Toes in the Water
Penny and Hermione ate breakfast at the Scamander table in the morning. Towards the end of the meal, Professor Flitwick approached the two Ravenclaws and asked to speak with them privately. When they didn't return in ten minutes, Harry and Lyra just went back to their common room and got dressed for their day out. Both of them dressed warmly and Harry made sure to wear his parents' Gryffindor hat and gloves for added warmth. They hadn't been told that Whispers couldn't go himself, so he also made sure to put on his yeti gloves and the warm hat that Luna had got him as a present.
Not knowing what else to do, they just waited for Brandt to show up. They didn't need to wait long, and he entered the common room before their second cup of tea. Without exchanging a word, they just followed him back out of the room, with Whispers scampering after them. Brandt led them up to the fifth floor and to a door right next to the entrance of the Ravenclaw dorms, which turned out to be Flitwick's office. When they got inside, the professor was sitting at his desk, while Penny and Hermione were sitting in seats to the side.
"Have a seat,'' he gestured to spots next to the girls. There were only three empty chairs, so Brandt conjured a beanbag for Whispers. "I have not yet approved the outing for my Eagles; so please tell me your plans for the day, Steward."
Brandt cleared his throat and began, "First, we will be taking the floo to the Leaky Cauldron to pick up Hermione's parents. From there, we will travel by floo to Gogarth Stadium for the Holyhead/Tutshill match. We will have box seats above the bleachers and I will provide lunch if the match goes longer than an hour. If the match ends before 4 p.m., we are scheduled for a 'Meet & Greet' with the Holyhead team."
At that point, Penny raised her hand suddenly and asked to be excused for a moment. Flitwick gave her a skeptical look, but let her run off, heading through a back door that probably went straight into the common room.
Brandt paused for a moment but then continued. "Due to the situation with her father, Lyra has an auror escort composed of Senior Auror Alastor Moody and his trainee, Miss Nymphadora Tonks. They will also watch over the rest of our group, but their priority will be Lyra."
Now Hermione seemed to perk up and stared at the door that Penny had left through, anxiously tapping her feet.
Flitwick nodded along, but now just waited for Penny to come back. After a few minutes, there was a knock on Flitwick's back door and he waved his hand to let her in. She entered carrying a small duffel bag across her shoulder. If anything Hermione's anxious tapping increased.
Their professor addressed all of them, "This is important for all of you to understand," he began. "Leaving Hogwarts is not something that is normally allowed during the school year, as this is a boarding school. It is a privilege that is afforded to very few. I expect all of you to comport yourselves to the highest standards as you represent not only your house but Hogwarts as a whole. If any of you disgrace this institution, I will recommend to the headmaster that this privilege be revoked in the future. Do you all understand?"
All four children and one demiguise nodded in agreement to his speech.
Flitwick waved his wand towards a set of bookcases which slid outwards to reveal a fireplace behind it, then swished it again to light the fire inside.
Brandt picked up the pouch of floo powder on the mantle and held it out to Lyra, "The destination is 'The Leaky Cauldron.'"
Lyra picked up a pinch while grabbing the hand of Whispers and said, "Leaky Cauldron." Then faced the fire and called out "Leaky Cauldron!" and stepped through the fire with Whispers in tow.
Brandt held out the bag to Harry, who repeated the destination once before calling it out again as he vanished into the flames. The steward instructed Hermione to repeat the destination, which she hesitantly did before calling it out again as she went through the fireplace.
When it came time for Penny's turn, she took a pinch and just said, "I'm almost sixteen," but Brandt stepped in front of her to stop her from walking to the fire.
He told her sternly, "Then you're a little over a year away from me allowing you to do this on your own. Repeat the destination, please."
Penny grumbled and repeated it before he stepped out of the way and allowed her to announce it again and step through the fire. Brandt traded a nod with Flitwick before he called out "Leaky Cauldron!" and vanished through the flames himself.
Arriving in The Leaky Cauldron was the same as usual, with several people wanting to speak to Harry or just staring at him and his scar. Though Moody and Tonks were waiting for them at the arrival point to keep people at a distance, like usual. When Brandt arrived, he gestured to the group to sit at a table while he stepped outside. The students sat down, but their Auror escort stayed standing.
Five minutes later, Brandt returned with Lysander and Celia Granger. Hermione's father was dressed in a jersey, scarf, and warmup pants from the Wimbledon football club, while his wife was wearing a long-sleeved shirt that was completely printed with a British flag on top of blue jeans. Both of them also wore a pendant with a red stone around their necks. They got plenty of strange looks from the other patrons as Brandt escorted them across the pub. Hermione got up and gave her parents a big hug.
"We didn't think we'd see you until the summer!" Lysander told her.
Hermione was smiling, "Penny signed a working partnership with Harry, so Brandt wanted to take us out to celebrate."
"He told us," Celia said. "So we're going to that wizard polo sport you were telling us about?"
Brandt grumbled a bit at the comparison, "It's a bit more complicated than that."
Lysander patted his wife on the back, "I'm sure we'll learn all about it today. I just have one question right now." He pointed at Whispers, "What's that?"
Lyra looked a bit annoyed, but said simply, "He's our brother, his name is Whispers."
Whispers echoed her, saying, "I aaam Whissspers."
"He can talk?" Celia said with shock.
"We taught him sign language," Harry told them, "and he slowly learned to talk from mimicking us."
"You two are like the Jane Goodalls of silver monkeys," Lysander said, confusing Harry a bit.
Moody leaned into the conversation, "They're called demiguises."
Tonks stopped a waitress who approached the group. The woman leaned around Tonks and asked if they wanted to order anything, also taking the opportunity to stare at Harry.
Brandt passed her a few silver coins, saying, "For the floo." Turning back to the group, "Let's get going."
As they stood up, Brandt faced Hermione's parents, "Without magic, you'll need to travel holding onto one of us. Mr. Granger, I will be your anchor; and Miss Tonks, I would like to ask you to take Mrs. Granger." Tonks nodded and stepped up.
Alastor lit the fire and stepped through first, and as a force of habit, muttered the destination under his breath to keep people from knowing where he was heading, before disappearing into the fire.
Hermione's parents looked a bit frightened, but Hermione tried to calm them down, saying, "It's fine, you might throw up though."
Brandt held up a tin cup of floo powder to Hermione as the Steward told her, "The destination is Gogarth Stadium." Hermione repeated it out loud once before announcing it as she stepped into the fire. Even though she tried to calm them down, Lysander and Celia still started to panic as green flames swallowed up their daughter.
Tonks stepped up next, taking a large pinch of powder for her and Celia, then gripped the woman's arm tightly and pulled her into the fire, while calling out the destination.
Lysander was having a small freak out after watching his daughter and wife vanish into emerald flames, but Brandt held him still. Harry and Lyra repeated their destination before hopping in one at a time with Whispers holding onto Harry this time. Penny stepped up next and after a glare from Brandt, also repeated the destination to him before calling it out and stepping through.
