Chapter Text
Harry woke up, heart pounding and forehead burning. He pressed his fingers to it, trying to calm his heaving breaths. He’d just had the strangest dream.
For some reason, it had been about a strange man named Frank, who was spying on Voldemort and two of his men in some abandoned house. But Voldemort was half-dead and in hiding, Harry knew that. How could he be in some random English village?
There was another person there who Harry had also recognised. Wormtail…that was the nickname his dad and Sirius had for the friend that had betrayed them, Peter Pettigrew. But Pettigrew had died in Azkaban five or six years ago, everybody knew that…
It must have been a dream, it must have. Nothing but a particularly horrid nightmare. But it had felt so strangely real…
Harry sighed and rolled over in bed. Hopefully he could just forget all about it.
The next morning, Harry was waiting in Sirius’ living room and resolutely ignoring the dream, which was still unsettling him.
“Thanks again for doing this, Harry,” Ollie said.
“No problem!” Harry said. Moments later, the fireplace glowed green and Theo Nott stepped out.
“Theo! Hi!” Ollie said cheerfully, going forward to embrace his friend.
“It’s good to see you,” Theo said warmly. “Oh, and thanks for setting this up, Sirius.”
“It’s my pleasure!” Sirius called from the kitchen. He put down the dish he was washing and walked over. “I came from a…similar situation to you. I’m always happy to facilitate a couple of illicit meetups! Just, er, don’t tell your parents, Ollie.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Ollie said with a smile. “Now, Theo, are you ready to have a look around muggle London?”
“Oh yeah!” Theo said.
“Be back by dinnertime, and have a good day!” Sirius said.
This was the second time that summer that Harry had helped Ollie to see Theo. Since his Dad was a Death Eater, Lily had once again instituted a ban on Ollie seeing him. Unlike with Draco, however, Harry actually didn’t think Theo was like his parents at all. He’d always been pretty quiet and isolated, but Harry had spoken to him on occasion and thought he was nice enough. Not only that, but he didn’t show any of the Pureblood supremacist sentiment that Draco had.
When Harry had explained the whole situation to Sirius, who had grown up with similar parents to Theo, they’d both decided they’d help Ollie to see his friend a couple of times. So that was how Harry ended up on the Tube with Ollie and his best mate while he went to meet up with Hermione and Tracey. A few years ago, Harry couldn’t have ever imagined himself in this situation.
After a short train journey, Harry found Hermione and Tracey already waiting for him outside of the station.
“Harry!” Hermione said, dropping a shopping bag she was holding to hug him.
“Good to see you,” Tracey said, standing back and smiling. “Ollie. Theo.”
She gave them both a polite nod. Tracey may have given Harry her blessing to be friends with his brother, but that didn’t mean she would do more than tolerate him.
“Harry, I’m going to take Theo to the Science Museum,” Ollie said. “I’m going to show him all the muggle inventions.”
“It sounds really cool,” Theo said with a small smile.
“See you back here at four?” Ollie asked.
“See you then,” Harry said. They both walked off their separate ways. Harry, Tracey and Hermione were going to a nearby park for a picnic.
“So Hermione, how have you been?” Harry asked. “I swear I haven’t seen you all summer.”
“Well, I’ve been so busy studying,” she said with a sigh. “I know I dropped Divination and Muggle Studies so that I could have a normal schedule again, but I still need to catch up on all the work I was neglecting.”
“But Hermione, you still nearly got full marks across the board,” Tracey said with a frown.
“I know, but I want them to be perfect!” Hermione said insistently. Tracey and Harry gave each other knowing smiles.
“Still, we’re going to get to spend a load of time together at the World Cup!” Tracey said excitedly. “It’s going to be so good!”
“Tell Sirius thanks from us again for getting us tickets,” Hermione said.
“I’m just excited you two could come!” Harry said. “I’d have liked to have the whole gang, but Blaise and Neville were both too busy. Blaise is still making bets on who’s gonna win, though!”
