THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP

Another year had gone by at Hogwarts. And another summer was arriving to an end. They had grown up quite a lot. Draco was taller than last year. Alex had started to show signs of puberty as well. After everything that happened last year with Sirius, Pettigrew and stuff, Alex was glad to spent the summer next to Draco. Even if that meant having Lucius around as well. Their relationship had changed somehow…The shivers she had felt last year were now a habit every time Draco got closer to her. He had started feeling those shivers too. Every time Alex walked in a room and smiled at him. Every time she sat next to him and placed her head on his shoulders. They both were aware of the situation, and they knew what it meant. But none of them wanted to admit it. Too afraid that the other one didn't feel the same way. Too afraid to lose their best friend.

It was morning, and Lucius had been invited to the Quidditch World Cup by the minister himself. He told Draco that he would take him with, however, Draco managed to convince Lucius to take Alex as well.

- If she's coming, she needs to wear appropriate attire.

So, Narcissa took her some days before to buy a couple dresses that fit Lucius expectations of an "appropriate attire". She wasn't used to wear dresses. Only thing that could be considered a dress that she wore was Hogwarts skirt. And she only wore it because it was part of the uniform. She preferred trousers. She felt more comfortable with them. However, she found a couple dresses that she actually liked and felt comfortable with.

So, that morning, she was getting ready, when someone knocked on her door. As she opened…shivers. Draco was standing there, in a simple but elegant black suit. He looked handsome as hell. He looked at her. Up and down.

- You look beautiful. – he kind of whispered. Alex smiled.

- Have you look at yourself? You're incredible. – Draco smiled as well. They stayed there in silence for a few seconds, looking each other in the eyes.

- I've never seen you with a dress. It suits you.

- Thank you. – suddenly, the magic was broken by a loud voice.

- Draco! Alexa! Let's go! I'm not waiting any longer! – Lucius spoke from the first floor. They laughed at it. Draco offered her his arm.

- Shall we? – she took it, and both of them headed to the first floor, where Lucius was waiting.

- Oh my, look at you both! You look like a couple in a magazine cover! – Narcissa smiled at both of them. The mention of the word "couple" made Draco and Alex reddened, as they let go of each other. Narcissa laughed at both of them. She was aware of the feelings that his son was developing towards Alexa. And she could also notice Alex felt the same.

- Let's go. We don't want to keep the minister waiting.

With that, Lucius and the two teenagers walked towards a chandelier. It was a portkey. When they touched it at the same time, it teleported them to the place where the Quidditch world cup was taking place. Lucius signalled them to follow him and they did. They entered the stadium. It was enormous. They were headed to the minister's box. Probably one of the best and more comfortable places to see the match from. Suddenly, she heard a familiar voice.

- Blimey dad! How far up are we? – Ron and his entire family, next to Hermione and Harry, were climbing the stairs.

- Well put it this way, if it rains…you'll be the first to know. – Lucius said as all of them turned around.

- Hi, guys… - Alex timidly waved her hand at them.

- Hey, Alex! – they all salute her.

- We are in the minister's box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself. – Draco said, with a grin on his face. Lucius nudged him with his cane.

- Don't boast Draco. There's no need with these people. – they were turning around when Lucius grabbed Harry's shirt with his cane. - Do enjoy yourself, won't you? While you can. – he took off his cane and kept on walking, followed by Draco.

- Sorry, guys… - she started following, as her friends kept on climbing when someone called her from behind.

- Hey, Black! – she turned to see Fred staring at her with a smile on his face. – You look amazing. – her face reddened as she smiled. She kept on following Lucius and Draco as Fred climbed up the stairs. Draco seemed to have heard what Fred had told Alex, because he was looking at the stairs with deadly eyes.

The match was about to start, so they took their places. The players started to show up on their brooms, flying around the stadium. Alex was smiling from ear to ear. It was something pretty awesome to watch. Draco was smiling too. But he was looking at her. The minister stood up, and with the wand pointing at his neck, he started talking. His voice could be heard all over the stadium.

- Good evening! As Minister for Magic, it gives me great pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup! Let the match begin! – and with that, the match began.

People flew all over the place. Alex was focussed on the beaters, since that was her role on her Quidditch team. It was all so exciting. The whole stadium was shouting and screaming. It was quite a show.