Finally, Brandt stepped forward with Lysander, linked arms with him, and placed the tin cup of powder back on the mantle. Taking his own large pinch, he locked elbows with Hermione's father and threw the powder in as he called out, "Gogarth Stadium!" He could feel the man struggling as he pulled them into the fire.
After about fifteen seconds of spinning, the fire spat them out at their destination, with Brandt and Lysander toppling over onto the floor of an empty room with an open door on the other side. The man jumped up and teetered on his feet with dizziness, then oriented himself and embraced his wife and child.
"That was intense!" he exclaimed.
"Beats a drive to Holyhead though," Brandt commented as he stood up as well.
"We're in Wales?" Celia asked. Getting a nod from Brandt, she said, "That's a six-hour drive!"
"There's a tradeoff for everything," Lysander grumbled. "For magic, I guess it's comfort."
The group exited the room, but as soon as they were outside they looked back to see they had just come out of a tall tent that looked like it could fit four people laying down. There was a line of these tents across the hillside, with groups of people occasionally exiting them. Hermione's parents looked very confused but seemed content to ignore the abnormality for the moment and keep walking forward. In front of them was a sea of people, standing at the edge of a cliff face above the water. Most people were either wearing green and yellow or royal blue and sky blue. Brandt led them around the mass of people to an area sectioned off with a red rope. There was a small line here with a well-dressed man standing at the edge of the cliff.
The cliff face was curved, and their roped-off area was on the far end of the bay. They could see that all of the people waiting at the edge were waiting next to admission gates next to stairs leading down the rocky side towards the water below them. Along the entire side of the cliff were bleacher seats down to just above the water. Down on the water itself were three large rings on poles, at each end of the bay. Slowly, people were getting admitted down the crescent-shaped cliff, most of them split up with the fans dressed in blue closer to their location, and the ones in green and yellow further down.
"Next!" the well-dressed man called out. Everyone turned to look to see that the group that had been in front of them had vanished.
Brandt approached the man and said, "Black, party of nine."
The man pulled a large golden ring out of a box next to him, then looked down at Whispers and said, "No pets."
Lyra reached into her pouch and pulled out Whispers's documentation, saying, "He's my bonded familiar."
The man examined the paper as Whispers leaned in and said, "Bonded Famiyar," causing the man to jump. After he steadied himself, he returned the paper to Lyra and handed the golden ring to Brandt. He tapped it with his wand, and said: "Fifteen seconds."
The steward held out the ring, and said, "Everyone grab hold."
Everyone grabbed on, with Whispers jumping onto Harry's shoulders and grabbing it from above. There were three small noises like a desk bell before everyone shifted slightly to their right, and with a blink of blackness, they were in a small, but luxurious room. The portkey was incredibly short on distance, and just felt like someone made a sharp turn in a car. One whole side of the room was a large window, which looked out on the water, from somewhere near the top of the cliff, directly in the middle of the field. Directly below them was a plank sticking out above the water about thirty feet with a small box on it containing two chairs and microphones at each spot.
The room had a long leather couch across the front, next to the window. Towards the back of the room was a large dining table covered with small snacks and a few smaller tables and chairs to sit away from the front window. The only other thing of note in the room was a door on the far side.
Moody stepped up and said, "I will be outside, securing the room." Turning to Tonks, "Cadet, when the match begins, your post is just inside the door." He vanished in a crack of apparation.
"Any other types of transportation you all have?" Lysander asked. "Fire travel, golden rings, and teleportation?"
"Well, brooms," Penny mentioned. "We'll see those soon, I guess."
"What are the drawbacks to the ring thing and what that guy just did? Lysander asked.
Tonks answered, "The ring-thing is a portkey and it is usually a temporary enchantment on an object. Most times we use garbage like a tire or an old boot. The downside of that is the longer the distance, the more you spin. They are primarily used for international travel which is like riding a carousel powered by a Hemi for ten minutes straight. The 'teleportation' he just did feels like being sucked through a straw and has the chance of losing a limb if you're not focusing well enough."
"What's the downside to riding a broom?" Celia asked Tonks.
She thought about it for a second, then responded, "You might fall? It's less dangerous than a motorcycle."
The kids were all staring out the window, while Whispers was gathering snacks at the table. Brandt called an elf and explained to the Grangers that they could call for him like a waiter and order whatever they wanted.
Lysander looked down at the strange creature and asked, "Do you think you could bring me a pint of Stella?"
The little creature popped off and appeared back five seconds later with a frosty glass with the perfect amount of foam, just barely slopping over the edge. He smiled as he took the first sip. The elf looked to the others for orders; Celia ordered a glass of champagne, Harry requested a pitcher of lemonade for him, Lyra, and Whispers, Hermione asked for an apple cider, Penny a Butterbeer, and Brandt ordered something called an Oak Walker.
The elf snapped his fingers and several small tables appeared in front of the leather couches, and then he popped away himself. A minute later, all of their drinks appeared back on the table, and everyone went to claim their orders. Lysander was busy staring at Brandt's drink which looked like Whiskey, but seemed to have a magical sheen to it and was garnished with a stick.
"What is that?" he asked the Steward.
"It's a Canadian whiskey, matured in barrels made of entwood."
"Ent-wood?" Lysander asked suspiciously. "Like Tolkien's walking trees?"
"Yes, and no." Brand told him. "Ents do exist in some magical forests, but they are not sentient, and they don't talk. They simply move from place to place depending on the season or if there aren't enough nutrients in the soil."
"So no epic battles between trees and goblins?" Celia asked.
"Goblins live below ground, so, no. You still shouldn't attack them though as they will instinctively protect themselves. It makes harvesting their wood particularly difficult."
Lysander continued to probe Brandt about the different types of wizard alcohol, going through a long list of cocktails that the stadium offered, such as a; Blueberry Howler, Cloudy Pop, Flying Velvet, Warm Kiss, and Gingerroot Slap. Setting his beer to the side, as the glass was charmed to stay cold and the foam wouldn't subside until the rest of the beer had been drunk, Lysander ordered a Cappuccino Walker, which was just a Whiskey Cappuccino made with entwood whiskey.
Celia sat with her daughter and her mentor, asking, "So, Penelope, can you tell me about the wizard polo we're going to be watching?"
Penny smiled at the same time as Hermione giggled, "Your daughter and I aren't really fans of the sport, as you might have picked up on. However, it's probably more of a combination between polo, lacrosse, dodgeball, and capture the flag." She pointed out to the goalposts, "You have to throw a ball through the rings on either end of the field while avoiding two iron balls that try to unseat the players from their brooms, and the match ends when a specific player on either team catches a tiny, super-fast, near-invisible golden ball."
"Wait…" Celia paused. "So how long are we going to be here for?"
Hermione answered, "Brandt said we'd go back before dinner if the match lasted past four in the evening. The longest quidditch match was just under three months, while the shortest one was three and a half seconds."
"That's insane!" Celia exclaimed. "Do people just stay in their seats for the longer ones?"
"If a match goes longer than eight hours, the stadiums just provide people with a return pass," Penny explained. "Then they can come back whenever they want until the game ends. The average match in the professional leagues is just around two hours. At Hogwarts, they normally go for slightly less."
