Carmen POV [ ;-) ]
"Think they'll finally figure it out?" Elias asked her as they hurried back to the tents, leaving her brother and best friend alone.
"Merlin, I hope so. … Not like we're ones to throw stones." she retorted quietly.
She'd never denied her feelings for her big brother's best friend – which said it all, really. Marina had never commented; right up until a week ago, when she'd told Carmen that their song-and-dance was giving her a migraine.
There had been times when she'd been half-convinced that maybe it was just one-way. But her best friend the empath had replied if she'd lost her mind. And it didn't take Empathy, everyone could see it.
Elias hesitated a few seconds.
"Between work, the families – not to mention the press … we were never alone," he said quietly, mindful of the company they had, and took her hand.
Carmen forced herself not to smile.
"And we need to be alone to talk?" she questioned – pretty sure Marina would be laughing her butt off at the innocent act.
"Not to talk, no," he replied and lightly pulled at her hand, until there was barely an inch between them. "But I was hoping afterwards."
She snapped her head up to look at him, unable to stop the blush. He was looking ahead but smiling.
There was still one thing though...
"What about David?" she asked gently. The last thing she wanted was for those two to fight. Elias was the only one she could trust to keep her brother alive on duty – and vice versa.
"He gave me permission at Bianca's wedding."
Something about his tone told her that it had been less of permission and more of a warning.
"That was over a month ago," she huffed. Her biggest reason for not talking to him herself, and it had been mute for six weeks.
Elias slung an arm around her and pulled her into him.
Granted, she thought, those two idiots had been so wrapped up in the preparations for the World Cup, they'd barely had a day off at all. That was the reason why they had three vacation days now.
"Look on your desk when you get home," Elias told her quietly, lightly caressing her arm.
Before she could ask just what he was going on about, Marina and David caught up with them.
And her best friend's face was as scarlet red as her Gryffindor ties.
David seemed to have his arm around her not just because he liked doing it – a lot – but to try and keep his girlfriend (please, let her be his girlfriend) calm. Trying and failing.
"Kitten?" Sirius asked carefully. "What-?"
Seeing her father just seemed to make it worse, because Marina groaned and buried her face in David's chest – which was cause for celebration as far as Carmen was concerned.
But her brother didn't look much happier than her friend.
"Skeeter caught us," was all he offered as an explanation, but it was enough.
That reporter had been the bane of Marina's existence from the very first article when she'd named her The Girl Who Saw. Her subsequent 'reports' about Bellatrix and their family relation hadn't helped.
"So we can expect a rather scathing article soon?" Remus asked mildly.
"I'd be surprised if she mentions the Cup at all," Marina grumbled and looked up. "She was all but bursting with glee."
"Well, I suppose we don't have to ask how your talk went then," Bianca said jokingly.
"Not at all," Marina agreed grimly. "You can read it in tomorrow's Prophet."
"I'm surprised you didn't hex her," Carmen said dryly.
"Oh, I would have," she retorted. "But your brother here still has his common sense and figured that wouldn't go over so well."
They'd been standing there for at least three minutes and Marina hadn't moved out of her brother's arm. She was doing a happy dance inwardly.
There was no point in talking about it, since it was already over and done. Skeeter was going to write whatever she wanted.
All of them settled in front of their tents and grilled some marshmallows – after Hermione had explained to them how to do it.
Marina had noticed the grins everybody had shot each other when she'd sat down next to David. They were worse than teenagers sometimes; subtlety was not their strength.
But she couldn't help but grin a little too, when Elias pulled Carmen down next to him, despite the fact that Jupiter was right there. David might have given his blessing, but the fatherly warning was still on the horizon.
She wondered how long it would take the kids to crash – they'd all been up since five in the morning.
3:00am
They'd barely laid down ten minutes ago when Marina woke up again.
Her hands were shaking and she was ice-cold. She hadn't felt fear like that in... ever.
Probably because it wasn't her own or even just one person's. The emotion was pressing down on her and she choked, gasping for air.
Something was very wrong.
Marina had barely grabbed her wand when David entered their tent; one look at his face and she knew they were in trouble.
"Death Eaters," he bit out, anger choking him as much as the collective fear did her.
"Wake Dad and Remus," she told him and went to wake Harry.
How in Merlin's name had they slept through the screams?
As soon as her brother was on his feet, sort of, she waved her wand and transfigured his socks into shoes and his pjs into jeans and a jacket. There was no time to get dressed.
Once everybody was awake they went outside and assembled with the others. Marina waved her wand a few times again to transfigure the girls' and Ron's clothes.
The sight that greeted them was terrifying:
Half the camp-ground was already on fire and people were screaming in fear everywhere. Those who weren't frozen on the spot in terror were runing away.
And above the scared crowd was a family, floating and screaming for help.
