Arthur woke them up early in the morning to get ready. Tori sat up, rubbing her eyes. She glanced down by the base of the couch to see Fred leaned against it, sleeping. She chuckled, hitting him in the face with a pillow.

"Wha—" He jerked awake. Tori laughed, clutching her chest as if that was going to stop the pain. "How're you feeling?" Fred asked her groggily.

"A little sore. But better." Arthur had given her a few potions the previous night to help with the pain. He used magic to pack up the tents, and they left the campsite as quickly as possible, passing Mr. Roberts at the door of his cottage. Mr. Roberts had a strange, dazed look about him, and he waved them off with a vague "Merry Christmas."

"He'll be all right," Arthur quietly as they marched off onto the moor. "Sometimes, when a person's memory's modified, it makes him a bit disorientated for a while... and that was a big thing they had to make him forget."

Tori was using a large stick to help her stand upright. Hermione told her she looked like Gandalf. Tori didn't know who Gandalf so she just looked at her confused. They heard urgent voices as they approached the spot where the Portkeys lay, and when they reached it, they found a great number of witches and wizards gathered around Basil, the keeper of the Portkeys, all clamoring to get away from the campsite as quickly as possible.

Arthur had a hurried discussion with Basil; they joined the queue, and were able to take an old rubber tire back to Stoatshead Hill before the sun had really risen. They walked back through Ottery St. Catchpole and up the damp lane toward the Burrow in the dawn light, talking very little because they were so exhausted, and thinking longingly of their breakfast. As they rounded the corner and the Burrow came into view, a cry echoed along the lane.

"Oh thank goodness, thank goodness!"

Molly, who had evidently been waiting for them in the front yard, came running toward them, still wearing her bedroom slippers, her face pale and strained, a rolled-up copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in her hand.

"Arthur — I've been so worried — so worried —"

She flung her arms around Arthur's neck, and the Daily Prophet fell out of her limp hand onto the ground. Looking down, Tori saw the headline: SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP, complete with a twinkling black-and-white photograph of the Dark Mark over the treetops.

"You're all right," Molly muttered distractedly, releasing Arthur and staring around at them all with red eyes, "you're alive... Oh, boys..."

And to everybody's surprise, she seized Fred and George and pulled them both into such a tight hug that their heads banged together.

"Ouch! Mum — you're strangling us —"

Tori covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing. "I shouted at you before you left!" Molly said, starting to sob. "It's all I've been thinking about! What if You-Know-Who had got you, and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn't get enough O.W.L.S.? Oh, Fred... George..."

She broke apart, tears running down her face. She then turned to Tori, squeezing her tightly. "Oh and I yelled at you too for just helping your friends!"

"Molly — you're squishing me — sore —"

"Come on, now, Molly, we're all perfectly okay," said Arthur soothingly, leading her back toward the house. "Bill," He added in an undertone, "Pick up that paper, I want to see what it says..."

When they were all crammed into the tiny kitchen, and Hermione had made Molly a cup of very strong tea, into which Arthur insisted on pouring a shot of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey, Bill handed his father the newspaper. Arthur scanned the front page while Percy looked over his shoulder.

Tori took a seat at the small table with the twins, slumping down in the chair with ease. "I knew it," said Arthur heavily. "Ministry blunders... culprits not apprehended... lax security... Dark wizards running unchecked... national disgrace... Who wrote this? Ah... of course... Rita Skeeter."

"That woman's got it in for the Ministry of Magic!" Percy said furiously. "Last week she was saying we're wasting our time quibbling about cauldron thickness when we should be stamping out vampires! As if it wasn't specifically stated in paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans —"

"Do us a favor, Perce," Bill said, yawning. "and shut up."

"Listen to this: 'If the terrified wizards and witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official emerged sometime after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but refusing to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods an hour later, remains to be seen.' Oh really," said Arthur in exasperation, handing the paper to Percy.

"Nobody was hurt. What was I supposed to say? Rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods... well, there certainly will be rumors now she's printed that."

He heaved a deep sigh. "Molly, I'm going to have to go into the office; this is going to take some smoothing over."

"I'll come with you, Father," said Percy importantly. "Mr. Crouch will need all hands on deck. And I can give him my cauldron report in person."