Brandt sat down and joined them, bringing Lysander over as well, "If the game goes longer than a week, we can come back next weekend to keep watching. I'm hoping for a shorter game, as I requested a 'meet & greet' with the home team after the game."
Right below the window, a man and woman, in yellow and green respectively, walked out on the platform with the microphones, as the crowd roared with cheers. Looking to both ends of the cliff face, it was a little over half-filled with colorful fans cheering on and looking over the water.
The announcers sat down and the woman spoke up, her voice echoing across the bay, "Welcome to the second game of the new year in Gogarth Stadium!" The crowd roared in response. "As always, I'm Gera Hickories, captain of the Harpies from 71-78."
"And I'm Manny Silverling," the man in yellow said. "As much as I would have liked to play for the Harpies, I never had the required equipment."
Brandt provided an explanation, "The Harpies have been an all-female team since they were founded almost 800 years ago."
The announcer, Gera continued, "Today's match will be against those English tossers from Tutshill, the Tornadoes!" That announcement was met by a chorus of cheers mixed with boos and insults yelled at the announcers.
"Well, without those smelly blue dogs, we wouldn't have a match, so let's just announce their team so we can get to our ladies!"
"Aye, I can do that," Gera agreed. "On our far right, the starting chasers for the Tutshill Tornados; are Sampson Minks, Olen Fledgling, and Violet Masters!" As he spoke, three players, in flowing blue robes flew out of the base of the cliff face to the far right.
"Their beaters; Lambert Ironwood and Guy Rooks!" two more players flew out and joined the previous three in circling the pitch over the water.
"Keeper - Briar Oakwood, and Seeker - Regina Winters!" The crowd roared from the blue side of the seating as the players performed complicated maneuvers, primarily for the fans on their side of the stadium."
Manny began in a deep voice, "And now… our hometown heroines, the starting lineup of the 790th year of the Holyhead Harpies!" His announcement was met with a roar from the crowd and green and yellow fireworks going off all over the pitch.
"Our stupendous chaser trio; Golda Eaglet, Sallie Gulls, and Arlene Green!" The three women shot out from the far left of the stadium, trailing streaks of green sparkles.
"The guardian of our goalposts, Rue Gnu!" The keeper exited the cliffside and shot straight up into the air, climbing to the top of the handle of her broom, and balancing on it before falling towards the water and grabbing her broom again to join the chasers flying around the pitch.
"A seeker after our own hearts, Angelica Rivers!" A streak of gold shot out of the cliff face performing a constant barrel roll as sparks fell on the water below her. The crowd chanted 'Gigi, Gigi!' as a young woman with long, pale brown hair shot straight across the field and through the center goalpost on the side of the Tornados and an explosion of gold erupted as she passed through, before pulling back to her teammates on the other side.
"And finally, the powerhouse of the Harpies, the dynamic duo, to beat all our opponents into submission; Madeline Gorgon, and our captain - Gwenog Jones!"
Two more streaks flew from the Harpies' entrance though it wasn't their brooms trailing sparks, but the wooden bats they carried. One of them pulled far out ahead and circled back and they clashed together hitting their bats against one another and creating an explosion of gold and green in the middle of the pitch.
The fans loved it. The group inside the Black's skybox cheered along with every announcement and aerial maneuver.
The teams assembled at the center of the pitch, about fifty feet above the water. The referee, a wizard in black robes, flew out above the water tugging a red leather trunk behind him. Two chasers flew in next to him while the others spread out in various formations. The ref opened the trunk to show the balls for the match and performed some kind of complicated wand movement over the balls, then repeated it. He seemed to be addressing the two chasers next to him, and then held the quaffle up on the tip of his wand and put the whistle into his mouth. The chasers backed off a bit and angled themselves to point upwards.
After a moment of tense silence across the stadium, the whistle was blown and the quaffle shot straight into the air, with the two iron bludgers rocketing off after them and the snitch disappearing in a flash.
"And we're off!" both announcers yelled at the same time.
The first few minutes were intense, with both teams going full tilt at each other to gain an upper hand. After about five minutes, there was a whistle blow and the ref summoned the quaffle to him.
"And that's a cobbing charge on Rivers, and a turnover to the Tornados," Manny announced. "While they get set up again, let me point out that both teams are now flying with the new Nimbus 2001 racing brooms. Currently the fastest brooms in the world with a top speed of 135 miles per hour."
Celia looked to her daughter, "What's cobbing?"
Hermione answered absentmindedly, "Excessive elbows."
Lysander raised an eyebrow and asked, "Does that mean there is an acceptable amount of elbows?"
Before he could be answered, the quaffle was given back to the Tutshill chasers and the game started up again.
Harry was desperately trying to analyze the formations the players were using, but it was all going way too fast for him to follow. He could occasionally see small movements and finger gestures from the players as they would execute maneuvers, but their response time was insane. The beaters on both teams just seemed to be smashing the iron balls around with such incredible frequency that there was a strike every ten seconds on one of the balls. Each team seemed to be targeting the seekers, but they were heavily defended and also just too quick for accurate targeting.
Playtime never stopped unless there was a foul, so even when a goal was scored, it would just be passed to the keeper who would start up a play again.
After twenty minutes, there was a cry of excitement and Gera called out, "The first hit of the night by Gwenog!"
There was a player in blue barely hanging off his broom with one hand while he clutched his leg with the other. Though as the bludger swung around for another pass, he performed an incredible feat of acrobatics where he seemed to deactivate the hovering charm on his broom and fall towards the water, while pulling the broom back underneath him and shooting off again, to the crowd's cheers.
The game continued on, with a few minor injuries, but no one was subbed out for a reserve player. A little after an hour into the game, when they realized that it was going to go on for a while, Brandt ordered lunch to be served for everyone and a lavish spread took the place of the finger foods on the table behind them. Harry didn't want to miss a second of the game and took a sandwich back to the front window to keep watching.
As he stood there on his own, the gameplay got closer to the seating for the fans, and a chaser for the Tornados strafed by their window, inches away from the glass. As he looked in briefly, his eyes widened and he seemed to mouth out, 'Haaarrryy Poootteerr?'
Then he crashed into the seats next to their box and the whistle was blown.
Healers got summoned to check over the spectators he had crashed into and the other players from the team landed to assist their teammate.
Manny, the announcer, was reporting on the incident, "Sampson Minks just crashed into some Holyhead fans, what is going on?" A large group of Harpies fans started to push into the Tornados section trying to retaliate and were met by an equal force pushing them back.
With all the attention being given to the area right next to them, one of the healers on a broom floated next to their window and looked right at Harry, her eyes widening before she swooped down to the announcers' desk and whispered something to them.
Gera called out, "Well, I think we've found the reason for Minks's blunder. He just had a close encounter with The Boy-Who-Lived in the skybox right above us. You heard right, Harry Potter is here at the game today!"
There was a roar of cheers from the stadium, and Alastor Moody popped into the box next to Tonks in a crack of apparation.
The senior auror took off his jacket and tossed it to Tonks, saying, "Outside, now. You get to be me until this blows over. I'll provide cover inside the box. Scare the piss out of anyone trying to get in."
