Author's Notes: The Rotten Writer returning, ladies and gentlemen, with another Chapter of Soul Scars ready to go for you. You might have noticed by the chapter title that this is a Part I situation here. I was writing along and realized that to finish up what I wanted to do the chapter would be rather enormous, so, at the suggestion of my awesome beta TyrannicPuppy, I decided to split the chapter into a two parter. A secondary result of this is it'll allow me to expand on some things that I was tempted to leave alone because I didn't want to bump up the word count too much.

Quick warning, as well, I'm working on a page with a brief synopsis of the last three years that I intend to post up. I wanted to slip it in between the last chapter of the Greengrass Problem and before the first chapter of Allegria, but I realize that'll play havoc with some things, so I'm uncertain exactly how to go about it but hopefully it won't foul things up, too much.

Like I mentioned last chapter, here's where things start getting darker and that M rating starts to come into play. This chapter might still be a bit light on the gruesomeness but it's where it all starts. And it only goes downhill from there. Should be lots of fun gang. As far as the next chapter goes, already got about five thousand words of it written, so shouldn't be too long to get to where I want to be and polish things up.

Disclaimer: Nope. I still got nothin'

Here's chapter 45 of Soul Scars. Enjoy!

Soul Scars Part Four

Allegria

By,

Rtnwriter

Harry decided that he officially hated all forms of magical travel except for brooms. Three years in and he still couldn't manage the Floo properly to save his life without, either, falling flat on his face, or getting launched out of the exit like he was being shot out of a cannon. At which point, he would fall on his face.

Either way, his face was taking a beating that he didn't much appreciate. Apparating was just uncomfortable and nauseating, no matter how many times Amelia had taken him side-along, he was reasonably certain he would never get used to the sensation of being squeezed through a straw or a garden hose.

Now? Portkeys were being added to his list.

"I really hate portkeys," he muttered as he and the rest of the group landed in a painful tangle of limbs and bodies on the ground. People grumbled and cried out in a mixture of exasperation and pain as hands and limbs were bent or stepped on while they tried to extricate themselves from the pile.

Nearby, Harry could hear Sirius and Amelia laughing at them.

Nope. No help would be coming from there.

Finally, after a great deal of struggle, they managed to get to their feet and were in the process of brushing themselves off when, next to him, he heard Hermione sigh, quietly.

"Daphne?" she asked in a low murmur.

"Yes, dear?"

Harry suppressed a smirk at the amused tone in the blond's voice.

"We're in public, Hon. Would you please take your hand off my bum?"

Daphne pouted, but obligingly moved a step away from Hermione and toward Susan.

A moment later, Susan suddenly jumped and cried out, "Daphne!" in a scandalized tone of voice.

Daphne's only response was a decidedly wicked chuckle that warmed Harry's face, and the wink she gave him had him quickly pretending that he was focused on the man that was in the process of letting them know where their campsite was located.

"Here's a map of the grounds," the uniformed Auror was saying, handing over a folded piece of parchment to Sirius as he spoke. "If you want to be able to easily keep track of your party, have each person add a drop of blood to the square at the top right corner of the map and their position will be marked in real time on the map itself."

Sirius arched a brow at that and looked at the parchment in his hand for a moment before he turned to stare at a smugly amused Amelia Bones.

"That map you Marauders made was brilliant. You didn't honestly think that I wouldn't have had Kingsley and Tonks study it before we gave it back to Harry, did you?"

Sirius snorted out a laugh even as Harry spun around to gape at his guardian. "Gave it back?" he blurted out. "What do you mean gave it back? No one gave the map back to me."

"Of course we did, Harry. That map is a family heirloom. I would never dream of taking it from you permanently. As soon as the situation with Sirius was resolved last year, I had Kingsley place it in your school trunk. Flat against the very bottom, inside of your History of Magic text, to protect it from possible damage, of course."

Sirius barked out a laugh as the girls snickered and Harry simply gaped at her in shock. He hardly ever touched the history textbook. Binns' class was so terrible it was hardly worth mentioning in polite conversation and Harry stuck to better texts that he checked out from the school library when needed, and Amelia knew that.

"What?" she asked. "Just because the map rightfully belongs to you, doesn't mean I was going to make it any easier for you to get yourself in even more trouble last term than you already had. The map was returned to you in a timely manner. The fact that you didn't know it was there does nothing to change the fact that we did give it right back after we no longer needed it."

"She's got you there, Pup," Sirius laughed, clapping one hand on Harry's shoulder as he stepped up next to his godson.

Harry's shock morphed into a light glare and he turned to look at Susan. "Are you sure she was a Hufflepuff?" he asked, jerking his head in her aunt's direction. "That seemed like a very Slytherin sort of thing to do right there."

"That's what she's always told me," Susan said, "but she left school before I was even born so I can't say for certain."

Before they could continue, Sirius cut in. "All right, you lot," he called. "Let's step off to the side over here, out of the way, and make sure we can't lose any of you in the shuffle."

Sirius and Amelia went first after they'd gathered all the teens with them together. each of them drawing a drop of blood with a conjured pin and then pressed it to the easily located square in the upper corner of the map. As each drop of blood was added, the parchment glowed a light blue for a moment before returning to normal and a tiny ink dot labeled with the person's name would appear on the map itself.