He bustled out of the kitchen. But Molly looked most upset. "Arthur, you're supposed to be on holiday! This hasn't got anything to do with your office; surely they can handle this without you?"

"I've got to go, Molly," said Arthur. "I've made things worse. I'll just change into my robes and I'll be off...."

Neither Arthur nor Percy was at home much over the following week. Both left the house each morning before the rest of the family got up, and returned well after dinner every night.

"It's been an absolute uproar," Percy told them importantly the Sunday evening before they were due to return to Hogwarts. "I've been putting out fires all week. People keep sending Howlers, and of course, if you don't open a Howler straight away, it explodes. Scorch marks all over my desk and my best quill reduced to cinders."

"Why are they all sending Howlers?" asked Ginny, who was mending her copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi with Spellotape on the rug in front of the living room fire.

"Complaining about security at the World Cup," said Percy. "They want compensation for their ruined property. Mundungus Fletcher's put in a claim for a twelve-bedroomed tent with en-suite Jacuzzi, but I've got his number. I know for a fact he was sleeping under a cloak propped on sticks."

Tori was reading through her new book for Defense Against the Dark arts while sitting with the twins who were hunched over. She was studying some new hexes when Molly called over to them.

"What are you two up to?" Molly said sharply, her eyes on the twins.

"Homework," Fred replied vaguely.

"Don't be ridiculous, you're still on holiday," said Molly.

"Yeah, we've left it a bit late," George grinned.

"You're not by any chance writing out a new order form, are you?" Molly asked, shrewdly. "You wouldn't be thinking of restarting Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, by any chance?"

"Now, Mum," said Fred, looking up at her, a pained look on his face. "If the Hogwarts Express crashed tomorrow, and George and I died, how would you feel to know that the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded accusation?"

Everyone laughed, even Molly.

"Oh your father's coming!" she said suddenly, looking up at the clock again.

Arthur's hand had suddenly spun from "work" to "traveling" a second later it had shuddered to a halt on "home" with the others, and they heard him calling from the kitchen.

"Coming, Arthur!" called Molly, hurrying out of the room. Tori glanced up from her book, watching the twins whisper to each other as they wrote down "Extendable Ears." on an order form.

A few moments later, Mr. Weasley came into the warm living room carrying his dinner on a tray. He looked completely exhausted.

"Well, the fat's really in the fire now," He told Arthur as he sat down in an armchair near the hearth and toyed unenthusiastically with his somewhat shriveled cauliflower. "Rita Skeeter's been ferreting around all week, looking for more Ministry mess-ups to report. And now she's found out about poor old Bertha going missing, so that'll be the headline in the Prophet tomorrow. I told Bagman he should have sent someone to look for her ages ago."

"Crouch is very lucky Rita hasn't found out about Winky," He said irritably. "There'd be a week's worth of headlines if his house-elf being caught holding the wand that conjured the Dark Mark."

"I thought we were all agreed that that elf, while irresponsible, did not conjure the Mark?" Percy said hotly.

"If you ask me, Mr. Crouch is very lucky no one at the Daily Prophet knows how mean he is to elves!" Hermione yelled angrily.

"Now look here, Hermione!" said Percy. "A high-ranking Ministry official like Mr. Crouch deserves unswerving obedience from his servants —"

"His slave, you mean!" said Hermione, her voice rising passionately, "because he didn't pay Winky, did he?"

"I think you'd all better go upstairs and check that you've packed properly!" said Molly, breaking up the argument. "Come on now, all of you...."

Tori followed a huffing Hermione, kindly trying to explain the life of house-elves. "But you set your family's free! You gave him a better life!"

"Out of spite! And then I found out he got a new job! House-elves like working—" They had just entered Ginny's room to see dresses on both of their cots. Both of them went quiet, staring at it.

Tori's dress was magenta colored with all sorts of gold details on the dress. There was a light turquoise trimming on the top of it and running through the waste line. It was gorgeous, and seemed very new.

Hermione's was a dress made of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material. She held it up to herself, giving Tori a confused stare.

"It says on your school list that you're supposed to have dress robes this year... robes for formal occasions. I thought those dresses would look good on you girls." Molly appeared at the door, smiling fondly at them.

"Formal occasions? Meaning what?" Hermione asked as Ginny came in as well. Molly had a twinkle in her eyes and bid them goodnight.

it's happening i'm so excited