When it came to an end, the Irish were victorious over the Bulgarians. Lucius told Draco and Alex to wait at the stadium. Apparently, he needed to do something. As soon as he disappeared, Alex spoke to Draco.

- I'm going to say hi to my friends. Can you wait here for me? It won't take me much time. – Draco looked at her kind of disappointed, but he nodded.

- Fine. Don't take long. If dad comes back, I won't be able to cover up for you.

- Thank you, Draco. – she kissed him on the cheek, which made him smile widely. He watched her as she walked away.

DRACO'S POINT OF VIEW

He wished she had stayed there with him waiting for his dad, but he had come to terms with Alex being friends with the Gryffindors he hated so much. The biggest problem he had with it had a name: Fred Weasley. It was pretty obvious for Draco that Fred liked Alex the same way he did. He wasn't sure about Alex's feelings on the matter, but he was afraid she liked the twin. She was always nice to him, she laughed when he told her a joke, he took care of her…And, her friends liked him, since he was a Weasley. He had more chances to be with her than Draco, or at least, that's what he though.

Time passed, and neither Alex or Lucius showed up. He was starting to get tired. He got up and walked out of the stadium, where the minister and other important people were having some sort of after party. That's when he saw. There was smoke and fire, and people were starting to ran around, scared. There was an attack. Draco panicked. "What do I do?". He thought about staying inside the stadium, safe, but then her face pop on his head. "Alex". Without a second though, he started running towards the multitude. He didn't have many chances of finding her, but he needed to try. He needed to make sure she was safe and sound.

ALEX'S POINT OF VIEW

She got out of the stadium, and saw some tall red heads on the distance, and she started following. She knew those were Fred and George. She wanted to say hi to her friends and hugged them, after the whole summer. Since everyone was walking around the place, she wasn't able to catch up with them until they arrived to their tent. Alex walked in timidly. At that moment, Hermione looked at her, and smiled.

- Alex! – she ran towards her and hugged each other.

- Hermione! I've missed you! – Harry went to received her friend as well.

- You should have come with us! – he hugged her.

- Yeah, sorry about that. Lucius can be…well, Lucius. – George walked up to her. – Hey, Georgie! – they hugged each other.

- You look like a proper lady! Did they forced you into that dress? – they both laughed.

- Something like that, yeah. – at that moment, Fred walked up to her, smiling. Everyone walked away with grins on their faces, like they knew something Alex didn't. Fred placed his hands around her waist and hugged her tightly.

- I missed you, Black.

- That makes two of us, Freddie. – if she had to choose a favourite from all her Gryffindor friends, after Neville, she would always choose Fred. He was always kind to her, so warm. Made her feel safe. When they let go of each other, the rest were grinning. In order to change the subject, Alex asked. – So, how did you watch the game?

- It was awesome! You could see everything from up there.

- Yeah, but the Bulgarians should have won. – Ron said, looking sad.

- Don't start again, Ronald! – Ginny said to her brother.

- There's no one like Krum. He's like a bird the way he rides the wind. Rather than an athlete, he's an artist. – both Fred ang George started bumbling about in a comical way muttering Krum's name.

- Think you're in love Ron? – Ginny asked.

- Viktor, I love you! Viktor, I do! – the twins started singing, messing around with Ron.

- When we're apart my heart beats only for youuu! – everyone in the tent joined them. They all laughed as Ron looked around annoyed. There was a lot of screaming out there when Mister Weasley walked into the tent.

- Sounds like the Irish have got their pride on! – said Fred.

- Stop! Stop it! It's not the Irish. We've got to get out of here. Now! – he looked afraid. He walked everyone outside the tent and that's when they saw. Fire. The tents were being burned. People were running all around, trying to escape. - Get back to the portkey everybody, and stick together. Fred, George…Ginny is your responsibility. – Fred and George grabbed Ginny and started running. Fred quickly turned, and grabbed Alex hand.

- Let's go! – they all started running. "Draco". Alex freed herself from Fred's hand and started running the other way, towards the stadium. Fred screamed after her, but she didn't turn. She knew where to find him, she just hoped he had stayed at the stadium. She turned a corner, people ran the other way, so it was hard to advanced. Suddenly she saw a group of people. The ones who were burning the tents. They had pointed hoods and masks. They were terrifying. She had to passed them to get to the stadium. She started running again when she bumped into someone else. She looked up.

- Draco?! – she hugged the blond boy, who returned the hug.

