Bitterly cold March rolled into a pleasantly warm April, which brought with it a much longed-for thaw. Even the Hogsmeade locals said it had been an unseasonably long winter.
When we'd first moved to Hogsmeade I'd been so excited for the winter, and the first snowfall had been incredible. Having grown up in the South East of England, all a 'snow day' was for us was perhaps an inch of powder, and we were far more likely to just have slippery ice. I'd never even built a snowman before, something which James had found incredulous, having spent seven winters living in a castle in the Scottish Highlands.
And sure enough, waking up that first morning after the first snowfall, to see that smooth, blinding white layer covering the cobbled street and the hills around us, truly was magical. To step onto it and feel as much as hear the crunch underfoot, to see my whole foot sink into it, to have a real white Christmas … oh, it had been incredible.
By March, I was sick of it. Sick of having to wade through shin-deep snow which always managed to get my socks wet no matter how tightly I tied my boots up, sick of the mounds of it in front of the pub that had been there so long it had basically all turned into dirty ice, sick of the rain which would fall on top of it and then freeze, turning the high street into an ankle-breaking skating rink.
So it was a relief as the warm, sunny spring days rolled by and gradually took the white stuff away with it, leaving fresh green grass and newly sprouted flowers of yellows, pinks and purples in its wake. Spring had always been my favourite season, but this year I appreciated it more than ever.
And the pub was looking beautiful at the moment. We'd put some potted plants on the windowsills outside, refreshed our hanging baskets and set a few outdoor tables up on the cobbles. At the moment they were just being used by the locals for their mid-morning coffees, but Lauren and I had hopes that as the weather got warmer, people would come for al fresco lunch and even dinner.
But today, we weren't expecting any lunch guests. In fact, if anyone did plan on a nice pub lunch at the Three Broomsticks, they were to be sorely disappointed, because we weren't even opening until mid-afternoon. I highly doubted anyone would have any foiled lunch plans today, however, as most of wizarding Britain would be piling into the Quidditch stadium at Hogwarts within a few hours. Today, finally, was the day of Lily's 'Weasley v Weasley' match.
And I was longing for the day to be over.
I was excited for the match itself. This was James' first proper Quidditch game since the World Cup. And I was also looking forward to seeing the rest of the family play for the first time.
But that was about as far as my enthusiasm went. After the match, all those spectators at the match would be piling into the pub. We had three fully booked sittings for dinner, and Daryl and Aggie were already prepping in the kitchen. And, of course, everyone who couldn't Apparate would be using our fireplace to Floo to Hogsmeade and back.
We'd been up since the crack of dawn, transporting Butterbeer and mead up to the school in preparation for the match. The job was made infinitely easier with James, Albus and Lauren's magic, but it was still tedious hauling everything out of the back room. Meanwhile, Hannah Longbottom had her daughters Frankie and Alice – and Hugo, because of course – Flooing more stock in from the Leaky Cauldron. Four doors down, George and Angelina were helping Brigid and Freddie get the merchandise up to the school. Meanwhile Lily was at the Quidditch pitch coordinating more Weasley volunteers.
And then the people started arriving. At first it was just dribs and drabs, but it soon turned into a torrent of witches and wizards falling out of our fireplace. Thankfully we'd finished moving the Butterbeer by then, but I had wanted to set up the tables ready for the dinner service, and that was proving almost impossible.
"You guys should head on up to the school," Lauren said.
"It's cool, we can stay a bit longer-" James began.
"Honestly, we're not going to be able to do much more while it's this busy. I'll wait around, you guys should go on up. You too, Carla," she added.
"No, I'll wait, you go-"
"You need me here to close up," Lauren reminded me. She was right; I couldn't shut the Floo off. "Honestly, you should go up there. This is all thanks to your hard work, you should at least get to see what you've managed to pull off."
"You sure?"
"Course. Kreacher can help me. We can do magic, remember." She winked. "It won't take us long, I shouldn't miss much of the game. Go on, shoo, get gone."
And so a few minutes later, once James had changed into his bright purple robes and Al into vivid orange, we joined the crowd of people meandering their way up the street towards the castle. Only now did I start to feel the excitement build, overtaking the stress of what was to come after.
It seemed as though the entire village was supportive of the match and its cause too; residents all up and down the street had hung orange and purple bunting and flags from their windows.
"This is incredible," I breathed.
"It's like the World Cup final again, eh?" Albus grinned.
"Hardly." I rolled my eyes.
