ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀ 4

just wait till tomorrow

"I just saw Rose off," I broke the silence permeating the boy's tent. "I'm not going to be punished, and her memory isn't going to be wiped."

At Mr. Weasley's questioning look, I began to explain everything from the beginning. Afterward, remembering what Crouch had said, I looked to Bill hopefully.

"Did you catch the two wizards in the woods?" I asked. My heart sunk as Bill shook his head.

"No, sadly," he frowned. "They Disapparated before we could find them, but we did see the branch you severed — very clean cut, by the way — and the rest of the Death Eaters Disapparated as well not long after. We caught the Roberts' before they hit the ground. They're having their memories modified right now, aside from Rose."

"Death Eaters?" asked Harry.

"That's what You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves," said Bill. "I think we saw what's left of them tonight — the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway."

"We can't prove it was them, Bill," said Mr. Weasley. He seemed to reconsider. "Though it probably was."

"But if they were the Death Eaters, why did they Disapparate when they saw the Dark Mark?" asked Ron. "They'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"

"Use your brains, Ron," Bill replied. "If they really were Death Eaters, they worked very hard to keep out of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power. They denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers, and went back to their daily lives. . . I don't reckon he'd be over-pleased with them, do you?"

  "So. . . whoever conjured the Dark Mark . . ." said Hermione, "were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

"Your guess is as good as ours, Hermione," said Mr. Weasley. "Listen, it's very late, and if your mother hears what's happened she'll be worried sick. We'll get a few more hours sleep and then try and get an early Portkey out of here."

I couldn't help but wonder how Draco was doing that night. I hoped he was safe..

As promised, we awoke very early the next morning and packed our things quickly. I decided my investigation of the deflated tent could wait — Mrs. Weasley was sure to be very worried about our whereabouts. As we neared Basil and the Portkeys, a voice cried out.

"Hey! Hey wait up a second!"

I turned around to see a small girl running toward us, panting but smiling.

"Rose!" I exclaimed, grinning down at her. I saw she was holding something in her hands, and raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

"It's for you," she said proudly. "I stayed up all night making it!" She opened her hands to reveal a small, wooden lion carved out of wood. It was amazingly intricate, especially considering her age.

"You made this? It's lovely," Looking down at her sweet, lovely face filled me with a new sort of drive. A grin stretched across my face. "You really shouldn't have."

"You saved me, so I had to," Rose shrugged. "There's lots of trees by our house so I make these all the time."

"You're very talented, Rose," I told her, patting her on the shoulder. "I love it. Why a lion, though?"

Rose beamed with pride. "Arnold told me you were probably a — er— a Griffledoor? And he said your mascot was a lion, and I figured he was right, you know, because lions are very brave."

I chuckled. "Thank you so much. He was correct. But also, you were very brave last night too — maybe when you come to Hogwarts next year you'll be in Gryffindor with me and my friends."