Chapter Six

The Portkey

Rose was breathing heavily, staring at the sealing, feeling as though she had ran a marathon.

Her hand were covering her scar, in the vein hope of easing the white hot pain shooting through it.

It felt as if someone had just pressed a bolt shaped burning iron to her face and a single tear escaped her eye.

Rose straightened and she scanned the room.

It was lit by a faint, misty white light that was filtering through the curtains from the full moon outside the window. The pink color on the wall of Ginny's bedroom had turned to gray. Rose looked at the sleeping forms of Ginny and Hermione. Relieved she didn't wake them by screaming or groaning from the pain.

Rose ran her fingers over the scar again.

It was still painful.

She got out of bed and walked very quietly towards the bathroom. She turned on the lamp in the bathroom and peered into the mirror on the wall above the sink.

Her hair was a mess, sticking to her face and her hazel eyes were wide from surprise.

Her eyes flitted to her scar but it looked as usual. She had half expected it to be red like a burn, but it looked completely normal. It still burned.

Rose took a washing cloth and let cold water pour over it. She pressed it against the scar hoping to calm it down.

She concentrated on what she had seen.

She had seen Wormtail, a muggle and the third presence had to be Voldemort.

A chill ran through her spine at the though. She hadn't been able to see him but the Muggle had screamed…

Had the scream woken her? His death? Or the burn in her scar…

Who had the Muggle been?

There was a snake as well, all though she hadn't seen it.

This was very confusing and Rose tried to recall more but it was like she was trying to catch sand that kept running through her fingers.

What had they been talking about? Murders…? They had killed someone and she had heard that name before, but who had it been…? And they were planning on killing someone else… they hadn't said a name though…

They were trying to get to someone… herself! They were trying to get to her!

Rose snapped her head up and look through the bathroom.

She slipped out of the bathroom and walked back to Ginny's bedroom. She stopped in front of the window and pulled back the curtains.

The vast field of green, now grayish, seemed the same as ever.

No one was there…

Of course no one was there, she was feeling a bit ridiculous.

Every groan and whisper that went through the Burrow had her on edge now. When one of the Weasley brothers let out a load snore, she practically jumped out of her skin.

Immediately after she had to stifle a loud.

When her heart started to calm down Rose rubbed her scar once more. The burning sensation was calming down.

That dream had felt so real, almost like a memory. Like she had been physically there.

Was that even possible? Did the scar make it possible to see visions of Voldemort?

She wanted to ask someone and the first person who came to mind, sadly, was Dumbledore.

He'd probably know but she wasn't really comfortable with letting him inside her head again.

Who else?

Maybe Mr. Weasley would have some knowledge about this… but she didn't want to worry him with something else too.

Lupin would probably know a lot, but Rose didn't know if it was appropriate to contact him…

Rose could suddenly slap herself.

Sirius! He has experience with dark magic, maybe he'll know.

Rose quickly grabbed some parchment and a quill.

Dear Sirius,

Thank you for your last letter.

I'm staying with the Weasley's now. The twins are a bit on the outs with their parents – they want to open a joke shop, can you believe it? They'd be a success, I'm sure of it.

Hanging around Ron, Hermione and Cedric every day has been fun.

I'm okay and excited to go to the world cup.

I have a question though. This morning I woke with my scar burning.

It's never done that before except when I faced Voldemort in my first year. He can't be here, right?

My scar is calming down now, but I wondered if you know of scars from curses that behave the same way?

I hope you're well and laying low.

Give a nice ferret to Buckbeak from me.

Rose

Finally, when the sun had risen, when the bedroom walls had turned gold and when sounds of movement could be heard from the kitchen down below, Rose cleared her nightstand of crumpled pieces of parchment and reread her finished letter.

Yes, thought Rose, that looked all right. She didn't want to put the dream in just yet. She had a feeling it would put a lot of people on high alert and she didn't want to be the one pulling the false alarm.

Satisfied she put it aside for when Hedwig returned and looked around the room once more.