But Al wasn't totally wrong, and the comparison became all the more stark when we reached the Quidditch pitch at the castle, to find Rose and Lucy manning stalls adorned with purple and orange, selling the merchandise that Brigid had spent weeks designing, and beyond them Victoire and Dominique at the mobile bars.
"Holy shit…"
"Pretty awesome, huh?" Brigid appeared at my shoulder, beaming.
"It's nuts!" I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. "I can't believe we helped organise this!"
"Wait til you see this…" Brigid dashed over to the stall that Molly was selling programmes from, and brought one over to me.
"Oh my God, it's beautiful!"
I'd already seen the drawing that my Hogwarts boys had produced for the front page – a depiction of all fourteen players in action on the pitch, each one of them so remarkably lifelike. But to see it in print, the front page of the glossy programme, with the 'Weasley v Weasley' tagline emblazoned across the top and the Squib Foundation logo at the bottom – to see the result of the hard work that had been put in over the past few months – it was enough to take my breath away.
"Not bad, huh? Lily's pleased as punch with it." Brigid linked her arm through mine. "Anyway, we should really get going to our seats…"
"Why?" James said. "The match doesn't start for another hour."
"I know that. But there are lots of people in attendance whom I do not have any desire to run into. You boys would do well to get yourselves into the changing rooms as soon as possible, too."
"An excellent idea," James said hastily. "Come on, Al-"
And before I could wish him good luck, he was gone, dragging his brother after him.
"Well that got rid of them."
I frowned.
"Did you make that up?"
"Oh, no," Brigid said, as she led me towards the stands, "no, there are definitely a lot of undesirables about. Quite a few reporters, for a start, and we know how well James gets on with them."
She slowed down for a moment, as a blonde woman crossed our path in front of us. I frowned, craning my neck to get another look at the woman, who seemed oddly familiar. Brigid, however, was already marching on towards the steps, and as she still had my elbow tightly gripped I didn't have much of a choice but to follow her.
"Who's that?"
"What? Oh, her. That's Lisette Feversham."
"Feversham…" I couldn't remember where I'd heard the name before.
"Ingrid's mother," Brigid added shortly.
"Oh." That explained why she looked familiar – Ingrid had clearly inherited her mother's looks. "What's she doing here?"
"It's a charity event, of course she's here. She's an attention seeking, fame-loving, wicked woman. She'd attend the opening of an envelope. That's why I didn't like Ingrid, thought she was a carbon copy of her mother and she was just trying to snag James. Course, it then turned out she was actually just in love with him, so that was my bad."
Brigid was trying to sound offhand, but I could tell she was feeling awkward. She and I never talked about James' ex – Brie obviously still felt bad about the part she'd played in Ingrid and James' breakup, while I simply preferred not thinking about his only previous serious relationship.
"Well, for what it's worth, if Ingrid was still with James then I wouldn't be friends with you, so on the whole I'd say you made long term gains," I pointed out, trying to lighten Brigid's mood.
"See? Knew what I was doing the whole time." She smiled slightly. "Plus, nobody needs that hag as a mother-in-law. Look, here we are."
Brigid and Lily had worked out which tickets to hold back for family, before putting the rest on sale. Lily had commandeered one of the teacher boxes for the Weasley clan, but there were too many of us for one box, so Brigid had suggested that she and I sit in a different one. I was secretly relieved at this; I wasn't in the mood to deal with Bill's grandkids, Percy and Molly all at once, without most of the Potters there with me.
Instead, to my joy, we were sitting with some of the people who'd contributed to the programme – which essentially meant most of the Falmouth Falcons squad. Ryan and Della were already in their seats, and greeted us excitedly as we joined them.
"Isn't this exciting!" Della squealed. "I've never sat in these stands before, it's all so fun!"
They were both wearing matchday scarves; Ryan had a purple one, and Della orange.
"He's cheering on James, I'm cheering on Roxie," she explained unnecessarily. "But I don't think I mind who wins in the end, just so long as we get to see a good game."
"I suspect of all the people in this stadium, the only fourteen people who want either team to win are the guys playing," I said dryly. "And I'm not looking forward to the fallout when one team does beat the other, Weasleys are very bad winners when it comes to family competitions."
"Don't I know it," Ryan said darkly.
"Weasley chess games were banned in Gryffindor Tower," Brie added.
