"Time to go, Hailey, dear," Mrs Weasley whispered, shaking Hailey awake, before going over to wake up Mandy, Ginny, Eva, and Hermione.
To Hailey, it felt like she had just gone to sleep in Ginny's room, before she had to wake up. She laid there on the mattress for another minute, before hearing Mandy groan and say, "It's like I just went to bed."
Hailey knew how that felt and sat up, noticing that it was still dark outside. She saw Eva and Ginny moving around as they were being woken up.
"It's time to leave already?" Eva asked groggily. She was sharing a mattress with Mandy, due to Mrs Weasley not having extra mattresses to go around.
They dressed in silence. Hailey put on black ankle-length tights, a red and black tartan skirt with black lace at the bottom, and a black undershirt. She figured that she might as well dress nice for the World Cup as she grabbed the grey hoodie and grabbed her messenger bag. Eva had grabbed her coin purse and kissed her pet Puffskein, Eve, on top of its head, before putting her down on the pillow. "Now, you behave yourself for Mrs Weasley, you hear me?" In response, Eve closed her eyes to fall asleep, again.
Mandy wore clothes that had green on it to further show her support to the Irish. Hailey knew that it took Mandy a little bit of time to find something that had green on it, because she didn't know that Ireland was going to the Quidditch World Cup. She was muttering something like, "If only I knew…" She found a white head-band that was patterned with mini-shamrocks. She picked it up and the girls left the room together.
The others were too sleepy to talk, then, yawning and stretching, the five of them headed downstairs into the kitchen, while Mandy fixed her white head-band.
Fred, George, Ron, and Michael were already in the kitchen, sitting at the table. Ron and Michael, who were already eating porridge, looked up to see who entered. Michael's spoon fell out of his hand back into the bowl with a clang. He looked at the table and picked up his spoon again. Mrs Weasley was pouring porridge into bowls.
"Why do we have to be up so early?" Ginny asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting down at the table.
Mandy, Hailey, Hermione, and Eva joined the others.
"We've got a bit of a walk," Mr Weasley said.
"What? Are we just going to walk to the World Cup?" Mandy asked, sounding incredulous at the idea of walking to the World Cup.
"No, no, that's miles away," explained Mr Weasley smiling. "We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup—"
"George!" shouted Mrs Weasley sharply, causing all of them to jump. Hailey was busy picturing other wizards using brooms to get to the World Cup and felt rather stupid for even thinking that.
"What?" asked George, in an innocent tone that didn't fool anyone.
"What is that in your pocket?" questioned Mrs Weasley, pointing at a strange looking lump that it was in George's breast pocket.
"Nothing!" replied George trying to sound innocent, but failing.
"Don't you lie to me!" Mrs. Weasley shoutedv and pointed her wand at George's pocket. She said, "Accio!"
Several small, brightly coloured objects came flying out of George's pocket. George made a grab for them but didn't catch any as the toffees sped right into Mrs Weasley's outstretched hand.
"We told you to destroy them!" exclaimed Mrs Weasley furiously, holding up what looked like the toffee Fred or George offered Eva yesterday. "We told you to get rid of the lot! Empty your pockets; go on, both of you!"
"Kind of reminds me of my parents searching your room." Michael whispered to Eva, who ate a bit of toast in response.
The twins had evidently been trying to smuggle as many toffees out of the house as possible, and it was only by using her Summoning Charm that Mrs Weasley managed to find them. "Accio! Accio! Accio!" Mrs Weasley was shouting, causing more toffees to zoom from all sorts of unlikely places, including the lining of George's jacket and the turn-ups of Fred's jeans.
"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted at his mother as she threw the toffees away.
"Oh, a fine way to spend six months!" Mrs Weasley shrieked. "No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"
In Hailey's opinion, the scene was kind of unpleasant. It also reminded her of Aunt Petunia throwing out all of Dudley's favourite things: fizzy drinks, cakes, chocolates bars, and burgers…
The atmosphere seemed tense as they took their departure. Mrs Weasley was still glowering as she kissed Mr Weasley on the cheek, though not nearly as much as the twins, who had each hoisted their rucksacks onto their backs and walked out without saying a word to her.
"Well, have a lovely time," said Mrs Weasley, "and behave yourselves," she called after the twins' retreating backs, but they didn't look back or answer. "I'll send Bill, Charlie, and Percy along around midday." Mrs Weasley told Mr Weasley, as he, Hailey, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Mandy, Eva, and Michael set off across the dark yard after Fred and George.
