A Different Story

Chapter 48

26th Of August, 1994

"Get up! kids come on now, get up, this is urgent!"

Harry sat up quickly and the top of his head hit canvas. "What's the matters?" he asked.

Dimly, he could tell that something was wrong. The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. He could hear screams, and the sound of people running. He slipped down from the bunk and reached for his clothes, but Ignotus, who had pulled on his jeans over his own pajamas, said, "No time, Harry just grab a jacket and get outside quickly!" Harry did as he was told and hurried out of the tent, others following him.

By the light of the few fires that were still burning, he could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire. Loud jeering, roars of laughter, and drunken yells were drifting toward them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene.

A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. Harry squinted at them. He 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.

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice Harry 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 Harry 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," Arcturus 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."

Hermione, Damian and Iris came hurrying toward them, pulling coats over their nightdresses, with Ignotus right behind them. At the same moment, Sirius emerged from the another tent, fully dressed, with his sleeves rolled up and his wands out. "We’re going to help the Ministry!" Ignotus shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot get into the woods, and stick together. I’ll come and fetch you when we’ve sorted this out!"

"C’mon," said Helena, grabbing Ginny’s hand and starting to pull her toward the wood. Harry, Arcturus, Hermione, and Damian followed. They all looked back as they reached the trees. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever; they could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the center, but they were having great difficulty. It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Roberts family fall.

When they got to the middle of the woods, Helena started to create a portkey to Potter Manor. But when she finishes making it, they hear footsteps They all looked around them. It sounded as though someone was staggering toward their clearing. They waited, listening to the sounds of the uneven steps behind the dark trees. But the footsteps came to a sudden halt. "Hello?" called Helena.

There was silence. Helena got to her feet and peered around the tree. It was too dark to see very far, but she could sense somebody standing just beyond the range of her vision. "Who’s there?" she asked.