"Louis decided they were going to have a tournament one weekend. It was barbaric. Cassandra the pygmy puff was thrown across the common room multiple times, Roxie's chess set ended up in the fire, and Al, Freddie and Lucy ended up in the hospital wing."
I stared at Ryan, stunned.
"You're joking."
"I wish I was," he sighed.
"Well … who won?"
"Oh, nobody won," Brigid said. "They didn't get past the first round."
"Hugo claimed a win over James, but James argued that Hugh forfeited the win by throwing Cassandra at him in the middle of the match. And that was the only match that even got close to a winner."
"And…" I swallowed nervously, "we've just put them all on a Quidditch pitch? With Beater bats and a Quaffle? This is a terrible idea!"
"Why do you think I didn't want to play?" Brigid joked.
"It'll be fine," said Ryan as he waved an airy hand. "The adults are playing too-"
"Because Ginny and George are such good arbiters," I muttered.
"-and more to the point, Rosie's not playing." Ryan finished.
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"Well, who do you think threw Roxie's chess set in the fire?"
"And hexed Freddie," Brie added.
"And nearly threw Cassie-puff out of the window," Ryan finished.
I stared at them both, gobsmacked. "Rose did all that? Our Rose?"
"Oh, come on, look at the girl. Look at who her parents are. She's got a competitive streak, an obsessive need to be the best and a hot temper. They are not good qualities for Weasley chess."
"But…" I looked across the pitch, to where Rosie was still selling merchandise, looking calm and friendly and nowhere near capable of throwing a pygmy puff. "I can't imagine that, I've never seen her get competitive…"
"That's because you're shit at wizard's chess," said Brigid, without a shred of delicacy.
I couldn't argue with that.
Our conversation was curtailed as the Bagmans joined us in the box, shortly followed by Puddlemere and England players Emily and Michael Wood and the Irish trio of Aisling Quigley, Fiona O'Sullivan and Brianna Keily. To my surprise, Maddie showed up not long afterwards.
"What are you doing here?" I said, as she squeezed in next to me. "I thought you were watching the match with Lily?"
She looked at me in horror.
"Are you kidding me? You think I'm sitting in that box? I'm not going anywhere near Lily today, she's got that aura of borderline mania about her that she always gets when she's planning something. And all the other fun Weasleys are on broomsticks, you couldn't pay me enough to spend the match with the rest of them. Besides, as if you and Brie aren't over here for exactly the same reason."
She had me there.
"Well, does Lily know you're over here?"
"Yeah, I spouted off some bullshit about how I wanted to spend the day with Cato without it looking suspicious," Maddie said in a slightly lower voice – not that anyone around us would be able to overhear over the crowd noise. "She lapped the whole thing up. I am not above emotional manipulation."
"Oh, you don't have to explain yourself to me," I said. "Why do you think I'm up here instead of down on the pitch coordinating? I've done enough – Brie too, for that matter. The real Weasleys can do the work today. I want to enjoy the fruits of my labours. The part I didn't tell Lily was that I can't be bothered to have to deal with the reporters and the fawning morons. I put up with enough shit in the pub, I don't want to have to be polite to strangers when I'm off the clock too."
Maddie snickered.
"Your secret's safe with me," she vowed.
As we got closer to eleven o'clock, more and more people began to find their seats in the stands ready for the start of the match. With five minutes to go before things were due to kick off, the Weasley cousins packed up their stalls, and the anticipation rose to a fever pitch.
Finally, once everyone was seated, Lily and Louis strode out to the middle of the Quidditch pitch. Louis was clutching the huge purple megaphone that I'd been dreading him using for weeks now. The stands erupted into cheers – perhaps not for Lily and Louis themselves, but certainly because their appearance meant we were getting closer to the match they'd come to see.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the most highly anticipated Quidditch match of the century!"
That was a bold statement, I reflected, given that England had won the World Cup less than two years ago. But then again, given the entire wizarding community's – frankly weird – hero-worship of the entire Weasley family, perhaps Louis was on the money.
"I'm sure you're all very excited for the match to begin, but before things kick off we want to remind you why we're all here. The money you've spent on your tickets, on your merchandise, on your food and drink, every single Knut of it is going to the Squib Foundation, the charity set up by our very own Lily Potter to help Squibs with their education and transition into the Muggle world. She has been working tirelessly for months to organise this event, and she has a few words she'd like to say to you all now."
More cheers as Louis handed over his treasured megaphone.
