There Ain't No Moonlight, After Midnight

It was when in the distance that the group could hear people returning to camp when they realised it was safe to head back. Vicki couldn't tell how long they'd been there as she didn't have access to anything that measured time, but she was guessing it was somewhere around an hour.

Both she and the twins had been busy preoccupying Ginny by making as much conversation as they could. If they could be engaged in conversation there would be no time to think and worry about the current events, or about their friends and family's safety.

It made Fred smile about how good Vicki was with Ginny. She seemed to know exactly what to say to calm the young girl down. He even overheard Vicki make plans to spend time with Ginny in the upcoming school year.

"I mean it, too. This can't be one of those things we say we do, but then end up never doing. You're entering third year aren't you? Maybe we can catch up on a Hogsmeade weekend and do something, maybe go shopping?"

This made Ginny forget all about the current events. She felt that her entire time at Hogwarts had been spent in obscurity. She was well known as the youngest and only female Weasley who always had older brothers watching her closely. She was a "dork" that no one took seriously. In her mind she used to sometimes imagine what it would be like to be friends with the popular girls like Vicki. If she were also pretty and popular perhaps people would take her seriously, and now it was coming true.

Although they were all chatty whilst waiting for the green light to head back to camp, silence fell amongst them again as they started to make the trek back to their tent. As they didn't have to run this time it was a much gentler walk but now it was time for their minds to wander now they didn't have any distractions. Was everyone going to be fine? Who were the masked people and why were they doing what they did? Would this impact the future?

Every now and again they did stumble across people they knew, but unlike before and just after the game, no one stopped to talk. There were small murmurs from surrounding people, but it was a very sombre mood as the crowd returning did not know what to expect.

It wasn't until the camp came into view that someone actually called out to their group.

"Vicki!" A person yelled, and they all spun around and a person sprinting came into view as he grabbed Vicki by her shoulders "Vicki! Thank Merlin you're okay! I've been so worried!"

"Could have fooled us, Davies." Fred piped up coolly, as he jumped between Roger and Vicki as a protective barrier between the two.

"If you've been so worried – why didn't you reappear before all of this went down?" George asked, mimicking his twin's tone, as well as his action of stepping in as a barrier.

Both of them crossed their arms as they faced Roger and waited for an explanation where he would stammer out something pathetic to try and defend himself. But Roger seemed incapable of speech, only letting out small squeaks in response, as he tried to articulate an excuse but even he couldn't find anything to say, there was no way to reword his actions tonight to not look bad.

Every person in the present company were shocked when it was Ginny who piped up, and it was to defend Vicki.

"Probably best you didn't. Vicki wouldn't have had the chance to flirt with Aidan Lynch."

Vicki looked at Ginny in shock. What she said was a total lie. Aidan had not even glanced at her once in the minister's box, let alone take the time to speak with her. Ginny was fibbing in order to let Vicki "win" the non-existent war between Vicki and Roger on whom could flirt with someone else. Vicki was flattered the younger girl was willing to jump in and help, but this is what she was trying to avoid the second Roger walked away from her. She made the decision not to throw herself onto a stranger to spite Roger, but it now appeared that she did.

"L-Lynch did not flirt with me!" Vicki protested, after she got over her initial shock.

"Sure looked like it from where I was standing." Fred sniggered, getting involved in his little sister's game.

Roger looked between Vicki, Ginny, Fred and George. He was absolutely furious. Quiddich was his thing. He was the Ravenclaw Quiddich team captain, a position he held with pride. His girlfriend had one upped him by finding something better, a professional national captain. He was feeling guilty for what he had done to Vicki but that guilt melted away and instead he felt justified. He just had to carefully work out how to gloat in front of three other people. Not being able to find a way, he just outwardly said it.

"Well, seems like we had a good night. Some really hot girls let me eat Bertie Botts Beans off many, many different parts of their body." Roger winked, and then bit his teeth really hard as an added effect.

