They were all back in the tent. Ireland had won and Fred and George had been completely right in their bet which she was excited about and they talked about using the money to start their joke shop.
Everyone were joking around, happily celebrating a successful night. Fred and George were making fun of Ron who seemed to be having a crush on Victor Krum. Then they all heard loud noises from outside.
"Sounds like the Irish got their pride on," Fred said, gesturing towards the sounds they were hearing outside.
"Stop it! Stop!!" Arthur came in, yelling at them to stop joking around. "It's not the irish! We have to leave, now!"
They were all confused and Blake started to get a bad feeling about all this. They all quickly went out of the tent and the sight she saw when she stepped out made her blood run cold and she was frozen in place for a moment.
People were screaming and running in all directions and tents were on fire. But the most horrifying sight was the death eaters walking around and levitating muggles. It was utter chaos.
"Bill, Charlie, Percy and I will go help the Ministry. The rest of you, run to the woods! Fred, George; Ginny and Blake is your responsibility!" Arthur directed them, sounding stressed and looking around frantically.
They were about to walk away when Blake snapped out of her frozen state and was wondering why she had to run to the woods? She could help. She was great. "I'll come with you guys," she said, taking a few steps after them.
She didn't get far though because when Bill when heard this he quickly turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders harshly. "That's out of the question," a stern look on his face, making it clear that she was not going with them.
"But I can help! I'm 18, it's not like I'm a kid. I have just as much experience as Percy!" She tried to reason, looking between Bill who was still grabbing her shoulders, and Arthur who was standing a few feet behind Bill.
"It doesn't matter!" Bill raised his voice, sounding aggravated. "You could get hurt. You're going to the woods with the others." He said that part a bit lower, but was still very stern in his voice.
"Oh, and you can't get hurt?" She questioned, looking up at Bill defiantly, staring into his blue eyes.
"Bill is right Blake, you can't come. Now GO! Before it's too late!" Arthur told her and ushered for his sons to come with him. She knew it would be pointless to argue further and that they were wasting time, so she sighed in defeat and started running to the woods with the rest.
Blake stayed with Fred, George and Ginny. They got separated from Harry, Ron and Hermione. Fred held on tightly to Ginny, and George was holding onto Blake's hand. In the hand that wasn't holding on to George she held her wand.
Her body was pumping with adrenaline and fright as they ran through the chaos, the men in masks still levitating muggles and setting fires. People bumping into them while they ran and so many screams filled the night that started out so happy.
When they reached the forest they finally stopped and took some deep breaths, trying to collect themselves. That's when she saw Ron and Hermione running towards them. But where was Harry? Her head started spinning, thinking about where he could be and panic setting in.
"Oh thank Merlin, you're alright!" George said as they approached.
"Where is Harry?" Blake asked the two urgently.
"We lost him! We got separated and we couldn't find him!" Hermione was on the verge of tears but at that moment Blake couldn't think about Hermione's feelings, she was just worried about Harry. No one but them knew he was missing.
"YOU LOST HIM?!" She yelled at them, not really angry at them, but worried and anxious.
At that moment she made up her mind. She had to go look for him, Harry was her friend. Fred and George had to stay with Ginny, and Ron and Hermione were too young and this was dangerous. She knew more spells than all of them. It had to be her.
"I'm gonna go look for him, you guys wait here," she told them matter of factly.
"No! You can't go, you're staying here!" Fred protested and grabbed her hand, which she quickly yanked back.
"I'm sorry, but someone has to!" She called back as she started running, trying to block out the shouts of protests they were yelling at her.
She was running as fast as her legs would let her, adrenaline coursing through her body. She ran in the opposite direction of the crowd. Everyone was running from danger while she was running towards it. She ran right in the middle of all the screaming people, not caring who she knocked down or bumped into in the process. The only thing that went through her mind was 'find Harry'.
She tried to see if she could spot him amongst the people running but didn't see him and she started to fear the worst for her friend. Her heart was beating rapidly and soon she was back at the campground, tents still burning.
Bill had just made it to the forest with his dad and his siblings. In the distance he could see the rest of his siblings and their friends and they made their way over there.
When they got closer he tried to spot Blake amongst them but he couldn't see her. He began to look around frantically, searching for her. It felt like all the blood got drained from his face.
"Where is she?! Where is Blake?" Was the first thing he asked when he approached them. When Arthur heard this he started looking around as well, noticing that his son was right. She wasn't among them. Neither was Harry, Arthur realized.
