Remember I update by the year but it has multiple parts, so be checking what chapter you're on so you don't lose your place. Please, please , please drop a comment on what you think. Thanks guys!

My family greeted her warmly and she helped my Mom and I make dinner while she told us how her summer was going. My Mom showed her how to set the veggies to chop themselves and she did pretty well, even if the pieces were kind of big. She felt bad but I told her the story of my first attempt where I'd sent the knife flying and it'd almost taken my Mom's hand off to help her feel better. After dinner my Mom let us stay up and do a little homework which was mostly trading notes to fill in a few essay paragraphs. We stayed up way later than we should have whispering to each other when we were supposed to be asleep, and that made the next day even worse.

My Mom woke us up bright and early and helped us gather our things to pack. She pushed pieces of toast into our hands to eat through our yawns while she prepared the Floo. We had small bags packed as we'd only be gone a few days, both of our more heavily packed trunks still sitting in the corner of my room. She lit a fire in our fireplace and made sure it was nice and warm before holding out the pot of Floo powder.

"Alright, so you take a pinch of it and step into the fire. Make sure you say where we're going very clearly or you'll end up in Tibet or something." I told her as I took some.

"Really?"

"Amelia." my Mom chidded. "No, Keeli, but it is important to make sure you say it clearly. Amelia will go first and show you how it's done."

I squeezed both myself and my suitcase into the fireplace. "Celeste Household." I said as clearly as I could before throwing the powder down into the flames.

The familiar spinning took hold of me and I clutched my bag to my chest, trying to compact myself as small as possible. After just a few seconds the slowing stopped and I landed in a comfortable sitting room. I stepped out quickly and tried to contain the soot that fell from my clothes to the rug beneath me.

"Aims, I'm so glad to see you!" Amber squealed and tackled me in a hug.

"You're going to get dirty, Amber."

"We just came in from a Quidditch match. I'm dirtier than you I bet." she was all smiles as she leaned away. "Are you guys ready to have an awesome girls day?"

"Yeah. Keeli should be right behind me."

As I spoke the flames turned green and Keeli plunked down like she'd fallen from the sky. Molly and Amber helped her up while I took my cloak off and set my suitcase on the floor.

"When did you get here, Molly?"

"About an hour ago. The boys were going somewhere early so my Mom just shipped me here at five in the morning."

"Gross." I wrinkled my nose.

"It's whatever. More girl time for us. Now come on! We're making biscuits."

They dragged us into the kitchen that was absolutely covered in powdered sugar and eggs. All day we baked biscuits or kicked around one of Keeli's footballs in the garden. Her Mom worked from home but luckily she didn't check up on us too much. It was nice to be able to do a little magic since at my house there were so many people I couldn't usually risk it. When it was time to do dishes Keeli and Amber loaded up the dishwasher together while Molly and I watched.

"I thought your parents were wizards?" Molly asked as she burned her tongue on a pastry hot from the oven.

"They are, but my Mom claims it's easier this way. They both work in the Muggle world so we have guests over a lot. They think it odd if we don't have one." she closed the door and pressed a few buttons.

"I can never figure all these machines out." I wrinkled my nose.

After much nagging I finally agreed to brewing a beauty potion for them and they spent the next two hours sorting through magazines to find the one they wanted the most. They finally settled on a potion that was supposed to tell you your future by changing color when you dipped a strand of your hair in. The ingredients were pretty simple and in just under an hour we were sitting cross-legged on Amber's floor around my cauldron.

"Alright Amber, you go first." I nodded to her.

She dipped the strand of her hair into the mixture and it turned from monotone grey to a light purple. "Oh, what's that mean Keeli?"

Keeli had the magazine open in her lap and flipped a page to get to the passage on purple. "Says here your prediction is 'you will wake up on a misty morning sometime soon to find a mysterious surprise as well as have extra inspiration for artistic expenditures and will receive extraordinary peace through meditation'. Your lucky shape is the oval and your lucky day is Thursday."

"I love it! A Pitch is an oval, maybe that means Egypt will bring it through for me!" she smiled. "Alright, Molly you go next."

Molly obliged and the potion turned a vivid shade of blue. Keeli flipped more pages before reading aloud again. "'Those who receive bright blue as their future are very lucky! You will be in excellent health and shall receive good news soon about one of your intellectual pursuits, as well as have excellent luck the closer you are to an ocean.' Your shape is the circle and your day is Friday."

