Chapter Six
It was deep into yet another exclamation of Krum’s prowess that high pitched screams cut through the air, followed by several more. I ducked out of the tent and grabbed the arm of a wizard running by me to ask what was happening even though I already knew.
I grabbed the arm of a wizard running by me and asked what was going on.
“The Death Eaters are back. Run for your life,” the man said before dashing off.
I quickly dashed back inside the Weasley tent, “Death Eater attack. Everybody’s running away. We need to leave now,” I said.
To his credit, Arthur jumped to his feet as soon as I said “Death Eaters” and wasted no time, “Bill, Percy, with me. They are going to need all of the help that they can get. Kids, go to the woods and don’t come out until an Auror tells you that it is safe.”
We all exited the tent, the older Weasleys leaving in the direction that everybody was fleeing from. Tents were crumpled or on fire, trampled by the panicked crowd. Masked Death Eaters were in the distance, levitating four figures.
“Crucio!” one cried, shooting the Unforgivable into the crowd.
The Death Eaters were aiming to spread fear. The seven of us could easily take them on.
“What do we do?” Ron asked. I opened my mouth to suggest the three pronged attack method, complete with Dungbombs and glitter when I heard a kid’s cry of distress.
“Mommy, mommy,” a toddler’s shout distracted me.
Two kids, a boy of around five and a two year old girl were getting swept off by the crowd, fighting to get to the side. I dashed into the chaos and grabbed them before depositing them where my friends and I stood.
Fuck. It was a panicked mob. Of course there were lost kids. I was an idiot for not thinking of that sooner.
“Hey, it’s okay. Look, that’s Harry Potter. We’re going to get you to safety and then find your parents,” I told the kids.
“You’re really Harry Potter?” the older boy asked. “Are you going to fight the bad guys?”
“No, we’re going to get you somewhere safe,” I said, picking up the boy and handing him to Harry.
“Change of plans, everybody hold hands,” I said as I picked up the toddler. She promptly grabbed my braid and put it in her mouth.
Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Harry, Fred, George and I all held hands. I closed my eyes and twisted my body into apparating. There were wards around the campsite to prevent people from leaving, although they were child’s play compared to the ancient Hogwarts wards. I punched through them and took us a couple of miles away into the woods.
“Lumos,” Hermione said immediately, lighting up her wand. We were in a large clearing surrounded by twigs, leaves, logs and one very startled rabbit.
“Wab’t” the toddler cried, squirming in an attempt to hug the rabbit.
I put the toddler down and hurriedly began casting wards. A ward to not allow apparition of anybody but one of us. A ward that cast a perimeter around the campsite that wouldn’t allow any adults through unless granted permission by one of us. A ward to hide us from view. A ward to repel those who meant harm.
“Ginny, Harry and Ron, stay here with the kids. Hermione, Fred and George, we’ll split into pairs. There’s got to be a lot of kids who got pulled away from their parents by the mob. Apparate them back here to safety. Ginny, Harry, Ron, work on healing and calming them. I punched a hole through the wards the Death Eaters put up and any of the seven of us can get through my wards around this clearing,” I said.
I grabbed Hermione’s hand and apparated us back to the Weasley tent. The Death Eaters were a lot closer now.
“We need to get that muggle family. I’ll play distraction. You apparate them out. Hand me some prank bombs,” Hermione said.
“Glitterbomb, stun bomb, smokebomb, dungbomb, grenade bomb, dungbomb, stun bomb, grenade bomb,” I identified as I handed her an armful of prank bombs.
“Grenade bomb?” Hermione asked.
“Fred and George’s invention. It’s still in development. Fortunately for this scenario, their products tend to be on the more explosive side when still in development,” I said as I put on my invisibility cloak and ran toward the magic nazis. Because that was my life now.
Hermione went left and threw a grenade bomb into the middle of the Death Eaters.
Two of the figures, the muggle dad and muggle girl dropped through the air, whoever was levitating them dead or injured. I quickly summoned them, grabbed their wrists, apparated back to the clearing, dropped them and apparated back.
