I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling. I also have no beta or proof-reader (at least not a human one) so expect some mistakes from time to time. Finally, please read my profile before you review the story, as it may answer some questions that you could have, including my upload schedule.

Harry woke with a jolt, and coughed, spluttering for a moment as he blew ash out of his face. His first thought sprang to his family and Hermione, wondering if they had escaped the Death Eaters and if they had made it to the Portkey. At least he could feel confident about one thing, other people were not here now, for they would surely be found amongst the field of soot, ash and burned tents. He got up and brushed himself down lightly, noticing that his arm was cut and he had a throbbing pain in his right leg. 'Probably from that bloody blasting curse' he thought with a scowl. He remembered the location of the Portkey and was going to go there immediately, except he lacked one important thing: his wand. He fumbled around in his general vicinity and scrambled to find it but it was nowhere to be found. With a muttered "Fuck!", he started to walk over to the burnt treeline, which he assumed was the forest until he heard a raspy voice shout something.

"MORSMORDRE!"

A brilliant green skull shot into the sky from the caster's wand, whose face was obscured by a large black hood. Instead of attempting to find out who it was, Harry crouched and stayed perfectly still, not wanting to draw attention to the obvious Death Eater. Once the man had left, he threw the wand he was holding and ran. Harry heard a sharp crack, disapparition, just moments later. Harry ran in the direction of the trees, where the man had just thrown the wand and tried to find where the portkey was set to return to each time it delivered someone. But he could not find the old boot. Instead, he found his wand, lying next to a crumpled form of a house-elf. He tried to gently shake her awake but she just groaned and lay on the floor, seemingly exhausted.

"Stupefy!" Harry's instincts kicked in and he hit the ground faster than a spell could move, avoiding the stunning spells with ease. From his place on the ground, Harry could make out the forms of about seven Aurors all dressed in Ministry grey colours.

"STOP! STOP! THAT'S MY SON, BARTEMIUS!" Harry recognised the voice as that of his Dad's and ran towards him. For the first time that he could remember, Harry nearly broke down into his father's arms in exhaustion. James held tightly onto him and knelt in the ash at his feet to look Harry in the eyes. "Are you alright, Harry? Please, don't scare me like that again." Harry nodded and let go, seeing the entire group looking at the two. The man that his father had directed the shouts at, Bartemius Crouch let him pull Harry up but soon after pointed his wand directly between his eyes.

"You have been discovered at the scene of the crime, you conjured the dark mark! Why have you done this, boy?!" The angry man questioned Harry. He stood wide-eyed before he realised what he was asking.

"What the hell? You think I did this?" Harry pointed at the mark in the sky. "I've never even heard of that spell before today and I've certainly never practised the dark arts! Plus, I've only just found my wand next to this house-elf when a man cast that spell and threw it into the woods." Bartemius spluttered and made a decent impression of a goldfish as he listened to the story. That was only because one of the men had just turned over the house-elf and retrieved Harry's wand.

"Winky?"

The elf was woken up using a rennervate charm and immediately had the wand snatched out of her hand by Mr Crouch.

"Where did you get this and why would you use a wizard's wand? You know it is forbidden!" He growled. Between the sobs and the shouts, Harry was able to gather that this 'Winky' was Mr Crouch's house-elf and had left her master's side, to be suspiciously found at the scene of a dark mark with another wizard's wand. The elf explained herself as best as she could to her master, though he was reluctant to hear the excuses that she came up with, just for the sake of trying to be right.

"Enough!" He cut across another one of her babbled sentences and silenced her, along with everyone around him too. "You have broken the rules of a house-elf's bond. Therefore, I have no choice but to release you." Harry gasped with shock, though most of the others were numb to this and some were even nodding their heads in agreement.

"What, no! I'm sure you of all people know that a house-elf can't survive without a master's bond. It'll eventually destroy them." James grabbed his son's shoulder and when he looked up, shook his head at him. Crouch made a sound akin to an elephant blowing water from its trunk and reached inside his coat pocket. There was a small, black glove in his hand and he threw it at her. Harry fumed and in the heat of the moment, knelt next to Winky and put a hand on her shoulder. Crouch scowled.

"Winky, if you need a master, Hogwarts has a kitchen where lots of house-elves work, they'll take care of you, and you can ask the Headmaster to put you under his employ. I trust you know where it is?" The elf limply nodded as Harry stood back up, seeing his father and Mr Crouch's annoyed faces. Before Barty could scowl again at Harry, the boy's wand was handed to him.

"You're in luck, boy, this wand is yours, but the last thing cast from it, the Morsmordre spell, was not cast by you. Keep a closer eye on your wand, next time, and never let a house-elf use or steal a wand. And one day, you will learn your place, so don't antagonise me again!" With a swish of his cloak, he and the other wizards apart from Harry's father left in the direction of the campsite, hoping to find some evidence of the perpetrators.

