Chapter 1: The Top Box

18th August 1994

"Father's had these tickets booked for months, you know," Draco drawled, leaning against the wooden pillar, glancing across at the bright green fabric that encased the small, rickety staircase. "I'm astounded that your mother didn't get you any for the Top Box, Blaise, even if she can't make it herself."

Blaise Zabini - tall for his age, dark skinned, dark haired, dressed in freshly pressed black wizard's robes - raised an eyebrow and shrugged across at his friend. "I don't see it as that important," he lied, trying to ignore Draco's knowing smirk. "And after all, I'm only one floor below you and your family. It'll be exactly the same."

"Will it, now?" Draco snickered, pushing one hand through his slicked back blonde hair. "You say that when you see what crummy view you end up with. I'll be sure to let you know how amazing sitting in the Top Box was."

"Now, now, Draco," Lucius tapped his son on the shoulder, slowly and noticeably gently, giving Blaise a slightly pained nod. "Don't go making everyone jealous. That simply isn't the done thing."

Draco glanced back at Blaise, making a show of rolling his eyes, but begrudgingly closed his mouth. He knew better than to contradict his father. Leaving his friend behind in the queue for the stands, he double stepped up the staircase on his way to catch up with the rest of his family, falling into step behind his sister.

The Top Box was pretty high up - as it should have been, at the amount of money it cost (although it hardly put a dent in the Malfoy's pockets) - and Draco couldn't help but smirk at the slightly insistent way that his sister was staring at her Omnioculars, rather than anywhere else.

"Having a good time?" she asked him, not giving him a second glance (being far too interested in the object in her hands). "How are your friends?"

"Good," Draco shrugged, pulling the object out of his sister's hands and turning them over in his own. "According to father we'll be sharing the Top Box with the Weasleys this evening. What do you think to that?"

"How did they get the money?" Selene glanced up, looking somewhat surprised. "I know they won the Daily Prophet's lottery last year, but that money only goes so far. And they were in the newspaper for blowing it all on a trip to Egypt, too."

Draco sneered, rolling his eyes again. "I just don't think tonight will be as enjoyable with their sort around with us too. Don't you think?"

"Haven't really thought about it," Selene shrugged, taking the Omnioculars back with a slightly incessant tug. "And anyway, just concentrate on the players. I know you've been looking forward to this for months. Don't let people like them ruin your time."

"Lovely to see you Lucius, as always. Is this your wife?" They could hear Minister Fudge up ahead, as their parents disappeared into the Box. Draco raised an eyebrow at his sister, who sighed heavily and slowly followed, ignoring the jostling hand that her brother was trying to use on her back. The less time she had to spend in the prescence of the Minister the better - he made her skin crawl.

She glanced over the group of redheads - with, interestingly, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger - quickly, before extending her hand to the Minister, along with a charming smile. "A pleasure, Minister," she said, giving her mother a sideways glance. "It's always lovely to see you again."

One of the Weasley boys - one of the ones she didn't know the name of - mimed sticking a finger down his throat in the corner of her vision, and she shot him a dirty look. Even if she was inclined to give the Weasleys the benefit of the doubt when it came to this evening, she still wasn't pleased with them if this is how they acted. She coughed into her fist, and smiled at the Minister as he asked after her wellbeing.

"I'm perfectly fine Minister," she said graciously, "I simply choked on a sweet earlier, you see."

"Oh," Cornelius nodded, and smiled back. "A travesty, but it happens to us all. Now, I believe you're going into your final year of Hogwarts?"

"My sixth," Selene corrected quickly. "Although one must always plan ahead."

"Very true, very true," the Minister nodded, extending a hand towards the crowd of gingers. "That means you're in the same year as Arthur's twins, are you not? Do you know one another from school?"

The twins looked up, and shot identical glances at Selene. She looked back, unperturbed. "Not well, Minister," she said truthfully, reaching her hand out towards the closest of the twins. "Only by reputation, we're in different Houses." and the one time they had dared to pull a prank on her back in third year, she'd got her father involved.

The twin who was meant to shake her hand seemed surprised by the gesture, but gingerly took it and shook it once before dropping it. "Your reputation precedes you, Malfoy," he said, scowling up at her from his seat.

Selene smirked, and took her seat behind the other twin, motioning for Draco to sit next to her in the final empty one. "Good," she said simply, before turning her attention back to her Omnioculars.

Fred and George Weasley were probably the most popular boys in her year, and were up for the title overall in the school once Cedric Diggory and Roger Davies departed at the end of the upcoming school year. Selene had spent her time as Ravenclaw Prefect both cleaning up after their messes and deducting House Points for their various pranks. She was amazed they passed enough O.W.L.s to continue on at Hogwarts at all, but here they were, due to return after the summer. Not a patch on Selene's perfect 10 passes - although that Acceptable in Herbology would doubtless haunt her.

