Author's Note: Alex and the plot points you don't remember from the books are mine, all mine! MUAHAHAHA!

Chapter 5 The Quidditch World Cup…Plus Other Things

The Quaffle was released and Alex watched in awe. These people made Hogwarts Quidditch look like a mild rally. Bludgers were flying everywhere, Chasers were speeding by teammates in blurs. Alex didn't even know that they scored until Ludo Bagman shouted it to the fans.

The game went on for a few hours of non-stop adrenaline for Alex. Bulgaria was losing terribly and their players were suffering injuries from Ireland's superb Beaters. Finally, Alex saw Krum dive. It was a race for the Snitch. If Bulgaria caught it, Ireland would still win, though by a lot less. Alex was screaming herself hoarse when Krum caught the Snitch and raised it up. Alex cheered loudly, Ireland had still won the Cup! Everyone in their row was shouting happily. Alex, Hermione, and Ginny were jumping up and down in their excitement while Uncle Monty was punching the air in triumph shouting, "At last! It's ours!"

"THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR COMING TO THIS EXCITING MATCH," Ludo Bagman shouting to the dispersing crowd, "AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE IRISH QUIDDITCH TEAM FOR AN OUTSTANDING MATCH! PLEASE EXIT CAREFULLY OUTSIDE AND HAVE A GOOD NIGHT!"

Bagman returned his voice to normal and seemed to leave rather quickly. Alex turned to the twins to ask them a question, but found them whispering amongst themselves. The people in the box waited for the crowd to lessen slightly before they left. Alex was sitting back in her chair, her feet on the edge of the box when the entire Irish team came in. She sat up so quickly and she fell right out of her chair. She got up, dusting herself off and stared at the players. They were all well-built men and seemed a little tipsy from the celebration firewhiskey.

"Uncle Monty," whispered Alex happily, "Look at them! They're all right here within two feet of us!"

One of the players looked over at her and smiled. Alex almost fell over and tried to contain her joy. She and Ginny were giggling so hard while Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes, although unable to hide a smile of her own. Finally, the Weasley clan and friends left the box and went to their tent, Alex talking fast about the match.

"And did you see that save by Ireland?" she said as the girls went to their tent, "I mean, that was just amazing! And what about-"

"Go to bed, Alex," Hermione said with a yawn and they all curled up in their beds. Alex was just about to fall asleep when shouts came from outside.

"GO TO BED, ALEX!" Ginny and Hermione shouted together.

"That's not me," Alex said, slipping a pair of jeans under her nightshirt, grabbing a jacket and her wand, and looking out of the tent. She gasped aloud and stepped outside.

A group of people in all black were walking down the path of tents setting some on fire at random. But floating above them, in a sea of green light, were three people. One was the old man from the shack Alex had seen when she first came. The other two were a woman about the man's age and a child, a little girl younger than Alex. They seemed to have no control over their own movements for the woman was continually flipping upside down to reveal her underwear, which she tried desperately to cover with her night gown.

"That's sick," Alex said hoarsely, though not from all the screaming from the match.

The boys came out of their tent followed by Ginny and Hermione, who had pulled on pants and jackets.

"Fred, George, take Ginny to the forest. She's your responsibility, understand? Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Alex, stay together no matter what!"

"What's going-?"

"Run Alex, just get out of here!" Uncle Monty shouted as he ran toward the group of men. Alex just noticed that their faces where hidden by masks. Alex shook with rage. If they were too cowardly to show themselves, then they shouldn't even be there.

"Come on, Alex!" said Hermione, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her along until they were running one behind the other. Alex ran toward the trees as fast as her legs could carry her and she heard someone behind her, turning to see. While doing so, she tripped over a ditch, twisted her ankle hard, and fell to the ground. Laughter filled her ears and she saw one of the masked men coming toward her slowly, wand raised. As Alex fumbled for her wand, the figure raised theirs and Alex looked up in alarm.

"Stupify!"

