The Irish celebrated their victory under the canopy of the stars. The orderly queues and restrained procession to the stadium a few short hours ago were a distant memory. The stadium swelled and hummed like a beehive as all 100,000 spectators swarmed towards the exits at the same time, clamoring for the open sky as if the stadium could not contain their joy. The Weasley party linked arms and let the roiling surge of the crowd buffet them to the nearest exit. Within a few moments, Luna grew utterly disoriented. Her feet lifted off the ground and she could not see the walls, nor the floor, nor the ceiling, nor anyone she knew. It reminded her of doing a somersault underwater, the terrifying moment when you were not sure which way was up and which led to oblivion. She gripped Ginny's arm, closed her eyes, and waited until she felt solid earth under her feet and fresh air in her lungs.

The butterbeer ran freely and the party continued well into the night. Within a few minutes, even the Bulgaria supporters like Ron and the pointedly anti-partisan like Luna were wrapped in green and white regalia. The moor was filled with fireworks, rainbows, leprechauns, and wandering bands of partiers. The camp had different pockets of parties, each with its own distinct character and repertoire of Irish drinking songs. Luna learned several new songs, including a few with different regional variations that were considered sacrilegious at other parties elsewhere in the camp. Mr. Weasley and Bill finally insisted on herding the younger children back into the tent when entire casks of firewhisky began flying through the air, raining liquid courage on the celebrating crowds.

"Aww, come on, Dad! George and I are nearly seventeen," Fred grumbled. He took a mug from the kitchen table and sauntered towards the door, apparently in the hopes of surreptitiously poking his arm out of the tent and catching something more exciting and more alcoholic than what was on offer inside the tent.

"It's too rowdy out there, Fred. I'm sure your mother is already worried sick without you staying out until the small hours at a party like that. Besides, we have to leave first thing in the morning. I know how fond growing boys are of sleep," Mr. Weasley said, pulling his son away from the door with a fond but firm tug.

"Sleep!? We couldn't possibly sleep even if we wanted to! I'm still buzzing from that catch of Krum's," George said. He was quite literally buzzing with pent up energy, his feet tapping impatiently as he paced the length of the tent. Fred and George's face paint had mostly rubbed off, and the remaining faded green patches made them look peaky, almost portkey sick.

The others nodded in agreement. They were also vibrating with excess excitement, their cheeks flushed and their feet tapping in rhythm to the beat of the music thrumming through the thin walls of the tent. Luna sat on the sofa with her head resting on Lavender's shoulder. The two girls were playing an idle game of thumb war as they watched the bickering proceedings. Luna felt odd. It felt simultaneously like she could run a mile and like she could barely keep her eyes open. Her pulse thrummed audibly in her head, making her dizzy. She had never drunk so much butterbeer before.

"Why don't we play a nice game of basilisks and broomsticks? That and a spot of tea will calm you all down," Percy went to fuss with the kettle in the kitchen. He had agreed to accompany his family to the afterparty as a chaperone, and he had mostly hovered nearby, making sure no one wandered off and preventing the twins from doing anything too reckless. Luna had only seen him drink a single firewhisky the entire night, but his face was flushed and he seemed more agitated than usual.

"Tea? Board games? Who do you take us for, Perc?" Fred guffawed.

"I think Percy's right," Hermione ventured as she bit one of her nails.

"It doesn't matter if you think he's right or not, none of you are leaving this tent for the rest of the night. It sounds like it's getting pretty wild out there," Bill looked up from his book and glanced towards the door, frowning.

"Fine, then. Let's play exploding snap, at least. It's more fun than basilisks and broomsticks," Ginny suggested, going to her room to fetch a deck of cards from her bag.

"What, no more gobstones, Gin?" George asked.

"Don't worry, George, we can beat her just as easily at exploding snap," Fred winked. Percy went around the room with the teapot, and Fred finally gave up the notion of getting hold of some firewhisky and consented to having his mug filled with tea.

"You only beat me at gobstones because you cheated," Ginny stuck her tongue out at the twins.

"Did you hear that?" Lavender asked Luna. She pulled her thumb away from Luna's and sat up straighter.

"What? No. I can hardly hear myself think over that racket!" Luna watched Ginny shuffle and cut the deck before dealing them each a hand. Ginny's dealing was sloppier than usual, and Luna had to untangle her cards from Lavender's on the small table and straighten them into a neat stack.

"Be quiet, you lot! I heard something, too," Mr. Weasley said, hushing the children with a flap of his arms.

