The Irish had won the Quidditch World Cup 170 to 160, and it appeared that they wanted the entire world to know it. Fans rejoiced late into the night, passing around bottles of alcohol, dancing jigs, and singing drinking songs. Anyone was welcome to join them in their celebration, so this was how Pippa and Cedric ended up sitting on a log near a campfire, happily watching a few tipsy Irishmen lead the group in pub tunes native to their victorious homeland. Amos was off talking to some Ministry officials, most likely exchanging winnings on the outcome of the match. From what Pippa heard, her uncle would be going home with more Galleons than he came with.

"As I was a-goin' over the far famed Kerry mountains, I met with Captain Farrell and his money he was counting. I first produced my pistol and I then produced my rapier, saying, 'Stand and deliver" for he were a bold deceiver-'"

Pippa grinned and clapped along with the lively melody, thoroughly enjoying the music. One man even played a fiddle to accompany them. It reminded her of jam nights in the Hufflepuff common room. She couldn't wait for those to start up again.

"Mush-a ring dumb-a do dumb-a da. Wack fall the daddy-o, wack fall the daddy-o!" The men pointed to the crowd and cued them in.

"There's whiskey in the jar!" Pippa and Cedric yelled in unison chorus, raising their mugs filled with cocoa instead of whiskey or beer. They both had already used magic to check for alcohol in their beverages, as neither had any desire to engage in underage drinking.

"This is so fun!" Pippa exclaimed, her eyes shining as she turned to Cedric. "Why can't all nights be like this?"

He smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "If you play life right, they are."

A fireball shot straight into the night sky, effectively shutting up everyone, even the drunken men leading the song. For a moment, no one spoke, thinking that the magic was perhaps the work of another tipsy celebrator.

Then the screaming began.

What happened next happened so quickly that Pippa barely registered anything happening at all. She felt Cedric grab her hand, yank her up from the log, and start to drag her through the panicked crowds.

"What's going on?" She asked worriedly.

He glanced back at her and yelled, "No idea, but stay close!"

Voices around her began to answer her question instead.

"It's the Death Eaters!"

"Run!"

"They've got the Muggles!"

"Get out of here!"

Pippa felt her blood run cold and hurried to keep up with Cedric. Someone shoved into her in their haste to escape, pushing her away from her cousin and back into the mob.

"Cedric!" She screamed, popping up from the ground instantly as she tried to fight her way through the throng. It was impossible. Tents flared up in flames all around her and people moved in every single direction. "Cedric!"

"Pippa!" She could hear him yelling for her, but he too had gotten stuck in the crowd and neither could locate the other. "Pip, where are you?"

"I'm here! Cedric!"

Her heart began to beat faster as she realized that she wouldn't be able to reach him, maybe until this was all over. She was alone. More than anything, she wanted to close her eyes and take deep breaths to fight off a growing anxiety attack in her chest, but she knew that closing her eyes in the present situation probably wasn't the best idea.

Then she saw them: the Death Eaters. They wore black cloaks with pointed hoods and masks that looked like distorted skulls. A few of them hexed people at random, and a couple of others were laughing at something in the air.

Pippa covered her mouth and prayed not to vomit when she saw the Muggle family who ran the campsite hovering in the air, held aloft by dark magic. It seemed like they were asleep, but it was a cruel joke all the same. The smallest one, a little boy, was being flipped around like he was a trapeze artist, or a puppet on strings.

Heart pounding in her chest, she began to push her way through the crowd, away from the Death Eaters. At least now she was moving with the current, not against it.

"Pippa?"

She nearly cried with relief at the familiar voice. "Ron!"

He grabbed her hand to make sure he didn't lose her, his brown eyes wide with fear. "What're you doing all alone? Come on!" The redhead boy ushered her through the mob and into the forest, where she could make out another figure in the dim lighting. Hermione paced with her arms crossed underneath a tree, but ran forward when she saw them.

"Pippa, are you okay?" She asked hurriedly, looking her up and down. "Ron heard you screaming!"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she mumbled, reminding herself to breathe. Being crowded, especially with so many people, always freaked her out. "Cedric and I were together and we got separated. He's still in there somewhere! What if he's hurt?"

Hermione tilted her head and gave her classmate a reassuring smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Cedric's smart. I think he'll be fine."

Pippa still stared at the scene of absolute mayhem on the campsite. Even though she knew Cedric would be alright and he was probably better off without feeling the need to protect her, she couldn't help worrying. A hand rested on her shoulder and she flinched, not having expected it.

Ron flushed and pulled away like he'd touched a hot stove. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. You just looked really freaked out."

"It's okay," she said, shaking her head. "Sometimes I just... I'm fine. I'm fine. Thank you."

She couldn't explain the swirl of emotions inside of her, not to these two that she really didn't have any connection with outside of school. Besides, her introverted ways embarrassed her. Only her closest friends knew about how long periods of time with large groups of people drained her. Sometimes after parties, she withdrew for hours to be by herself and recharge. The people around her didn't make her uncomfortable, except maybe Hermione, but even she was okay at the moment. All the same, they couldn't know.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked Ron, whose face drained of color. This made his freckles more pronounced than before.

"I thought he was with you."

She shook her head. "We got separated." The three teenagers turned around and looked at the campsite again. It slowly became a smoking wreck before their eyes.

"We have to do something!" Pippa insisted. Even though the thought of venturing back into the crowd scared her to death, she hated the idea of leaving Harry all alone, especially because it had just happened to her.

"What can we do?" Ron asked helplessly. "He could be anywhere in there."

