Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

51. The Dark Mark

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice Y/n saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming only grew louder.

The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Y/n recognized one of them, Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand, her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.

"That's sick." Ron muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. "That is really sick..."

Hermione and Ginny came hurrying toward them, pulling coats over their nightdresses, with Mr. Weasley right behind them. At the same moment, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers and Mr. Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer.

"We need to move...Now!" Y/n said urgently to the others as he turned around.

"C'mon." said Fred, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the wood. Harry, Ron, Y/n, Hermione, and George followed. They all looked back as they reached the trees. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever, they could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the center, but they were having great difficulty. It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Roberts family fall.

The colored lanterns that had lit the path to the stadium had been extinguished. Dark figures were blundering through the trees, children were crying, anxious shouts and panicked voices were reverberating around them in the cold night air. Harry felt himself being pushed hither and thither by people whose faces he could not see. Then they heard Ron yell with pain.

"What happened?" said Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Harry walked into her.

"Ron, where are you?" Y/n called out as he pulled out his wand. "Lumos!"

His wand illuminated and he directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground.

"Tripped over a tree root," Ron said angrily, and Y/n quickly helped him get back to his feet again.

"Well, with feet that size, hard not to." said a drawling voice from behind them.

Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione turned sharply. Y/n pointed his wand forward and there they saw Draco Malfoy, leaning against a tree.

Y/n noticed his brother Atticus was standing looking utterly relaxed. His hands placed in his pockets, He and Malfoy seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees.

Ron told Malfoy to do something that Y/n knew he would never have dared say in front of Mrs. Weasley.

"Language, Weasley." said Malfoy, his pale eyes glittering.

"Hadn't you all better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you Y/n?" Atticus grinned and nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.