"Hi, everyone." Lily had been incredibly confident on stage at her fundraising dinner, but she seemed more uneasy in the middle of a Quidditch pitch with packed stands towering above her. "Thank you all for coming, as Louis says all the money is going to a fantastic cause. But before we get into that, I have a few thanks I'd like to make. Firstly, obviously to my parents, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins who have all agreed to play today, they've all been practicing so much and I have absolutely no idea how this match is going to pan out but it should be good fun."
"Lock up your pygmy puffs," Brigid muttered next to me.
"I also need to thank the rest of my family, they may not be playing today but they helped out massively this morning. But most of all I want to mention Brigid, my cousin's wife, who designed and made all our merchandise, and my brother's girlfriend Carlotta who put together the programme, organised publicity and ticket sales, and coordinated our food and drink stalls. If any of you have been to the Three Broomsticks or Wheezes recently you'll have seen first-hand how much hard work they've put in. This was my original idea, but Carla and Brie have absolutely run with it and made it happen, and we wouldn't be here now if not for them."
I felt my face turn bright red, and I slid down slightly in my seat, as the cheering from the stands grew louder for us. Lily had wanted to drag me down onto the pitch to chat with her, but I had firmly refused. I did not need any more unnecessary attention in my direction.
"Do I need to remind you that your boyfriend is basically the most famous person in wizarding Britain?" Maddie said in my ear, sounding far too gleeful at my discomfort for my liking. "You can't avoid the attention!"
"I didn't know that until it was too late," I grumbled.
Fortunately, Lily had apparently said all she wanted to say, and so the attention moved away from me. Unfortunately, this meant the megaphone found itself back in Louis' possession.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the match will start in about ten minutes, so consider this your final warning to find your seats before we kick off. But before that, we want to find out a bit more about the Squib Foundation, so please would you all welcome to the pitch, co-founder Thaddeus Ketteridge!"
The cheers for Thaddeus Ketteridge were a bit more muted. The wizarding community was so predictable – most of the people here hadn't chosen to attend the match out of support for the Squib Foundation at all; they'd only come to see the match itself. And while Lily garnered attention and publicity through her family connections, generally Squibs were low currency members of the community. Nobody really knew, or cared to know, who Thaddeus was.
But of course, Lily and Thaddeus knew all this; they knew they had to use a high-profile event to lull people into giving their money to a cause they felt apathy for. And it was the reason why Louis had spent so much time planning what topics to discuss with Thaddeus on such a stage. They couldn't expect everyone to actually listen to what Thaddeus had to say, just like how they couldn't expect everyone to read the piece he'd written for the programme. But with any luck some people would listen, and start to give a damn about the Squib community and the causes the Foundation stood for.
"Now, Thaddeus, obviously I know who you are," Louis began, "as you've been a huge part of Lily's life for over twelve years now. But there will be a lot of people here who don't know who you are, or why you do the work you do. So could you tell us how you found out you were a Squib, and how that affected you?"
"Well, obviously I didn't show any signs of magic as a child, but my parents weren't hugely worried. Not all children do show signs of magic before they reach the age of eleven, you see, and Squibs are so rare that it certainly wasn't my parents' first assumption. We only discovered I was a Squib when the summer after my eleventh birthday rolled around, and I never received a letter from Hogwarts."
"Wow," Louis said, as though this was his first time hearing this – the boy was a natural at this. "That's pretty awful to think about. Every witch and wizard from a magical family will understand the excitement of waiting to receive that letter, and the rite of passage of attending Hogwarts. So did you hear from the school at all, did you have any confirmation from anyone that you were a Squib?"
"No, we didn't hear anything from the school – because, of course, they weren't to know I existed. The Quill records magical births; there's nothing out there to record a Squib birth. So my parents had to get in touch with the school themselves to verify that there hadn't been a mistake."
"That must have been a really hard time for all of you," Louis said, his voice filled with empathy. If any of the crowd – who had fallen to a hush – were actually listening, then they would surely be feeling for the eleven year old Thaddeus now. "So what happened to you after that?"
"Well, I had to go to a Muggle school, of course," Thaddeus said. "There was clearly no future for me in the wizarding world if I couldn't perform magic, so I had to learn to live as a Muggle. And of course there were obstacles to that straight away; Muggle children attend school from the age of four, you see. My parents told the school that accepted me that I'd been home-schooled, but it was clear from the start that I was miles behind all the other children. I didn't know the history, the geography, the literature, that they did. I had to have tutoring sessions after school and at weekends. I had very little leisure time in my teens, so I had no time to get involved with the extra-curricular activities like sports. And it was very hard to make friends because I didn't understand the pop culture. My parents did what they could to get me up to scratch with television and movies and the such like, but they didn't really know much about it themselves. And, of course, we couldn't really get help from any Muggles because we couldn't tell anyone about our magical background. So I can't say I look back on my teen years with any sort of fondness at all, I'm afraid."