Her eye paused on the calendar hanging on the wall.

That's right, it was her birthday today.

Mrs. Weasley was going to make dinner and all the Weasley's would be there, with Hermione of course and Cedric.

Cedric…

She would have love to be able to go to him now and talk this over with him. He'd be able to calm her down. But sadly she'd been back with the Weasley's for a week now.

She had loved staying with him. Never saying goodbye, but his dad would get really busy these weeks so she had to go back to the Weasley's.

She'd see him though today, along with her friends, she could talk to them about it in the morning.

Rose smiled widely and got dressed to start her birthday.

Rose skipped happily down the stairs and when she arrived in the kitchen, Cedric came into view.

He was sitting at the table already chatting happily with Mrs. Weasley.

Since he noticed how early Rose got up in the morning he made sure to arrive earlier as well.

His smile widened when he saw Rose walking into the kitchen and she sat down next to him.

In reflex their hands sought each other out and they intertwined their fingers.

"Good morning." Cedric said.

"Good morning." Rose answered happily.

Cedric leaned closer until his head was next to her ear.

"Happy birthday."

His free hand put a box on the table in front of her. It had a bow around it.

"Thank you." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Don't thank me yet, you don't know what's in it." Cedric chuckled.

"It's from you, I'm sure it's great." Rose muttered.

"Well, come on open it!" Ginny exclaimed happily.

Rose jolted away from Cedric and saw how Hermione and Ginny saw down at the table with curious looks on their faces.

Even Mrs. Weasley was looking at them with a very curious look on her face.

"Oh, okay."

Rose picked up the box and carefully pulled the bow away. And while she opened the lid she saw Cedric turning away with his ears slightly pink. Was he blushing?

With the lid gone, the item in the box took her breath away.

It was a silver ring. A simple band with the stem and leaves of a rose graved all around. At the top, there was a rose engraved into it. The silver had a special look about it, it was almost as if the reflection coming from it was a bit reddish.

"Oh."

Rose was stunned by the beauty of it. The girl's eyes turned wide when the ring came into view.

"Do you like it?" Cedric whispered, unsure by her silence.

"Like it?" Rose looked up at him and saw his face getting a bit pink. "I love it." She said with awe in her voice.

Rose carefully lifted the ring from its box.

"How did you know which size though?"

Cedric looked at her with confusion, and then chuckled. He took the ring from her fingers and slid it on her middle finger, it fit perfectly. Then he slid it off and slid it on her index finger, it fit perfectly as well.

"Magic." He said chuckling.

"Oh." Rose felt silly for asking.

Cedric slid it back on her middle finger.

"There."

Rose examined her hand with surprise. Her fingers looked more elegant because of the ring.

She smiled up at him and he smile back widely.

"Let us see!" Ginny exclaimed.

And Rose showed her hand to them.

"Ah young love." Mrs. Weasley said with a smile on her face. "Arthur gave me a ring as well, when we were still going to school, I still have it in my room."

"It's beautiful Rose." Ginny said dreamily.

"It fits your name." Hermione said with a smile.

"That was what I was going for." Cedric said.

"Thought as much."

"Well, Rose, I'm sure nothing can top that, but here's mine anyway." Hermione said with a smile while sliding her package over the table.

Rose opened it and saw a brush just like hers lying in it.

"It's not from the same shop though, it comes with a guaranty of the spell working up minimum 5 years."

"Aww thanks, Hermione, I really needed a new one." Rose got up and hugged Hermione.

"Mom, when can we give ours?" Ginny piped up.

"When the rest is up dear."

"Oooh is it presents time?" Fred exclaimed while coming down the stairs, followed by George. Fred walked right up to Rose and gave her a bearhug.

"Happy birthday, Rose."

"Thanks!" Rose smiled happily.

George walked up to her next and gave her a hug as well.

"Happy birthday." Somehow this hug didn't feel at all like the hug Fred had given her. When George pulled back and smiled at her, she looked at him confused.