What reputation the twin referred to, however, was lost on Selene. She liked to keep herself to herself, not draw too much attention or spend too much time with people outside her House. Unless Fred or George were referring to her good grades, she wasn't sure whether they were telling the truth or not. She never spoke to the Weasleys, apart from when Percy Weasley was Head Boy and they had a short, slightly baffling friendship borne of their shared love of the library and Selene's friendship with his girlfriend Penelope Clearwater. Fred and George made too much trouble for Selene, even if they had been in the same House it was doubtful that she would have made an impression on them.

"Selene," Draco snapped at her, bringing the girl's attention back to the match. "It's starting."

The Irish team were decked in brilliant emerald green, and the Leprachauns they brought as mascots rained money from the sky. Narcissa sniffed as the Weasleys in front of them dove to grab as much as they could, with Draco snickering at their antics.

"Leprechaun gold vanishes after a few hours," Selene spoke up, putting her Omnioculars to her face. The twins turned around to gaze at her. "No point in paying Johnson off to suck you off that way, Weasley."

The left twin scowled - Selene assumed he must be Fred judging by his reaction - and Lucius tutted under his breath at his daughter.

"No need to be vulgar, Selene," he smirked, eyeing the twins beadily. "I expect better of you than that."

"Yes father," Selene nodded, copying Lucius's smirk. "It won't happen again."

She heard the twin Weasleys mimicking her tone and apology as they turned back to the scene in front of them, and she flushed furiously, returning to the device to hide her embarrassment. She didn't want anyone to see her blush - let alone the Weasley twins.

Selene knew something was wrong when her father left their tent in the early hours of the morning, and Narcissa said nothing. She knew by the way he shrugged on his robes, and his mouth was smiling in a manic, insane way. And then, as the door closed behind him, her mother was waking her and Draco up, insisting that they got dressed and got ready to go.

"But father-" Draco started, but hushed as their mother shot him a look.

"Your father is busy," her voice was strained, tight, and she seemed almost twice her age in the light from Selene's wand. "Selene - I want you to take your brother and hide. I need to sort out some things and wait for your father to return, but it's not safe for you here right now."

Selene raised an eyebrow, murmuring Lumos Maxima to better illuminate the tent's inside. She blinked in the harsher, brighter light, and grasped her younger brother's hand as her mother glanced back at them. "Yes mother," she said quietly, turning to Draco and looking him up and down. "I... I can Apparate-"

"You can't do Side-Along Apparition yet," Narcissa snapped, not looking at her daughter as she began to pack away some bedding into a bag. "And you haven't passed your test. Even if your father is high up at the Ministry, he'll be angry if I let you flout the rules, especially right now."

The tone in her mother's voice told Selene that pressing the subject would potentially be a very, very bad idea. So, she swallowed her questions and her indignation, and pulled on her coat. "Draco, get your wand," she said sharply, leaving her mother to her packing. "Do as mother says."

Draco glared at his sister (he didn't like being told what to do by her at the best of times), but did as he was told, pulling his coat on and grasping his wand from atop his bed. "Yes Professor," he mocked under his breath, ignoring the twin glares he received from his mother and sister as he did. When they were angry, they looked almost identical.

There was a bright flash of light from outside their tent, and loud scratchy laughter. Selene glanced back at her mother, but quickly pulled Draco out of the tent and out into the cold early morning. She stopped still, looking up at the sky, and towards a point in the near distance. Four figures, suspended in the air. Panic seized her.

"You're fucking kidding me," she swore, grabbing Draco's hand and skirting a peacock, ignoring the intense wish to blast it out of the way. What was it with her family and intense, ludicrous decorations when they were least needed?

The Muggles in the sky were spinning now, and Selene could see four hooded figures, wands aloft, controlling the poor people. From this far back, she couldn't see under the hoods, but she knew, in the pit of her stomach, that one was their father.

"What the hell is going on?" Draco asked, yanking his hand out of his sister's grip as soon as he could. "Father said nothing like this was due to happen! I thought mother said that he'd stopped all of this since You-Know-Who fell!"

"You think he'd tell you?" Selene snapped, trying to steady her breathing. "Draco, just stay here, I need to keep you safe, at the very least, whilst I find a way out of here, mother be damned."

"You're staying here!" Draco grabbed his sister's arm, holding her in place. "Mother will be terrified if she comes back and you're not here, and you know it!"

