Disclaimer: Shouldn't be writing this, yadda yadda yadda…
A/N 1/9/05- This is Whitney's sister. I'm regret to inform you that Whitney, Anna, and Beth fell off of the edge of the earth while searching for Middle-Earth.
Just kidding!
I'm sorry that I haven't updated in so long… I didn't have much time for writing during summer and the first part of school because of softball, but now I've got plenty of time as I'm not playing basketball… Yeah, that started a while ago but Beth and Anna had all three of the stories for some reason… anywho, I've got a lot to type, so I'm going to just shut up now. But I've got to say one thing… I've written this entire chapter by myself. It's not much, but I can say that I wrote it.
A/N 1/18/05- Holy monkey, this is taking a LOT longer than I expected… Beth and Anna are about ready to kill me because I've had the story for a while now. And I've realized that there are a few things in here that weren't in the actual books (i.e. the buffet in the private box) but I honestly don't care, so we're sticking with it.
A/N 1/19/05- If you can guess what show I got the idea for dryads from, I'll… erm… give you something from the show.
Chapter 13: The Quidditch World Cup 1976
The group stayed awake well into the night. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all ended up falling asleep in the Room of Requirement with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George and were somewhat startled to awaken with ten minutes before class started. After a quick change of robs and some breakfast (compliments of the Room of Requirement), they said hasty good byes. Harry watched them leave, a weight seemingly dropping in the pit of his stomach. He wanted more than anything to tell James not to trust Peter, to tell Peter not to join Voldemort, but Hermione's watchful eye stopped him from doing so. So it was with a heavy heart that Harry watched his future father, god father, teacher, and enemy sprint down the corridors, knowing he'd really only be able to see one of them when he returned to the future, for he didn't particularly want to see Wormtail again.
After they were out of sight, Harry stepped back into the Room, looking at Ron and Hermione with an odd expression on his face. Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it abruptly, seemingly at a loss for worlds.
Ron sighed, knowing what Harry was thinking. "Look on the bright side, mate- you got to see your dad and Sirius again," he said reassuringly.
Harry from slightly, still feeling upset about not telling them about the future. "I guess," he replied rather sardonically.
Ron frowned as well. "Well, if you want to sulk about things out of your control, then fine. I guess you can just sit around and wait for us after the Quidditch World Cup."
Harry's face- full of mixed emotions- lit up. "You mean we get to watch?" he asked excitedly in spite of himself. Only Quidditch could raise his spirits like this, even in such circumstances at this.
Hermione grinned, having found her voice once more. "Well, with a little help from the Room, we'll be able to go and have some extra spending money. It's Uganda against England and from what I read in 'Quidditch throughout the Ages', it was a great game. And if I remember correctly, it lasted a couple of hours, but they had problems with getting wizards and witches out without muggles noticing, so we'll have a little more time if we have problems with the portkey. Of course, we'll arrive by floo powder so we can watch the game, because if we used a portkey, it might send us back before we want it to. Like I said before, time tries to become stable-"
Harry put his hand up to stop Hermione. "We already got the space-time continuum speech, remember? And I don't need the full details; I just want to know when we're leaving."
Fred and George (both of whom have been very quiet all morning) put on their identical grins. "Well, we figured we could leave after lunch. That way we can see Sirius and James one last time," began George.
"- because those hasty goodbyes were definitely not good enough," finished Fred.
Harry's face broke into a large smile. "Awesome!" And with that to look forward, the day was much more enjoyable.
The group spent most of the couple hours they had preparing. Hermione had bewitched her bag so it could hold a lot more without the extra weight. Harry was handing Hermione the last of the omnioculars (Ron had insisted), when he gasped suddenly, making Hermione jump. "What is it, Harry?" she asked worriedly.
"It's nearly lunch time! C'mon, let's go!" Harry quickly jumped out of his chair and headed toward the door.
"Chill out, Harry… You'll get to see them soon enough," Ron said exasperatedly as he shoved the spilled contents of the magical bag back in. "'Sides, don't you think we're just as excited to see them as you are?"
Harry looked at Ron, his yes saying it all.
"Sorry…" Ron muttered, closing the bag and setting it on the table.
"It's alright," Harry said, waving the matter away with his hand, as if it were some annoying fly. "But can we please go now?" Fred and George chimed in with yeah's and what-he-said's.
