It had been the hottest day of the year so far. Even though the sun had set, the air was unusually humid this evening.
Ava sat on sofa in her mother's house in Oxford together with her mum Sandra and sister Cassie. Both of them were tall with curly blonde hair and green eyes, all though Cassie's much longer and not speckled with some grey. Cassie had gotten her mother's looks while Ava looked like their dad's with her brown hair and blue eyes and freckles. Both of them had gotten their dad's magical abilities as Sandra was a muggle.
A big fan stood infront of them, it blades circulating at maximum speed. Even with the windows open taking in breezes from outside, the sweat still clung to Ava's jersey material clothes as they sat watching some muggle talk-show in the background . Usually you could hear the sounds of car horns streets and loud engines but today it was almost eerie how quiet it was.
'So how is Adrian?' asked Sandra. Adrian was Cassie's boyfriend of four years, they had met at Hogwarts and they both had been in Ravenclaw House. Ava had never liked Adrian, there was just something very smug and arrogant about him that she had never liked with him but for most part kept her thougths about him to herself.
'He's good. He's helping out at work sometime' Cassie worked at Madam Malkin's clothing store in Diagon Alley and had since she finished Hogwarts a few months earlier.
Suddenly from the window coming from the dark blue sky in a daze of silver, a lynx emerged and the windows closed as it drew in to where the three was sitting. Sandra looked as though she would have an heart attack at any moment, Cassie looked puzzled and Ava stared nonchalant at the creature.
'Ava' there was a loud familiar deep voice that she knew to be Kingsley. 'We are having an emergency meeting at the headquarters. Come as soon as you can'
The lynx soon vanished into thin air. Ava straightened herself up from the couch.
'Sorry, I need to go' said Ava grabbing her handbag on the kitchen table.
'Ava, what is going on?' Asked Cassie.
'They are overworking you at that Ministry' said Sandra but Cassie looked more suspicious.
'You know with what happened on the Triwizard Tournament, it's just been a lot' Ava explained.
'But nothing happened'
'Cedric Diggory died Cassie'
'Please, you mean You-Know-Who is back? That is all something Dumbledore and Potter is making up' Ava had to gather herself in a big breathe. They had gone over this several times, but Cassie still refused to accept Voldemort was back. Sandra was now intently watching the famous actress talk about her new movie on the television.
'I don't have time to explain. I need to go. See you next weekend' Ava said and within seconds was transported from the Oxford home to Grimmauld Place.
As she stepped inside the gloomy hallway she saw the Weasley kids and Hermione in pyjamas standing with their ear towards the door. As she closed in, all of them looking a bit embarrassed as they turned around to see her walking down the corridor to the door. But there really wasn't any need for the extendable ears tonight, Ava could hear Dumbledore's voice, louder and angrier than she ever heard it before could be heard clearly from the hallway.'You were supposed to guard him!'
The teenagers who looked as though they were expecting her to shout too at them but Ava passed them with an apologetic look. Following the staircase down to the kitchen she had a better idea of what was going on. Dumbledore was walking around Mundungus who seemed to curl up in the chair he was sitting at. She had never seen her old headmaster so angry before, his eyes more fierce and is pierced into Mundungus.
'How was Arabella supposed to protect Harry? You know she can't do magic!'
Quietly Ava sat down next to Tonks who was seated nearest the door and gave her a quizzable look.
'Mundungus left his guard and then Dementors appeared so Harry had to use the patronus charm to get them off and now he has an hearing at the Ministry on August 12th' she whispered in Ava's ear who felt as though someone poured a bucket of ice cold water.
Dementors, in Little Whining? There could only really be one plausible explanation Ava thought - Voldemort had taken control over Azkaban and a lot faster than she thought he could have.
Later, at the headquarters in the kitchen people were talking loudly over each other around the table trying to argue what way was the best to bring Harry to Grimmauld Place. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Remus, Kingsley, Moody, Sirius, Molly, Arthur, Tonks, Elphias, Sturgis and Hestia were all seated, half of them dressed in pyjamas and almost all of them with tired blurred expressions.
Ava could tell Dumbledore was still upset, his words wasn't as slow and fairy tale like they normally where and he had a fierce look in his eyes and kept steering his eyes towards Mundungus.
'Muggle transport? It won't be traceable' said Hestia.
'It's an option but the best thing would be something quicker' said Dumbledore
'How about portkey?' suggested McGonagall.
'Too many risks the Ministry might interfer'
'Can he fly?' Ava asked in her daze.
'Yes, he's an excellent flier' Remus answered.
'Then why don't some just fly there and bring him back' Everyone looked at each other for a while to see if there was any one with any other ideas.
'Flying it is' Said Dumbledore calmly.
'We still need to get them muggles out, they won't be happy with a bunch of us arriving there with our brooms' said Arthur
'Well, I'm not opposed to stranding them on an island" Sirius muttered.
'Or...we could just invite them a non existent event' Snape as-matter-of-fact voice.
'Oh! Muggles have all of these awards shows my dad told me. They love getting prizes...We could say they won like nicest garden, that woman seems awfully worried about her flowers. We probably need to wait 3 days though if we send it through muggle mail' said Tonks excited and nobody around the table had any to concur.
'Okay...everyone who can, volunteer raise their hands' said Moody and everyone's hand except for Snape, Dumbledore and McGonagall raised.
'Sirius you are a wanted man' said Moody and Sirius sent him a look that said really-I-had-no-idea.
'I don't care'
'Sirius you are not coming, this is risky enough' said Dumbledore and Sirius crossed his arms in silence and looked as though he wanted to say something in retort but stopped himself.
'Don't make yourself any less useless than you already are' said Snape and Ava could see Sirius had to use everything in himself not to go up and punch him and that he was clinching his fist under the table.
'Well I suppose, it's might be good that Arthur and I are here too to take care of the kids' said Molly
'I got the shift at Department of Mysteries that evening' Tonks realised looking a bit annoyed by her realisation.
'I can cover that shift, you're a much better flyer than me anyway' Ava offered
'You sure?'
'Yes' she answered and Tonks mouthed a "thank you".
For the rest of the meeting, most of it went over Ava's head who's eyes were starting to feel very heavy and as the clock on the wall seem to tick heavier and heavier so did her eyes. It was mainly Moody discussing where everyone on the brooms should be positioned ant their tactic.