Alex's eyes were wide as she recognized the voice that spoke and she watched as the masked person fell to the ground. Standing behind him with his wand raised was Draco Malfoy. He kicked the person to make sure he was out and came over to Alex.

"You okay?" he asked and she nodded, still in shock, "Can you walk?"

Alex leaned on Malfoy as she stood up. She tried to put weight on her ankle but it wouldn't keep her up.

"Come on," Malfoy said, slipping his arm around Alex as more spells zoomed past them, "We need to get out of here. Lean on me and we'll walk together."

The two of them made their way slowly to the trees, Alex limping and leaning heavily on Malfoy. Never in her life did she ever expect this to be happening, that she would actually allow Malfoy to get within five feet of her. Yet here she was, her ankle useless, allowing Malfoy to touch her as she leaned on him for support. She was surprised he was able to hold her weight, seeing as he was practically carrying her the entire way.

They reached a clearing and Alex sat with her back to a tree. Malfoy knelt down by Alex's feet and pulled out a white metal box with a red cross on it. He opened it, felt around, and pulled out a vial with black liquid in it.

"Which ankle was it you twisted?" he asked, uncorking the vial.

"My right," Alex answered.

He rolled up her right pant leg and took out a white cloth. He poured some of the potion onto the cloth and pressed it gently onto her ankle. Alex closed her eyes, expecting pain to shoot through her leg, but he seemed to know not to apply too much pressure. Malfoy then wrapped Alex's ankle up with the white cloth still on her ankle. He finished and put the supplies away, but Alex was staring at him.

"What did you just do?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, it looks like I just bandaged up your ankle."

"What did you put on that cloth?"

"Just a potion to help it heal faster," Malfoy said, pulling out the vial for Alex to look at, "My mum does that whenever I twist my ankle while flying my broom around."

Alex handed back the vial and looked into his eyes, searching for any trace of a lie. For once she saw only truth…which made her even more suspicious.

"Why?"

"Because I would try to do things on my broom that I wasn't ready for," said Malfoy.

"No, I mean, why are you helping me? For the past three years, you've never said a kind word to me and all of a sudden you start fixing my ankle like an old pal," Alex said.

Malfoy was silent and Alex heard voices approaching. It sounded like Harry and the others. Malfoy put his first aid kit in his robes and started to leave.

"Malfoy," Alex hissed, "Answer my question!"

He turned to her, half hidden in the shadow of the trees.

"Consider this my making up for all the times I was mean and rude to you."

"Wait, that's not even a proper answer! Malfoy, get back here-" He disappeared into the forest and Alex was left alone as the voices drew closer. Then Harry, Ron, and Hermione appeared, all having leaves and scratches on them.

"Alex! We thought we lost you!" Hermione said, rushing over to her.

"What happened? You were right behind us," said Ron, "And why's your ankle bandaged up?"

"I tripped and twisted my ankle," said Alex, "Some foreign guy helped me get away and bandaged me." She decided to not mention it was Malfoy. They would ask why and she was still trying to figure that out for herself.

"Can you walk by yourself?" Harry asked.

Alex got up carefully and put pressure on her foot. It throbbed a lot, but she was fine. They slowly continued their walk deeper into the forest until they stopped at a smaller clearing and sat down.

"Where are the others?" Alex asked, stretching her ankle out.

"Lost them too," Ron said, "We were hoping they were with you."

A noise in a nearby bush made them all jump. They pulled out their wands, Harry looking in his pockets for his.

"I can't find it!" he whispered.

Alex moved closer to him and raised her wand higher. A human voice said something that sounded like a spell and a jet of green light shot upward toward the sky. Alex looked up as a gruesome sight appeared before her. A bright green skull was there, shining an eerie light on the four students. Then, a snake came out of the skull's mouth and began wrapping itself around the skull. Alex watched, petrified with fear. Something inside her told her this was not good.