"Let's stick to the outskirts. It'll be safer that way," Hermione reasoned, her voice shaking.

Pippa nodded and drew her wand, made of poplar wood with a unicorn hair core. The day she bought it, Mr. Ollivander informed her that poplar was the rarest wood used for wandmaking. According to him, this particular type of wand valued personal integrity and would happily serve her if she stuck by her morals. She always liked that.

They searched for hours, calling Harry's name over and over. Pippa also called for Cedric, but neither were found. As time went on, the anxiety built up inside of her. Finally, when the campsite was reduced to nothing more than smoldering ash and the skeletons of tents, Ron spoke.

"Do you reckon it's safe to go back in and look for them?" He asked hesitantly.

"I think so," Hermione whispered. "Wands out, though."

Pippa paled. This was a little too Gryffindor-ish for her, but she was desperate to find Cedric, so she nodded and muttered, "Lumos."

"Harry?" She called hesitantly. "Cedric?"

A twig snapped underneath her feet and all three students jumped.

"Just a stick," Ron muttered with a nervous chuckle. "It's just a stick..."

Just when Pippa had convinced herself that they were alone and safe, a deep voice shouted a word she couldn't quite understand, and a green mark appeared in the sky.

The mark took on the shape of a menacing skull. From the empty mouth, a serpent slithered out. The green was a ghastly color and when she recognized it from her reading, Pippa went cold from fear.

"Harry!" She yelled as loudly as she could, tired of the tiptoeing they'd been doing for hours. Her volume shocked both Ron and Hermione, who stared at the generally soft-spoken Hufflepuff like they'd never see her in their lives. "Cedric!"

"Pippa?"

As soon as they heard Harry's voice, all three ran in the direction of it. They found him hiding behind the remains of a tent, covering his scar and wincing as he stared at the midnight sky.

"Where have you been?" Ron demanded. "We thought we lost you, mate!"

"We've been looking for you for ages!" Hermione cried. She launched herself into Harry's arms and gave him a tight hug. Something flashed in Ron's eyes for a moment. Pippa wanted to dwell on it, figure it out, but then curses started to fly.

"Duck!"

The four teenagers dropped to the ground and huddled around each other, bracing themselves. Pippa felt Harry protectively wrap an arm around her before ducking down himself.

Hexes soared above their heads, exploding as they missed. Pippa refrained from screaming and instead buried her head in Harry's shoulder, hoping that she wouldn't pass out from sheer terror.

"STOP! THAT'S MY SON!"

The voice belonged to Mr. Weasley, who held out his hands and pushed past a few Ministry officials to reach them. They all looked up at him, fear in their expressions. He looked sick with worry.

"Ron, Hermione, Harry, Pippa - are you four alright?"

"We came back for Harry!" Ron explained hurriedly, trying to keep them out of trouble. Harry still had an arm wrapped around Pippa, who clutched onto him like a lifeline.

Another man ran up to them, this one unfamiliar to her. He wore a bowler hat and his mustache was combed to perfection despite the situation. He pointed his wand to them, and all four teenagers took a step back.

"Which one of you conjured it?" He roared, his wand moving back and forth between them.

"Barty, you can't possibly believe that-" Mr. Weasley started, but the man continued on nonetheless.

"They've been caught at the scene of the crime!"

Harry gasped, "Crime?"

"They're just kids, Barty!"

"Pippa!"

Her breath caught in her throat and she made to move, but the man - Barty - held her back by her sweatshirt. She wriggled out of his grasp and threw her arms around Cedric, who had a scratch down the side of his face but appeared to be otherwise unharmed.

"You okay?" He asked, gripping her shoulders and meeting her eyes, searching for reassurance. "I was so worried, Pip."

"I'm okay," she mumbled.

"You're trembling."

She bit her lip. "I've just been so scared. I've been looking for you for hours!"

"Me too," he muttered. Then, he turned his head and yelled, "Dad, I found her! She's here!"

Amos Diggory ran up to them moments later, breathing heavily because he wasn't used to so much physical activity. He swept up his niece in a tight hug.

"Thank goodness you're alright. I found Ced in the crowd, and he said the two of you were separated-"

"We need to focus!" Barty growled, growing increasingly more irritated.

Mr. Wealsey stepped forward and fixed him with a stern gaze. "Barty, they're just kids! They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Leave it at that. Come on, we've got to find the Death Eaters. Let's stop wasting time here."

After a very long minute of silence in which Pippa swore she could hear her own heartbeat, he nodded. "This way."

The Ministry officials started to follow him.

""Wait!" Harry called. Many pairs of startled eyes landed on him and he pointed in a direction. "There was a man. That way!"

Barty nodded, his eyes bugging out a bit. "This way."

Once they were gone, Mr. Weasley sighed and approached, the trio behind him. "Is your lot alright, Amos?"

"Just shaken," he answered, glancing to his son and niece for confirmation of this statement. They both nodded. "We should probably be heading out. I think we'll try to catch a Portkey out before everyone else starts flooding them. Thanks for the help, Arthur."

"Anytime." The two men shook hands.

"See you at school," Harry said to Pippa, who gave him a small yet grateful smile in return.

"Bye."

Pippa walked between her uncle and her cousin, thinking about the new school year that would begin in a few weeks. This would be her fourth one at Hogwarts. She wondered if it would be a normal year, one without fraud teachers with dashing smiles or monsters in the water pipes or escaped murderers breaking in.

Probably not. She went to school in the same class as Harry Potter, the boy who didn't want any trouble but attracted it anyway.

What's it going to be this year?

chapter two, tell me what you thought!