Cedric suddenly stood next to her again. He was smiling but Rose noted the frown above his eyes.

Before Rose could think more of it, the rest of the brothers joined in.

Ron, Percy, Charlie and Bill all came down the stairs.

"Happy birthday. Rose."

Each gave her a hug, a hug like Fred's, not at all like George's. But Rose couldn't ponder it too long because more presents got pushed in her hands.

Ron gave her a big box with all kinds of different sweets in it. Bill gave her thick book with all the known and rumored magical treasures in them.

Charlie gave her, leaves, no, shells?

Rose examined the hot red shells. The red was very vivid, it was like there was a fire burning in them.

"Oh, wow, you're giving her that?" Bill exclaimed.

Charlie shrugged.

"I had way too many of them and I have a feeling Rose could use them, since she always gets in trouble."

Rose looked up confused.

"Euhm, I don't…"

Charlie laughed.

"They're scales from the stomach of an African Lavabelly. Very useful in shielding potions. Or you can just grind one to dust and put it in some water. If you drink that your skin becomes fire-resistant for an hour. " He explained.

"Isn't that really expensive though?" Rose said very surprised.

"Usually yeah, but I had to take care of an African Lavabelly a few weeks ago. He lost a lot of scales. I sold a lot of them already. I kept these because their form isn't equal. So, I wouldn't get a fair price anyway. Don't worry, the quality doesn't lessen because of their form, it's just not that pretty."

Charlie said to put her at ease. Rose examined the scales again and she saw indeed that they had different forms and sizes. Her mind was wandering, thinking about the potions she could make with this. She would have to ask Snape…

But when she thought of him she still felt a stab anger, for being so stubborn and determined to hate Sirius.

Mrs. Wealsey coughed.

"This is from me, Arthur, the twins, Percy and Ginny. Arthur already left for work, but since you already got everybody else's present…"

She put a very large box on the table.

Rose's eyes widened at the size of it.

"Mrs. Weasley…"

"It's nothing much dear, open it."

Rose undid the wrapping and opened the box. It was filled with old and worn books. She picked one up curiously. 'The tales of beetle the bard'

"These are all childhood books wizards and witches usually grow up with."

Hermione's interest got piqued as well and she examined the books as well.

"They were all ours." Ginny explained.

"I know we didn't spend any money…" Mrs. Weasley said, hesitantly.

Rose looked at the books again and her heart filled with love for this family. They give her all their childhood books. Books Rose never got the chance to grow up with.

"I love it, them." Rose exclaimed happily, she walked up to Mrs. Weasley and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you so much." She hugged Ginny, Percy and the twins as well.

For the first time in her life, Rose felt like this really was her birthday.

Rose felt a smile creep on her face and felt utterly happy when her family smiled back at her.

A week after her birthday everyone was sitting at the dinner table, eating and enjoying themselves.

Her birthday dinner had been amazing, Mrs. Weasley had made a giant birthday cake and they had laughed the whole evening long.

This was much as that night with the exception that Cedric had gone home.

Rose absentmindedly rubbed the ring she had on her middle finger.

This summer had truly been amazing so far and it wasn't over yet. She was looking forward for the Quidditch world cup tomorrow.

Everybody was chattering happily.

"I'm so jealous of your ring, Rose. You have the best boyfriend ever." Ginny sighed.

"Don't I know it." Rose chuckled.

"I'm happy that it all worked out for you." Hermione said. "Feelings shouldn't stay bottled up."

"I'm so glad I talked to you about it."

"What are friends for?" Hermione laughed.

"I'm so hyped for tomorrow." Ron said, clearly wanting to change the subject.

"Me too." Rose said.

"It'll be so cool to see professionals at work. I'm sure it'll be super impressive."

Rose smiled and agreed. She hadn't told him about the memory Cedric had given her.

And she felt she really didn't have to. It was their little secret.

She was eyeing the twins with a sliver of a grin on her face, trying very much not to make it break out into a full blown grin.