“Diffindo! Bombarda! Stupefy! Confringo! Impedimenta! Reducto!” I yelled, my wand in one hand, throwing daggers in the other as I threw them at my enemies.
Hermione threw a smokebomb and then a dungbomb in quick succession. I summoned the muggle mom and muggle boy, apparated them back to the clearing, and returned just in time to see Hermione, apparently out of prank bombs, begin casting more Explosion spells. Her shoulder was bloody
I grabbed her and apparated to just inside the woods. Hermione stumbled, then bent over and vomited.
“Hawk, Granger, hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like spotted, would you?” Draco in said in a forced drawl that did little to cover up the fear in his voice.
Draco, Vincent, Gregory, Daphne, Pancy and Millicent were all huddled together in a group, wands outstretched.
“Thanks for the warning. We’ve set up a warded clearing for anybody we find who got separated from their families. Want me to apparate you?” I offered, diplomatically not mentioning that their parents were likely among those attacking the campsite. “Formal offer of sanctuary from a mutual enemy.”
“Thank you. We would love to,” Pansy said before Draco could say something insulting.
“Hold hands,” I said as we gathered together and apparated into the clearing.
In the ten minutes I had been gone, over two dozen people were now inhabiting the clearing. Somebody had put up strands of fairy lights and cast warming charms. Several of them I recognized from Hogwarts. Eleanor Birch and Patrick Midgen were healing the muggles who had been tortured by the Death Eaters. Cedric Diggory and Ron were writing down everybody’s names on a list. Harry was entertaining the kids who found the Boy Who Lived more interesting than the rabbit. The rabbit was very popular.
Hermione walked over to the healing section to get her shoulder fixed.
“We’ve sent out any older kids to patrol the area and try to find others who got lost. I sent a patronus to the DMLE letting them know what was happening,” Ron said. “What are the Slytherins doing here?”
“Hawk offered us sanctuary,” Draco said.
“It’s your own bloody families attacking everybody,” Ron said.
Fred and George apparated in with four kids hanging off them each, and then apparated out.
“And they're just as likely to get hurt as anybody else in the chaos,” I told Ron.
“Then they have to help out just like everybody else our age,” Ron said.
“We’re not going back out there,” Draco argued.
“You don’t have to. Pass out hot cocoa, play with the little kids, help with the less important injuries, build some sort of shelter. Just make yourself useful,” I said.
Angelina Johnson, who had been the one adding lights, agreed to go back out with me.
We apparated to the edge of the forest where the last of the crowd was still fleeing. We apparated two Bulgarian boys to the clearing, then a handful of under eleven year old kids who had grouped together, then were flagged down by a tear-stricken Maggie who was leading well over a dozen kids and clutching an infant to her chest.
“Orphanage got tickets to the game donated. Mrs. Willows and one of the older boys got killed by a Death Eater. Rebecca killed him with a cutting curse to the neck though,” she said, vaguely gesturing to a Ravenclaw girl in the year above me who was holding a toddler. “Everybody, hold hands. We’re almost there!”
Angelina picked up one of the younger kids and we apparated into the clearing.
We apparated back out and Luna was standing in front of us, patiently waiting with two small girls.
“We’re the last out here. Everybody else has made it into the forest and will be safely found,” she said, grabbing my hand like we were walking through the halls of Hogwarts and not fleeing Death Eaters.
I didn’t bother asking if she was sure or how she knew that, just took her word for it and apparated back to the clearing.
“Thanks,” the little girl said, before skipping off to join the kids crowded around the rabbit.
I checked with Hermione, whose shoulder had healed and was taking over running the clearing that had quickly turned into a campsite.
“The little kids are mainly pretty calm. We have lots of entertainment for them, although the bunny seems to be the most popular. They’re already fighting over who gets to adopt it. Hailey Rowle from Ginny’s year accidentally killed her uncle in self-defense while running away. She didn’t know it was him, but his mask slipped off and she had a panic attack over it because she didn’t want to get in trouble with her family. So if anybody asks, you killed Sebastian Rowle,” Hermione told me.
