Chapter 21 Quiddich World Cup
A/N : due to so many wonderful reviews, I decided to post this much earlier then I planned. Now the next one will be posted on Tuesday.
Also: due to about 5 people mentioning it in the reviews, I feel I must clarify something from the last chapter. Peter Pettigrew never became a pet of the Weasley's. that is why he did not escape at the end of Year 3. I hope that cleared that up.
Ok! Here's chapter 1 of year 4, hope you like it!
On with the chapter!
~*~JP~*~JP~*~
June woke to her scar burning. She'd had a nightmare, but it wasn't really the usual type… it had an old man, a snake, a small fat man, and a younger man, as well as a something in a chair. She couldn't remember what they were talking about, but she knew that something happened to the man, something that woke her up with a pain in her scar.
She shook her head and sat up in her bed. Her room had taken a very distinct turn over the past couple of years. When she was 11, all she had was a bed, a bookshelf, a desk and a closet full of clothes. Now she had an extra book shelf and a dresser. The dresser was needed for her newest clothes, she'd taken quite a liking to pants in the past year, and she out grew most of her older clothes. The bookshelves were full to the brim with books, of course, since this was her Aunt and Uncles house, they were only her muggle books. Her wizarding books were at her Godfather Sirius' house.
Her Aunt decorated this room, so it was mostly pink and yellow, but her room at her Godfathers… well, lets just say Sirius had a go at it last year when both June and Remus were at school. He knew she wouldn't like Gryffindor colors, and he forbade Slytherin colors in his house, so it was done in purple, copper and beige. It was pretty, a little tacky, but she liked it. In both rooms she had pictures everywhere. Privet Drive was home to her summer pictures, which mostly consisted of June, Dudley and Hermione. She had one of her and Draco, that one stayed near her bed. She really missed him the first half of summer, she never saw him till at least after her birthday.
Speaking of which!
June hopped out of bed and headed down stairs. It was July 29th, two days before her birthday, and the day she would be leaving Privet Drive for another year.
Her favorite breakfast was on the table, French toast with strawberries, and there were three presents on the floor next to her chair. She went around the table, thanking and hugging her relatives, then sat down to eat.
After a delicious breakfast, she opened her gifts. He aunt had given her a gift certificate for a spa trip for two, so she could take Hermione as her guest. Her uncle had given her a book, a muggle novel, something to add to her collection, which meant that someone had helped him, or got it for him. And Dudley gave June her yearly charm, last year had been a snake that took up two links, this year was a mermaid.
"it's the only creature from that book that I could find, and it still looks nothing like the real thing." Dudley told her once they were away from his parents. Uncle Vernon didn't like her telling his son about magic, but it was the most fascinating thing to Duds, so she told him everything. Between June and Hermione, Dudley knew as much about the magical world as any Squib.
Speaking of which! Wow there's a lot of these today…
At 10 that morning, Hermione came knocking. She'd been over at least once a week the whole summer, and June went over to her house about twice a week. Her parents may have horrible taste in sweets, dentists, but it was their girl time.
So June and Hermione were sitting up in her room talking about stuff, when there was a tapping on her window. When the girls looked, they both jumped back in shock. Having expected to see one owl, they were quite surprised to see three!
June quickly opened the window. Gaia flew in and landed right on her shoulder, absolutely determined to deliver her letter first. The Weasley's owl crashed landed on the bed next to Hermione, and Draco's Sooty owl Nemesis landed with grace and dignity on the bed post.
"hey girl," June said as she ran her fingers through the owl's Brest feathers. She removed the letter, she'd been expecting a reply, she'd written to the Weasley Twins for some ideas. But it wasn't a reply, at least, not all of it was. One sheet of parchment had lists and ideas, while the other appeared to be from Mrs. Weasley.
"hey, the Weasley's invited me to go to the Quiddich World cup with them! Apparently its in two weeks, and they have seats in the Ministers box."
Hermione had taken the letter off the Weasley's owl while June read, and noticed it had her name on it.
She'd been reading at the same time as June, "hey, me too!"
They smiled at each other. "this should be fun."
A year ago neither would have considered spending any quality time with the entire Weasley family, due to the tremulous relationship with the youngest Weasley boy, but over the past year, since June had saved his little sister's life from a giant snake, he'd been decent, if not actually nice. This of course meant that he was nice to Hermione, and stopped trying to provoke the Slytherin's.
June ran downstairs to make a phone call, as Hermione wrote up her acceptance letter.
June dialed the number to her Godfather's house phone. He only had it because he lived in a muggle neighborhood, and people expected him to have a phone number.
"hello?"
"Sirius? Its June, I just got a letter from the Weasley's inviting me to the Quiddich World Cup in a few weeks. They want to know if I can stay the week before, but I'd rather just stay the night or two before they leave, which is the morning of the game, so for three days or more, depending on how long the game goes." She paused for a breath, "can I go?"