Just to be certain, after they were all added, Amelia insisted on doing a brief headcount. "Susan, Hermione, Daphne, Harry, Luna, Blaise, Neville, me, and Sirius," she muttered, comparing the people standing in front of her to their locations on the map in her hands. Satisfied, she held the map out to Sirius. "All right, mutt, lead the way."

"I'll have you know, I am a prize winning breed, not a mutt," Sirius said, affecting an insulted tone. Taking the map, he spun on his heel and stalked off, his nose stuck high into the air.

When the snickering group of teens started to follow after him, Amelia quickly waved for them to wait, grinning in eager anticipation.

A minute later, Sirius came stalking back and passed by them, going in exactly the opposite direction from where he'd initially been walking.

"It's this way," he muttered, sheepishly, as he passed them and it was a loudly laughing group of eight that followed after the Marauder as he led them toward their assigned campsite.

#####

It was an hour later when they had found their campsite, set up the two, amazing, wizarding tents, and were sitting around a small fire outside on a series of logs, working their way through a light lunch that Binky had insisted on packing for them.

"They're awesome," Harry was enthusiastically telling the Weasley twins, whom they had discovered setting up at the site right next door to theirs, along with Ron, their sister, Ginny, and their father. Apparently their oldest brothers Bill and Charlie were supposed to be meeting them there a little later, deciding they would apparate over instead of taking the portkey that'd brought them and the Diggorys from Ottery St. Catchpole. Harry'd made a mental note to find and say hello to Cedric, if he could.

"There's three bedrooms in each tent, a full kitchen, dining room, bath, and a sitting room. The shag carpets and lava lamps are a bit much, but still, I love magic."

"I told you, those tents were bought in the 70's," Sirius nearly whined. "It's not my fault they reflect the style of the period."

"I know it's not your fault how they looked, Padfoot. It is your fault, though, that you didn't check them over before bringing them."

"Watch it, Pup," Sirius mock growled. His wand suddenly shot into his hand from the Auror grade holster strapped to his forearm and something brushed past Harry's hair. A moment later the wand disappeared back up Sirius' sleeve with a loud click and he smirked at his godson. "Keep it up and I just might leave your hair like that until after you're back at school for the year."

Harry blinked for a moment, surprised by the suddenness of Sirius' action before he looked around at the rest of the group.

All three of his girls were smirking at him. Luna was giggling madly while Blaise, sitting beside her, was grinning openly. Neville was biting his lip, his face slowly turning red while the twins were grinning in a way that Harry could only describe as maniacal.

"What'd he do to my hair?" he finally asked, unable to contain himself any longer and Gred and Forge immediately rolled off the log they'd been sitting on to land on their backs on the grass, absolutely howling with laughter even as Neville collapsed onto the ground in front of his seat, leaning back against it as he lost the fight to contain his own amusement.

The rest of them weren't in considerably better shape, all of them laughing uproariously as Harry started tugging on the fringe over his forehead, trying to see his hair to find out what his prankster of a godfather had done to him.

After a good five minutes of this, Hermione finally gathered enough self control, and took pity on him, and removed a small mirror from an inside pocket of her robes, holding it out so he could see his reflection in it. Harry blinked again as he stared at the small image for a moment in utter confusion. His hair was still a little on the long side, black, and messy as it ever was. Completely unchanged in any way from how it always appeared.

Harry groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"I just fell for the Wizards First Rule, didn't I?" he muttered, his voice muffled by his hands and that set those of them in the know off again, leaving Harry to explain to Sirius and the twins what Wizard's First Rule was.

"Wait," Sirius said a few minutes later. "So you're telling me, that when you strong armed Cyril Greengrass out of the Lordship of his House and got him to pass it down to Daphne, also agreeing to an Oath that he swore on his magic… the whole thing was a damn bluff?"

Harry smirked, slightly recovered from his embarrassment by basking in the memory of his successful maneuver against the former Lord Greengrass.

"Yup," he said. "Wizard's First Rule: people are stupid. You just tricked me with the same thing. You made me think that you did something to my hair when you actually didn't do anything at all. Good job, Padfoot, I'll give you that one."

Sirius sat up straighter on his portion of the log he was sharing with Amelia, preening slightly. "Well, I have to say it does feel good to have caught the mighty Lord Potter with his own trick. Honestly, though, Pup, that was a fantastic move with Cyril. I'm gonna have to tell that story to Moony again, he'll probably be laughing for days on that one."

"Well if it isn't Sirius Black himself!"

The group turned as a loud, boisterous voice broke into their discussion and Sirius grinned.

"Ludo Bagman," he called to a group of figures walking in their direction. "The man of the hour. Kids, Ludo here is the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports and he's responsible, along with his team, for putting all of this together. A more enthusiastic Head of Games and Sports you'll never likely find. Used to play Quidditch for England and he was probably the best Beater the Wimbourne Wasps ever had."

The ten teens, with the twins added in, clapped, politely, and Bagman grinned, bowing in a dramatic manner.