Tonks nodded and took off her jacket, quickly morphing into a clone of Moody before throwing his jacket on and apparating back outside. As soon as she was outside, Moody's wand was a blur as the walls and window began to shimmer with spells and protective wards. After half a minute, he threw one more spell toward the front window and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That should keep them all out," he said to the group inside. "I also tossed a one-way viewing charm on the window so no one will see in again."
Celia looked concerned and turned to her daughter. "You told us Harry was famous, but this is like royalty-famous."
"That's about right," Moody said grumpily. "He ended a war as an infant and became a mythical creature when he vanished for eleven years. Without anyone to tell them otherwise, the people just took the legends and built them up even more."
"But he wasn't gone," Lysander began, "He…"
But he couldn't say anymore as Brandt hit him straight in the face with a silencing charm.
He opened and closed his mouth without any sound coming out, as Brandt whispered in his ear, "My apologies, Miss Clearwater does not know the circumstances of Harry's upbringing. We are trying to make sure that as few people know as possible."
They shared a nod and Brandt canceled the effect. Celia was looking confused and angry, but after a hushed conversation with her husband, she also gave the steward a nod. Meanwhile, Penny was looking a bit confused but seemed to realize that she was the only one not in on whatever was happening.
Suddenly there was a pounding on the door followed by a few screams and thuds, then silence. An ethereal jackrabbit appeared in the room suddenly and spoke in Tonks's voice, "Five stunned, two shocked, and I'm setting up a wall of sapphire flames just for extra deterrent."
Moody summoned a Patronus as well, but his was just a puff of light, without form, then said to it in a squeaky voice, "Tell Nymphadora - You can take it up a few notches if you want, build my legend more." Then the light moved straight through the wall to deliver the message."
Manny called out to the audience, "Well it seems like old Mad-Eye is on-site providing security, so approach Mr. Potter's box at your peril. Everyone needs to sit down so we can start the game again!"
The rabble of fans seemed to move back to their seats, but one brave soul with a broom floated up in front of their window and tried to lean on the glass to look through the charm. As soon as he touched the window, electricity flowed through his body and he screamed, then he was hit with many spells, presumably from Tonks, before his skin turned green, sprouted antlers, and he fell into the seats below, unconscious.
Moody smiled, "That's a little better."
"Are we safe in here?" Celia asked nervously.
"Completely," Alastor told them. "With my trainee outside scaring people off and pretending to be me, we should be fine. If anyone that isn't her comes in here, they will be put down harder than you just saw that poor soul was through the window."
There was a whistle blast and the game started moving again as Gera announced, "And we're moving again! Sampson Minks has been replaced by Skyler Rosewood. Minks suffered a broken collarbone, a fractured rib, and several bruises. If his healing goes well, Minks can return to play in two hours."
Hermione's parents were shocked, with Celia exclaiming, "Two hours? How will he be ready that quickly?" Then before anyone could respond, she answered herself, "Yeah, magic, I know… but still…"
Moody answered her, "It depends on the severity of the injuries. The two of you are doctors, right?" Getting nods back, "If the breaks are comminuted, displaced, or segmented, it will take quite a bit longer. The cleaner the break, the quicker they will be to heal. If the bones need to be vanished or regrown, he'll be out for at least a few days and need to wear a sling for a week."
Despite the explanation, both of their mouths hung open in shock.
Lysander asked, "Is there any way we can get our hands on a magical healer's textbook?"
Moody shook his head, "I doubt it, too many secrecy laws with the muggle world."
Brandt also answered, "I'll look into it. I'll ask our solicitor to see if there are any loopholes to exploit."
The group returned to watching the game which started to get interesting as the seekers started pulling more dangerous feints and disrupting plays the chasers were trying to run. The Tornados were getting more desperate to keep the score down as the Harpies had a lead of 80 points for a total of 60-140. Just as the Harpies scored another goal there was a knock on the door. Moody drew his wand, with a yellow spell glowing at the tip. They could hear the muffled sounds of an argument on the other side before a more complicated knock was heard, which made Moody relax slightly and the glow vanished, but his wand was not lowered. He just flicked the tip slightly and the door opened to reveal another auror standing next to Tonks, who still looked like Alastor.
"What do you want, Dawlish?" he growled a bit.
The man looked back and forth between the two Moodys in confusion, then said, "I'm guessing one of you must be Cadet Tonks, which one is it?"
Tonks growled at the man, "I'll go poison your field rations and you can see if that will convince you who I am."
That confused Dawlish even more before real-Moody broke his thought process and said, "You can rack your brain later on which one of us is a woman and which will kill you in your sleep. I suggest you tell us now what you're doing here."
Before he could respond, Tonks whispered gruffly in his ear, "Just because my cadet is a woman, doesn't mean she won't kill you in your sleep. So be careful how you speak to her."
Now he was especially freaked out and Lyra started to giggle as she watched the interaction.
"Look, I just want to get out of here. I'm on security detail for the minister. He'll be coming up here after the game to meet with Harry Potter. That's all I have to say." He looked back and forth between the two Moodys and said, "I hope you don't pull this shtick on him." With that said, he turned around and vanished with a crack.
With Dawlish gone, Moody told Tonks, "Secret knock 17 is burned, move on to 18." She gave him a nod and closed the door.
Lysander looked to Moody, and asked, "So your Minister is here at the game?"
"It looks like it," Moody grumbled. "I knew he was a Harpies fan, though I hadn't heard he was going to be at this game. Must have been a last-minute thing."
Harry was looking anxious, and looked up at Brandt, "Am I ready to talk to him?"
Brandt thought hard, and asked back, "Do you think you're ready?" Seeing Harry's uncertainty, he said, "No, not now. He will still come and meet you. Shake his hand, and try to schedule another meeting with him. Try to plan with him for two weeks on Saturday, that's the 30th. It will give you enough time to prepare. Try to feel him out now, see what he wants from you, and don't reveal anything you want from him. Don't threaten him," he looked over to Lyra who was following the conversation, "Don't attack him, though you can look as scary as you want. I suggest staves out when he gets here." He looked back at Harry, "Though this is only if the game ends in the next two hours. If it ends any later we will prioritize meeting the Harpies and getting back to Hogwarts if it gets too late."
The gods of fate must have been listening to Brandt and fifteen minutes later, Gera announced, "And Rivers has caught the snitch! Harpies win 310-70!"
Cheers rocked the stadium as yellow and green fireworks rained down on the water and the Harpies did a victory lap around the stadium. Below them in the stands, the spectators started to file out of the stadium as everyone in the skybox stayed, milling around, waiting for the minister to arrive.
Ten minutes after the game had ended, Tonks's jackrabbit Patronus appeared in the room and said, "Thirty seconds," before vanishing.
Moody stood next to the door as the other guests hung out near the food table. Half a minute later, there was a knock on the door, and after Moody's blue eye stared at it for a few seconds, he swished his wand to open it.