Sirius laughed. "of course you can, kid! I'll never say no to Quiddich! You must be really excited if you can't wait till 5 o'clock to ask me."
"thank you! See you in a few hours! Buh-bye!"
"see ya, kiddo. Tell Hermione I said hi."
"k"
~*~
June ran back upstairs.
"he said yes!" June squealed, "oh, he also said hi."
Hermione laughed and handed her a piece of parchment.
"are you going to stay the week before?"
"nah, I'd rather spend the time with Sirius, living with the Twins that long would make me nervous to eat."
Hermione giggled, "number one diet plan in the world, every time you eat something, there's a consequence."
"and not just any consequence," June said, looking over the list the Twins sent her, "apparently they've been experimenting all summer. They've got a new sweet that makes you sprout yellow feathers, they're trying to thing of a name."
Hermione reached over and grabbed her letter, she crumpled it up and threw it in the trash. "you're right. Getting there the day before they leave is soon enough."
Just then Gaia gave a squawk. June and Hermione looked up to see Draco's owl trying to sneak a little water from Gaia's dish. He still had the letter attached to his leg.
"oh! Nemesis, I'm so sorry!" June hopped up and took the letter off his foot, and got him a cup of water and some owl treats. He gave her an indignant glare, and ate her offerings.
June placed the letter on her desk, finished up her letter to the Weasley's, and attached both of the girls letters to the Weasley owl, and sent him on his way.
June reached for Draco's letter, "ok, Nemesis, I'm reading Draco's letter now, you can stop scowling at me. Crazy bird, has more of an attitude then that whole family put together."
"and that's quite a bit." Hermione threw in. June nodded.
June groaned.
"what's wrong?"
"Draco wants me to go to the Quiddich Cup with him! His dad has seats in the Ministers box too!"
Hermione laughed.
"oh, its not funny! What am I going to tell him?"
"the truth I would imagine." Hermione said. "if you lie, he'll know on the day of the match."
June sighed. "I guess you're right."
June penned a quick note to Draco, and sent it off with the moody owl.
~*~*~*~
"Draco dear! Nemesis is back!"
Draco sauntered into the sitting room.
"ah, that would be June's acceptance to the Quiddich match."
Narcissa smiled, "don't count your chickens Draco. She may say no."
Draco scoffed, "why would she say no? we had seats in the Minister's box to the match of the year. Where else would anyone want to be?"
Narcissa just smiled and returned to her reading.
"WHAT!?"
"what's the matter Draco?" Narcissa hid her smile behind her book.
"she- that- June! She's going to the game with WEASLEY!"
"ah yes, I did hear that they got a pretty large amount of tickets to the game," Narcissa mused, "in fact, I believe they'll be in the Ministers box with us."
Draco, who was still in a seething shock, turned to his mother. "what!? When did you hear this?"
Narcissa pretended to think for a moment, "well, it must have been yesterday, when I was shopping in Diagon Alley. Molly Weasley was telling the shop keeper in Flourish and Blotts that her husband had gotten ten tickets, in hopes that a Hermione Granger and Juniper Potter would be joining them."
Draco glared for a moment. "what are we going to do with the extra ticket?"
"I believe Mr. Crouch is looking for an extra ticket, we shall provide him one."
Draco sighed and looked through the rest of the letter. "what day are we going to the site mother?"
"we'll be there about an hour before the match dear, as we usually are."
"could we go early?"
Narcissa looked up from her book, "how early?"
"just a few hours." Draco gave her his best kicked puppy look.
She sighed, "ask your father. I won't be there that early, but if he will go with you, or if he says you may go on your own, then you may go."
Draco grinned and flew out of the room. If his mother didn't mind, then his father wouldn't say no.
As soon as he was gone, Narcissa muttered to herself, "oh, thank you so much mother, I love you, I don't know how I'll ever repay this kindness."
~*~*~*~
The two weeks before the game dragged. Its not that it wasn't fun staying with Sirius, she had a lot of fun, actually, but when you're 14, and waiting for something huge, two weeks takes 10 years. Kronos had spent the first half of the summer with Sirius, Aunt Petunia forbid its entrance into her house, and he'd stay with him for the Quiddich Cup too, since Ginny got a little nervous when she spoke to him. She was getting better, but Kronos would be happier in the quiet of Sirius' house, then the hustle and bustle of the Weasley house.
Finally, finally! The day to go to the Weasley's was here! Sirius and Remus would take her that night, have dinner, and then leave.
All the Weasley's were here for the occasion. June and Hermione got to meet Bill and Charlie Weasley for the first time.
Hermione was there when June arrived, she got into the room, thanked Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for inviting them, said hello to the Twins and Ginny who were in the kitchen, and then Hermione, Ron and Two men walked into the room.
"June!" Hermione squealed. She ran to June and grabbed her hand, dragged her before the two unknowns. "this is Charlie and Bill, they're the eldest Weasley boys."