Ludo Bagman was easily the most noticeable person Harry had seen in quite some time. He was wearing long Quidditch robes in thick horizontal stripes of bright yellow and black. An enormous picture of a wasp was splashed across his chest. He had the look of a powerfully built man gone slightly to seed; the robes were stretched tightly across a large belly he surely had not had in the days when he had played Quidditch for England. His nose was squashed (probably broken by a stray Bludger, Harry thought), but his round blue eyes, short blond hair, and rosy complexion made him look like a very overgrown schoolboy.

"Sirius Black, Lord Black, I should say. Heard about you taking up your status last week."

"Yes, bit of a surprise there, Ludo," Sirius admitted, grinning broadly. "Dear mother Walburga blasted me off the family tapestry decades ago and I thought for sure I'd been disowned. Turned out my grandfather ignored her and never actually did the deed so I was able to take over as Head of House."

"Congratulations, congratulations. After everything that happened, you more than most deserve a bit of good in your life, Sirius. I can't tell you how shocked I was when I heard the story. To think, one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, getting chucked into Azkaban without even a hint of due process." He shook his head, mournfully. "Absolutely disgraceful. I was ashamed to be a member of the Ministry that day, let me tell you."

"Think nothing of it, Ludo. You had no part in it, of course, and neither did Fudge or our current DMLE, really. That was all Bagnold and Crouch. Speaking of, wasn't Crouch involved with all this as Head of International Magical Cooperation?" Sirius did not look thrilled about the idea of possibly running into the man that had him sent to prison.

"Well he was supposed to be but he up and disappeared after your trial, didn't he?" Ludo said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He leaned forward, lowering his voice in a conspiratorial manner yet somehow managed not to hide a word from anyone nearby. "Course that's not really being bandied about. Bad enough with how things went, but then any chance to investigate him up and vanishes along with him. Bad business, that. But, what can ya do?" He shrugged his large shoulders, a boyish grin bursting out onto his face.

"Anyway, fancy a flutter on the game?" he asked, shaking one of the pockets of his stripped robes which jingled loudly with what sounded like a considerable amount of gold.

Harry lost interest in the discussion once it moved toward gambling and turned back around to observe the comings and goings of the grounds around them. The walk to their site had been eye opening in many ways. Tents with windows, chimneys, weathervanes, even one that was two stories. He couldn't even guess how that one worked, or how the wizards that owned that particular tent thought they were going to be able to hide it from the muggles that owned the camp ground, if they'd still been present.

At Amelia's insistence, the muggle owners had been sent on a long vacation, a Caribbean cruise they had apparently won through some contest they couldn't remember entering and the site was manned entirely by Aurors and volunteer staff consisting mostly of retired Aurors and Hit Wizards and Witches. According to Sirius, the stadium itself was supposed to be able to seat a hundred thousand spectators and he was already looking forward to the game that night.

"Oi, Harry."

Harry jumped and turned his attention back to Sirius who was looking expectantly in his direction. A quick glance around told him that Bagman and his entourage had disappeared sometime during his distraction and the twins were huddled together, talking in excited whispers over a slip of parchment they were holding.

"You still with us?" Sirius asked, and Harry nodded.

"Yeah, I was just looking around and thinking about the game tonight. It all sounds like it should be really exciting."

"It should be a great game. Bulgaria and Ireland both field wonderful teams so I'm sure they'll put on a good show. It's hours, yet, till the game, though. So why don't you guys go explore for a while? If you all head toward the Stadium there should be merchandise booths and such. You can look for souvenirs, even find yourselves something for lunch in a while. Just make sure you all stick together and you're back here by four for an early dinner before the game. I'll have things ready by then."

A glance around showed the rest of them were fine with the idea, minus the twins who had scurried off back to their families campsite, disappearing into one of the tents, so he looked back to his godfather and nodded his head.

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Sirius smiled and waved them away.

As the group started off, Harry felt a tickling sensation across his scalp and scratched idly for a moment before some of the camp decorations caught his attention and he forgot all about it.

Amelia stepped up next to Sirius, watching the teens as they walked away.

"So… how long do you think it'll take him to notice that the time delayed color changing charm you cast just turned his hair pink?" she asked, a grin turning up her lips.

Sirius' only response was a smile and a loud barking laugh as he turned and headed inside the boy's tent, looking to take a short nap before he had to start prepping dinner for the group.

#####

"Harry, you don't have to keep buying us gifts," Hermione half heartedly complained as Harry carefully attached a tiny charm shaped like a golden snitch to the bracelet on her wrist.

"I know I don't have to, Hermione," He muttered, absently, most of his focus on making sure the snitch was securely attached and wouldn't likely fall off. "I want to." He held onto her hand after he was sure the charm was secure and looked her carefully in the eyes.

"I didn't have anything to my name before I got my Hogwarts letter. No money, no personal belongings to speak of, really. Then I came into my position as Head of House and now I have more money available to me than I could likely ever spend, but I'm not a person that wants for much. I'm not the type to go on any shopping sprees buying anything and everything I want, since there really isn't much I want, and the things I have that I most cherish were all gifts from you girls and our friends.

