Anne Marie's POV

After another long night of tossing, turning, and little sleep, I heard Mrs. Weasley's footsteps approaching the door to Ginny's room. I turned away from the door frame, not wanting her to see I'd been awake all night and worry.

My stomach had gotten worse. Twice, I had gotten up that night and thrown up. I was even seriously considering asking Noah to take me home. But I really wanted to see this match, and not to mention Cedric.

Mrs. Weasley shook her daughter gently, waking only her up. She knew as long as one of us got up, we were responsible enough to see that we all did.

Ginny groaned and sat up with her hand on her head, and Mrs. Weasley apparently took this as an acceptable sign of conciousness and left the room.

I sat up and threw the covers off, there was no sense in pretending to be asleep anymore, I was sure the others already suspected something and it was pointless to try and hide it, it only made it worse.

I stood up...a little too soon. I felt my stomack churn and I could do nothing but clamp my hand over my mouth and jump over everyone to make a run for the bathroom. Luckily, I made it in time.

When I came back to the room, everyone was up and about except Ally. I should have known that no-one other than Noah or me dared touch her with a thirty foot pole in the mornings.

I headed over to her spot in the corner of the room with one hand on my stomach and the other on my head. My fever was higher than the day before.

I shook Ally with my foot hard and she grunted. No more than I would have expected. I dropped onto my knees, tucked my hair behind my ears, and shook her with both hands.

"Ally!" I whisper-yelled. "You have to get up...Harry's gonna leave you..." I whispered soft enough for only her to hear. She opened her eyes a teensy bit. "Come on." I said. "Get dressed."

About thirty minutes later, all of us girls came down the stairs, faces washed, hair fixed. Ally and I wore the same shirt and a pair of light denim jeans and sneakers. Our shirts hugged us just right (you could tell we were purposefully showing off), they said "Quidditch Players" across the front with a snitch under the 'S'. Mine was yellow and hers was purple. Against my better judgement, I pulled my hair back, though it showed my pale face and baggy eyes. 'Great,' I thought, 'First time I get to see Cedric outside of school and I'm gonna look like crap.'

We entered the kitchen to see the boys already sitting at the table eating porridge. I had to look away, the thought of food made my stomach do cartwheels. Ally looked at me, I must have been green or something, then she noticed Harry, who smiled good morning at her, and her face went fiercly red. I smiled back at her, and attempted to sneak past Mrs. Weasley without eating...unsuccesfully. I had no choice but to take a few bites here and there and try not to taste it.

Thankfully, the rest of the morning passed without any sickness. So far, the porridge was the only thing I'd eaten in the last three days that had stayed down. Shortly after everyone had eaten, we had all grabbed our knapsacks (Ally and I had matching khaki shoulder slings), and headed out. We'd been walking for about fifteen minutes when our path intersected with another and we saw two silhouettes in the early morning light. As we got closer, my heart beat faster, I knew who it had to be, but I wasn't sure if I was ready...

"Anne Marie..." Ally said. "Anne Marie, you're fidgeting again!"

And I was. I always did when I was nervous.

"Amos!" Mr. Weasley said heartily, shaking the older man's hand. "This is Amos Diggory everyone. He works for the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric?"

"Hi." Cedric said, looking around the group. Fred and George looked at him coldly and were the only ones not to return the hello. I laughed and realized that there were only three people here who were not on the Gryffindor team, one being Hermione, who wasn't the least bit interested in Cedric, the other being Ginny, who was even younger than me, leaving his choice of conversationg with me, the only other Hufflepuff present. I was smiling on the inside, but unfortunately, my stomach seemed to be controlling my outside. I could only hope my breakfast didn't decide to leave its current home while I was in Cedric's presense.

The procession slowly and ackwardly began to move forward again. At first, Cedric attempted to walk with his father and Arthur, but I suppose he began to be bored of the conversation and started to move backward through the group. Ally was talking to Harry, so I was in the back alone, beginning to feel my breakfast getting angry at my walking.

I noticed Cedric glancing back my way, but tried not to let him know I was watching him.

Before I knew it, he'd slowed down enough to walk with me.