June blushed lightly as she shook their hands. Charlie was shorter, like the Twins, with copious amounts of freckles and he had burns and scars all on his arms. His bright red hair was cropped, and he had very well defined muscles up his arms and across his chest. Bill was taller, like Percy and Ron, except very tan. He was dressed in very fine clothes, he had an earring and his long hair was pulled back in a pony tail, showing off the fang in his ear.
"hello, you must be the famous Potter girl!" Charlie said with a laugh. Bill elbowed him,
"don't be so rude." He smiled very charmingly at June, "it's a pleasure to meet you, June."
June blushed just a little harder. "Likewise."
Hermione made some excuse and dragged June out of the room.
"we'll be staying with Ginny tonight, come on, I'll show you where to put your bag."
As soon as they were in Ginny's room, Hermione turned to her with a huge grin on her face.
"they sure grow em good in this house, don't they?"
"Oh Merlin!" June sighed, "I've never blushed so hard in my life! They are mighty handsome, aren't they?"
"mm, yes." Hermione nodded, "and they'll be at the Quiddich site with us too."
June looked Hermione square in the eye, "I have never been more thankful then at this moment, that I only read my mail one at a time."
"yeah, to think I could be here all by myself with them." Hermione said with a shake of her head.
"well, we can't hide up here all night." June said with a smile.
~*~*~*~
Before the night was done, June had a chance to talk to both Charlie and Bill on her own.
Charlie lived in Romania, on a Dragon Preserve. June and Hermione spent half the next day being entertained by stories of how he got different scars.
Bill worked for Gringotts in Egypt as a curse breaker. He had some pretty cool stories too.
Ron spent most of the next day standing in doorways, watching as the two girls fawned over his brothers. At some point, Fred and George managed to drag June away for a product demonstration; apparently they were planning to open a sweet/joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"that's quite a mouthful." June said as she looked through their Potion journal and work orders.
Yeah but its memorable." Fred said, he was sitting on his bed, looking through a box for something that June just had to try.
"what would be even more memorable," George said, handing her another list to peruse, "would be if we had a certain celebrity as our main endorser."
June looked up from the list. "you want me to put my face on your product?"
"no!" said Fred, looking scandalized.
"we want you to put your picture in the newspaper next to our product." George clarified
June rolled her eyes. "tell you what, when you have 20 products, working and sellable products, I will think about adding my famous face to the mix."
Fred shook his head, "you Slytherin's and your caution. What's wrong with jumping in head first and just saying yes?"
June raised an eyebrow at him, "you haven't even shown me one of these things in action, and you want me to agree to some sort of publicity deal? You want a fool, go talk to your brother."
George grinned, "sure, I could talk to Bill."
June stiffened.
"or Charlie," Fred added with a sly smile, "I'm sure he'd be happy to help us get the publicity we need."
June narrowed her eyes at them, "you two would have done well in Slytherin."
Fred waved away the compliment, "we're just observant is all."
"not that you'd have to be to see you and Hermione drooling all over their laps." George threw in.
June stood up, "my deal stands. 20 items, working and sellable, and I'll put my name on anything you like." And she stormed out of the room.
~*~*~*~
That night, the night before they left for the Quiddich spot, the Weasley's had front row seats to a spectacular show. The Twins, in an effort to prove they were a good business choice for the savior of the Wizarding World, put their items in every pit of food they got near. June managed to be the only one not to turn into a yellow ball of feathers, Canary Creams they finally decided on, grow a monstrous tongue, Ton Tongue Toffee, or have the food they were about to eat explode in the victims face. The last one was apparently supposed to pop and fizzle in your mouth, but so far breathing on it caused an explosion just big enough to make a mess.
June only avoided it because she was the last into the dining room that night, and just before she took her first bite, Ginny exploded in feathers, Hermione got a potato in the face, and Mrs. Weasley grew an enormous tongue. The guys all thought this was hilarious, until the same stared happening to them. At one point Ginny screamed right over a bowl of peas, and the entire bowl splattered, covering everything near in pea mush. June had stopped in the doorway, and decided the living room was a good place to be for now.
As soon as everything was calm again, it took about an hour, Mrs. Weasley spent an hour screaming at the Twins, who spent another hour cleaning the mess in the kitchen with no magic.
Of course, June felt the need to apologize to Mrs. Weasley, since she knew why they did it.
"I'm sorry, they were just trying to show me they're products, I didn't know they would do that, but I do feel a little responsible. Should I help them clean up?"
"oh, you are a sweet dear, but I don't blame you one bit. Showing off or not, they were the ones who ruined dinner, so they will be the ones to clean it up."
June smiled, and turned to Hermione. "makes you wish wizards had fast food places huh?"
Hermione nodded, giggling.
