Three days before the holiday ended, Phoebe said goodbye to all of her friends again and travelled with Argus to the meeting point where someone was supposed to collect her and bring her to the Weasley's house.

The goodbye was filled with complaints that she hadn't been there for long enough and whines that it wasn't fair. In the end, they decided that if Phoebe promised to call them into Hogwarts soon, they would let her go. So, after vowing to her friends that she would call for back up at some point in the near future and reassuring Chiron that she would find out as much as she could about the Order and Voldemort while she was there, Phoebe was allowed to leave.

Argus drove her to Central Park, which took a little over an hour. From there she stood near the East entrance on 5th Avenue, where she was specifically instructed to, and waited for whoever was meant to pick her up. She wasn't entirely sure how they were going to get her, or how they were going to travel, but Fred assured her that it would be much quicker than getting a plane.

Phoebe kept her eyes and ears peeled open for anything strange, but this was New York and a lot of strange things happened there. When her lift arrived she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, she was fully aware that any monsters in the are would be honing in on her scent and tracking her down- she wanted to leave before she was forced to fight a pissed off dracaenae.

A loud crack sounded only a few metres away from her, causing Phoebe's head to whip around and find the cause of it. Normally a noise like that would have gone under her radar in such a loud and busy place, but seeing as Phoebe was paying extra attention for anything unusual, this caught her attention.

Turning around, she caught sight of a red-haired man who definitely hadn't been there a moment ago. The man had longish hair and a large earring that looked like a fang, not the average attire worn around town, but Phoebe had definitely seen stranger. He was talking to a stunned looking girl and Phoebe strained her ears to hear what he was saying.

"Are you Phoebe or do I have to obliviate you now?" The man asked wearily. This must be her lift then, Phoebe thought, raising an eyebrow.

"Who's Phoebe? Did you just threaten me?" The girl asked incredulously, looking like she was preparing to run.

"Fred's description really wasn't accurate enough," the man said with a sigh, before he subtly waved his wand and muttered something.

For a moment, the girl looked dazed, then she smiled at the man and continued on her way. Phoebe shook her head at what she had just witnessed and approached the man.

He looked at her hesitantly as she came up to him, like he was worried he would have to obliviate her as well.

"Hi, I'm Phoebe," She introduced with a wave.

"Huh, Fred really does have an American girlfriend, I thought he was having me on," the man mused, taking in Phoebe's appearance.

"Nope, I'm real," She confirmed with a laugh.

"We're going to apparate back," The man explained and Phoebe nodded like she knew what he was talking about, "Have you ever side done side-along apparition before?"

Phoebe shook her head and, much to her relief, the man explained what was going to happen.

"Just grab a hold of my arm and I'll apparate us back, it'll feel dreadful but we'll be there in seco- what the hell?"

The man cut off halfway through his sentence to stare at something in confused alarm. Phoebe turned to see what had caught him off guard and, to her horror, there was a hellhound charging full speed towards them, its teeth bared and a low growl erupting from its chest.

"Go!" Phoebe commanded, grabbing the man's arm.

"But what-?"

"Just go!" She repeated frantically.

With one final glance at the raging beast, the man 'apparated' away. For a terrible few seconds, Phoebe felt like she was being pushed through a tiny tube, all of her insides clenching together painfully. Then they arrived to wherever they were going and Phoebe dropped to her knees and proceeded to throw up her breakfast onto the sidewalk.

"What was that thing?" The man asked immediately, "I've never seen anything like it."

"Just an angry magical creature is all, native to North America," Phoebe lied, brushing off the incident, trying to get him to forget about the sight. Her voice was croaky and she groaned as she stood up.

"Sorry about that," The man said, stepping towards her and holding a hand out for her to take. She gratefully grabbed it, allowing him to haul her onto her feet.

"No worries," Phoebe said, wiping her mouth on her sleeve, "where are we?" She asked, looking up and down the street, which was made up entirely of tall apartment block buildings.

Instead of replying, the man held out a slip of paper with some words scrawled onto it: 12 grimmauld place.

Phoebe looked up again, about to ask the man where that was because it still didn't answer her question, when two of the buildings in front of them started to shake.

At first Phoebe thought an earthquake was happening and she thought it was just her luck that she would land in Britain right as the first major earthquake to happen there in years took place. Then she noticed that it was only those two shaking and that, as they parted, a new house was being revealed.

The house was probably identical to the others in the street at one point. However, over the years it looked like it had suffered from some serious neglect: its once grand features were old and falling apart, the paintwork was littered with chips and the windows were coated in dirt.

Fred had warned her about the poor condition of the house, however she had not been prepared for how dilapidated it was. When he described the building as grim, Phoebe thought he meant a little bit of dust or a few spiders crawling around - not an almost falling down building.

The man grinned at her face, which must have shown first absolute shock and then melted into apprehension and disgust.

"It's worse inside," he laughed, which didn't do much to help her feelings.