"Hey, Anne Marie. You alright?" He asked. "Good summer?"

"So far, I suppose." I answered, smiling up at him.

"Looking forward to Quiddith this year?" He asked, glancing at the words on my shirt.

"Of course!" I said laughing. "We're gonna get the Cup."

He laughed and looked at me, smiling. We just looked at each other for a moment, until I felt ackward, cleared my throat, and looked away.

We walked the rest of the way in silence, but we stayed beside each other, and for some odd reason, my stomach bug seemed cured.

Ally's POV

After a quick breakfast we were out the door and walking in the cool late night/ early morning air. The moon was still up and only the palest bit of light could be seen on the horizon. We were walking on a path through the woods behind the Burrow.

Mr. Weasley was in the lead with Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Harry and me in a row, followed by Fred and George, and Anne Marie at the end of our little group. I knew for a fact that she was feeling bad, but I didn't want to draw attention to that or Noah would take her home, that is, when we got to the Cup, and I knew she would never want to go.

After aobut fifteen minutes of walking, we met the Diggories, Amos and Cedric. I looked back at Anne Marie to see her fidgeting.

I whispered, "Anne Marie! Anne Marie, you're fidgeting again!"

"All these yours, Arthur?" Mr. Diggory asked.

"Oh no, only the redheads. This is Hermione, Ally, and Anne Marie-friends of Ron's. And this is Harry, another-"

"Merlin's beard! Harry? Harry Potter?!" Mr. Diggory asked.

"Er-yeah." Harry answered, embarrased.

"Ced's talked about you, of course," said Amos, "Told us all about playing against you last year...I said to him, I said-Ced, that will be something to tell your grandchildren, that will...you beat Harry Potter!"

"I told you dad, Harry fell off his broom...it was an accident." Cedric tried to tell his father.

"Yes, but you didn't fall off your broom. It's easy to see who the better flier is." Mr. Diggory went on.

I rolled my eyes and whispered to Harry, "I'd like to see him stay on a broom in that weather."

Now that we were all introduced, we continued on to the portkey. Not long after we started walking, Cedric dropped back behind our row, and I knew he wasn't going to talk to Fred or George, who were still mad about last year, and the only person left was Anne Marie.

'She is going to be happy.' I thought.

For the rest of our walk, Ginny, Ron, Harry, and I talked about the Cup, who we wanted/ thought would win, and so on. Hermione really didn't care who won.

Anne Marie's POV

We reached Stoteshead Hill a while later, and I was feeling much better after walking with Cedric. Everyone spread out, looking for the Portkey. Cedric and I found it first and motioned the others over.

'Thank goodness my stomach feels better.' I thought. I felt my forehead and sighed with relief when I discovered my fever had broken. I looked over at Cedric, who smiled back, and I wondered how I could have even thought of asking Noah to take me home.

We all gathered around the Portkey, Cedric to my left and Ally to my right. I touched the toe of the boot and Cedric put his hand beside mine. Then, we were off. A whir of colors surrounded us, and my hair whipped around my face as we sped towards the Quidditch World Cup.

Ally and I hit the ground hard, and I coughed, knocked a little out of breath. The sun was in my eyes as I sat up, but Cedric came in front of me, so tall that he blocked it. He reached out and took both my hands, pulling me up like I weighed no more than a feather.

"Thanks." I said. But my hands were still in his, and I couldn't stop looking at his eyes. It felt like an eternity that had ended all too soon when we finally let go of each other's hands, both a little embarrased.

"Let's go. They're leaving us." He laughed. We ran to catch up to the others. We walked together until Cedric's dad called him to head toward their campsite.

"Well, see you, Anne Marie." He called over his shoulder.

"Bye! See you at school!" I yelled back. He waved one last time before dissapearing round the other side of the hundreds of four-leaf-clover covered "hills" the Irish were sporting.

I let out a sigh of happiness, my day was going so well! I sincerely hoped tha Ally was having equal luck with Harry. I jogged up to where Hermione was to talk to she and Ginny.

"Well!" Hermione exclaimed. "You look much better than this morning, where have you been?"