~*~*~*~*~
The next morning, they were woken up waaay to early. It was still dark out, and everyone graduated from Hogwarts, which included Percy who had just got out last spring and was now working for the Ministry, got to sleep in and apparate later. Everyone still attending Hogwarts, and Mr. Weasley, had to be at the Port Key before the sun rose. June and Hermione were so excited that they were awake in a second, and spent the whole hike talking about where they were going to be and what a Port Key might feel like. Ginny followed behind them, adding her opinion when she could. Ron and the Twins dragged back a little, and Mr. Weasley walking between the two groups.
The girls were just coming up to an old boot, which, since it looked so out of place at the top of a hill, must be the Port Key, when June noticed something. They were not the only ones waiting for this Port Key. There were two people already at the top of the hill, and one she distinctly recognized.
When Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff Seeker, recognized June, he went right over to her.
"hey Potter! A little surprised to see you here, but then, this is about Quiddich, isn't it?"
June smiled and nodded.
Mr. Weasley came up just then, "ah, you two must know each other from school!"
Mr. Diggory had made his way over as well, "ah, Juniper Potter isn't it? Cedric has told me all about how good a Seeker you are."
Cedric smiled, "she was good enough to beat me. Which has got to be pretty good, eh Weasley?" he was looking at Ginny this time, whom he'd beat to the Snitch in the Hufflepuff/Gryffindor game.
Ginny gave him a half-hearted glare, and went to stand by June.
"quite a few Seekers in this group, eh Arthur?" Mr. Diggory said.
"yes, there are a few, the only one not on a Quiddich team is Hermione here," he gestured to Hermione, "and I'm sure she's only here to spend more time with June."
Hermione spoke up, "I didn't really take to flying. I prefer to watch the sport."
"well, some do, some do." Mr. Diggory nodded, he checked his watch, "ah, just about time for that Port Key to activate, we better hop to it!"
They crowded around the Port Key, with all of them touching it, it was a bit crowded, June found herself standing in front of Diggory, who had long enough arms to reach around her, but only just.
The Port Key activated, and she felt a sharp tug right around her belly, and suddenly they landed in a heap on a different grassy field.
June blushed scarlet when she realized she had landed on Cedric. She apologized profusely, and got up quickly.
Diggory laughed, "don't worry about it, your light as a feather."
The Diggory's said good-bye and made their way to their campsite.
The Weasley's group went in the opposite direction. When they found their spot, the boys set to putting up the bigger tent. There were two, one for all the boys, and one for the three girls.
June Hermione and Ginny looked at their pile of tent on the floor for about two minutes before Hermione broke out the instructions. There was an easy spell you could use, but Mr. Weasley wanted to do it by hand, and he was the only one there who was aloud to do magic.
Putting up the tent was pretty easy, you stake down the four corners, and two sticks to hold up the front and back, and viola! Of course, the girls finished before the boys, it helped having two muggle raised on one group.
The inside of the tent looked nothing like the outside. There were bunks, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a little sitting area. The boys tent was much larger, but then, it was meant to house seven boys.
When the girls were done, the guys were just figuring out that you had to stake it down first, so they volunteered to go fetch some water.
The girls made there way to the pump, and met a few of their class mates on the way. Luna wasn't far from their site, and Hermione waved to a few Gryffindors June didn't know. June didn't see any of her fellow Slytherin's, and she found out why when Hermione was talking to one of her roommates.
Lavender Brown, apparently, had been all over the site, as she'd been here for two days. She told them that everyone she recognized from Slytherin was in the higher class section, where the tents looked more like portable mansions. Luckily for the three girls, Lavender spotted someone else to tell all her gossip too, and the girls were able to move on after only 15 minutes of her gabbering.
"she may be annoying, but you must admit, she does always have the latest news." Hermione consoled as June glared after the annoying girl.
They finally got to the line, and Hermione giggled as she noticed a man a few people in front of us. He was wearing what looked like a flowery night gown, and talking to a man who was holding up a pair of pants.
They were arguing.
"I will not put those on! This is muggle clothes! I bought it at a muggle shop!"
"those are for muggle women! The men wear these!" he held up the pants and shook them at him.
"I said, I'm not putting them on!" he folded his arms across his chest stubbornly. "I like a healthy breeze 'round my privates, thanks."
The girls burst into giggles, which is probably how he spotted them.
~*~*~*~
Draco had been wandering around for an hour. His father had side apparated him here, and had set up their "tent" with a wave of his wand, then made his way to one of his colleagues "tents" leaving Draco to wander around looking for June.
He went about it pretty logically, his father was in the ritzy part of the site, of course, which means the Weasley's would be on the opposite side.
He hadn't realized how far the opposite side was, or how many more people were crowded into that side. He passed what looked like the Bulgarian supporters, they had their seekers face all over the place, then he passed the avid Ireland supporters, green as far as the eye could see, too much, even for a Slytherin.
At least we add a little black and silver into the mix.