Hermione caught her eye and looked at them as well.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Oh nothing." Rose said innocently, her eye on the boys. They each grabbed a blue cupcake and bit happily in them, eating them without a worry on their minds.

Rose's grin broke completely through and it looked devious.

She winked at Hermione and rose from her seat, approaching the boys.

Rose threw an arm around each twin and pulled them closer.

"My favorite twins, in the whole wide world." Rose said, sugar dripping of her voice. The twins looked at her with surprise on their faces.

Rose's evil grin became wider.

"You just 'had' to take the blue cupcakes didn't you… I knew you would though, especially after Ginny told you Percy wanted to eat them."

Ginny passed by at that moment and gave Rose a high five.

Worry suddenly edged across the twins faces.

Charlie looked at the display with a wide grin.

"What did you do to the cupcakes, Rose?" He asked.

"Good you asked Charlie! See, my favorite twin forgot I didn't have my payback yet for their little stunt with my family. So, I decided to cash in today. See boys, you should really start locking your room, or at least hide your stuff when your big brothers use it. I found some really interesting stuff and decided to do a little experiment of my own. What do you think will happen to you if I ground down one of each candy you created and put it in a cupcake?"

Both twins jumped up, panic clearly on their faces now.

"Are you crazy!" They shouted mouth wide open, and in that moment the whole table erupted with laughter.

Rose burst out in laughter as well, tears stinging her eyes. Even Hermione was laughing.

"What's wrong with you people! This is really dangerous!" Fred exclaimed.

"We could die!" George exclaimed.

But nobody could bring out a word between their laughs.

Because Rose did go to their room, but she wasn't so stupid to begin mixing half tested stuff. What she did find however was non erasable blue ink.

Which made their gums, tongue and teeth a dark blue color, like they had drunk an ink bottle.

The moment they had opened their mouths everybody had a great view of the results.

Rose took in her handy work and erupted in laughter again.

"I… I… don't think… you're… in danger... of that… boys." Mr. Weasley had to choke out between laughs.

Rose handed them a mirror, tears streaking her face.

The twins pressed their faces together to look in the mirror.

Shock became clear on their faces when they examined their mouths.

"Did you really think I was that stupid?" Rose chuckled.

"Does this come off?" The asked in unison.

"You tell me, I got it from your room."

Their eyes widened in horror.

"We haven't developed a solution that gets rid of this yet!" they said in unison again.

The whole table erupted in laughs again, even louder now.

"Boy's, I think she just outplayed you." Bill said with a wide grin.

The twins started laughing as well and bowed for Rose.

"Well played." Fred said.

When they straightened however both twins sported equal evil grins.

Oh oh.

Rose quickly danced away from them.

The twins started chasing her and another laugh bubbled up from her throat.

"Come here you!"

Rose had to dodge them while she got chased through the house and the garden.

Everyone looked on laughing, helping Rose out by blocking their paths from time to time.

When the three of them got exhausted, they finally grabbed her.

They pulled her close and gave her two very wet kisses on her cheeks.

And now Rose had a blue kiss on each cheek.

Which erupted another round of laughter.

The twin were about to give her another kiss when Mrs. Weasley rose from her chair with a wide smile.

"That's enough. It's time for bed. You all need to get up at the crack of dawn for the game."

The girls were still giggling when they entered Ginny's room.

"How are you going to explain those kisses to Cedric?" Ginny asked.

"I think they'll be in for another surprise tomorrow." Rose chuckled while grabbing a washing cloth from the bathroom and washing their kisses clean off.

"How?" Hermione asked stunned.

"I'm not stupid, I knew they were going to try to get back at me. So I covered my skin with a thick cream."

Both girls stared at her in awe.

"Rose, you're a genius!" Ginny exclaimed.

Rose was in a black pit of unconsciousness when Mrs. Weasley shook her shoulder. It's tendrils didn't want to let Rose go and it took all her willpower to open her eyes. Which happened with immense difficulty, it was like her eyes were glued shut.