"It sounded like screaming, didn't it?" Bill said. He sat up, put his book down without marking his page, and headed towards the entrance to the tent.

"So what? Everyone's been screaming themselves hoarse for hours. Ow, Percy, you always make the tea too hot!" Ron took a sip of his tea and began panting, sticking his burnt tongue out of his mouth and blowing on it.

"That should teach you to drink your tea without blowing on it, Ronald," Percy said.

"This was a different kind of screaming," Bill said curtly, sticking his head out of the tent.

"Dad!" he yelled, but Mr. Weasley was already on his heels.

The rest of them followed Bill and Mr. Weasley out of the tent, and it was like stepping into a different world. The sounds of raucous celebration could still be heard faintly in the distance, but it was drowned out by a new kind of chaos. Frightened shrieks pierced the night. Barrels of firewhisky and kegs of butterbeer were strewn forgotten on the ground, sweet-smelling liquid slowly seeping into the grass. There was smoke coming from somewhere, thick smoke, too thick to be from fireworks. And the partygoers were no longer carousing at a gentle, good-natured pace. People were running in all directions, some clutching children, others holding their wands aloft as if they knew they should defend themselves, but not from what. The Weasleys seemed to be the only ones standing still, taking in the horrific scene that had somehow materialized while they weren't paying attention.

"What are they running from?" Lavender asked.

"Get back in the tent," Mr. Weasley said.

"But…"

"Ginny, just this once, don't argue with me. Get back in the bloody tent. Now!"

"No, Dad, look!" They all turned to look where Ginny was pointing. Behind their tent, less than a few meters away, an entire row of tents was ablaze, spitting acrid black smoke into the sky.

"Maybe someone just got too rowdy, like Mr. Weasley was saying. Drunk people were making sparks with their wands and a tent caught fire?" Hermione suggested.

"Unless it wasn't an accident," Ginny said grimly.

"Who would do that on purpose?" Lavender whispered in horror.

"I don't know, but I think Ginny's right. Look, there's more smoke coming from over there," Luna pointed. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, but it was even harder to believe that over a dozen tents on opposite sides of the fairgrounds had spontaneously caught fire at the exact same time.

A gust of wind pushed a swirling column of smoke towards them and they were soon engulfed. Luna's eyes watered and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She coughed and hacked with the others, but when she looked up to check on Ginny and Lavender, she found that she couldn't see them through the smoke.

"Everyone grab hold of each other so we don't get separated!" Bill instructed. Someone grabbed Luna's hand and squeezed tightly, and Luna could tell from the grip and the delicate skin at the wrist that it was Ginny. She fumbled and reached for Lavender, who had been next to her moments ago. She eventually found another hand, but it did not feel like her friend's.

"Vapos dispersereo!" The smoke slowly cleared, revealing Mr. Weasley standing at the edge of the cloud of smoke holding his wand. Luna saw that his hand was trembling.

"Alright, gang, headcount!" Mr. Weasley's voice sounded cartoonishly cheerful, but his voice shook, "Do we have everyone? Percy, Bill, is everyone here?" Percy and Bill quickly counted the group and then nodded. Mr. Weasley nodded, relieved, and then took out the pink rubber duck and began fiddling with the gadget. It emitted a few squawking sounds but no voices could be heard, no alarm bells, no indication that help was coming. Mr. Weasley swore.

"Bollocks, it's not working. Maybe too much interference?" He turned to his children and their friends as if expecting an answer. They were still clutching each other; they had not let go of one another's hands even when the smoke cleared. The children formed a tight circle in the chaos, the only people standing still as the frightened crowds ran around them like a stream buffeting over pebbles. Every small noise made them jump and every shriek made them whimper. A few of them shrugged in response to his question, but most of them just stared at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to tell them what to do.

"Right, Bill, take the young ones to the forest. Keep your heads down. Stick together. Don't talk to anyone. Whatever you do, do not try to pick any fights. Do you hear me? If you see the people who are doing this, run the other way. There's no Apparition allowed on the grounds, so we're all stuck here until we figure out what's going on. Percy, come with me. I'm going to try to find some other Ministry people to secure the perimeter and find the people responsible…"

A bloodcurdling shriek tore through the sky.

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!" It sounded like a woman's voice. They all pulled out their wands and whirled around, looking for the source of the noise. Harry saw them first.

"There, Mr. Weasley, look!" Several tents away, a woman was being levitated. She was upside down and her skirt had fallen over her head, obscuring her face. A small group of hooded figures stood clustered under the woman, snickering. A man dressed in Muggle clothes was on his knees in front of them, his hands clasped and his head bowed as if in prayer.