Two aurors marched in, Dawlish from before and one other. Followed by a portly man in a long dark green coat with yellow accents and trim, a golden tie, and a lime green bowler hat that didn't match the rest of the outfit. He was followed by a thin woman holding a book and a man with a camera. Following them were two more aurors and Tonks, still disguised as Moody. The portly man stopped dead and looked at Moody, then back at Tonks, then back at Moody.
"Which is which?" he asked, clearly confused.
Moody said, with a sinister grin, "There are actually five of me. Two of them are sleeping and the other is hunting down a dark wizard in…" he looked at something inside his coat, "... in Cork county."
The man got a terrified look in his eyes as Dawlish leaned over and whispered in his ear.
He straightened up and looked a bit calmer, saying, "Ah so one of you is the metamorphmagus I've heard so much about. Good show, you almost had me there with the five others."
The Grangers shared a look of disbelief.
Brandt approached the man, and shook his hand, "Minister Fudge, welcome to the Black's skybox. Let me introduce you around." He guided the minister over to Penny, despite him leaning toward Harry right away. "This is Penelope Clearwater, 5th-year prefect of Ravenclaw, and burgeoning runic enchantress.
Penelope blushed at the praise and shook the man's hand. Brandt guided the man to Hermione, "Hermione here is Penelope's apprentice and recently discovered to be of the awakened squib of the Spanish Velasco line."
Hermione nervously shook the minister's hand, as he said, "Awakened squib line, you say? It's always good to have more of our old magic brought back into society. Shame it couldn't be from an English family, but we appreciate it all the same. Those who come from old blood often do big things in the first generation back. We shall all be watching you closely, young lady." She blushed a bit in embarrassment.
Brandt introduced Hermione's parents next but the minister didn't make any small talk with them as he almost pushed his way towards Harry, but Brandt casually deflected him towards Lyra, "And this is Lyra Black, heiress to the Black family."
Lyra stood with a dark look on her face glaring at the man who had released her father from prison. A pool of shadows started to grow under her feet as she passed her staff to her left hand and raised her right, almost mechanically to shake the hand of the minister.
The green-clad minister seemed oblivious to the anger of the tiny blonde girl in front of him, saying, "It's a pleasure to meet you, young lady, you have big shoes to fill if you will be leading the Blacks one day." A couple of sparks jumped off her hair, which caused Fudge's eyes to widen, and he responded, "What beautiful magic, I guess it can't be helped to still experience a bit of accidental magic when meeting the Minister of Magic!"
"Now, I know I'm forgetting someone…" Brandt started to say as he stood firmly between Fudge and Harry. "Whispers! Where'd you disappear to?" he called out.
Despite her anger, Lyra couldn't help but giggle at Brandt's behavior, which caused the pool of shadows under her feet to disperse. From the other side of the leather couches, a winter hat and white gloves popped up into the air, as a demiguise faded into visibility between the articles of clothing, and approached Brandt.
"Minister Fudge, may I present to you Sir Whispers of the Hidden Village." Polite as always, Whispers gave a small formal bow and reached out a gloved hand to the portly man. The minister hesitated, so Brandt added, "You may have heard that the auror corps recently put in an order for a large number of invisibility cloaks. You have Whispers and his family to thank for that."
Feeling the pressure of leaving the demiguise waiting with his hand out, he reached out and shook the creature's hand. As soon as he grasped the small hand, Whispers's eyes glowed blue, but he didn't vanish, and a second later a flash went off as the photographer with them took a picture of the minister shaking hands with a demiguise.
Whispers held tight to the man's hand and said, "Goood too m-meet yooo."
The minister was shocked but couldn't pull his hand away, so he just said nervously, "It's a pleasure?" Then Whispers let go and scampered back to Lyra.
"Now, I know you've been very patient," Brandt told the man, with a tiny smile, "so now I would like to introduce you to Harry James Potter."
Brandt stepped out of the way as Minister Fudge almost ran towards Harry, with his hand outstretched. Harry quickly transferred his staff to his left hand to meet him and shook the man's hand. There was another flash from the camera, but it didn't quite make it to Harry and the Minister, as Brandt had stepped in the way, so the photographer got a great shot of Brandt's back.
Fudge hadn't noticed, so he just kept shaking Harry's hand, and said, "It's an honor to meet you, Mister Potter. Dumbledore has kept you quite well hidden over the years, hasn't he?"
"I guess so," Harry said simply.
"What brings you to the Harpies game today? They are my favorite team."
There was another flash from the photographer, but Brandt had managed to step in front of that one too. The steward shared a look with Lysander and Celia, who both nodded back. Lysander started to walk closer while Celia leaned down and whispered to Penny, Hermione, and Lyra, who in turn signed something out to her demiguise brother, then they all started to walk over to where Brandt was casually blocking the photographer's shots.
Meanwhile, Harry was continuing the conversation, "We were just celebrating the conclusion of some business negotiations."
"No rest for The Boy-Who-Lived? Already starting a business at your age? Any secrets you can share with me? I'm always looking for a good investment."
Harry didn't really want to share, but he had noticed that Brandt seemed to enjoy teasing the man, so thought he might give it a shot as well.
"I've been told my grandfather invented Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, so I wanted to try my hand at a hair growth potion. Would you be interested in trying it?" Harry pointed to the minister's head under his hat. A few of the aurors, including both Moodys, were biting their lips to suppress a smile at his statement.
The photographer had snuck around to the side of the other people, consistently blocking his shot, and started to raise his camera, only for Whisper's face to show up right in front of the lens as he took the picture. However, this time, Fudge saw the blocked flash and started to wave the cameraman over to him.
"Harry, how about a picture with me, The Minister of Magic, to add to your collection?"
Brandt stepped forward, blocking the shot again, "I'm sorry, Minister, we really have to be going now. We have to meet the Harpies, and then return the children to school. Maybe we can arrange something for the future?" He turned to Harry and gave him a wink, "What's your schedule like, Mr. Potter?"
Harry gave Brandt a quick grin, then pretended to think a bit, "I think I have some free time on the 30th? That's a Saturday, right?" Brandt gave him a nod, so asked Fudge, "Can we schedule a meeting for then?"
Fudge looked very disappointed, but agreed and told his assistant to clear his schedule for that day. Then he shook Harry's hand again with the photographer attempting one more time to get a shot, only to get one of Whispers's butt instead. Then the minister and his entourage left the room.
After they had gone, Tonks locked the doors and looked towards Moody, "Permission to collapse on the floor and laugh?"
Moody rolled his real eye and nodded. Tonks tossed him back his coat and fell dramatically to the floor in a fit of giggles, slowly shifting back to her real self, sans a shoe that she had removed to shift her foot into Alastor's clawed prosthetic.
Celia looked towards Brandt, and with a look of disbelief asked, "THAT was your Minister? Your head of state?"
Brandt nodded sadly, "Yeah, I guess it was."
"Is he playing himself down?" Lyra asked. "Is he hiding some secret strength or something?"
"If he is, then he's doing an incredible job of it," Moody responded.
"He feels like a cockroach," Lysander supplied. "I bet he got into office by being the smarmiest guy around. Like he could fit any mold that the people voting wanted him to be."
