Author's Note: This story has definitely turned out longer than I had originally expected, but it seemed that as soon as I started typing, I just couldn't stop. That being said, there will only be two more chapters to this story, this chapter and an epilogue chapter.

Additional Author's Note: Some of the dialogue from this chapter is from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 9, "The Dark Mark."

A flap had been conjured to separate Draco's bed from the bed that his parents were sharing, but that flap didn't keep the teenage boy from peeking every few minutes into his parents' section of the tent.

At one point, both of his parents were sitting at the table and drinking tea. The next time that Draco looked, though, his mother was all alone at the table, which had to mean that his father had gone to do whatever exciting thing he was going to do that night.

There was no way that Draco was going to be able to get any sleep now, despite the fact that the celebration had quieted down considerably.

Draco suddenly heard the sound of screaming and people running. A few seconds later, the flap lifted, and the teenage boy found himself meeting the eyes of his mother.

"Put on your coat, Draco," Narcissa ordered, tying a bathrobe around her nightdress as she spoke. "We have to leave."

Draco had no problem with doing this, as he was eager to see with his own eyes the excitement that his father was causing.

As soon as they stepped outside the tent, Draco looked around in wonder. It was complete chaos. Tents had been flattened, and several of them were on fire. People were screaming and running in pure panic. No one paid much mind to those people that were knocked down to the ground. Everyone was just thinking of fleeing into the woods as quickly as possible.

Along with all the fear and panic in the air, though, there were also the sounds of jeering, laughing, and drunken yells.

Draco began to make his way towards all this action, but his mother grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

"No, Draco," she hissed, "we have to get to safety."

"Why?" Draco asked. "We have nothing to fear."

"Perhaps not," Narcissa replied, "but it is important that we keep up appearances. Besides, look at that crowd. They don't care at all who they trample."

There was suddenly a bright flash of green light, and Draco was now able to see a crowd of hooded and masked figures making their way down the field. They had their wands pointed straight upwards.

Draco looked up, and he saw that there were four figures being held up in the air.

The teenage boy recognized one of the figures as the Muggle man they had met at the gate. The other three figures had to be his wife and children then.

There had been more than one Muggle so close to a wizarding event. What had the Ministry been thinking?

The woman was suddenly turned upside down, and her rather huge drawers were revealed.

"No sense of style," Draco muttered with a great deal of amusement.

"Come, Draco," Narcissa hissed.

"But I want to watch for a little while, Mother," Draco responded. "Don't you want to see the Muggles getting what they deserve?"

"Of course I do," Narcissa sighed, "but we must keep up appearances. How many times must I tell you that?"

"I'll make sure that no one from the Ministry sees that I am watching," Draco returned.

"You could accidentally get hurt out here in the open," Narcissa retorted. She then began to drag her son towards the words.

As soon as they were in the woods, however, Draco yanked his arm out of his mother's grasp.

"I promise that I will stay in the woods and out of everyone's way," Draco spoke. "I'll come find you soon, Mother. I just want to watch Father having fun with the Muggles for a little while. There's no need for you to worry about me."

"Draco," Narcissa protested.

The teenage boy, however, ignored his mother as he began to run through the woods and back towards the field.

It was not long before Draco was alone. Well, he was alone until he heard a yell of pain. There was something very familiar about that yell.

"'What happened?'" Hermione Granger's anxious voice asked. "'Ron, where are you? Oh this is stupid – lumos!'"

The beam of light that shot out of Granger's wand revealed her, Potter, and Weasley to Draco. Weasley was laying sprawled out on the ground. So typical for him. Well, at least he knew where he belonged.

And of course Harry Potter was there. It seemed that Draco just could not escape from the scarhead, not even while he was on a very enjoyable and exciting vacation.

And then there was Hermione Granger. Draco had not forgotten how she had slapped him recently. Nor had he forgotten how she had looked so defiantly at his father as they were taking their seats for the Quidditch World Cup. How dare the Mudblood act as if she was their equal. Who did she think she was?

At the same time, though, a part of Draco really didn't want to see Granger's drawers. He hated her, yes, but that didn't mean he wanted to see her drawers.

"'Tripped over a tree root,'" Weasley said angrily as he stood up, interrupting Draco's thoughts.

"'Well, with feet that size, hard not to,'" Draco drawled as he leaned casually against a nearby tree.

Draco was greatly amused when Weasley told him to do something he knew the red-haired boy would never say in front of his parents.

"'Language, Weasley,'" Draco sneered. "'Hadn't you be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you?'"

Draco nodded at Granger as he spoke.

At that moment, there was the sound of a loud blast, followed by a flash of green light. It lit up the area where they were standing for the briefest of moments. Lucius Malfoy and his comrades were clearly getting closer to them.

"'What's that supposed to mean?'" Granger asked Draco, as defiant as ever.

Honestly, who did she think she was? Maybe she deserved to be up in the air with her drawers exposed. No, Granger probably had worse drawers than that Muggle woman, and Draco didn't really want to find out if that was the case.