"Merlin's beard…" Louis murmured, sounding truly shocked. "I can't even begin to imagine how lonely that must have been. Especially when your childhood friends were telling all their tales about their time at Hogwarts."
"Oh, it was terrible for me," Thaddeus agreed. "I didn't fit in with the magical world any more, but I couldn't fit in with the Muggle world because I didn't understand it. And you can't imagine how confusing it is trying to work out where you want to go in life, when you have no comprehension of the wider world you're supposed to belong to."
The assembled crowd were definitely listening now; all eyes were fixed upon the tiny figures on the pitch, and you could have heard a pin drop.
"So what was your next step once you left school?" Louis prompted.
"Well, I went straight to the Ministry of Magic," Thaddeus explained, "and said that there was no support of any kind for Squibs, and that I wanted to change that. Unfortunately they weren't very receptive – this was a time when they were caught up with the first rise of He Who Must Not Be Named admittedly, so they had other things to worry about. So I decided to do things myself. I put out an advert in the Daily Prophet for my teaching services, for any other Squibs who wanted help integrating themselves into the Muggle world. It was a sort of support I would have really benefited from, so I felt that if I could just help one Squib with that transition, it would be worth it. And to my surprise, I was contacted by someone the very same week, who was a few years younger than me – so had already done three or four years of Muggle schooling – but who hoped to learn more. And within the next few years I'd had several more Squibs get in touch too. At first, I did this for free on the side of a job I'd gotten myself in a Muggle shop, but I soon had such a workload that I didn't have time to fit it all in, so I was forced to give up the Muggle job and start charging for the tutoring. I never wanted to make money off these people, I just needed a source of income to help me with my rent and my bills. But I had a fair number of pupils – some of them were a good ten, twenty years older than me even, but wanted to learn more – so nobody had to pay much."
"And that leads us on to how you came to know Lily, doesn't it?"
"It does. Lily was an unusual case for me, because Harry and Ginny Potter came to me for my services when she was only eight years old – they'd managed to establish through the school that she was a Squib, you see. Most of my students are at least eleven when they come to me, and so it's a difficult transition process. But I had three years to prepare Lily for Muggle schooling, and those years were invaluable. It's safe to say that she's turned out to be one of the most successful Squibs I've encountered, and so much of that is because she was able to come to terms with her situation at a much younger age. Of course, having a supportive family also helped her."
"And I understand she's the model, so to speak, upon which the two of you have based the Squib Foundation?"
"She is, yes. She understood her privilege in having the family network she does, and the head start she had, and she really wanted to give other Squibs that opportunity too. So the Foundation is really taking what I do and expanding it. The biggest thing we've achieved so far is we've managed to secure access to the Ministry of Magic's birth records, which we can then tally up with the Hogwarts List – and any Ministry birth that's not on the school list is presumed to be a Squib. We can then look to engage with these families at a very early stage, and start to prepare the child for Muggle schooling at a much younger age. Of course, parents aren't always receptive of us – nobody wants to hear their child is a Squib – but we never push any family to accept our help, and most of the time we do hear back from the family eventually. And the most important thing with the Foundation is that we are able to offer all these services for free, thanks to all the donations we receive."
"And Squibs of any age can come to the Foundation for help?"
"Oh, absolutely. We prepare young children for Muggle school, and from eleven to eighteen we offer supplementary tutoring if they are struggling with anything on their curriculum. We also offer O.W.L and N.E.W.T tutoring in partnership with Hogwarts; Lily, for example, sat four N.E.W.T theory papers and the Ministry of Magic is happy to recognise those as magical qualifications. It means that Squibs can still work in the wizarding world if they choose to take that path. We also still have adults who come back to us wishing to brush up on certain subjects – again, either Muggle or magical.
"We also try to teach our students more about the Muggle world as a whole, so it's a less daunting environment to live, learn and work in. And, of course, we offer a huge amount of careers advice, across both worlds. We really try to offer any assistance that any Squib needs, and we feel that as Squibs ourselves we are the ones best placed to do this."
"And just tell us a bit more about your roles within the Foundation, and who else is involved."
