In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*Weasley Wedding

"Thank you," Bill smiled

The band had begun to play, Bill and Fleur took to the dance floor first, to great applause; after a while, Mr. Weasley led Madame Delacour onto the floor, followed by Mr. Weasley and Fleur's father.

The celebrations were absolutely beautiful and after such a long period of darkness and fear, Briar was simply relieved to be enjoying herself again, and seeing so many of her classmates was really nice

She shared many dances with Charlie and her dad, and seeing Viktor Krum there nearly made her faint in admiration, especially when she saw Gwenog Jones too. Both of her idols under one tent with her

Briar hadn't been allowed to join the Holyhead Harpies's summer training camp because of the threat of the Death Eaters and Voldemort, so she was glad to see Gwenog again so they could at least talk about quidditch and share ideas

But suddenly something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance. Then the Patronus's mouth opened wide and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt. "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

Time seemed to slow down all of a sudden, and it was as if some people weren't sure what to do, others were preparing for a fight, and most people were frantically trying to find their friends and families and leave

Masked figures began to appear and Briar tried to reach her dad, but the bustling and chaos of the panicked crowd made it difficult

Somebody behind her pushed past rather harshly and Briar lost her balance, causing her to go falling towards the floor, but a hand caught her before she could, and she looked up to see it was Ron

He pulled her to her feet and they both ducked in time to miss a green light being sent their way

"Dad!" she screamed, desperate to get to him and go, but there were too many death eaters between them and she knew they could kill her first

So Ron pulled her in the opposite direction, keeping a tight hand on her so they wouldn't get separated in the crowd

"Ron!" Hermione shouted and Briar could see she and Harry were pushing their way towards the pair. And when Hermione caught hold of Ron's other arm, sight and sound were extinguished as darkness and Briar felt like her insides were twisting around, until everything came still again and she opened her eyes to see that the four of them were now standing in the middle of a dark, but busy road

"Where are we?" said Ron

"Tottenham Court Road," panted Hermione. "Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change." They half walked, half ran up the wide dark street thronged with late-night revelers and lined with closed shops, stars twinkling above them. 

"Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into," Ron told her

"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?" said Harry, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. "All last year I kept it on me and –" 

"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you and Briar can borrow from me" saidHermione, "Just try and act naturally until – this will do." She led them down a side street, then into the shelter of a shadowy alleyway. 

"When you say you've got the Cloak, and clothes . . " said Harry, frowning at Hermione, who was carrying nothing except her small beaded handbag, in which she was now rummaging. 

"Yes, they're here," said Hermione, and she pulled out a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, some maroon socks, and finally the silvery Invisibility Cloak. 

"How the ruddy hell – ?"