"What?" Bill, Charlie, and Percy exclaimed together.
"Hold still," Althea said, drawing her wand and quickly muttering, "Vulnera Sanentur."
Instantly, the gash healed over into a scar.
"Harry's wand?" Fred repeated.
"Mr Crouch's elf?" Percy said incredulously.
"Did a spell do this?" Althea asked.
Bill nodded.
"Then, that may be the best I can do," she admitted, cleaning away the rest of the blood. "The best most anyone could do, anyway."
She quickly broke off and Bill didn't respond as Mr Weasley explained the three's story about how they had gotten separated, and went on until they had gotten to a clearing before they heard a deep voice shout the spell.
When Mr Weasley had finished explaining how the Ministry attacked them before eventually finding the wand in the house elf's hand, Percy exclaimed indignantly, "Well, Mr Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that! Running away when he'd expressly told her not to...embarrassing him in front of the whole Ministry...how would that have looked, if she'd been brought up in front of the Department of Magical Control-"
"It's not all about pride, Percy!" Althea retorted angrily. "What does it matter if the Ministry sees-"
Before she could finish, Hermione cried, "She didn't do anything - she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!"
Getting over his surprise at being shouted at by both the mild-mannered Althea and Hermione, of whom Percy had always thought very highly, Percy snapped, "A wizard in Mr Crouch's position can't afford a house elf who's going to run amok with a wand!"
"She wasn't running amok!" Hermione retorted angrily. "She just picked it up off the ground!"
"Look, can someone just explain what that skull thing was?" Ron interrupted loudly. "It wasn't hurting anyone. Why's it such a big deal?"
"I told you, it's You-Know-Who's symbol, Ron," Hermione answered. "I read about it in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."
"And it hasn't been seen for thirteen years," Mr Weasley added. "Of course people panicked...it was almost like seeing You-Know-Who back again."
Seeing Ron was still confused, Althea explained, "Ron, Voldemort-" everyone aside from Harry flinched "-and his followers placed that mark above the homes where they'd killed. It was everyone's worst fear to come home and find that mark hanging above their home because everyone knew what it meant. It was a symbol of death."
"Well, it didn't help us tonight, whoever conjured it," Bill remarked, checking over the scar Althea had left behind before tossing aside the bloody sheet. "It scared the Death Eaters away the moment they saw it. They all Disapparated before we'd got near enough to unmask them. We caught the Robertses before they hit the ground, though. They're having their memories modified right now."
"Those were Death Eaters?" Althea said, going deadly pale.
"We can't prove it was them, Bill," Mr Weasley said. "Though, it probably was."
"What are Death Eaters?" Harry asked.
"It's what You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves," Bill explained. "I think we saw what's left of them tonight - the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway."
Remembering what Neville had told her about what Death Eaters had done to his parents, Althea sat down, looking paler and shakier than her friends or anyone else had ever seen her.
"But what were Voldemort's supporters," Harry began, making all but Althea flinch again, "Sorry. What were You-Know-Who's supporters up to, levitating Muggles? I mean, what was the point?"
"They did things like that all the time, Harry," Althea whispered. "Mum told me stories once of the time from when she and your parents and...everyone else were fighting him. They spent half their time trying to protect muggles. Things like that...it's fun for them, Harry."
"They probably had a few drinks tonight and couldn't resist reminding us all that lots of them are still at large," Mr Weasley added bitterly. "A nice little reunion for them."
"I'm going to bed," Althea said suddenly.
No one stopped her as she left.
"Dad," Ron said hesitantly once she was gone. "Is there a reason hearing about Death Eaters bothers Thea so much?"
Mr Weasley was quiet a moment before he admitted, "Not that I know of, Ron. My best guess would just be that her mother was on the front lines fighting You-Know-Who all those years ago. She's probably been hearing stories all her life of the kinds of things they did. There were other things too, things only those directly fighting him even knew about."
"But she says his name," Ron said in confusion.
"Madam Black does too," Hermione said. "I always sort of got the impression she was raised away from everything. She may not even have known not to say the name."
"Very possibly," Mr Weasley agreed. "Listen, it's getting late, and if your mother hears what's happened she'll be worried sick. We'll get a few more hours sleep and then try and get an early portkey out of here." Turning to Bill, he asked, "Where's Ellis?"
Bill hesitated a moment before he admitted, "I don't know. He left the moment he saw the Death Eaters. I've never seen him so scared. He can face Inferi and some of the nastiest curses I've ever seen with a smile and a laugh, but this was different."
Mr Weasley frowned, but said nothing as he wondered the same thing they all were.