“Got it,” I said.
“We’ve compiled a list of full names for most everybody, with the exception of some of the babies and toddlers who don’t know their names and nobody recognizes. We’ve just listed hair color, skin color, eye color, what they are wearing and approximate age for the unidentified babies. We have two hundred and eighteen people total, one hundred and eighty six of which have been sorted into the younger kid group, approximately twelve and younger and then thirty two older kids who are helping out. Some of the older kids got a basic shelter, just a fabric canopy held up by sticks, cleared away the twigs and some of the littler kids went to sleep with borrowed robes as bedding,” Hermione said.
“Okay, here start duplicating that,” I told Hermione, handing her a fuzzy blanket from my bag. “Blankets are scientifically proven to be comforting, like a hug. I have hot cocoa that I will pass out and-”
“Morsmorde!” a voice yelled from right outside the wards and a green skull appeared in the sky.
“Fuck,” I said. Crouch Jr.
“That’s a bad word,” a nearby kid helpfully informed me.
It was a big forest and I hadn’t thought we would run into him. We had planned on stunning Crouch Jr and the Sorting Feast and flooring Madam Bones to come get him, but now worked just as well. I flicked my wand into my hand and dashed outside the wards, shooting stunners in every single direction. I heard two thumps of bodies hitting the forest floor.
“Accio invisibility cloak,” I said. An invisible lump of fabric flew into my hand and I walked forward to peer at the unconscious bodies of a thin man and a house elf. “Incarcerous. Incarcerous. Wingardium Leviosa. Wingardium Leviosa.”
“All good,” I said, walking back into the clearing, unconscious bodies behind me. “I did find the supposedly dead Barty Crouch Jr.”
With the help of some of the older kids, we tied Crouch and Winky up to a tree, sitting with their backs to the trunk on a tree branch high enough that they wouldn’t be a threat to any of the curious little kids who might try to look at them.
“Sirius is going to be so disappointed that he wasn’t the first person to escape Azkaban,” Harry said.
“Sirius is still the first to escape by themselves without external aid,” I said.
“Barty Crouch’s son?” Ron asked. “I didn’t know he had one.”
“He hushed it up so it wouldn’t impact him,” Hermione said.
“Nothing to worry about everybody. Who wants hot cocoa?” I asked, conjuring some mugs and grabbing my refilling thermos of hot cocoa.
The Slytherin girls in our year took charge of passing out blankets and hot cocoa to the kids. Most of the kids with more important injuries such as twisted ankles from running too fast in the dark and tripping or injuries sustained while fighting Death Eaters long enough to get the younger kids out had been taken care of.
The muggle family was in a light healing trance, which Eleanor had said was all she was comfortable doing since some potions could be dangerous for muggles and she didn’t know which ones. She said that they were stable and would likely make a full recovery.
Those with any talent in healing were now going around to tend to the minor scrapes and bruises that most of the children had gained.
“I’m hungry,” one little boy said.
“Me too,” another kid piped in.
“Okay then,” I said, pulling open my sidebag. “We’re going to have to get creative.”
“Can’t you just conjure food?” Ron asked.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t have any nutrients. Conjured or duplicated food has no calories, protein, or other things that are in food. It’s part of Gamp’s Elemental Laws of Transfiguration. That’s how wixen eat such fatty foods and don’t gain that much weight. These kids are hungry and need real food,” I said.
Thanks to the wonder of refrigeration charms and an endless bag, I had enough food to keep us all fed for a couple of days if necessary.
“Muffins, block of tofu, leftover pad thai, deviled egg salad, loaf of bread, box of protein bars, seasoning kit, an entire bag of muffins, yellow curry, veggie sausage, pancakes, grilled cheese, tofu, mashed potatoes, carrots, Honeydukes chocolate, more tofu, plate of scrambled eggs,” I listed off as I pulled out a variety of foods from my bag. “That should be enough to feed everybody for a meal.”
