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"It can't be..." you gasp. The air around you felt thick and hard to inhale. You started to feel light-headed at the sight before you.
The darkened sky was illuminated by flaming torches that were held by hooded figures. Those figures were easy to determine as Death Eaters, marching through the frenzied crowd and setting fire to anything around them.
The noise was the worst part of it. Gut-wrenching screams and loud explosions resounded through the fields, only adding to the chaos. You could even smell something putrid burning, but you didn't want to think about what it could be.
It was just like your nightmare from the night before, and that fact alone was enough to terrify you.
"What is it?" Harry whispered to you. He knew something was wrong, not only with the horrifying sight in front of you both, but he knew something was wrong with you specifically.
"Later. I'll tell you later." you murmur, still trying to take everything in. Everything around you looked eerily familiar and that only added to the fear that had seeped into your body.
"Are you... okay?" he asked again, "Your hand just got all sweaty."
"I don't know if I'm right about it yet, it could all be in my head." you think aloud, already doubting yourself as you try to disconnect yourself from what you'd just realised.
Harry looked at you as he tried to figure out what you were thinking, he was getting more and more concerned for you with every second that passed.
You noticed this and dismissed it quickly, "I'll tell you when we're safe, we need to run." you say firmly, and luckily for you, he doesn't push any further.
"Get back to the portkey everybody, and stick together." Mr Weasley commanded, already separating from the group to try and help combat the chaos with the rest of the Ministry workers, "Fred, George... Ginny is your responsibility."
That sentence made everything seem so much more real to you. A cold feeling washed over you, something that was all too familiar.
Fred and George took off, gesturing for everyone else to do the same. Fred had a firm hold on Ginny's arm to make sure she was safe. George was trying to make sure that Ron and Hermione were keeping up, but eventually returned to his twin's side to help protect his younger sister. This left you and Harry sticking together in the middle of the group.
Weaving through the onslaught of panicked people proved to be incredibly difficult. Your group ended up becoming less tightly-knit with every person that bashed into you.
After one particularly harsh impact, Harry's hand left yours as he fell to the ground. You couldn't react fast enough to stay by his side, and you were swept along with the rest of the crowd away from him.
You struggled against the flow of people, calling out his name helplessly. But no matter how hard you tried, your brother soon faded out of sight.
"So much for keeping him safe." you think to yourself, feeling your heart sink at your incapability to stay by Harry's side.
Now that you knew struggling would get you nowhere, you tried rationalising, telling yourself that Harry could take care of himself, but you still couldn't help but worry.
You swallowed heavily, then turned to the Weasley trio to make sure that you didn't get separated from them too. You were lagging behind slightly, you you reached out and grabbed the sleeve of the ginger who was closest to you.
"Are you alright?" George asks, turning when he feels you grip the hem of his sweater, struggling to match his long strides.
"Harry got separated, and Ron and Hermione are gone too." you say, rather panicked at the disappearances of the younger kids.
"They'll be okay," he replied, though you could see he was also trying to reassure himself whilst saying it. He removed your fist from his jumper, but kept a tight hold on your wrist as he kept surging forwards with you in tow, "We just need to focus on getting out of here."
You nodded, not feeling the need to respond out loud. Using the sleeve of your sweater, you tried rubbing the smoke from your eyes with your free arm, but that proved to be dangerous whilst running across a muddy field so you soon decided against it. Your eyes would have to sting from the ash for just a little longer.
The others seemed to be struggling with this issue too, because you noticed them screwing their eyes shut every once in a while.
After what felt like an eternity, you, Fred, Ginny and George stood by the old boot on the hill that you'd arrived upon the morning before. The others were nowhere to be seen, you couldn't help but let the irrational stress start to eat at you again.
"I want to go back and find the others." you say after a few moments of silence, "I need to know that they're okay."
"Y/n," Ginny catches you off-guard with the use of your name instead of some wildly stupid nickname, "They can handle themselves perfectly fine."
"I know, but our brothers are out there, we can't just wait for them to come back and find us!" you insist, unintentionally letting your anxiousness swallow you even more.
"I know, but none of us can go back into that." George adds, placing a reassuring hand between your shoulder blades, "Especially you. You're a bloody Potter, and there are Death Eaters out there."
The touch and his words do nothing to comfort you, if anything it made you feel a little worse. Now you were also feeling a slight twinge of guilt, maybe you were making too much of a scene and it was embarrassing the others? You didn't want to dwell on it because you knew deep inside that the overthinking voice in your head wasn't right.
George keeps his hand on your back, stroking up and down every so often as if to remind you of his presence. Nobody says another word, not wanting to vocalise anything that would increase the fear that had already enveloped your group.
Everyone stayed like that for a while, and as the sound from the field started to fade away, so did the tightly-wound ball of anxiety inside of your chest.
