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Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, that belongs to Jo Rowling

Chapter 3: Masks and Trees

"We're rich! We're rich!"

"Woot, woot!"

"We're rich! We're rich!"

"Woot, woot!"

"We're rich! We're rich!" Fred and George sang.

"Woot, woot!" Mia chanted. Fred, George and Mia jumped and danced about, celebrating the twins (and Ireland's) victory, Mia with a mug of hot chocolate in her hand.

There was a slight thump as Ginny feel asleep at the table, hot chocolate spilled onto the grass. Mr Weasley told everyone they should go to bed, and Sally told Mia they should be getting back to their tent.

"Awwww!" she complained, but turned to Fred and George, and said, "guess I'll see you guys on the train," she hugged both of them quickly, and then ran after Sally.

"MIA!"

She heard the shout and her eyes flew open. Sitting up in her bed, she saw that the door to her little tent-room was flung wide open, with Sally flitting about, pulling on a jacket.

"What?" Mia asked, irritated, rubbing her eyes and running a hand through her hair.

Then she registered the screaming. screaming and shrieking from outside of the tent. And it didn't sound a bit like celebrating.

She flew out of bed and caught the trainers Sally threw to her. she slipped them on and caught the jacket that had been thrown, before dashing out of the tent behind Sally.

A large group of people had just passed the tent next to there's, dressed in black robes with hoods, there was something floating above them, but Mia couldn't see what it was. She didn't really want to know what it was. People around them were screaming and running, trying to avoid the flaming tents.

Instinctively, Mia's hand flew to her pocket, trying to find her wand. She couldn't.

Shouting with shock, she slid back into the tent, looking around frantically.

"No, no, no!" she was muttering, throwing up clothes and cringing at every loud explosion from outside.

"MIA!" she heard Sally cry, just as she grabbed a wand from under a t-shirt.

There was a particularly loud explosion. Heat flared. Loud flashed. She screamed and ran, bursting out of tent, smoking, but not alight.

Together, her and Sally ran away from the burning tent, and into the mass of panicking people.

For around ten minutes, Sally kept a firm grip on Mia's arm. But then someone pushed themselves between them, and Sally was lost on the crowd.

She swore and continued to push and shove, trying not to trip or stumble.

"Sally? SALLY?" she screamed, and yelled out in pain when her foot twisted violently.

Someone pushed her forward, and she stumbled and ran, wincing every time she stood on her left foot.

It suddenly got darker. She looked up; trees were shadowing them, hiding the moon. They looked sinister and scary.

Someone rammed into her and she started to fall. Grabbing onto something for support as she yelled, but she still fell onto her back. She screamed out in pain as the person she had grabbed fell heavily onto her bad ankle, and she head a crack.

"Oh, Merlin, I'm sorry!" the person shouted. Blinking and looking up, Mia saw a young woman with pink hair.

Shaking her head, Mia tried to get up. But as soon as she put any weight onto her left foot, she yelled in pain and collapsed back down.

The woman grabbed her arm and steadied her.

"What's wrong?" the woman asked.

Shaking her head, Mia pulled out her wand and bent down, wincing. She prodded her ankle, muttering, "Episkey." Her ankle became very hot for a second, before cooling down.

She flexed her foot a little, before standing on it gingerly. There was no more pain.

"You ok?" the woman asked, slowly letting go of Mia.

"Yep… I think…" Mia muttered. The woman smiled weakly, before they ran back to the path, getting washed away in the river of people.

Even though Mia didn't know her, she tried to stay close to the woman. However, within just a few minutes, she could not longer see her, not even the top of her vibrant pink head.

She stumbled and got pushed off of the path again. she fell over a tree root, and slammed her head against a rather hard tree root.

Standing up, she staggered a bit, clutching her head. Looking up, she tried to follow the voices, but a pounding pain in her head disorientated her.

Trees blocked her way, and she ended up getting further and further away from the path.

Then she heard a snap and crunch, like someone walking over leaves and twigs. There was muttering and the sound of breathing.

Letting go of her still throbbing head, she held her wand out in front of her.

Two people emerged from the trees, with hooded black cloaks and masked faces and wands alight. They stopped, and one of them chuckled, and she could guess what was running though their minds.