"She ran back! She ran to look for Harry," Fred told Bill, very upset that his best friend was gone.
Bill got a dark look in his eyes. "You let her go!?" he yelled and grabbed Fred by the collar of his shirt, which made Fred angry as well.
"You think I would just let my best friend go?? We tried to stop her but she just took off!" he shouted back, upset that Bill accused him of this.
"Fighting won't help! We have to find them," Arthur told his kids, breaking up the fight. He told Bill, Charlie and Percy to come with him again and go looking for them.
"If something happens to her it's on you two!" Bill looked between Fred and George. He let Fred go and started running back to the campground.
The campground was almost deserted when Blake made it back. She didn't see any death eaters anymore but knew they could still be around. She wanted to shout and call for Harry but was scared someone else might hear. If the death eaters were still here she didn't want to lead them right to her.
So she started looking around, running around the deserted grounds. She would sometimes call out Harry's name in a whisper shout in case he was near, but she didn't find him and she was starting to get anxious. Suddenly something lit up the sky and she looked up to see what it was.
There, in the sky, something was beginning to form. She watched it slowly grow into a symbol that she thought she would never see in the sky. It was the dark mark. Normally that would mean someone had gotten killed by Voldemort or his followers and she got a sick feeling in her stomach, praying that it wasn't Harry who was dead.
She started running towards the general direction of the mark and when she got closer and closer, she saw someone on the ground move. To her relief it was Harry, and she let out a relieved laugh.
Harry heard this and turned to see Blake running towards him. He had never been more happy to see her. She helped him off the ground and wrapped him in a big hug, breathing heavily as her previous panic settled. Her relief was short lived though because when she pulled away from the hug she saw an outline of a man walking towards them.
Harry hadn't yet seen this since his back was facing the person walking towards them. When he got closer Blake could see him pulling his wand. She acted fast.
"Harry! Get behind me!" She shouted. She didn't give him much choice though because she grabbed his shoulders and shoved him behind her, as she heard the wizard in front of her cast a spell.
She barely had enough time to react, but pulled her wand quickly and shouted "protego!", protecting herself from being hit. She then shot a spell back, "reducto!"
He managed to duck away from her spell, and shot another spell at her, which she managed to block once again. The arm that wasn't holding her wand she had outstretched behind her, trying to keep Harry in place so that he wouldn't step out from behind her.
Just as she was about to cast another spell they heard voices approaching and the man that had been attacking them quickly ran away. She let Harry step out from behind her and they looked at each other with relief, glad they got away.
The voices that they had heard came closer and closer, and now they could see their faces and clothing. Blake noticed by their clothing that these people worked for the Ministry, which made her relax even more. But she shouldn't have relaxed that soon.
The Ministry men were coming from different directions and were now surrounding them. She spun around, looking at them confused and was just about to open her mouth to ask what was going on. Instead her confused face changed to a horrified one as she realized what was happening.
"Harry, GET DOWN!" Blake shouted when she saw them pull their wands and aiming them at her and Harry. Harry crouched down on the ground and Blake crouched down over Harry, concealing him from the spells that were now firing over their heads.
One spell hit her in her shoulder blade, making her scream out in pain and she could feel warm liquid start to run down her back. It had made a long gash. The pain disappeared soon though because she didn't have the energy to think about the pain, all she could think about and see were the different lights of the spells right above her. It felt like minutes but it couldn't have been more than seconds.
"STOP! They're with me! Stop!!" A voice yelled, and suddenly it became very quiet. The people shooting spells at them stopped. Blake didn't dare to let go of Harry though and didn't even look up. The voices she heard sounded muffled to her.
"Bill, Charlie, get them out of here," Arthur told his sons and the next second Blake felt strong arms being wrapped around her waist, lifting her up from Harry and then setting her down on the ground.
The person that had lifted her up didn't let go of her though and kept one arm wrapped around her waist and the other one held onto her wrist tightly as they started guiding her away from the scene and towards the woods. When they walked away she could faintly hear a conversation about the dark mark, but was in too much shock about what had happened to actually understand what they were saying.
When they had made it out of the campground and to the field that stretched between the camp and the woods she realized she hadn't even looked at who was holding onto her and guiding her away. She looked up to her left and saw Bill's face. He kept his gaze straight forward.
Up ahead she could see Charlie walking with Harry. Her shock started to wear off and she started to try and wiggle out of Bill's grip.