Looking around, Hermione shrugged. "What/" I never said we had to wait. I fact, I was waiting for all of you."
After that bit of 'discussion' they left for the Great Hall. People were just arriving so they waited for a moment before entering, hoping it would fill up a bit more.
When they entered, Harry spotted James right away. At the moment, he was impersonating one of his lesser favorite teachers.
"'…Mr. Potter, how many times have I told you not to-' Hey, Harry!" James shouted, spotting his future son. "I thought you were leaving."
Sirius, Remus, and Peter all turned around and waved at the small menagerie, motioning them over. "Have a seat…"
"Good to see you, mate!"
"Feels like I haven't talked to you in a long time…"
Harry sat next to Sirius, Ron on his other side. Hermione was across from him, next to James and Fred and George were already chatting away with Peter and Remus.
"So I thought you guys were going back to the future," James said, grabbing a sandwich off of a large plate in front of him.
"We're leaving just after this." Harry picked up a sandwich for himself and took a bit. Once he'd swallowed he continued. "We're going to the Quidditch World Cup by floo powder, and then we're going to take a portkey back home."
James' hand stopped half way to his mouth, dropping his sandwich in the process. "You mean you get to go to the Quidditch World Cup in France, Uganda versus England?! No fair! I don't even get to go! My parents wouldn't let me out of school for it. You guys are so lucky!"
Sirius, Remus, and Peter let out exclamations of "What?!" and "Cool!" and "Wicked!" when they were told.
Once everyone had calmed down they spent the rest of their time debating who would win (Fred, George, and Hermione all kept quiet, seeing as they already knew who was going to win.), discussing school Quidditch, Quidditch in general, and by the end of lunch, they were almost sick of the word 'Quidditch'… Almost.
Remus suddenly jumped, startling everyone in the group. "We've gotta go! Class starts in two minutes!" he said hurriedly, standing up. True enough, there were very few left in the Great Hall and most of the teachers had disappeared as well.
James looked disappointed, as did Sirius. "Aw, c'mon Moony… Just this once… It's not like we haven't skipped class before," he said pleadingly.
Remus frowned. "But we're learning about the Patronus Charm today in Defense Against the Dark Arts."
James thought for a moment. "Oh, alright… Well, see ya, Harry… everyone." He would've stayed, had it been any other class… Well, maybe not Transfigurations. McGonagall would kill him… but Defense was his favorite class.
The rest of the four friends quickly said goodbye and sprinted to their next class. Harry watched his future teacher, enemy, god father and father disappear around the corner once more. "Well, let's go then!" he said, not wanting to dwell on the fact that only two were alive in the future…
Once the five had reached the Room of Requirement and had shut the door behind them, they sat down, thinking of a fireplace and floo powder. In an instant, a cozy fireplace appeared and next to it was a bowl full of floo powder. One by one they tossed their handful of powder, stating their destination and disappearing in a swirl of green flames.
Hermione stepped out of the fireplace last, shaking soot from her bushy hair and patting it out of her clothes (they had changed back into their original clothes). "Well, let's go and find our seats now," she said, walking forward.
As the rest hastily complied, they looked around. It appeared that they were in some sort of center for arrivals by floo powder. Hermione led the group (mainly because she was the only one that actually knew what she was doing) to some large gold doors. A man dressed in a nice black suit stopped them before they could go through and said something to them in French. Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, and then suddenly started to dig through her bag. "Oui," she said, nodding as she handed five tickets to the man. "Ah… you are from England? Why didn't you say so? I would 'ave spoken English with you."
"It's alright," Hermione said, taking the tickets back. "Could you point out where our seats are located?"
The man nodded. "Zey are over zis way," he said, pointing to his left.
"Merci beacoup," Hermione said, leading them around again.
"I didn't know you spoke French, Hermione," Ron stated once they were away from the man.
Hermione shrugged. "I was fascinated with the language when we vacationed in France a couple of years ago. You know, you should really check out this book-" she was stopped by Ron.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it… Learn French, read a book…" he muttered.
Hermione just rolled her eyes and continued to walk, glancing at the tickets now and then. As they did so, Harry watched the groups of people around him. There was a group of American girls singing a painfully out of key song… Something to do with a Fernando, he thought… They passed a rather large group of teenagers that were all chatting away in what Harry thought to be German…When it seemed they were never going to find their seats, Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, causing the rest to stop. Ron was spacing off and walked straight into Harry, causing him to topple over and create a domino effect. Soon everyone was on the ground, laughing. All but Hermione.
