"Don't tell your mother you've been gambling," Dad implored Fred and George, as we made our way slowly down the purple- carpeted stairs.
"Don't worry, Dad," Fred said gleefully. "We've got big plans for this money, we don't want it confiscated."
Dad looked for a moment as though he was going to ask what these big plans were, but seemed to decide, upon reflection, that he didn't want to know.
We were soon caught up in the crowds now flooding out of the stadium and back to their campsites. Raucous singing was borne towards us on the night air as we retraced our steps along the lantern-lit path. When we finally reached the tents, nobody felt like sleeping at all and, given the level of noise around us, we obviously threw a party in celebration.
Viktor Krum was staying in the tent with us, and apparently he had been friends with the Wrights, Vellanis, Graces, Soveralls, Greenblatts, Whites and Adams' for years, given he knew how to actually say everyone's names. He kept calling Hermione Hermy-own-nene. Ginny and I were never going to let her forget it.
Bonnie had been smart enough to put a silencing charm on the tent, but others hadn't. From the other side of the campsite we could still hear much singing, and the odd echoing bang.
"Oh, I am glad I'm not on duty," Dad muttered. "I wouldn't fancy having to go and tell the Bulgarians they've got to stop celebrating."
Bonnie laughed, settling against the couch cushions. "You were amazing," Nora gushed.
"Thank you," Bonnie sighed. Savannah leaned against her, her heads in her mother's lap, and Krum was on the other side with Charlotte's head on his shoulder. They looked adorably like a little family.
Mary smiled from her cozy armchair. "Thanks for the invitation Bon, you were incredible, just like old times," she said, and the adults smiled sadly.
There was silence before George spoke. "Can I ask you something?" he looked at Bonnie, who sighed.
"What did we say, Weaslebee?" Savannah groaned at him.
"It's fine, Sana, really," Bonnie stroked her hair. "Shoot."
"You went to Hogwarts, didn't you? Why didn't you play for England? Why did you choose the Bulgarian team?" George asked.
Bonnie closed her eyes. "I didn't get much of a choice. It was a time when women were expected to be wives, not independent. No Quidditch teams wanted a women. I wouldn't be here without your father, James Potter."
I sat up. "What?"
Bonnie chuckled. "James and I were on the same Quidditch Team. During the war, we met up, and he asked me how my career was going. I told him the truth, and he thought that was the biggest pile of bull shit he had ever heard in his life. He wouldn't understand, because he had the three things that guaranteed him life time immunity," she said.
"What were they?" Charlie asked.
"He was a rich male pureblood, and that means he has everything. Even a rich pureblood woman wouldn't be able to get far without a husband. James wouldn't accept my defeat, and reached out to an old acquaintance of his, trying to find non-sexist Quidditch Teams. Bulgaria was the only one that responded, and I got paid the same as a male chaser. After my first match, England wanted me on their team, but would only be willing to pay a third of what they would pay a man. I turned it down, and have stayed with Bulgaria ever since," Bonnie finished.
The males were silent, looking deep in thought.
Their thoughts were interrupted by screaming outside. We shot up, and I ran outside to look. The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. I could hear screams, and the could see dimly people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field towards them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light, and noises like gunfire. Loud jeering, roars of laughter and drunken yells were drifting towards them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene.
A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upwards, was marching slowly across the field. Their heads were hooded and their faces masked. High above them, floating along in mid-air, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes.
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 one of the marchers blast a tent out of their way with their wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.
The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent, and I recognised 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; she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.
"That's sick," Ron muttered, appearing next to me and 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 ..."
Everyone hurried out of the tent, gasping. Mary burst into tears, apparating away immediately with her daughter. Xenophilius clutched Luna's arm, disapparating.
"Sarah, Viktor, you're in charge. Get them out of here, get into the woods and stick together!" Bonnie instructed. "We're going to help the Ministry, we'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"
Bill, Charlie and Percy were already sprinting away towards the oncoming marchers; Dad and the others tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction towards the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer.
"Come on, go! Girls with me, boys with Viktor. If you get in trouble, place your left hand over the middle quidditch hoop on your sweater and whisper either mine or Viktor's name, and we'll find you," Sarah instructed, ushering us all towards the woods.
I looked back as we 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 coloured 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.
We turned around to continue, but someone grabbed my wrist. I turned back around and looked into Kyla's mischievous eyes. "Wanna see why everyone's so scared of Ariana Greenblatt," she pointed back.
Ariana was miles away, but I could feel her fury. She attacked the swarm of Death Eaters, blasting them with her wandless green glow of magic. Any Death Eater that tried to go near her was blasted across the clearing field, some of their heads got ripped off. Everyone else seemed to stay away, Bonnie was using her own purple glow of wandless magic to wrap a protective purple bubble around the Roberts Family, holding them up in the air away from Ariana's fury.