"Too bad the Cup is in central Russia, otherwise I'd double down on the Brazil bet I made."

"I've told you a dozen times to stop betting with Damian. You rarely win."

"Oh, cut the lecture and see what yours is!" Amber playfully shoved my arm.

I rolled my eyes before obeying, turning the potion a light shade of yellow. Keeli didn't even have to turn the page before she started reading. "'The next few weeks should see you more energized as well as thoughtful, and you will make many new friends.' You're lucky shape is the upside down triangle and your day is Wednesday."

"Come on, your turn now." I grabbed the magazine from her. As the potion turned snow white I flipped the page backwards. "Okay, 'Those who receive white can expect many new and positive beginnings in their life. You will feel particularly lucky under the light of the next full moon and you will make excellent moral decisions.' You don't have a shape, sorry, but your lucky day is Monday."

"Oh my God, Keeli, the Cup is under a full moon! You have to root for Brazil so we can have your luck!" Molly shouted.

"Hey, what if she wants to root for Egypt? We do have the best Chasing team in the League." Amber made it seem like she was defending her.

They descended into Quidditch talk as I Vanished my cauldron contents and Keeli cleaned up the mess we had made. By the time we were done Amber's Mom had called dinner and we sat around the table and shared our fortunes with them. Amber's Dad was nice and him and Keeli had a conversation on some Muggle stuff I didn't understand. While both of Amber's parents were magical, I remember her saying her Dad worked in the Muggle world. He sure looked the part in a nice suit and one of those buzzing phones Keeli was always glued to.

After dinner we all sat around her living room and flipped through different books or magazines. Molly and Amber had the radio on tuned to the sports channel and were listening to all they could about the Cup. I happened to tune in for four seconds when I heard a familiar name.

"So who do you slate as winning the Cup, Mrs. Potter?" the host asked.

"Woah, is that-?"

"Shh!" the other two shushed me immediately.

"Honestly I could go either way. Egypt, to me, has the more formidable players. I don't think anyone will forget Rawya Zaghloul getting the Snitch right from underneath Viktor Krum's nose in their famous match off, but Brazil's teamwork has improved a lot since their grab at the Cup last time. It'll be a good game no matter what."

"Well there you have it folks. Keep your ears to those radios where we'll give you live interviews and coverage of the Quidditch World Cup all week! And make sure you check out the sports column in The Daily Prophet to get Mrs. Ginny Potter's full details of the Cup from the Minister's own box! Good night and good luck!" the host ended the segment.

"That was Professors Potter's wife!" I shouted.

"Yeah, we know." Molly rolled her eyes.

"You knew? What do you mean you knew? Why didn't you tell me?" I closed my magazine.

"Everyone knows his wife is the Captain of the Holyhead Harpies." Amber leaned back and opened an old copy of Witch Weekly.

"I didn't know that." I defended.

"I thought you knew everything." Keeli teased me.

I made a face at her. "Not Quidditch everything. That's so cool!"

Molly gave me a sneaking smile. "Don't tell me you have a crush on Professor Potter."

"Ew, gross, he's old, but even you have to have read about what he did in the war." I couldn't keep the exasperation out of my voice.

"No, because I'm not a nerd who reads history books for fun." she wrinkled her nose.

"Oh yeah, I'm so boring for knowing anything about one of the worst events in wizarding history." I turned the page to my magazine and refocused on reading about ancient Egyptian wizard's tombs. One benefit of the Cup were pieces in a lot of the daily mail about the two participating countries and Egyptian wizards just fascinated me.

We fell asleep soon after and her Mom shouted up the stairs the next morning to rush to get ready to make it to Damian's house in time. I had barely clasped the hooks on my suitcase before Amber threw me into the fireplace. I landed in a heap in a swanky sitting room. Matt reached in and helped me up, barely stepping out of the way before Molly crashed in behind me.

I dusted myself off as the rest of them came through. Damian and Louk appeared just a few seconds later with a man I didn't know.

"Good morning, children. I'm Mr. Apertice."

"Good morning, sir." I extended my hand and made sure to grasp it firmly. He looked like the kind of man to care about those things. "Amelia Hales. Pleasure."

"Likewise, Ms. Hales." he gave me a tight smile before turning to the others.