“Bloody hell,” Ron said.
“Just how much do you have in there?” Harry asked.
“Everything I could ever need and so much more.” I said, glancing at the pile of food around me.
“Everybody line up. We’re having a midnight schmorgesborg,” I said as Charlie Slinkhard, a Hufflepuff boy two years ahead of me helpfully conjured plates and utensils.
The kids eagerly lined up food as we started handing out approximately a meal’s worth of food to each kid. Luna worked on heating some milk for the handful of babies. Everybody was tired and hungry enough to dig into their food with minimal complaining although lots of kids swapped dishes.
“They’re going to crash as soon as they get food into their stomachs. The adrenaline will have worn off and they’ll feel safe enough to fall asleep,” Hermione said.
“We should probably make some sort of structure and get some blankets for them before they start falling asleep where they are sitting,” Neville pointed out.
Hermione and Neville got to work on building a fort and laying down enough bedding and blankets for the kids to comfortably sleep. For all of the protests that they weren’t tired, most of them went to bed after a couple of hours.
“The wizarding world is going to be terrified after this,” Harry said as the four of us sat in a circle on the ground.
“Good. People need to see that this is serious,” Hermione said.
“If the Ministry feeds into the fear and chaos, it will go horribly. And the Ministry is incompetent,” Ron said.
“True. However, between Madam Bones and the ministry bending over to pacify Sirius, Fudge is being corralled into doing the right thing most of the time. Ron, you said that you told Madam Bones that we were safe with a bunch of little kids?” I asked, mind whirring.
“No, the patronus I sent just said that there were Death Eaters and everybody was fleeing into the forest,” Ron said.
“Wait,” I said. “They don’t know that all of us are safe? The DMLE currently thinks that well over a hundred kids are missing after a Death Eater attack?”
“Uhhhh,” Ron said. “Yes?”
“Well, if nothing else that will definitely increase security. This has got to be a solid tenth of magical kids in Albion, plus a bunch of kids from other countries,” Hermione said with a tone of wry amusement.
I conjured a patronus and spoke to the owl, “To Madam Amelia Bones: This is Zo Hawk. My friends and I are with a bunch of kids of varying ages in a safe and warded clearing. There are two hundred and eighteen total people, including us. Since we’re not sure what the situation with the Death Eaters at the Cup is, we’ll send a couple of older kids who can Apparate to the DMLE office at the Ministry and they can side along Apparate some Aurors back through the wards. End message,” I said, flicking my wand and sending the patronus flying away.
Less than a minute later a meerkat patronus came flying in, Madam Bones confirming my message with a tone of great relief.
We assembled a small team of rising seventh years who had either just gotten their Apparition license or who had taken the lessons and could successfully Apparate but hadn’t turned seventeen yet. Given the situation, I highly doubted the DMLE would care much about teenagers apparating in an emergency situation a couple of weeks before their seventeenth birthdays. Angelina Johnson, Cedric Diggory, Gabriella Gryffindor, Lila Dippet and Austin Midgen left the wards and apparated out of the forest and to the Ministry.
They came back with Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dora and a handful of other Aurors whose names I didn’t know.
“Thank Magic you all are alright,” Shacklebolt said as soon as they appeared, forgoing any greetings.
“Auror Shacklebolt, I’m Zo Hawk. This is Hermione Granger. We have a total of two hundred and eighteen people here total, all seventeen or younger. There’s a list of names we’ve compiled. Most of the younger children are asleep, everyone’s been fed. There are a couple of more serious injuries, mainly among the older kids who volunteered to go back out and find other kids. There’s also the muggle family who owned the campsite, who were tortured by Death Eaters and are currently in a healing trance. We found Barty Crouch Jr a little ways away from our campsite, he cast the Dark Mark and is currently stunned and tied up in a tree” I said, summarizing the most important pieces.
