Anne Marie's POV

The morning of the Quidditch World Cup came as slow as you could possibly imagine. All of the non-muggle population of London was simply abuzz with excitement, Britain hadn't hosted the Cup in thirty years, and it was our chance to shine out brithe in front of the rest of the magical world at last.

record scratches

But it seems all good days must be ruined somehow.

I had been feeling queesy and looking green since the previous day, but if mum found out I didn't feel well, then there was no way she's let me go. So I played it safe, even wore my hair down to try to cover up the paleness of my face and sags under my eyes. I resolved to put it up the moment we arrived at Ron's house.

My bag had been packed since the previous day, so I simply sat at the window seat in Ally and I's room watching the sun rise, thinking. I did this a lot when I found myself awake before Ally, which was almost all the time. But I had been awake almost all night anyway, tossing and turning from the bug squirming about in my stomach.

I watched the sky change colors, my mood changing with each new streak of color bursting across the clouds. Mostly, I thought about school, how I couldn't wait to get back to my Potions, where my talents lied, my favorite class.

Then, my thoughts strayed to my crush, Cedric Diggory. How his wavy brown hair seemed to fall just right no matter what he'd been doing, and his gray eyes...how I wished they would look into mine.

"BOO!!!" I heard as two hands grabbed onto my shoulders.

I let out a scream of shock, waking Ally from her sleep and turning to see Noah laughing at behind me.

"Bloody Hell!" Allison screeched. "What's wrong?"

I snorted and jerked a thumb in Noah's direction and then turned back to the window leaning my elbows on the sill. I put my hands to my now throbbing head and tried to keep from throwing up.

"Hey Anne Marie, I'm sorry." Noah said, putting a hand on my back. "You OK?"

"Yeah, fine." I replied, shaking him off. "Just...leave me alone."

"OK." He said. "Mom just wanted me to wake you two up and say breakfast's ready and we'll be leaving for the Burrow soon."

"It's way too early for this..." Ally muttered.

"Whatever." I said, still just trying to keep from throwing up.

Noah left and I listened as Ally bustled about getting ready.

"Way...yawn...too early." I heard from time to time.

When she stood ready with her bag and I had smacked my cheeks hoping for a little color, we walked to the living room of our small apartment. I looked out the window at Big Ben and saw 9:03AM.

Ally yawned and hugged mum goodbye, then looped an arm through Noah's and layed her head over on his shoulder, eyes closed. With a pop, they were gone. He would be coming back for me in a moment.

I tried to avoid eye contact with my mum. I wanted to go so bad, no way was I letting a little thing like a stomach bug stop me now...and besides...Cedric would be there...

"Have a good time, Anne Marie." Mum said with a smile.

"Thanks, mum." I replied, attempting to sound cheery.

She leaned in to hug me, and I layed my cheek on her shoulder. Unfortunately, I seemed to be running a fever, and she felt the heat even through the sleeve of her T-shirt.

"Oh my!" She said. "You're burning up! Are you feeling well?"

"Ummmmmmm...I'm fine." I said. I had never been good at lying. 'Noah, where are you?!' I thought.

"Let me take your temperature..." She was saying, when the pop I'd been wating for finally came.

"Well, gotta go mum! Love you! Bye!" I grabbed onto Noah's arm and urged him to go.

With another set of pop's, we arrived in the front yard of a house that appeared to be many houses stacked on top of one another. The Burrow.

"I'm gonna go for Hermione." Noah said.

"OK," I replied. Trying to not look into his brown eyes. It's not that I thought he would take me back home if he knew, just that I didn't want him asking if I was alright every five minutes. Normally, I would have loved the attention, but I didn't want to look like a baby in front of Cedric, and NO WAY was I telling Noah that, he would pound him flat in a second's time even thought we'd not so much as brushed against one another.

"I'm sorry I scared you earlier." He said.

"Oh, it's fine," I replied, "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"Why won't you look at me?" He asked.

"Hermione's probably wondering where you are. You should go." I picked up my bag and began fast walking toward the Burrow. Noah wasn't an idiot, he probably knew something was wrong, but I would get over it soon enough...hopefully.

I thought about Cedric, my little secret, and Harry, who was Ally's. It scared me to think what Noah would do if he knew. He was very protective over both of us. It got annoying at times, but in general, I loved him for that. To be completely honest, I was shy with other people, but with Noah, I craved for attention. I was extremely jealous of his girlfriend, Cho Chang. I liked her as a person, but when she was with my brother, and he forgot about Ally and I, I didn't care for her at all. You could say that I felt protective over him the same way he was of us. I didn't want him hurt. And through all of this, it did not help that Cedric Diggory was seventeen, making him Noah's age and much older than myself. Noah would never approve...then again...it would probably never happen anyway.