He passed a girl he vaguely recognized as a Gryffindor in his year, and heard her talking about Hermione, Ginny and "that Slytherin" being a little ways closer to the edge of the site.
You'd think that as famous as June is, she'd be called by name, at the very least Potter, if not the Electus.
He had walked for a bit more, looking carefully for a sea of red-heads, when he heard the giggling.
He glanced toward a line of people filling buckets with water, how plebian, and saw the streak of red that was a Weasley, the bushy brown head of Granger, and then, June. They were having fits over something, and all he could think was that June looked very pretty with her face flushed, and eyes dancing with laughter. She was wearing a pair of white jeans rolled up under her knees, with a green peasant shirt that had sliver glittery ivy patterns all over it, and when she turned her head he could see that she had her hair clipped back in the barrette he bought her that first Christmas.
He strolled up to the line, passing a guy wearing an odd flower robe, idiots, they're supposed to at least try to look like muggles.
"June!" Draco smiled as she immediately turned at the sound of her name. She smiled brightly at him and ran toward him. She jumped in his arms and gave him a big hug.
Heaven!
~*~*~*~*~
"Draco! What are you doing over here?" June asked as she pulled away from him. "I figured you'd be on the other side of the site! I didn't expect to see you till the game started." She dragged him back to the line to stand with them.
They chatted, Hermione and Ginny smiling and nodding, and every once in awhile saying something, Hermione more the Ginny, until they got to the water tap.
"well, we need to get this back to the site before lunch, would you like to join us, or is your father waiting for you?" June asked with a smile.
"um," Ginny spoke up, "I don't think my dad or brother would be to happy about this."
Draco smirked. "well, we can ask them. If they say I can't stay, then I will happily leave. But as you have taken my fellow Slytherin here hostage for the time being, you may just have to put up with my company."
June considered it for a moment, "actually Draco, maybe she's right. I'll see you at the game, and at school. And Sirius said I would be able to come for a few days next week, if that's ok."
Draco's grin fell slightly, "fine. You have fun with the Gryffindors. See you later."
June frowned as she watched him go.
"you did the right thing." Hermione said. "I'm sure it just would have caused problems."
June nodded and they made their way back to the tents.
~*~*~*~
They got to the camp just in time to here the apparent end of a conversation. A man dressed like a bumblebee and a man in a very professional looking muggle suit were talking to the Weasley men.
"oh come now Barty! It'll be happening at Hogwarts, they'll find out about it soon enough!" the man dressed as a bee seem very ostentatious.
"sorry, we need to be going now." The man in the suit, Barty, gave a tea cup to Percy. "thank you for the tea Weatherby."
The other man got up off the floor, jiggled his pocket with a significant look at the Twins, and said "see you later! You'll be up in the top box with me, I'll be commentating!"
And the two men disappeared with a pop.
The girls came up to the campfire.
"what was that all about?" Ginny asked.
"that was Ludo Bagman, the man who gave me the tickets." Mr. Weasley said.
"dad, what's happening at Hogwarts?" Ron Weasley asked.
"you'll find out soon enough."
"its confidential information." Percy said, raising his chin in the air, "it was right of Mr. Crouch not to tell."
"oh, shut up Weatherby." Fred said, tossing a piece of bacon at his brother.
The girls sat down and ate their lunch, which looked an awful lot like breakfast.
June thought about asking Mr. Weasley about Draco, but decided Hermione was right, the Weasley's and the Malfoy's just didn't get along. And it didn't help that Draco had been dressed in what looked like an all black muggle suit, it just screamed money. But then, he was a Malfoy.
The kids spent the rest of their time wandering around, buying as many souvenirs as they could. Ronald spent all his money as fast as he could, Ginny avoided anything red, smart girl, the twins didn't buy anything, and the rest of the Weasley's seemed to be going for Ireland as well. Apparently they gave all their money to Ludo Bagman, the guy dressed in the Wasp Quiddich Robes, looked like a giant bee to me, in a wager over the game. They bet that Ireland would win, but Victor Krum, the seeker for Bulgaria, would catch the snitch.
June decided to go for Ireland, and got a bunch of green frippery. Hermione decided to go red, for Bulgaria, just because June went for green. June and Hermione also bought Omnioculars.
Ronald had bought a Krum figure, it walked across his hand and scowled.
June and Hermione were looking closely at it, just before dusk. Ronald let them on the agreement that he could use Hermione's Omnioculars on and off during the game. June and Hermione could share on the off chance that Hermione really felt the need to look closely at the game.
"so what do you think?" June asked as they studied the famous Seeker.
"he looks cross." Hermione said, trying to scowl like the figurine.
"well," June said, "I expect its not all happiness and sunshine being an international Quiddich star."
The girls giggled.
Just then a huge gong sounded somewhere in the forest.
"that's it! Come on you guys, its starting!" Mr. Weasley called to his little lot of charges.