Who was she? A sixteen year old girl against two fully grown wizards?

They turned their wands on her and she licked her lips nervously.

"Why don't you just run along?" the taller of the two asked.

"And perhaps we wont hurt you," the shorter one continued.

"Who are you?" she asked, and she was quite proud that she managed to keep the fear out of her voice.

"Why would we tell you that?" she could hear the smirk in his voice.

"What? Too scared to show your faces?" she countered, swallowing. The shorter one started forward, but the other one grabbed onto his robes.

"Now, now, you don't want to be upsetting my friend here," he said.

"You deserve a little upsetting," she told them, holding her wand tightly, "with the amount you people you and your mates have scared tonight. There are KIDS here!"

She saw the tall one raise his wand even higher, and she prepared herself. There was a spell on the edge of her lips, and her arm was ready to flick her wand. But she didn't get a chance to use it.

She screamed as she was jerked away from the two men, and quickly pushed onto a path. She clawed at the arm that was holding her to try and get free.

"Stop tearing my bloody skin off!" a familiar voice said. She stopped in shock as she was hauled into the light of Fred and Ginny's wands

"Oh good, you found her!" Fred said as relief spread over Ginny's face.

Mia looked up and saw George huffing and lighting his own wand.

"Um," she said, "how did you find me?" they started to trudge along the path.

"I could hear you and your gobby mouth a mile off," George said, "really, that's gunna get you killed someday." He muttered the last part

Mia rolled her eyes, "well, thanks for coming to 'save' me," she said, "but I could've taken them."

This time, it was George who rolled his eyes. "Yes, Mia," he said, dryly, "you could've taken two fully grown wizards."

Mia looked at him for a second, then huffed and crossed her arms, "oh, shut up."

She saw him grin before they got out of the trees.

Ginny stopped walking, staring up at the sky. Slowly, Fred, Mia and george looked up as well.

There, just hanging amongst the stars, was a large, green skull, with a snake coming out of its mouth.

Fred and george glanced at each other, before saying, "Let's go."

Fred grabbed onto Ginny's hand, and George took hold of Mia's, pulling them along quickly.

"What is it?" Mia asked, gaping at the thing in the sky.

"I can't remember what it's called," George said, his eyes darting about.

She was about to ask another question, but in front of them, Fred hurried along even faster, pulling Ginny, and Mia and George followed them.

They made their way back to the Weasley's tent to see Charlie, Bill and Percy. All of them looked relieved to see them.

"Merlin, your ok!" Bill said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Where d'ya find her?" Charlie asked, looking at Mia as she smiled wearily at him.

"Just in the woods," Ginny replied, "where was Sally?"

Mia shook her head, "I dunno," she said, "we got separated, then I fell and someone stepped on my ankle and it got broken-"

"Is it alright?" George asked.

"Hm? Oh yeah, its fine, I fixed it, but then I got shoved away from her and then George found me…" she conveniently left out the bit about the masked guys. George glanced at her, but let it slide.

They heard voices outside and Charlie went to stick his head out the tent-flap. "Dad, what's going on?" he called, "Fred, George and Ginny got back alright, and they have Mia, but the others-"

"I've got them here," Mr Weasley came into the tent, with Harry, Hermione and Ron trailing behind. Ron was limping ever so slightly, but they looked fine otherwise.

"Did you get them, Dad," Bill asked, "the person who conjured the Mark?"

"No," Mr Weasley replied, slowly, "we found Barty Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but we're none the wiser about who actually conjured the Mark." He ran a hand over his face.

"What?" asked Bill, Charlie, and Percy, taken aback.

"Harry's wand?" said Fred.

"Mr Crouch's elf?" Percy asked, dumbfounded.

"Well, Mr Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that!" Percy said, once they had finished, and raised her eyebrows, "Running away when he'd expressly told her not to… embarrassing him in front of the whole Ministry… how would that have looked, if she'd been brought up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control!" he seemed as if he could go on, but Hermione cut him off.

"She didn't do anything!" she snapped, "she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!"

"Hermione," Percy told her, "a wizard in Mr. Crouch's position can't afford a house-elf who's going to run amok with a wand!" he held his arms out to emphasis his point.