“So are you supporting Bulgaria or Ireland?” Tracey asked. “I’m sure Ireland’s going to win. Their Chasers are just on another level.”
“Don’t forget about Krum, though,” Harry said. “He’s just the best Seeker ever! I bet he could get the Snitch before the Irish have had a chance to score a single goal.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re a Seeker!” Tracey teased. “Besides, wouldn’t it be a bit of a boring game if it was over in the first five minutes?”
“Speaking of boring, sorry Hermione,” Harry said apologetically. “I know you’re not as big on Quidditch as we are.”
“No, it’s fine!” Hermione said. She began to set up the food for their picnic on the grass. “Quidditch is alright as long as I’m not playing it. Besides, the World Cup is absolutely fascinating. It hasn’t been hosted in Britain in decades, so this is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the wizarding world…”
They spent most of their picnic discussing all of the different World Cup matches, as well as betting on the outcome of the final. In fact, Harry spent the rest of the week in the run up to the match talking about nothing else. It didn’t help that he was in such a Quidditch-obsessed family; the only person who didn’t care about the match was Lily, who seemed ready to pull her hair out by the end of the week. She was so annoyed that when she took Harry, Ollie and Jasmine to Diagon Alley to get Hogwarts supplies, she put a complete ban on Quidditch talk. They had a pretty peculiar list; for the first time, Hogwarts was requesting dress robes. As much as Harry and his siblings brainstormed, they couldn’t figure out why that was on there.
The night before the match, Harry could barely sleep because of how excited he was. He’d spent the whole evening sitting around and chatting with Hermione and Tracey, who were staying overnight on account of the early start they were going to have to get to the campsite. It was so early that Sirius actually put his foot down and made them go to bed.
“You want to be well-rested!” he said. “The match went on for five days last time! If that happens again, you’ll want to be awake for it!”
Eventually, Harry managed to drift off and was woken up before the sun had even risen. After he sleepily washed and dressed, he went downstairs and found Hermione, Tracey and Adhara already eating. Sirius made his way down a few minutes later.
“We’re going to meet James, Ollie and Jasmine at the campsite,” Sirius explained through a yawn. “They had an earlier Portkey.”
“Earlier than this?” Adhara grumbled.
“If Dad somehow managed to wake Ollie up in time for that, I’ll eat my hat,” Harry said, half-jokingly.
After they’d eaten, Sirius led them all to a nearby park in the milky dawn light. A couple of other Wizarding families were also wandering around to a secluded area in the woods. Harry didn’t know any of them well, but he thought he faintly recognised Terry Boot walking with his parents and a small boy who was probably his brother.
“Should I take the Portkey sickness potion for this?” Harry asked nervously. He still vividly remembered how ill he’d been a couple of years ago when they went to France.
“Not for one within the country,” Sirius explained. “It’s something about ocean travel that does it…Hermione, have you ever used a Portkey?”
“No, I haven’t,” she said, eyeing the plastic bag on the floor with distaste.
“You just place a finger on that plastic bag and at the set time, it’ll teleport us to the campsite,” he informed her. “It should be leaving in…two minutes' time. Get ready!”
They all reached out an arm and placed a finger on the plastic bag. Two minutes later, it glowed blue and Harry felt the jerking sensation behind his navel. He felt himself spinning through a howling wind-
He suddenly hit the ground next to Hermione and Tracey, staggering.
“That was amazing!” Hermione said excitedly. “The fact that you can travel somewhere within a matter of seconds? Fascinating!”
“I should Apparate you somewhere sometime,” Sirius said with a laugh. “Portkeys have to be scheduled and regulated, but you can Apparate pretty much anywhere as long as Muggles don’t catch you.”
After speaking to the dazed-looking campsite manager named Mr Roberts, an exhausted-looking Ministry official escorted them to their site to pitch the tent.
