Fred and George were beyond themselves with glee at winning such a huge amount. They had planned to invest it all on their merchandise for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. And well Dad did forbid them on telling Mum that they had been gambling at the match. 

The fun thing about Dad is that he is always so lenient while Mum is the total opposite when it comes to such matters.

We were all too excited to go to bed so Dad allowed us to stay awake for one more cup of hot cocoa. Charlie and Dad were having a rather thorough discussion while I was listening to the twins making plans for their future joke shop.

As promised, after we had finished our cocoa, we were all sent off to bed. I went off with Hermione and Ginny while the rest of the Weasleys and Harry were to remain in the main area of the tent.

Since we were all quite tired from the match it didn't take us long to fall asleep. And that's quite rare since I'm the one who usually has a lot of trouble going to sleep.

I don't think much long had passed when Perce came and woke us all up in a hurry.

"What's wrong, Weatherby, why are you here?" I sat up rubbing my eyes, I don't fall asleep so easily often so no wonder I was a bit irritated at him spoiling it for me. 

Ever since Mister Crouch had constantly called him Weatherby when he had come to visit us in the tent, me, Fred and George were doing the same.

"There's no time for your stupid jokes. Hurry up all of you, it's an emergency."

Emergency?

The three of us grabbed our jackets, pocketed our wands and headed out. The rest of our family was out there too and Dad looked really anxious. The singing and noises of celebration had been replaced by agonized screams and people hasting by. 

People were fleeing away into the woods and from distance came loud jeers and jets of green lights like curses flying about. A crowd of masked wizards were marching slowly across the field towards our tents. They were hooded and closely resembled those ghastly dementors. 

"We've got to help the Ministry," Dad shouted, "you lot... Get to the woods and stick together. Percy, Bill, Charlie come with me."

Fred grabbed Ginny's hand and all of us dashed towards the woods as fast as we could. Dad and the others sprinted towards the masked crowd as more Ministry officials joined them.

Amid all the hustle bustle, my foot got stuck in a tree root or something and I fell off. Now of all times. When I managed to get myself freed from the nasty grip, I realized that they had all vanished. I had no idea where they had suddenly gone to.

People were storming from every direction and I had to keep moving in order to avoid getting stomped under their feet. 

What a lovely time to get lost indeed...

I had no idea in which direction I was headed, all I could see were trees, people and lots of smoke around me.

"Fred? George?" I called out when I realized that somehow the noises had been muffled as if I had come far away from the rest of the people.

The darkness and sudden silence was starting to freak me out. Suddenly something gleamed above me and I looked up to see that an odd mark had formed on the sky. It was a green skull with a serpent coming out of its mouth. 

I had absolutely no idea what it was but still it had a chilling vibe to it such that it sent shivers down my spine.

I had to find the others. I had to keep moving.

I tried to listen for any sort of voices so that I could make my way over to them but there was only a distant sound that I could hear, nothing more. Nevertheless, I sprinted in the direction from where I thought I had heard some noises.

After a short while of running, I could hear screams and I realized that in my search of other people, I had landed right into the middle of the masked wizards. 

Bloody hell...

Curses were flying everywhere and in my haste to somehow escape from the scene, I collided headfirst into one of those masked men. His wand was pointed straight at me and I knew I was done for.

Fred and George are absolutely right; it's almost as if I go looking out for trouble myself because whenever there's something bad about to happen, I turn up out of nowhere and get hurt.

But before I could be struck by goodness knows what curse he was planning to throw at me, a woman came in between us with her arms spread out as if shielding me. Next thing I knew was that she took my hand and disapparated.

Now let me tell you if you're not aware yet; if you don't know how to disapparate and have to disapparate along with someone else, then the first experience is pretty horrifying.

It seems as if all the organs inside your body are squashed together and for a second it seems as if you would just faint from the unbearable twisting and turning.

But then I had been through much worse than this so I knew I wasn't possibly going to die from my first experience of apparition.

We were standing somewhere in the middle of the woods with no one around except me and her. She lit her wand and sat down on a rock, gesturing me to do the same. It was then I noticed that she was Draco's mother; Narcissa Malfoy.

An outburst of questions hit me and I didn't know what to ask of her first. I was slightly confused at why she had shielded me like that and risked her own life before getting us to safety. I know I should be thankful to her but I just couldn't let go of all those nagging questions.

"Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy," I managed to speak.

I had noticed how different she looked from when I had seen her earlier; the haughty look from her face was gone replaced by worry and she was glancing at me with what could be labelled as concern. But considering she was a Malfoy, that was kinda unbelievable.

However, if I was thinking like that then I was probably judging her by the cover, which was what I exactly accused her family of.

How hypocritical of me.

"There's no need to thank me," she replied with a small smile, "and you can call me Narcissa."

Like I had thought before, she did look really beautiful without the disgusted look on her face. And I don't know why it felt as if I had seen her before today too but I couldn't quite place a finger on to where and when I had seen her.