"Bill, let me go," she said, trying to get out of his grip but he kept holding onto her. "Bill, I can walk on my own!" Still no reaction. "For Merlin's sake William, let me go," sounding more angry and pulling her arm away from him harshly.
He finally let her go, and she stood still while Bill kept walking forward. But then he suddenly came to a stop as well before turning around to face her, and with quick strides he made his way over to her and grabbed onto her shoulders, towering over her.
"What the hell were you thinking going back there?" Bill spat at her. Blake couldn't understand why he was so angry and gave him a confused look.
"I was thinking that Harry was in danger and that someone needed to help him," she said in disbelief. How could he turn this against her? She just saved Harry's life.
"Don't you understand that you could have been hurt or even killed?!" Bill screamed at her. He was breathing heavily and was practically fuming with anger.
"I'm not stupid Bill! Of course I knew I could have gotten hurt! But I would gladly risk that if it means saving my friends. Which I did by the way," she spat back at him, now becoming angry as well.
"Yes, lot of saving you did! If we hadn't shown up there you would both be dead!" Bill let go of her and shot his hands up in disbelief.
Blake dropped her mouth in shock. "Seriously?" she laughed humorlessly, not believing what he was saying right now.
"I saved Harry from that mysterious wizard trying to attack him. If I hadn't dueled him Harry could be dead! And I was the one who protected Harry from being killed by the Ministry!"
"You dueled someone?" Bill questioned. This only seemed to make him angrier.
"Yes I dueled someone, what does it even matter?" she asked, "I did what I had to do!"
That's when Bill started ranting, letting out his anger, "No, what you should have done was get a grownup to handle this! You are just a girl who's still in school, you don't actually know anything! Running into dangerous situations doesn't make you smart it makes you stupid! Clearly I was wrong to think you were mature!"
Blake took a step back, a hurt look on her face. She knew he was angry and sure, maybe she should have gotten backup... but she couldn't believe he just said those things about her. It was such a contrast from how he looked and talked to her only yesterday.
She didn't want it to, but it hurt. She always hears from her father how stupid she is, how worthless she is and how no one will ever want her. She didn't need that from Bill too.
When Bill saw the hurt look on her face he realized what he had just said and how he had acted. His angry facial expression changed into regret.
"Well, thank you," Blake said in a hurt tone, "for explaining what you think of me." She could feel her eyes watering but refused to give in to her tears and fought them back.
Bill reached for her, "Blake I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"Don't touch me!" she cut him off, taking another step back. They stood like that for a second or two before she heard someone call her name. She turned her head in the direction and she had never been happier to see them.
Fred and George were running towards her and when they reached her they engulfed her in a big hug. Bill was still standing there with regret written all over his face.
"We were so worried!" George told her.
Fred was running his hand on her back and felt something wet covering most of her shirt. He looked at his hand and saw, to his horror, that it was red. It was covered in blood. Lots of blood.
"Merlin, Blake you're bleeding!" Fred told her worriedly and let go of the hug to step behind her to examine her back and see where the blood was coming from. Due to the adrenaline and shock she had totally forgotten that she got hit by a spell but when Fred pointed out that she was bleeding she remembered it very clearly and she started to feel faint.
"You're hurt?" Bill asked worriedly. He felt stupid. He had been so blinded by his anger and worry for her that he hadn't even noticed that she was hurt. Now he felt even more guilt.
"I guess that's what I get for being stupid, right?" she said, looking at Bill before she started walking away with the twins who had their arms wrapped around her, keeping her steady.
"Did something happen between you and Bill? You both look like you can break into tears at any moment..." Fred asked, looking back at Bill who was walking further behind them.
"No, nothing happened. I'm hurt, I don't know what his problem is," she lied, not wanting to get into it.
They traveled back to the Burrow and Molly tended to the wound on her back. She didn't see anymore of Bill that night. He went straight to his room as soon as they got back home.
That night Blake laid awake long after Fred and George fell asleep thinking about the day.
She was attacked and could have been killed tonight and despite that, the moment she was thinking back to was Bill. The thought of him screaming at her seemed much worse than the scary encounters she had faced tonight.
Maybe she was overreacting because of her father, that Bill knew nothing about. But it still hurt that he would yell at her like that and she felt her heart sink when she thought back to it.
He practically called her a little girl and stupid. There is no way he cares for me the same way I care for him, she thought. He just sees her as the stupid best friend of his little brothers.
Maybe she could speak with him tomorrow, at least tell him off for yelling at her.
