Disclaimer: Don't own it.

A/N: Don't kill me! I know it's been far too long, but I felt really discouraged after only getting four reviews from the last chapter. Also, I've been hung up on other fandoms. However, the HP3 movie has renewed my vigor and I'm reading to work! Thanks to unknown, polishrabbit78, SiriusElvenStar, and MalletWielderofDoom

A/N(2): Okay, I was going to have this chapter be at the Borrow, but that would have ended up being so dull it wouldn't have been funny. This chapter is starting at the Quidditch Cup, right after they take the Portkey and have set up camp and Bagman and Crouch have already been by and now they're on their way to the top box, meeting Sirius and Remus on the way. Everything else is basically the same as it was in the book.

Chapter 3

The World Cup and the Dark Mark

"Harry!"

Harry turned away from the salesman he'd just bought the Omnioculars from at the call of his name. His face split into a grin as he saw Sirius and Remus heading toward them.

"Sirius! Remus! What took you so long?" Harry asked.

"We had a few last minute things to do," Sirius said, not wanting to tell his godson that they were discussing his dream with Dumbledore. "Now, come on, we have to get to our seats."

"Prime seats!" the Ministry witch at the stadium's entrance said, looking at their tickets. "Top Box! All the way up!"

They thanked her and headed all the way up to their seats. They eventually stopped at a small box that held about thirty purple-and-gold chairs standing in two rows. Harry, Sirius, Remus, Hermione, and the Weasleys filed into the first row.

Harry looked about him and noticed that the only other person in the box was a tiny creature. Its legs stupid out in front of it on the chair, and it was wearing a tea towel draped like a toga. Its face was hidden in its hands, and yet those long, bat-like ears were oddly familiar…

"Dobby?" said Harry incredulously.

The creature looked up, revealing enormous brown eyes and a tomato-like nose. It was, indeed, a house-elf, but it wasn't Dobby.

"Did sir just call me Dobby?" the elf squeaked. It had a very high voice, which made Harry success that it was female. Ron and Hermione spun around, having heard a lot about Dobby but never actually meeting him. Sirius and Remus also turned around, curious about how Harry could know a house-elf and making a curious note to ask Harry to tell them the entire stories of his first and second years.

"I'm sorry, but I thought you were someone I knew," Harry told the elf.

"But I knows Dobby too, sir!" squeaked the elf. She was shielding her face, as though blinded by light, thought the Top Box was not brightly lit. "My name is Winky— and you, sir— " Her dark brown eyes widened to the size of side plates as they rested on Harry's scar. "You is surely Harry Potter!"

"Yeah," Harry replied.

"Dobby talks of you all the time, sir!" she said, lowering her hands very slightly and looking awestruck.

"How is he? How's freedom suiting him?" Harry asked.

"Ah, sir," said Winky, shaking her head, "meaning no disrespect, sir, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favor, sir, when you is setting him free."

"Why?" Harry said, worried about the odd creature that in various odd, but sincere, ways tried to save his life. "What's wrong with him?"

"Freedom is going to Dobby's head, sir. Ideas above his station, sir. Can't get another position, sir."

"Why not?" Harry demanded.

Winky lowered her voice and whispered, "He is wanting paying for his work, sir."

"Paying?" Harry said blankly. "Well— why shouldn't he be paid?"

"House-elve is not paid, sir!" Winky squeaked in a horrified manor. "No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and the next thing I hear you's up in front of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin."

"Well, it's about time he had a bit of fun," Harry said in Dobby's defense.

"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter. House-elves does what they is told. I is not liking heights at all, Harry Potter, but my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, sir."

"Why's he sent you up here, if he knows you don't like heights?" Harry asked.

"Master— master wants me to save him a seat, Harry Potter. He is very busy. Winky is wishing she is back in master's tent, Harry Potter, but Winky does what she is told," she said, before hiding her face completely again.

"So that's a house-elf?" Ron muttered. "Weird things, aren't they?"

"Dobby was weirder," said Harry fervently.

"You realize, Harry, that you have just reminded me that I have yet to hear all the tales from your first and second years," Sirius said. "As soon as we get back to Black Manor, you're telling us everything."

"Everything?" Harry asked, thinking nervously back upon all the dangerous situations he managed to get himself in.

"Everything," Sirius said pointedly.

The box gradually began to fill around them over the next half hour. Harry was particularly disgust, however, when the Malfoys walked.

"Just ignore them, Harry," Sirius muttered out of the side of his mouth. "At least you aren't related to them."

"The Potter line is the only one who isn't connected to any of the other Old Family lines," Remus remarked.

"They always had good sense," Sirius stated. "Don't know what happened to Harry."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, kid."

"I know you are," Harry said seriously.

Sirius smiled and started to nod, then he caught what Harry had really said. "Hey!"

"Quiet, you two," Remus ordered. "The mascot shows are beginning."

"And now, without further ado," Ludo Bagman announced, "allow me to introduce…the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

"Veela! Harry, cover your ears," Sirius advised, covering his own. Harry did as he was told, not knowing exactly why. That is, until he saw the effect the veela music was having on Ron. He looked as if he were about to dive off a springboard. Before Harry could decide whether or not he should risk taking his hands off his ears to stop Ron, the music ceased.

"Ron, what are you doing?" Hermione asked, exasperated.

Ron, however, wasn't paying attention. He was absentmindedly shredding the shamrocks on his hat. Mr. Weasley tugged the hat out of his hands to stop him.

"You'll be wanting that," he said, "once Ireland have had their say."

"Huh?" said Ron, staring openmouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field.

"Honestly," Hermione huffed.

Mr. Weasley was right, though. The Irish Team Mascots were spectacular, consisting of thousands of leprechauns showering gold all over the stadium. The Quidditch game itself was spectacular. In the end, Ireland managed to win it, although Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker, caught the Snitch.

