Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Long after the game was over, when the sky was at its darkest and the moon shone faintly through the clouds, the campsite was still alive with raucous cheers as the Irish celebrated their victory over Bulgaria. Many loyal fans decided a nice brew or two would carry the party through the rest of the night.

"Off to bed, all of you," Mr. Weasley announced, setting down his empty mug of hot cocoa. He glanced warily outside while holding the tent flap open for Ginny and Hermione, who walked over to their own tent under his watchful eye. "Not that any of us will get any sleep with this dreadful racket."

"The Ministry isn't going to stand for such behavior, Mr. Crouch will probably have me send out some heavy fines this week," Percy said importantly, shaking his head as a firecracker went off lighting the campsite in a brilliant glow; and the voices grew louder, the Irish breaking into song. "The nerve of some people," Percy frowned disapprovingly and set his glasses on the nightstand, climbing into the top bunk above Mr. Weasley.

"It was an awesome finish, though, wasn't it?" Charlie grinned while everyone dressed for bed. Bill, Charlie, Ron, and Harry climbed into their bunks, but Fred and George were still laughing over their hot chocolate in the small kitchen area.

"You're not serious about Alice, are you?" George wondered curiously. "I've never seen a girl like her before, she's a little over the top for your taste, Freddie."

"Are you saying I have low standards?" Fred demanded, although his face was lit with a grin.

George looked pointedly at his brother. "Her hair literally shimmered in the light, Fred—shimmered," he emphasized the last word. "No doubt she used a spell to make it that way, even Snape doesn't have gleaming hair like that, and he never washes it!"

Fred burst out laughing.

"Okay, okay, I get your point," Fred insisted, and then his expression turned serious. "But there has to be a reason I bumped into her, right?"

"You have no sense of direction?" George suggested.

"Very funny," Fred said dryly. "You don't believe all that stuff Draco said about Alice and her family, do you?" he dropped his voice low so Arthur wouldn't overhear.

George drained his mug of hot chocolate. "He's just full of himself, everyone knows that," he said reassuringly. "I don't think we have to worry about Alice killing us all in our sleep."

"Bed, you two!" Arthur said firmly.

"We're going—," George sighed, heaving himself up out of his chair.

"Yeah, don't get your knickers in a twist," Fred insisted.

They loped off to bed, and soon the room was wrapped in stillness. Until Charlie's snores filled the tent and the Twins fell into hysterics.

Arthur groaned, stopping himself from casting a Full Body Bind curse on his own kids. Well—at least Fred seemed to be back to his old self.

The moment Fred opened his eyes he suddenly wished he hadn't. The pain was back. Those few hours after the game had proved to be freedom on a short leash, because now his body was turning against him with a vengeance he would never understand. His head weighed a ton and it lolled weakly to one side as he attempted to shift positions. There was a strange tingling feeling spreading up his legs and he wondered briefly if they were being stabbed with hot needles, perhaps one of those goblins had come and cloaked him in some ghoulish enchantment. Not exactly his idea of a joke.

He was just about to roll over and fall back asleep when Arthur's voice cut through the silence, loud and urgent.

"Wake up, everyone!" Arthur shouted, pulling on his jeans and withdrawing his wand from his robe pocket.

George dropped to the floor from the top bunk." What's happening?"

Arthur didn't answer, moving to rouse Harry and Ron. Fred climbed out of bed to join his twin and the sound of screams filled his ears. Through the tent walls he could just barely make out the glow of fire.

"Outside, hurry," Arthur commanded, herding everyone towards the doorway. The chilly night air descended upon them and all around was turmoil. A group of hooded figures, their faces concealed by masks, marched through the campsite, wands raised. Tents were blasted out of the way, and the campsite was filled with smoke and flame.

The scene before them could only be described later as outrageous, maybe even frightening. A Muggle family had risen up into the air, floating several feet above the ground, suspended by the wands of more masked figures. Their hair was whipped about them by the wind, and their faces were quite empty of joyous expression. They were not celebrating any victory; only fear was shining in their eyes.

Fred's mouth dropped open, but no words came out because moments later, the youngest Muggle child let out a piercing scream; suddenly the child began to spin madly like a top, shrieking with terror as the motion jerked its head violently back and forth. The sound echoed through the surrounding forest, and Ginny clamped her hands over her ears and backed away, shaking and tearful as the child's screams grew louder.

"That's horrible," Ginny gasped.

"Go into the forest and wait for me, I'll come find you when this is all over—stick together!" Arthur insisted, then turned and ran with Bill, Percy, and Charlie toward the riot.

"Come on," George grabbed Ginny's hand and they made their way down the path which was jammed with people fleeing to safety. Fred hurried after his twin, trying to forget how he was feeling physically at the moment. They soon lost Ron, Harry, and Hermione in the crowd.

"What should we do?" Ginny wondered worriedly, glancing around the shadowy forest. The further they walked, the quieter it became.

"Dad said to wait here," Fred said wearily, leaning back against a tree. He slid down into a sitting position and stared at the ground, fatigue settling in.

"Right," George agreed, putting an arm around Ginny. "It'll be okay," he frowned down at Fred as he said this.

"Fred, George, is that you?" Alice called, running toward them in the darkness. "I'm so glad I found you, I don't know anyone around here and Mum and Dad went to help sort out this mess."

"Oh, hey Alice," Fred looked up, and climbed to his feet.