"Rose honey, you need to wake up."

"Wha…"

Mrs. Weasley chuckled softly.

"The quidditch world cup my dear."

Suddenly a jolt went to Rose and she sat up straight. Mrs. Weasley had moved on to Ginny and Hermione. Ginny whined when Mrs. Weasley woke her and Hermione just yawned.

Mrs. Weasley left them so they could get dressed and they did so in silence. Being too exhausted to speak.

Finally they went downstairs and found Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen preparing some breakfast.

The twins, Ron and Mr. Weasley were already sitting at the kitchen table.

They were doublechecking the tickets.

When Rose entered the room Mr. Weasley spread his arms and looked at Rose and Hermione.

"So… do I look like a muggle? We're not supposed to wear robes to the game." Mr. Weasley looked a bit worried that he hadn't got it right.

He was wearing a golfing sweater and some jeans.

Rose smiled.

"You look like a typical Muggle." Rose said with a smile.

"Yes." Hermione confirmed.

"Excellent." Mr. Weasley said happily.

"When are Bill, Charlie and Peeeercy coming down?" George asked while stifling a yawn, his mouth still very blue.

His hair was messy and his eyes were watery. Rose though he looked adorable when tired.

"They're apparating, so they can sleep longer." Mrs. Weasley said.

"What! Why can't we apparate?" Fred asked.

"Because you haven't passed your test yet." Mrs. Weasley answered.

"There's a test you have to pass for apparating?" Rose asked curiously.

"Of course, apparating can be dangerous if it doesn't happen the correct way. Just last week some colleagues had to fine two wizards who had apparated without a license. They had splinched themselves poor bastards."

Everyone pulled a painful face except Hermione and Rose.

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked.

"When apparating isn't done correctly it's possible you leave parts of yourself behind. So your stuck on you location, you can't go either way. Lots of paperwork that caused, with the Muggles passing by and finding the parts they had left behind."

Rose could see it clearly in her head now, walking down a street, finding an arm a leg and a nose. She shuddered.

"Where they alright?"

"Yes, we fixed them right up. But they got a heavy fine and I don't think they'll try it again any time soon. A lot of wizards don't even bother with it and prefer brooms. It's slower but a lot safer."

Rose nodded and took some toast with jam.

"But Bill, Charlie and Percy can all do it?" Hermione asked.

Fred chuckled.

"Well yes, but Charlie had to try the test twice. The first time he was five miles of point and her appeared on top of an old lady." A chuckle rippled through the room.

"Well he passed the second time." Mrs. Weasley said.

"And Perce passed two weeks ago, he keeps apparating downstairs just to show off." George grumbled.

"Hey!" Fred suddenly exclaimed while staring at Rose. "How come our kisses aren't on you cheeks anymore? Our mouths are still very blue!"

Rose grinned widely. "I have my ways."

Ginny let out a loud yawn.

"Why did you wake us so early?" Ginny asked.

"He have a bit of a walk." Mr. Weasley said.

"We're walking to the world cup?" Rose asked surprised.

"Oh no, that's too far away. No we just have for a bit. There are meeting point, it's a bit difficult to get so many wizards to the same spot without alerting the Muggles…"

"George!" Mrs. Weasley snapped, which made everyone jump.

"What?" He tried to sound innocent, he really did, too bad nobody bought it.

"What do you have in your pocket?"

"Nothing!" Yep, there was definitively something in there.

"Don't lie to me!" Mrs. Weasley suddenly whipped out her wand, pointed it at George and chanted.

"Accio!"

Suddenly there were small brightcolored objects flying out of Georges pockets. He tried to stop the but to no avail, they all landed in Mrs. Weasley's hand.

"I told you to throw them out!" Mrs. Weasley shouted holding up the objects. Rose could see the were the same toffees as they had dropped for her cousin, although there were other colors mixed through them.

"Empty your pockets, right now! The both of you!"