"Please let her go. Take me instead…"

That set them laughing and they decided to grant the man his wish; soon he too was being levitated in the air. The woman was still screaming, but the man only whimpered. They reached for each other, straining across the chasm of empty air between them and the cruel laughter beneath them, and their fingers briefly touched before their tormentors pulled them apart. The people holding the wands made the man and woman do flips and loop-de-loops in the air. The louder they screamed, the more the puppet masters laughed. After a particularly cruel set of twists and turns, the woman vomited on herself.

"Oh, Merlin, they've gone for the Muggles," Mr. Weasley said, running towards the crowd that had gathered. They all followed him like lost ducklings, a trail of children on a battlefield. As they drew closer, Luna saw that the Muggles' attackers wore dark robes and masks with slits for eyes. Death Eaters. She realized she was still gripping Ginny's hand like a vice. Her other hand was linked with one of the twins, she could not tell which; he must have grabbed her during the panic in the smoke.

"SOS! Ministry assistance required near the…bloody hell, where are we? Near the intersection of rows M and FF," Mr. Weasley prodded the rubber duck with his wand. This time he got no response, not even static or quacks.

"Why hasn't the alarm been raised already? There were Ministry grunts stationed every ten feet less than an hour ago," Bill shouted through the din.

"Bollocks, it's still not working. I enchanted these myself! Someone must have tampered with them," Mr. Weasley threw the rubber duck to the ground, raised his wand, gestured for the children to stay where they were, and slowly began approaching the group surrounding the Muggles. Bill and the twins followed close behind.

"No, boys, you've got to help the others! Get them to the woods," Mr. Weasley shouted.

One of the Death Eaters pointed their wand at a barrel of firewhisky and it exploded, splinters of wood flying like shrapnel. The alcohol caught fire and flames scorched the air, spreading through the grass to a nearby tent. Within moments, the entire row of tents was ablaze. The mob was moving now, dragging their floating victims with them like kites on an invisible string. Luna could not tell which of the rioters had taken the first step; they suddenly began moving all at once, creeping inexorably forward like a horrifying swarm of spores, an organism with a mind and a will all its own. Mr. Weasley sneaked behind them and the children trailed after him because they did not know what else to do but follow the only responsible adult in sight.

"Do not follow me! Get to the woods! Trust no one! Percy, with me!" Mr. Weasley yelled as he followed the riot.

"Er, s-shall I stay with the children?" Percy suggested, fidgeting with his spectacles. Luna had never known a self-important person like Percy to be so silent in an emergency. He had let go of Ron's hand several minutes ago, but Luna saw that he still did not have his wand out.

"Alright. I'd rather go with Dad anyway," Bill agreed, "Perc, go with them; take them to the forest like Dad said. Fred and George, don't even think about it. We'll catch you up later. Dad, wait up!" He gave them all a quick salute before running after his father. Luna saw Bill raise his wand to his father's face, then to his own. He said a short incantation she could not hear clearly. Two small bubbles of clean air came out of the end of Bill's wand and hovered near the father and son, shielding them from the worst of the smoke.

Fred and George looked at each other, nodded once, and followed their father and brother.

"Fred, George, no!" Percy bellowed after them, but they were already long gone, even their shadows enveloped in the thick smoke.

Percy heeded his father and began shepherding the other children, but they had wandered far from their original campsite. They had no clue where they were, no sense of direction, and no idea where the forest was or how to get there. Hermione had not been exaggerating about the labyrinthine campground; Luna had not realized quite how massive it was. Or perhaps it wasn't all that big, and they were merely walking in circles. The smoke was thick and they could barely see the tips of their own wands, much less any clues about where they were.

Luna was gripping Ginny in one hand and Lavender in the other. Her feet ached, for she had only been wearing flimsy slippers when they were lounging in the tent.

"I swear we've been down this row before," Hermione said, her voice choked with tears, "Oh, God, we'll never find our way out! They'll find us and torture us and kill us and then…"

"Calm down, Hermione, okay?" Ron said with surprising gentleness.

"Why don't we take a break?" Harry suggested, leading Hermione to an overturned crate on the other side of the path.

"There's no time for breaks! I need to find…I mean, I need to get you children to the forest," Percy continued walking, coming to the next intersection and peering both ways. Luna was beginning to suspect that he was looking for something other than the forest. It didn't take a Hogwarts head boy to know that the forest would be at the edges of the field, but Percy kept leading them systematically round and round the middle. And for someone so intimately involved in the planning of such an auspicious event, she would have assumed Percy had the entire layout memorized. But here he was poking his head round every corner, sticking his nose in every tent as if he were likely to find the forest there.