“At least some people actually have common sense,” the man muttered. “Honestly, muggle money isn’t that difficult! If something costs you five pounds, give them the note with the massive five on it! It’s just basic maths, for Merlin’s sake! Oh, and don’t even get me started on Ludo Bagman…”
The official kept ranting until they reached the very edge of the field, where someone had hammered a small sign into the ground that read Potter + Black. James, Ollie and Jasmine were already there, struggling to pitch a large tent.
“There you two are!” James said cheerfully. “I’m afraid I need a bit of a hand…”
“Summer of ‘78 all over again, isn’t it!” Sirius said with a laugh. “We need Remus here to sort us out!”
“I wish he was still going to be our Professor,” Hermione sighed.
“He was just scared of that curse on the DADA position,” Sirius explained. “Didn’t want anything to happen.”
“It’s a shame, though,” Harry said sadly. “He was the best Professor we’ve ever had.”
“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” James said with a wink. “I know who you’re going to have next year.”
“Really? Who?” Jasmine said eagerly.
“Mad-Eye Moody!” James said.
Half of their group gasped excitedly. Harry, Hermione and Tracey all gave each other confused looks.
“Who’s that?” Tracey asked.
“He’s like the most legendary Auror ever!” Ollie said, a starry look in his eyes. “He’s put away dozens of the worst Death Eaters!”
“He’s a little…well, mad, as his name suggests,” James said, “But he agreed to come out of retirement and teach you lot as a favour to Dumbledore.”
“You’re so lucky you’re actually going to have a competent teacher for your first year,” Harry grumbled to Adhara. “Ours was secretly possessed by Voldemort.”
“Well, at least I won’t have to melt Mad-Eye,” Ollie said with a laugh.
“Now, you lot help me with this tent!” James said impatiently. “It’ll take us so long that we’ll miss the match otherwise!”
They all went to wrestle with the tent. By the time the tent had been erected, the sun had risen and was beating down on them. To Harry’s surprise, the tent was actually much larger on the inside than it was on the outside. There was a large living area, and two rooms: the boys room, where James, Sirius, Harry and Ollie would sleep, and the girls room, where Hermione, Adhara, Tracey and Jasmine would sleep.
Since the match wouldn’t be starting until that evening, Harry and his friends decided to wander around the campsite and explore a bit. There were wizards from all different countries speaking all different languages, as well as quite a few that Harry knew. He ran into Marcus Flint, who had finally graduated and had gotten a position as chaser with the Bournemouth Bumblebees, as well as Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, who were aggressively supporting the Irish. The Weasleys were also there, staying just a few tents away from Harry and his family. There were far more of them than Harry remembered from Hogwarts, including Charlie Weasley, who he hadn’t seen in years. Harry even thought he spotted the Malfoys, who were lounging around outside of a glamorous building that looked more like a palace than a tent.
There were also dozens of witches and wizards milling about selling them products, and all sorts of people running bets. Tracey bet three galleons with Ludo Bagman, who was a large Krum supporter, that Ireland would win.
Harry bought himself a pair of shiny gold omnioculars, while Hermione got them all green rosettes. When they got back to the tent, James and Sirius, who were both sporting shamrock hats, painted the Irish flag on their cheeks.
Harry had never experienced an atmosphere of such excitement before. The air was practically crackling with anticipation as the afternoon wore on and the match drew closer. Eventually, a deep, booming gong sounded and the torches in the campsite lit up.
“It’s time!” Sirius said excitedly. “Let’s go!”
They’d managed to get amazing seats, right at the top by all the action. It didn’t stop Draco from sniffing haughtily as he walked past with his parents.
“Couldn’t afford the Top Box, I suppose,” he said, looking down on them snootily.
“Do I look like I care?” Ollie said, rolling his eyes and turning his back on Draco.
“Narcissa,” Sirius said stiffly.
“Sirius,” she said just as awkwardly. They both nodded to each other before the Malfoys walked off.
“My delightful cousin,” Sirius said to Tracey and Hermione, who looked confused.
“We have a lot of really unfortunate relatives,” Adhara said with a wince. Tracey gave them both a sympathetic grimace.