“Barty Crouch Jr?” Shacklebolt asked, focusing on the end of my report.
“And his house elf,” I added.
“Right. Robards, check their list of people with our list of missing persons. Tonks, go check on the injured children and the muggles. Dawlish, check the strength of the wards and then start getting statements from the older children. Hawk, show me Crouch Jr,” Shacklebolt said, barking out orders.
“Sure thing,” I said, leading him to the tree where we had put Crouch Jr and Winky.
Shacklebolt levitated Crouch Jr and Winky down to the ground. After checking his identity and left arm, he turned back to me.
“You just captured a death eater and stuck him in a tree,” Shacklebolt said in disbelief.
“Well we weren’t going to just leave him on the ground where the little kids were,” I pointed out.
“You can’t be older than fifteen,” he said.
“All uses of magic tonight were done in self-defense in a life threatening situation, as is allowed under Clause Seven of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction for Underage Sorcery,” I defended.
“That’s not what I- never mind. An excellent job protecting your fellow wixen and taking down a Death Eater,” Shacklebolt said, before turning to the Aurors he brought with him.
“Robards, go back to the Ministry, toss Crouch into a holding cell and inform Madam Bones of the situation. Tonks, go with him and take a copy of that list of names to give it to whoever is in charge. They’re working on locating and reuniting missing people in the Ministry Atrium. Coordinate with them on how best to get all of the children back to their families.”
Robards and Tonks came over to get Crouch, went to just outside the wards and apparated back to the Ministry.
The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon and some of the sleeping children began to awake. They were all very much relieved to hear that Aurors were here and that they would be reunited with their families shortly.
Tonks reappeared, this time with two healers in St Mungos robes.
“Madam Bones sent me with the healers to take the muggles and seriously injured children to St Mungos. We’re to begin apparating the other kids to the Ministry Atrium where everybody with a missing family member is supposed to head. Everyone there has already been alerted that there is a whole crowd of incoming children and given the list of names,” Tonks reported.
“We can begin getting everyone lined up and waking up those who are sleeping,” I offered.
“Good idea,” Shacklebolt said.
Those who were awake eagerly formed a line to be apparated out by Dora, Robards or Dawlish. The handful of us older kids who had been organizing everything got to work gently waking the sleeping children so that they could line up for transport to the Ministry.
It was slow going, with only three Aurors transporting a maximum of two children at once while Shacklebolt stayed in the campsite to supervise.
Luna and Cedric worked on taking down the fairy lights and picking up the blankets that had been left behind.
Eventually it was just Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Cedric, Angelina, Luna and I left behind and we quickly apparated to the Ministry.
It was chaos in the Atrium. There were a handful of Ministry employees at desks by the fountain, each with a line of wixen waiting to speak to them. The cafes and restaurants by the Ministry Atrium had been taken over for all the children to sit in, with the child protection workers handing out blankets and hot cocoa and reassuring the children. One of the social workers appeared to be attempting to take the rabbit away from a very determined Hailey Rowle who was clutching it like a lifeline. A much slower trickle of people were heading to the exit floos, mainly parents clutching their children to the sides.
We were quickly ushered over to the restaurant area where there was a social worker who took our names and told us to find a seat, “This is where we are taking care of all the underage children until your parents can come pick you up. They’ll check in with the desks at the fountain, then come over here and check you out of Ministry custody. If you are seventeen or over, you’ll need to go give your name to the fountain desks before you leave so that we know you’ve gone home and aren’t missing in case a family member checks here,” she explained.
“Can you see Mum or Dad?” Ginny asked, scrambling onto a chair to get a better view.
“No, but look-”
“-there’s Percy.”
Percy was in the middle of what appeared to be a very important conversation between Ministry officials.
“Ron, why don’t you try sneaking over there and when you get a chance, let Percy know we are over here and need a legal adult to sign us out,” I suggested.
Ron nodded and ducked over the cafe railing before casually walking through the swarms of people.
“Mum will be-”
“-freaking out.”