"Going from completely poor to having more money available to me than I know what to do with is… strange. I'm not trying to sound like I'm bragging or something, but I have it and I enjoy being able to buy something small like this when the mood strikes me," he added, tapping the snitch charm with its gently fluttering wings with the tip of one finger. "Remember, my mum's letter told me to live my life, and I'm pretty sure my dad would be completely supportive of me using some of the Potter fortune to spoil the three of you a little bit. I'm not trying to buy your affections or friendship, and I trust the three of you not to abuse the fact that I'm willing to spend money on you, so there's no worries, right?"

While he'd been talking, her expression had softened from fondly exasperated to something showing just the fondness she felt for him. When he finished, though, she made a conscious effort to look more stern. She had her own money and her own vault. The thousand galleons she had been gifted by Branch Manager Ragnok was in no way as complex or lucrative an account as those held by any of her friends in the wizarding world, but she had still worked closely with Gringotts advisors to ensure that the funds she had available had only grown since the vault was opened in her name.

She did not need anyone to pay her way or to spoil her.

Before she could say anything to that effect, however, his hands found her waist and he pulled her close to him, his lips easily finding hers and all thought of protests bled away as her mind focused itself entirely on physical sensation.

"That is so not fair," she said in a breathless whisper after he pulled back from her.

"What's that?"

"You can't just kiss me whenever you know you're about to lose an argument." She tried to glare at him, but that was difficult to do when she couldn't stop smiling.

"I didn't realize we were arguing," he said, his hands still firmly holding her waist. "Or that I was losing." He leaned forward to kiss her again when a voice interrupted them.

"Hey, stop monopolizing, you two."

They turned slightly, to find Susan and Daphne grinning at them, and no sign of the rest of their friends.

"They moved down a couple of shops," Daphne answered the unasked question in Hermione's cinnamon gaze. "Blaise wanted to look at a particular shop, apparently."

Sirius had been right when he'd said there would be merchandise booths closer to the stadium itself. 'Booth', however, was an extreme understatement that Harry reasoned he really shouldn't have been surprised by. Each booth made such extensive use of expansion charms that the interior space more closely resembled one of the shops he'd find in places like Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.

Presently, the four of them were standing in the shadowed corner of the jewelry shop where Harry had purchased the snitch charms for all three of his girls as a reminder of the day. With people rushing past them, all busy and focused on their own goals, they went unnoticed.

"My turn," Susan said, grinning impishly as she took ahold of Harry's arm. As he stepped away, Hermione turned her attention to her new charm, still a bit unsure over accepting it, as much as the sight of it dangling from her wrist made her smile.

Her musings were cut short when a pair of soft hands cupped her cheeks and she caught a glimpse of deep blue eyes just before a warm pair of lips caught hers and a tongue slipped, unexpectedly, into her mouth. She froze for a moment, before her mind re-engaged. Hermione may have been far less demonstrative in her affections that either Daphne or Susan were, but over the last few months since they'd completed their part of the bond, her determination to take things slowly was being worn away. With the intoxicating honeysuckle scent of her bond mate wafting over her, she threw all caution to the wind.

Without thinking, her arms wrapped tightly around Susan's waist, pulling the other girl flush against her body and she took a more forceful command of their kiss, engaging Susan in a brief, but intense, snog, as the two of them carefully explored each others mouths. Much to Susan's delight.

When she attempted to pull back, her eyes shot open and a low moan echoed up into the back of her throat as she found her bottom lip trapped between Hermione's teeth. A warm tingling sensation shot through her body a moment before her lip was released and she felt a gentle kiss being pressed to where she'd just been bitten.

"Hmmm…" Hermione hummed quietly, low in her throat. She lightly nuzzled the side of Susan's neck, tilting her head back until she could whisper, "that was fun," into the stunned redhead's ear, then she abruptly stepped away, leaving Susan dazed and aching for something more.

"Come on," Hermione chirped, brightly as she hooked an arm through Harry's. "We need to catch up with the gang before they get into trouble."

Susan didn't move, her lips still slightly pursed, eyes glazed over and Daphne chuckled quietly at the sight of her dazed bond mate.

"You okay, there, love?" she asked as Susan blinked rapidly and snapped out of her daze.

"Damn," she muttered, turning to follow Hermione with her eyes. "I think we've created a monster."

Daphne laughed again and pulled Susan along with her. "I can't believe she actually did that to you," she said, thrilled with their bond mate's actions, and the progress that it indicated with their relationship, as they followed along behind Harry and Hermione.

#####

"I can't believe you just did that to her," Harry muttered into Hermione's ear, a grin playing around his lips.

"I can't either," she said. "God, I don't know what came over me I just… oh and in public, too," she moaned, giddy elation bleeding into sudden panic for a moment.

"Don't worry, Daphne and I made sure no one else could see you two," Harry assured her before cautiously asking, "you're okay with it, otherwise?"

She considered that in silence for a moment before she nodded. "I am," she said. "They've been so very patient with me since January. Nothing more than fairly light kissing, really. That was…" She flushed brilliantly. "That was certainly more than a simple kiss, but I really did enjoy it."

Harry patted her hand where it rested in the crook of his elbow. "Good, then," he said. He was still more than a little confused over exactly where things were going with the four of them, where the girls expected things to land, and figured they were due for another honest conversation sometime in the near future. He knew that of the four of them, he was still a little more on the outside, but he was getting better. With the frequent bleed over of the love the girls felt that he caught through their bond, it was getting easier and easier for him to think he might just be able to return those feelings.

