The Dark Mark
Fred and George were positively beaming as they all made their way slowly down the purple-carpeted stairs. Their pockets were stuffed with the gold they had won from Bagman. It was more money than either of them had ever seen and it was all theirs.
"Don't tell your mother you've been gambling," Mr Weasley implored the twins.
"Don't worry, Dad," said Fred gleefully, "we've got big plans for this money. We don't want it confiscated."
Mr Weasley 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.
Briar shared a grin with the twins. They were planning on using the money to further develop their products and make some packaging to sell it at Hogwarts, and then once they had earned enough they would open the shop. In the future, Briar was planning on working with them, since she basically already did, while she did her Auror training.
They were soon caught up in the crowds now flooding out of the stadium and back to their campsites. Raucous singing was borne toward them on the night air as they retracted their steps along the lantern-lit path, and the leprechauns kept shooting over their heads, cackling and waving their lanterns.
When they finally reached the tents, nobody felt like sleeping at all, and given the level of noise around them, Mr Weasley agreed that they could all have one last cup of cocoa together before turning in.
They were soon arguing enjoyably about the match; Mr Weasley got drawn into a disagreement about cobbing with Briar and Charlie, and it was only when Ginny fell asleep right at the tiny table and spilled hot chocolate all over the floor that Mr Weasley called a halt to the verbal replays and insisted that everyone go to bed.
Briar, Hermione and Ginny went into the next campsite, Ginny rubbing her eyes tiredly. After another argument about who got the top bunk, Hermione decided that she would get top bunk to stop Briar and Ginny from fighting.
Briar and Ginny reluctantly decided that Hermione was right and the three girls changed into their pyjamas and clambered into their beds. From the other side of campsite they could still hear much singing and the odd echoing bang.
She stared up at the underside of the top bunk before glancing over at the single bed where Ginny was already asleep. Her eyes drifted shut, and a moment later she was asleep.
What felt like after only a second, Briar jerked upwards. She groaned when her head came into contact with the top bunk and rubbed the sore spot. Her brows drew together in confusion at what woke her up, and then she heard it…screaming.
Briar grabbed her wand and quickly rushed to the flap of the tent to peek outside. A crowd of wizards, tightly packed together were marching, getting closer and closer. Their heads were hooded and their faces masked. A look of horror appeared on Briar face. Death eaters.
"Hermione! Ginny! Get up!" Briar shouted as she moved back into the tent.
Ginny rolled over and Hermione groaned.
"GET UP!" Briar shouted, louder this time, and moved to shake Hermione, feeling fear pumping through her as she heard more screaming.
"Briar, go away," Hermione muttered as Ginny sat up, blearily rubbing her eyes.
"I'm not joking around, you two need to get up right now!" Briar screeched.
She wasn't sure whether the other girls heard the urgency in her voice or the fear, but either way a moment later they had both gotten out of bed. They looked at Briar with wide, terrified eyes.
"What's going on?" Ginny whimpered, looking close to tears as she and Hermione finally heard the screams.
Briar just shook her head, not wanting to scare the girl even further. Briar pulled on a coat and threw the girls their jackets so they could do the same.
"Come on, we need to get outside – there's no time to explain – just come and meet the boys – quickly!" Briar said.
Ginny and Hermione didn't even question her and followed Briar out of the tent.
The Death Eaters were closer now and had their wands pointing straight upward. High above them, floating along in mid-air, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. Two of the figures were very small.
More Death Eaters 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 Briar saw one of them blast a tent out of their way their wands. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.
The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Briar 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 Death Eaters below flipped Mrs Roberts upside down with their wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.
Briar was torn between disgust, fear and anger.
She watched in horror as the smallest muggle child began to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. it was disgusting, it was just sick! Hermione looked green and Ginny was wiping furiously at her eyes to get rid of tears.
Mr Weasley, Harry, Ron, Fred and George had all come out of the tent and the girls rushed over to them. At the same moment, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.