It was chilly and the moon was still out.
Hailey walked faster to stand by Mr Weasley, "So, how does everyone get there without all the normal people noticing?"
"It's been a massive organizational problem," sighed Mr Weasley. "The trouble is, about a hundred thousand wizards turn up at the World Cup, and of course, we just haven't got a magical site big enough to accommodate them all. There are places Muggles can't penetrate, but imagine trying to pack a hundred thousand wizards into Diagon Alley or platform nine and three-quarters. So we had to find a nice deserted moor, and set up as many anti-Muggle precautions as possible. The whole Ministry's been working on it for months.
"First, of course, we have to stagger the arrivals. People with cheaper tickets have to arrive two weeks beforehand. A limited number use Muggle transport, but we can't have too many clogging up their buses and trains—remember, wizards are coming from all over the world. Some Apparate, of course, but we have to set up safe points for them to appear, well away from Muggles. I believe there's a handy wood they're using as the Apparition point. For those who don't want to Apparate, or can't, we use Portkeys."
"What are Portkeys?" Eva asked, fiddling with her beaded bracelets.
"They're objects that are used to transport large groups of people at a time, if needed," Hailey explained. She remembered reading about them in a book some time during the last term.
"There have been two hundred Portkeys placed at strategic points around Britain, and the nearest one to us is up at the top of Stoatshead Hill, so that's where we're headed." Mr Weasley explained, pointing ahead of them, where a large black mass rose beyond the village of Ottery St Catchpole.
"So, what does a Portkey look like?" Eva asked.
"Well, they can be anything," Mr Weasley explained. "Unobtrusive things, obviously, so Muggles don't go picking them up and playing with them…stuff they'll think is litter…"
They trudged down the dark, dank lane toward the village, where the only sound was their footsteps. As they walked through the village, the black sky was slowly turning a deep blue colour. Hailey felt like her legs were freezing and was slowly growing nervouse because Mr Weasley kept checking his watch.
They began to climb Stoatshead Hill, occasionally stumbling in hidden rabbit holes and slipping on thick black tufts of grass.
Hailey's legs seemed like they were starting to seize up and she stumbled in a rabbit hole. Someone placed their hand on her shoulder, steadying her.
"Don't trip," Michael said, sounding like he was joking.
"Yeah, because I like to trip in rabbit holes on purpose." Hailey responded, noticing how Michael hadn't released his hand from her shoulder yet.
"Why? You like to have someone come to your rescue?" Michael asked, sounding amused.
Hailey snorted, "No. They're the ones that's going to end up needing rescuing, from me." She was joking of course, since she knew that there was nothing formidable about her.
"Have mercy on the ones that happen to cross you," Michael said.
"Yeah, don't cross me, because I'll be having you begging for mercy thrice," Hailey said.
Michael chuckled at that, "You just said thrice."
They finally found level ground and Michael released Hailey's shoulder.
"Whew," Mr Weasley panted. He took off his glasses and wiped them on his sweater. "Well, we've made good time—we've got seven minutes left. We should've had ten minutes."
"Blame the lovebirds on that," Fred said, smirking, and pointing at Hailey and Michael.
Hailey narrowed her eyes at him. Confused, she thought, Lovebirds? Where did he get that from?
Hermione came over the crest of the hill last, clutching a stitch in her side.
"Now we just need the Portkey," said Mr Weasley, replacing his glasses and squinting around at the ground. "It won't be big…Come on…"
They spread out, searching for something that could be used as a Porkey. Hailey wasn't sure how much time they spent when there was a shout: "Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!"
Two tall figures were silhouetted against the starry sky on the other side of the hilltop.
"Amos!" said Mr Weasley, smiling as he strode over to the man who had shouted. The rest followed after.
Mr Weasley was shaking hands with a ruddy-faced wizard with a scrubby brown beard, who was holding a moldy-looking old boot in his other hand.
Mandy made a face of disgust.
"This is Amos Diggory, everyone," said Mr Weasley. "He—"
"Works in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, with my dad," Mandy finished, excited. "Hi!" She waved at Amos, who awkwardly waved back.
"And I think you know his son, Cedric?" Mr Weasley asked.