Half of the Death Eaters apparated away as Ariana finished the rest of them off before spinning on her heel and walking towards the woods straight at us. Bonnie lowered the Roberts family and the others followed Ariana, letting the Ministry deal with the Death Eaters.
I turned and looked at Kyla, who was smirking. "Terrifying, isn't she? Oi you lot!" she shouted into the trees. "It's over, she did an Ariana Greenblatt!" No one responded.
And suddenly, something vast, green and glittering erupted from a patch of darkness: it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.
"What the –?" Kyla gasped, staring up at the thing that had appeared.
It was a colossal skull, composed of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. It rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation. It had risen high enough to illuminate the entire wood.
The Dark Mark.
Suddenly, the wood all around us erupted with screams. Kyla looked so pale she looked like she was about to faint. I turned around to see Ariana freeze, her eyes narrowing. Half of the Ministry officials, Dad, Ariana, Bonnie, McKenna and Iman apparated away, but Charlie, Sadie and Remus ran to us. Charlie's shirt was ripped and he had a worried expression on her face.
"Are you two stupid!?" Sadie shouted at her daughter. Kyla just stared mutely at the green skull in the sky.
"Back to the tent, now. Remus, help me search the woods for the others," Sadie instructed, and he nodded.
"Sarah told the girls to stick with her and the boys to stick with Krum. Harry, Ron and Hermione definitely disobeyed," I told them, and Lupin chuckled, the two running into the woods.
"Dude, what Ariana did was so badass," I told Kyla, who laughed as we started walking back. "What do you mean by 'she did an Ariana Greenblatt?'"
Kyla gave me a look. "You don't know the story of Ariana Greenblatt? Okay so basically, Ariana became friends with Sirius's little brother Regulus, and Luna's mum, and a bunch of their Slytherin friends.
"After Hogwarts, Regulus died, Dorcas died, Evan died, Marlene died, James died, Lily died, Peter died, Sirius was a traitor, the Longbottoms . . . well I'll let Neville tell you about that. Ariana got pissed off so she went on a rampage and killed a whole lot of Death Eaters. After the war, she was all depressed, but all of her friends were busy, the only one left was Barty Crouch Jr. They got super close, and then four Death Eaters got arrested for . . . what happened to the Longbottoms, and Ariana found out that one of them was Barty.
"She was furious, went on another rampage and arrested a whole bunch of Death Eaters. Eventually, she calmed down. One day she ran into her friends, they went to the park with their kids, and when they were going back up to the parking lot, Caridy and Rebekah exploded it. They found out they were magic, and then started helping the family. Louella got Ariana to channel her anger into becoming a lawyer, and now she's one of the best lawyers in England," Kyla finished as we arrived at the tent.
"What happened to the Longbottoms?" I asked Charlie, who shook his head. I looked back at Kyla as there was a shout behind us.
Lupin appeared at the tree line with Viktor Krum, Pietro, Remus, Lawrence, Elijah, Tristan, Lucas, and Fred and George, basically all the boys except Harry and Ron. They ran to us, and the twins hugged me and Charlie tightly.
"God, overprotective much," I muttered, but didn't pull away. "Where are the girls?"
At that moment, Sarah, Ellarose, Matilda, Aubrey, Dove, Celeste, Ginny, Savannah, Charlotte, Caridy, Rebekah, Bridget, Ashley, MJ, Freya, Nora, Nevaeh, Halley and Nina emerged from the woods, basically all the girls except Hermione, and ran over to us. Ginny hugged me tightly, and Lupin ushered us all into the tent.
"What happened?" Fred asked.
"You two never caught up with us," Sarah glared at Kyla and I.
"We were trying to help, hanging far enough back, but ready if they needed it," Kyla lied.
"Liar, you just wanted to watch Ari do her thing," Caridy rolled her eyes.
"Okay, yeah, that had something to do with it, but then the Dark Mark appeared and --"
"Wait - what?" Aubrey ran outside, her sisters right behind her. They came back in after a second, pale white and being ushered in by Bill and Percy. Percy's nose was bleeding, and Bill's arm.
"What happened!?" Lupin grabbed Bill's arm and tapped it with his wand, healing it in seconds before doing the same to Percy's nose.
"Death Eaters. Old supporters letting us know they're still out there. Managed to get a whole bunch thanks to your mother," Bill looked at Bridget and Tristan, "but a whole lot got away. Where are Harry, Ron and Hermione?"