"We're not even close to the forest, so what difference does it make if we rest for five minutes?" Ron was evidently having the same doubts as Luna.

"Did anyone ask your opinion, Ronald?" Percy rounded on him. Ron opened his mouth to retaliate, but Percy froze and raised a quivering finger to his lips. Then they all heard it: voices and footsteps. They were moving at a leisurely pace, and some of them were laughing. It had to be another marauding band of Death Eaters.

"They're coming from that way. Hide! Don't let them see you!" Percy ran around the nearest corner and down a deserted row of tents. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were closer to a different row and tore off in a different direction. Ginny, Lavender, and Luna were stranded in the middle, closest to the row where the Death Eaters were conducting their procession of terror. The mob was drawing closer. Luna could hear them just around the corner, could hear the fire growing louder and see the smoke spreading from tent to tent, getting closer.

"Shit, shit, what do we do? There's nowhere to hide," Ginny panicked. They could hear the panting of the Death Eaters' breathing.

"Be quiet, they'll hear you! Just get in here," Luna pushed the other two into the nearest tent. They crouched on the floor on either side of the door, standing stock-still. The footsteps grew louder and then stopped directly outside the tent.

"Is my dad out there?" Ginny breathed, more mouthing the words than speaking. She was so quiet that Luna could hardly hear her from less than a foot away.

Luna crawled as close to the flap of the tent as she dared and squinted out. This group did not seem to have any Muggles with them, and Mr. Weasley, Bill, and the twins were nowhere in sight. One Death Eater was standing so close to their tent that she could smell his sweat, ripe and sour. She shook her head silently and stayed where she was, not daring to move again. The tiny, barely audible sounds of their bodies suddenly sounded deafening, the shallow rise and fall of their chests, their skin brushing against the floor, the hair standing up on the napes of their necks.

"Incendio! Incendio! Incendio!" They were lighting tent after tent on fire. The smell of burning fabric. The hungry sound of flames consuming everything that came into their path.

"Bloody brilliant, they're setting the tents on fire. Great idea, let's hide in the tent so we can get burnt to a crisp," Ginny muttered.

"What, would you rather have them find us and torture us? Be my guest," Luna gestured for Ginny to leave the safety of the tent. Their arguing was even more heated because it was carried out in furious whispers. Luna could see a vein throbbing on Ginny's temple.

"Guys, let's just calm down, yeah? Aguamenti," Lavender produced a stream of water from her cedar wand and used it to drench Luna's robes, then Ginny's, then her own.

"Incendio!" This time it was their tent going up in flames, and their dripping clothes did nothing to staunch the stifling heat that consumed the tent in a matter of moments. The flames started on the roof, slowly spreading in browning patches that turned black and then shriveled to nothing as the fire ate through the fabric like a hungry insect. The air was shimmering and the smoke was unbearable.

"It's going to collapse!" Lavender cried as they watched patches of the night sky appear above their heads.

"They're still out there, just a few tents away. They're burning everything," Ginny opened the flap of the tent, creating a merciful beam of clear light and fresh air. The girls could still hear the Death Eaters. They all looked at each other, considered their options, and came to the same conclusion: they'd rather take their chances in a burning tent than with the Death Eaters.

"Get under here. And be quiet, for Morgana's sake!" Luna led the other two girls to a large table that looked thick and sturdy. They drenched it with more water from their wands before sliding under it. They huddled together in a damp mess while their world burned around them, praying to every deity they knew that the table wouldn't catch fire.

Flaming fragments of the tent fell all around them, but their makeshift fort held. They could no longer see anything through the smoke. They tried to be quiet, but their lungs felt like they were on fire and they couldn't help coughing and sputtering. Luna wished she knew the clean air spell Bill had used. Had it purified the smoky air, or conjured clean air? Or did it transport clean air from somewhere else? It was such a silly thing to focus on, but it was easier to think about the technicalities of spellcraft than the flames and the smoke in her eyes and chest and hair and Ginny's body wracked with coughs and sobs beside her and the evil in the world that suddenly felt real for the first time.

After a while, the fire burned itself out and the smoke began to clear. Luna, Lavender, and Ginny heard nothing but the distant sounds of chaos and the wind whistling through the hollows of their destroyed tent, if it could even be called a tent anymore.

