A brief, brittle silence.
Daphne already had her wand out, shoulders tight, mouth a thin line.
Astoria, rattled by her sister's tension, fumbled along the bed edge until she found her own wand. She wasn't of age to be casting freely outside school.
"Jon layered the edge of camp," she whispered. "Muffliato Charm, Beast Repelling Charm, Salvio Hexia. Every protective spell he could use. Whoever they are, they shouldn't be able to hear us or see us."
Daphne didn't answer. Her hand shook a little.
They both knew what those protections were meant for: to turn aside Muggles, wildlife, ordinary witches and wizards. If the people outside were Dark wizards with intent, that was a different test. Jon's weave would be meeting black magic.
Too many things had already gone wrong on this trip: the Portkey landing changing, that labyrinth of caverns, Harry Potter tumbling into the same mess.
Even the Greengrass sisters, used to the quiet shelter of the ivory tower, could feel it now. The pattern was off.
Was it retaliation from Death Eaters against Potter and Hart? Something engineered by the exile abroad, the one behind the war? Or only a string of accidents? Unease pooled in both their chests. The scrape and snap of kicked stones and branches drew closer.
Heavy footfalls closed in, then spread and overlapped, as if the people outside were fanning out and searching.
"There's a mark here. Why can't we find anything?" a rough male voice growled.
You didn't need to see his face to hear the violence in it. Whoever he was, he wasn't harmless.
"Maybe it's hidden behind protection." A young woman this time. "Aparecium!"
Wizards, then. Both girls' hearts leapt to their throats. Likely Dark wizards, too. Respectable folk didn't drift through remote woods like this.
"Stay here, Astoria. I'll wake Jon," Daphne breathed.
She'd just started for the flap when—
"Wait. I heard something." The weary-sounding man again, suddenly alive with interest. "Someone's here. Keep looking, carefully!"
Daphne went white. Her wand slipped in her fingers and nearly hit the floor.
She couldn't bring herself to step out now. The tired man's footsteps were angling straight toward them, closer with each beat.
"Finite!" he called.
We're blown. Daphne and Astoria had the same thought at once.
A sound like eggshells cracking spread outward, louder and wider, a delicate rattle turning into a rolling break.
The perimeter charms were failing.
"Astoria, you've learned Apparition, haven't you?" Daphne's words ran together. "If they force their way in, I'll rush them and draw eyes. You Apparate back to the cavern we came through, hide, and wait them out."
"But—what about you?" Astoria whispered.
"Don't worry about me." Daphne shook her hand free.
A sharp report, like a pane of glass shattering end to end. Jon's protections collapsed.
"Here. A tent!" the weary voice shouted, summoning the others. "Over here—careful, someone's bolting out!"
The someone was Daphne Greengrass.
Just as she'd said she would, she sprinted to buy her sister an escape and to rouse Jon—and Harry—if they were still asleep.
She braced herself for masked faces and Dark Marks.
"Hold," the rough voice cut in. "I know her. Greengrass. One of the daughters."
"You're—" Daphne froze with her wand lifted.
Twenty yards away, in the half-light, a scarred, alarming face she knew too well.
"P—Professor Moody."
Astoria ducked out of the tent.
"Professor Moody. And—Professor Lupin?"
She swept the group with a fast look.
The rough voice belonged to Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, who'd taught Defence Against the Dark Arts when she was in fourth and fifth year. The weary one was Remus Lupin, her Defence professor in third year.
Nerves had fooled their ears.
With them stood three more: a thin, balding middle-aged man, a plump middle-aged woman dressed like a homemaker, and a young witch with hair an improbable colour. Astoria didn't recognize any of the three.
"My apologies, Miss Greengrass, Miss Greengrass," Professor Lupin said gently. "We spotted the Order of the Phoenix mark on the ground and forced entry. Sorry to startle you. We're only here to find one of our own."
"You're looking for Harry Potter, aren't you?" Astoria blurted.
Lupin and Moody traded a brief look, then both nodded quickly. "We are, Miss Greengrass. Have you seen Harry?"
"Of course." Astoria cleared her throat and, in short strokes, told the five of them what had happened in the caverns.
"That's brilliant. If you've already found him," the young witch with the bright hair let out a breath and even managed a smile, "then where are Headmaster Hart and Harry? Are they in your tent?"
"This one's just me and my sister," Astoria said softly. "They're in the other tent."
Relief froze on all five faces at once.
"What are you on about, girl?" Mad-Eye rumbled. "There's only your one tent here."