Pop
Pop...Thump
"Oww"
Was the first thing Kate heard after apparating to the camp grounds of the World Cup. She looked down to where the pained groan had come from, to see her brother flat on his face in the grass.
"Ah' least ya didn' splinch yerself" said Jerry, lifting Steven off the ground with a chuckle
"Lyla!" A soft, deep voice came from behind the trio. She spun around to see her Uncle Ethan, a tall, chiseled and distinguished man in his early fifties waving at her through the mass of people.
"Uncle Ethan!" she cried, a smile stretching across her face as she waved her hand frantically back at him. She tapped her brother on the shoulder as he was dusting himself off from his fall and gestured toward their uncle; the three of them made their way through the crowd toward him.
"Ahh Lylabug" he sighed and hugged Lyla when she reached him. Despite the fact that she was twenty-one years old, he still called her that...and she didn't mind one bit. Ever since her father had disappeared ten years ago Uncle Ethan had gone above and beyond for her and her siblings. Ethan moved down the line to pull Steven into a quick hug and then shook Jerry's hand.
"Hi!" a skinny girl with curly, dark brown tendrils, darker and curlier than her sister's hair said, lifting the flap of a nearby tent.
"Did you get some sleep?" Ethan asked her
"A little" she replied as she hugged Lyla "I'm too excited!"
"Me too!" Lyla said, laughing and squeezing her little sister
"Why don't we all get settled in and be excited later" Uncle Ethan said, chuckling and opening the tent flap to let the group in. Lyla flopped down into an armchair by the front and propped up her feet.
"So where're ya sitting Ethan?" Jerry asked, sitting down at the kitchen table
"Top box" he replied a little frustratedly, putting the kettle on the stove "I'd rather be with you lot though" he winked at Lyla and she smiled back at him.
"Let's go for a walk!" cried Steven from the back of the tent "I don't want to be in this tent all day!"
"You're such a brat" Lyla called back to him
"No, Steven, that's a good idea. You can go to the water pump and get me some water for the tea" said Ethan
"Okay" Steven said, standing and picking up a bucket "Come on Alicia" she stood up and followed him out of the tent
"Well, since everyone else is leaving…I'm gunna go look for ma mate" said Jerry "He said he'd be comin' an' I haven't seen 'im in a while now" He stood up and followed after Steven and Alicia
It was quiet for a while as Lyla walked around the kitchen, putting some dishes back in the cupboards
"A friend of mine from the Ministry is just across the way and I was thinking of popping in on him" Ethan said, standing up "You want to come?"
"Nah," Lyla said, wrinkling her nose "Two days back at home and it should be nice to have some quiet. Anyway, I have to finish a report on a Poltergeist in Hounslow"
Her uncle rolled her eyes, "Bloody Christ, Lye. Don't be so serious…what happened to that teal-haired teenager I knew? I miss her…sometimes" he winked at her
Lyla sighed and sat down at the small table, turning around in her chair to face her uncle, "She's still there…sometimes" she smiled as her uncle let out a loud chuckle
"Well, don't work so hard" he said as he left through the flap, waving his hand behind him
She worked in quasi-silence, the jubilance and cheers outside her tent as her background noise. She twirled her quill around in her left hand as she read a file she had brought with her through her black, round-rimmed glasses.
"LYLA! LYLA!" Alicia called frantically to her sister from outside the tent, her voice getting closer and closer until her body broke through the flaps in the tent "We saw-we saw-" she struggled to catch her breath as Steven, dragging the bucket, now full, came into the tent behind her "We saw-HARRY POTTER!" she finally exclaimed
"Oh yeah?" Lyla chuckled "Okay" she pushed her glasses up on her forehead and looked at her little sister "You know, now that you're going to Hogwarts you'll see him a lot more now"
Alicia blushed and looked at her feet, "Yeah, I knooooow"
"Where's Uncle Ethan?" Steven asked
"He went to go see a friend from work" Lyla replied. As though speaking his name had summoned him they heard Ethan's boisterous laughs amongst the bustle outside.
Ethan poked his head in the tent and said, still slightly laughing, "Oh good you're all here, come on out I want to introduce you all to some people!"
Lyla, Steven and Alicia exited out of the tent and followed the path their uncle had cut in the crowd to another tent a few feet away.
Their uncle was still chuckling, his smile wide, as he joked with a red headed man. "Arthur, these are my nieces: Lyla, and Alicia, and my nephew Steven"
"Steven!" cried two voices in unison as two identical red-headed, freckled boys came around the corner.
"Ah, Ethan!" said the older of the red-headed men, much shorter than the other "These are some more of my boys, Fred, George, this is Ethan. He works in the Ministry as well"
"Do you work with Muggles too?" one of the twins asked Ethan as they took turns shaking his hand
"No, I work for the Wizengamot, son" Ethan responded, nodding his head to each of them politely as he shook their hands
"You-you work with Muggles?" Steven asked Arthur, his eyes twinkling. Arthur nodded. "No way!" Steven said enthusiastically, "I find them so fascinating!"
"As do I!" Arthur exclaimed, leading Steven over to a campfire they set up in front of their tent. The twins, Fred and George had gone into the tent and Ethan, Lyla, and Alicia followed Arthur and Steven over to the fire to continue their conversation.
They were all talking and laughing when a large, muscular red-headed man walked up behind the group, behind Lyla, with Jerry. The red-headed man did a double take when he saw Lyla's back; her black racerback tanktop exposing the golden dragon on her shoulder blade, flapping its wings.
He smirked and bent down to her ear, "I'd know that ink anywhere" he whispered, his voice cracking.