They made their way through the forest, they could hear everyone screaming and laughing, running and tripping. Hermione and June held hands as they walked, Ginny walked beside them for a little while, then June noticed she looked a little sad, and held her other hand out to her. Ginny took it with a grin.
~*~*~*~
"they're awfully sweet, aren't they?" Charlie said as they walked through the forest. His older brother and dad had hung back a little from the kids. The Twins had run ahead, and Percy was lecturing Ron about something a little way off.
"the girls?" Arthur asked.
"yeah, holding hands, hugging, playing with their hair, talking about clothes, flirting with boys. It's really kinda cute, isn't it?"
"adorable." Bill said. "don't tell me you fancy one of Ron's little classmates."
"no, not like that! They're just kids! I just didn't appreciate girls doing their girly things when I was in school. It always seemed so… alien back then."
"hmm, its nice to see Ginny have some girl time." Bill said. "but don't tell me you're not incredibly flattered that those two fourteen year old girls were flirting with you."
"they were flirting with you too, if I'm not mistaken." Charlie grumbled, a light blush spreading across his cheeks.
Bill laughed and pushed his little brother, who shoved back.
"boys! Boys, come on, we have enough childish behavior from the other seven children on this trip." Arthur said, smiling indulgently.
"so, do you think they'll try to sit next to us?" Charlie asked his brother.
Bill laughed. "if they don't, then I'll let mum cut my hair."
Charlie grinned, "oh, mum would be so happy!"
"yeah," Arthur sighed, "but if your mother heard that she wouldn't get her hopes up. She was fourteen once too."
They all laughed as they heard the kids clear the last of the trees.
~*~*~*~
"oh wow!" June gasped.
Hermione was speechless.
It was huge! The biggest stadium June could ever imagine! And they were only at the bottom, from the top it must seem like the biggest cereal bowl in the universe.
Mr. Weasley and the other Weasley's came up behind the three girls.
"seat a hundred thousand." Mr. Weasley said. "took the Ministry all year to put it together."
They headed over to the lady who checks their tickets.
"these are prime seats! You lot are in the Ministers box, just head straight on up, you can't miss it!"
They started climbing stairs.
And they kept climbing stairs.
And more stairs.
"how far up is it exactly?" Ronald asked petulantly.
Arthur smiled, and pointed up to a group of seats that were sticking out a bit from the rest, and had a covered awning. "its right there!" it was still a few hundred steps up, but at least they could see it.
When they got to the box, they all started seating themselves. Hermione and June managed to get seats in between the two eldest Weasley's, Hermione next to Bill, and June with Charlie. Ginny was on Charlie's other side, and the Twins, Ronald, Percy and Mr. Weasley were in the row ahead of them. There were two open seats next to Bill and next to Ron was one open seat and then a house elf, and another row of seven behind them.
They were almost the first to arrive, except the House-elf, who sat there with her eyes covered, June assumed it was a girl, it just, gave off that aura.
The next two in were Ministry officials, they sat behind the empty seats. Then the minister and another man came in, Mr. Weasley introduced them to the Minister, and the Minister introduced them to the Bulgarian minister, who apparently couldn't speak English, but understood Electus and You-Know-Who enough to get who June was.
Then, the people that June had kind of been waiting for entered. The Malfoy's always make an entrance, even to a Quiddich box. Draco and his father were in all black muggle suits, and Mrs. Malfoy was in a very fashionable muggle summer dress, a pale blue that matched her eyes perfectly.
They came in when June wasn't looking, in fact, she was blushing and giggling at something Charlie had said when she glanced over and saw Draco glaring at her.
She jumped up, "Draco!" the Malfoy's got tot heir seats, which just happened to be right behind Ginny, Charlie and June. Draco sat right behind her, and she turned around so they could talk.
June was showing Draco the headband of clovers she bought to support Ireland, almost everyone in the box was watching the two teens, when she put her hand on his knee. This of course, made all the adults give each other knowing looks. The Minister seemed to find this a very pleasing occurrence, and the Malfoy's seemed to puff up with a little more pride. Charlie and Bill exchanged surprised glances, and Mr. Weasley had a distinctly disapproving look.
The kids took this all in stride, they knew it meant nothing new. June had become a very touchy person over the past year, Hermione had seen her do the same thing to Neville. Ginny and Ron just rolled their eyes at the entire friendship, and Fred and George felt the same as Hermione, that was just June. Draco especially didn't read any hidden meaning in it, she hugged, touched, and cheek kissed just about all of her friends, male or female.
Just then, Ludo Bagman, in all his bumblebee glory, came in and started the game. he sat in one of the seats to the side of Bill, the other one having been taken by another Ministry worker.
Bagman announced the team mascots, Ireland had a show of leprechauns, which ended with it raining gold, which Ron excitedly scooped up, until his father told him that it would vanish in a few hours.
The Bulgarians brought Veela, which are very beautiful women who dance and sing, and apparently make men fall in love with them.