“We could have gotten the Top Box,” James grumbled. “But Ollie would have had to suck up to Fudge the whole time, and I thought you’d prefer actually watching the game.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Ollie said.
If Harry had thought watching school matches were fun, the Quidditch World Cup was on an entirely different level. The Veelas and the Leprechauns were amazing to start off with, especially when they started fighting each other, and that wasn’t even considering the actual match. Both sides played amazingly, and Harry was completely mesmerised by Krum. Even though Bulgaria lost, he still beat Lynch to the Snitch. Harry thought he was the best player he’d ever seen.
“I’m definitely trying the Wronski feint when we get home,” he said dreamily. “I could flatten Diggory with that!”
They all made their way back to the tent and analysed the match well into the night over some hot chocolate that Sirius had cooked up. Eventually, when Adhara’s eyes started drooping, James and Sirius declared that it was time for them to go to bed. It was hard, with all the bangs and the celebrations from the Irish, but Harry managed to drift off to fantasies of him flying around that arena, and catching the Snitch for England. It was at that moment that he decided he wanted to play Quidditch professionally.
Harry felt like he’d barely shut his eyes when he felt someone shaking him by the shoulders.
“Get up, get up!” James shouted. “Something’s wrong!”
As Harry sleepily wriggled out of his bed, he did notice the sounds from outside the tent were different now. They weren’t shouting anymore - they were screaming.
He quickly tried to put some jeans on, but James shook his head impatiently.
“There’s no time!” he shouted. “You boys go meet the girls, me and Sirius need to go help. Look after them, and go hide in the woods, we’ll find you later! And for the love of Merlin, be careful!”
He gave them a worried look before running out of the tent. Harry threw a jacket on and found Hermione, Tracey, Adhara and Jasmine all huddled together in the front of the tent looking scared. Harry grabbed Adhara’s hand, and saw Ollie do the same with Jasmine before they all ran away from the tent.
Outside was even worse. There were fires roaring, and a crowd of masked wizards were marching through with their wands pointed upwards. Above them, a group of unconscious muggles were floating and being spun around. Harry’s heart dropped as he recognised the campsite manager from earlier.
“That’s barbaric!” Hermione said disgustedly.
“I know, but we need to run,” Ollie hissed. “We don’t want them getting ahold of us…”
He cast a nervous look at Hermione, and Harry suddenly realised why. She’s a muggleborn. These were clearly some kind of pureblood supremacists…
As they blundered into the trees, Harry found himself getting more and more lost. There were dark figures everywhere, and screaming children, and he barely managed to keep hold of Adhara’s hand. He could scarcely see his hand in front of his face.
Suddenly, Adhara let out a muffled cry.
“Are you alright?” he asked urgently.
“Fine,” she gasped. “Just tripped…”
Suddenly, someone bumped into Harry from behind, knocking him over.
“Lumos!” Harry shouted. His wand lit up, illuminating Ron Weasley’s white face.
“Are you two alright?” he asked. His blue eyes were wide with fear. “I lost my brothers…”
“I think we lost the rest of our group too,” Harry said with a wince as he scanned their surroundings. “Stick with us, alright?”
“I think that’s a good idea,” a haughty voice said from behind them. Harry spun around and saw Draco standing smugly against a tree. “Not so brave now, are you Potter? Scared of the big, bad men?”
“Just go away!” Harry said through gritted teeth. This wasn’t the time to lose his temper. “This is an emergency, and I don’t need you here!”
“Oh, well I’m not in any danger,” Draco said smoothly. “But the three of you…two half-bloods and a blood traitor? Best clear off now. It’s lucky you haven’t got that Mudblood Granger with you, then you’d really be in trouble…”
“You take that back!” Ron shouted.
Harry, unable to cope with Malfoy’s gloating a moment longer, used his wandless magic to shove the other boy backwards. He fell backwards and hit the ground with a winded gasp.
Harry took that opportunity to disappear down a nearby path with Ron and Adhara. A large bang sounded from the campsite, and their faces were lit with an eerie green glow.
