"What…where…," she stammered as she felt a cool hand on her forehead. She opened her eyes and looked directly into Manisha's dark eyes.
"It's all right," Manisha murmured. "We're still here on the campsite."
"What happened?"
"I don't know exactly, but it seems that you and Roberta got hit by a stunning spell, and fell down."
"Where is she?"
"I'm here," she heard Roberta croak. Gwen turned her head cautiously.
Rob was sitting on the ground, rubbing her forehead. Her dusty black hair stood in all directions.
"Here, these are yours," Manisha handed Gwen her glasses, and helped her getting up. Gwen cleaned them with a quick Tergeo spell, and put them on.
"Where is… where are those Death Eaters?" Gwen looked around, and saw the crowd in the distance. „What happened to James?"
„He told me to stay with you, and went after those… scoundrels," Manisha explained.
"And the one I arrested?"
"Escaped, too, I'm afraid."
They helped Roberta up, who took Gwen's hand gratefully. Their eyes met for some moments.
"You tried to help me," Gwen remarked, "thank you." She blushed.
"Never mind," Roberta hastened to look away, fumbling her robes. When she saw how her robes looked, she glowered. „Oh, I'm so bad at cleaning and sewing spells."
„Me, too," Gwen laughed. The tension ceased.
Manisha grinned. „Good to see you're both all right." She pointed her wand at Roberta's robes and mumbled under her breath. Two big tears were fixed, and several stains removed.
„Thank you," Roberta smiled. „Shall we follow them?"
„Let's go!" Gwen replied, more courageous than she really was. She rubbed the back of her head, which was still aching.
Manisha also didn't look as if she truly wanted to go on chasing Death Eaters, but she nodded mutely.
They ploughed on valiantly, trying to catch up.
„Look!" Gwen suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, pointed at the black sky, and seized Rob's hand. The latter, too, halted.
„Oh, no!" Manisha gasped, her eyes widening.
A huge green skull was glittering over the treetops, rising higher and higher, a serpent jutting out of its mouth.
The crowd in front of them screamed. The three were now near enough to hear the popping sound of several Death Eaters disapparating, but they were still too far away to help the Ministry wizards. Some of them were catching the Robinson family falling down after the Levitating spells had been lifted.
Wizarding people were fleeing in all directions, children were crying, and weeping, tents were trampled down.
"Let's…," Gwen looked at her colleagues for help, anxiously running her hand through her brown curls. "Let's find Isabelle and Nicolas!"
The Death Eaters had all gone, and after all, it wasn't her responsibility to catch them.
"All right, but where?" Roberta frowned. "They've gone to the forest, remember?"
"Let's get to our tents," Gwen suggested, getting panicky, "we won't be able to find them in the woods, and as the … Dark Mark is over there, I suppose they'll try to get back to us anyway."
"Good thinking," Roberta nodded, then poked Manisha, who seemed to have frozen on the spot. "Are you all right?"
Manisha looked at her: "Yes, thanks," she replied.
They ran as fast as they could amongst hurrying people, crumbled tents, smoke and dust. On their way Gwen recognised Madame Maxime with some of her students, bundling together their belongings, and she thought she even got a glimpse of Aidan Lynch, and some other Irish Quidditch team players, who gathered around an old floating tyre, then disappeared in a whirl of green robes.
"Grâce au ciel!" they suddenly heard someone shout, and caught sight of Isabelle in the distance. They ran towards her, and hugged her.
"Are you both all right?" Gwen looked worried at Isabelle and Nicolas, whose little face was very white.
"Mais oui, we are fine. I've been packing. We are leaving, I can't stay here with my little boy. What are you going to do?"
Manisha shrugged. She looked as if she wanted to join her.
Roberta said: "I think I'll stay here for the night. A lot of wizarding people have left, and probably all of those Death Eaters, but you never know. I'd like to help the Ministry wizards in case anything else happens."
Manisha and Gwen nodded. "I'll stay with you." "Me, too."
"I'll escort you out of here, Isabelle," Gwen said, "we have to find Basil from Transportation Department, he's the keeper of the Portkeys."
~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~
Tuesday, 23 August 1994
The next morning, Gwen, Manisha, and Roberta woke very early. They skipped breakfast and hurriedly packed up their tents using magic, then tried to find other Ministry officials to know how things stood. Manisha was lucky and came across James Croaker, who told her that everything was quiet now, the Dark Mark had been removed, the Muggle family's memories modified and the presswizards put off. The Ministry officials hadn't been able to catch any of the Death Eaters who had been levitating the Muggle family. There were strange rumours about Mr Crouch's house-elf Winky having conjured the Dark Mark, and about the wand in question being Harry Potter's wand. As Mr Crouch was known as an upright loyal Ministry official, investigations were still ongoing.
"They haven't caught anyone?" Roberta commented, aghast, when Manisha told them what she had heard. "Oh, the press will have a field day." She shuddered.
"I think we can't do anything here anymore," Gwen interposed. "We should try to get home, refresh ourselves and go the Ministry at once." The others assented. Gwen lit a cigarette, the tension fell off her.
"You're right. That's what they probably expect from us," Roberta said grimly.
