14
The Quidditch World Cup:
On the morning of the World Cup, there was a loud knocking on their door at five in the morning. Both Lily and Doe had risen from their beds and walked quietly into the living room, unsure of who would be here at such a ridiculous hour.
" I'll get it" Doe whispered to Lily, drawing her wand and wrenching open the door.
Standing in her hallway was James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, all dressed and brandishing England's colors.
" What the hell are you doing here so early?" Doe asked rubbing her eyes from exhaustion.
" We have to leave for the match!" Sirius said eagerly, pushing past her into the apartment.
Everyone followed him and Remus stopped to kiss her head.
" Why so god damn early? The match isn't until eight at night " Lily said crankily.
" We have to get there early," James said urgently, " we can't all get there early imagine what the muggles would think, seeing all those wizards"
Lily groaned loudly. She had been working late the night before.
" You two go get dressed, we'll wait" James said sitting down on the couch.
After some slight grumbling and complaining, Lily and Doe went to go get ready.
It was frigid outside so she opted for a long sleeved t-shirt and her jacket.
She walked out of my room just as Lily walked out of hers.
" There you are," Peter said incredulously.
" You two take so long" Sirius added.
Doe eyed him darkly, thinking it was far too early in the day to kill him.
" Where even is this?" Lily asked sleepily.
She leaned against the chair where James sat, looking positively exhausted.
" It's in the large Arena in Sussex, come on let's apparate" James said.
Slowly, they all apparated to the large Arena where it was being held.
The arena was massive, it could easily hold 100,000 wizards, and because of this it was placed in a massive grassy plain buried behind miles of woods, where no muggles would come across it easily.
They had apparated in the front of the woods, so they began walking through the dimly lit foliage towards the arena.
" I am far too tired for this" she told Remus as she stepped over the large fallen tree trunk.
" It'll be worth it, I promise" Remus said taking her hand in an effort to better lead her through the thick woods.
" This is going to be such a good game, I really hope England wins" Peter chatted happily as they walked.
" I don't know if they will" Sirius said, " Romania has one of the best teams I have ever seen"
" Yes, but England has Ludo" James commented.
" I completely forgot about that" Doe said.
Ludo Bagman was going to be playing in this match. He had been scouted for the England team when one of their chasers broke their neck in their last game. It would be exciting to see someone they knew at school playing in front of thousands of people.
" I can't even imagine how scary that would be" Lily said as she dodged a stray branch.
" I would love it, " James said smiling brightly.
" Of course you would" Lily said with a slight roll of her eyes.
They walked for what seemed like an hour and a half before the woods started to thin and eventually the grassy plains outside of the arena appeared and several thousand feet away they could see the towering arena in the distance.
The grounds were covered in thousands of tents, many of them brandishing the color of their chosen teams. The red, white and blue tents easily separated from the red, blue and yellow ones.
It was the most amount of wizards Doe had ever seen all together in one place.
The whole place was covered with wizards. Everywhere you turned you saw robes, wands, and broomsticks.
Doe dodged a small toddler who was running around the grounds with a full sized broomstick in his hand, being chased by his mother.
The tent Peter had borrowed was set up in the middle, somewhere in between a cluster of other's.
From the outside it resembled a regular one person tent but on the inside it resembled a six bedroom house. It was truly fascinating magic.
They didn't spend that much time in the tent. It was much more fun outside of it. Wizards were everywhere and every time you blinked someone was performing magic.
Vendors had also set up kiosks on every corner, selling everything from recording binoculars to bought a England rosette for both her and Remus, and pinned Remus' on his shirt.
Every so often it would shout ' Down with Romania!' much to Remus' delight.
They ran into lots of people we knew, at one point a very intoxicated Emmeline Vance had come over thrown her arms around Sirius neck and very sloppily wished them a good time and her hope that we would be victorious.
By lunchtime, hey were all so fascinated by all the sights, they ended up just sitting outside of the tent watching.
Lily had been in a much better mood since she perked up and listened intently to James and Sirius go on and on about the strategy England would have to use to beat Romania.
" They're very entertaining when they do that" Remus commented watching James and Sirius get into a slightly heated conversation about the quality of Romania's seeker.
Doe smiled, " The only thing the marauders like better than the marauders is Quidditch" she told him.
" Specific marauders" he added.
" Sorry, specific Marauders" she said placing a kiss on his forehead.
Remus' stomach growled slightly and he frowned.
" You hungry?" she asked.
" A little" he admitted.
She stood up and held out her hand for him to follow, "Come on, let's go find something to eat"
Remus stood too following her lead.
" We're going to go find something to eat, do you guys want anything?" Doe asked everyone else.
" Yes, definitely" Sirius said quickly.
Everyone else was in agreement so Remus and Doe walked off looking for a vendor selling food.
