XCI. UNEXPECTED SAVIOUR

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Mia's eyes watered as she looked around. The blood pounded in her ears. Her heart thudded in her chest. Her hands shook. Her feet tingled. Her vision was disfigured as if she were looking through a fish-eye lens. Breathing was hard. Really hard. As if she'd just run the London Marathon. She sat down by a tree and pulled her knees to her chest as she cried harder, her chest growing tight as bile rose in her throat.

"Potter?"

Mia looked up and was surprised to see Draco standing alone, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees.

"G-go away," she said, taking shuddering breaths, almost like she was gasping for air. The intense panic attack blurred her vision, and she could feel her heart pounding.  She couldn't think straight or stand up. Draco looked at the girl and couldn't help feeling sorry for her and she choked out a sob.

Draco sat down next to her and tentatively wrapped his arms around the younger girl, expecting the ginger to push him away, but to his surprise, Mia melted into him. He gently rubbed the ginger's back, and after ten minutes, he could feel her breathing slow and evenly. 

"I get it," he said as Mia sniffed, "I get them too." 

"Mia! Mia!"

The two jumped apart and quickly stood up.

"Harry, I'm here!" Mia yelled. Mia and Draco turned to each other and said nothing.

"Not a word," they said at the same time. They both nodded curtly before they both turned away from each other and walked their separate ways. 

Mia followed the dark path deeper into the wood, keeping an eye out for her brother. She passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold that they had undoubtedly won betting on the match, and who seemed quite unperturbed by the trouble at the campsite. She was in the very heart of the wood. She seemed to be alone now, everything was much quieter.

"Mia!" Harry's voice got louder.

"Harry!" Mia yelled, she followed the voice, breaking into a sprint before she crashed into a hard body and they both went flying onto the ground. Mia looked up and sighed in relief when she saw Harry lying next to her on the floor.

"Oh thank fuck," she said, hugging her brother tightly. 

"Mia," Harry choked, "can't breath."

"Oh, sorry," she laughed, letting go of him as the twins stood. She turned to Hermione and Ron who looked relieved to see her. "You're not getting rid of me that easy," she joked as they grinned. 

The group of four carried on walking and were half-way across the clearing when Mia stopped and looked over her shoulder. Harry and Ron looked quickly around too. 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.

Mia narrowed her eyes as an energy ball appeared at her hand. And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood, and it uttered, not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell.

"MORSMORDRE!"

And something vast, green, and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness Mia's eyes had been struggling to penetrate; it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.

"What the. . . .?" gasped Ron as he sprang to his feet again, staring up at the thing that had appeared.

For a split second, Mia thought it was another leprechaun formation. Then she realized that it was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation.

Suddenly, the wood all around them erupted with screams. Mia didn't understand why, but the only possible cause was the sudden appearance of the skull, which had now risen high enough to illuminate the entire wood like some grisly neon sign. She scanned the darkness for the person who had conjured the skull, but she couldn't see anyone.

Harry yelled in pain, grabbing his scar as Mia's eyes glowed a bright red. Before they had taken a few hurried steps, a series of popping noises announced the arrival of twenty wizards, appearing from thin air, surrounding them.

Mia whirled around, and in an instant, she registered one fact. Each of these wizards had his wand out, and every wand was pointing right at herself, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Without pausing to think, she threw her hands out to the side and a giant, red ball surround itself around the four of them just as twenty voices roared, "STUPEFY!"

There was a blinding series of flashes as the spells clashes with the energy as the other three had their hands over their heads while Mia saw jets of fiery red light flying over them from the wizards' wands, crossing one another, bouncing off tree trunks, rebounding into the darkness.

"Stop!" yelled a voice he recognized. "STOP! That's my son!"

The spells stopped hitting the energy as the young girl removed her hands and the energy vanished as Mia saw Mr. Weasley striding toward them, looking terrified.

"Ron, Mia," his voice sounded shaky, "Harry, Hermione, are you all right?"

"Which of you conjured this?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting between them. Mr. Crouch's face was taut with rage as Mia raised an eyebrow. He and the other Ministry wizards were closing in on them.

"You, you seriously think we did that?" she asked. 

"You can't possibly. . . ." Mr. Weasley began in disbelief but was cut off.

"Do not lie!" he yelled at the kids. Mia's eyes flashed red.

"Don't you dare yell at me," she said with a cold tone.

"Mia, that's Mr. Crouch," Hermione whispered worriedly, "don't yell at him!"

"I don't give a fuck who he is," Mia said, her red eyes still on Mr. Crouch, "I am not going to accept being yelled at and accused for something I didn't do!"

"You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!" Mr. Crouch yelled. His wand was still pointing directly at Mia, and his eyes were popping, he looked slightly mad. 

"Get that wand out of my face," Mia said, an energy ball appearing at her hands as she raised an eyebrow. "We didn't do any fucking crime. That shit in the sky? Wasn't us. I don't even know what the fuck it is!" None of the Ministry wizards apart from Mr. Crouch seemed to think it remotely likely that Mia, Harry, Ron or Hermione had conjured the skull

"Barty, they're just kids," Mr. Weasley said. 

"Crime?" Harry asked, "what crime?"

"Harry it's his mark," Hermione whispered as Mia and Harry looked at her.

"Those people tonight, in the masks," he said, "they're his too aren't they? They're his followers."

"If you're going to stop accusing us," Mia said, her eyes going back to blue and the energy disappearing, "there was a man. He yelled some weird ass word and that thing appeared in the sky. He was over there." She pointing at the place where she had heard the voice. Mr. Crouch and the rest of the Ministry ran off, leaving the party of five alone.

"Who was it Mia?" Mr. Weasley asked as Mia shrugged.

"I dunno," she said, "I didn't see his face."

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