At this point, June was very happy to be a girl. Imagine, being distracted from the show by a bunch of pretty women. Of course, when Ron, the Twins and Draco all started getting out of their seats and drooling and getting all annoying, both Hermione and June were getting a little miffed.
June knocked hard on Draco's knee to snap him out of it, which made his mother and father smirk at each other.
The other men in the box had managed to plug their ears in time.
As soon as the women stopped singing, the few who were affected by it gave feeble excuses and embarrassed mutters.
And with that, the game really started!
A/N for full recitation of the game, please read from half way down pg 106 to the middle of 115 in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Ignore the extra stuff, but the game is the same.
Ireland won, but Krum caught the Snitch.
Both teams came up to the top box, Bulgaria first.
Hermione and June watched, the team shook the hands of their Minister, who apparently could speak English, and was just having fun with Fudge. Krum was last, and when she saw his face, which was covered in blood, Hermione sucked in a gasp, which apparently he heard, because eh turned and looked right at her.
June watched as Krum set his piercing gaze straight at Hermione, and nodded, then turned back to what he was doing.
Hermione blushed a deep scarlet and turned to look at June.
June watched all this with a growing smirk, when Hermione looked at her, she knew she'd never hear the end of it.
The Ireland players came through and accepted their trophy. And everyone started leaving.
"Draco!" June called as he made his way down with his parents, "do you think we could walk back a little ways together? Or are you guys too far away?"
Draco looked to his parents, his mother gave a nod, and his father kept walking.
"sure, for a ways."
June shouted back to the others, "I'll meet you at the tent in a little while."
Mr. Weasley stepped forward, "I don't like the idea of you walking through that big site by yourself, maybe you should just stay with us."
Draco stepped forward. "I'll walk her to her tent, I won't leave her alone."
June looked back at Mr. Weasley, he nodded grudgingly. She grinned and headed off with Draco.
"I don't like that boy with her." Charlie said to his father quietly.
Arthur sighed, "no one does, but he is her friend. And its only Ginny and the Twins keeping her with us, I'm just glad she came with us, and not them."
Charlie nodded.
~*~*~*~*~*~
June took Draco's hand as soon as they were able to walk side by side.
"so what did you think of the game?" June asked, conversationally.
"it was ok, a lot shorter then I like, for a Quiddich Final."
June smiled at Draco's cross tone. "okay, fine. I'll pick another topic. Oh, I know! I heard that Bagman guy say something about an event happening at Hogwarts this year! What do you think it is?"
"I know what it is." Draco said smugly, he liked this topic. "Father told me weeks ago. It's the Triwizard Tournament, where the other two European wizarding schools will come to Hogwarts, and three champions will be chosen, one to represent each school. Then there will be three tasks, spread over the year, and the winner of the tournament will get a trophy and some sort of prize money."
June gasped, "wow, that sounds so exciting! I can't wait!"
"are you going to enter your name?" Draco asked slyly.
June shook her head, "nah, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy this. I've still got Quiddich."
Draco squeezed her hand, "actually, for the tournament to take place, they have to cancel Quiddich for the year."
June thought for a moment, "you know, that's ok too. it will be nice to be like everyone else for a change. No adventure, no Quiddich, no drama." June smiled "yes, this year sounds like it will be a lot of fun."
They walked for awhile, talking about the kinds of tasks the champions might have to face. They spent a lot of time in the woods, it was getting pretty late, or early depending on how you look at it. It had been about 2 hours, and they could hear the ruckus going on through the trees, June figured as long as they were that loud, she wouldn't worry about being out too late.
Quite suddenly, the mood changed. The noise went from the kind that makes you want to scream and celebrate, to the kind that makes you want to hide in a hole. June noticed it first, and Draco started pulling her away from the site, when people started running through the trees screaming.
Self preservation took a back seat when June thought of Hermione and Ginny and the rest of the Weasley's, she ripped her hand out of Draco's and ran toward the noise, yelling "run!" behind her to Draco.
They had been standing in the trees right next to the Weasley's tents, so it didn't take her long to find them. This was good, because Mr. Weasley looked like he would die from relief when he saw her.
He told the kids to stay together, and run. June grabbed Hermione's hand and they ran together, following the group of red heads, as fast as they could. The Twins and Percy were taking care of Ginny, and Ronald had fallen behind next to the girls. At one point, they went through a cloud of smoke and got separated from the others.
They ended up in a clearing, which June figured was safe enough. They stood there, and waited for something to happen. It didn't take long. After just a few minutes, there was a commotion in a nearby bush. Hermione and June pulled their wands, and Ron searched for his.
But it was just a house-elf.
The house elf that sat alone in the Ministers box, holding a seat for Barty Crouch
Being dragged along by an invisible force…
It went right through the clearing, and into the bushes opposite.
"o-kaaay" June said slowly, "that was a little odd."