-----
In the morning she woke up early as always. She barely had any sleep that night and just wanted a cup of tea. She put on a sweater over her crop top and pyjama pants and went downstairs where Molly was as always.
"Good morning Molly," she said, a tired smile on her face.
"Good morning dear! How is your wound?" Molly asked, looking concerned.
"It's fine, that potion you gave me really helped with the pain," she answered. "Is Bill up yet? I need to speak with him."
Molly gave her a sad smile, "I'm sorry dear, he left early this morning. He had to go back to Egypt."
She tried to keep her hurt expression off her face so that Molly wouldn't notice. He couldn't even bother to say goodbye, or stay to talk about yesterday?
"Oh," was the only thing she said, not finding the words to say anything else. She took her cup with tea and went into the living room.
She guessed she had her answer about Bill. He didn't care about her.
Not long after she had begun sipping on her tea Fred and George came stumbling down the stairs, looking around frantically until their eyes landed on her. "Where were you?" Fred asked.
"We got really worried when we woke up and you were gone," George said, as they both darted for her, and sat down on either side of her.
She gave them a questioning look. "I always wake up before you? I'm never there when you two wake up?" They didn't answer her, instead they just put their arms around her and cuddled into her sides.
That day they stayed by her side at all times. She could barely go to the bathroom on her own without one of them following her, and it started to annoy her a bit.
"Does this have anything to do with what happened yesterday?" she questioned them. "You two being clingy was cute for a minute or two but now it's just freaking me out." It was afternoon and they were sitting in the living room again, Fred and George sitting very close.
They both looked down at her with fake pouts. "Now we're hurt. Are you saying you don't like being close to us?" George asked.
"I'm being serious, why are you so worried? I'm not complaining about all of it, just the need to follow me everywhere. Seriously, it's creepy."
Fred and George looked at each other. "Well... " Fred started.
"You could have died yesterday, and you got hurt. We just want to make sure you're okay," George finished.
"Especially since it's our fault," Fred added. They didn't look at her when they said that, too ashamed that they didn't stop her from going.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Blake asked, looking between Fred and George with confusion. "Why would it be your fault? Where is this coming from?" She was almost angry that they would think this was their fault. She wondered what happened for them to think that, and soon she got her answer.
"Bill told us it was on us if you got hurt," Fred told her, and she rolled her eyes and let out a groan.
"Seriously? He told you that?"
They nodded, still not looking at her. Who the hell did Bill think he was to tell them that?
"He was right though," George said. "When we first started running towards the woods dad said you were our responsibility, and then we let you go. We should have done more to stop you."
"And look what happened because of it! You got hurt!" Fred had guilt all over his face.
"Okay, no, I'm stopping this right now," Blake said sternly. She stood up and turned around so that she could face them and they finally looked at her. "I'm okay, alright? I'm right here, and I'm safe. None of this is your fault, you both know you couldn't have stopped me even if you bound me to a tree."
"But-" Fred started, but Blake cut him off.
"No! No 'but', it was my decision." It seemed to help a bit because Fred and George didn't look as sad and filled with guilt as before.
"Our letters from Hogwarts have arrived!" They heard Ginny call from the kitchen and they all hurried over there along with Ron, Harry and Hermione. Blake took her letter that Ginny handed to her and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion because her letter was heavier than she thought. It should just be a list of school supplies.
Everyone had already opened their letters and were reading the lists when Blake finally opened hers. She looked into the envelope and took out the source of the weight. Her eyes shot up in shock and her breath got caught in her throat when she looked at the green pin she held in her hand.
There must be some kind of mistake. Dumbledore must have made a mistake, right? Because in her hand she held a green pin that said head girl on it.
"Blake, is something wrong?" Harry asked her, noticing her look.
"I don't- I..." she looked between the pin and Harry, too shocked and confused to get the words out.
"Okay now you're scaring us," George said.
"They haven't kicked you out of Hogwarts, have they?" Fred asked worriedly, which earned him a smack on his arm from Hermione.
"She's the best student at Hogwarts, why would they not allow her back?" Hermione questioned Fred. "You are coming back, right?" She asked worriedly.
"I'm- I'm head girl." She said it more as a question than a statement. Everyone looked at her in shock as well, not understanding how she could be head girl.
"But you're only in your 6th year," George said questioningly. "Only 7th years are Head Girl or Boy."
"It must be a mista-" Blake stopped mid sentence when she suddenly remembered what Alex had been telling her so many times, 'this is your year Beckett'. "That sneaky bastard!" she exclaimed while laughing to herself.