Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

across the field. Harry squinted at them … they didn’t seem to have faces … then he realised that their heads were hooded and their faces masked. High above them, floating along in mid-air, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.
    More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice Harry saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.
    The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent, and Harry recognised one of them – Mr Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs Roberts upside-down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers; she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.
    ‘That’s sick,’ Ron muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. ‘That is really sick …’
    Hermione and Ginny came hurrying towards them, pulling coats over their nightdresses, with Mr Weasley right behind them. At the same moment, Bill, Charlie and Percy emerged from the boys’ tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.
    ‘We’re going to help the Ministry,’ Mr Weasley shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. ‘You lot – get into the woods, and stick together. I’ll come and fetch you when we’ve sorted this out!’
    Bill, Charlie and Percy were already sprinting away towards the oncoming marchers; Mr Weasley tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction towards the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer.
    ‘C’mon,’ said Fred, grabbing Ginny’s hand and starting to pull her towards the wood. Harry, Ron, Hermione and George followed. They all looked back as they reached the trees. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever; they could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the centre, but they were having great difficulty. It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Roberts family fall.
    The coloured lanterns that had lit the path to the stadium had been extinguished. Dark figures were blundering through the trees; children were crying; anxious shouts and panicked voices were reverberating around them in the cold night air. Harry felt himself being pushed hither and thither by people whose faces he could not see. Then he heard Ron yell with pain.
    ‘What happened?’ said Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Harry walked into her. ‘Ron, where are you? Oh, this is stupid – Lumos! ’
    She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground.
    ‘Tripped over a tree-root,’ he said angrily, getting to his feet again.
    ‘Well, with feet that size, hard not to,’ said a drawling voice from behind them.
    Harry, Ron and Hermione turned sharply. Draco Malfoy was standing alone nearby them, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene on the campsite through a gap in the trees.
    Ron told Malfoy to do something that Harry knew he would never have dared say in front of Mrs Weasley.
    ‘Language, Weasley,’ said Malfoy, his pale eyes glittering. ‘Hadn’t you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn’t like her spotted, would you?’
    He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment, a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.
    ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ said Hermione defiantly.
    ‘Granger, they’re after Muggles ,’ said Malfoy. ‘D’you want to be showing off your knickers in mid-air? Because if you do, hang around … they’re moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh.’
    ‘Hermione’s a witch,’ Harry snarled.
    ‘Have it your own way, Potter,’ said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. ‘If you