I enjoyed the already hot rays of sunshine on my face. It was noon, but the sun was already beating down on the clearing where our tent stood. Four more tents were placed around the clearing, each a little weirder than the next. I had just come out of our own bright green one, a testimonial to Irish pride. My uncle Cillian was sitting in front of the tent trying to make the fire to work with something Muggles call matches. Even though he could get it done in a few seconds with a spell, we had to be careful. That awful ministry man had already checked up on us three times and threatened to throw us off the campsite if we used magic in the open again. Clearly he had his hand full with the rest of the campsite. The reason that we all had a nice clearing to ourselves was that all of us were directly related to the Irish Quidditch team. My dad was the captain and seeker, Aidan Lynch. Together with my uncle and nephew we decided to join my father for this legendary match. Some other relatives were present, but since they were not his direct family they had to make do with the normal campsite. The stakes were high and our hopes were up. My dad had been training so hard for this match I hardly got to see him these past few months. I was anxious and excited at the same time that the match had finally arrived.

'Care for some company?' I heard a voice say. I looked up to see Saoirse Moran standing before me, my best friend. She was the daughter of Chaser Moran and we basically grew up together. We were all close to the team's offspring but Saoirse and I were always really close.

'Sure. How's your mum getting on?' I grinned at her. She sat down next to me with a sigh.

'Still trying to boil that damn water. It stopped being amusing about an hour ago. She threatened to take my wand if I tried to fix it with magic again.'

'I reckon this will take quiet a lot of time. We could always go and get some food on the campsite? I'm sure there are some stands that sell food instead of green stuff.'

'We should come back with some Bulgarian scarfs or something. That would be hilarious.' She proposed with a mischievous smile on her face. I laughed out loud at the prospect.

'Sounds like a plan to me. Let's go!' I got off the grass and wiped the remaining dirt of my shorts. As we made our way to the place where all the souvenir and food stands were I enjoyed looking around at the madness surrounding us. I had never seen anything like it. There were people from all over the world gathered here.

'You know, I might go for one of those flying carpets. They seem like fun.' Saoirse told me as we were walking past a few wizards have some sort of race on flying carpets.

'Weren't those banned years ago?'

'I believe so. They don't really seem to care.'

'Bloody showoffs.'

'You know, I heard Harry Potter was walking around here somewhere.'

'Really? Maybe we'll run into him.' I was pretty excited to see Harry Potter. I heard so much about him, but unfortunately I hadn't attended Hogwarts. When we arrived at the food stand we were faced with a long line. Apparently we weren't the only ones who couldn't get the food to cook without magic. The stands were just like the arena, not approachable for Muggles, which allowed us to sell magical items for the match. As the line slowly progressed I noticed the guy who was standing in front of us. He had brown hair and a Scottish accent. I noticed he was well built but most of all he was just really handsome. He had this kind of commanding presence that I really liked. Saoirse saw me staring holes at the back of his head and nudged me with her elbow.

'What?' I giggled a little and blushed when she sent me a gigantic wink.

'He's hot.' She mouthed to me. Before I could say anything to her she nudged me a little harder which made me trip and fall right into his back. He reacted fast; before I fell down on the ground he caught me by my arms and pulled me to my feet again.

'Wow, steady there.' He told me in his thick Scottish drawl. His face was close to mine as he said it; I raised my eyes to look right into his deep brown ones.

'I'm sorry. I tripped.' I offered him lamely. He grinned at my lame confession as I took a step back. I saw him raise his eyebrows slightly out of amusement.

'Tripping, huh? You live a dangerous life.' He told me with the same grin on his face. I was just about to reply when his order was ready and he turned around to retrieve his food. Together with his two friends he left the line but he turned around while his friends continued to walk away. He shot me a smile. 'See you around, shorty?' He winked at me, turned around and took a short sprint to catch up with his friends.

I turned back to Saoirse and fixed her with a deathly glare. 'I can not believe you did that!' I told her exasperated. The guy behind the counter looked at us impatiently to give him our order.

'Why not? He totally flirted with you!' She grinned back at me after we placed our orders.

'He totally did, didn't he? But still! You could've been more subtle, that was embarrassing!'

'He didn't seem to mind when you were batting your eyelashes at him.'

'He was really cute wasn't he? I wonder if we'll see him again.'

'God, we really need to get you a man. Every time time you meet one your hormones go on overdrive.' She laughed.

'No one said anything about hormones, smarty-pants.' I grumbled. The guy behind the counter cleared his throat so we'd channel our attention his way. I paid him a few sickles and we took our hotdogs from him.

'I wonder if mum got the fire working, now.' Saoirse mused to herself. 'We totally forgot to buy the Bulgarian crap though.'

'Ah well. We'll find another way to piss them off.'