"Well, Lily is the brains behind it all, she created the Foundation and she's the one who pushes our publicity and fundraising. I oversee the day to day operations, with the help of several tutors – some are witches and wizards who also offer extra tutoring to Hogwarts students, and some are actually Squibs themselves, who have become experts in certain Muggle fields and look to share their knowledge.
"I also keep track of how our school-age Squibs are getting on at their schools; there are a few schools in the country who are aware of our world and so have a bit more understanding about the support these children need. We like to encourage school-age Squibs to attend boarding schools, as they offer more opportunities for people to immerse themselves into Muggle culture and really thrive. Again, to use her as an example, Lily attended a boarding school and really benefited from it, so we try to use her experiences as a model to follow. But we do appreciate that what worked for her won't work for everyone, so we try to tailor everyone's experience based on who they are as individuals."
"It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate."
"Oh, I do, but it's all worth it to help out our fellow Squibs."
"Well, I'm sure everyone here will agree with me when I say you're doing fantastic work at the Squib Foundation, and it's clear that the money we've all parted ways with today will go on to fund some incredible causes. Please, everyone, show your appreciation for Lily Potter and this wonderful, remarkable man, Thaddeus Ketteridge!"
The crowd erupted into applause and cheers, and I didn't think it was just because the end of the interview meant the Quidditch was next.
"You know, I think that might actually have hit home with people," Brigid shouted into my ear.
I nodded in agreement.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen-" Louis' voice was now sounding a bit breathless, because he was running across the pitch to get to the commentary position – "it's the moment you've all been waiting for … Weasley vs Weasley … the Gryffins vs the Lions!"
The cheers grew yet louder, and the stands were a sea of purple and orange as people waved their scarves and flags in the air.
"A quick reminder of how we'll be scoring this match, because we don't want it to end too soon if one of our Seekers is too successful. A Snitch capture will be worth fifty points, but it won't end the match; instead we will play until a team reaches five hundred points! So it's all to play for today.
"And now, without any further ado, give it up for the Lions! Weasley – Potter – Malfoy – Weasley – Weasley – Weasley – aaaaand Potter!"
Seven purple figures marched out from the dressing rooms below us, brooms slung over their shoulders. They lined up on one side of the pitch; I could see James standing between Angelina and Scorpius.
"And now let's hear it for the Gryffins! Potter – Lupin – Weasley – Weasley – Goldstein – Weasley – aaaaand Potter!"
"He's not going to refer to everyone by their surnames all match, is he?" I asked Brigid, as Ginny led the orange Gryffins out onto the pitch to face their counterparts.
"I wouldn't put it past him," was her reply. "I mean, at least we'll know when Scorpius or Teddy have the Quaffle."
I snickered.
"And now, please show your appreciation for our match referee, offering his time for free – none other than World Cup final referee Stoyanka Grozda!"
More cheers, as Grozda strode out onto the pitch with the crate of Quidditch balls under one arm. He was, James had told me once, a World Cup winning Bulgarian Chaser, and he had indeed refereed England vs Ireland.
He set the crate of balls down in between the two teams, and ordered the captains to shake hands – Harry and Teddy did so, both looking like they had their game faces on. They were definitely taking this far too seriously.
"Mount your brooms!" Grozda commanded.
He kicked open the crate; the Bludgers and Snitch flew up into the air. He took hold of the Quaffle, threw it into the air – and blew his whistle.
"Aaaand we're off! And it's Ginny Potter with possession of the Quaffle – she passes to Lupin – Weasley – Lupin – Po – intercepted by Potter, who passes to Malfoy – Weasley – Ma – Bludger from Weasley and Malfoy's lost the Quaffle, Lupin takes control-"
It was carnage. We were lucky we could see what was going on for ourselves, because Louis' commentary was more confusing than helpful – and yet I couldn't help but feel like that was deliberate on his part.
The play was fairly fast and frenetic – James and Roxanne were obviously expected to perform, but I hadn't expected Ginny to be quite as good as she was, given the amount of time she'd had away from the game. It looked as though it was all the other three Chasers could do to keep up.
There were a few shots at goal, but both Ron and Hugo made excellent saves. Finally, after what felt like a long while but was probably only ten minutes of play, there was a goal – and it came from Ginny.
"AND IT'S POTTER WITH THE GOAL, GINNY POTTER OF HOLYHEAD HARPIES FAME! What a player that woman still is! We can see where you got it all from, James!"