"She didn't run amok!" shrieked Hermione indignantly, "She just picked it up off the ground!"

At the same time, Mia and Ron get fed up. "What the hell was that… thing in the sky?" Mia asked.

"Look, can someone just explain what that skull thing was?" said Ron at the same time. "It wasn't hurting anyone... Why's it such a big deal?"

"I told you," Hermione said to Ron, "its You-Know-Who's symbol. I read about it in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."

"And it hasn't been seen for thirteen years," said Mr Weasley said softly, "Of course people panicked… it was almost like seeing You-Know-Who back again."

Mia stared wide-eyed at him, listening intently.

"I don't get it… I mean," Ron said, "it's still only a shape in the sky…"

"Ron, You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed. The terror it inspired… you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find inside… Everyone's worst fear… the very worst." Mr Weasley explained, slowly trailing off into silence.

"Well," Bill said, "it didn't help us tonight, whoever conjured it. It scared the Death Eaters away the moment they saw it. They all Disapparated before we'd got near enough to unmask any of them. We caught the Robertses before they hit the ground, though. They're having their memories modified right now."

Mia stared at him in confusion, as Harry voiced her exact thoughts.

"Death Eaters? What are Death Eaters?"

"It's what You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves," Bill explained, "I think we saw what's left of them tonight, the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway."

Mia nodded and crossed her arms.

"We can't prove it was them, Bill," Mr Weasley sighed, "Though it probably was."

"Yeah, I bet it was!" Ron burst, "Dad, we met Draco Malfoy in the woods, and he as good as told us his dad was one of those nutters in masks! And we all know the Malfoys were right in with You-Know-Who!"

"Were they?" Mia asked, and Ron nodded. To be honest, it didn't surprise her much

"But what were Voldemort's supporters-" Harry began to say.

Along with everyone else in the tent, Mia flinched. True, she hadn't grown up in the Wizarding World, with the terror of You-Know-Who (even after he was gone), but he still scared her. She hadn't even known You-Know-Who's real name until a few years ago, and had picked up the habit of wincing whenever it was said.

"Sorry," Harry apologies, "What were You-Know-Who's supporters up to, levitating Muggles? I mean, what was the point?"

"The point?" Mr Weasley gave an empty, emotionless laugh, "Harry, that's their idea of fun. Half the Muggle killings back when You-Know-Who was in power were done for fun."

Mia cringed at the thought of Muggle killings. Noticing, George pulled her back and wrapped his arms around her comfortingly.

"I suppose they had a few drinks tonight and couldn't resist reminding us all that lots of them are still at large. A nice little reunion for them," Mr Weasley finished.

"But if they were the Death Eaters," Ron said, confused, "why did they Disapparate when they saw the Dark Mark? They'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"

"Use your brains, Ron," Bill rolled his eyes, "If they really were Death Eaters, they worked very hard to keep out of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power, and told all sorts of lies about him forcing them to kill and torture people. I bet they'd be even more frightened than the rest of us to see him come back." Bill shrugged, "They denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers, and went back to their daily lives… I don't reckon he'd be over-pleased with them, do you?"

"So… whoever conjured the Dark Mark…" said Hermione slowly, "were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

"Your guess is as good as ours, Hermione," said Mr Weasley, "But I'll tell you this… it was only the Death Eaters who ever knew how to conjure it. I'd be very surprised if the person who did it hadn't been a Death Eater once, even if they're not now," He sighed, "Listen, it's very late, and if your mother hears what's happened she'll be worried sick. We'll get a few more hours sleep and then try and get an early Portkey out of here."

Everyone made their way back to their beds, and seeing as Sally had failed to turn up, Mia was given a place in the girl's tent.

She climbed wearily into the bed next to Ginny's. for a while, she lay awake, thinking of everything she had learnt that night. she winced when she ran over the conversation about Muggle-Hunts again, but reminded herself that You-Know-Who himself wasn't back, and this was probably just a one off thing. She hoped, anyway.

Well, hope you lied it! Can you guess who Mia met in the forest? Y'kniw, the woman that broke her ankles?

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