As the two teenagers reappeared on this earth, they were standing in a shady looking alley in the middle of Munich.
Ash still hadn't let go of her friends hand, as she took out her wand - looking left and right of them - and tapped the wall three times muttering something in German. All of a sudden, the wall started trembling and the bricks pulled away, leaving an entry way for the newcomers.
"This is the Munich equivalent to Diagon Alley. Welcome to Winkelgasse," she said with a warm smile and pulled Blaise through the arch way. Like the Diagon Alley, this alley had all kind of things and shops. Shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon, and much much more.
Hurriedly, so that they wouldn't get even wetter, Ash pulled the two of them through the crowd, still holding on to Blaise's hand tightly. Soon they stopped in front of a slightly darker looking house. On a crooked sign above the door it said "Sommernacht".
When the two teenagers entered the shop, it was already packed with people.
"Do you see them anywhere?" she asked loudly, trying to speak over the noise.
Blaise was just about to answer, when another voice reached them, a voice calling Ash's name.
Confused Ash looked around the crowd and saw a bear of a man push through to them. As soon as she saw him, she grinned from one ear to the other. "Johannes," she said happily and took a few steps towards the man who owned the pub they were in. "Wie geht es dir?" she asked while letting go off Blaise's hand and hugging the man tightly.
"Nicht übel, aber wie geht es dir?" he said looking at her intently.
"Mir geht es auch gut," she answered him with a soft smile.
"Gut... Was machst du eigentlich hier?"
"Ich bin hier mit meiner Tante und meinem Onkel verabredet... Hast du sie gesehen?"
"Ach so, die Insel-Affen Bagage," he said and pointed behind him to a table in the far corner and soon pushed through the crowd with them, to make sure that they got to their table without problems.
"Danke."
"Kein problem, meine süße."
As Johannes went away the teenagers could literally feel the icy atmosphere between the people at the table.
Looking at each other, Ash and Blaise walked up to them.
"Hey..." Ash started, pulling the attention towards them.
"Hey, sweetheart," Molly and Oriana said simultaneously with a smile, before glaring at each other.
"OK... What happened?" she asked while sitting down at the tables end.
"Nothing," they answered her again, simultaneously.
"Arthur?" she said searching for help.
Her uncle looked at her shocked - he obviously didn't want to have anything to do with the situation. "Um," he glanced at Molly, "Molly and Mrs. Zabini had a little... misunderstanding?" he answered, but it sounded more of a question.
"And what was it about?"
"..." - more then enough of an answer.
"Me?"
Arthur smile forcibly.
"Alright, ladies. What was there to argue about."
"Nothing," they snapped and then sighed. "Really, honey, its nothing you have to worry about," Molly said quietly and stroked her arm lovingly.
Ash looked at the two women calculatingly and then nodded, "alright."
Silence spread through the table and was only broken as Johannes came and got their orders. After he left, silence spread again and Ash started to get angry. When the silence was still dominating the conversation after the meal, Ash flipped.
"Alright. That is it! I want to know what happened right now!" she screamed, receiving the attention of the whole restaurant, but Ash didn't care.
"Honey, sit down, please. The people are starting to stare at us," Molly begged quietly trying to calm her down.
"I do not care! I want to know what happened right away or I will leave this second," she screamed even louder so that every single person in the whole room was definitely listening and hearing her.
"Honey, we just...We think that it would be better for you to spend the rest of the Christmas holidays with us at the Burrow."
"What?" Ash gasped as she sat down and looked at her aunt confused, then back at the Zabini's, who looked guilt ridden. Blaise looked just as confused as her.
Oriana sighed and took a hold of the girls hand. "Sweety, they are your family, they want you to spend your time with them while you're here."
"Was I being a nuisance?" Ash asked in monotone.
"No, of course not!"
"Did I do anything to make you angry?"
"No, honey, don't say something like that."
"Then why?" she asked before looking at Molly when Oriana didn't answer. "I told you that I would spend my time with the Zabini's during the holidays. Why are you so against it now?"
Molly started to get angry with her now. "Ashlin Sandra Weasley, you will not talk to me like that! We are your guardians and you will do as we say! You will came and spend the rest of your holidays with us and you will not be taking part at that broom race!"
Ash looked at her dumbstruck before glaring at her and starting to raise her voice again. "What gives you the right to talk to me like that? What gives you the right to tell me what I can and what I can't do?"
"We are your guardians!" Molly screamed.
"You are nothing!" Ash screamed back. "I don't give a shit on what it says on that little piece of paper of yours! You are not my parents! My parents are buried six feet under the ground!"
