Chapter 10

The World Cup and a Muggle Store

We woke up bright and early and headed to the Top Box. It was unbelievably awesome. Fred, George and I all had our faces painted green for Ireland. (It was so cool to see the look on everybody's face when we emerged from the tent.) I bought a pair of super flippin' awesome Omniculars. Before the match started, I looked around for people that I knew. I found Angelina and Alicia, but they couldn't see me. Then I found Cedric, who saw me with his Omniculars and we waved to each other. I showed Fred where Cedric was, gave him the Omniculars to use for awhile, and left the Top Box to go get some food. Fred yelled at me after I'd gotten out of the Top Box, "He was following your arse with the Omniculars!"

"Yeah right!" I yelled back. "Cedric isn't a perv!" And I went to go get a pretzel.

When I came back, the mascots were just starting to come out. When the veela came, I looked around to see who looked like they were going crazy (sometimes aided by the Omniculars). Draco did a back flip, Percy almost snapped his wand in half, Seamus looked about ready to lick…something, and that's just the beginning. It was frikkin' hilarious!

When the Irish mascots came out, everyone seemed to get their senses back, and grab as much gold as possible. "We have to go to Diagon Alley!" I yelled, after getting about 30 Galleons. But then I remembered that leprechaun gold vanishes in hours. However, I didn't tell anyone else, because I didn't want to rain on their parade.

Soon the match started, and both sides played beautifully. But Ireland's offense was just too good for Bulgaria's defense. Krum did an amazing Wronski Feint, sending Lynch to the ground. But Lynch made a recovery, and I murmured to Fred and George, "Krum's using this time to look for the Snitch. He's gonna get it." And sure enough, Krum got the Snitch, but Bulgaria still lost. "How much did you win?" I asked. Fred whispered the figure into my ear, and I smiled. "Enough to start fake wands and maybe Skiving Snackboxes!" I whispered.

We went back to camp and were celebrating until we saw masked people levitating Muggles in the air. "Fred, George, keep Paige and Ginny with you. Everybody, go find somewhere safe," commanded Arthur.

Fred, George, Ginny and I ran, but I couldn't resist yelling "Hi, Uncle Lucius!" when we got scarily close to the Death Eaters. We found a clearing and stood there for a while, but when we saw the Dark Mark, we ran back to camp. We were there for a while before Arthur, Harry, Hermione, and Ron came back.

"Dad? What happened?" asked George.

"We'll talk about it later."

We got back to the Burrow as soon as possible, and Mrs. Weasley gave Fred and George death-by-hugging when we got back. "What if you didn't come home and the last thing I ever said to you was about not getting enough OWLs?" she wailed.

"Molly, they're okay," answered Arthur.

"Right…of course. We need to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow to buy dress robes and school books," said Mrs. Weasley, regaining her composure.

I whispered something to Fred, who nodded fervently, so I asked Mrs. Weasley, "I want to get a Muggle dress, so I was wondering if Mr. Weasley and I could get it tomorrow?"

"Of course. Arthur would love to. If you'll just circle the books you need, I'll get them tomorrow."

So the next day, Mr. Weasley and I set out to buy a Muggle dress. "I'm looking for a silver dress," I told the lady, after I'd pulled Arthur away from the parking meters.

"How about this one? Silk, sleeveless, cinches the waist, and has a full skirt," she recited.

I tried on the beautiful dress and fell in love with it. "I'll take it!" I announced.

"That'll be $300," she stated.

I handed her a Galleon and asked, "Will this cover it?"

"Oh, yes, of course," she answered, eyes gleaming.

Mr. Weasley and I headed back to Diagon Alley. We met everybody in Flourish and Blotts, where Mrs. Weasley was buying the last of the school books. So we headed back to the Burrow, and I told everyone how I'd gotten a beautiful dress for one Galleon. Arthur was obsessively talking about parking meters.

When we got back to the Burrow, Fred and George realized the Galleons that Mr. Bagman had paid them were gone.

"That git must have paid us in leprechaun gold…that evil little son of a-,"

"Fred," I stated warningly. "Anyway, my offer to nick gold off of Lucius still stands."

"We'd just perfected fake wands! And we planned to sell the Canary Creams, fake wands, and Ton-Tongue Toffee!"

"Here," I said, handing George 10 Galleons. "Use it to make one of the products, sell it, and then use the profit to buy supplies for the other stuff."

"But we're still gonna get our money from Ludo Bagman, the-,"

"FRED!"

"Sorry."

"But, by all means, do get your money. But now, I'm hungry, so let's go eat dinner."

The rest of the summer we made Canary Creams in secret and planned to sell them and then the Ton-Tongue toffee and fake wands. If Mrs. Weasley had any idea of what we were doing, she didn't let on. Fred and George were in high spirits, considering they would only be taking three classes.

"Wonder who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be," stated Fred one day, at the end of holidays.

"You won't care about Defense Against the Dark Arts, when you see what's happening at Hogwarts this year," stated Mrs. Weasley.

"Wish I was still at Hogwarts," remarked Bill.

"Why? What's happening at Hogwarts?"

"You'll see."

We were wondering so hard about that that we barely realized when Mr. Weasley went missing one night to sort out something with Moody. "Probably a cat," muttered George as we finished our packing.

A/N: The Quidditch World Cup was fun, don't you think? And Mr. Weasley obsessed with parking meters? Classic.