Chapter Two

News from Azkaban

Amara's trip to Greece did not last as long as she would have liked. All too soon, they were boarding the plane back to England, having said goodbye to Aunt Elisabeth and Uncle David a while back in the airport because they were getting a flight back to France. Jesse, Noah and Tally were going over with Amara and her family to England to stay with them for the rest of the summer, because they had not been to England in years. Also, for them, Beauxbatons did not start on September 1st, but a few days later, which meant they were able to get ready before going back to school. She was very happy that the three Reynolds were going to stay, because it meant that they could meet her friends, which she had told them all about. Also, Jesse would meet Hermione, Tally would meet Ginny (who was the same age as her) and Noah would meet Fred and George, who were also in the same year as them. Hopefully before they left they'd finally meet Harry, who Tally had wanted to meet ever since Amara had told her she was friends with them.

The trip back on the plane was fairly uneventful, because everyone was very tired, as the flight was at night.

Amara's house was rather squishy now that three extra people were staying over. Jesse and Noah took Ethan's bedroom whilst he stayed in Tessie's room and Tally was in Amara's room with her. Amara's parents had their hands full with so many people inside the house. They now had six kids to look after as well as themselves, all ranging different ages – from 9 to 16. Elisabeth and Louis had phoned too, to see if they were happy. Even though Amara enjoyed having people to stay, she did wish that their house had an extra room for everyone to escape to.

A week after they had returned to England, two owls arrived at their house. One was a Hogwarts owl, which was carrying two letters. The other was Archimedes. She turned them over and saw that one was for her and the other one was for Ethan.

Mr E. Matthews
17 Stamford Close
Winchester
Hampshire

Amara gasped at the familiar letter, which she had received two years before.

"ETHAN!" she hollered through to the kitchen, where everyone was, drinking milkshakes. "ETHAN, COME HERE!"

Ethan came slouching into the room, milkshake in hand with Tessie, Jesse, Noah and Tally coming in curiously behind him.

"I didn't do it!" he said.

"You better not have done anything," snapped Amara instantly, for her brother had a very guilty conscience. "Because I won't give you your letter."

Ethan looked up in surprise.

"What letter?"

"This one," grinned Amara, waving it in his face. Ethan took a little glance at it before whooping.

"I GOT ONE!" he yelled. "I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS!"

Amara laughed and handed him his letter, which he ripped open excitedly. His face brightened considerably as he made his way down the letter.

"It's real!" he shouted happily. "I'm magical!"

"What's going on in here?" demanded Mrs Matthews, walking into the lounge with a wooden spoon in hand.

"Ethan's just excited, Aunt Bry," said Tally. "He got a letter."

"What letter?" asked Mrs Matthews, trying to calm an-overexcited 11 year old down.

"My HOGWARTS letter!" Ethan beamed at her. Mrs Matthews stared in shock at him before her face split into a wide grin.

"Oh, that's just wonderful!" she said excitedly. "You'll be able to see Hogwarts for yourself!"

"Can we go to Diagon Alley, Mum, please?" Ethan asked.

"Not today, sweetie, maybe soon, we'll see when Amara is going and then see if that fits," Mrs Matthews ruffled his brown hair affectionately.

Amara grinned as she opened her own Hogwarts letter.

'Third Year Students will require:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 3) by Miranda Goshawk
Intermediate Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

Elective Course Books:

Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky (Divination)
The Monster Book of Monsters by Edwardus Lima (Care of Magical Creatures)
Ancient Runes Made Easy by Laurenzoo (Ancient Runes)
Spellmans' Syllabary by Stephen Spellman (Ancient Runes)
Numerology and Grammatica by L. Wakefield and M. Carneiro (Arithmancy)
Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles by Wilhelm Wigworthy (Muggle Studies)'

After reading, she saw two pieces of parchment fall out of the envelope and onto the floor. She picked them up to read it.

Dear Miss Matthews
Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross Station, Platform nine and three quarters, at eleven o'clock.
Third-Years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade at certain weekends. Please give the enclosed form to your parent or guardian to sign.
A list of books for next year is enclosed.
Yours sincerely
Professor M. McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Amara grinned, having accidently opening the list of books first. She couldn't wait to be able to go to Hogsmeade at weekends – it was an entirely wizarding village!