- Are you okay?! – he grabbed her face between his hands, and she nodded. He looked back and saw those dangerous people. – We need to get out of here! C'mon! – Draco grabbed Alex's hand and they both started running the same way the other people did. It came to a point where every tent was burning, and it seemed like there was not a way out. Draco pushed Alex against some barrels and boxes stored on the ground.

- This is a terrible idea…They'll see us… - Alex looked terrified. Draco held her tightly.

- Shhhh, maybe they'll pass us. It's out best chance. – they stayed there hugging each other as the people kept on running and the group of dangerous people advanced. When they arrived at their level, they didn't saw them. Except for the last one. He stared at them for a few seconds, without doing a move. Both Alex and Draco were completely paralyzed.

- Get out of here. – the man spoke. Then he turned and kept following his group. Alex and Draco looked at each other relieved. When the group was far enough, they got up, and started running towards the stadium, where Mister Weasley, along other people, were standing.

- Alex! – he walked to her. – Are you both okay? – they nodded. They all had their wands on their hands.

- You're going out there? – Alex asked. Mister Weasley nodded. – It's dangerous!

- It's our job, Alex. You and Draco stay in here, okay? You'll be fine. – and just like that, Mister Weasley and the other people walked out of the stadium. There was some civils around, like Alex and Draco, who had hidden in there. "Get out of here". Those words rumbled in her head.

- Where the hell is my father? We need to get out of here. – Draco was still holding Alex's hand.

- Why didn't he hurt us? – Alex looked at Draco. – That man.

- Maybe they just wanted to burn tents, not kill people.

- I think I've heard that voice somewhere… - she truly believed that, but she couldn't manage to locate it. – We should go, before anything else happens.

- And my dad?

- I'm sure he'll be fine, if not out of here already… - they headed to the room where they had guarded the portkey. They touched it and appeared at the Malfoy Manor. Narcissa was there. She noticed their looks and their clothes filled with ashes.

- What happened to both of you? – she got closer to them, worried.

- Someone attacked the place. Burnt the tents. – she looked way to calm, like she had known before they told her.

- Go and get change, dinner's ready. I'm sure you're hungry. – Narcissa smiled at them.

- Is dad here? – Draco asked. He knew there was something off as well.

- No, but I'm sure he'll be here shortly. Don't worry about it. Go! – both Alex and Draco climbed up the stairs towards their bedrooms.

- Don't you think it's weird? – Alex looked at Draco. – Your dad disappears, then this people attack and your mother looked like she already knew about it…And she's not worried about your dad at all.

- Maybe he already got in touch with her…

- Maybe… - Alex got into her room to get change. There was something off about it. She decided it was the perfect time to write a letter to Remus.

"Dear uncle Remus. I hope you're doing fine. There's something I wanted to share with you…something that has me worried. Today, at the Quidditch World Cup, there was an attack. People with pointed hoods started burning all of the tents. It was chaos. One of them saw me and Draco hiding in the crowd. And he told us to get out of there. I had the feeling that I knew that voice, but with all the chaos and his attire, I can't seem to locate it…I'm fine, I don't want you to get worried. But…something tells me that Lucius had something to do with it. I know he's an awful person but…that bad? I don't know. I'm confused. I miss you. Tell dad I said hi, will you? Love you both."

She gave the letter to Draco's owl and sent it away. She put on some comfy clothes, and went downstairs to have dinner. When she arrived, Draco was already there, and so was Lucius.

- Where were you? – Alex asked him. He looked at her, with a serious face.

- That's none of your business, Alexa…

- There was an attack. You noticed, didn't you? They almost killed me and Draco. – she spoke with a defiance voice. He was clearly not in the mood to put up with her.

- Well, maybe next time I told you to wait for me somewhere, you'll listen instead of going to have fun with your nasty friends. – he looked at Draco. His head was down. He had told him about Alex going to the Weasley's tent. She didn't blame him. She grabbed an apple, knowing that after her words she wouldn't be able to have dinner.

- Well, maybe next time there's an attack, you'll take care of the people in your care. Or at least, your son. – she turned around before Lucius could say anything else, climbed up the stairs, and locked herself in her room.

She wished to be far away from there. With Draco, but away from Lucius. He was like poison. A disease that spread wildly. Her blood boiled whenever she was near him. She laid in bed, and waited for everything to passed. To return to Hogwarts.