"'Granger, they're after Muggles,'" Draco explained as if he was speaking to a small child (that would show Granger that she wasn't as smart as she liked to act). "'D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around…they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh.'"

"'Hermione's a witch,'" Potter snarled.

What a typical, boring response.

"'Have it your own way, Potter,'" Draco grinned. "'If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are.'"

"'You watch your mouth!'" Weasley yelled angrily.

Honestly, Weasley was so predictable. He was so predictable that it was almost boring and pointless to antagonize him.

"'Never mind, Ron,'" Granger spoke as she reached out to restrain him.

At that moment, there was an extremely loud bang, followed by the sound of many screams.

Draco snickered. "'Scare easily, don't they? I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to – trying to rescues the Muggles?'"

"'Where's your parents?'" Potter asked angrily. "'Out there wearing masks, are they?'"

Draco had to struggle to control his own anger. How dare he, Draco thought. He may have met my father before, but he doesn't know my mother. He just saw my mother for a brief moment. They didn't even exchanged any words. How dare he judge my mother this quickly. How dare he acts as if he knows her.

None of this anger, however, showed on Draco's face. Potter wouldn't be able to understand it anyways. Potter's world, after all, was a simple one with no depth.

Instead, Draco choose to smile at the other boy. "'Well…if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?'"

"'Oh come on,'" Granger spoke in clear disgust, "'let's go find the others.'"

Draco could not resist having the last word, especially considering that it was Miss Know-It-All Hermione Granger he was dealing with.

"'Keep that big bushy head down, Granger,'" he sneered.

She really should do something about her bird nest hair.

"'Come on,'" Granger repeated to Potter and Weasley before she began to drag them deeper into the woods and farther away from the field.

So, she wasn't going to raise to his bait, was she? Draco was both impressed and annoyed. It truly was shameful that Granger had more self-control than either Potter or Weasley. She was the Mudblood, after all, while they were not.

Draco suddenly felt someone grab his arm.

The teenage boy spun around and found himself meeting the angry eyes of his mother.

"How dare you run off like that, Draco," Narcissa snarled. "You could have gotten lost or hurt. I hope you enjoyed yourself."

Her tone of voice, however, made it very clear that she could care less if Draco had indeed enjoyed himself.

"Please, Mother, don't be too mad," Draco pleaded. "I stayed out of danger the whole time. Really, I did."

Narcissa just sighed. "Let's just go find the others. And don't you ever run off like that again. You had me so worried."

Lucius was starting to get bored, even though the others seemed to still be enjoying themselves. Then again, it was clear that they had gotten themselves a little drunk, while Lucius had been more careful with his alcohol.

But honestly, spinning Muggles around in the air was only entertaining for a short amount of time. And seeing that Muggle woman's drawers had not been entertaining to Lucius for even a moment.

Finding and destroying Arthur Weasley's tents wasn't even that important to Lucius anymore.

Maybe they needed to do something a little more drastic. Well, perhaps if it had just been the Muggle man. He had been the one to insult them. The woman and the two children had just been there. And the children were so small. Not that the smallness of the children really mattered to Lucius, of course. It was just that Lucius's main target had been the Muggle man, not his wife and children. They had just been afterthoughts.

Lucius looked around. A huge crowd was still gathered around them, and the Ministry officials were still reluctant to try anything against them.

This was really starting to get boring.

At that moment, a green skull with a serpent coming out of its mouth like a tongue suddenly appeared in the sky.

It was something that had not been cast into the sky since the Dark Lord's fall.

It was the Dark Mark, the Dark Lord's sign.

Lucius glanced behind him at the Death Eaters with him. It did not appear as if the Mark had come from any of their directions, but there was always a slight chance that one of them had gotten a little too carried away.

But a huge part of Lucius was telling him that the Dark Mark had not been cast into the sky because someone had been a little too drunk. No, this casting was more deliberate. It was meant to be a true warning, not some sick and twisted joke.

Lucius met each of his comrades' eyes, all of which were wide in fright and confusion. No, none of them had cast the Dark Mark. Not that Lucius had truly believed that any of them had anyways.

But if none of them had cast the Dark Mark, then who had?

The crowd that had been gathered around Lucius and the others started to panic as well at the sight of the Dark Mark. As drunk as they were, they still had enough sense to know what it meant.

The crowd began to scatter in multiple directions.

The Ministry officials were also seized by panic. But they didn't run away. No, their panic led them to become more bold and brazen. They finally began to charge aggressively towards the Death Eaters.

"What do we do?" Avery asked, his voice reflecting his panic.

"We've made our point," Lucius spoke, somehow managing to keep his voice calm and composed. "Drop the Muggles and Disapparate out of here before one of those fools grow enough of a brain to cast an Anti-Disapparition Jinx on us."

That was exactly what all the Death Eaters did. The Ministry officials quickly found themselves being too occupied with making sure that the Muggles landed safely on the ground that none of them had time to even think about stopping any of the Death Eaters from Disapparating away.