A series of cracking made Alex and the others duck in time. Red beams of light shot above them and Alex tried not to shout aloud when Ron dove onto Alex's injured leg.

"STOP!" came the sound of two voices.

The red light stopped and Alex heard footsteps running toward them. Alex looked up and saw Mr. Weasley and Uncle Monty running over to them.

"Are you kids all right?" Mr. Weasley asked, looking white as a ghost and grim as ever.

"Yes Mr. Weasley," Harry said.

"Alex, what happened to you ankle?" Uncle Monty asked and helped his adopted niece to her feet.

"It's twisted, that's all."

"Which of you did it?" a man shouted hysterically, "Which one of you conjured it?"

"Conjured what?" Alex asked, "What's going on here? There were these people in masks chasing us, who were they?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" the man half shouted and Alex moved closer to her uncle, terrified this man would try to hurt them, "You were found at the scene of the crime!"

"Wait a minute," said Alex, looking up at the skull above them, "You think we conjured that thing up there! I don't even know what it is, let alone how to conjure it!"

"Barty," Mr. Weasley said, trying to calm the man down, "The Dark Mark takes dark magic to conjure. Surely you don't think these children could have done that?"

"We heard something," Hermione said in a high voice and the adults turned to her, "We heard a voice in the bushes and then the thing appeared."

The hysterical man named Barty went over to the bush and began looking in it. As he did, Uncle Monty held Alex close to him.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, Alex," he whispered, "When I saw you lying there with the Dark Mark above you and the others, I thought you were dead."

Alex was about to ask what this Dark Mark was and why it had everyone so scared when Barty came back holding a little person in his arms. On closer inspection, Alex recognized the person as Winky the house-elf. In her tiny hands was a wand that looked strangely familiar…

"That's my wand!" Harry said, "I thought I lost it!"

Barty seemed not to hear Harry. He laid down the elf and took the wand, muttering something as he pointed his own at the tip of Harry's. Grey smoke appeared and an exact replica of the mark above them formed, still menacing as the real one. Barty then pointed his wand at the elf and the little creature awoke. She looked around to the two wands in Barty's hand and began to sob.

"Winky is sorry, Master, Winky should have not left the tent!" she sobbed and Alex's heart went out to the elf. Her master, who Alex realized was Mr. Crouch, seemed unmoved.

"I told you to stay in the tent until I came back," he said angrily, "You did not listen to me Winky and you must be punished!"

"The men were burning the tents, Master," Winky wailed, "Winky was scared for her life! They were going to burn Master's tent next and Winky would have died along with the others!"

"Where did you get this wand, Winky?" Mr. Crouch asked coldly and Alex found she didn't like this man at all.

"Winky found it on the ground, Master," Winky said though her tears as she rocked back and forth, "Winky was afraid someone would step on it and break it, Winky knew it had to belong to some poor wizard who would need it. So Winky picked it up to keep it safe from harm."

"You know house-elves aren't allowed to carry wands, Winky," Mr. Crouch said, "Not only did you disobey my strict order not to leave the tent, but you broke the law. This means clothes."

"NO!" shouted the elf and Alex's heart seemed to break a little, "No Master, not clothes! Anything but clothes! Winky is a good house-elf, Master. Winky will punish herself most severely for this sir. Please Master, Winky's family as served yours for generations!"

"You should have thought of that before you disobeyed me."

Alex was shaking with anger now. How could anybody be so cold-hearted? The poor elf was scared for her life! Alex was about to take a step forward, but Uncle Monty held her back as well as Hermione, who looked like she was about to cry.

"I believe this is your wand," Mr. Crouch said to Harry and handed it over.

Harry nodded. He too seemed upset by the scene in front of him. As Mr. Crouch turned away to leave, Alex burst.

"Apology accepted, by the way!" she said angrily, "You know, for thinking we conjured the mark up there! Yeah, we forgive you and thank you for realizing you were wrong and everything!"