"Muggle-sport," Carmen whispered, horrified. It was the term Death Eaters used for torturing muggles.
The masked cowards spinned the muggles in circles and had them float upside down. The kids' heads were being craned harshly, the little girl crying in pain.
"That's sick," Ron mumbled, green-faced and disgusted.
"Go back to the portkey site," her father growled, the anger making his face look so harsh it would scare anyone who didn't know him.
"Stay together and don't stop for anything," Remus added.
"Fred, George: Ginny and Tyler are your responsibility," Arthur said sternly. The twins nodded, too appalled to speak.
"Don't bother, Dad," Carmen said sharply when Jupiter looked at her and Marina. "We're not running."
"Harry, whatever happens, stick with the others," she told her brother. "They're not here for you, but it would be rather convenient."
Harry nodded, his eyes still tansfixed on the muggles, and stepped closer to Ron, Hermione and Susan. They all had their wands out already.
As soon as the kids and twins started running the other direction, the rest of them moved to stop the Death Eaters.
It was just about impossible to get through the crowd.
She wondered what it was about catastrophes that had people stop and gawk.
Their group and the aurors they'd teamed up with had no choice but to blast their way through the spectators.
"Bloody cowards planned well," Amelia Bones muttered angrily. "We can't take them all at once yet. But if we don't they'll kill the muggles."
"How far out are the rest of your men?" Jupiter asked. They all kept their wands aimed firmly at the Death Eaters.
"I'd give it another two minutes, tops," Amelia replied. "Question is, do we have two minutes?"
As it turned out, no they didn't.
When the first of the masked men cast the Cruciatus on the poor muggle woman, none of them even hesitated.
Having cross-fire duels with muggles floating overhead was definitely the most insane thing they'd ever done. The only upside was that the Death Eaters were too busy fighting them to kill the muggles.
Carmen, Bianca and Talib made sure to keep the family floating as long as the fight raged.
Just when Amelia's men arrived, it happened.
Marina gasped in surprised pain when, for the first time in over two years, her scar burned as harshly as when she'd been hit with the curse. Her father blocked the curse aimed at her.
Suddenly, the night sky lit up bright green as a spell-flash shot upwards.
When the Dark Mark formed for the first time in thirteen years, Marina barely registered the frightened screams before she fainted.
3:40am
She couldn't have been out for long since the aurors were still lowering the muggle family to the ground.
"You okay?" Remus asked her, helping her up.
"Humiliated," she replied grimly. "But yes. The collective shock knocked me out. Even the Death Eaters were out of their minds with fear."
"Cowards took off as soon as they saw it," Elias confirmed, an arm around Carmen.
"Where is Dad?" Marina asked when she couldn't find him in the crowd of people around them.
"Him, Arthur, Amelia and Dad went looking for the kids," David answered her and hugged her with his free arm.
Amelia... Merlin... The woman had lost both her brothers and just about everyone else to the Death Eaters last time. Susan was the only family she had left.
"Let's go," she said grimly and David and she took off to find them.
It took them barely five minutes – the kids hadn't gotten very far into the forest.
Marina was shocked at what they found: a bunch of aurors and other officials were standing in a lose circle around the four worried-sick kids – with their wands pointed at them. Jupiter, Amelia, Arthur and her Dad looked none too pleased.
"What the bloody hell?" she asked sharply.
"They were just accusing us of that," Susan told her and pointed towards the Dark Mark.
"You were found at the scene of the crime," one of the wizards said.
"You do realise just who the hell you're talking to, right?" Marina snapped, strung too tight to care how she sounded. "Susan Bones... Harry Potter casting the Dark Mark?"
Most of them had the decency to shift restlessly. But not all.
"That does not prove anything," the one right in front of Harry said and turned slightly to glare at her. That's when she recognised him.
It certainly explained why her father wasn't moving a muscle.
David must have known the explosion was coming and tried to hold her back. But not only was she on general emotional overload and exhausted, she was furious herself.
"Get away from my brother," she hissed – some of the wizards took a startled step back. "You have done by far enough damage to my family, Crouch."
"Don't talk about things you don't understand, girl."
David managed to grab and push down her right arm just in time, before she could point her wand at the moron. Nobody missed the movement.
"I understand just fine," she snapped. "You were so busy trying to become Minister of Magic and locking up innocent people that you missed your own son was a Death Eater.
Your judgement isn't exactly infallible, so get away from my brother."
Apparently, even someone like Crouch had a breaking point; and she'd just pushed it.
He whirled on his heels, wand up and pointed at her.
David was next to her in a heartbeat, his own wand up – ready to defend her even against the likes of someone like Crouch.
Not that he had to.
Her father was in front of her, wand drawn, so fast she wondered if he'd apparated the few feet.
"Don't even think about it, Crouch," he growled and didn't even bother to dial down the anger. "You so much as look at my daughter wrong, and I'll call Justice."