The whole pub was quiet as Ash stood up from her chair - making it fall to the ground with a loud thud and stormed out of the restaurant. As the door was thrown shut, everyone stayed quiet and either stared at the door or at the group of English witches and wizards that the girl left behind.
Quickly the youngest of the remaining group got of his chair as well and followed the girl out of the pub, but when he came back, he came back alone - the girl had apparated away.
"Where to go now?" a girl mumbled to herself as she walked through one of the largest urban parks in this world, the Englisher Garten in Munich. She was alone, no one was with her. "I can't go back the Zabini's for now... They'd call Molly and Arthur... no, no... can't do that, don't want that...
"I don't have any money with me either..." she went on mumbling. "What to do? What to do?"
Suddenly her head shot up and soon she disappeared out of the German park and reappeared in front of a big early renaissance style house. Swiftly she went to the door and rang the door bell. For a while nothing happened and the blond started believing the owners of the manor were out of house.
Quietly she summoned up a clock. It read 6.40... she must have been at that park longer then she imagined...
As she was about to leave once again, the door creaked open and a small house elf pocked out his head.
"Hello, I would like to see Draco" she told it and the elf scowled.
"Sorry, the masters aren't home right now." it said silently.
"Oh... alright... could you tell them that Ash Weasley was here?"
"I will ma'am"
"Thank you" she said before the elf closed the door and she was standing alone in the cold again.
Sighing, she apparated herself away again, this time appearing in the Diagon Alley, London. There she walked to Gringotts Wizarding Bank, pulling out her vault key.
"Vault 2424" she said quietly and handed over the key, before she got into the cart and was driven to her family's vault. Unlike the vault of her aunt and uncle, Ash's family vault - that now only belonged to her - was quiet far down, making it one of the vaults with the highest security.
When they got of the cart, she took out her golden key again and walked up to the door. Next she gently put the key into it and turned.
Personally, she didn't know why they had such a high security vault any way, especially when she looked into the vault to see only 2 gallons and a couple of sickles lying on the floor.
"Damn" she muttered to herself, before walking in and taking the money out.
After she stored the money back into her pocket, she closed the vault again and together the goblin and her drove back up to the entrance.
Slowly she walked out of the bank and made her way to the Leaky Cauldron, where she decided that she would spend the night.
Later that evening, she sent out an owl addressed to Blaise Zabini, telling him that she had done as he had told her, that she was now in the Leaky Cauldron and that she would be awaiting him with her broom and a change of clothes tomorrow in Kopparberg two hours before the race started.
Meanwhile, at the Zabini Manor the Zabini's and the Weasley were arguing away, while freaking out about where she might be and where she would be going now.
Only one person wasn't freaking out, but just stayed quiet - staring at the commotion in front of him. He was the only one that looked up when the saw an house elf enter the room and walk over to him.
"This owl just came for you, master," it squeaked and handed him a letter. His name was written on the side, in the finest handwriting that he knew. With a small smile he opened the letter and read the contents.
Burn after reading! Hey Blaise, I've calmed down. I guess I've over reacted a bit, but I hate being controlled, you understand. Anyway, I'm not coming home today, but staying in London at the Leaky Cauldron - Don't you dare tell anyone! I'm still planning to race tomorrow, so I'll be expecting you to bring me my broom and a change of clothes - together with a long hooded something! See you at eight o'clock in Kopparberg at the Gringotts bank there! Love, Ash
As soon as he finished readying the letter, he burned it and got of his chair.
"Mom," he said loudly, getting the attention of everyone around him. "Ash is doing fine. She just sent me a letter. We'll be seeing her tomorrow."
"Where is that letter?"
"I just burned it. There's the ash."
"Why did you burn it?"
"Ash told me too."
Mrs. Zambini sighed but nodded, "alright. Good night Blaise."
"G'night Mom, G'night Mr and Mrs Weasley."
He went out of the room in silence and headed to his own room.
Today was messed up! he thought as he got ready for bed and tried to grab some sleep.
"Wie geht es dir?" - How are you? "Nicht übel, aber wie geht es dir?" - Not to bad, but how are you? "Mir geht es auch gut." - I'm doing fine, as well. "Gut... Was machst du eigentlich hier?" - Good... What are you doing here any ways? "Ich bin hier mit meiner Tante und meinem Onkel verabredet... Hast du sie gesehen?" - I'm here with my aunt and uncle... Did you see them?" "Ach so, die Insel-Affen Bagage." (this is kindda hard to translate because its a typical german thing to say..) Oh yeah, the "island-ape" people. "Danke" - Thank you "Kein problem, meine süße" - No problem, sweetheart.