"We can't go out just now," she resumed craning her neck to look over the heavy bushes, "it's not safe at the moment. You wouldn't mind waiting with me here for a while, would you?"

"Of course not," I answered.

She smiled again, "ah, I didn't ask your name."

"Katerina Weasley," I still had a lot of questions that I wanted to ask then and there but guess I should wait for some time, maybe see if she would be willing to talk after discovering that I am a Weasley.

She nodded, "Draco told me about when he met you in Flourish and Blotts."

Yeah now that was one event I didn't want to discuss at all so I simply gave her a polite smile, hoping she wouldn't continue with the topic.

However, her behavior with me hadn't changed like I had expected her to. And trust me, I was really surprised at that.

"Um... Narcissa, can I ask you a few questions?"

"Absolutely, ask me anything you like."

Alright... So where do I start from?

"Why did you save me? I mean... How were you even there at the place full of those masked people?"

Oh great, now I asked something completely stupid and she's probably not gonna answer, I judged by the expression on her face.

"Like you, I was there by accident. And I was just going to make my escape when I saw you. And I know you must think us Malfoys don't have hearts," a slightly amused smile graced her face at those words as she resumed in her soft voice, "but that's not the truth. I'm glad I was able to save you from getting hurt by those wizards."

She was unbelievably different from what I had expected her to be, unbelievably different from the other Malfoys. 

"Who were those masked people?"

"I don't know," she replied nonchalantly, "probably some rebellious gang wanting to ruin the event."

I remembered of the green skull like mark I had seen back when I was lost in the woods. So if those wizards were really from some gang, maybe it was their symbol. "And Narcissa, did you see the skull like mark on the sky? It looked like some sort of a symbol."

She nodded in affirmation, "it was a symbol used very commonly back in the days of the first wizarding war. They say it's You-Know-Who's mark."

"Then those masked people must have been Death Eaters," I remarked.

She looked at me surprised, "how do you know about Death Eaters?"

"I... I heard about all that when Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban and the magazines were full of Death Eater related articles."

"Oh, I see."

There was a short while of silence in which I was formulating what to ask next while she was patiently waiting, making patterns on the ground by a thin stick.

"Did you know of me before your son told you of the bookstore incident?"

She stiffened yet again but shook her head in a nod, "yes, to be honest, I did know of you."

I was slightly surprised, "but how?"

"I can't tell you any more," she looked up at me and her agate grey eyes were reflecting such sadness that it hurt me, "Katerina, there are some truths in life which are better when revealed on the appropriate time. I hope you understand." 

I don't know why but it just... I felt bad at seeing her like that. 

Instead I nodded in reply, "Mum told me the same thing once when I asked her this very question. I know I have pureblood ancestors and I once overheard Mum and Dad talking about me, they were saying that I... I was related to you Malfoys."

She didn't reply at once but took her time as if choosing the right words, "all pureblood families are interrelated so yes, they were right."

"And did you know them? How were my real parents like?" An inner desire of knowing about my true family resurfaced as I asked her. 

"Your mother loved you," I caught a glimpse of that beautiful but sad smile once again, I wanted to ask her why she was sad but just couldn't, I only listened to her as she spoke, "she keeps pictures of you with her even now and she wishes you are well and happy wherever you go. She misses you a lot."

Her voice broke at the last words so she paused.

"And my father?"

However, that once, Narcissa didn't answer. She only craned her neck once again as if attempting to look over to the fields. 

"Come on, let's get you back to your family. It's all cleared up now and your Dad would be getting worried."

She stood up and took my hand, leading me out of the woods, my question was left without any answer and I knew even though she didn't show it, she had deliberately chosen to leave it unanswered.

When we had reached the clearing, she let go of my hand and turned to face me, a gentle smile was on her face making her appear unbelievably beautiful, "take care of yourself, child. I hope to see you soon."

I smiled back at her and was thinking of what to say as goodbye when I heard someone calling my name. More like shouting it on the top of his lungs, if you ask me. 

Turning around, I saw Percy coming our way. When I faced her again, she wasn't there. It was as if she had just left all of a sudden. 

He reached me at last and looked blasted, with his face white as sheet and spectacles crooked. "Katerina, thank goodness you're safe."

"Oh hello Weatherby, didn't see you there." 

You see, I just can't help it whenever I see Perce, I simply have to make a joke at him. It's too tempting to refrain from doing. Guess I just love seeing the annoyed look on his face.

He frowned at me slightly in irritation but took me to the main campsite. On the way, he remarked, "this once I'm not going to even ask how you got lost. I guess I've accepted that you are a huge trouble magnet."

Okay... Now that's some good improvement. "Appreciate the compliment."

When we met the others, of course they were all anxious about me but relieved at last to see me with Perce. Dad told us that we would be using a portkey shortly to go back home as the fun was now quite over from the event and all other people were headed back as well.

But I have to say one thing; the Quidditch Cup was much more eventful than what I had initially thought of.

***