Brandt nodded, "That's probably the best description that I've ever heard of the man. And he does end up doing whatever people want of him too. Which is why he'll probably be in office forever, he doesn't need to leave if the lords and ladies don't need to compete with him, only with each other."
Penny picked up the duffel bag she had brought with her and asked, "Are we going to go see the Harpies now?"
Brandt nodded and called out, "Elf!" a different elf than before popped into the room. "Please bring us a portkey to the Meet & Greet."
The elf popped away and came back a few seconds later with a silver ring, saying, "Thirty seconds." Brandt thanked the elf and it popped away.
Everyone gathered around and grabbed the ring as Brandt counted down to zero. When he finished, everyone felt a short pull to the left and appeared in a large room with several tables of food. About two dozen other guests milled around speaking to each other, and all of the Harpies were still in their green and yellow uniforms.
Brandt walked the group over to a woman who looked around sixty years old. Though as a witch, that meant she might be as old as ninety. She was wearing a crisp suit that showed off a very strong physique. She saw Brandt coming and stepped forward to meet him.
Grasping his hand, she said, "Glad you could make it Steward, did you and your guests enjoy the match?"
Brandt looked behind him, then back towards the woman, "We did. May I introduce you to them?" Brandt stepped aside, and said, "Everyone, this is Loma Gerbles, Manager for the Holyhead Harpies and the best keeper the team has ever had." She reddened a bit, as he continued, "Loma, this is Hermione Granger and her parents Lysander and Celia, Penelope Clearwater, Lyra Black, and Harry Potter.'' He looked around, but it seemed that Whispers had vanished. As an afterthought, he added, "Our Auror escort today is Senior Auror Alastor Moody and Cadet Nymphadora Tonks."
The rest of the team had gathered around, as well as the other guests of the event. For the next twenty minutes, Brandt spent running back and forth, introducing Harry and Lyra to various people. Penny had her own mission, and she snuck her way through the other people to the manager of the Harpies.
When she was right behind the woman, she tapped her on the shoulder, and said, "Excuse me? Madam Gerbles?"
The woman spun around fast, startling Penny, she glared at the girl before her and responded sharply, "Yes?"
Pushing herself to stand up straight, Penny said firmly, "I was hoping to speak to you regarding a business proposition."
The older woman gave a huff, "Whatcha got girlie?"
Keeping her posture, she responded, "My friends and I, at Hogwarts, just completed a design for new quidditch gear that we plan on using for the teams there. I was hoping to show them to you too and see if the Harpies would be interested as well?"
"You got something faster than a Nimbus?"
"No, I…"
"Tougher beaters' bats?"
"No, they're…"
"Well, we don't need cups for the girls, so I don't think we will be interested in anything else."
"Helmets!" Penny blurted out. "We made helmets."
"Don't even bother," Loma told her. "Keepers are just fine with what we've got," she smiled at Penelope to show her three gold and two silver teeth in her mouth.
Penny was getting annoyed, so she just pulled out a jet-black helmet from the duffel bag and dropped it on the table next to her with a thump.
Loma just laughed at the helmet, saying, "There's no way we'd wear something like that! How can you even see through it?"
"Put it on!" she demanded.
Met with the fury in the 15-year-old girl's voice, Loma smiled and said, "I'll humor you." She picked up the helmet off the table and placed it on her head, "Well, it's certainly comfortable, but we're still not wearing something this clunky."
Penny reached over and buckled the strap under the woman's chin and she froze. More than just a few of the other people in the room were staring at the two of them now. Slowly Loma looked around her, then reached up and twisted the helmet back and forth, then unclipped it and took it off.
"This is astounding! That wasn't disillusionment, was it?"
Penny raised her chin with pride, "No, it wasn't, so you're interested now?"
"Getting there, how are the protective features?"
"We beat each other in the head numerous times while designing them, and no damage was done." She smiled at the woman to show her perfectly straight teeth.
"So, you're confident in your design?" Penny nodded. Loma turned around and called out to one of the players, "Maddi, get over here!"
Madeline Gorgon, who had been at another table, eating a large turkey leg hustled over to the manager, "Yes boss?" she responded.
Loma tossed the helmet to Penny, "Put it on," she instructed, which she did, buckling the strap. "It didn't vanish," she commented.
"It's only invisible to the wearer," Penny told her from under the visor.
"That's quite complicated work." Turning to the side of the room, she pulled out her wand and called, "Accio bat!" A beater's bat flew across the room and Loma caught it, tossing it to Madeline Gorgon. "Hit her in the head," she instructed the beater.
Madeline looked conflicted, but Penny just spread her legs into a wide stance and braced herself for the impact. Obeying her manager, like a good soldier, the beater wound up and swung the bat right into the side of the helmet. There was a large "THWACK!" noise as Penelope did a sideways flip, landing on her side, with Hermione running over to check on her.
With Hermione's help, Penny stood back up and took off the helmet. A little bit dizzy but with no damage done, she tossed the helmet to the manager, and asked, "Are you interested now?"
"Almost," she responded, then called over to a man at the side of the room, "Davey! Get over here!" The man in question ran over quickly as she ordered him, "Check her for brain damage."
The man, who was probably a healer, pulled out his wand and started running diagnostic scans all over Penny's head. After two minutes he finished, and said, "Except for a bruise on her shoulder, she's in perfect health." To Penelope, he asked, "Would you like me to heal the bruise?" She nodded and he started to cast a few healing spells.
"Well I can say I'm definitely interested," Loma told Penelope, with Hermione's eyes widening along with her smile. "Is the patent filed with the ministry?" Hermione and Penelope nodded together. "Can you leave us with a sample to test out?"
Penelope opened up the duffel to show a sample of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw helmet designs, saying, "Take a look at these too, we can style the helmets however you'd like."
Loma smiled at the designs, then took the black one on the table, and tossed it to Madeline Gorgon, "You have until the end of next week to destroy this."
Hermione jumped forward, "Make sure to buckle the strap before you try to destroy it, otherwise it might break."
Madeline nodded towards her, then she buckled the strap, tossed it in the air, and swatted it with her bat across the room towards a door on the far side, the helmet bouncing a few times before it arrived.
"I'll deal with it after the party," she smiled dangerously.
Lyra had introduced herself to the chasers, and Brandt had just started to talk to get Harry talking to Gwenog Jones when Penelope started her demonstration, which drew everyone's attention. After the other beater swatted the helmet across the room, Gwenog turned back to Harry.
"So you enjoyed the game?" she asked.
"It was so fast!" Harry exclaimed. "I've seen games at Hogwarts, but I could follow the patterns and strategies there. In this game, I could see that there were formations, but they changed so quickly that it looked like chaos."
"That's true," she said. "On the professional level, things go so fast that you have to change formations and strategies every few seconds or the other team will pick them apart. Every strategy has a weakness, so you have to switch constantly before they are taken advantage of."
"Makes sense," Harry said quietly.
"Well, it sounds like you've got a good head for the game. Are you thinking of playing at all?"
Harry kicked the ground, "Everyone wants me to play, but it's too violent. My first time in a stadium, my friend's arm got broken by a bludger, and he wasn't even playing. It seems like everyone is fighting and wants to hurt each other. I don't want to hurt anyone."