He hadn't really given it serious thought, something inside him making him shy away from the idea that he might actually be in love with the girls, but he was skirting around the edges of it, and getting closer to it by the day.

Daphne and Susan caught up to them and Hermione giggled when Daphne leaned in to whisper something into her ear. They found Blaise, Neville, and Luna and after looking around for a while longer they headed back to their campsite, looking forward to a good dinner before the game.

When they arrived, Sirius had a gleeful, expectant look on his face and Harry glared at him.

"Twenty minutes," he said, dropping onto a seat on one of the logs where they'd rested earlier. "Twenty minutes it took before any of my so-called friends would tell me why they couldn't stop laughing. Pink, Padfoot? Really?"

"Well it was obviously funny," Sirius pointed out, chortling happily with the results of his prank. "And hey," he indicated Harry's once again ebony hair. "You managed to get it back to normal."

"That's not the point, Padfoot. You know I'll get you back at some point."

"I look forward to the attempt, Pup."

"Cut it out you two and eat. We need to leave soon if we want to get to our seats," Amelia admonished them, ignoring the rest of their group that had resumed snickering over Harry's reaction when they'd finally told him about his bright pink hair.

Dinner went by quickly, and before they knew it, it was five thirty in the evening and time to head to their seats. It was just an hour to go before the Quidditch World Cup was set to start.

#####

"I'm confused," Harry muttered, looking around the box of seats where they were waiting for the game to start.

"What about?" Daphne asked, popping a chocolate frog into her mouth.

"I'm not sure we climbed enough stairs to be as high up as it feels like we are. It's kind of freaking me out, to be honest."

Behind them, Amelia laughed and they turned around in their seats to look at her, Susan and Hermione joining them in wondering what the woman had found so funny.

"That's because of your talent on a broom, Harry," she said. "See, the stadium is designed so that, going up, you actually travel further with each step then you technically should. You'll noticed it when it's time to go back down that it'll be a much longer walk than it was on the way up."

"Okay, what's that got to do with flying, though?" Harry wondered.

"It's a little difficult to describe, but… have you ever heard of 'perfect pitch'?" she asked and Harry and Hermione both nodded.

"It's the ability to recognize the pitch of a given musical note or to produce any note," Hermione said and Amelia nodded.

"Right. Harry's sense of flying is similar. It's an innate ability that some people have, and part of why he's just naturally so good on a broom. You always have a sense of how high off the ground you are and that's why, in those dives I've been told about you're, always able to pull out before actually hitting the ground. Visual acuity isn't enough for that, you have to have an actual sense of the distance. Now, you wouldn't be able to say exactly how many feet off the ground you are in any given moment, but you've got a decent idea how high up you are. The reason it's bugging you is because your visual sense while climbing the stairs doesn't match up with that sense you have that's telling you how high you are."

Harry considered that for a moment. "Huh. Well, that makes sense I guess. I just wish it would stop annoying me."

"Just think of it like this, Pup. Ignore how many stairs you climbed. You know you're higher up than that, and you know magic was involved in getting you here faster and easier than you would normally have thought possible," Sirius tried to help. "That might help you push aside the strangeness of it."

The sound of a throat clearing drew their attention and they turned back to the front as Ludo Bagman stood up and waved to the loudly cheering crowd. He cast a Sonorous charm on himself and his magically amplified voice boomed out across the vast stadium as he introduced the teams and their mascots.

Harry leaned forward in his seat, curious about the mascots, and when he saw a group of what looked like women walking out onto the field for the Bulgarian team he cocked his head to the side, slightly confused. Then they started to dance, and his level of confusion only grew to new heights.

"I don't get it," he said, leaning back in his seat. "What kind of mascot is a group of women? That's just cheerleaders, isn't it?"

He looked to Susan on his right to find her giving him a strange look.

"What?" he asked. "Did Sirius change my hair color, again?"

She snorted out a laugh and shook her head. "No, Harry. I'm just surprised you're not reacting to the Veela."

"The what?"

"Those women are Veela, Harry," Daphne explained from his other side. "Look at the other men around here, tell me what they're doing."

With a glance around, Harry realized that most of the men in the box were behaving very oddly. Malfoy Junior and Senior were seated at the very front of their section, and Missus Malfoy appeared to be holding both of them back from trying to climb over the railing. Fred and George were preening and flexing in a ludicrous manner and Ron Weasley was actually drooling, staring vacantly at the floor of the stadium where the women were dancing. On Susan's other side, Blaise and Neville were also looking a little glassy eyed, but Blaise would occasionally shake his head, as if coming out of a daze before he'd drop right back into it.

"What's going on?" he asked, slightly alarmed.

"Veela have an Allure that attracts men," Amelia explained in a thoughtful tone, studying Harry curiously. "Most men kind of lose their minds around them. Veela can control how strong their Allure is, but they can't turn it off, only push it down to a low level, at best. It takes a strong will for a wizard not to be ensnared, and those Veela down there are cranking up their Allure as much as they can, I would imagine, trying to catch the crowd's attention."

