"The Dark Mark," Ravenna gulped, looking up at the green, smoky skull in Ravengrove's sky. She'd seen it in the papers, but it was so much worse than she'd imagined. The veil-like sluggishness in her head lifted even more as horror clutched her heart. She wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl underneath her bedsheets. To forget any of this had ever happened. But it wasn't an option.

Her knees trembled as she watched the group of Death Eaters stride past them. Every now and then they'd shoot a spell in a seemingly random direction and something would blow up; another shop window shattering, a tree with all its leaves burning, a jack-o-lantern blowing up to enormous proportions before bursting into a million small, sticky pieces that landed everywhere.

"Let's go." Her voice clawed its way up her throat.

A few of the Death Eaters glanced their way, but they barely paid them any mind. Nobody talked to them.

She'd barely moved when someone behind her exclaimed, "I don't want to go! Look at what they're doing... I don't want to be a part of that."

She whirled around to the girl with the chimaera mask. "If we don't go, they'll do the same to Morgan le Fay! Is that what you want?"

The shock and fear in her eyes was visible even beyond the mask. She didn't respond.

"Right then," said Ravenna. She balled her hands to fists, ignoring the churning of her stomach. "Let's go."

As the last few Death Eaters passed them, she finally stepped forward, her hand on her mask to make sure it was still in place. Dan was right beside her, as she marched in stride with the nefarious group ahead of them. She made sure to keep some distance between her and the razing Death Eaters, but it wasn't enough. She felt part of the destruction, as another streak of red tore through the air, this time collapsing someone's shed. When a woman wailed, she lowered her head, unable to look at the damage they were doing any longer.

They rounded the corner into a smaller street. This one, too, was filled with Halloween decorations, but they were already shattered and scattered about. People ran along the edge of the street, trying to get away, but in the chaos they couldn't find a way out. The Death Eaters had fanned out now, catching runaways and chasing them back towards the main group.

That's when a flash of red light caught Ravenna's eye. A Death Eater near her cackled as the targeted man tripped over his own feet. Her heart stopped as he lay still. Is he...?

Before she could do anything, another streak of light, white this time, hit a young woman in the back as she was fleeing. Her arms flung to her sides and her legs snapped together. Stiff as a board, she fell down, face-first onto the cold ground.

"What are they..." Raw panic gripped Ravenna's heart. "They're hurting them. They're attacking people. People who are just trying to get to safety."

Dan grabbed her hand as he looked around. "Willem... Where is he?"

"I don't know." He'd been right there behind them, but his dragon mask was now nowhere to be found in the crowd of frightened students. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat away, but it wouldn't budge. "I don't know. What do we do?"

Dan glanced around some more, before saying, "He'll be fine. As long as he's not stuck in this mess, he's better off than we are."

Ravenna tried to believe him, but she wasn't even convinced her best friend believed himself. Her heart thumped when another scream tore through the air. She turned her head just in time to see a few boys, younger than herself, get knocked back by a Confringo. They clutched their heads when they knocked against the nearest shop, and even from this distance she could see blood dripping down one of their faces. She clasped Dan's warm hand like a lifeline.

"Why are they doing this? This has nothing to do with overthrowing the Ministry. They're attacking random people!"

"I don't think this is about the Ministry. At least not today."

"Then what is it about?"

Dan pulled her closer towards him, his wand out, ready to protect them both. "I'm not sure. Let's just get through this alive."

Ravenna's heart clenched as they walked past the injured boys. They must've been only fourteen or fifteen. Her mask suddenly felt stifling. She couldn't breathe through it properly. "We've got to do something."

"No!" said Dan, panic sharpening his voice. "They'll t-turn on us if we do. We have to stay out of it. Just... Don't look. It'll all be over soon."

But she couldn't not look. With every step she took, another shriek pierced her ears, through the hollering and delighted roaring of the Death Eaters. Don't look, Dan kept whispering to her. Flashes of different coloured lights kept lighting up her vision, even when she looked down at the ground below her feet. Don't look. Even worse was the blood she spotted on the pavement - drops, at first, but the pools became bigger and bigger. Her stomach turned. The mask suffocated her. She wanted to take it off, but it was the only thing that kept her anonymous.

"We have to do something!"