Hermione and Ronald nodded.
Suddenly they heard a voice, a deep voice that sent chills up your spine. "MORSMORDRE!"
A bolt of green light went straight up into the sky, and suddenly there was a picture of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth glittering above them.
"it's the Dark Mark!" June said, her heartbeat increasing rapidly.
Then the sound of twenty or more cracks of apparation, and June pulled Hermione down, screaming "DUCK!" Ronald made it down just in time.
Shouts of "Stupefy" followed by beams of red light met right over their heads.
"stop! STOP!" Arthur Weasley ran into the clearing, "that's my son!"
The wizards stopped shooting spells, but they didn't lower their wands.
Barty Crouch stepped forward, "it came from here Arthur! It could have been them!"
Arthur was pulling the kids off the ground. "these kids are fourteen! Where would they have even heard of that spell! And this," he gestured to June, "is Juniper Potter! Are you suggesting that the Electus did that?"
The wizards started to lower their wands at this evidence.
Crouch turned to the three, now dirty, teens. "what did you see? You had to have seen who did it!"
June stepped forward. "after we got here, the House-elf that saved your seat, in the top box, was dragged by an invisible force into those trees," she pointed to the side, "after that, a deep male voice yelled something that started with an M, I don't remember exactly what it was."
Crouch shooed a few of the adults into the woods to check it out.
They came back with a stunned House-elf, Crouch's House-elf. She was holding a wand.
Crouch stared fro a moment, then went crashing through the woods. Everyone remained silent, waiting.
He came back after a minute. "Enervate, Winky." Crouch snarled.
The Elf looked up with big brown eyes.
"give me the wand." She handed the wand over.
Crouch put his wand tip to tip with the wand the elf had, and said, "prior incantatum." This caused a small version of the image in the sky to appear over the two wands.
Crouch closed his eyes, then turned them on Winky. "you are a disgrace, this means clothes." He growled.
The little elf burst into tears, but otherwise remained silent.
"sir," June said, coming forward, "it couldn't have been her. She's an elf, a female one at that! Her voice is far to high to have been the one to cast it."
Crouch turned on her, "the proof is right here Miss Potter!" he waved the wand around.
"Hey!" it was Ronald, "that's my wand!"
Crouch froze. "you're wand? How would this House-elf get your wand?"
"well, I did sit next to her in the Minister's Box!" Ronald growled, "you'd know that if you'd came up to watch the game."
He handed Ronald the wand, and turned back to the elf.
"look, the only evidence you have is circumstantial, except what I told you, and what I told you proves her innocence!" June implored, "you can't just give her clothes over something like this!"
Crouch turned to her again, "Miss Potter, this is my elf, and I will do with it as I deem necessary. She was to follow orders, she did not, therefore, she will no longer be in my employ!"
June crossed her arms, "you say that like she's an employee. Like she willingly disobeyed you!" June turned to the elf sobbing on the floor, "Winky," she looked up, "did you willingly disobey Mr. Crouch?"
"n-no, miss!" Winky shook her head so that her ears flapped against her face, "W-winky would never disobey her family, miss!"
June gave Crouch a smug look.
Crouch came right up to June, looking down his nose at her, "little girls with no knowledge of the Law, and little knowledge of our world would be wise to keep their mouths shut."
June's eyes narrowed, "I will have you know that I am taking Magical Law. And I know enough about our world to know that giving a House-elf clothes is the cruelest thing you could do to one."
Crouch stared her straight in the eye, then turned to Arthur.
"you may take the children home now."
Arthur nodded and guided the teens back to the campsite. The others were already there.
They packed up their things, Arthur packed the tents with the swish of a wand, and they took the earliest Port key back to the Burrow.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N And there's the beginning of GoF! Tell me whatcha think, please review.
I know I did things very different from the book, but, you should be getting used to that by now, so… yeah. And I know I condensed it. You must realize, that GoF is a very large book. And a lot of things are similar, if not the same. Those are the things that will be glossed over. Feel free to glance through your book if you can't remember the blank spots. I just feel like a copy cat if I sit here, copying from my book… so yeah, anything that I had to look up, will be here, in gist form, while others like really long conversations, or for example when Dumbledore gives an in depth description of the tournament, you all know what's going on. You know what the rules are. You know that they banned it due to high death tolls, yadda yadda yadda, do you really want to read it all again? Or should I get to the good parts? The different parts? Well, regardless, I do, so this should be a fun book!
Our characters are going to start the whole opposite sex thing, you remember that horrible time of your life? When boys finally noticed that girls were there for something other then throwing broken rubber bands in to their hair on worm dissection day, just to hear them scream… maybe that was just me… Yeah. Its their turn. *grin*
and
I had Draco tell her about the Tournament, cause I always thought it was stupid that the Weasley's didn't tell their kids about it. Whether June tells the Weasley's or Hermione, I'm not sure of yet, but June knows.