'When you were staring at that guy's butt I heard a nice rumor though. Apparently there's an after party on lot four. Shall we grace them with our presence tonight?'

'Sounds good. I could do with a party about now. I can't believe summer vacation was this uneventful. We don't even have school to go back to this year.'

'But we do have our awesome flat sharing adventure to look forward to.'

'That reminds me; I found this amazing couch in Wizards Delight catalogue yesterday.' We talked about your furniture plans all the way until we found our clearing again. My uncle had somehow finally got is fire working and Saoirse's mum was with him boiling her water. I suspected they gave up the Muggle way and used a spell as soon as we left. We took a seat next to my nephew Alan and started to discuss the upcoming match. Alan was still under the impression that the Bulgarian team might still win due to their young seeker Krum. I was still of opinion that he couldn't possibly crush dad with his seeking skill. My dad did have much more experience on the field and in the sky. And I knew their strong plays by heart. But I also knew my dad's weaknesses, and if Krum watched their old games he must know them to. My uncle was of opinion that the Irish will crush the Bulgarians any time on any day. As the other families joined us around our tent the gong for the start of the game went off.

Still cheering and dancing we left the vast arena. The Irish had beaten the Bulgarians and I couldn't be more proud. I was a little worried though because dad had two major crashes on the field and could barely stand to receive the cup from the minister. But we weren't allowed to see him yet; the medi-wizards had their hands full on the team and didn't want any disruptions while they were working. My dad would probably stop by our tent after he got discharged. Meanwhile Saoirse and I had made our plans to visit lot four on our way back to check out the party the Irish supporters had planned for after the match. There was cheering and singing all around us, a few sulking people along the partying crowd.

'Cillian, this is where we part ways. We'll meet up with you guys later at the tent.' I told my uncle at an crossroads between the lots.

'All right then. But be careful doll, if your dad finds you drunk he will kill both of us. Please be a little thoughtful. A lot of happy idiots around tonight.'

'We'll be alright!' I shouted happily as Saoirse and I continued our way. The path through the lots was decorated with romantic lights, the singing and general happiness brought some extra magic in the air. It was intoxicating.

'This is so surreal.' I told Saoirse in an excited voice.

'I know. Hey! Isn't that Conor?' She pointed her finger at a tent not hat far away from us. Four guys were sitting in front of it, one was telling a joke and the others were laughing. I immediately recognized Conor's laugh. 'Conor!' Saoirse yelled as we came closer to the tent. Conor went to the same private school as we did. He was the son of some Irish hotshot in the Ministry. He was a good friend though.

'Saoirse, Katelyn! It's so good to see you!' He stood up from his spot and gave us both a hug. 'I was hoping I would see you around tonight. Did you guys come for the party?'

'You know we couldn't resist a party, even if we wanted to.' Saoirse grinned at him.

'Come on, join us for a while.' Conor told us as and pointed at two empty seats in the circle. We joined them as he introduced his two friends to us. A blonde guy with eyes as green as their tent was called Patrick and a black haired boy who was called Sam. When they heard our last name they nearly fell out of their seats.

'I reckon you liked the match then?' I asked them, still laughing.

'Hell yeah! It was a shame Krum caught the snitch though.' Sam told us.

'Well I'm sure he just didn't want his team to not get any credit.' Conor told us seriously. He was just starting with a whole play-by-play of the match when we heard a distant scream coming from behind us. At first I didn't really think much of it, what could possibly happen in a crowded campsite full of wizards and security? It was not until we had our second shot of firewhiskey that more screams were heard above all the noise.

'What's going on?' I half whispered at Saoirse. Everybody's chattering and singing had calmed down a bit so everybody could try to hear what was going on. I was a little woozy from the firewhiskey and I knew that in my present state I could not defend myself fully if it came down to it. It also made me a little scared. More screams filled the air.

'Ok you guys, I think we should get out of here.' Patrick proposed. All of us nodded and stood up from our seats. Conor quickly locked the tent with a spell and we joined the people on the path trying to figure out what's going on and slowly back away from the screaming. I could not fully see what was happening, but some kind of mob had formed not that far away from us and they were coming straight towards us. They were wearing some kind of masks that immediately initiated fear in me. I recognized those masks.

'Oh my god! They're Death Eaters!' I yelled in panic. I was not the only one to realise this as we were watching the mob coming closer. Everybody started screaming, yelling and running. Our recognition caused the mob to send their first spells towards us. I grabbed Saoirse's hand as we started running with the rest of the people in the path towards the forest. Jets of blue and green flew around my ears when Saoirse's hand was ripped from mine and the running crowd separated us.

'Saoirse!' I yelled in panic but it was no use. She would not be able to hear me with the noise of panic and fear surrounding us.