Mr. Crouch turned to Alex and she stared straight back at him, her stormy grey ones full of fire never leaving his icy blue ones.

"I am sorry for the confusion," he said stiffly, as though it took a great deal of effort to say. He then grabbed his elf roughly and disappeared with a CRACK.

Alex muttered dirty words under her breath and Mr. Weasley, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Uncle Monty, supporting Alex, left the forest. It was dawn when they entered the camp grounds and found the entire area in chaos. People were running around, trying to find their loved ones while wizards were blockading areas to clean up the damage. The remaining Weasleys were sitting by the entrance to the area and Ginny ran to her father when she saw him.

"What happened Dad?" Fred and George asked together.

"We saw the Dark, Mark," Percy said, sustaining a few cuts and bruises.

"Nothing, everything is fine. We're all alive and together, that's all that matters," Mr. Weasley said, patting his daughter on the head.

All the people who graduated school left to try and help people while the students sat by the edge of the forest and watched.

"Who were those people?" Ginny asked, her voice shaking.

"I've heard Dad talk about them," George said, "They're called Death Eaters. They worked for You-Know-Who when he was at his height."

"Why were they here? Why now?" asked Alex, thinking of her dream with Wormtail and Voldemort.

"Well, now because there are so many wizards and witches here," said Fred, "But no one really knows why yet. They think a few of them were a little drunk and were trying to have some fun."

"Well, whoever defines "fun" as seeing a poor woman's underwear has a sick mind and needs some serious work," Alex said, rubbing her ankle. It wasn't hurting as much now so Alex suspected Malfoy's potion was actually working. "But what about this Dark Mark? Why is everyone so scared when they see it?"

"Death Eaters used to put the Dark Mark up in the sky over a place where they killed," explained Fred, "The greatest fear of every witch or wizard was coming home to find that mark above your house. It meant the Death Eaters had taken everything from you."

Alex shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, lost in her own thoughts. It was much later that day when Mr. Weasley and the others took a portkey back to the Burrow. Uncle Monty was staying to help clean up and Alex was going to stay with the Weasleys until the start of term. As the walked over the hill toward the Burrow, a figure ran out of the house and towards Fred and George.

"Mum!" Fred choked as Mrs. Weasley gave him and his brother lung-crushing hugs.

"Can't…breathe…losing…oxygen," George gasped and their mother pulled away, tears in her eyes.

"I got the Prophet this morning," Mrs. Weasley said, sniffling, "I read about the attack and thought about the last words I said to you. I thought that, if you were dead, those would be the last things you remembered!"

Alex watched as Mrs. Weasley went to each of her family in turn, kissing them and embracing them. She then hugged Hermione, Harry, and then Alex in turn. Alex felt a lump in her throat. This must be what it was like to have a mother worrying about you.

After the reunion, everyone went inside and Mrs. Weasley began making a feast for dinner to celebrate everyone being safe. She quickly tended to Alex's ankle so that Alex could walk normally. As Mrs. Weasley was putting away the bandage, she saw the cloth underneath.

"That's strange," she said, sniffing the cloth.

"What is it?"

"I've never seen this potion used before with a twisted ankle," Mrs. Weasley said, "I usually use it for when someone breaks a bone until we can go to St. Mungo's. It's a very strong healing potion, but extremely hard to make. Who fixed your leg up?"

"I don't really know," lied Alex, knowing the reaction to the truth, "Some man I've never met."

"Well, you've got an angel looking out for you then, Alex," Mrs. Weasley said with a smile, "Now come and help me so we can get dinner on the table."

That night, dinner was just as good as it had been the night Alex arrived. With a very full stomach and drooping eyes, Alex and the others climbed the stairs and fell asleep quickly. Alex's dreams were filled with green light, men in masks, and a boy with grey eyes and blonde hair.

Author's Note: This is one of my favorite chapters in this books so all thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who reviewed, added me to their favorites, and put me on alert. Don't forget to tell me what you think! :D