"Alright, which one of you thought about a private box?" she demanded, standing up and brushing dirt off her clothes.
A chorus of "No, not me!" was soon heard, but Ron was extremely quiet.
"Ron! You do remember the whole discussion about not messing up the past…" Hermione said exasperatedly.
"Sorry! I couldn't help it… You can't stop yourself from wanting good seats…" Ron threw his hands up defensively, backing away as though she were about to attack him. "Besides, there's nothing we can do about it now!"
Hermione just sighed and handed the tickets to the ticket-taker. He eyed them suspiciously and muttered something, though it was too low to make out.
Ron, Harry, Fred and George all rushed past Hermione and up the stone spiral staircase to their own private box. "Brilliant!" George exclaimed, looking around. The entire place was adorned with purple and gold velvet and large, plush chairs. The entire front wall was open, though some sort of magical barrier stopped you from falling out.
"This is amazing!" Harry said as he started on their private buffet.
Hermione couldn't help but feel excited about the game, with the fancy seats and just the overall feeling of excitement in the air- it was contagious.
Ron grinned. "See, Hermione? It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun in the general admission seats; you can't see a thing from there. But here, here we can see everything!" He grabbed a licorice wand from the table and plopped into one of the comfy chairs, taking a large bite as he did so.
"Whatever. If we get caught, it's your fault," Hermione said as she flipped through a velvet program, marking a page with a tassel.
"Aw, lighten up, Hermione," Harry said, looking at the program with curiosity. "So, what time does the game start?"
"In half an hour the mascot show starts. It's going to be really neat. Uganda has fwoopers and England-" Hermione started brightly, but her speech on fwoopers was cut short.
"Hermione! This is QUIDDITCH, not a meeting for the society of fwoopers," Ron said, shaking his head sadly. "I thought I'd gotten through to you…"
Hermione frowned. "Hey, just because I said something about fwoopers doesn't mean-"
Harry suddenly burst out laughing, causing all else to look at him worriedly.
"You alright, Harry?" George asked.
"You just… I don't know," Harry said once he'd gotten a hold of himself.
"Well, that was odd," Fred said with a chuckle.
Harry opened his mouth to say something when he was suddenly shushed. Looking confused, he turned around to see what was happening. An announcer was in the middle of saying something, the start of his welcome unheard.
"…and now, the team mascots!" the voice boomed, echoing in many different languages. "Uganda's team mascot is the fwooper!"
From one end of the enormous pitch, bright and vivid plumage was visible- oranges, pinks, limes and yellows in a large group of birds. They flapped their wings, gliding through the pitch and singing.
Harry watched the birds curiously for a moment, but soon he was walking over to the food table and dumping a bowl over his head.
"Harry!" Hermione shouted, bringing Harry back to earth. "Fwooper songs cause insanity," she said, answering his unasked question.
Ron was currently trying to eat his shoe, proving Hermione's fact. Harry laughed and prodded Ron in the arm, making his freckle-faced friend jump and spit his foot out of his mouth. "Who? Wha?"
Fred and George were still sitting in their chairs and laughing. "You two… What, does it only affect 16 year old boys?" George asked through chuckles.
"Yeah, really!" Fred agreed.
"Hey, what's that?" Harry said, pointing to the pitch and trying to draw attention away from the fact that he'd just dumped a bowl of licorice wands on his head.
"Wow, dryads!" breathed Hermione in awe.
"Dry-whatsits?" said Ron, clearly confused.
"Dryads! Honestly, don't you read?" Hermione rolled her eyes and continued. "Dryads are creatures, sort of like merpeople in a sense because they can speak… though no one can decipher their language yet. They originally came from Edinburgh… here, just watch."
Harry stepped closer to the large window, watching with interest. From the opposite side of the pitch very strange creatures were appearing. They were short, humanoid creatures that looked like they're come out of the pages of a muggle fairy-tale- pale skin, hair that looked like purple bramble and bushes, and their eyes each a different shade of violet. They fluttered over to their side of the pitch, their iridescent wings sparkling in the sun.