"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr Weasley shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot – get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"
Briar was about to protest, wanting to help fight against the Death Eaters, but decided against it from the look on Mr Weasley's face.
Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting toward the oncoming Death Eaters; Mr Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The Death Eaters beneath the Roberts family were coming ever closer.
"C'mon," said George, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the wood.
Harry, Ron and Hermione followed and Briar and Fred behind them. Briar and Fred looked back as they reached the trees. The crowd of Death Eaters 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 centre, 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.
"It's just sick. Who would do that?" Fred muttered to her, with a horrified expression, as they started moving again.
"Death Eaters, is has to be," Briar whispered back, her brows drawn together as fear twisted in the pit of her stomach.
Suddenly her foot got caught on a tree root and she let out a yelp of pain when a second later she found herself on the ground. Briar groaned as pulled herself up to a seating position, rubbing her elbow painfully. Her eyes widened when she realised she couldn't find her wand. She moved her hands hurried across the ground but all she could feel were leaves.
"Bambi?!" Fred's voice exclaimed, filled with worry and fear. "What happened? Where are you? Lumos!"
Briar shielded her eyes against the light as it shone in her directs.
"Oh, thank Merlin, what happened?" he sighed in relief as he helped Briar, who was looking across the dark ground for her wand still, to her feet.
"I tripped over a tree root," Briar said angry with herself, "and now I can't find my wand."
Fred pointed his lit wand towards the forest floor and moved it around before Briar finally found the familiar dark wood with the lighter wood swirling around it: her wand. She quickly picked it up.
"Nox - We've lost the others," Fred pointed out anxiously as they continued walking.
Briar bit her lip worriedly as she looked around, but all she could see was trees. There was no sign of the others, in fact, there was no sign of anybody.
"They can't have gone that far, let's just keep moving," said Briar. "Where's the path?"
"I think it's up here," Fred said, but he didn't look completely sure, which only made the fear growing inside Briar spike.
After about five minutes of walking, they still hadn't found the path and it took all of Briar's courage not to start panicking. She had moved so close to Fred that there was barely even a hairs breath of space between them, but was too anxious to even blush when his fingers brushed hers.
Quite suddenly there was a sound of marching footsteps behind them and they stopped walking. Fred and Briar looked at each other with wide eyes before their heads snapped in the direction of the footsteps.
Through the dark trees they could see the vague outline of two large, hooded figures. They were death eaters, they must have broken away from the crowd.
"There's someone there," a deep voice of one of the death eaters said.
Fred and Briar quickly separated and ducked behind a tree each. Briar peeked out from behind her tree and saw that the two death eaters were closer. She ducked back behind the tree and closed her eyes, her hand tightening on her wand.
Her eyes snapped open when she heard a noise to her right. She glanced over and saw that Fred was now hiding behind a tree which was closer towards where Briar was hiding; there was now only one tree separating them.
"What are you doing?" Briar muttered from the corner of her mouth.
"Moving closer to you," Fred whispered back and he quickly darted forward to duck behind the tree directly next to hers.
"Oh sure, that'll really confuse them," Briar said sarcastically and Fred shot her a glare.
The footsteps were closer now.
Briar took a deep breath, screwing up her courage. She had fought Voldemort face to face, had ran head long at a basilisk…she could take on a couple of death eaters.
"Stupefy!" Briar shouted, jumping out from behind the tree, pointing her wand at one of the death eaters, who promptly collapsed, stunned.
The other death eater jumped in shot before he looked to where Briar was.
"Stupefy!" Fred said from next to her, stunning the second one.
Fred grabbed her hand and they quickly hurried through the trees in the direction they thought the path must be.
"I can't believe you just did that," Fred said to her, his jaw clenched. "You just scared me to death."
Briar didn't answer, not liking the anger in Fred's voice that seemed to be directed at her.