"I can't wait to try that Wronski Feint!" Harry said excitedly, talking the game over with Ron, George, and Fred.

"And give me a heart attack," Sirius said, overhearing Harry's comment. "You hear that, Moony, Harry's trying to drive me into an early grave."

"You shouldn't complain, Padfoot. You were much worse when you were his age," Remus pointed out.

"You're supposed to be on my side," Sirius grumbled.

Fred and George stopped in their tracks at the sound of the two men's nicknames.

"Moony?" George gasped.

"Padfoot?" Fred breathed in awe.

"You two are the Marauders!" they exclaimed in unison.

"At your service," Sirius said with a bow.

"They can revel in our greatness later," Remus said with a grin. "Right now, they had better go to bed. They have to get up quite early in the morning."

"Remind me to wake you up when I get up in the morning," Harry said, making his way to bed.

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"Harry! Wake up!" Sirius shouted, shaking Harry frantically.

Harry blinked dazedly at the urgent awakening. "Sirius, what's wrong?"

"No time to explain, Harry. Just grab a jacket and get outside— quickly!"

Harry did as he was told and hurried out of the tent.

He could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire. It was a crowd of wizards, packed tightly together and moving with wands pointing straight upward. They wore dark robes and their heads were hooded and masked. Above them hung four grotesque figures. On closer inspection, Harry realized that they were the campsite manager and his family.

The Weasleys and Hermione soon joined them. "We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley shouted over the noise. "Get into the woods and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

"C'mon," said Fred, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the wood. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and George followed. They all looked back as they reached the trees. They could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through to the hooded crowd, but they were having a difficult time. It looked as though they were scared that any spell they performed would cause the overhead Muggles to fall.

Harry was being pushed and shoved by people in a great hurry to get to safety. The lanterns on the path had been extinguished and there was no way to see. Suddenly, he heard Ron yell with pain.

"What happened?" Hermione asked anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Harry walked into her. "Ron, where are you? Oh this is stupid— lumos!"

She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground.

"Tripped over a tree root," he said angrily, getting to his feet again.

"Well, with feet that size, hard not to," said a drawling voice from behind them.

They turned quickly. Draco Malfoy was standing alone nearby, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees.

"Hadn't you three better hurry along, now?" Malfoy said, his pale eyes glittering. "You wouldn't want her spotted, would you?"

He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment, a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione defiantly.

"Granger, they're after Muggles," said Malfoy. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around…they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."

"Hermione's a witch," Harry snarled.

"Have it your own way, Potter," Malfoy said, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."

"You watch your mouth!" shouted Ron.

"Never mind, Ron," Hermione said quickly, seizing Ron's arms to restrain him as he took a step toward Malfoy.

"I suppose your father's out there trying to rescue the Muggles," Malfoy drawled. "I suppose your guardians are as well, Potter. Honestly, I'm ashamed to be related to Black."

"I can assure you the feeling's mutual," Harry said scathingly. "Where're your parents? Out there wearing masks?

"Well, if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"

"Oh come on," Hermione said, with a disgusted look at Malfoy, "let's go and find the others."

"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger," sneered Malfoy.

"Come on," Hermione repeated, and she pulled Harry and Ron up the path again.

"I'll bet you anything his dad is one of that masked lot!" said Ron hotly.

"Well, with any luck, the Ministry will catch him!" said Hermione fervently. "Oh I can't believe this. Where have the others got to?"

They were nowhere to be seen, though the place was packed with plenty of other people, all looking nervously over their shoulders toward the commotion at the campsite.

"They can't have gone that far," Ron said, pulling out his wand and lighting it like Hermione's. Harry dug in his pocket for his own wand, but it wasn't there. The only thing he could find was his Omnioculars.

"Ah, no, I don't believe it…I've lost my wand!"

"You're kidding!"

Ron and Hermione raised their wands high enough to spread the narrow beams of light farther on the ground; Harry looked all around him, but his want was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe it's back in the tent," Ron suggested.

"Maybe it fell out of your pocket when we were running?" Hermione said anxiously.

"Yeah," said Harry, "maybe…"

He felt very vulnerable without his wand in the midst of a scene like this. They soon encountered Winky, looking as if she were fighting an invisible person to run away from the campsite. Then they came upon the veela, causing Ron to get a little out of it for a minute. When they came upon an empty clearing, they decided to stop.

"I reckon we can just wait here, you know," Harry said, looking around. "We'll here anyone coming a mile off."

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Sirius was working as hard as he could to get the Muggles down so that they could go after the Death Eaters. He wished with all his heart that he could have stayed with Harry to ensure his safety, but he knew that if he didn't stop the Death Eaters, they might go after his godson. Suddenly, there was a flash of green light from the woods. The Death Eaters instantly became afraid and scattered, leaving the Ministry to stop the Muggles from plummeting to their deaths. Sirius looked up and saw something that chilled him to the bone. The Dark Mark.

'Oh no,' he thought frantically. 'Harry, please be safe.' He was about to Apparate to the spot when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Remus.

 he thought frantically. He was about to Apparate to the spot when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Remus.

"Sirius, don't," he said. "A bunch of Ministry wizards, including Arthur, are already checking it out. There's a good chance that Harry's already waiting at the tent for us."

"You're right," Sirius sighed. "I just can't help but worry."

"I know," Remus said.

They both then Apparated to the tent. They saw that George, Fred, and Ginny had all made it back, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione were nowhere to be seen.

'Oh God, please let him be alright,' Sirius thought anxiously.

Wow, that's like a record for me! I don't think I've ever written that long of a chapter! Ya'll better review it! ::looks meak:: please ::puppy dog pouts::