'Who's she?" Ginny demanded suspiciously.

"This is Alice Perry," George introduced her. "She just moved from America, and is going to start her sixth year at Hogwarts—Alice, this is our little sister, Ginny, she's in third year."

"Hi, Ginny," Alice grinned, extending her hand.

"Wow, you have really pretty looking eyes, that's not a normal color, is it?" Ginny smiled back, noticing Alice's unusual vibrant purple eyes.

"Well, I'll let you in on a little secret—my Mum is really into glamour spells, so I let her experiment with my look a lot," Alice explained. "She even does my hair; sometimes she tends to go a bit overboard, though."

"So that explains it," George muttered, and Fred elbowed him in the ribs.

"What are you doing here, you've got a lot of nerve showing up tonight!" a familiar voice shouted, and everyone fell silent, listening in.

"I had no choice—they're here, I can sense it, and after my mission to incapacitate the Potter boy failed, killing them is the least I can do to get back in the Dark Lord's favor," a deeper male voice hissed.

"You failed?" the first voice scoffed, and Fred now recognized it as Draco Malfoy. "Just wait until m father hears about this!"

The sound of heavy breathing reached their ears as a long, awkward silence followed Draco's last words, and then the man spoke again, in a low, growling voice.

"Don't you dare slip a word of this to your father, do you understand me? Not a word!" he snapped. "You keep your mouth shut."

Draco chuckled. "We'll see," he replied, and Fred could just imagine the conniving look on his face.

"We should get back," Ginny whispered nervously, and backed into a fallen tree root. The resulting snap caused Draco and the other man to turn in their direction, their eyes boring into the trees that hid them.

"Someone followed us?" the man demanded in a panicked voice, and seconds later they heard a loud CRACK as he disapparated.

"Who's there?" Draco demanded, drawing his wand from his coat pocket and walking towards the trees.

Alice, Fred, George, and Ginny froze, wondering what they should do. Suddenly they heard Draco shout, "IMPEDIMENTA!" and the four of them were thrown backward as if struck by an invisible speeding bus. They landed heavily on the ground, bodies aching.

"That ought to teach you never to eavesdrop on private conversations!" Draco growled, advancing on them with his wand held high.

"Private? You were talking about Harry, if you do anything to hurt him—," Ginny began, and jumped to her feet along with the others.

"You'll what?" Draco grinned evilly. "Why so uptight, did your boyfriend forget to snog you before he off to fill his own selfish needs? Got rather tired of you already, eh?"

"Leave my sister out of this," Fred hissed, stepping in front of Ginny.

"Whatever—Potter's still in one piece, isn't he?" Draco smirked, and then gave Fred an appraising look. "You however don't look so good; what's wrong with you, Weasley, catch a bug from that filthy shack you call a home?" he sneered. "Which one are you anyway, you both have equal amounts of fleas."

"Malfoy," Ginny snarled like an angry cat and whipped out her wand, sending a bolt of energy flying at Draco.

A swarm of bats flew violently around Draco's head, biting at his face and neck, their high-pitched shrieks filling the night air. "Bloody Weasley—FINITE INCANTATUM!" Draco shouted, vanishing the bats with his wand. He quickly gained composure and retaliated. "SERPENSORTIA!"

A large snake emerged from the tip of Draco's wand and dropped to the ground. It slithered towards them, hissing, fangs bared, preparing to strike.

Ginny and Alice backed away, the four of them eyeing the snake apprehensively.

"That's a cheap trick, Malfoy," Fred commented lazily, not allowing the fear to let his guard down. "Did your daddy teach you that one? WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" he levitated the snake above ground and it writhed in the air, still hissing.

"I see where this is going," George grinned. "STUPEFY!" he aimed his wand at the snake and it went rigid, flying backward, but instead of hitting Draco in the face like he had intended, the snake vanished in a cloud of smoke when Draco waved his wand.

"What are you, stupid?" Draco laughed, shaking his head. "Thought you could pummel me with my own snake, really, use your brains—oh, that's right, you don't have any!"

Alice raised her wand ready to attack. "HERBIVICUS!" she yelled, and vines shot out of the ground, coiling around Draco's feet. He quickly dodged the spell before his legs were caught, grinning.

"Is that the best you can do, Perry?" Draco said coldly.

Everyone stared at him in shock. How could he, a fourth year, deflect every spell they cast? It was unbelievable.

"I've had enough of this—," Fred growled, pointing his wand at Draco and trying to think of the worst hex possible.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

Fred's wand was blasted out of his hand, and Lucius Malfoy strode into the clearing, his face livid.

"I hate to break up this little party, but if you thought your behavior would go unnoticed if you decided to have a duel, you are surely mistaken," Lucius said in a low, dangerous voice, his eyes moving over each of them. "Really, Draco, four unto one? If you wanted so badly to show off your new skills I would have picked a stronger adversary."

"They were spying on me," Draco said accusingly.

"Well, then, at least you were winning—" Lucius cast a disdainful look at the three Weasleys. "Against these people I suppose there is no challenge, and—ah, Ms. Perry, lovely to see you again," his eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he smirked menacingly at Alice, then grabbed Draco roughly by the arm. "Come along, Draco."

The two of them disappeared down the forest path, and Fred, George, Ginny, and Alice were left standing alone.

"Well—Dad's probably worried, we should head back," George insisted, and they set off toward camp, each silently hoping the others were all right, and all eager for the night to end.

R&R