging frantically in a garden while being shouted at by a red haired woman.