What followed was a scene that made Rose heart clench.

The twins had tried to hide a lot of them in the most absurd places, just to be able to get them out of the house.

The toffee flew out of ridiculous places al because Mrs. Weasley kept chanting "accio" shrilly, fury evident in her voice. The flew out of the lining of their jackets, the folds from their rolled up jeans, and even, ahem… their underpants.

"Stop it! We spent six month working on those!" Fred exclaimed.

"Oh very good, those are six month you could have been studying! No wonder you didn't get a lot of O.W.L.s!"

Another reprimand took place. Mrs. Weasley looking furious as she was shouting at them and the twins looking just as furious with a tad of powerless desperation.

Rose felt for them. It was something they had created all on their own, something they were very proud of and Mrs. Weasley threw it into a trash bin before their noses.

It hadn't been her business to begin with, Rose knew that. But she was still a bit hurt that Mrs. Weasley had ignored what she had told her.

There were other ways to go about it.

That's why when Mrs. Weasley was still glowering when she kissed Mr. Weasley goodbye and The twins just put on their backpack and left the house without saying a word to her, Rose lingered in the kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley was busy boring holes in their back as they walked away, and the kitchen was empty safe for Rose. She glanced around quickly and let her magic flow from her.

Half of the candy's flew back to her into her backpack.

She closed it quickly and left the kitchen as well.

"Enjoy yourselves, and behave yourselves." Mrs. Weasley called after the twins but they completely ignored her.

Rose quickly hid what she had done and walked towards the front door.

"Have a lovely time, Rose."

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley." Rose said and she quickly turned to hide her burning cheeks. She felt like she was doing something behind the back of her mother but she felt sorry for the twins.

"Bill, Charlie and Percy will arrive around midday." Mrs. Weasley said to Mr. Weasley as the group started walking across the dark yard.

The chill bit in Rose's skin and the colors slowly started to turn to gray as daybreak neared.

Mr. Weasley was throwing looks at the twins, who after a while of walking started to lag behind, defeated looks on their faces.

It wasn't the best time yet to approach them so Rose tried to catch up with Mr. Weasley. She had been thinking about what he said just before George was found out by his mom.

"So, how do you get all the wizards together without the Muggles noticing?" She asked him.

"That has been the biggest organizational problem. We just don't have a magical place that is big enough to assemble everyone together. Just imagine packing everyone together in Diagon Alley or the Kings Cross Station. So we searched for a nice and empty valley and had to enchant it with as much Muggle repelling wards as possible. Of course we needed a plan to handle all the arrivals as well. We couldn't allow everyone arriving at the same time, that would draw attention. So we linked the different ways of transport and arrival times to their tickets. If you don't arrive in the way or time your ticket allows you to, you're banned from the game. One of the main ways of transport are portkey's. It's an object that apparates everyone touching it to a predefined place at a predefined time. That's where we're going, to the portkey of this area."

"What kind of object can it be?" Rose asked curiously.

"Mostly trash honestly. Something that Muggles aren't likely to pick up."

They fell into a silence after that. The sky was slowly clearing while they silently continued. When Hermione started a conversation with Mr. Weasley, Rose started to slow her steps. Rose fell back until she got to the twins who were walking very slow with doom written all over their faces.

"Hey, guys."

"Hi." They said in a kind of depressed voice.

"Sucks that your mom found the candy." Rose said lightly while slowing down even more so she could open Fred's backpack.

"I'm sorry she threw them away." She continued in a relaxed tone.

The twins turned their heads to see what she was doing. Rose glanced at the rest walking ahead. They weren't looking at them. She pulled out one candy from her own backpack to show them what she was doing.

Both faces lit up immediately, identical wide grins on their faces. Rose winked and started shoving the candy in Fred's backpack.

"Yeah, total waste that was." Fred said, a little happier than before.

"All our hard work in the trash." George continued.

When she was done, she zipped Fred's shut and started walking next to them.