"And wait for us to be completely annihilated by whoever comes along?" she glanced over and shook her head fervently. "We need to get out of her, at the very least. Maybe I can make a Portkey, I'm sure we could explain it to the Ministry if we tell them what the circumstances were…"

"You're insane," Draco shook his head, in abject disbelief. "You can't just make a Portkey! That's massively illegal! And you might get it wrong, do you even know how it works?"

"Shut up," Selene pulled a face in his direction. "And no, I'm not insane. It's a good idea. We can use any kind of object, it's not like any Muggle is going to come along and just pick it up. Do you see any Muggles around here? And I know how to do the incantation, I looked it up last school year."

"Of course you did," Draco sneered. "Go on, then, play the hero. Get us home. We'll have to enter you for the 'Annual Heroic Idiot of the Year' Awards, although you'll always come second to Potter."

"Stop being rude," Selene sighed heavily, looking around. "And it's hardly heroic. It's running away, although that's mostly so any particular haters of our father can't find us and try to drag us into an interrogation."

"Oh for Christ's sake," Draco rolled his eyes. "It's not like You-Know-Who's back or anything. We'll be fine. Father knows better than to go getting himself into trouble, too."

There was a loud, bellowing yell, an incantation, and the siblings jumped, Draco quickly tightening his grasp on his sister's arm. And then, slowly, as one, they both stared up at the sky, where a cloud of grey and dark green smoke was slowly arranging itself into a horribly familiar symbol.

Selene's breath was stolen from her lungs, and she gripped Draco's shoulder with her free hand. "No," she whispered, remembering the picture from one of the many books she perused, and most tellingly, right from the depths of her memory, she remembered standing in front of a house with that very mark above it. "No!"

"Selene, what is it?" Draco said quickly, noticing his sister's distress immediately. "What does it mean?"

"It means-" Selene frantically looked around her, noticing the people running both towards and away from the luminous Dark Mark floating in the sky. "It means we're in a lot of shit, Draco."

One of the runners caught her eye, and she reached her hand out on reflex, grasping the individual's arm. "Weasley," she said, noticing the red hair. "Take my brother."

"What?" the Weasley and Draco chorused, looking at each other in revulsion.

"I don't want to go with him," Draco scoffed, but cowered at his sister's responding glare.

"Take him, and run," she grimaced. "I... I need to-"

"Woah, there," the Weasley gripped Selene's shoulder as she made to run off in the direction of the forest. "It's not safe."

"You think I don't know that?" Selene snapped, glaring at the redhead. "I need to go there, and-"

"Selene," whoever this Weasley was, he knew her by name. Her head snapped up in surprise. The Weasley managed a low chuckle. "Yes, I know your name. I remember you from school, it was quite a surprise when you were placed in Ravenclaw."

"Yes, yes, good, you know each other," Draco snarled. "Pleasantries over, what the fuck are we going to do?"

Selene stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath in, and looking around at what remained of the campsite. The tents were all trampled, there were fires everywhere - but at least the Muggles had been put down, and that meant that her father was safe. For now, at least.

"Charlie!"

The Weasley looked around, dropping his hand from Selene's shoulder and grasping his sister tightly as she ran towards him, dodging the fires as she did. "Ginny," he breathed, taking an audible sigh of relief. "Great, you're safe, where are the others?"

"Ron, Harry and Hermione ran off," Ginny gasped from her elder brother's arms, looking questioningly at Selene and Draco. "I didn't know you knew the Malfoys, Charlie."

"He doesn't," Selene replied shortly, noticing their father's frantic expression as he came towards them. "Now, if you'll excuse us-"

Before she could finish her sentence, her father had grabbed both her and Draco and pulled them along into Side-Along, squeezing them through a tube until they were unceremoniously popped onto the doorstep of Malfoy Manor.

"He can't be back," Lucius muttered, waving his wand at the front door to unlock it. "He can't be... He can't be! The Mark-" at this, he looked at his children and grimaced. "Selene, Draco, bed. NOW!"

Selene bit back a retort, and instead settled for a nod, gripping Draco's hand and tugging him upstairs. "No. Questions." she said curtly, seeing the millions behind Draco's curious, scared eyes. "I'll talk to you in the morning."

"Selene-"

This time, when Draco spoke, his voice trembled. Selene paused, relaxing her stance somewhat, and turned to take her brother in properly. He was covered in grime, and soot, and he looked like he was about to cry - Selene wondered if she was in a similar terrible state.

"We'll be fine," Selene said, pre-empting his next question. "We will be. I promise."

She didn't think he believed her. Their father was still mumbling and swearing downstairs in the foyer, and their mother was wide eyed and panicked. But she smiled at her younger brother, squeezed his hand and dropped it. "Tomorrow," she promised.