funerals to arrange now, but now my one-year-old niece Susan is an orphan and it's my job to raise her. All these things were what I was about to do when I was told that you wanted to speak to me."
Then Bones said, "Tibia!"
Pop. A house-elf appeared; she was wearing the House Bones crest on her little bone-white dress. "Young Mistress's Aunt Amelia call Tibia?"
"Yes," Bones said. "Magic has given me a task to perform tonight, and I don't know how long the task will take. The task could take minutes or days. Be good to Susan and meet her needs till I return to Bones Manor."
"Tibia will!" Pop—the house-elf disappeared.
Bones now looked at Pandora. "I'm headed back to my desk to grab an unused evidence bag. Then I'll come back here, and you and I shall figure out how we're going to work this."
Later, after sunset
Just before Pandora had Side-Along Apparated herself and Amelia, Amelia had placed No-Noise, No-Odour and Disillusionment spells on both herself and Pandora. The plan was that wherever they were about to go, nobody at the arrival-place would realise that Pandora and Amelia had arrived there.
Also before the Apparation, Bones put her magical monocle over her left eye.
The actual Apparation would be done by Pandora Apparating to the Apparation Coordinates that she had written down on a slip of parchment. When Bones saw the parchment, she asked, "Do you know where you're taking us to?"
"No idea. But just as my Vision gave me the three messages to speak to you, the Vision also gave me those exact Apparation Coordinates. Are you ready to go?"
"Yes," Bones replied.
Pandora Apparated.
As soon as the Side-Along Apparation-process ended, Pandora stuffed the few inches of Apparation-Coordinates parchment into Bones's pocket. "You might need this in the future," Pandora explained.
Amelia saw that the two witches now were on a Muggle street at night, with Muggle houses on either side of the street and with a few Muggle cars parked in the street. Amelia knew the houses and cars all were Muggle because to her right eye, the houses and cars looked like Muggle houses and cars she had seen before; and because her monocle-enhanced left eye told her that everything she saw was nonmagical—
—except for a cat that was sitting atop a waist-high brick wall. To Amelia's left eye, the cat was glowing.
Amelia quickly drew her DMLE-issue blue wand and hurried to create a Silencing Bubble round herself and Pandora.
Once this was done, Amelia explained to Pandora, "There is a magical cat on that Muggle wall."
"Kneazle or Animagus?" Pandora asked.
Amelia gently tapped her monocle three times with a knuckle, which activated the Telescope function. Seconds later, Amelia replied, "The cat is no bigger than a regular cat, so it's not a kneazle. But if it's a cat-Animagus, the only one I know of in Wizarding Britain is Professor McGonagall, and why would Professor McGonagall be here?"
Pandora said, "Maybe it's a second cat-Animagus? An unregistered one?"
"Possibly," Amelia grudgingly agreed. Unregistered Animagi were dangerous.
Pandora asked, "What is the magical cat doing?"
"Staring fixedly at the second house from the end of the street on the west side, on the north side of the street," Amelia replied.
Then Amelia squeezed Pandora's arm. "Now you've convinced me, Mrs Lovegood. When we find a magical cat in a nonmagical neighbourhood, something strange is going on. Now I know you brought me here because Magic wants me to see all the strangeness that's coming.
"In the meantime," Amelia said, "I think we can move closer to the magical cat without the cat sensing us. Let's move up behind that white car—then we can better watch the cat, and better watch the house that the cat is watching."Hours later—close to midnight
Outside was colder now; Pandora and Amelia had needed to duck behind the white car and to cast warming charms on themselves to stay comfortable.
By now, almost all the windows of the various houses on this street—including the windows in the second house from the end of the street on the west side, on the north side of the street—had gone dark. Meaning, an entire streetful of Muggles was sleeping now. Amelia wished she were sleeping too.
But Amelia kept her vigil, watching the cat that was watching the house.
Suddenly Pandora patted Amelia's arm and pointed out something eerie: Again and again, twelve times altogether, all the streetlights on this Muggle street were going out. The zone of darkness started at the east end of the street, and moved steadily closer to Pandora and to Amelia.
When all the streetlights were dark, Amelia's right eye had only starlight and moonlight with which to see.
But Amelia's left eye saw a glowing man walking west in the street—the glow meant that Amelia was seeing a wizard. The glowing man had a glowing and long beard.
Amelia much doubted that she was seeing Aberforth Dumbledore coming closer.
Amelia ducked down behind the white car, and pulled Pandora down with her.