But that's when the Dark Mark appeared in the sky, writhing and hissing above the forest on the edge of the campsite. The horrible feeling that you'd just fought off had returned instantly. You could feel your heart stop and your body start shaking from the shock alone.
You'd never seen it in person before, only in a book that you'd taken from the restricted section. It was so much more horrifying in real smoke instead of a book's ink.
"Guys." you whisper, suddenly feeling the need to be as quiet as possible, "Look over there."
You watched as all of their faces fell when they saw the snake-tongued skull hanging far away in the sky. Even though there was a great distance between you and the Dark Mark, it still set you on edge, like something world-shattering was about to happen.
"That can't be good." Ginny murmured, and her brothers hummed in agreement.
The four of you waited with baited breath for any positive sign from the others, but it was a while until anything came.
As the time crawled on by, the incessant tapping of your foot increased. At one point Fred even threatened to step on your toes to make you stop doing it.
Suddenly four figures slowly approached your clearing, and your hand immediately gravitated to your wand like one magnet to another. From the corner of your eye, you saw the twins do the same as they stepped in front of you and Ginny.
As the figures climbed higher up the hill, you got a better look at them and were relieved when you saw Mr Weasley leading Harry, Ron and Hermione towards you.
"Harry!" you grin, jogging over to him, "Are you alright?"
"Scar hurts." he grunted bluntly, rubbing his forehead, "But the Ministry thinks I conjured the mark."
You scoff at the Ministry's accusation, knowing it'd be completely illogical for Harry of all people to summon the Dark Mark, "They just want someone to blame, it'll be fine." you say, tugging him into a warm hug.
Your brother reluctantly wrapped his arms around you and let himself relax after what he'd just been through, but then yelped when you pulled away and smacked him in the arm.
"But don't you dare make me worry like that again." you scowl, fighting back a smile when you see Harry's look of betrayal.
"I'm sure she grew a few grey hairs from all of the stressing she did whilst you were gone." George teases, approaching the pair of you and carelessly slinging an arm around your shoulders to pull you closer to his side.
"Don't make me hit you too." you say, glaring daggers at the ginger boy, who did not find you threatening whatsoever.
He only raised his arms and takes a short step away from you in defense, "Calm down Miss Potter, theres no need for us to fight." he smirks.
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George was right, there was no need to fight him over that because everyone managed to get onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters safely.
Right now, he was asleep next to you. It'd been only thirty minutes since you'd boarded the Hogwarts Express and he'd already submitted to his exhaustion, folding his arms on the table and resting his head on them. It was a wonder that he didn't wake up from all of Lee's excited yelling.
You and Fred had been recounting the events of the Quidditch World Cup, not sparing any detail about the match itself or the aftermath that came with it. Because Lee wasn't there himself, he had been grilling you and Fred about it, wanting to know about every little thing that happened.
"According to Dad there was loads of security, that's what's worrying the Ministry the most," Fred explained, "It happened right under their noses."
"I don't understand how that many of them could've gotten in there." you sigh, "It was so sudden too."
"It sounds unbelievable." Lee agreed, "I'd be worried about people infiltrating the Ministry and feeding information to the outside. Y'know, to his people."
You grimaced at the thought, but you knew that Lee could be right, and he probably was. Everything in the muggle world was already too corrupt as it is, having a corrupt Ministry could easily mean the end for absolutely everyone.
That thought was tough to bury in your head, but as time passed, you managed to force it to the back of your mind. Instead you focused on the story that Lee was telling you about something that happened on his holiday.
The rest of the journey to Hogwarts went similarly to that; telling eachother stories and making jokes. At one point you tried seeing how many empty chocolate frog boxes you could balance of George's head without waking him up. (Your personal record was six boxes before your tower fell over).
When the tall tips of the Hogwarts towers came into sight, you excitedly shook George's arm. He groaned and squinted at the light as he woke, grumbling a few complaints.
"What time is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and trying to tame his wild hair.
"Doesn't matter. Look, we're almost here!" you cheer, pointing past him and over to the spires of Hogwarts, to which you were growing ever closer.
"I'm still exhausted." he groans out, burying his head back into his arms.
"Why are you so tired, sleepyhead?" you laugh, gently prodding at his arm.
"Couldn't sleep well." he replied vaguely, causing you to frown in concern.
You looked to Fred, silently questioning whether or not he knew what his brother meant. He only shrugged and mouthed, "Your guess is as good as mine."
"Well you should at least appreciate the sweets I bought for you." you say, trying to lightheartedly get him to wake up more.
Apparently that worked because George's head suddenly shot upwards, "Huh?" he gasped, raising his eyebrows at you.
You smile and gesture to the small bundle of untouched sweets that lay on the compartment table amongst the other piles of opened packets.
