Harry finished the last sausage on his plate and set it down, stretching his arms over his head and wondering if he should get some more. There were still a few servings left, but Ron seemed to be on the warpath lunch-wise and Harry wasn't sure that depriving him of food was a good idea. He was feeling fairly full anyway, so he decided to leave it be and focus on Mr. Weasley's continuing narration on the witches and wizards walking out of the forest and by their tent.

"There's Holt, part of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee. Think he's a bit too good at his job, honestly, just look at how many sick days he takes… Hello, there, Alma! Alma Buchanan, Ludicrous Patents Office. And that's…" He paused as a red-headed woman came out of the trees and paused, looking over her shoulder. "I have no idea who that is."

"C'mon, boyos, we don't have all day!" the woman called out behind her. Harry could have sworn he'd heard her voice before but couldn't quite place it. She turned back around and noticed them all staring at her. She gave them a friendly wave. "Hello! Nice spot ya got here."

Harry realized he'd been staring and looked away with an awkward clearing of the throat. He couldn't remember ever meeting her, but something about her face had seemed familiar along with her voice. Have I met her before? I think I'd remember, but… Perhaps he'd seen her in the Muggle world before. Unlike most of the other witches and wizards he'd seen at the World Cup, she clearly had no trouble dressing 'normally', wearing a simple white blouse and green skirt. The only reason Harry might have given her a second look if he passed her on the street was because she was rather pretty. And perhaps because of how thick her eyebrows were… wait…

Before anyone could say anything else, someone else emerged from the forest behind her – a short blond man with the same eyebrows and familiarity with Muggle fashion, looking like an office worker on his way home with his suit jacket draped over his shoulder. "Erin, we do have all day," he said to the woman. "The match doesn't start 'til sundown."

Erin? Harry's suspicions were confirmed. Now that he was (discreetly) looking for it, he could see the resemblance to Professor Kirkland in both of them. They had the same forest green eyes and thick eyebrows, and their hair had a certain messiness to it (even if Erin had tried to tame hers into a tight bun at the nape of her neck with a large green bow). They were a good deal scrawnier than their brother, but Professor Kirkland wasn't exactly robust. The only odd thing was that Harry was pretty sure Kirkland was supposed to be the youngest of his brothers, yet the man standing in front of him (Harry suspected it was Patrick from the accent, but he couldn't be sure) looked like he was barely out of school. Then again, Professor Kirkland didn't look anywhere near old enough to have raised a teenager, so perhaps their family just had really good genes. The man did have that dull look in his eyes that Harry had only seen in adults or his less academically inclined classmates after a grueling exam.

"Yeah, Erin, chill out!" Speaking of less academically inclined classmates… Alfred came striding into view, carrying a large duffel bag over his shoulder without any sign of strain. "I know you're supes excited about this, but- DUDES!" He'd looked around and noticed whose tent they were standing near.

Harry used the time it took Alfred to drop the bag to the ground to brace himself for impact. Sure enough, Alfred literally threw himself at him, Ron and Hermione and engulfed them in a huge hug. "Hello, Alfred," they gasped. He was getting better about not crushing them with his hugs, but it was still tight enough to make speaking difficult.

"Oh, these are the friends you were talkin' about?" said Erin, eyes going straight to Harry's scar. She didn't make any comments about it, though, and turned to Mr. Weasley. "You must be… Mr. Weasley, then? I'm Erin, this is Patrick."

"Please, call me Arthur," said Mr. Weasley, shaking their hands.

Erin's smile seemed to freeze on her face, Patrick's expression darkened ominously, and Alfred's grip grew tighter as he stiffened and muttered, "Uh oh." Harry remembered that Arthur was also Professor Kirkland's name, and that he and his siblings did not get along.

Thank goodness Matthew suddenly popped into existence to intercede, as he often did. "Um, Mr. Weasley, they have a brother named Arthur," he quietly reminded him. "Calling you that too would get a bit confusing, eh."

"Oh, of course, silly of me to forget," said Mr. Weasley with a nervous laugh. "Weasley will be fine if you prefer."

