Chapter twenty three
He grabbed her hand and followed the rest of them as they ran across the fields of grass the hill, leaving a cloud of dust and rubble behind them.
At the base of the hill stood Ava's family and friends. In the dim moonlight she could see James standing with her feverish mother, whilst her father hovered around the two of them, wiping away sweat and dirt off his wife's clammy face. Cassidy, her younger sister, stood beside them, pulling away from Lily who was crouched and examining her broken arm. Although Ava knew the were still so close to the danger that seemed to swarm around them, she couldn't hide the relief that she felt now that they were all together. She swallowed the bubbling rise of laughter, she didnt need hysterics now. She needed order and control.
With the dying rumble of the cottage echoing behind them Ava addressed the matter at hand about their safety.
You couldn't just go and rob the 'dark lord' and all his mindless minions without something happening to them, right?
"Where are we going?" she slowly asked. The look on her friends faces showed that they clearly hadn't thought this far ahead in their plans. Which was stupid and reckless, exactly what Lily had told them all about earlier but their recklessness paid off, hadn't it?
The needed a safe haven. A place where they would all be protected from death eaters, a place where they all could recover. Nobody knew the extent of the damage yet. The muggle world would be too risky, Ava would hate herself if she was the cause of any destruction there, this wasn't their fight. And you never knew who you could trust these days in the magical world. Fear can make even the strongest reckless.
Ava turned down James' suggestions of his home. The Potters had been kind enough already. The suggestions stopped as everyone thought and the silence grew. Cassy broke the ongoing, eerie silence with a one worded question.
"Hogwarts?" she whispered. Her scared eyes widened and her brows pushed together. The look on her face reminded Ava then just how young she was. Ava crossed the distance between them in three strides and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Cassy, that's brilliant. It's, it's perfect-"
"It's possible, we can get you in and we all know we can trust Dumbledore." Interrupted Sirius.
"Whoa, you can't just walk into the castle Av, it'll be empty its still summer. Plus who knows if Dumbledore will even be there? Wait, what d'you mean 'we can get you in?" Asked Lily with a look of curiosity and annoyance painted across her face.
"Do you honestly think you know all of Hogwarts' secrets sweet Lily? That castle has more than one entrance, and you happen to be besties with the somebodies who knows a few of them." Sirius said with a wink. "Its not going to be easy though and we might have to break a law or two, that's only if we get caught but I'm pretty sure we won't"
Listening to everything Sirius had to say Ava had a lot to think about and no time to waste thinking about it. There was a possibility of a criminal record, the chance of hurting her family more on the way there too. And could she really weigh everything on the slim chance that Sirius and James could get them into Hogwarts, plus once they were there, where would they go from there? She decided to cross that bridge when she came to
But if not Hogwarts, then where else to?
Ava decided there was no time to argue more or wait around for any other ideas and decided it was worth a shot.
"Okay, Sirius, James you've got one chance. Take us to school."