Frowning, Harry reached past Susan and snapped his fingers in front of Neville's nose a couple of times.

"Hey, Nev," he barked, "snap out of it, Mate."

No reaction.

Sighing, Harry sat back in his seat and let his head fall back against it, deciding to just wait for the game to start, not noticing how his girls all smiled and shared a look between the three of them at his reaction, or rather, lack of a reaction, to the Veela on the field.

Eventually, the Bulgarian Mascots finished their routine, the Mascots for the Irish did their thing (he did find the Leprechauns interesting, at least) and Bagman was back at the railing to get things started.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN," Ludo said in his amplified voice. "I WELCOME YOU ALL TO THE 1994 QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP!"

Even his Sonorous charm couldn't have kept up with the ear shattering cheer that rose from the crowd and Harry grinned excitedly.

"Harry, look," Hermione cried, grabbing his arm and pointing toward the top of the stands directly across from them. He looked, and found a large screen were a huge image of Ludo Bagman was visible, grinning broadly and waving to the crowd. "Looks like they've adapted the jumbo screens you see at muggle sports stadiums," she said. "We'll be able to get a better look at some of the game."

"LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN!"

At Ludo's shout, the referee threw the quaffle into the air and the game was underway, Bagman only having time to say the chasers names before the quaffle was in the air being passed to another. Back and forth in a rapid fire motion across the pitch they moved the large red ball until the first goal was scored bringing it 10-0 in favor of the Irish.

Harry, however, heard and saw none of it.

After the festivities, that is when the real festivities will begin.

The words from his nightmare echoed in his head, triggered by Ludo using the same phrase. Over and over they repeated themselves, that high, eerie voice whispering through his mind like wisps of smoke, curling around his thoughts.

The real festivities will begin

"Harry? What's wrong?"

He turned his head, blinking suddenly, and sound came rushing back as Bagman continued to comment on the game, people shouted and cheered and stomped their feet, raising a thunderous cacophony of sound that seemed to press in on him from all sides. He stared blankly into Hermione's worried gaze, her face not registering for several long moments before he suddenly shook himself out of his stupor and spun around in his seat.

"Amelia!" he hissed urgently and she looked down at him from where she'd been following the Bulgarian Seeker through the sky, a questioning look on her face that turned quickly to worry when she saw the frantic expression he wore.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I think something bad is going to happen."

She glanced to Sirius beside her for a moment before looking back at Harry.

"What is it? How do you know?"

At that he fidgeted uncomfortably. "I don't know what," he said, having to raise his voice slightly over the noise of the crowd. "I just… Yesterday, remember I was up early?"

She nodded.

"I was up because I'd been up all night. I had a dream. A really weird dream with Riddle… it… it wasn't like my other dreams. It was different. Riddle was there, talking to someone. I could only see his back for most of it. But they talked about a Bertha Jorkins, and Riddle said something about his most loyal follower doing something with information that he got from Bertha's mind. He said he broke her mind getting it and they disposed of the body. The man said that Riddle's follower 'hid approximately two hundred of them around the grounds', and Riddle said 'After the festivities, the real festivities will begin.' Ludo saying that word reminded me. I don't know I just have a really bad feeling."

"Bertha Jorkins works in the Ministry. She hasn't been seen or heard from in weeks," Amelia said. "You've never met her before or heard me mention her, have you?"

He shook his head. "No. In my dream, that was the first time I'd ever heard the name before. There was a muggle there too, an old man. Riddle killed him with the Killing Curse and when I woke up my scar was burning like mad, like it did when Quirrell touched me back in first year."

Nodding, Amelia pulled out her badge as Sirius leaned closer to better hear what was being said. "Did they say anything else?" she asked. "Anything that might give a clue what they were referring too?"

Harry shook his head. "No, nothing specific, just that after thirteen years of peace, it was time to remind people what real terror means."

Harry shot a look at Daphne out of the corner of his eyes but said nothing more, waiting to see what Amelia was planning to do.

"No indication of what exactly the threat is," she mused aloud. "No indication of where or when this threat will take place, either. It could be tonight, it could be in months and somewhere else entirely but…" She trailed off and stood, slowly scanning the stadium around them. "If Riddle wants to strike terror into people, he couldn't do much better than attack the World Cup during the game. One-hundred-thousand witches, wizards and children crammed into this stadium. Even if the attack is just a scare, hundreds of people could get killed in the panic, trampled by other people trying to escape."

She tapped her badge with her wand and held it up to her mouth. "This is Amelia Bones initiating Emergency Protocol Gamma. I have received a tip of a possible, unspecified, threat against the people of Great Britain. No indication that the attack or threat is set to take place during this event, but we can't be too careful. Eyes open, constant scans for dark magic, I want to try to minimize any potential damage before it kicks off."

She tapped her badge again and then pinned it to her robes.

"I need to talk to Fudge, just not sure how I can convince him there's a possible threat without bringing up dreams. He's not likely to take that seriously."

She placed her hand on Harry's shoulder, giving it a warm squeeze. "Keep your eyes open, Harry, and please, if something happens, try to limit the heroics."

Harry couldn't quite muster a grin as his face settled instead into a determined expression that she knew all too well.