"It's not like that at all," Gwenog told Harry as she kneeled next to him. "We're all friends in the league. After this thing is over, we're heading over to the pub where all the drinks are being paid for by the players on the Tornados. Sure the game is violent, but that's what makes it fun. If there wasn't the chance of getting injured, it would be like playing gobstones, and even that has the chance of getting shot in the face with stink spray. Every game needs some element of danger."
Harry nodded along to her explanation.
"How often do people get injured?" Harry asked.
"I've played every game so far this season," she told him. "In ten games so far, I've broken only one bone bad enough that I had to sit out. That was fixed in less than an hour and I was back playing before the game ended. The bastard that hit the bludger that broke my foot, I bought him a drink at the end of the game and I promised to get him back the next time we played."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Harry mused about it.
"Tell you what, let's grab you a broom right now and hit a bludger around, see if you like it."
"I don't have a broom with me," he told her.
"This is a quidditch stadium, we've got dozens of spares. We'll put you on a Nimbus 1700, that shouldn't be too fast for you." She looked around and saw Brandt talking to Angelica Rivers, the seeker, and called out gruffly, "Hey Steward! I'm taking Potter out for a flight!" Then without waiting for a response, started walking Harry toward the end of the room which had an opening out to the water.
At the end of the room was a large closet filled with brooms. Gwenog dug through it until she found an older-looking broom and tossed it to Harry. He caught it out of the air and let his magic run through it, so it hovered in place. She also pulled out a newer broom, two bats, and a large iron ball.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked, handing him one of the bats.
He took it hesitantly and nodded, mounting the Nimbus 1700 carefully.
Gwenog tapped the bludger with her bat and it hovered in place next to her as she mounted the broom. As soon as she was on the broom she shot out the entrance, with the bludger following her, but not chasing her. Making up his mind, Harry accelerated and followed her out.
As he flew he noticed the difference between his Cleansweep and the Nimbus brooms. On the Nimbus, he had much greater acceleration as well as much less control over how much the broom attempted to keep him balanced on top of it. He had to focus hard on not tipping over to one side or the other. This was made even more difficult by needing to hold on to the bat in his right hand.
He followed Gwenog until they were about twenty feet above the water in the middle of the quidditch pitch. Stopping next to him, she said, "I'm going to hit the bludger to you. It's not going to chase you, it's just going to fly toward you. Hit it back to me."
She flew about fifty feet away and turned around, the bludger following her, but keeping about three feet of space. She moved the bludger in front of her broom and with a strong swing, shot it at Harry. He panicked a bit as it went almost straight towards him, but slowed down as it got close. When it stopped next to him, he stared at it, then maneuvered his broom closer, and hit the bludger as hard as he could with the bat in his hand.
Feeling the impact with the iron ball was exhilarating, and even though his aim was horrible, he knew he wanted to do it again. They proceeded to hit the iron ball back and forth for about ten minutes before Harry looked up to see Brandt floating above them taking pictures. He waved, then flew up to him, with Gwenog following close behind.
"This is actually pretty fun," Harry told Brandt.
"Good to hear," he replied.
Just as he was about to say something else, there was a happy scream from above them as Lyra shot through the sky at least three hundred feet up, followed closely by Angelica Rivers. Her hair was coming undone behind her and trailing off like a golden comet, sparkling in the sun. Brandt angled his camera upwards to take shots of Lyra.
"Looks like Angie has her on a Nimbus 2001," Gwenog commented.
"You don't think that's too fast for her?" Brandt asked with a worried tone.
They looked up at the two girls, both with their long hair trailing in the wind as they sped through the sky.
"Looks like she's doing just fine to me," Gwenog said. "Hey, Harry. Do you want to do some real beater maneuvers? I can try to hit your sister, and you can try to stop me."
Harry panicked, and said, "No, definitely not."
Gwenog tapped the bludger floating next to her with the base of her bat, which turned it pink, then swatted it with the bat straight at Brandt. It just bounced off him before he even had time to panic, leaving a big pink splotch on the side of his face.
"It's a training bludger," she explained. "It feels normal when you hit it with a bat, but if it hits a person, the only thing that happens is it leaves a mark when it bounces off."
Harry seemed to think hard, and ended up saying, "I'm ok with it if Lyra agrees."
Gwenog put two fingers to her lips and let out a loud whistle which got Angelica's attention. She stopped following Lyra and the two girls swooped down to where the three of them were sitting. Lyra's hair had come completely undone and fell below her broom as she arrived.
"This is amazing!" she squealed. "Can I get a Nimbus when we go back?"
Brandt didn't want to tell her no, so he just said, "Maybe next year. You're still a beginner on the Cleansweep."
She pouted a bit, but Gwenog said, "Hey Lyra, I'm going to swat a training bludger at you a bit and your brother is going to try to stop me. Does that sound fun?"
Lyra looked excitedly at Harry and nodded a lot. Gwenog hovered closer and tapped Lyra on the back with her bat, creating a small blue glow, then repeated the gesture with Harry and herself.
"When I hit the bludger, it will now go after the three of us. Are you ready?"
Harry nodded but Lyra just flew off instead of agreeing. Gwenog slapped the bludger with her bat and it went off, chasing Lyra. Harry shot off to intercept it. The three of them dipped, dived, and dodged the bludger over and over. Most of the time it never even got close to Lyra before she got away from it, but the rest of the time, Harry was able to hit it away. One time, after Lyra dodged the pink ball, it got dangerously close to hitting Harry, but he just transferred the bat to his left hand and hit it away with that hand, drawing a look of astonishment from the professional beater at his ambidextrousness.
After thirty minutes of playing, Gwenog just caught the bludger with her bare hands, leaving big pink splotches on her arms. Lyra and Harry came to a stop as well, both of them clearly exhausted. They started to head back down to Brandt, who was sitting side by side with Angelica on their brooms watching them fly and engaged in conversation.
Altogether, they flew back to the room they started in and stashed the brooms in the locker. All of the other guests had left, except Penelope who was sitting with the manager and talking business with Hermione listening in, while Lysander and Celia were chatting with the healer, Davey, but looked a little agitated. Moody was eating a sandwich with one hand, but his magic eye was still constantly spinning with his wand in his other, to make sure to cover all the angles. As Brandt looked around for Tonks, she flew in from outside on her broom, shrunk it, and stashed it in her jacket pocket.
With everyone present, Brandt called out, "It's getting close to 3 p.m, we need to start heading back."
Everyone thanked the team members they had been meeting with and promised to come back for another game. Penelope passed out contact cards to the manager and a few other players, plus Davey, the healer. Tonks did a quick and dirty job of fixing Lyra's hair so that it wasn't dragging on the floor as Brandt guided the group towards a fireplace in the back of the room as everyone was chatting with each other about what they just experienced. Brandt saw that Hermione's parents looked a bit upset, and asked them what was wrong.
Lysander almost growled, "That healer, as nice as he was about talking shop with us, when he heard about Hermione and the Velasco bloodline, spoke to the two of us like we were just breeding stock. He did more than just imply that we were wasting ourselves if we didn't just pump out magical children until Celia couldn't do it anymore."