Everyone looked around. "Oh they 100% disobeyed you and got separated and didn't do what you told us to do and almost got murdered," I stated.
The tent door opened and the a woman with dark brown hair stepped inside, and immediately Celeste, Aubrey and Dove straightened. "Master and Mistress Matthews require you back at the manor now," she said in a posh voice, her head held high.
"Yes Miss Howkins," all three girls said in unison, walking towards her. They simultaneously turned their heads to look back. "Goodbye, thank you for having us," they said in unison before exiting, the woman following right behind.
"What was that about?" Bill frowned.
"Their parents are super regal, they're descendants of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw and have to look like posh stuck-up princesses whenever they're around," Ginny explained.
The flap opened again, and Dad entered, Harry, Ron and Hermione coming in after him.
"Did you get them, Dad?" Bill asked sharply. "The person who conjured the Mark?"
"No," Dad shook his head. "We found Barty Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but we're none the wiser about who actually conjured the Mark."
"What?" Bill, Charlie and Percy said together.
"Harry's wand?" Fred exclaimed.
"Mr Crouch's elf?" Percy gaped, sounding thunder-struck.
With some assistance from Harry, Ron and Hermione, Dad explained what had happened in the woods. When they had finished their story, Percy swelled indignantly.
"Well, Mr Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that!" he said. "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 had up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control –"
"She didn't do anything – she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Hermione snapped at Percy, who looked very taken aback. Hermione had always got on fairly well with Percy – better, indeed, than any of the others.
"Hermione, a wizard in Mr Crouch's position can't afford a house-elf who's going to run amok with a wand!" Percy said pompously, recovering himself.
"She didn't run amok!" Hermione shouted. "She just picked it up off the ground!"
"Look, can someone just explain what that skull thing was?" Ron asked impatiently. "It wasn't hurting anyone ... why's it such a big deal?"
"It's Voldemort's symbol," Kyla told him, making half of the room flinch. "Any time his Death Eaters would kill someone, they'd put it above the house. The terror it inspired, just picture coming home, and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find inside ... everyone's worst fear ... the very worst ... it hasn't been seen for thirteen years."
There was silence for a moment. "Well, it didn't help us tonight, whoever conjured it. It scared the Death Eaters away the moment they saw it. They all Disapparated before we'd got near enough to unmask any of them, and the ones Ariana killed, well they're in too much of a state. Iman Vellani is modifying their memories right now."
"Death Eaters?" Harry asked. "What are Death Eaters?"
"It's what You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves," Sarah explained. "I think we saw what's left of them tonight – the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway."
"We can't prove it was them, though it probably was," Dad sighed.
"Yeah, I bet it was!" Ron said suddenly. "Dad, we met Draco Malfoy in the woods, and he as good as told us his dad was one of those nutters in masks! And we all know the Malfoys were right in with You-Know-Who!"
"But what were You-Know-Who's supporters up to, levitating Muggles? I mean, what was the point?"
"The point?" Dad said with a hollow laugh. "Harry, that's their idea of fun. Half the Muggle killings back when You-Know-Who was in power were done for fun. I suppose they had a few drinks tonight and couldn't resist reminding us all that lots of them are still at large. A nice little reunion for them," he finished disgustedly.
"But if they were the Death Eaters, why did they Disapparate when they saw the Dark Mark?" Ron said. "They'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"
"Use your brains, Ron," Savannah sighed. "If they really were Death Eaters, they worked really hard to keep out of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power, and told all sorts of lies about him forcing them to kill and torture people. I bet they'd be even more frightened than the rest of us to see him come back. They denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers, and went back to their daily lives ... I don't reckon he'd be over-pleased with them, do you?"
"So ... whoever conjured the Dark Mark ..." Hermione said slowly, "were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"
"All you need to know is I'm going to rip all of their heads off their pretty little bodies and shove it up their arses," Ariana stalked inside and marched down the hallway, her children following after us.
"Your guess is as good as ours, Hermione," Bonnie sighed from the tent. "But it was only the Death Eaters who ever knew how to conjure it. I'd be very surprised if the person who did it hadn't been a Death Eater once, even if they're not now ... Listen, it's very late, we'll get a few more hours' sleep and then I'll arrange for an early Portkey out of here for you guys."
I got into bed with my head buzzing, Ginny ditched her own room, preferring to sleep with me like we always did. She fell asleep ages before me. I knew I ought to feel exhausted; it was nearly three in the morning, but I felt wide awake – wide awake, and worried.
Three days ago – it felt like much longer, but it had only been three days – I had awoken with my scar burning. And tonight, for the first time in thirteen years, Lord Voldemort's Mark had appeared in the sky.
What did these things mean?