“I’ll bet you anything his dad is one of those masked lot!” Ron said furiously.
“The Malfoys are the worst,” Harry growled.
“I can’t believe you have to actually live with him,” Ron said, shaking his head.
“Believe me, I hate it,” Harry sighed. “Adhara, did you bring your wand?”
“No, I left it at home,” she said anxiously.
“I’ll light mine,” Ron said. He felt around his jacket and frowned. “I haven’t got it! Oh no…”
“Did you leave it back at your tent?” Harry asked.
“No clue,” Ron said worriedly.
“We’ll keep on our guard,” Adhara said.
Harry felt horribly nervous as the only armed one in their group. The danger felt even more heightened, and he felt like his heart jumped out of his chest when a nearby bush rustled. Harry pointed his wand at it, but it was only a house-elf.
“Winky?” Ron asked, sounding confused.
“There is bad wizards about!” Winky said in a squeaky voice. She was running in a strange, jerky way. “Winky is getting out of the way!”
“Who’s that?” Adhara asked.
“Barty Crouch’s house-elf,” Ron said with a frown. “She was in the Top Box with us…”
“She was acting really weirdly,” Adhara said.
“I bet she didn’t get permission to run,” Harry explained. “I read that about house-elves. They’re bound to wizard magic.”
They all made their way deeper and deeper into the woods, trying to get away from as many people as possible. They passed a cackling group of goblins, a couple of French witches and a group of wizards who had been entranced by a Veela. Finally, the three of them stumbled into a clearing in the heart of the woods, where it was much calmer.
“Should we go look for the others?” Harry asked worriedly. “Ollie, Tracey, Jasmine and Hermione got split up from us, and you might want to find your siblings.”
“No, I think it’s best to stay here,” Ron said. “There’s too many people about, we’ll never find them in this.”
Suddenly, someone staggered through the woods towards them. It was a man who Harry faintly recognised as Ludo Bagman. He looked very worried and lost.
“What are you three doing out here alone?” he asked with surprise.
“Er-there’s a bit of a riot going on,” Ron said awkwardly.
“Shit!” Bagman swore. Moments later, he Disapparated.
“Not exactly on top of things, is he?” Ron muttered.
“Think he got hit by too many Bludgers in his day,” Harry said. “Scrambled his brain.”
“He was a wicked Beater, though,” Ron said.
They looked around the dark clearing, lit only by Harry’s wandlight.
“I hope Dad’s okay,” Adhara said worriedly. “I know he’s an ex-Auror, but he hasn’t fought anyone properly in ages…”
“I don’t think they’ll actually hurt anyone,” Harry said, trying to sound a lot more confident than he actually felt.
“They’re probably just drunk and showing off,” Ron said firmly. “The Aurors will have everything sorted in no time, I promise.”
Harry sent him a grateful look, but jerked his head around suddenly at a cracking noise behind them. Someone was staggering through the bushes.
“Who’s there?” Harry asked, raising his wand higher.
“MORSMORDRE!” A deep voice shouted. A great green shape exploded from the edge of the treeline and flew up into the sky, where it formed into a gigantic skull with a snake protruding from its mouth. Harry didn’t have a clue what it could be, but it filled him with a sense of sick dread.
The woods all around them erupted into terrified screams. Harry had never heard anything like it; it was borderline hysteria.
“Who are you?” Harry shouted.
“Harry, we’ve got to go!” Ron said hurriedly, grabbing his collar. “That’s the Dark Mark, we need to run!”
“It’s You-Know-Who’s mark!” Adhara supplied. “Dad told me all about it, it means his followers are around! We’re in danger!”
“Voldemort?!” Harry felt a strange surge of adrenaline and scooped Adhara up. He and Ron started to run when a massive popping noise sounded out. They were surrounded by over twenty wizards who had their wands pointed at them.
“DUCK!” Harry yelled, throwing himself to the ground and shielding Adhara with his body.
“STUPEFY!” The wizards shouted. The clearing was illuminated by dozens of jets of red light.