"I was right back there..." I said. I could feel my cheeks turning red already. The only people who knew my secret were Ally and my best friend at school, but Hermione and Ginny were my friends too. Should I tell them? I almost felt too happy to hold it in...

"By yourself?" Ginny asked.

"No...I was talking...to Cedric."

Ginny and Hermione let out a giggle and looked at each other.

"What?" I asked. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing." Hermione said. Then, she leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Do you like him?"

My eyes got wide and I looked at her with my mouth open. She and Ginny giggled again. "How did you know?" I gasped.

"Well. We didn't...until today. It's not exactly like you try to hide it, Anne Marie." Ginny explained. "Are you angry with us?"

"No!" I said, laughing. "I'm glad someone besides Ally and I know now!" We all laughed and spent the rest of the walk to camp discussing the exact shade of red I turned ever time Cedric touched me, how nervous I looked when he spoke to me, but mostly, how tall, dark, and handsome he was.

Ally's POV

When we finally got to the top of the hill where we were to use our Portkey, we found it to look like an old boot.

Mr. Weasley turned to Hermione, Harry, Anne Marie, and I and said, "You just need to touch the Portkey, that's all, a finger will do-"

We nodded and everyone got in a tight circle, touching the Portkey. I was between Harry and Anne Marie, who was next to Cedric.

Mr. Weasley looked at his watch and started to count down. "Three...two...one..."

And we were all flung through the air, wind whipping around us.

A minute or two later, we all hit the ground hard. The only ones still standing were Mr. Weasley, Amos, and Cedric.

Next to me, Harry was already up again and standing in front of me.

"Need a hand?" He asked, holding out his hand to help me up.

I smiled up at him and replied, "Sure."

He pulled me up easily and smiled at me.

"Thanks, Harry. I can't wait until I can apparate."

"After that, me either."

There was a silence that was broken by Hermione.

"Come on, you two."

"OK, Hermione." I said.

And Harry and I walked behind Ron and Hermione, but we still stayed together.

When we got to our campsite, Hermoine, Anne Marie, and I put up the two tents. Seeing as we were the only ones who knew how. There were only two tents, and I was starting to wonder how ten people were going to sleep inside, but after stepping inside, I saw that it was huge, almost as big as a three room flat! Complete with a kitchen, two bedrooms with two pairs of beds, a living room, and a bathroom.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to get water, so Anne Marie and I went to have a look around.

Anne Marie's POV

After we had settled in, and our bunks had been picked out, Ally and I decided to do a little exploring. We had a little money we could spend, so we headed toward the Merchant end of the large field where all the tents were. I was tempted to weave toward the Irish tents, where I knew Cedric was, but Ally just jerked me back every time I started that way.

"So." I said, finally giving up on finding Cedric. "What were you and Harry talking about for so long?" I asked, winking at her and giggling.

"Nothing for you to worry your little head over." She said, blushing. "How about you and Cedric? Back there all alone all that time..."

"We only talked about our summers." I said.

"I'm sorry."

"Oh no! It was great!" I exclaimed. "It was nice to speak to him outside of the school without 4,000 other girls all over him."

We smiled at each other and walked on. Finally, after looking around for 20 minutes, we spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione purchasing Omnioculars, and decided to buy a pair to share. We all headed back to the tents, one big possy, carrying our purchases and excitedly jabbering about the march.

We arrived at the tents and had just enough time to drop off our knapsacks and hang our Omnioculars round our necks when it was time to head for the Stadium. Ally and I were so excited, we were speechless, which is saying a lot.

The lantern-lit wood was beautiful to see as the Crowd made its way through, and when we reached the Quidditch Pitch, Ally and I put a hand to our mouths. I had never seen anything so amazing, and we listened intently as Mr. Weasley talked to Harry about how much work had been put into setting it up and making sure it was muggle-proof.

We climbed the stairs to the top box, very nice seats of purple and gold filled it. Our group filled the entire front row, I sat in between Ally and Noah.

Then, Mr. Bagman stood up and put his wand to hit throat to give the welcoming speech. The 422 Quidditch World Cup had begun.