"Come on, let us get home. The ladies have been worried sick about you." James said with a hint of annoyance. Harry looked back towards the small elf who had broken down into tears. But before he could console her, she disappeared with a sharp crack, leaving father and son alone.

When the floo system flared with a green light, Harry's mother rushed forward and hugged him like he might disappear any second. After pulling away and looking him in the eyes, she started to sniffle and looked as if she'd been doing it for the past hour. She had tear streaks running down her cheek, both fresh and dried and held a handkerchief in one hand. From beyond his mother, on the sofa was his sister, who smiled and welcomed him back with sad eyes.

"Hey. What the hell happened? You scared Mum half to death." There was a hint of anger in his sister's voice, but it was quickly cast aside for gratefulness. Harry rolled his eyes and let go of his mother.

"Did you not get hit with anything after that blasting curse? I was thrown into a bloody tree and I woke up surrounded by soot and smoke and ash. Then I found that my wand was missing and someone cast his mark into the sky. I suppose the press haven't had the time to publish anything about it yet, otherwise, I bet someone from the Prophet would have had a field day trying to paint me as a Death Eater. Plus, that guy from the Ministry, what was his name- Crouch? Whatever it was he tried to stun me and he fired his elf just because she was found near my wand which was used to cast that projection spell." Lily locked eyes with James and he nodded, understanding what she meant with just the movement of her face.

"I think it's time we told you both about what is coming," James said, addressing both of his children, who were sat patiently on the sofa. "Those were Death Eaters. Voldemort's minions. And we had to deal with them in the first war, but we, along with Professor Dumbledore think that they have a larger plan this time around. They wouldn't have resurfaced without a reason, as so many of the suspected Death Eaters are now either very rich or very powerful in the Ministry. That makes them prime suspects." Lily looked down as her children scowled. "That mark that Harry saw being shot into the sky was his calling card, the Dark Mark, and the Death Eaters would put it over places where they had murdered. It is meant to strike fear, and tonight, it did. This pretty much proves what we had been thinking, that the Death Eaters, the darkest wizards in modern history, are back and they plan to return in full force." The twins sat silently in their places and hadn't moved an inch since their father had started, intent on absorbing every word.

But since he sounded done and waiting for a response, Zoe spoke up.

"And you only thought to tell us of this now, after when we were eleven, there was a person who Voldemort inhabited teaching us Defence, a plot for him to return from the dead through the use of a soul purge and now, only now, after there's been a public attack from his fanatics? Why?"

The words were caught in her parent's throats. The truth was, they should have told their children about it, but that would have meant revealing the prophecy too soon and ruining their lives when they had barely begun. All that their mother could muster was:

"I'm sorry. We knew of the danger of the Death Eaters, and none of us warned you. If we find out anything else worth telling, we will tell you."

Harry just got up and left without saying a word and his sister opened her mouth… but closed it before any hurtful words could escape.

Harry came to his room at the top of the stairs and closed his door with care, locking it from the inside. He stood for a moment on the carpet by his bed, unsure of what to say or do. So he resolved to call Hermione, who, knowing her would be distraught at not knowing how they and more pressingly, he was doing. He grabbed the mirror that his Uncle Sirius had given the group for their first Christmas at Hogwarts and tapped the rim with his wand, which was now cleared of ash and spoke his girlfriend's name. The mirror flashed blue immediately and she appeared with red and puffy eyes.

"Harry! Oh my god! Are you safe? Are you ok?" He nodded so she breathed a sigh of relief. "What happened?! We got to the Portkey and realised that you weren't behind us anymore. After that blasting curse nearly hit you, we… I wasn't sure if you were coming back. Please don't make me worry like that ever again!" She was almost shouting now, with fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry I didn't call sooner. I woke up after you'd left and everything was burned to the ground. I saw some guy who must be a Death Eater cast Voldemort's mark into the sky with my wand and then leave. He threw my wand away so I went to fetch it and it landed near a house-elf, who was Bartimeus Crouch's… until he gave her a sock and fired her because he thought she'd used my wand." He spat Crouch's name and had a look of disdain as he said it. Hermione's face flushed red with anger but she stayed passive enough to ask what he'd done.

"I told the elf -Winky- that she could go and work at Hogwarts with other elves in the kitchen otherwise she'd quickly lose her magic and die." Hermione finally smiled, eyes no longer leaking and sat up straight.

"You are coming to see me as soon as possible, Harry. After a scare like that, I know that we need each other."

"Hermione, I agree. I love you, so much."

"I love you too, Harry. I'll see you soon."

As most of you will probably know, The Goblet of Fire is the book in the series where everything changes. I don't yet know if that is the same here, but we'll find out as this story progresses.