“Wait! Stop!” A man shouted. “That’s my son!”
“Harry?!” he heard James yell incredulously. A red-headed man, who Harry quickly recognised as Mr Weasley, strode towards them, closely followed by James and Sirius.
“Are you three alright?” James asked worriedly.
“Out of the way, you three,” a stern voice said.
It was a man Harry didn’t recognise who was striding towards them. He had a cold face and furious, popping eyes.
“Which of you did it?” he snapped, looming over them. “Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?”
“We didn’t do that!” Harry said indignantly.
“Yeah, why would we?” Ron chimed in.
“Do not lie!” the man shouted. His wand was pointed at Ron, and he was practically quivering. “You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!”
“Oh, calm down, Barty,” Sirius snapped. “They’re kids!”
“Oh, coming from you!” Barty said furiously. “That girl’s your daughter! You’re Blacks, you’ve probably taught her all kinds of - of dark magic!”
Harry held a terrified-looking Adhara closer.
“She’s eleven you insufferable git!” Sirius shouted, standing in front of Harry and Adhara defensively. “How dare you speak about my family that way!”
“Where did it come from?” James asked urgently, placing a calming hand on Sirius’ shoulder. He took a deep breath.
“Over there,” Harry said shakily, pointing to where they’d heard the voice.
“There was someone behind the trees, he - he shouted something…an incantation,” Ron added.
“Stood over there, did he?” Barty said disbelievingly, turning his anger to Ron. “Shouted an incantation? Someone’s rather knowledgeable about how the Dark Mark’s cast!”
Unlike the accusatory Barty, the rest of the witches and wizards didn’t seem to think Harry and his companions were responsible. Instead, they’d turned to where Ron had pointed.
“We’re too late,” a witch sighed. “They’ll have Disapparated…”
“I don’t think so,” a bearded wizard said. “Our Stunners went right through those trees…there’s a good chance we got them.”
He marched over authoritatively, and disappeared into the darkness. A few moments later, he shouted.
“Yes! We’ve got them!”
“Really?” Barty said disbelievingly. “Who is it? Let me see, Diggory…”
Diggory emerged moments later carrying the house-elf they’d run into earlier.
Barty’s eyes popped as he stared at Winky’s tiny body. Harry suddenly connected Barty’s name to the Barty Crouch Ron had mentioned earlier, and had to bite back a shocked gasp. His elf was the one behind it? Harry couldn’t help feeling a bit satisfied, since Crouch had spent the last five minutes accusing him, Adhara and Ron.
Mr Crouch didn’t seem prepared to accept it. He started sifting around the bushes, as if he was looking for something else.
“Bit embarrassing for him…” Diggory muttered. “His own elf!”
“You don’t believe an elf was behind it, do you Amos?” Mr Weasley said disbelievingly. “She’d need a wand, for one thing…”
“And she had a wand,” Diggory said, pulling one out of his pocket.
There was a horrible few minutes as Diggory revived Winky and started interrogating her. James stepped forward and squeezed Harry’s shoulder tightly as they watched Winky rocking and sobbing, denying everything. He felt remarkably uncomfortable.
At one point, as Diggory brandished the wand about, Ron started.
“Hey, that’s mine!” he shouted.
“Excuse me?” Diggory said, jaw agape.
“That’s my wand!” Ron said disbelievingly. “I dropped it!”
“You dropped it?” he repeated. “Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?”
“Oh come off it, Amos!” Mr Weasley snapped. "Are you seriously accusing my fourteen-year-old son of conjuring the Mark? I think I'd know if my son was a Dark Wizard! And in case you're forgetting, Death Eaters murdered his uncles! Why would he support someone like that?"
"I think the lot of you need to stop accusing a bunch of terrified children of being Death Eaters and actually figure out what's happened here!" Sirius shouted. Harry had never seen him this furious in his whole life. He looked ready to slap someone, and his grey eyes were as cold as ice.
"Right…sorry…" Diggory muttered.