Two years ago, James would have resented that remark. But today, on his beloved broom with a manic grin across his face despite the fact his team was a goal down, he raised his arms and bowed down in mock worship towards his mother.
It was as though that goal had broken the floodgates. The next player to score was Scorpius with an incredible dash the full length of the pitch – Ron didn't look too impressed to have been beaten by him – then Roxanne scored a couple in quick succession.
And then, from that restart, Angelina took possession of the Quaffle, ducked a Bludger and Teddy, shot the ball out to her right to where Scorpius caught it, then almost immediately threw it straight up to where James came flying out of nowhere to snatch it from under Ginny's nose, duck underneath her and George, perform a Sloth Grip Roll to avoid Ethan's Bludger and pass back to Angelina. A few passes later, Angelina was right in front of the hoops – she made as if to score, but dropped it – right into James' outstretched hand. He threw the Quaffle up to the left hoop so fast that all Ron could do was watch with dismay as it sailed through the hoop.
He swooped down to collect the Quaffle, then threw it out to Teddy-
"AND POTTER'S SEEN SOMETHING!" Louis screamed, very unhelpfully. "POTTER IS DIVING – POTTER'S GOING AFTER HIM BUT I'M NOT SURE IF HE'LL CATCH HIM – NO, HE CAN'T – POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!"
Albus pulled his broom out of the dive, right fist raised and clenched round the Golden Snitch. Harry also pulled up, with a wry smile on his face – I saw, more than heard, him say to James "I'll get the next one!"
"And that capture, remember, is worth fifty points, so it's eighty points to twenty in favour of the Gryffins. The Lions could do with scoring a few more goals to get back in touch on the scoreboard!"
And they took Louis at his word.
First Angelina scored, then James, then Angelina again. Teddy pulled one back for the Gryffins – but then Harry delivered on his promise, and won the next Snitch capture.
"One hundred points to ninety now, the Lions in the lead!"
The match continued in a similar vein, with both Chaser trios fairly well balanced, and scoring at a similar pace. The Lions pulled ahead at one point by over a hundred points as Harry caught the Snitch twice in a row, but Al managed to bring their own head-to-head tally back to parity with the next few passages of play. It was a good thing the Snitch rule had been changed – Harry and Al were both absolutely incredible at spotting the ball.
As both teams broke through the four-hundred-and-fifty point mark, after a couple of hours of play, the anticipation within the ground started to rise to a fever pitch. At this point, one last Snitch capture would be enough to decide the match. It was just a question of whether Harry or Al would be able to spot the tiny ball before the Chasers took either team to the finish line themselves.
And then, just as the Gryffins were in possession of the Quaffle and looking as though they might score – Harry dived.
The stands were on their feet, cheering wildly – Albus was speeding towards the same point from the opposite direction, father and son both heading towards the ground at alarming speed – Harry was closer, but Al had more speed on him – Ryan and Della were both waving their scarves maniacally – I didn't know who I even wanted to win the battle-
"AND POTTER'S DONE IT, HE'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH AND WON THE MATCH!"
"Fuck off, Louis!" I screamed, to Brigid's delight.
Because for a second or two it wasn't even clear who had the Snitch, they'd both reached it at almost the same time…
But it was Harry who rose triumphantly, Albus who was left looking bitter at losing that final race for the Snitch.
"THE LIONS WIN, FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY POINTS TO FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY! WHAT A MATCH WE'VE ALL WITNESSED!"
In the end, it was probably the result the crowds wanted. Harry and James were the two most popular players on the pitch, and with them both on the same team, it was a no-brainer to work out. Personally, I wasn't sure if I was happy that James was on the winning team or not.
But as I watched Scorpius and Hugo celebrating together, and Ron congratulating Scorpius on his numerous goals, I had to concede that there was probably much more to gain from a Lions win.
Not to mention that the likes of Harry and James were far more gracious winners than Ron and Teddy were.
There was a whole prize giving ceremony at the end of the match, but I missed it entirely, because I had to run back to the pub. Lauren, who had joined us in the box ten minutes into the match, headed back with me. Aggie, Darryl and Kreacher hadn't left the kitchen all day, and had done an incredible job prepping for our mammoth dinner service.
I'd been dreading the evening, but I'd been worrying for nothing – I'd forgotten to take into account the Weasley family.