"I took a liquorice wand though, sorry mate." Lee admits, but his cheeky grin contradicts his apology.
George jokingly glares at him, then grabs a box of Every-Flavoured Beans. He mumbles a quick, "Thank you." to you before digging in, letting out a quiet sigh of relief when an artificial cherry flavouring bleeds onto his tongue.
When the Hogwarts Express eventually stops in the station, George is already halfway through his box of beans. Your feet are tapping against the floor rapidly until you stand and grab your trunk to leave.
"Hurry it up, Y/n!" Fred called over his shoulder, stepping off of the train and onto the station platform, "I want that feast as soon as possible."
"You sound like Ron." you scoff, stepping into place between the twins as you searched for an empty carriage.
Fred tried tripping you up as a retort to your comment, but ended up failing miserably and getting mud all over his shoes and even on the rolled-up cuffs of his trousers.
You, George and Lee kept laughing at him about that failed attempt for most of the carriage journey, which took an unusually short amount of time in comparison to all of the other times you'd been on it.
The carriages seemed to be moving faster than usual, like the mysterious force that pulled them was eager to arrive at the entrance of the castle as soon as possible. This was something you were all mutually glad about, because by now you were all hungry despite all the sweets you'd stuffed yourself with only an hour ago.
Lee split off to catch up with some of his other friends, leaving you and the twins to navigate your way towards the hall in the freezing wind.
"Blimey, it's cold out here." George complained, tightening the warmth of his scarf around his neck. It was a wonder that he wasn't choking because of the fabric that was practically strangling him.
"Then hurry it up Georgie." you chide, speeding up to be walking in front of the twins to emphasise your words.
"Yeah, Georgie." Fred says, changing the pitch of his voice to mimic yours and elbowing his brother in the side.
Your pace slows when you see a cluster of people standing frozen in front of you. Their eyes were all trained on the sky, each of them squinting as if they were looking for something. But you were quick to realise that they were actually looking at something.
"It's right over there, do you see it?" you hear a second-year Hufflepuff whisper to one of her friends. You only get more confused by this, because you can't see anything in the thick clouds.
Fred and George had caught up to you by now, and were seemingly just as confused as you were. But wanting to see what everyone was looking at, they grabbed you and shuffled between the gaps in the crowd to get closer to the edge.
Only then did you see the tiny speck that was dancing in the sky. It seemed to grow closer and closer with every passing second.
"What's going on?" Fred mumbles to himself.
"More importantly, what's that..?" George replies, confirming that he spotted the unknown thing as well. His brother was still staring in the wrong direction.
Both you and George pointed up through the clouds, and Fred let out a quiet, "Oh." when he finally laid eyes on it.
When the 'it' finally got close enough, you saw that it was a giant carriage being pulled through the air by a group of elegant, snow-white pegasus. The carriage itself was a beautiful shade of pale blue, accented by hints of gold that glistened when a stray beam of light hit it. The reigns of the flying horses were a matching gold.
You took a moment to internally question the physics of it, but then you mentally slap yourself when you remember that it's most definitely enchanted with a variety of different spells to steadily keep it in the air.
"Clear the runway!" Hagrid bellowed as the carriage descended closer to the ground. You didn't even know that Hogwarts had a runway, and nobody else seemed to know either.
"Well there's something you certainly don't see every day." you chuckle, watching as the gamekeeper waved wooden paddles to guide the pegasi to the correct area. It reminded you of a muggle airport that you'd seen on TV.
"Look over there!" George called from behind you, pointing over your shoulder in the direction of the black lake.
As he did so, he stepped forward slightly, making sure you'd follow his finger so you wouldn't miss what he was seeing. His chest pressed against the planes of your shoulder blades as he leaned closer, buzzing with enthusiasm.
You didn't reply, quietly watching as a large, wooden ship breaks through the surface of the murky water, emerging from the deepest depths of the lake.
The boat itself was dotted with windows, and even from your distant position from it, you could see that it was bustling full of life. You glanced back over at the carriage, and you couldn't see inside of it to compare.
"What the bloody hell is going on?" Fred gasps, eyeing the gigantic ship with an expression of pure awe.
"I have no clue," George replies, "But it's got to mean that something wicked is going to happen this year."
"I sure hope so." you grin, turning back to face the twins.
Before you could say a single word more, Professor McGonagall came out of nowhere and started hurrying everyone towards the Great Hall. Ogling at the mysterious arrivals would have to wait until later - you hoped you could get a closer look at both of them.
"Come on students, there's no time to be gawking." McGonagall says authoritatively.
"But Professor, aren't you going to tell us what's going on?" the twins cry in sync, but to their dismay, they get no answer and are left to wait in suspense like everybody else.
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