Finally, they sighed in relief when they reached the path again. Harry, Hermione, Ron, George and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, though the path was packed with plenty of people, all looking nervously over their shoulders toward the commotion back at the campsite. A huddle of teenagers in pyjamas was arguing vociferously a little way along the path.
When they saw Briar and Fred, a girl with a thick curly hair turned and said quickly, "O? Est Madame Maxime? Nous l'avons perdue-"
Briar didn't speak French, but she got the gist that she was looking for a Madame Maxime. Based on the fact they were French, Briar guessed they must go to Baeuxbatons Academy of Magic.
"Sorry, we go to Hogwarts, we don't know who that is," Briar said, feeling bad for them seeing as she and Fred could find who they were looking for either, Briar was most scared for Hermione, knowing that as a muggleborn she was in more danger than they were.
"Oh…" the girl who had spoken turned her back on them and as they walked on, they distinctly heard her say, "'Ogwarts."
"How far could they have gotten?" Briar said, looking around worriedly.
"Let's just keep moving," Fred sighed and Briar was at least relieved that his anger seemed to have quickly faded.
they followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still keeping an eye out for the others. They passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold they had undoubtedly won betting on the match, and who seemed quite unperturbed by the trouble on the campsite. Briar glared at them, this was one of the reasons she disliked goblins.
"There!" Briar shouted.
She had caught sight of fiery red hair. Briar grabbed Fred's wrist and pulled him forward and they ran towards them. It was George and Ginny, but Harry, Hermione and Ron were nowhere in sight.
"Oh, thank Merlin, I was so worried!" Ginny cried, tears spilling down her cheeks as she quickly pulled both her and Fred and into a tight hug.
"What happened to you two?" George asked and he looked distinctly pale, a worried yet relieved look in his blue eyes that they were safe.
"Bambi fell and then we had a run in with a couple of those masked wizards," Fred explained, running a hand through his red hair wearily.
If it were possible George paled further and Ginny clung to Fred even tighter than before giving a small sob.
"Where's Harry and the others?" Briar asked, looking around for a glimpse of her twin brother.
"We thought they were with you," said George slowly.
Briar closed her eyes for a second, searching for strength while tugging on her messy hair.
"What the-?" Fred started.
Briar gasped. Something vast, green and glittering had suddenly erupted in the sky. It was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation.
Briar shook her head in disbelief, turning ashen. This was something she had heard many stories about, but something she had never expected to see.
Suddenly, the wood all around them erupted with screams. Briar could understand why, her worst fears were realised, the death eaters had started again. Fred pulled Ginny tight against him in worry, all of their eyes trained on the skull and snake in the sky.
"What is it?" Ginny whimpered, white and terrified.
"It's the dark mark," Briar whispered in horror, her voice cracking slightly.
"We need to find the others." Fred said firmly. "We need to find the others right now."
"We should go back to the campsite, that's where they'd go," George said.
They turned around and headed down the dark path, which was eerily lit up by the dark mark in the sky. They didn't speak as they hurried toward the campsite, the only sounds being screams and shouts of others around them and the whimpers of Ginny as she cried into Fred's side.
It took another ten minutes of walking, but they finally emerged from the wood. The fields were all quiet now, there was no sign of the death eaters, though several ruined tents were still smoking. A few families were holding onto each other tightly, looking extremely shaken as they went to their own tents.
Briar, Fred and George and Ginny passed the girls tent and went into the boys' one.
"Thank Merlin, you're back!" Charlie exclaimed as they entered, looking extremely relieved, however he paused, then added, "where are the others?"
"They're not back yet?" Briar asked, dreadfully worried for her twin.
Ginny gave another sob and she rushed forward so that Bill could pull her into a tight hug. Briar narrowed her eyes when Bill winced as he wrapped his arms around his little sister. It was then that she noticed the large bleeding cut on his arm. Looking at the others she saw that Charlie had a large rip in his shirt, and Percy was sporting a bloody nose.