"You said it, Amy. It's in my blood. I won't be stupid, but if I can help, I'm going to."

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand.

"I know. I just wish you would be a little more selfish, sometimes. And then I remember you just wouldn't be you, if you were, and I want to beat my head against a wall." She stood and patted his shoulder before making her way out into the aisle and down to where Minister Fudge was sitting with the Ministers from Bulgaria and Ireland as well as a few other government officials, drawing him aside to speak to him behind a privacy charm that she quickly cast.

"Hey, dad?"

Harry turned his head back toward the front to see Ron standing and pointing down toward the center of the pitch.

"Who's that out on the field?"

#####

Aurors First Class Richard Blake and Martin Graham exchanged a look after hearing Director Bones' message over their badges. They were patrolling around the interior perimeter of the field against the inside wall of the stands. On their right, two feet above their heads, were the first, and lowest row of seats and the open pitch lay to their left.

Immediately, both Aurors wands shot into their hands and they began casting dark magic detection charms as they continued their patrol.

"Hey, you two!"

Blake looked up at the voice, a wizard, middle aged and sitting next to a woman with a lovely face that was obviously far too young for the man.

"Somethin' wrong?" the wizard demanded. "You blokes're throwin' out charms like they got a shelf-life."

"S.O.P, Sir," Blake called up. "Nothing to worry about as far as we know. Just making sure everything is secure."

He turned back to his job to see Graham had continued on without him while he'd been engaged and was standing a good thirty feet away, repeatedly casting his charms at the ground in front of him.

"Got something?" Blake asked, coming up to his partner.

"I'm not actually sure. Check for yourself. See if you see what I see."

Blake's wand moved through the motions of the detection charm and a moment later he frowned.

"Not just me then?" Graham asked, noting Blake's expression.

"Not just you," Blake muttered and cast the charm again, verbally, that time. Normally a detection charm like the one they were using would cause anything within the spectrum of magic being searched for to light up a bright red in the casters view. Instead of a spot, or even multiple spots of red, the ground in front of them, as far as the effect of the charm extended, glowed a soft pink in his vision.

"Something to hide or suppress the magical signature?" Blake suggested.

"Might try a Finite to get rid of that, but if we do, who knows if that'll trigger whatever this is."

Graham tapped his badge to let Director Bones know what they'd found when Blake grabbed his arm and pulled his attention away. He turned, following Blake's extended arm to where he was pointing toward the center of the field.

"Who the bloody hell is that?" Graham demanded, seeing the black robed figure that'd caught his partners notice.

"No idea, but we gotta get that idiot off the field. No clue what's going on out here," Blake shot back, already moving away and toward the person standing on the pitch.

The figure raised their arm, pointing a wand straight up into the sky.

"MORSMORDRE!"

The figure practically roared the word in a deep, commanding tone and a jet of light shot from the tip of his wand high into the air where it burst like a firework, suddenly forming a shape that hadn't been seen in the skies for more than a decade.

Twenty feet behind Blake, Graham had an extremely good view of what happened next. His partner stepped over a patch of softer looking earth and the moment he'd moved past something erupted out of the ground behind him. With an inarticulate roaring sound the creature leaped, landing on Blake's back, bearing the Auror to the ground as its head shot forward, rotting teeth sinking into warm flesh. Its head jerked back and Graham could actually hear the sound of flesh tearing as blood spurted through the air.

His wand came up, a flame spell on the tip of his tongue when a weight slammed into his side and his world dissolved into something filled with blood, teeth, and milky white eyes.

#####

"Ron, let me have those omnioculars," Harry demanded, reaching for the magical binoculars that were hanging around the redhead's neck. He ignored the boy's protests and practically yanked them off of him, holding them up to peer down at the dark figure on the pitch, just in time to see them raise their wand toward the sky.

Over the next thirty seconds, so many things happened in such rapid succession that it would be anyone's guess as to the actual series of events. The figure on the ground cast some spell into the air and Harry could see a pair of Aurors moving toward them as a burst of greenish light lit the sky above. Moments later, scores of pale, emaciated looking bodies erupted from out of the earth on the pitch, so many that Harry couldn't begin to estimate a count and the two Aurors were almost instantly swarmed under, blood staining the grass and dirt around them as they fell. The creatures were already rushing across the pitch and climbing into the stands as the shocked silence that'd accompanied the Dark Mark appearing in the sky started to become screams of panic.

In the air, the players froze in shock at the sight of the skull hanging in front of them with a long snake protruding grotesquely from its open jaws and in their distraction, no one was paying attention to what else was happening.

Harry watched as one of the Chasers from Ireland collided full on with a Bulgarian Beater and both players plummeted toward the earth with absolutely nothing to break their fall even as a bludger, left unattended and unwatched, smashed into the Irish Keepers broom, shattering the handle and sending its rider also plummeting to his death. People in the section below them were already pushing their way up the stands, filling the space as the screams grew louder and Bagman simply stood, staring in dumbfounded shock at the spreading scene before him.

