Mr Fudge would like to see you in his office today at 4pm. Please send a reply if you can make it

Best regards

Percy Weasley,

Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic

Ava had stared at the paper for the whole afternoon. What was it that Fudge wanted? She had seen the Minister before but usually it was just an "Hi" when he visited the Auror office, sometimes he would mention if she caught someone highly wanted, but never had she been asked to his office. Both Kingsley and Tonks had thought it odd too. She felt her pulse race high as she stepped out to the purple carpet on the first floor the Ministry of Magic building and stepped out to an enormous room, where different gleaming mahogany doors on the sides with a small golden plaque on each door. Furthest down the corridor was the largest door in the room which had two big golden handles and the golden black read

Cornelius Fudge

Minister of Magic

Outside was a small glass desk where a man was sitting behind a pile of paper. Ava assumed that it would be Fudge's office behind those big doors. As she walked down the hall, the sound of her heel stepping on the carpet echoed around the room. Different plaques containing laws written on them was hung on the walls as well as some old portraits of men and women ( some which that where following her as she walked down ) that were previous ministers. From some of the doors you could hear the hushed sounds of people in conversation and in some as she walked by muffled sounds filled her ears.

As she got closer she got see that the desk had a small plaque on the table that read Percy Weasley, Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic.

He had flaming tomato red hair and rimmed glasses. Arthur had mentioned that he had a son working for the Minister who had disowned himself from the family but both him and Molly barely spoke a word about him, and when they did, Molly would break down in tears and Arthur would give a look as though he was trying hard not to smash something. Ava couldn't help but to give a cold stare to the man in front of her.

'I'm Ava Barnes, here to see the Minister'

'Ah yes, I'm Percy Weasley.' he said stretching out his hand as they shook hands.

Percy opened the door to the enormous room with a flick of his wand. The floor was in wood and the walls where white panels, there was an big mahogany desk with a large chair overlooking a window where you could see people running around the street. To the left of the room was a maroon corner settee and a sofa table with some chairs around and that had two silver jugs and some cups spread out along with two silver bowls. One one of the chairs Fudge was sitting; a portly little man with rumpled grey hair and a pinstriped suit, his usual lime green bowler hat sat on the desk. Next to him was a short squat woman, she had the resemblance of a toad with a broad flabby face, a wide thin mouth and she had her mousy brown hair in a pink bow, the shade of pink on her robes were so bright it was almost blinding.

On the couch sat Dawlish, an auror who Ava had seen many times, tough looking with short wiry grey hair, as well as Proudfoot; an black man with short hair that had streaks of grey and Savage; a muscly young man with green eyes, brown hair and a beard. He was handsome in a rugged kind of way.

'Aha, Miss Barnes. Excellent!' said Fudge standing up and greeting Ava with a handshake.

'Hi minister'

'This is Dolores Umbridge, my Undersecretary' he said pointing towards the woman with the toad like face who also got up and greeted Ava.

'Pleasure' she said in such a high pitch voice it made Ava's hair rise.

'And I take it you know these men?' asked Fudge pointing towards the couch and Ava nodded.

'Great, take a seat' he said and Ava sat down next to Savage.

'Tea? Coffee?' he asked

'Coffee please'

'Milk or sugar?'

'Just a small amount bit of milk please'

Percy waved his wand at one of the jugs and poured it into one of the cups and then at one of the bowls that poured up some milk, it floated in the air to her.

'Thank you'

'Now, let's get to it shall we?' said Fudge

'All of you have the past week been keeping an eye on Dumbledore for me. Now, Dolores here is the new Defence Against Dark Arts teacher and she will keep an eye out on him and stop him from training students in combat. So Scrimgeour will inform you whenever you are needed and will follow Dumbledore for me. Clear?'

'Yes' said all three

'Great, any questions?'

'What exactly do you think Dumbledore is up to?' asked Savage.

'I think he is planning to get people against me and support him so that he will overtake me as Minister' Ava had to stop herself from not laughing. Dumbledore had countless of times been able to take the position of Minister but said no.

'But how come Dumbledore agreed to let you put a Ministry personel at Hogwarts?' Ava asked. At this, she noticed a big smile on Dolores face.

'Aha, a rather genius idea of mine. Dumbledore couldn't find someone to fill the positions so we added a decree that the Ministry has the right to find someone fit for the position unless he can't'

'Genius indeed Minister' said Dawlish and Fudge gave a faint smile in return and the room became silent.

'Well, unless you have any more questions I need to get back to work' he said, which none of the three did so they said good bye and walked out from the office and continued to do so in silence as they reached the Aurors Head office.

-x-

Bill had suggested to meet in a Muggle bar in Shoreditch. The walls were made of bricks as well as the ceiling which had an industrial look with railings surrounding it, and the small booths and the seats in the bar where in red leather. Candles on the table was shining a red light across room. As Ava stepped inside she could tell it was a bit popular as it was crowded with mostly younger people who looked as though they could be at a rock concert. She was scanning the room when she heard a voice from behind.

'Hi Ava' She turned around and saw the familiar long red haired man with a fang earing in one of the ears. For someone who wasn't muggleborn or even half blood he had dressed surprisingly fittingly with jeans, black t-shirt and a leather jacket, his hair tied in a pony-tail. They went to order their drinks at the bar and as they walked with their beers to an empty seat in the corner Ava noticed some of the girls staring at Bill as he passed by. The thing with Bill was, he had a certain aura that made everyone turn around, and it wasn't just because he was attractive.

As they sat down, he suddenly seem a bit unsure of himself which she thought was very unlike him. He took a big gulp from his pint glass that was filled with beer and seemed to stare at some spot on the table as though it would reveal a secret to him. Awkwardly Ava sat for a bit, making a bit of a fuss of taking off her jean jacket.

'Ava, I'm sorry about my mum. I know she coaxed both of us to going. I'm mean, don't get me wrong - I really wanted to see you. It's just that I just starting seeing this girl and well, I'm trying to keep it a secret from my mum for now. Because as you can tell, she is quite a lot to take in' She raised her eyebrow a bit. It definitely wasn't what she had been expecting him to say at all, but she could feel her heart slowing down and breaths getting deeper when she didn't need to worry about being on a romantic date.

'Don't worry about it' She said noticing that Bill seemed a lot more relaxed too after his revelation and was now leaned back in his chair.

'Look, there is something else I have been wanting to say. I'm really sorry I've never tried to talk to you that much at Hogwarts and I saw that you were alone a lot, and well I never did much about it or invited you to places'

She looked at him surprised for the second time.

'It's all right, seriously Bill. Most people didn't even bother to talk to me but at least you did' she said and he gave her a puzzled look. They both knew that the only reason he had started talking to her was when they both had became prefects but she decided to leave that bit out.

'So who is this girl you are dating?' asked Ava, wanting to steer the conversation away. Bill probably went on for an hour about this beautiful French girl called Fleur that had start working at his work at Gringott's.

'So how about you?' He asked after an way too long discussion what to give Fleur for birthday present.

'What about me?' Ava asked, taking a last sip of her beer that now was luke warm .

'You got anyone you fancy' He said with a cheeky smile.

'Uhm, no' she didn't know why her cheeks suddenly felt warm and she didn't know why her pulse had started to race a bit. She could tell by Bill's expression he wasn't buying it but he just nodded a bit.

'Well, let me get us some more drinks' he said and got up from the table.