"You're bleeding!" Ginny said as she pulled away from Bill, sniffling slightly and eying his arm in horror.
"Here," Briar said.
She used her wand to cut off a bit of a bit of a bed sheet and then moved forward to wrap it around his arm, but the wound was bleeding so profusely it soon leaked through, turning the white sheet red.
"Thanks, Briar," Bill said gratefully even though it wasn't much help.
They all sat down at the table, each of them extremely tense at the fact they didn't know where the others were. Fred and George were on either side of Briar, sitting closer than usual as though to remind themselves that she was safe.
"What happened to you?" Fred asked, looking from Percy's and Bill's bloody nose and arm to Charlie's ripped shirt.
"We went over to try and help the ministry get the muggles down, but-" Bill started, but a moment later they had all turned to look at the flap of the tent when they heard footsteps outside.
Briar clutched her wand tightly. Charlie got to his feet and poked his head out of the tent, his wand in his hand.
"Dad, what's going on?" he called and Briar sighed in relief that it was Mr Weasley. "Fred, George, Ginny and Briar got back okay, but the others-"
"I've got them here," said MR Weasley, bending down ad entering the tent.
Briar even managed a small smile when Harry, Ron and Hermione entered after him. She hopped to her feet and rushed over, pulling Harry into a hug that rivalled Mrs Weasleys.
"Harry, thank Merlin!" Briar exclaimed, burying her head into his neck and tightening her arms around him.
"Bambi," Harry sighed in relief, his face in her hair. "I was so worried about you, Ron tripped."
"Me too, and I lost my wand, Fred found me, but you were all gone," she muttered to him before pulled away, beaming at her the fact that Harry was here, looking shaken but safe.
"Did you get them, Dad?" said Bill sharply. "The person who conjured the Mark?"
Briar looked at Mr Weasley expectantly.
"No," said Mr Weasley. "We found Barty Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but we're none the wiser about who actually conjured the mark."
"What?" said Bill, Charlie, and Percy together.
"Harry's wand?" said Briar, looking over at her twin anxiously.
"Mr Crouch's elf?" said Percy, sounding thunderstruck.
With some assistance from Harry, Ron and Hermione, Mr Weasley explained what had happened in the woods. She couldn't believe those stinking death eaters had used her twins wand! And Crouch…what he did to Winky was just cruel. Briar's brows furrowed. She couldn't understand how Winky had even done what she had, she couldn't have without someone in Crouch's direct family telling her to.
"Well, Mr Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that!" Percy said, swelling indignantly. "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 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.
Briar was surprise too. Hermione had always got on fairly well with Percy – better, indeed, than any of the others, and that included his own siblings.
"Hermione, a wizard in Mr Crouch's position can't afford a house elf who's going to run amok with a wand!" said Percy pompously, recovering himself.
"She didn't run amok!" shouted Hermione. "She just picked it up off the ground!"
"Look, can someone just explain what that skull thing was?" said Ron impatiently. "It wasn't hurting anyone…why's it such a big deal?"
Briar looked at him in shock.
"It wasn't hurting anyone?" Briar said incredulously. "Ron it's the dark marks, Voldemort's" – there were flinches at his name – "mark, just seeing it hurts people…it was the death eaters way of saying they're supporting him again. It must have been like being back in the war."
"I don't get it," said Ron, frowning. "I mean…it's still only a shape in the sky…"
"Ron, You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed," said Mr Weasley. "The terror it inspired…you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find inside…" Mr Weasley winced. "Everyone's worst fear…the very worst…"
There was silence for a moment.
Briar thought about the Potter's old house in Godric's Hollow from when she visited, destroyed and blackened, but this time she saw it with the eerily glowing dark mark in the sky. Was that really what it would have looked like when her uncle Padfoot had found her parents' bodies inside? It was a thousand times worse than the remains she had seen.
Bill, removing the snippet of bed sheet from his arm to check on his cut, said, "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. We caught the Roberts' before they hit the ground, though. They're having their memories modified right now."