Erin's smile reached her eyes again as she let out a laugh as well. "Thanks. If it makes you feel better, you can just call me O'Brien." At everyone's confused expression, she sighed and said, as if it was something she'd said a thousand times before, "No, I'm not married, I just changed it for reasons I don't wanna go into right now. He's still a Kirkland, though." She gestured to Patrick.

"For now, anyway," Patrick muttered.

Alfred finally released the three of them and got to his feet. "Bro, we talked about this," he said, and despite the 'bro' part Harry was forcibly reminded of Mrs. Weasley when she was scolding Fred and George.

Patrick seemed to realize how worrying it was to be scolded by Alfred, because he sighed and self-consciously brushed some stray bangs behind his ear. "Yeah, yeah, I know." He looked around at them all, eyes lingering on Harry. Harry knew that he probably didn't mean him harm, but something about the intensity in his gaze made him shift uncomfortably. "Do you wanna stay with your friends, or help set up the tents?"

Alfred huffed dramatically. "Hmm… I mean, I do like hammering things, but…"

Erin nodded. "Don't worry about it, Alfie." She slung the abandoned duffel bag over her shoulder, clearly straining a bit but not nearly as much as someone as small as she was should. Looks like it runs in the family. Harry looked at Hermione out of the corner of his eye and saw her looking back, clearly thinking the same thing. "If you need us, just follow the sound of shoutin', I'm sure we'll find somethin' to argue about."

"You mean like how Phil and Kathy clearly aren't going to work out?" said Patrick, already walking away.

Erin's smile immediately inverted into a scowl, and Harry could see much more of a resemblance between her and Professor Kirkland. "Nice meetin' you all, see you at the match," she said to them before storming off after her brother. "Just because they fight doesn't mean they don't love each other, you unromantic piece of-"

"It's nice to meet you, Alfred," said Bill loudly, covering up whatever Erin had been about to say.

Harry, Ron and Hermione scooted over to make room for Alfred and Matthew. "Nice to meet you, too, whatever your name is!" said Alfred brightly. Once everyone had been introduced to each other, everything continued on pretty much as it had been before, though quite a bit louder of course. Canada and Ginny were talking about how their summers had gone, who they thought would win the World Cup, how they thought the next school year would go, and all sorts of other things. Alfred, as usual, inserted himself into any conversation that caught his interest with all the tact of a steamroller. Percy was the only one who seemed to really mind, though.

Finally, Fred took a deep breath and said over the babble, "Okay, I can't take this anymore, I know we're all thinking it." He turned to Alfred. "Why are they Irish? I thought Professor Kirkland was English."

Alfred let out what was obviously supposed to be a normal laugh, but Harry was so familiar with his normal laugh that it was obvious he was actually a bit nervous. "Oh my God, Fred, you can't just ask people why they're Irish!"

"It is a bit odd, Alfred," said Hermione. "I know the story behind you and Matthew, but what happened with them?"

Alfred kept on smiling, but his lips thinned and he clearly looked to Matthew for support. Matthew just looked back and chewed the inside of his cheek, a gesture that was clearly meant to communicate, 'I dunno either, you're on your own.' "Uh – well – I - it's like," Alfred stalled. "I don't wanna talk about them behind their back, y'know? I'M HUNGRY, WHEN'S DINNER?" Matthew sighed deeply and buried his head in his hands. How on earth does someone so terrible at lying have so many secrets? Harry wondered to himself. Then again, he has been able to keep those secrets from us for three years now. Are we just really bad at investigating?

"We just had lunch, Alfred," said Ron.

"Er, yeah, but we had lunch, like, fifteen minutes before you guys did," said Alfred, not-so-surreptitiously sliding his hand over to grab Matthew's sleeve. "We'll just, y'know, go see if Erin and Patrick have food. LATERS!"

"Alfred, wait-" Matthew began, but Alfred was already dragging him away at full speed. He looked back at them over his shoulder and waved. "See you at the match, eh."

Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys stared owlishly after them as they vanished from sight. Alfred's exits tended to do that. It was Charlie who eventually broke the silence and said, "Well, they seem… nice."

A/N: Here you are, my children, enjoy. \(^-^)/ Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, and suggestions for names. The only problem now is making up my mind about which one to use. Ah, well, that's what eenie meenie miney mo is for. Next time should be the match, so I'll see you there!