"Krum is insanely good, no wonder he's got thousands of girls lining up to take photos with him," Ron admires the seeker for the Bulgarian team, who is sitting at a table with a line of eager witches waiting to get his autograph.
"Clearly not good enough if Ireland won," Hermione laughs, dragging Ron and Harry back to their tent to celebrate Ireland's win.
The crowd of people dressed in green grow louder and louder as more people start drinking and singing; happy that Ireland won despite Krum's impressive catch at the end. Harry, Ron and Hermione are just about to walk into their tent, when they hear a loud scream followed by a surge of commotion coming from behind them. The screams and frantic chatter become louder; as more people scurry away from the campsite with blank looks of terror on their faces.
Amongst the noise and shouting, Harry gets lost in between people who are pushing and pulling in all directions. "Hermione! Ron!" He shouts, looking around to see where they have ended up.
He hears a distant cry coming from the center of the crowd. "Harry!" He recognises the voice to be Ginny. His instincts push him to run towards the noise, pushing through several frantic witches and wizards who are running in the opposite direction. As he keeps running forward, he loses the crowd behind him, who are all rushing to get away from something. Unsure what the potential danger is, he follows the gaze of the people passing by him, and realizes they are all looking up at the sky rather than in the distance. In the sky, a smokey outline of a skull with a snake sliding through its mouth appears. Harry wonders why this eerie image has caused such an outrage.
He keeps running past tents to find Ginny. Where could she be? He heard her voice so clearly but she was nowhere to be found. As he runs, he realizes that he's gone through the whole campsite, and is nearing the trees in the distance. His footsteps slow as he sees a wandering shadow near the distant trees, far away from the rest of the crowd that has already run to safety. His curiosity taking over him, he silently jogs towards the trees and glides through the shadows so that the figure does not notice him.
As he gets closer, he realizes that it is a young, tall and slim man. He appears to be in pain, grunting and holding his right arm with his left. As Harry gets closer, he stands behind the thick tree stumps to hide his presence. The grunting sounds that he hears sound familiar, but the man wears a cloak and faces the opposite direction, not giving away his identity.
Harry tries to get closer by hopping behind another tree, but as he glides around, his foot steps on a thin branch, making a quiet snapping sound. Harry grimaces as the sound escapes the ground, knowing he has just given away his position. He looks over at the strange man who is gripping his wand tightly with the arm that seems to be in pain.
The man swiftly turns around, but his face is still covered with his cloak. "Who's there?" He shouts out, waiting a second for a reply before running into the woods, scared that somebody has seen him.
But Harry did not need to see who that was to recognise him. He could recognise that menacing and antagonizing voice anywhere.
It was Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.