Cedric Diggory was an extremely handsome boy of around seventeen. Hailey knew that he was Captain and Seeker of the Hufflepuff House Quidditch team at Hogwarts. She was sure that Cho happened to fancy Cedric and she can see why, because Cedric had dark hair and grey eyes.
"Hi," said Cedric, looking around at them.
"Hi," Eva whispered, blushing furiously and giggling nervously.
"Hi," the others said, except for Fred and George, who just nodded in response.
Hailey wasn't sure why, but she was sure that they hadn't exactly forgiven Hufflepuff for beating Ravenclaw the first match of the season last term. It seemed like since Hailey was friends with Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George who were Gryffindors, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had created some sort of alliance with each other. She hadn't exactly seen any Ravenclaws or Gryffindors talk to each other, but the two Houses cheered each other on at Quidditch.
"Long walk, Arthur?" Amos asked Mr Weasley.
"Not too bad," replied Mr Weasley. "We live on the other side of the village there. You?"
"Had to get up at two, didn't we, Ced? I tell you, I'll be glad when he's got his Apparition test. Still…not complaining…Quidditch World Cup, wouldn't miss it for a sackful of Galleons—and the tickets cost about that. Mind you, looks like I got off easy…" Amos Diggory peered good-naturedly around at the Weasley boys, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Mandy, Michael, and Eva. He sounded incredulous as he asked, "All these yours, Arthur?"
"Oh, no, only the redheads," Mr Weasley said. "This is Hermione, friend of Ron's—Hailey, another friend—"
"Merlin's beard," said Amos Diggory, his eyes widening. "Hailey? Hailey Potter?"
"Er—yeah," said Hailey, growing uncomfortable. She was used to people looking curiously at her when they met her, used to the way their eyes moved at once to the lightning scar on her forehead, but it always made her feel uncomfortable.
"Ced's talked about you, of course," said Amos Diggory. "Told us all about playing against you last term…I said to him, I said—Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that well…You beat Hailey Potter!"
Hailey wasn't sure of how to reply to that, so she remained silent. Fred, George, and now Michael were scowling again.
Cedric looked slightly embarrassed, "Hailey fell off her broom, Dad," he muttered. "I told you…it was an accident…"
"Yes, but you didn't fall off, did you?" roared Amos genially, slapping his son on his back. "Always modest, our Ced, always the gentleman…but the best man, er person, won. I'm sure Hailey says the same, wouldn't you, eh?" Before Hailey could say no, Amos continued on, "One falls off their broom, one stays on, you don't need to be a genius to tell which one's the better flier!"
"Don't we have somewhere to be?" Mandy asked, sounding agitated.
"Must be nearly time…" said Mr Weasley quickly, 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.
"How do we, you know, get there?" Eva asked.
"All you have to do is touch the Portkey," Hailey explained.
Mr Weasley said, "A finger will do—"
With difficulty, due to bulky backpacks, and lack of space, the twelve of them circled around the old boot that was being held by Amos Diggory.
"Mikey, you're stepping on my foot," Eva said.
"Sorry, it's not like there's plenty of space," Michael replied.
Hailey felt a chill breeze sweep over them on the hilltop and shivered. She couldn't help but realize how odd the scene would look if a normal person were to walk up on the hill, to see a group of twelve people, two of them that were grown men, clutching a manky old boot, in the semidarkness…Hailey repressed the odd urge to bust out laughing at the mental picture.
"Three…" Mr Weasley muttered, one eye still on his watch.
"Two…" said Mandy and Mr Weasley at the same time. "One…"
Hailey felt as though a hook just behind her naval had been suddenly jerked irresistibly forward. Her felt left the ground; she could feel Ron and Hermione on either side of her, their shoulders banging into hers; they were all speeding forward in a howl of wind and swirling colour; her forefinger was stuck to the boot as though it was pulling her magnetically onward and then—
Her feet slammed into the ground; Ron staggered into her and she fell over; the Portkey hit the ground near her head with a heavy thud.
Eva groaned and she lifted her face from the ground. She spat out a few blades of grass. "I think I prefer the Knight Bus than the Portkey." She looked around and found Michael, standing up from where he landed. She held up her hand, "Hey, Mikey, get over here, so you can help me up." Michael walked over and grabbed Eva's hand, pulling her to her feet.
Hailey noticed that Mandy, Mr Weasley, Mr Diggory, and Cedric were the only ones that were standing, although they looked windswept. Mandy was brushing her hair from her face.
"Seve past five from Stoatshead Hill," said a voice.