"They'll k-k-kill us. There's nothing we can do, Ravenna. Don't look."

Her right hand clutched the wand in her pocket tighter, as she wondered how much longer she could keep this up. Don't look. It wasn't good enough. These people... They had friends. Family. Just like Ella's family. How could they just watch them get hurt - get killed - and not do anything about it?

They turned another corner. To her right, by a dark alleyway, a thin, spindly woman desperately tried to fight off a Death Eater. Her wand was raised, but fear seemed to have frozen her. As the Death Eater shot something dark and purple at her, the woman simply screamed. She was lifted off the ground, higher and higher, until she hung by the roof of the shop behind her, turned upside down. She cried, flailing her arms about.

Before she could stop herself, Ravenna had whipped her wand out of her pocket and yelled, "Stupefy!"

Dan yanked her backwards before she could see the result of her spell. "Have you gone mad?"

"I couldn't just —"

"Protego!" Dan shouted, pointing his wand over her shoulder.

She turned on her heel to see the Death Eater aiming at her, already shooting off another spell. She ducked, pulling Dan to the ground with her. Stumbling to regain her balance, she felt the mask slip from her face.

"Run!" Dan yelled.

Scrambling to her feet, she glanced up at the Death Eater, as the woman behind him sprinted off into the darkness.

"You!" the Death Eater roared. "How dare you! I will kill you for that. I will bathe you in pain until you beg me to stop!"

He raised his wand, as Dan grabbed her hand again. He shot off another Protego, and they fled, side by side, ducking into the nearest alleyway. They didn't look back, just ran as fast as they could from alley to alley, staying under the cover of darkness as much as they could.

When they finally stopped, Ravenna let go of his hand and bent over, panting and gasping for air.

"W-Was that who I think it was?" Dan gulped out between heaves.

"What?" Ravenna leaned against the wall, her hand on her heart to calm it down. The grogginess immediately returned, as the adrenaline slowly faded.

"That voice... Didn't you recognise it?"

She frowned. The exhaustion made it difficult to think. She closed her eyes, thinking back to the curses and threats under which they'd fled, trying her best to recall the voice of the man who'd exclaimed them. It came to her with a gasp.

"Alois."

An explosion nearby made them both jump. It was quickly followed by screams. They pressed themselves against the wall, peering out of the alleyway with their wands at the ready. Ravenna's heart pounded in her chest like a sledgehammer.

"We need to g-get out of here. Before he finds us."

"Yeah," said Ravenna breathlessly. "But how? That explosion couldn't have been more than a block away. They're everywhere."

Dan hesitated, glancing back and forth between the street and the alleyway. "We g-go that way," he said, nodding towards the other side of the dark alley. "They all started in the same place. Some of them may have made their way here, but they c-can't be any further than this yet. We need to stay ahead of them until we're out of Ravengrove."

"And then we signal for the Knight Bus, like we've said. Take the bus home to Dawnwich." She nodded, confirming their plan in her head. "What about Willem? We have to find him first."

"We can't go looking for him now that we have Alois and Merlin knows who else after us," said Dan. "Willem is clever. He'll have stayed with his fourth-level friends. He'll have stayed out of trouble."

Unlike us, a voice in her head finished for him. No. Unlike you. You put your best friend in danger. Again.

He peered through the empty street. "We have to go now."

Ravenna swallowed her protests away. The Death Eaters had no reason to turn against their own. Willem would be safe as long as he didn't fight against them. And only Ravenna was stupid enough to do that.

She didn't want to leave their classmate behind, but Dan was right. Her thoughtless actions had put them in enough danger. It was time to let him take over. Maybe then they'd actually get home safely. "You're right," she whispered. "Willem has got this."

She followed him through the darkness to the edge of Ravengrove, her heart filled with guilt.

Sitting cross-legged in the clearing of the forest, Ravenna glanced around at her classmates. Each of them had their own knarl – the subject of today's magical creatures lesson – in front of them. Professor Fauns had assigned them the surprisingly difficult task of feeding them.

Knarls were small creatures, barely different from hedgehogs. They were slightly darker in colour, and their quills were sharper. The real difference, however, was in their behaviour. Knarls were much more cautious. If food was left out for them, they saw it as a trap and they would destroy anything in their sight in an act of revenge, leaving the food untouched.