Phoebe realised with a jolt that she didn't even know this man's name and yet she had travelled across half the world with him. Draco would be tutting at her sense of self-preservation right about now.

"Sorry, I forgot to ask your name," Phoebe said, prompting the man to introduce herself.

"Oh right, sorry! I'm Bill Weasley, brother of the dolt you decided to get with," he exclaimed, holding his hand out for her to shake.

So this was Bill, Phoebe thought, taking in the man in front of her. Not what she had expected, though she wasn't sure what she expected really.

"Nice to meet you," Phoebe grinned, shaking his hand, "I'm Phoebe Haywood."

"So I've heard," The man nodded, "Come on, lets get inside." He tilted his head towards the house and began to climb the front steps to the door.

Phoebe followed him through the door and into a small hallway. She could hear voices ringing through various parts of the house, it was obvious there were quite a few people here.

The inside was much the same as the exterior, that is to say: old, gross and slightly falling apart. The hallway alone was crammed with old relics and objects that definitely couldn't be muggle and, to Phoebe's horror, the walls were decorated with the decapitated heads of house elves.

Despite the overall yuck vibes that the house gave off, it was clear to see that the occupants had at least attempted to clean the inside. There wasn't as much dust as Phoebe had thought there would be and the hallway looked pretty clean, even if it was dark and dingy.

A short and slightly chubby woman came bustling into the hallway, her red hair immediately marking her as a Weasley. The woman had soft features and looked like everything a mother was supposed to, not that Phoebe had much experience in the mother department, or even the father department.

Her dad, Lucas Haywood, had fallen into a depressed state soon after Aphrodite left him and dumped Phoebe with him. To forget about the pain of his lover, her dad buried himself in work, meaning he didn't spend an awful lot of time with Phoebe. The two of them weren't close, at all, but they held no negative feelings for each other; her dad had provided her with shelter and food and relative safety whilst growing up and now Phoebe returned the favour by keeping her distance, therefore keeping him safe from the monsters that hunted her and the pain the sight of her brought him.

Phoebe was brought back to the present when the woman pulled her in for a crushing hug. The hug was warm and felt safe and Phoebe couldn't help but sink into it. Phoebe could only assume that this was Molly Weasley - the mother of the family.

"Fred! Phoebe's here!" The woman shouted as she pulled away from Phoebe, giving the girl a once over before smiling warmly at her again.

"It's nice to meet you Phoebe! I've heard so much about you from all my children, it seems you've made quite the impression on them," Mrs Weasley exclaimed all in one breath.

Phoebe laughed nervously, "All good things I hope."

"Of course! They all adore you, you know," Phoebe blushed at this statement, feeling a rush of fondness for her magic friends.

"Come in, come in!" She said, waving her and Bill through a door and into a lounge.

On a lumpy looking sofa sat a man with black hair that just brushed his chin. He turned around as the three of them entered the room, a grin adorned his face, but his eyes seemed tired and the smile seemed forced.

Phoebe opened her mouth to introduce herself, but he got there before her.

"Hi, yes, I'm Sirius Black, no I didn't kill all those people, nice to meet you," he said casually.

Phoebe blinked, glancing around at the room's other occupants in hope for an explanation.

"Hi, I'm Phoebe Haywood. I don't have a clue what you're talking about, sorry," she admitted.

The man looked shocked and when Phoebe glanced at Mrs Weasley and Bill, she saw that they mirrored his expression.

"Sirius Black? Ex mass murderer? The first person to ever escape Azkaban? Surely you must have heard of me, that's a pretty big achievement." The man said, looking absolutely astounded that she didn't recognise him.

"Oh right, yeah." Phoebe nodded, "I heard something about the first person to escape Azkaban, I just didn't realise it was you," she lied.

"I'm glad you didn't actually kill all those people," she finished awkwardly.

At that moment, Fred bounded through the doors, saving her from having to bullshit her way through anymore conversations for the moment.

"Hey, you found her alright then?" Fred grinned, throwing an arm over Phoebe's shoulder as he spoke to Bill.

"No. Telling me to grab the first pretty girl I saw was not useful information at all," Bill grumbled.

Phoebe laughed at this information, no one wonder Bill had seemed so confused when he reached central park.

"You still found her, so it was obviously accurate enough," Fred grinned cheekily.

Before anyone else could reply, he was dragging Phoebe out of the room.

"C'mon let's catch you up with everyone," he said.

"Fred! I haven't had the chance to meet her properly yet," Mrs Weasley tried to call her son back, but to no avail.

"You can see her at lunch!" Fred shouted down the stairs.

Phoebe shook her head at his antics, but was too happy to be with him again to scold him. They came to a stop outside a door where several faniliar voices could be heard. Before they entered, Fred pressed a small kiss to her lips, "I missed you."

"I missed you too," Phoebe smiled.

They stepped into the room, where Phoebe was immediately bombarded with greetings and a rush of hugs. 

word count: 2080

i was trying to revise, instead i updated this