PERMISSION for VISIT to HOGSMEADE for

Amara M. Matthews

This document hereby serves to state the aforementioned

Third-year student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade at such a time

That the school arranges, and with the signature of the undersigned parent or guardian.

The student shall abide by all such rules & regulations relevant to such expeditions and set by the school as per article 528/Z of the 1714 Edict.

Print Name ...

Relation ...

Signature ...

"Mum, look – I can go to Hogsmeade at weekends! You just need to sign my permission form so I can go!"

"What's Hogsmeade?" asked Mrs Matthews.

"An entire wizarding village – I think it's the only one in Britain!" said Amara, trying to remember.

"Sounds interesting! I'll sign it now, shall I?" she said, taking the permission form and signing it with flourish. "What's Archimedes got for you?"

"It must be a letter from Ron," said Amara, having forgotten he was there.

Dear Amara
Did you have a nice time on holiday? It's still really cool here, Bill took us round the tombs – Mum wouldn't let Ginny in the last one, because they had real gruesome stuff in them. Did you get Harry's present to him OK?
Hermione says she can go to London the last day of the holidays, and we'll be back by then. Did you hear about Harry? He blew up his aunt! Dad told us yesterday – Fred and George found it hilarious. He's staying at the Leaky Cauldron now, according to Dad, so we'll be able to meet him there. We're all staying the night too, I don't know about Hermione yet, but can you? I know you have your cousins over, but they can come too, if they want.
Hope to see you,
Ron

Amara grinned brightly at the letter, then thought about what he had said.

"What's up, Amara?"

"Harry – he blew up his aunt," said Amara, starting to laugh.

"Blew up his aunt?" Jesse echoed, amazed.

"Yeah, and now he's staying at the Leaky Cauldron," said Amara, folding the letter back up. "Mum – Ron and his family are staying the night on the last day of term, can we stay too? Me, Jesse, Noah and Tally? It's only for the night – then, you can pick them up on the way back from King's Cross to take them home."

Mrs Matthews thought about it.

"Hmm," she said. "It does sound like fun – and Jesse, Noah and Tally can meet all your friends – is Hermione staying too?"

"I don't know, I might phone her actually, because she hasn't replied to Ron's owl yet," she said.

Mrs Matthews nodded. "Alright, you go phone her now,"

Amara, Tally, Jesse and Noah all trooped into the kitchen to phone Hermione, who was back from France.

"Hello?" came her voice from the other end.

"Hermione!" said Amara happily. "Just a minute, I'll put you one speaker, Jesse, Noah and Tally are here too."

"Bonjour!" Tally said as Hermione's voice came through.

"Hello, Tally – Jesse and Noah."

"How was France?" asked Amara eagerly.

"Fantastic, I learnt so much, I re-wrote my whole essay with the stuff I found out, but it's two rolls of parchment now, do you think Professor Binns will mind?" she asked.

Amara laughed. "Of course not, I suspect he doesn't read them anyways,"

"'Ow are you, 'Ermione?" asked Jesse.

"I'm fine thanks … um, Jesse?"

"Yes, it's great to actually speak to you," he grinned and Amara, Noah and Tally exchanged knowing smirks.

"Are you going to stay at the Leaky Cauldron?" asked Amara.

"I don't know yet, are you?" asked Hermione.

"Yes, Jesse, Noah and Tally are too, it would be great for you to meet them," she said.

"OK, I will then – when does Beauxbatons start then, if it's not the 1st of September?"

"We don't go back until the tenth," said Noah. "Because the teachers sort everything out and stuff."

"Oh, Hermione, guess what?" said Amara excitedly.

"What?"

"Ethan's a wizard!" she grinned. "He got the letter today!"

"Oh, that's excellent, that must mean Tessie is too, right?"

"Yeah, I guess, it would be harsh if she wasn't," said Amara thoughtfully. "Anyways, have you heard about Ron's holiday? How cool is Egypt?"

"I'm so jealous, there must be so much about the magical community there!" Hermione moaned from the other side.

"And Ron said he went to all those gross tombs, with all those skeletons in there," said Amara enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I would prefer to go somewhere else …"

They all laughed.

"Amara!" Mrs Matthews came through. "D'you know how much you're costing us? You've been on there for ages!"

"Sorry Mum, sorry Hermione, we've gotta go – see you at the Leaky Cauldron then?" said Amara.