Fred kept his eyes on Vicki at this revelation. He could see her heart breaking in front of his eyes. Her worst fears were just confirmed and he didn't have to read her mind to see this. He had a vested interest in the two breaking up but before he could even think about this, he jumped in to save Vicki.

"Well that's a shame, Davies. Vicki turned down Lynch as she said she preferred admiring him from a distance. She also threw in she had a boyfriend. So I bet eating vomit flavoured beans off of a woman who's good looks could be wiped off with one make-up removing charm but who's daddy issues will never cease, well I guess it doesn't seem so good now, does it?" Fred snarled at Roger.

Roger shot Fred the dirtiest look he could muster. He opened up his mouth to speak and attempt a witty retort to Fred's statement, but shut it and shook his head, making it apparent he was abandoning what he was going to say.

"You still don't care, do you? You wanted to say you don't regret it, because you're such a handsome stud. Well I pity you. You have the best thing at home, but you'd still rather go out and find rubbish instead." Fred yelled at Roger, refusing to back down.

Vicki should have felt joy that Fred was fighting so vigorously for her, but instead she felt numb. She couldn't believe Roger had done this to her. It may have made sense to her if Roger was drunk, or if they were in the middle of a fight. But there was no animosity between them and he was stone cold sober. He had done this right in front of her and held little remorse. He was only sorry his party was broken up by the terrorisers, and only went back to Vicki now it was over.

"I don't know what your problem is Weasley, but this doesn't concern you. You've never even spoken to Vicki before today, so what you have to say hardly matters. This is between me and my girlfriend and I'd like to speak to her alone." Roger snapped towards Fred.

"My girlfriend and I," George cheekily smirked towards Roger, correcting him "that's how you're supposed to speak without sounding uneducated."

Roger gave a quick glance towards George but chose not to dignify him with a response and instead turned his attention onto Vicki, softly grabbing her hand and forced her to face him.

It was then for the first time she spoke directly to him since he abandoned her at the game.

"Yes, I agree. We do need to talk. However now is not a good time, not after such a crazy night. I'm going to spend the night with the Weasleys and we'll sleep on it and talk tomorrow, alright?" Vicki stated.

Roger huffed and sighed looking dejected. He was hoping it wouldn't be a big deal and they would perhaps fight a little before they could forget about the night and move on. He wasn't used to Vicki having a big array of negative emotions, but he had never done anything to make her upset before.

"Well, okay. I'll meet you in the tent tomorrow morning and we can talk it all out, and then things can go back to normal." Roger responded.

The three Weasley family members stayed silent as they watched Vicki intently. They were all waiting for the quick wit they had witnessed tonight. Instead Vicki was meek in her response.

"Sounds good. Well, we'll be off. Speak tomorrow." Vicki responded, and made her way to walk in a different direction but Roger said something that made her stop in her tracks.

"Vicki, fighting aside, I'm so glad to see you made it out safely tonight."

"I'm really glad you're safe as well." Vicki softly smiled, before she began to trudge on back towards the tent.

The group of them were silent again as they got nearer to the tent. The masked men were long gone but the devastation in their wake was still ripe. There were lots of mangled and damaged tents as far as the eyes could see. Shrapnel debris caused by the spells and curses shot was also littered around the camp. The worst part for the group however, was the howling and crying from the people who had now made it back to their camp.

Ginny let out a whimper upon seeing a family sobbing outside of their tent and Fred put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

"These people are crying over possessions and not hurt family members, I wouldn't worry too much about it." Vicki spoke up, for the first time since her run in with Roger.

"I hope you don't forgive him just because of this event. He messed up. An attack doesn't change anything. In fact, he'd only be using this terrible event in his favour if you do." George stated out loud in order to change the subject and distract Ginny, and Fred was grateful.

George had been vocal about Davies' betrayal all night but only after following Fred's opposition to Davies. This was the first time he had spoken up about Davies without being prompted. Fred was glad that George took the opportunity to say what he wanted to say but held himself back in fear of his true intentions showing.