"Who cares?! I want the match to start!" groaned Ron.
"And now, may I present to you, England!" echoed the loud voice throughout the stadium once more.
"Thank you!" Ron practically shouted, sighing with relief.
"McCormack, Jones, Miller, Cooper, Skylark, Knight, aaaaaaaand Plumpton!"
The seven starters for England flew out, clad in royal blue robes. They sped around the stadium, the emblem of 'Silver Arrow' on their brooms barely visible.
"And here's Uganda!" the voice boomed again. "Musajakawa, Rwabugini, Singhal, Kutakulimuki, Erza, Lwanga, aaaaaaand Wambukawo!"
Harry shifted his gaze to the canary yellow robed African country, watching them as they too sped around the pitch.
"This should be an interesting match. Four of the seven starters for England are women! Let's see what these girls can do!" the voice announced once more. "The referee will review the rules, and they're about to start!"
The referee, a lanky man with stringy blonde hair, was standing in the middle of the players, who were currently shaking hands. When they were all back in place, they mounted their brooms. The referee tossed the quaffle high into the air and everyone pushed off the ground. "And Cooper of England has the quaffle!
Harry Ron, Hermione, Fred and George all watched in awe. Though Silver Arrows were a considerable amount slower than Firebolts, it was still like Quidditch as they'd never seen it. The chasers weaved in and out of the other players, tossing the quaffles back and forth…
"…And now Skylark has it! She shoots for the right hoop and-" The crowd roared and booed as the Ugandan keeper caught it tossing it to another teammate. "And a well-placed whack of the bludger from Jones nearly takes out the opposing keeper. Gwenog Jones is the youngest on the England team and she's paired with the second youngest on the team, the tiny powerhouse… Kelsey Miller!"
"Wow…" Fred said, standing up. "Watch those two! They are amazing! Better than us, and that's saying something."
George winked. "Yes, it is. But Jones and Miller… just… wow." There really wasn't a word to describe it, the entire game even. It was just awesome, as many Americans of the 90's would say.
The game had been going for nearly two hours and the sun was low in the sky. The moon was visible in the clear blue sky, though it was hard to see between the constantly moving players.
"And Uganda has the quaffle!" The teams were zooming around at top speeds. The seekers could be seen high above the crowds, above all of the zigzagging of chasers, beaters, keepers, bludgers and the quaffle. "And they're attempting the Woollongong Shimmy with the quaffle in their possession! Aaaaand- ouch!"
"What's happening?" Ron asked, standing on his toes as if it would help him see through the players.
"Just listen!" Hermione sighed.
"Chaser for England, Knight, is accused of blagging, aaand… yes! That's a penalty in favor of Uganda." The crowd became unnaturally quiet, as if they were all holding their breath. Harry was no different. "Aaaaand… Oh! McCormack misses the quaffle by a hair! The score now stands Uganda 50, England 40."
England started to fly over toward the other goal, quaffle in hand, but Harry wasn't watching that. The seekers were racing toward the England goal… toward a small speck of gold…
"And the seekers are… They've spotted the snitch! It looks like they're going to run into McCormack!" And they did. The three all collided with a loud, sickening crack sound. "Ouch! The mediwizards are out on the field..." Wizards and witches suddenly appeared on the field, slowing the players as they fell to the ground. Another wizard summoned the brooms so they wouldn't fly away.
"It seems McCormack has a broken arm, an easy fix, but what about the seekers? What's this? I can't believe it!" Plumpton was sitting on the ground, a slightly dazed look on his face as he held up a struggling golden snitch. "Plumpton has caught the snitch! England wins! The final score, England 190, Uganda 50."
The crowd cheering on all sides of them, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George all applauded.
"Wow! That was awesome!" exclaimed Ron.
"Yeah, did you see-" Fred began, but Hermione cut in.
"We need to go, or we'll miss our chance."
"Oh yeah…" said Harry vacantly. He'd forgotten all about that…
Wow! I'm finally done! It's amazing…
violingirl7- Thanks for the review! And I'm just sticking what my friends and I agreed with, putting the author every couple of lines, even if it is a little annoying. But I always love new reviewers. Thanks again! (Even though you've probably forgotten about this story…)
meggumscat- Silly Megan… Oi, why haven't you been writing? I loved your story…
That's all my reviewers. -points- I did update, Erica!