"Ludo! Tell people to get the hell out of here!" Amelia screamed at him, grabbing one of his arms and yanking on it until he spun to face her. His mouth opened and closed several times but no words came out and she swore before she cast a finite at him to cancel his Sonorous charm, then cast the amplifying charm on herself.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THERE ARE INFERI INSIDE THE STADIUM. PLEASE, PANIC WILL ONLY CAUSE FURTHER DAMAGE AND INJURY. IF YOU CAN APPARATE AWAY, DO SO, AND TAKE WITH YOU SIDE-ALONG AS MANY AS YOU CAN SAFELY HANDLE. PARENTS, MAKE SURE TO KEEP CLOSE WATCH ON YOUNGER CHILDREN. THIS IS AMELIA BONES, HEAD OF THE BRITISH DMLE AND I AM AUTHORIZING UNDERAGE WITCHES AND WIZARDS TO USE MAGIC DURING THIS CRISIS. ANYONE FOURTH YEAR OR ABOVE, PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN, OTHERWISE, GET OUT AND GET AWAY AS QUICKLY AND AS SAFELY AS YOU CAN."

Apparition cracks started to echo through the air moments later and Amelia nodded to herself, canceling her charm as she reached for her badge, her eyes scanning the scene as small fires started to erupt throughout the lowest levels of the stands.

Harry felt someone grab his arm and spun to find Hermione staring at him fearfully.

"This is going to be bad," she yelled over the noise. Behind her he could see Amelia talking to her badge, her Sonorous charm obviously canceled as she attempted to relay orders to her Aurors. "With so many people… there aren't enough exits. People are going to get trampled in the panic."

A wizard rushed past them, bumping Hermione hard and only her grip on Harry's arm stopped her from falling over into the next row of seats.

"Any ideas what we should do?" Neville asked as he and Blaise came up to them.

"We can't get out of here with people rushing for the exits and we're going to be running out of space up here soon enough too with so many running up this way," Blaise added and over his shoulder Harry could see Mister Weasley and the twins attempted to push back a few people that were trying to get into the top box.

"There's no room up here, and nowhere to go," Twin one was yelling.

"You need to go down ya bloody wanker!" Twin two roared and ducked when the wizard he was facing threw a punch at him. a quick shove and the man stumbled back and fell, tumbling down several steps before he caught himself and jumped back to his feet. Snarling, furiously, he charged back up the stairs, brandishing his wand and the twin that'd shoved him dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a bludgeoning charm that came hurtling from the man's wand.

He was lower down than they were. The spell came up at them at an angle and everything happened so fast, no one had even a moment to react before the charm caught Hermione in the abdomen. The look on her face as the charm struck her would be forever etched into Harry's memory. Her eyes widened in surprise even as her mouth dropped open into a shocked 'o'. The charm lifted her up at an angle, over the row of seats behind them, and over the railing at the top of the stadium wall and out into open air.

"HARRY, NO!" Amelia screamed, turning just in time to see what happened, and Harry racing up the few steps to leap over the railing after her.

#####

"I've got you, little one. I promise, we'll be okay."

"Fleur, I want to go home."

"Soon, Gabrielle. Just keep your eyes closed, please. I'll get us out of here." Fleur ducked past a couple of witches that were trying to fight by each other to head up the stairs and she allowed herself a mental roll of her eyes. Going up would only work for so long and people were already crowding at the top of the stadium, offering less and less room to maneuver the more they tried to cram their way in.

She agreed with that woman, Bones, that apparating away was by far the best idea. Unfortunately, she didn't trust herself to try it with her little sister clutched in her arms, not without splinching one or both of them in the process, at least. So, if up is too dangerous, and down might bring you face to face with your own death, what do you do?

Spit in Death's eye, she thought with a growl, her eyes narrowed at one of the undead monsters as it bounded over the rows of seats below, its milky gaze fixed on the two of them.

"Hold tight to me," she whispered into her sisters ear and shifted the girl to her left arm, holding her against her hip as little arms wrapped tightly around her neck and shoulders. She needed to be emotional for this, as she raised her right hand, and dammit, her emotions were well and truly all over the fucking map!

Her body tensed, vision sharpening as smoke began to rise from her upturned palm. At the last possible moment, a ball of flames burst into existence, cupped in her hand. Simultaneously she stepped to the side even as she threw the fire at the charging monstrosity.

Roaring changed abruptly to shrieking as the fireball struck the beast in the center of its chest and it immediately burst into flame, hurtling past them and into the wall of the next level behind them, the flames rapidly consuming it until naught but ashes remained.

Panting harshly, she shifted Gabrielle in her arms again and continued running. Ducking, twisting, and occasionally jumping over and around obstacles when she could, she worked her way steadily down toward the exits. Along the way, she did her best to ignore the blood and bodies they came across, hoping that her sister had listened to her and was keeping her eyes tightly closed against the horror around them.

Three levels above their escape route, her foot landed in a pool of blood and skidded out from under them, her sister shrieking in fear and surprise as they were sent tumbling to the ground. With a pained groan, Fleur pushed herself to a sitting position, checking her sister for injury as best she could when a low growling noise reached her ears and she froze, her blood turning to ice water in her veins.

Her head snapped up and she scrambled back at the sight of the Inferius lifting its head from where it had been buried in a prone woman's torn open abdomen. Before she could even begin to scramble away, muster her fire, anything, the creature howled and lunged for them.