Vicki didn't say anything but sent him a weak smile as they approached the tent. The conversation was over. They were back at the tent now and there were more pressing conversations to be had the second they stepped inside. The eldest three Weasley children had returned to the tent but were in a bad state. Charlie seemed to be the best out of the three as he only seemed to have a ripped shirt, but he was busy tending to Bill, who had a large gash on his arm that was sprouting blood. Percy was paying no attention to his two brothers as he was (badly) trying to stop his blood nose.

Fred, George and Ginny awkwardly stood at the entrance of the tent but Vicki sprang into life. She looked from Bill to Percy a few times and decided it was Bill who's injury was worse and who needed her help, as Charlie's spells seemed to be doing more harm than good.

Vicki grabbed a discarded tea towel from the kitchen area and wetted it before she approached Bill.

"Move." She said to Charlie, who looked at Vicki and scoffed at her orders.

"You're underage, you can't even use magic. I can't see what you'd be able to do that I can't." Charlie sneered at Vicki, however he did move aside and Vicki jumped in to look at Bill's wound.

"What ended up hitting him? Was it a curse, or something else?" Vicki asked, ignoring Charlie's rude tone towards her, as she used the wet tea towel to clean away the gash so she could inspect it further.

"It was broken glass." Percy stated, with great difficulty as he was supporting his bloody nose.

"Well it doesn't look too deep, so it shouldn't need a healing spell to help it close. The only problem is the bleeding isn't stopping. So the good old muggle trick of applying pressure should fix it." Vicki mused. She looked around the tent to find something, and Fred quickly handed her a discarded bedsheet that was on the ground, eager to help.

Vicki scrunched up the bedsheet and pressed it hard to Bill's wound. He winced for a second upon contact, but as the sheet turned crimson he got used to the pressure on the gash.

"Press this on the wound as hard as you can. The bleeding will eventually stop. It's a muggle first aid trick, but it works. Magic or not, we're all part of the human race, right? Our bodies heal the same way." Vicki stated.

"Well played, Hartwell." Charlie teased, backtracking on his previous doubt of Vicki's abilities.

Fred listened intently as Vicki began to talk about her backstory, which was relatively unknown to the Weasley family. Like the two twins were outside Vicki's friendship circle, their parents also ran in different friendship circles.

Max Hartwell also worked in the ministry with Arthur, but in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes department (to which Vicki knew he had his work cut out for him after tonight). He had to liaise with Arthur on a regular basis for work purposes but it was rare that they held any conversations not related to their jobs. Maureen Smith (formerly Hartwell) abandoned the wizarding community after her divorce and found love with a muggle man named Henry, so her dealings with witches and wizards these days were slim. It was due to this that Vicki knew the muggle first aid tricks, as although she were a pureblood, she had been raised in a muggle environment with her mother.

As their parents weren't in the same circle, Fred didn't know much about her family. He was therefore listening intently so he could learn more about her. He was genuinely interested to know, but the more knowledgeable he became on Vicki Hartwell, the more knowledge he had to use to win her affections.

After Vicki spoke about her living arrangements, Bill began to talk about his adventures at Hogwarts, and how in such a short amount of time things had changed at the school. No one mentioned anything about Ron, Harry and Hermione. When they didn't walk in after the two twins, Ginny and Vicki it was made obvious to the older Weasley children that the trio were still missing. It was easier for them all to submerge into anecdotes from their upbringings than it was to be vocal about the fact that there were missing members of their group.

"-but yes, I received quite a lot of great references from many faculty members of Hogwarts, Dumbledore included." Percy boasted loudly, in retort to Vicki telling everyone how hard of a Head Boy he was to be a Prefect under.

Percy went to continue but Charlie shushed him as he heard voices approaching. Percy sulked at his lost opportunity to brag but Charlie did not notice this as he stuck his head outside the tent. After conversing with his father for a moment he came back into the tent with four others following him.

Arthur had returned with Ron, Harry and Hermione. They were all safe.