As soon as introductions were done he made sure we all had our things and led us out into the garden. Their house was quite large and I realized Damian was probably wealthy. It was easily four stories and sat on a huge estate complete with Quidditch pitch and hedge maze. The roof was a soft grey with brilliant green gardens surrounding it. It was the sort of place I imagined a Slytherin student living in.

There were two other adults there who introduced themselves as Damian's parents. They seemed much more relaxed than Louk's Dad and gave us lots of smiles. We walked down the trail that led off their property to surround a cracked teacup that sat harmlessly on the grass of the end of their property. Mr. Apertice was checking his watch every few seconds before he finally instructed all of us to touch it. I made sure Keeli had good contact and was holding my hand firmly. Five o'clock hit and we were jerked around violently as the Portkey did it's job.

A few seconds later it was over and we were standing in biting wind on frost-covered grass. I held Keeli up while she adjusted, although being shoved to the side by a Russian Ministry official didn't help. Mr. Apertice consulted his map and led us through the many campsites that had large numbers at their entrances. We finally found the fourth block which had mostly English inhabitants. The Russians had had the good sense not to stick the Irish next to us so instead we were neighbors with the Egyptians and the Swiss.

The adults took barely ten seconds to set up the tents, tell us the basic rules, and disappear to probably mix up some Phoenix Feather cocktails or whatever it was adults did. Our tent was the larger of the two and had two separate bedrooms with two sets of bunks, a sitting room complete with fireplace, a fully functional kitchen, a luxury bathroom, and even a small porch off the back you couldn't see from the outside.

We took a few minutes to spread our stuff around in the girls room so it felt more homey. After we were done the roaring of our hungry stomachs grew deafening so we went into the sitting room to see what the plan for breakfast was. The second we walked in we were met by the scent of sausages, beans, and tea. Damian, Louk, and Cad were in the sitting room playing cards while past them in the kitchen was Matt cooking up a storm. They all looked up as we walked in.

"Molly! Why didn't you tell us you had a chef extraordinaire for a brother?" Cad joked.

"I told you he was in the kitchen all summer."

"Does he need help?" I looked to see Matt juggling about four pans.

"Don't bother. We asked and he nearly shoved us out."

"What are you all playing?" Keeli asked.

"Keepers and Crypts."

I observed Cad lay down a full hand but Damian beat him with a royal flush. "Damn."

Cad's hand of cards lifted itself up and soared into the card coffin that was sitting at the edge of the table. On the other side of the table was a miniature version of a Quidditch hoop which Damian's hand flew through, landing in a large stack. Judging by the size, and what I knew of Damian's luck, he appeared to be winning by a good margin. The deck then shuffled itself and dealt the next hand to the three boys.

"Can we come in the next game?" Amber asked.

"Sure, I've almost cleaned everyone out." Damian smirked as Amber sat on the arm of his chair.

"How long until he's done? I'm famished." Molly dramatically threw herself over one of the spare chairs.

"He's been in there almost an hour so it should be soon. You guys all settled in?" Cad was scowling at the game.

"Not much to settle in, we're only here for a few days." Keeli shrugged and took a seat on the floor.

"After breakfast we were going to take a tour of the grounds. Are you girls in?" Damian had a satisfied smirk at his new hand.

"Your parents told us to stay in the area." I pointed out.

"It's the area. Mostly. We are here to go to the stadium after all, aren't we?" Louk had that Slytherin smirk in place.

"If we get jumped by the Russian Ministry, I'm throwing you to the front so you can be cursed first." Keeli scowled.

"If you're hungry, come and get it." Matt called from the kitchen.

We clamored in to fill our plates with sausage, ham, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, eggs, and black pudding. There wasn't a dining table in the tent but we had no problem gathering in the sitting room and chatting over the great food. I had never had Matt's cooking but it was fantastic and made sure to tell him so. After we all helped clean up we made sure we had our wands and some pocket change before walking off the campgrounds, wrapping our scarves around ourselves and buttoning our coats.

As we walked down the rows of tents Louk herded me slightly away from the group, lowering his voice while shooting a glance at Cad. "Are you still mad at me?"

"Have you apologized?"

"I brought him to the World Cup!"

"That's not apologizing."

He sighed. "It's been months. Can't we just agree it's passed over?"

"I told you what it would take for me to forgive you." I crossed my arms and sped up to walk with the others, but he grabbed my sleeve and held me back.