"You are amazing." Fred whispered in gratitude.

"I could kiss you right now." George said playfully. Did Fred just roll his eyes?

"It's nothing. You guys still have to show me all your stuff." Rose said.

"Totally." Fred answered.

Rose suddenly realized she hadn't spent a lot of time with the twins lately, a guilty knot formed in her stomach.

"Hey guys, I know we haven't hung out a lot lately…" Rose began.

"Where have you been the last couple of weeks? You've been living with us." Fred said while laughing.

"I know, I mean like we did in school… I'm sorry…"

"It's fine Rose, we have plenty of time to hang out together. When we get back…" George said eagerly before Fred interrupted him.

"Besides, you have a boyfriend now, we get it. You just made up for it by giving us the candy back." Fred said.

George fell silent at that.

"Right." Rose said confused by the looks they were throwing at each other.

The twins are crazy, Rose thought to herself.

The sky lightened very slowly as they made their way through the village, its inky blackness diluting to deepest blue. Rose's hands and feet were freezing.

Mr. Weasley check the time regularly, not wanting to miss the predefined time for the portkey.

They started climbing a hill and Rose could feel her muscles protest at the effort it took.

She wasn't the only one though. The air filled with pants and groans.

When Rose's chest started to constrict her feet finally touch lever ground. She had to stop for a second to catch her breath.

Again she wasn't the only one. Everybody took a breather.

After a few minutes Mr. Weasley spoke up.

"Come on everyone we need to search of the portkey, it won't be big and will probably look like trash."

Everyone started looking around, looking for well… trash.

"Arthur! We have the portkey!"

Rose looked up and saw Cedric and his father come into view and she suddenly forgot all about the walk.

"Amos!" Mrs. Weasley greeting.

"Had a long walk?" Cedric's father asked.

"It was fine. You?"

"We had to get up at two, that stinged but we wouldn't miss the world cup for the world." Cedric's father laughed.

Amos Diggory peered good-naturedly around at the three Weasley boys, Rose, Hermione, and Ginny. "You seem to have a heavier load."

"It's no trouble at all." Mr. Weasley laughed. "Must be nearly time." Mr. Weasley continued, pulling out his watch again.

"Do you know whether we're waiting for any more, Amos?"

"No, the Lovegoods have been there for a week already and the Fawcetts couldn't get tickets." said Mr. Diggory. "There aren't any more of us in this area, are there?"

"Not that I know of." said Mr. Weasley. "Yes, it's a minute off… We'd better get ready..." He looked around at Rose and Hermione.

"Come on guy's, it's time. Everybody, put a finger on the portkey please."

Everybody pressed together to touch the old boot in Mr. Diggory's hand.

Cedric was pressed against Rose from shoulder to knee and it made Rose's heart speed up. His body heat chased away the cold morning chill and Rose couldn't help but smile at him. Cedric smiled back just as wide.

An silence fell over them as they stood there awkwardly, waiting, while holding an old boot.

Rose had to suppress a laugh when she though how this scenario would look to a Muggle.

"Here we go…" Mr. Weasley muttered.

"Three… two… one."

When 'one' was uttered Rose felt a great yank from behind her bellybutton and the ground beneath her feet disappeared. They were being yanked forward in a tornado of wind and color, it seemed as if her hand was superglued to the boot. She would be able to yank it loose even if she tried.

And suddenly her feet slammed back on the ground? Hermione bumped into her as she fell.

She could feel how she lost her balance as well but a strong arm braced her so she would stay upright.

The Portkey hit the ground near with a heavy thud.

Rose looked around.

Mr. Weasley, Mr. Diggory, Cedric and she were still standing, though looking very windswept, everybody else was on the ground. The only reason Rose was still standing was because Cedric had thrown an arm around her, stabilizing her. She shot him a thankful smile and he winked.

"Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill." said a voice.


To all my wonderful AO3 readers who have followed this story here: you will notice I added some fun stuff to this chapter ;)

I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.

XXX D.