"They must have gone by now. Come on," Ginny said. They clambered clumsily to their feet before remembering that the walls of the tent were gone and they no longer had any shelter, no place to hide. They dropped back to the ground and crawled into the path they had been walking before.

They could have been in a ghost town. Every tent in sight had been burnt to a crisp, so the moor suddenly felt immeasurably larger than it had before. And there was not a soul in sight.

"Percy? Ron? Harry?" Ginny whispered softly. There was no response. They knew they couldn't risk being much louder. The three girls brushed off the worst of the soot, got their wands out, picked a direction, and set off into the maze.

They lost all sense of time as they trudged through the debris on the moor. It could have been hours, or it could have been minutes. Luna's lungs still stung. Their robes were dripping and there was a chill edge to the night air, so all three were shivering. Lavender's teeth were chattering audibly.

The rubble on either side of the path slowly thinned, the ruined tents growing further and further apart as they reached the far reaches of the fairground. They eventually saw that the path they walked faded away, turning into a clearing in the distance.

The three of them kept to the edges of the path and gripped their wands tightly. Mr. Weasley had told them not to trust anyone. They came to the edge of the clearing and saw a group of children. They heard sobbing. It had to be the edge of the forest. They had made it.

"Thank Morgana," Luna breathed. Tears were suddenly rolling down her face, and she wiped them away brusquely. She didn't understand how she could be crying when she felt nothing, not even relief. There was just a numbness, cold and hard. The only part of her that had survived the fire.

"Maybe Percy, Ron, and the others have ended up here, too!" Lavender whispered.

"Ron? Percy?" Ginny called out before Luna or Lavender could stop her.

There was a ripple of shuffling in the clearing. It was pitch black apart from the light of the stars and there was still smoke wafting through the air, so Luna could not see clearly. Most of the children were standing in a circle, and three or four of them were in the middle. Two were kneeling.

"Who's there?" The voice sounded gruff and anxious. It must have been a boy's voice, a couple years older than them.

"We could ask you the same question!" Luna said. She tried to make her voice steady, but her pine wand trembled in her hand. She was grateful the others couldn't see.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll run very far away from here," said a second voice, this time a girl's.

"We heard someone crying. Do you need help?" Lavender asked.

"Bugger off!" The first voice said, and several of the other children joined in with jeers and insults. The group began moving towards them. Ginny assumed the defensive position and held her yew wand higher in the air as if she were at the start of a duel.

"Maybe we should just go away. There's an awful lot of them," Lavender whispered.

Then another voice spoke up.

"We need help, please, miss." It sounded like a young boy.

"Shut up, you!" Luna heard the dull thump of flesh hitting flesh as if someone had been punched or kicked, and then whimpering.

"I've had enough of this. Lumos!" Ginny said, and a tiny pinprick of light appeared at the tip of her wand. Luna and Lavender lit their wands as well. The other children shied away from the light.

Their lights traveled around the clearing, illuminating face after face. The children looked like they might range in age from eight to fifteen or so, but Luna did not recognize any of them.

Until her light landed on a familiar pale, pinched face. Draco Malfoy. Her cousin.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't you oiks again. And my dear cousin, the queen oik herself," he smirked.

"Shut up, Draco," Luna snarled.

"What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be off destroying property and torturing innocent Muggles like your mummy and daddy?" Ginny mocked.

"Funny you should say that…" Draco began, but he was cut off by an older boy. Draco scowled, but stayed quiet. He knew better than to risk being interrupted a second time.

"Our parents think we're still too young," the older boy shrugged, not even pretending to deny that his family was responsible for the attacks.

"But they did put us in charge of the Muggle runts," said a girl with dark hair and a scrunched-up face.

"Be quiet, Pansy. I was just saying that," Draco elbowed the girl and she backed away with her head bowed.

"Don't shove her, Draco," another boy said. Draco bristled at that, and they were soon embroiled in a heated argument about the Death Eater pecking order.

But Luna was hardly paying attention. All the pieces were suddenly falling into place. The Death Eater children. The two children kneeling in the middle of the circle with Draco and his thugs looming over them. The black eye blooming on the boy's face.

Luna, Ginny, and Lavender drew closer to the kneeling children and Luna's suspicions were confirmed. The children were wearing Muggle clothing and were staring in awe at the wands their tormentors were brandishing so casually.

"Let's go. Come on," Ginny pulled the children roughly to their feet and started dragging them back towards the smoldering ruins of the campground.

"Just a moment," Draco halted the argument with a raised hand, and then turned to address the girls, "Where exactly do you think you're going?"