"Bye Amara, it was great to hear from you Jesse and Noah and Tally – see you!" said Hermione. "I'll meet you in the Leaky Cauldron to wait."

It became clear that something bad had happened in the wizarding world as Amara got back to normal in England. She was reading the Daily Prophets that had arrived when she was away and had found a disturbing story.

BLACK STILL AT LARGE

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.
"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."
Fudge has been criticised by some members of the International Confederation of Wizards for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis.
"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it - who'd believe him if he did?"
While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.

The news had definitely reached Muggle's ears – her neighbours were prone to come around to gossip about the escapee with her mother, who was shocked to learn (after Amara had left the Daily Prophet on the table) that Sirius Black was actually a wizard.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," said Amara to Jesse, Noah and Tally. "I've read about Azkaban – nobody has ever broken out before."

"It must be serious if the Muggle's have been involved," said Jesse thoughtfully. "No wonder your Prime Minister is getting so much grief – everyone's afraid they'll be exposed."

Ron had also been owling her to talk about Black and tell her what he knew (which wasn't much).

'Nothing like this has ever happened before, (he had written in a few letters) but they'll catch Black and send him back to Azkaban…'

Hermione, though, had been sending her much more annoying owls. She was constantly hassling her to see if she had done all the required work (for they hadn't had summer work before) and that she had spent some time studying. Jesse thought she had a point whilst Noah and Tally found it hilarious.

"They'll be planning they're wedding soon," Noah whispered gleefully to Amara.

Amara did not like the fact that a mass-murderer was at large around Britain, for she knew that everything and everyone was going to be tight about security. Especially at Hogwarts.

The last day of the holidays was coming around very slowly. Ethan was clamouring to go to Diagon Alley, but Mrs Matthews insisted that they went the same time as Amara, so they could say goodbye properly and meet the Weasleys.

Mr Matthews had been shocked and pleased to find that Ethan was a wizard and was telling him things he should and shouldn't do there (Amara had stopped trying to interfere).

It was amazing how the three Reynolds' stuff seemed to have made its way to every corner of the house when they were packing their trunks and suitcases. They managed to pack the night before so that they could get to the Leaky Cauldron nice and early so they had a full day of shopping.

Amara found herself looking under sofas and in cupboards to see if the three messy cousins of hers had left anything. She had found a sock in the library, a book in the kitchen cupboard and a quill under the sofa. They all found this rather amusing as they finished off their packing.

The night before they all left was a joyful one. Mr Matthews gave them fizzy drinks in champagne glasses to make them laugh and they watched movies and played board games for most of the evening. It seemed that Amara's parents were sad to see two of their children go off for the entire year and them only seeing them a few times.

They got up at a good time the next day and they all were bundled up into Mr Matthews' large 8-seater van and set off for London.

Once they all bundled into the shabby pub, they spotted Hermione and the Weasley's in a booth waiting for them. The Weasley's had booked their rooms and had decided to have Tally stay with Ginny. Amara and Hermione were to share a room and so was Jesse and Noah. Mr Matthews went ahead to book the rooms, with the help of an excited Mr Weasley and a more-calmer Jesse.

"Alright Amara?" Ron grinned at her after her family had said goodbye to walk around Diagon Alley. "Is your brother magical too?"

Amara grinned and nodded. "Oh, this is Jesse, Noah and Tally, by the way, my cousins."

The other Weasley greeted Amara, Jesse, Noah and Tally and Mr Weasley immediately asked what the muggles were like in France to Jesse. Noah was speaking to Fred and George, for they were the same age and decided to head off to Diagon Alley to explore. Tally struck up a conversation with Ginny, who had greeted Amara enthusiastically, for they were also in the same year.

"Shall we go see if we can find Harry?" asked Hermione after a while.

"I bet Tom will know," Amara said and the three of them went over to ask the innkeeper.

"Sorry, ladies and gent, but he left not half hour ago," Tom said apologetically. "He went off to Diagon Alley."

"Oh," said Amara. "Shall we go and get our stuff then? We might bump into him in a shop."

Amara, Hermione and Ron bade goodbye to the Weasleys/Reynolds who were still inside the pub (Percy was now talking to Jesse eagerly about exams, which he was looking uncomfortable about) and went into the little yard to the entrance of Diagon Alley, which Amara couldn't wait to see again.