Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling or Timothy Zahn.
Aberforth and Ginny sit in the cockpit of the Hog's Head at the Avalon region, watching the Ministry attack. The ship is copiloted by another smuggler, Zonko. As she watches the battle progress, Ginny notices the Ministry fleet begin to fade away.
Ginny. They're leaving.
Aberforth. What? Already?
Ginny. Already. One of the Ministry cruisers just went to lightspeed. The others are breaking off and starting prelightspeed maneuvering.
Aberforth. Interesting. A hit-and-fade attack, and with Ministry cruisers yet. Not something you see every day.
Zonko. I heard about something like that happening over at the Yorkshire region a couple of months back. Same kind of hit-and-fade, except there was only one Ministry cruiser on that one.
Aberforth. At a guess, I'd say we're seeing Grand Admiral Grindelwald's influence on Ministry strategy. Strange, though. He seems to be taking an inordinate amount of risk for the potential benefits involved. I wonder what exactly he's up to.
Ginny. [bitter] Whatever it is, it will be something complicated. Grindelwald was never one to do things simply. Even back in the old days when the Ministry was capable of style or subtlety, he stood out above the rest.
Aberforth eyes Ginny curiously.
Aberforth. You can't afford to be simple when your territory's shrinking the way the Ministry's has been. You seem to know something about the Grand Admiral.
Ginny. I know something about a lot of things. That's why you're grooming me to be your lieutenant, remember?
Aberforth. Touché.
A third Ministry cruiser vanishes into Apparition.
There goes another one.
Ginny. Shouldn't we get moving? That last one will be gone in a minute.
Aberforth. O! We're scratching the delivery. I just thought it might be instructive to watch the battle, as long as we happened to be here at the right time.
Ginny. [frowns] What do you mean, we're scratching the delivery? They're expecting us.
Aberforth. Yes, they are. Unfortunately, as of right now, the whole region is also expecting a small hornet's nest of Wizards' Council ships. Hardly the sort of atmosphere one would like to fly into with a shipload of contraband materials.
Ginny. What makes you think they'll come? They're not going to be in time to do anything.
Aberforth. No, but that's not really the point of such a show. The point is to score domestic political gains by bustling around, presenting a comforting display of force, and otherwise convincing the locals that something like this can never happen again.
Zonko. And promising to help clean up the wreckage.
Aberforth. That goes without saying. Regardless, it's not a situation we really want to fly into. We'll send a transmission from our next stop telling them we'll try to make delivery again in a week.
Ginny. I still don't like it. We promised them we'd do it. We promised.
Aberforth. It's standard procedure. I'm sure they'd prefer late delivery to losing the entire shipment.
Ginny. [reluctant] I suppose so.
The final Ministry cruiser vanishes into Apparition.
[aside] But I have still have my own promise to uphold. Very soon, a party from the Wizards' Council will arrive to clean up this mess. I wonder if Harry Potter just might be among them. . . .
Aberforth. Whenever you're ready, Ginny.
Ginny. [to Aberforth] Yes, sir.
Ginny begins the calculations for the jump to lightspeed.
[aside] Not yet. Not yet. But soon. Very, very soon.
Exit the Hog's Head.