"I didn't drop it there anyway," Ron added in a small voice. "It had been missing since we entered the woods."
Diggory turned back to accusing Winky, who only started to cry harder.
"I'll take these guys back, James," Sirius said in a quiet voice.
"Good idea," James said distractedly, releasing Harry's shoulder. "You don't need to see this…I need to stay and clear things up."
Mr Weasley got Ron's wand back from Diggory and he started walking back through the woods with them.
"Where are your siblings, Ron?" he asked worriedly.
"We got split up," Ron explained.
"Same with us," Harry informed Sirius, who was gripping Adhara's hand tightly and looked a bit sick. He’d also started holding onto Harry’s shoulder with a vice grip, as if he didn’t want to let go of either of them.
"Oh for the love of Merlin…" Sirius rubbed his head. "Let's check the tent."
They all made their way back over to the two tents. The Weasleys had been staying quite close to Harry and his family, and he noticed Hermione, Tracey, Ollie and Jasmine all standing with the Weasley siblings. They looked shaken but didn't seem hurt. They all ran forward and hugged each other.
"I was so worried!" Hermione gasped.
"We lost you, then we saw the Dark Mark…" Tracey was white as a ghost.
"Did you guys get them?" Jasmine asked.
"Where's Dad?" Ollie said worriedly.
"He's alright," Sirius said quickly, "he's just with the rest of the Aurors. And we didn't find who conjured the Mark. Just Barty Crouch's elf with Ron's wand."
"Ron's wand?"
"Mr Crouch's elf?"
"Percy works for Barty Crouch," Ron whispered to Harry as Mr Weasley and Sirius explained everything that had happened. "He's obsessed with him."
"Oh I cannot stand Crouch!" Sirius shouted once they finished retelling the story. "That utter bastard, accusing my children?! I should have him sacked! In fact, he should have been fired after he chucked me into prison! He is completely unfit to hold any position of power!"
"Take a deep breath, Sirius!" Mr Weasley said firmly, placing a hand on Sirius' shoulder.
"Prison?" Tracey whispered.
"Crouch thought he was a Death Eater," Adhara whispered back. "With all the chaos after the war, it took a month for Harry's parents to get him out of Azkaban."
Harry winced at the reminder. Sirius didn't like to talk about it a lot, but his month in prison had caused him to go a bit off the rails at the start of his twenties, and he was still quite bitter about it.
"Should’ve been kicked out of the ministry, instead of just getting demoted," Sirius growled. Percy gave him an affronted look.
"I know, but there's nothing they can do about that now," Mr Weasley said reassuringly. "We just need to let the Aurors find out who conjured the Mark, even if that includes Crouch’s involvement."
"Was whoever conjured it…supporting those Death Eaters?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"I don't know," Sirius said quietly, "but what I do know is that only Death Eaters know how to conjure that thing. I'd be pretty surprised if whoever conjured it wasn't a Death Eater once…"
Mr Weasley sighed. "Absolutely terrible…but listen, it's late. Let's all get a few more hours of sleep and get an early Portkey out of here. Molly's going to be worried sick when she hears…"
Sirius winced. "Same with Lily. We ought to turn in, as well."
"Alright," Arthur said. "Stay safe, you lot."
"You too," Sirius said.
They all hurried back into the tent and Sirius packed them off to their separate rooms. Harry noticed he didn't go into the bedroom with him and Ollie; instead, he sat in a chair in the entrance with his wand out, like he was standing guard. James still hadn't returned.
"So you saw the Dark Mark?" Ollie whispered. He clearly felt just as wide-awake as Harry did.
"Yeah," Harry whispered back. "It was awful, all of it."
"I'm glad you were safe, though," Ollie said. "We were worried sick when we lost you."
"Same here," Harry said, reaching over and squeezing his hand.
"No more talking, boys!" Sirius called. "Try and get some sleep!"
"Sorry!" Harry called back. "Night."
He rolled over and shut his eyes, but sleep was a long time coming.