Wish Upon A Star

Hogwarts Express

There was a definite end-of-the-holidays gloom in the air the next morning. Heavy rain was still splattering against the window. Ashlyn had woken up early because of the rain. At first, it was annoying, but then it became soothing to listen to. She lit her wand and read her potions book and went downstairs only when she heard Mrs Weasley in the kitchen.

"Oh, morning, Ashlyn, dear. Your up early. Why don't you go to bed and get some sleep?" Mrs Weasley said as she placed a huge pot on the stove.

"No, it's okay. I'm not sleepy anyway. Anything I can do to help?" Ashlyn asked.

"Oh, alright. Just wash crack those eggs for me, will you?" Mrs Weasley said kindly.

Ashlyn and Mrs Weasley talked about various topics as they worked. 

Mrs Weasley was telling her about a love potion she had made in her third year when Bill came out.  Followed by the twins, then Charlie, then Percy, then Hermione and Ginny came downstairs. Ron and Harry came last.

They were sitting at the table, having breakfast.

"Arthur!" she called up the staircase. "Arthur! Urgent message from the Ministry!"

Harry flattened himself against the wall as Mr Weasley came clattering past with his robes on back-to-front and hurtled out of sight. When Harry and the others entered the kitchen, they saw Mrs Weasley rummaging anxiously in the drawers — 

"I've got a quill here somewhere!" — and Mr Weasley bending over the fire, talking to Amos Diggory. Mr Diggory's head was in the middle of the flames.

"Good morning, Mr Diggory," Ashlyn said smiling 

"Oh, good morning, Miss Clarke," he replied smiling back at her. "I've heard a lot about you,"

"Oh," Ashlyn said. Was it after the incident at the Quidditch World cup? Must be...

"Cedric talks a lot about you," Mr Diggory said with a sly smile.

Ashlyn blinked. Oh...Why on earth would Cedric talk about her?... Oh, whatever...

Mr Weasley came down and the two men started talking.

". . . Muggle neighbours heard bangs and shouting, so they went and called those what-d'you-call-'ems — please-men. Arthur, you've got to get over there —"

"Here!" said Mrs Weasley breathlessly, pushing a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a crumpled quill into Mr Weasley's hands.

"— it's a real stroke of luck I heard about it," said Mr Diggory's head. "I had to come into the office early to send a couple of owls, and I found the Improper Use of Magic lot all setting off — if Rita Skeeter gets hold of this one, Arthur —"

"What does Mad-Eye say happened?" asked Mr Weasley, unscrewing the ink bottle, loading up his quill, and preparing to take notes.

Ashlyn felt her stomach turn. She wanted to tell them that Mad-Eye could have been hurt and to look for an intruder. If they did find Crouch Jr., then all this mess wouldn't happen at all. But she wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Ashlyn chewed on her toast, which suddenly didn't taste as good as it did before.

Mr Diggory's head rolled its eyes. "Says he heard an intruder in his yard. Says he was creeping toward the house but was ambushed by his dustbins."

"What did the dustbins do?" asked Mr Weasley, scribbling frantically.

"Made one hell of a noise and fired rubbish everywhere, as far as I can tell," said Mr Diggory. "Apparently one of them was still rocketing around when the please-men turned up —"