Not that different from the Death Eaters, really, shot through Ravenna's mind.

The scene from Halloween had haunted her all week. By the time they'd made it to Dawnwich, Willem was already there. Apparently it had taken them so long to reach the edge of Ravengrove that most of the others had already managed to slip away from the group of Death Eaters. They were waiting in Dawnwich for the last few people to make it out.

She'd fallen into a deep sleep when she and Dan had finally gotten back to Morgan le Fay that night. It was late in the afternoon the next day when she finally woke up. Since then, despite taking her potion that evening, she'd barely been able to sleep again. Every night she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, as her imagination turned the shadows into Death Eater masks.

And yet, she hadn't talked to Dan about it yet. He caught her attention for the umpteenth time this lesson, as he burst out in laughter. Along with Ella.

Dan had spent a lot of time with Ella this week. It seemed like, now that he knew exactly what Ravenna had gotten them into, the girl was suddenly a lot more interesting to him. Or at least safer.

It's better this way, she kept telling herself every time the loneliness crept up. It's better if he stays away from me and my magic.

"Alright, everyone, good work today!" Professor Fauns called out. "Your homework for next week: Do some research on feeding a knarl. A hint: you won't find the answer in your normal textbook. You'll have to go to the library to figure this out. Before you go, put your knarl back in their box for me. Class dismissed!"

Ravenna was the first to leave the forest, back towards Morgan le Fay. When she glanced over her shoulder, her classmates weren't far behind her. Ella was still chatting to Dan, who smiled down at her.

It's better this way...

Merlin's beard, who am I kidding?

She wormed in between the two and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Isn't it time we talked about what happened? You know, last week?"

Four pairs of eyes shot towards her, and she immediately regretted speaking up.

"What's there to say?" said Ezra coldly. "A dozen people got injured in the Death Eater attack you guys joined. Anything you'd like to add?"

Ravenna felt her face flush.

"There's nothing to talk about, Ravenna. It was awful, and we're never doing that again." Dan hesitated, before adding, "You do agree with that, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" she exclaimed. "I don't care what he threatens with, I'm done with him. I'm never getting involved with that again."

"Great," said Ezra sarcastically. "Good talk. Let's go."

"Hang on!" Ravenna stopped him as he tried to walk past her towards the school, but she kept her eyes on her best friend. "What if I get another letter from him? What if he comes to Morgan le Fay? He knows I was the one who interfered when he attacked that woman. He's not going to let that go."

Dan didn't respond. Nor did Ezra. But their looks told her enough. If he comes back for me, I'm screwed.

"What if he makes me join one of these gatherings again?" Her voice came out small. Scared. She hated it.

"We'll help you," said Ella, taking a step forward. "If he contacts you again, tell us, and we'll figure it out. All of us, together."

"She's right," said Dan. "You won't have to do this again, Ravenna."

A sigh escaped her. "Good," she muttered. "Because I never want to go through that again."

She'd already turned around to go back to school. Their next lesson was potions. Would Dan pair up with her or Ella to brew the –

"You're giving up already?"

There was something in Willem's voice that made Ravenna freeze on the spot. "Giving up?"

"Our only chance to make the wizarding world a better place for all of us, and you're already giving up? What, because things are a bit more difficult than you thought? Did you think you could just wave that magic of yours around for a while and everything would be fixed, is that it?"

Ravenna's jaw dropped, as she watched Willem's face grow redder and redder while his hands balled to fists. "You're not serious... You still want to join them? After everything they did last week?"

She'd barely finished her sentence when he growled, "All they did was show their power! Nobody died. They didn't take it too far. They had to show their strength if they want to be taken seriously. Why can't you see that?"

"Nobody died?" Ezra roared, making Willem flinch. Ravenna had never seen Ezra shout at his friend like that before. "Are you bloody takin' the piss? Have you already forgotten that they murdered Ella's family?"

Willem trembled on his legs, but he didn't back down. "It will have been for nothing if we give up now."

Ravenna could only stare after him, as he pushed his way past Ezra and stomped off towards the school.

"Merlin's balls," Ezra muttered. "He can't see it. He can't see how horrible they are."

"We've got to make him see," said Ravenna, biting on her lower lip. "We've got to help him understand that these people are evil. Before it's too late."