They all made a determined effort to make it back to the pub as quickly as possible, and in no time Nana Molly and Fleur were in the kitchen lending a helping hand, Hermione and Audrey were taking orders for the first few tables to sit down, James was behind the bar instructing Freddie, Rose and Hugo on how to make the drinks, and Ginny, Lily and Brigid were serving them. Harry, Bill, Charlie and Ron were serving food, and Al, Molly, Lucy and Rose were doing circuits of the restaurant clearing empty glasses and plates. And when the time came to clear and reset tables, Roxanne, Victoire and Dominique were on hand.
My absolute masterstroke was putting Teddy and Louis on meet and greet at the main door, showing people to their tables. Not only were they the two smoothest talkers in wizarding Britain – we couldn't take any walk-ins tonight, and I defied even the grumpiest people showing up requesting a table to take the bad news personally coming from either of them – but it also meant I couldn't possibly have any awkward run-ins with Louis tonight.
Lauren was doing a wonderful job overseeing the Weasley clan, while putting bills together and taking the payments – we needed people to settle up and get out quickly so we could get the tables back for second and third sittings – and I was camped out at the side of the bar, keeping an eagle eye on proceedings and folding my swan-shaped napkins.
"Hi, Carla."
I looked up to find Allegra Fawcett opposite me, an orange Gryffins scarf draped over her shoulders.
"Oh, hi, Ally."
I'd seen a lot of Allegra recently. She was working alongside Audrey in St Mungo's, and I had monthly appointments at the hospital so Audrey could prod and poke me and use my blood for her Parkinson's experiments.
"Hope you weren't too disappointed at the result," I said, gesturing towards the scarf.
"Oh." She smiled slightly, fingering at it with one hand. "I just thought that more people would probably be cheering on the Lions. What with James and Harry playing for them. And the rest of my family bought purple scarves. I thought maybe someone should support the Gryffins."
"That was sweet of you."
"Well, they're a good bunch of players too. And it's not fair for them all to be overshadowed by the same two people all the time. I mean, Albus nearly won the match at the end, it was super close."
"I think Al's a bit miffed that he didn't get that last capture," I said, "but I'm sure he'll get over it soon enough."
"It's good of them all to help you tonight."
"Yeah, I didn't realise they'd all pitch in. It's great, this is one of the easiest dinner services I've ever worked."
Allegra laughed softly.
"I just wanted to say what an amazing job you did, putting all this together," she said. "The whole day has been incredible, and it's obvious that you really understand how nuts we all are about Quidditch."
My cheeks had gone bright red again.
"I mean, it wasn't all me, Lily and Brie did loads…"
"You did a huge amount, and you should know that a lot of people have noticed it, and really appreciate it."
"I-" I didn't really know what to say. "Well, thanks, that's … that's really nice of you. Are you in for dinner with the family?"
"Yeah, we're just waiting for that table in the window…" Allegra gestured over to five, which was one of the bigger tables. A group of ten was just finishing up on it now, and Victoire and Lucy were hovering ready to clear and reset.
"Feel free to grab drinks from the bar while you're all waiting," I said. "You don't need to wait until you sit down."
"Oh, I didn't think we were supposed to order at the bar-"
"Normally you're not," I said, "it turns into carnage. But I'll make an exception for you."
Allegra smiled gratefully, and dashed off to take an order from her family.
I caught James' elbow next time he was up at my end of the bar.
"The Fawcetts are getting a round at the bar. It's on us; don't put it on their bill."
He looked at me quizzically.
"Ally Fawcett's family?"
"Yes, what other Fawcetts are there?"
He didn't ask any further questions, just nodded and dashed away. He couldn't raise any objections to one free round of drinks tonight, not when the place was packed out three times over.
It was past midnight when the last customers finally left. The clean-up was as swift as the evening's service had been, thanks to the sheer number of Weasleys with wands, and I dug out a couple of bottles of the more expensive Firewhisky to show my gratitude.
"I just want to say a huge thank you," I said once everyone was gathered around the bar with a glass. "I've been dreading tonight, and all your help has just been incredible. I promise I'll try to pay it back with family Sunday dinner again once our bookings have calmed down a bit."
"Oh, don't worry about that," George said. "We're Weasleys, it's what we do."
I truly adored this bunch of people.
We all necked the Firewhisky, and had a few more glasses too, and soon I wasn't sure if the warm and fuzzy feeling I felt was thanks to the Weasley clan or the alcohol.
It had been an incredible day. But little did I know at that moment that it would be a very long time before we were together in happy circumstances again.