We rushed out of the tent and were met with a horrible sight. A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. I squinted at them. . . . They didn't seem to have faces. . . . Then I realized that their heads were hooded and their faces masked. High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.

Death Eaters! I thought. This was the first time I'd ever seen them in person! What could they possibly be doing here? As far as anyone knew, Voldemort was at the very least, far too weak to issue orders to anyone, if not dead! More wizards were joining them now, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice I saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.

The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and I recognized one of them: Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.

"That's sick," Ron muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. "That is really sick. . . ."

"What's going on?!" Demelza said. "Who are those people in masks?"

"Death Eaters" I said "and I'd put my money on Avery, Mulciber, Yaxley and Malfoy each having one or more family members in that group!"

"What are Death Eaters-" Ron began, but Dad inturrupted

"We're going to help the Ministry!" he shouted, rolling up his sleeves.

"You lot — get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!" Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers; Dad tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer. I made to follow Dad, but Fred grabbed my arm.

"You're not going anywhere near them" he said, and before I could do anything else, he was dragging me away with him, towards the wood. Everyone else followed.

"Why, I want to help!" I said

"So do I Ginny, but it's far too dangerous for any of us!" he replied

We all looked back as we reached the trees.

The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever; we could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the centre, but they were having great difficulty. It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Roberts family fall.

"Let's get deeper inside!" called George "we need to get as far away as possible!"

I, the twins, Demelza and Amy ran for about 5 more minutes, before we stopped. We were covered in darkness now, aside from the flashes of light caused by spells in the distance. We could hear distant booming bangs.

"Hold on, where's Harry, Ron and Hermione?" said Amy

That caught everyone's attention and we all quickly looked around the area.

"Shit!" I said "we've lost them!"

"Bloody hell, those lot can't stay out of trouble can they" Demelza said

"We've got to go and find them!" I said

"No, we don't, they'll be fine, they can handle themselves!" George said "we're gonna wait here until it all blows over, then we'll go back to the campsite and hopefully everyone will meet there"

"Do you not care about them?! How can you possibly know they'll be alright, that those Death Eaters haven't gotten to them!"

"Look, Ginny, I think your brother is right on this occasion" Demelza cut in firmly "this wood is massive, it's pitch dark in here, it'll be like a needle in a haystack trying to find them, and we'd only be putting ourselves in danger"

"So we're gonna just sit here and do nothing, while my brother, boyfriend and one of my best friends potentially get killed?!"

"Yes" said Fred, "there's nothing we can do without drawing attention to ourselves, like George said, they can handle themselves, I have total faith that they'll be fine. George and I are all for danger and adventure usually, you know that, but right now we need to just lie low and keep ourselves safe"

"Definitely" said Amy, and she sat down, as if that was a symbol to end the conversation. One by one, everyone else joined her, and, I, recognising defeat, followed suit.

"Lumos Balleo" said George, and a moderately sized ball of light appeared in the middle of our group.

"So Ginny" Amy said "you seem to know a fair bit about those people in masks. What was it, Death Eaters, you called them?"

"Yeah" I said "You Know Who's followers. They were his army when he was powerful before. If they're back, it's probably a sign he's getting stronger"

"Shit" said Demelza

"Well, I think we all believed it would happen one day didn't we?" George said, and we all nodded.

Before anyone could say anything else though, there was a flash of green light above our heads, and we looked through a small gap in the trees to see a huge green skull in the sky!

"Bloody hell, that's the fucking Dark Mark!" I said

"The what?" said Fred

"The Dark Mark, You Know Who's symbol! The Death Eaters always used to cast it whenever they killed!"

"So someone is dead then?" said Amy

"Seems like it. Any of you lot regretting not looking for the others?! Cause you will be if it's one of them!" I spat out

"Look, don't go jumping to conclusions Ginny" said Demelza "we need to find out who it is first"

"How do you know all this stuff anyway?" asked Amy

I bit my lip

"Well, Dad and I had a private conversation shortly after I got home from first year. After the Chamber you know. He told me all about You Know Who and the height of his power. Said he thought I deserved to know after what happened to me. As far as I'm aware he didn't consult Mum, which I'm glad about, cause she'd have never let me know any of that. Told me all sorts of stories about people coming home to find the Dark Mark over their houses, and their dead family or friends inside. It's horrible. Hopefully it's not something any of us ever have to experience"

There was silence for a while, then I said

"Look, it seems like everything's quietened down now. Let's go back to the campsite and hopefully find the others"

We did so, and eventually found our tents again, which were thankfully undamaged, and inside were Charlie, Bill and Percy. Bill was sitting at the small kitchen table, holding a bedsheet to his arm, which was bleeding profusely. Charlie had a large rip in his shirt, and Percy was sporting a bloody nose.

"Oh thank god you guys are ok!" Bill said "What happened to you, and where are Harry, Ron and Hermione?"

We told them exactly what had happened and that we didn't know where they were.

Shortly after that, Dad arrived with Harry, Ron and Hermione

"Did you get them, Dad?" said Bill sharply. "The person who conjured the Mark?"

"No," said Dad "We found Barty Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but we're none the wiser about who actually conjured the Mark."

"What?" said Bill, Charlie, and Percy together.

"Harry's wand?" said Fred.

"Mr. Crouch's elf?" said Percy, sounding thunderstruck.

With some assistance from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Dad explained what had happened to them in the woods. The reason they had seperated from us was Ron tripping over a tree root when we started running further into the woods. Harry then realised he'd lost his wand. After a short encounter with Draco Malfoy, they had waited around where they were, then the Mark had been conjured, the person got away, and framed Winky by leaving the wand with her for the Ministry officials to find. When they had finished their story, Percy swelled indignantly.

"Well, Mr. Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that!" he said. "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 —"

"She didn't do anything — she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Hermione snapped at Percy, who looked very taken aback.

Hermione had always got on fairly well with Percy — better, indeed, than any of the others.

"Hermione, a wizard in Mr. Crouch's position can't afford a house-elf who's going to run amok with a wand!" said Percy pompously, recovering himself.

"She didn't run amok!" shouted Hermione. "She just picked it up off the ground!"

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

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

I tuned out for a little bit as Dad explained this to them. I'd already told this to my group, I didn't need to hear it again.

When he was talking about the Mark being left whenever they killed, I said

"Who did they kill tonight then?"

"No-one. We think tonight it was intended to scare the Death Eaters away"

"But what were Voldemort's supporters —" Harry began. Everybody flinched — like most of the wizarding world, we always avoided saying Voldemort's name.

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

"The point?" said Dad with a hollow laugh. "Harry, that's their idea of fun. Half the Muggle killings back when YouKnow-Who was in power were done for fun. 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," he finished disgustedly.

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

"Use your brains, Ron," said Bill. "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. 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 Dad "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. . . . 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."

I had no fantasies about winning the World Cup when I got into bed this time.