“She’ll be able to tell that you four are safe thanks to your family’s clock and will hopefully assume that we are all together,” Hermione said.
“Yes except that ours will likely be at “lost” since there isn’t a “safe” on the clock and they don’t know where we are, we are technically lost. Percy’s will show “work” since he works here, but ours won’t,” Ginny pointed out.
Percy arrived, following Ron.
“Perce, we need you to sign-”
“-us out since you’re an-”
“-adult and they won’t let-”
“-us leave on our own.”
“You’re alright,” Percy said, pulling the surprised twins in for a hug. “We were so worried.”
“Zo set up a campsite and we rescued all of the lost children running around,” Ginny said.
“That was you?” Percy asked in surprise. “Never mind, of course it was. Let’s sign you out and then I’ll hand you off to Mum.”
“Name and relationship?” the social worker in charge of our cafe asked.
“Percival Weasley. I’m the older brother of those four,” he said.
“And the other three?”
“Harry, Hermione and I have been staying with his family over the summer,” I explained. I really hoped the social worker didn’t ask any more questions and discover our dubious custody situation which relied on the Ministry not realizing we had no legal caretakers.
“I’m going to need to see your Apparation License papers or another form of Ministry issued identification,” she said.
Percy handed over his Ministry Employee paper. The social worker promptly signed us out.
“It’s been absolute chaos. Crouch just got arrested for helping his son escape Azkaban, can you believe it? Now I’m the acting head of the Department of International Cooperation because Mister Crouch’s deputy is in St Mungo’s and all of the other countries are demanding an explanation,” Percy said, leading us over to the check-in lines.
“Play up how big of a threat Voldemort and the Death Eaters are. Maybe angle for some aid, especially from Scandia or Europa,” I suggested.
“Good suggestion. Anyways, Mum is waiting in line to try and find you. Dad is at home. Charlie is in St Mungos, he and his dragon tamer friends fought the Death Eaters and got injured, but he’ll recover. Bill is with him now. I’ll hand you over to Mum and then I need to get back to work,” Percy said.
We found Molly halfway through the line on the far side of the Atrium, where we couldn’t see her from the cafe we were in.
“Mum, I’ve found them,” Percy said.
“Oh, my babies!” Molly cried, somehow managing to pull all eight of us into a hug. “You’re alright! I was so worried. What if something had happened to you?”
“It’s okay Mum, we’re fine,” Ginny said.
“What happened-”
“-to Charlie?”
“A bad cutting curse to his torso. Bill is with him now. Let’s get you children home,” Molly said, ushering us to the floos.
Once we got back to The Burrow, Molly insisted on doing a diagnostic spell to check us for injuries and feeding us a full breakfast before we went upstairs to sleep.
“We should probably send out some owls before we go to sleep,” Hermione suggested.
“Sirius and Andromeda are both at Black Castle so we can just send one owl with letters for the both of them,” I said.
“Hedwig can take those letters,” Harry said. “She flies there and back often enough.”
“Be sure to include the whole Barty Crouch Jr thing, that there were some Death Eaters who were captured or killed and the potential international relations benefits and consequences as a result of the fallout of this. Actually, I’ll just help you,” Hermione said.
“Oh good, you’re handwriting is way better than mine,” Harry said, relieved.
“I’ll owl Dumbledore. He’s probably getting plenty of letters coming in about the attack, but we were the ones who captured Crouch Jr and it’s always better to be on Dumbledore’s good side,” I said.
“I should owl Neville. He’s the only one of us who wasn’t at the Cup and he’ll be worried as soon as he hears,” Ron said.
“Alright, Rita can wait until one of the owls comes back, although she’ll definitely want information,” I said.
I wrote out a cordial letter informing Dumbledore of us setting up a safe area for the children, Crouch Jr casting the Dark Mark, bringing the Aurors and getting to the Ministry, suggesting that Percy angle for international aid and that we had all safely made it back to The Burrow. Then I sealed up the letter and sent it off with Athena.