"I'm sorry about that," Brandt apologized. "From his perspective, there are too few wizards in the world, and with a lot of old lines disappearing, he says that kind of thing with the best intentions."
"It's still incredibly rude," Celia stated.
Hermione looked a bit hopeful, "But could I have a little brother or sister? If I had a brother you could name him Archidamus or Leontes. A little sister could be Emilia."
"This is not the time to talk about that," Lysander told his daughter.
"We should get back," Brandt said seriously. "Miss Tonks, Moody, would you be able to escort the Grangers back to the Leaky Cauldron? I can take the children directly to Hogwarts."
Moody nodded and Hermione said goodbye to her parents, giving them big hugs and promising to write soon. Tonks and Moody linked arms with Hermione's parents and called out for the Leaky Cauldron and disappeared into the emerald flames of the floo.
The four children plus Whispers, who showed up with a swollen stomach from eating too much, repeated the longer destination, "Hogwarts, Ravenclaw House Office," three times before they were allowed to step through the floo. When he arrived, Penelope was already telling the long story of her adventure to Professor Flitwick with Hermione jumping in and adding details here and there. Brandt thanked Flitwick for letting them use his office floo and started to walk Harry, Lyra, and Whispers back down to the Scamander common room.
Along the way, he asked Harry, "How do you feel about quidditch now?"
Harry really wanted to stay stubborn, but he had enjoyed himself a lot. And it certainly did seem like the players enjoyed themselves and got along with each other, despite the violence of the game. He stayed silent, pondering the possibilities of playing.
When they were on the second floor of the grand staircase, he told Brandt, "I think I'll give quidditch a try."
Lyra let out a squeal and hugged her brother tight, almost knocking them down the stairs. Whispers, who didn't know exactly what was going on, jumped on as well, and the three of them started to roll down the stairs before Brandt caught them with a levitation spell and allowed them to get back up.
"I'm happy to hear about it," he said. "But you should probably tell Mr. Diggory, in your house, when you get a chance. I'm sure he's more anxious than anyone else to hear about it."
Harry nodded and Brandt left them to walk the rest of the way to the common room. After they had left, he gave the largest sigh of relief before marching down to the dungeons where he knocked on the door to the potions classroom. Snape opened the door and revealed a classroom full of students brewing potions in various-sized cauldrons.
Brandt smiled at the situation. These were all of the students being used as slave labor from Miss Tonks's suggestion to take advantage of the cauldron bottom thickness standard issue. That just made one more thing to make him happy.
"Severus, I am in the mood to celebrate. How much longer do you have these dunderheads brewing for?" Brandt said with a huge smile.
"I could get rid of them all right now," he growled. "All I'd need to do is make their cauldrons explode and then send someone to deliver their corpses back to their dormitories." He said that part loud enough for all of them to hear. Then quietly, he added, "Come to my office, give them twenty minutes."
Brandt entered the Potion Master's office, and conjured a couch, collapsing into it. "Are these students working on the cauldron thickness issue for Buttonwood?" he asked Snape.
"How did you know about that?" Snape asked skeptically.
"I was there when the deal was struck. You'll never guess who was responsible for making it happen." Brandt felt a brush against his occlumency shields and poked back. "Stop it."
"You said I'd never guess, so I wasn't going to."
"Fine, the person that thought up the idea of paying you and slaving out the job to students in detention was none other than Nymphadora, Don't-call-me-that, Tonks."
"You're taking a piss at me," Snape said slowly, but seeing the smile on Brandt's face, "You're not kidding? How did that happen?"
"It just did. I'm heading over to The Harpies Nest, so if you want to join me, drinks are on me. As soon as you're done with your cauldron slaves out there."
Snape stood up and walked out of the office. He walked by each student's cauldron and cast a preservation charm on each one.
"Write down the step you were on and you will continue your detentions tomorrow night, after dinner." He stared at every one of the children there, "Get out, now."
They all ran out the door as quickly as they could.
Snape turned back to Brandt, "My schedule just opened up."
Walking back into his office, they each grabbed a pinch of floo powder and called out "The Harpies Nest!" and vanished into the fire.
They both got spit out into a raging party. People were singing, and dancing on tables, with alcohol spilling everywhere and making the floor sticky. There were people from Tutshill and Holyhead partying, but many more Harpies fans were present.
Brandt yelled towards the bar, "TWO BEERS!" and two bottles were thrown at him, which Snape caught with a levitation charm. They popped off the tops with their wands and toasted together before drinking. A dark-haired girl, with streaks of gold and green, dancing on the table slipped off and landed in Snape's arms. She looked at him and panicked.
"Ahh, vampire!" she cried out.
Brandt laughed out loud as Snape snarled, "It is 3:30 in the afternoon. I am not a vampire."
The girl, still being held by Snape, took another look at him, and said, "I'm not sure, you might be." Then reached over and pulled up his front lip to look at his teeth. "Pretty sure you're not a vampire now."
Snape put her down and she walked off, looking back at him, twice. Brandt told him, "If I were you, I'd follow her."
Snape sighed, "You know, a very wise old seer told me over the summer to stop living in the past. I think I'll follow her advice." He turned around and followed the young woman who had just walked off, with Brandt giving a non-so-silent cheer as he walked away.
Without his wingman, so early into the outing, Brandt approached the bar and set up a tab. As he drank his beer, he was approached by Gwenog Jones. Sitting in the seat next to him, she reached over and took the beer out of his hands, and started to drain the rest of it. A man passing by whistled at her as she chugged the beer. She held up one finger at him, causing him to stop and wait until she was done.
When she finished the beer, she winked at the man who whistled at her, then slugged him in the face, knocking him out as he fell into another table, which got cheers from the other patrons.
"So, how'd it go?" she asked Brandt.
"Well, I'm back here, and I brought along Severus Snape, who is possibly hooking up with a girl who has a vampire fetish… so you tell me."
"I'm guessing it went well?" she said hopefully.
"It went perfectly, Angie did say you could convince him. It's not like he's going to regret it, he's going to have a blast. He just needed to get a taste for it. So, for your reward…" Brandt pulled out a large ring of keys. "These are the keys to the Black Family Villa in Ibiza. The ring will act as a portkey for you and the Harpies for the entire month of June. You'll have one month of post-season partying with a service staff of three house elves and an endless larder of food and drinks, plus an on-call obliviator to deal with any muggles you accidentally or purposely reveal the existence of magic to."
She snatched the keys from him and passed him back his empty beer bottle.
"Go get yourself another drink, and go see Angie to tell her of our success," she swung the keys around her fingers and disappeared into the crowd.
Author's Note: I looked around Holyhead, in Wales, for a good location to put the Holyhead stadium. I would have preferred a large national park or something where it could be concealed, but then I noticed the coastline for Gogarth Bay, which could be the side to an arena with a quidditch pitch above the water. That seemed like a nice place for a stadium if you throw in enough muggle-repelling wards on game days.
Also Gogarth Bay seems like a good name for the Harpies' theme of nearly all their players in canon having G names.