They found Basil, who was still clad in his kilt and poncho, and supervising a number of portkeys lying on the ground. They awaited their turn. Agitated and panicky witches and wizards were trying to get away from the campsite as fast as they could. The three Ministry witches tried to demonstrate calm. Manisha looked glum, Roberta had dark circles under her eyes. Gwen was shivering inside, but didn't know why.
Finally, they each got a portkey to their homes, and after this – in Gwen's opinion – somewhat unpleasant way of travelling, Gwen stood in front of her beloved cottage, sighing deeply.
She inhaled the salty sea air, and was immensely happy to be back. Seeing the Dark Mark again had been awful and brought back all the memories of the murder in the Death Chamber, even though, fortunately, no one had been killed last night.
Yet before she could reach her doorstep, the door to Miss Carthew's cottage opened and out stormed the old lady, her neighbour Hugh – and Jonathan.
"Here she is!"
"At last!"
"Thank goodness."
All three hurried towards her, and a lump formed inside her throat. Jonathan hugged her, while Hugh stood there waving the Daily Prophet, and Miss Carthew seemed very worried, her usually twinkling eyes looking somber.
"Do come inside," Gwen beckoned them, looking around as if she didn't want to be seen outside.
They followed her. Miss Carthew called Wookey and ordered her to get a steaming pot of tea, and some home-made hot crumpets, butter, and marmalade from her kitchen.
When they were all seated in Gwen's kitchen, she told them, between bites of crumpet, what had happened last night. She was really hungry by now.
"I've always been certain that Vol- … I mean He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is not defeated," Miss Carthew remarked, sighing deeply.
"Do you think all this means that He is back?" Hugh asked, frowning.
Instead of an answer she only shrugged a bit hopelessly. She looked suddenly very frail.
Jonathan, who had got increasingly anxious, drummed his fingers on the kitchen table. "I'm afraid I must go," he said. "I wanted to await your return to know you're … safe and sound, but now I must get back to work." He put on his trilby.
"It's awfully nice that you have come here this morning," she said softly. "I mean you… as an Auror…"
"That goes without saying," he mumbled.
"I'll go with you to the Ministry," Gwen decided, "I think there'll be a lot to do right now."
"Can't you stay here and recover a bit?" Hugh asked, concerned.
"No," Gwen replied, and saw how Miss Carthew nodded silently. She, as a retired Unspeakable, knew the Ministry's rules and proceedings. "Could I borrow this copy of the Prophet?"
Hugh nodded and handed her the wizarding newspaper.
~ooOOoo~
"I'll get to Aurors' Headquarters first," Jonathan informed Gwen, when they got out of the gilded fireplaces in the Atrium. "I'll join you later in the DoM," he added softly.
"All right."
Gwen and Jonathan rushed to the lifts. She had the impression that the hubbub of voices in the Atrium was louder and more agitated than usually. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry.
Gwen hastened to the Brain Room, which was deserted. Where was everyone? Normally she loved the lights and soft sounds of the empty Room, but now the quiet weighed on her like lead and made her uneasy. She shuddered.
She entered her office and found a letter on her desk. It was from Isabelle, who informed her that she had taken the day off, to be with her sons, and relax from all the commotions. Gwen left the office again. The brains were swimming quietly inside the green liquid of the enormous tank.
Then, one of the office doors opened, and Firmin issued from it.
"Hi, Gwen!"
"Hi, Firmin. Where is everybody?"
"Ademarus has a meeting with Agatha Hill," he answered, rubbing the top of his balding temples. "Isabelle sent him a letter early this morning that she'd taken the day off, and Bob is on sick leave. Says he's got a summer flu. James is officially back, but at the moment he's at Aurors' Headquarters because of the World Cup incident, where he had been on duty."
Gwen nodded. "I see. And Honoria?"
Firmin shrugged. "She's gone to Armenia, didn't she tell you? Vivi is somewhere in the Ministry, you know her."
Gwen thanked him and proceeded to the Death Chamber. She would have liked to know what Ademarus had to say, and whether he had received specific instructions from their boss, but no one could say how long their meeting would last. Beside the Arch Alex Campbell, Ivo Gilmour, Mercia Borthwick were standing. They greeted her kindly.
"Is Mrs Beresford in?" she asked them.
Alex Campbell shook his white-haired head.
"I haven't seen her today," Ivo added with his deep voice.
"And Mr Crow?" Gwen looked questioningly at them.
Now it was Mercia Borthwick who could provide an answer: "He's in his office." She pointed to Crow's own office, her clever, brown eyes shining.
Gwen thanked them and proceeded to Archie's and Mayfield's office. When she looked back she saw how they followed her silently with their gaze.
She opened the door with a non-verbal spell and looked around. Everything seemed unchanged. There were the two desks, one of them held the covered tank with Archie's brain in it. Suplinius Crow had promised to continue examining it while she was away at the Quidditch World Cup. But there were no new vials, or memos as far as she could see. She would have to ask him whether he had made any progress.
The other desk, which was used by Mrs Beresford and Jonathan, was surprisingly tidy.
The goblet, the vase, some mugs, gemstones, quills, parchment, candles, and the Mars sculpture were still standing on the small table at the wall. Only the pale-blue mug was missing.