"They'll probably be thankful for the memory loss if anything," Briar said, thinking about the torture she had suffered under Voldemort in first year.
"Death Eaters?" said Harry. "What are Death Eaters?"
"Blimey, I forgot you don't know this sort of thing," said Briar, looking at her twin. "Death Eaters are what Voldemort's" – flinches – "followers called themselves."
"I think we saw what's left of them tonight," said Bill, "the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway."
"We can't prove it was them, Bill," said Mr Weasley. "Though it probably was," he added hopelessly.
"I'd bet my broomstick one of them was Lucius Malfoy," Briar grumbled, and the others didn't make any move to disagree with her.
"Yeah, I bet it was!" said Ron 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 Voldemort's supporters-" Harry began. Everybody but Briar flinched. "Sorry," said Harry quickly. "What were You-Know-Who's supporters up to, levitating muggles? I mean, what was the point?"
"The point?" said Mr Weasley 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 Death Eaters, why did they Disapparate when they saw the Dark Mark?" said Ron. "They'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"
"Use your brains, Ron," said Bill. "If they were Death Eaters, they worked very hard to keep themselves 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 overly pleased with them, do you?"
"So…Whoever conjured the Dark Mark…" said Hermione slowly, "were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"
"I don't anyone who wants to get rid of Death eaters would have done that," said Briar slowly. "That mark's like Dark Magic."
"Well, your guesses are as good as ours, you two," said Mr Weasley. "But I'll tell you this…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, 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."
When the girls headed back over to the girls' tent, Briar and Hermione walked with Ginny between them, the younger girl still looking around in fear, shaking slightly. However, they had only gone a few steps when someone grabbed Briar's arm, making her jump, but she sighed in relief when she saw it was just Harry.
"Merlin, don't sneak up on me," Briar breathed, putting a hand to her heart to get it to calm done.
"Sorry," Harry grimace, before he looked over to Hermione and Ginny nervously. "Bambi, can I talk to you for a second…alone?"
Briar looked at him questioningly before nodded.
"Yeah," she said then turned to Hermione and Ginny. "You two go ahead, I'll catch up."
Hermione and Ginny looked between the Potters twins curiously for a moment before they turned and continued on their way to the tent.
"What is it?" Briar asked, concerned at the worried look on Harry's face.
Harry hesitated for a moment, before quickly jumping into speech.
"I haven't told anyone yet, well, except for Sirius, but he hasn't written me back," Harry said, "my scar hurt the other day."
Briar's eyes widened and she bit her lip worriedly. The only other time Harry's scar hurt was in first year and it was a warning that Voldemort was near.
"What could that-" Briar started.
"That's not all," Harry cut in, making Briar's brows raise. "I had this dream…well, I'm not sure it really was a dream, more like I was looking at what was actually happening-"
"Harry!" Briar interrupted, trying to break him out of his rambling. "The point?"
"Right," Harry nodded. "The point is that there were three people in the dream, one of them was Wormtail-"
"Call him Pettigrew," Briar snapped.
"Fine, anyway, it was a dark room and there had been a snake on a hearth rug. Pettigrew was talking to Voldemort," said Harry and Briar paled, her eyes widening in horror.
"What? Pettigrew and Voldemort? But Voldemort was just vapour," Briar said, trying desperately to find holes in the story, she wanted to think it was just a dream, but as she was so in tune with her twin, something was telling her it wasn't. "What did he look like?"
"That's the thing…I don't remember, the other man I didn't even know, it was some old person." Harry said, his brows drawing together as he tried to remember.
Briar was quiet.
"Well, what do you think?" Harry asked.
"I don't know, Harry," Briar shook her head. "But whatever it is, it's not good, and with what happened tonight…"
Briar didn't need to finish the sentence, the Potter twins knew how it was going to end. It seemed as though Briar's worst fear was coming to life.
Author's Note: PLEASE REVIEW