Everybody drew startled breaths and froze – except Amelia, who looked oddly... smug.
Her father had just reminded everyone of an ancient tradition. Nobody had used it in centuries, but it was still the law. And technically, his wrongful imprisonment alone would have given him the grounds to call Justice.
Basically, the spell involved brought down Judgement Day on the parties involved – that's why it had to be cast by the entire Wizengamot or even more wizards. The ancient magic would judge both participents while they duelled.
Crouch had sent her innocent father to prison for twelve years, whereas her Dad had just tried to protect the people he'd loved the most. That alone would have been enough for Justice to rule in her Dad's favour and strike Crouch down during the duel.
Sending his own son to Azkaban, instead of letting someone else handle that trial, would be a death sentence under Justice Magic.
Plus, her Dad was just reckless enough to risk it either way.
Marina saw Susan whispering to the others and assumed she was explaining what her father had just brought up. Even Ron wouldn't know about it.
Crouch must have understood what would happen if he pushed her father that far. He lowered his wand and took half a dozen steps away from Harry – who glared at Crouch just as angrily.
Marina stepped past her father, who was still glowering at Crouch, and hugged Harry briefly.
"What happened?" she asked and took a step back. The boys were tall enough for her to have to look up a little now.
"We took off like you said," Hermione said quietly. "We were separated from the others. And just when we were about to go look for them..."
The girl's somewhat helpless gaze went upwards to the Dark Mark.
"Any idea who cast it?" she asked, looking up herself.
"Well, there was... are you okay?" Harry asked her, concerned. She looked back down and saw him looking at her left hand – which was rubbing her hip absentmindedly.
"Just my scar, I'm fine. There was what?"
"A man. Over there," Ron answered and pointed behind the Ministry wizards.
David went to investigate, in spite of the dozen people who could have done it instead. Marina bit her tongue; he was an auror, this was what he did. She'd just have to get used to it.
It only took him about a minute, rifling through the gras, before he came back out.
With Bellatrix' wand.
"Why in the name of Merlin would she give up her wand?" Jupiter asked, clearly confused.
"She wouldn't," her Dad shook his head. "The caster must have stolen it."
"She'd give it up following orders," Marina said quietly and the two men stilled.
There was nothing Bellatrix wouldn't do for her Lord and Master.
"To what end?" Arthur questioned as David cast the Prior Incantatem.
Marina didn't fail to notice that all the others were oddly silent for being Ministry officials.
The crooked wand lit up and a weak echo of the Dark Mark in the sky suddenly hovered over it.
"Sending a message," her father said quietly and looked up. "There is only one wizard who could make her give up her wand. She just let everyone know that she found him."
Nobody seemed to so much as breathe after that cheery thought. David ended the spell.
"That still doesn't tell us who cast it," a witch in a lose robe mumbled.
"Oh, I think it does," David contradicted and Marina looked up, shocked. His voice was hard like granite.
"Given who we know she was with last," he added and tossed Crouch the wand.
Then Marina remembered: Crouch had been one of the, very few, people who'd accused Jupiter of being a Death Eater like his brother last time, despite his status as a 'blood-traitor'.
"Well, we'll take the kids now," Amelia announced into the silence – and her tone brooked no argument. "We still have to find the others."
No one dared protest.
4:20am
"Thank you for not letting me hex him," she told David quietly as they made their way back to the tents.
Her father had his arms around Harry and Hermione, walking up front. Jupiter, Amelia and Susan and Arthur and Ron followed. She and David had fallen in last.
"I was surprised you didn't do it anyway," he replied and wrapped an arm around her waist, lightly massaging her hip with his hand; as if he knew the damn scar still hurt.
"If Dad hadn't gotten in between, I would have," she grumbled. "Which would have cost me any chance of ever becoming an auror, so..."
"You'll make a good one," David said, despite the sudden rush of fear he couldn't hide.
"Now you know how I feel," she said gently and leaned on him. "We'll just have to deal with it."
"I've never had to worry before," he admitted ruefully. "Dad's job is important but not dangerous. Bianca will teach, Carmen wants to be a Healer..."
"And along comes me and changes the game."
"Well, I still have two years to get used to the thought," he said to lighten the mood.
"Planning to stick around that long, are you?" she teased.
David saw right through her of course. He pulled her to a halt and tilted her head up to look at him.
"Longer than that, if you'll have me," he said solemnly and pushed a strand of her out of her face.
This time, he didn't give her a chance to back out – as if she would – and kissed her.
Her skin tingled everywhere they touched, even through the robes, and her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest. She wound her arms around him when he pulled her completely against him and deepened their kiss.
And for the first time in years, she didn't feel anything but her own fluttering emotions.
For the first time in years, she didn't feel anything but his arms around her.
x
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Did I mention that I really didn't like Crouch?