"None of your business. Anywhere but here. And we're taking them with us," Luna said, stepping in front of the Muggle children.

"Oh, you're so adorably twee. But I'm afraid you won't be taking them anywhere."

"You can't just treat them like that just because they're Muggles!" Ginny shouted.

"And what are you going to do about it, Weasley?" Draco grinned.

"I'll…I'll tell Fudge! I'll turn you in to the aurors!"

"A noble sentiment. But your father doesn't exactly have clout at the Ministry, now does he? Whereas my father and I are going dragon hunting with Cornelius next week. No, Weasley, a blood traitor like you and dear cousin Luna here deserve to grovel in the mud with the Muggle swine you love so much." Draco made a small gesture to his cronies and three bulky boys stepped forward and took hold of Luna, Lavender, and Ginny.

"Get off me!" Ginny struggled, kicking her captor in the shin. Luna fought to keep hold of her pine wand as it was wrenched from her grasp. Lavender remained silent and surrendered her wand without a struggle, but reached out to hold the hand of the sobbing Muggle girl.

"On your knees. On your knees, I said!" Draco commanded them, brandishing his wand like a sword.

They all complied.

"Now put your faces in the dirt and eat it. Dirt, to match the filth running through your veins," his eyes narrowed and his lips curled as the others clapped him on the back and laughed at his clever jibe.

The Muggle boy and girl obeyed immediately. They sobbed and ate until their mouths were full with earth.

"Swallow," one of the other Death Eater children commanded, prodding their throats with his wand. The Muggle children swallowed and gagged.

"Now your turn, you three. Don't make me tell you again," Draco said, pressing his heel on the back of Luna's neck. She winced but opened her mouth. The soil tasted dull and metallic. She could feel an earthworm wriggling in her mouth and wretched.

"Did I tell you to spit it out? Eat it again," Draco pressed her face into her sick.

There was a sudden flash of green in the sky and all of the wizarding children screamed, including Luna. At first they all thought it was a killing curse. The Death Eater children thought it was aurors, or perhaps that it was their parents, who had rampaged into the clearing without realizing their own children were there.

But it was worse than a killing curse. The green light turned into a cloud of miasma and floated higher in the sky. They all watched as the green mist coalesced into the shape of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. The Dark Mark.

"Did one of you do that?!" Draco demanded, lifting his boot from Luna's neck and whirling around to peer at his companions, seeing if any of them had their wands raised towards the sky. The other children shrugged and shook their heads. They all looked frightened.

"Whoever pulled that little prank is going to be in big trouble," said an older boy, with a hint of admiration in his voice.

"It's not a prank, Theo! That's…that could mean he's back. For real this time." Luna couldn't tell whether the girl sounded more terrified or thrilled.

A group of Death Eaters suddenly appeared in the clearing, still wearing their robes and masks. There was a nervous energy rippling through the mob that had not been there before. Luna wondered where they had left Mr. and Mrs. Roberts.

"Pansy, let's go. Now."

"But Mum, Draco still has my…."

"I said now," the girl's mother grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from the clearing with one last look at the Dark Mark in the sky.

Other groups of Death Eaters trickled into the clearing in search of their children. The Death Eaters did not speak to each other. They all left the clearing in different directions, dragging their children after them. Soon the only children left in the clearing were Luna, Lavender, Ginny, the two Muggle children, and Draco.

He stood alone, looking much smaller now that he wasn't surrounded by his gang. He ignored the three witches as they groveled in the dirt to find their wands, which the other Death Eater children had dropped in the rush of leaving. They conjured water and rinsed the hands and mouths of the Muggle boy and girl. The Muggles were blubbering and could barely speak, and they recoiled like feral cats when Lavender spoke softly to them and tried to rub their backs. Draco turned in place, waiting for his father to emerge from the maze of tents.

Finally, Draco's mother came to collect him.

"Mother, where's Father?"

"Hush, Draco. Say goodbye to your little friends." Luna kept her eyes on the ground, the taste of dirt and vomit still in her mouth. Beside her, the Muggle girl sobbed. She didn't know whether Narcissa could recognize her through the darkness and the smoke.

And then Draco spoke, barely above a whisper.

"Mother, is he really back?"

AN: Thanks for reading! There's now absolutely gorgeous cover art created by the talented Jazz Miranda, whose Insta is dangerjazz and whose Tumblr is danger-jazz. The scene depicted is from chapter 22. As always, comments are appreciated and help me stay motivated to keep writing!