"Oi! Cad!"

"Yeah?" he stopped his conversation with Amber to look back at us.

"Sorry about that business last year, mate."

"No harm no foul." he shrugged before turning forwards again.

"Are you happy now?" he glared at me.

"Was that so hard?" I pinched his cheek but he slapped my hand away.

"You're going to drive me mad one of these days."

I giggled as he took my hand, speeding up our steps so we wouldn't fall too far behind the others.

The entire fairgrounds were huge. The stadium was in the very center and took up most of the space. Campgrounds divided by country were in a ring around the stadium, with a small portion being allocated to the vendor stalls and pop-up stores that sold things like food and camping items. Surrounding the campsites were the clear spaces designated for Portkeys or Apparition.

There was an excess of people already browsing the miscellaneous wares. There was the typical team merchandise stalls for both the Brazil and Egyptian teams, as well as basic Quidditch merchandise of all ranges. A few select broom makers had specialty stalls that the Quidditch fans were pouring into to get a glimpse of new prototypes and special models you could only buy at the Cup. While the others were glued to brooms Matt, Keeli, and I wandered around the other stalls. There were the expected ones selling tents and food for those who had been camping out for the past month or came woefully unprepared. Next to those were some simpler ones who were selling different trinkets and souvenirs for the sentimental types, as well as those with specialty items from both the host country and the countries of the teams who were participating.

Egypt had amulets and statues that claimed to give you the powers of the great witch Bast or the greatest Egyptian wizard Ra. Brazil's stalls had dazzling beads and wide arrays of fancy robes. I had to drag Keeli away from a set that allowed you to fly telling her it was surely a bad idea. At the food stall we stocked up on junk food and snacks, as well as some local drinks from Russia called Mors and Kvas. The labels said they only had around one percent alcohol which was no more than Butterbeer, and the shopkeep didn't seem to mind selling them to us.

We walked back to the tents and the adults seemed not to have noticed our absence. We played more games and slowly went through the snacks. The Kvas drink was similar to any ale or beer I had had and I wasn't a huge fan of it, but the Mors was a sweet drink almost like juice and I immediately loved it. I cleaned out Damian at a game of Keepers and Crypts while sipping on the stuff, munching on some crisps while he lamented about his lost coin. After lunch they all grabbed their brooms and headed out to the small Quidditch pitch that had been set up in a spare campground by the Russian officials. It was too small for adults but was perfect for kids like us. After being hounded for almost an hour I finally agreed to come watch them on the condition I could bring a book, while Keeli and Matt decided to stay back and bake a little.

There were dozens of kids swarming around the makeshift pitch and I immediately regretted my decision, but Cad threw his arm over my shoulders so I couldn't escape. The pitch was in between two of the other campsites that housed the Argentinian and German campers so there was a remarkable diversity between everyone. I heard six separate languages within the closest hundred yards alone. There was an active game going on the pitch and I was soon forgotten as they jockeyed for position to play. I walked around the edges of the pitch and found a relatively empty spot to sit in. Some of the adults who were looking on had Conjured chairs for themselves but many kids had just spread out blankets to sit on. I did the same, taking a gingham blanket from my bag along with my book. I spread out on a bare bit of grass and quickly delved into my book seeing as it would be awhile before they even got on the pitch, especially Amber and Louk who were going for the Seeker position.

They got to play for a few hours before it started growing dark and the League officials came by to break it up until morning. The others were covered in mud and so had to shower while Keeli, Matt, and I talked over the biscuits they had made. They had also made a large dinner spread which we sat down to as soon as the others were done arguing over who got to go into the shower first. Thankfully it was a hearty stew with lots of bread which was perfect for having been out in the cold for so long. Damian's parents came around and told us to make sure we got to bed at a good time before slinking back into their tent.

After dinner we started an elaborate hangman game as well as a pretty intense debate over the two teams playing later in the week. As it grew later we settled down to roasting marshmallows over the fireplace in the sitting room, telling stupid scary stories as we burned our tongues. I started yawning and leaned against Louk's legs as we listened to another of Cad's stories about the horrific Hippogriff of Hackney.

I must have nodded off because before I knew it I was being picked up, my face pressed against an Egyptian team shirt. I groaned but they tightened their hold on me, finally laying me on a soft bed and pulling a heavy cover over me.