Doe watched her sneakers kick the small piles of dirt in the grassy plain.
" You know, this is actually quite an event" Remus said as they walked, looking at the assortment of wizards and vendors that surrounded us.
" It really is," she said and tripped over the edge of the tent in front of her that she hadn't seen. She tumbled forward.
Remus caught her by the forearm and stopped her from falling on her face.
" God, if Moody had seen that I would have failed Stealth & Tracking" Doe said slightly embarrassed.
" You were falling for me" Remus said with a wide grin on his face.
Doe nudged him in the stomach, laughing at the cheesy nature of his joke.
" You're so funny, Lupin" she said with a smile.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and spun around slightly, a large grin on his face, " I do try".
They found a vendor selling sandwiches and butterbeer and bought enough for their group, and turned to head back.
" Doe?" a woman asked beside her.
Andromeda Tonks was standing at the vendor, holding the hand of a little girl with bubblegum pink hair, who couldn't have been more than 2 years old.
" Andy, hi" she said hugging her quickly, " how are you?"
" Im great" she said smiling brightly, " this is my daughter Nymphadora" she said gesturing to the little girl next to her.
" Mommy, don't call me Nymphadora!" the little girl said crossing her arms.
Andromeda rolled her eyes, " How are you?"
" Im great, I can't believe you have a daughter, it seems like yesterday was your wedding" Doe said in shock.
" I know, time flies, huh?" Andromeda said.
She turned to Remus, " Hi, I'm Andromeda"
" Your Sirius Cousin" Remus said realizing who she was, " I'm Remus Lupin"
" Sirius friend, " Andromeda remembered.
" And my boyfriend" Doe told her.
Andromeda smiled, " So maybe one day I'll be going to your wedding, Doe".
Doe laughed, " I hope it would be even half as beautiful as yours was"
" Mommy, can we go find daddy? I want a flag" the little girls said pulling on the end of Andromeda's shirt.
" Yes, we can" Andromeda said to her, " It was really nice seeing you two" she called to them and followed after Nymphadora who had started to walk away.
" She was nice" Remus when she disappeared.
" She really is" Doe told him, " I used to see her all the time when we were little. Whenever she came to visit Sirius"
Remus brows furrowed for a moment, " She looks an awful lot like Bellatrix"
It was true. Doe had never really thought about it before because they were so different, but Andromeda's features were very similar to her sister. They both had the same heavily lidded eyes, fair complexions, and sharp cheekbones. If Andy's hair had been curly like Bellatrix's they would be almost identical.
" She's nothing like her though" Doe told him, " Andy is the only truly good Slytherin I've ever met"
" She was a pureblood who went against her family and married someone of muggle decent" Remus noticed, " Kind of like your dad".
" Yeah, she kind of is" she said smiling slightly.
They walked back to where everyone else was and gave them the food.
" Sirius, did you know Andromeda had a baby? We just ran into her" Doe asked him when they sat down.
" Yeah, my niece Dora" Sirius said, " cute isn't she?"
" Very" Doe agreed.
" Look there's Otto," James said pointing to where Otto Bagman was standing with Caradoc Dearborn.
Doe watched as he and Sirius walked over and started talking to him about Ludo and England's chances.
" What is about boys and Quidditch?" Lily asked.
Doe shrugged, " Who knows, Lil."
The rest of the day passed quickly. They were all extremely excited for the match to begin. At about seven, they decided to walk to the arena and climb the flights of stairs to their seats.
They walked past the entrance to the arena and stopped short. Huddled together by the entrance was a group of former Slytherins.
Bellatrix, Narcissa, Rodolphus, Rabastan, Rosier, Mulciber, Elizabeth, Malfoy, Yaxley, and Snape were clustered together talking earnestly.
" Well bloody great" Sirius hissed under his breath.
They all stopped talking when they saw them.
" Oh look, if it isn't the group of people I hate most" Elizabeth said with a cold smile.
Sirius narrowed his eyes angrily, and James, Peter, and Remus all tightened mentally preparing themselves for an encounter.
" And the most self-centered group of people I've ever met, looking right back at us" James snapped.
Bellatrix rolled her eyes, " It's easy to be self-centered when you have something to be proud of"
" Like you would know?" Sirius asked.
Bellatrix smirked, " I'm surprised to see you walking around Sirius, I would've thought Mummy Dearest would have hit you again, for disgracing our name like you did"
Sirius' jaw tightened as he took in her comment.
" Oh come off it Bellatrix, your just mad because your parents don't love you either" Doe snapped at her.
" At least I've got parents who I can be proud of, Meadowes. That's more than you and your tainted muggle blood can say" she snapped at her.
" I don't know Bellatrix," Rabastan purred, " They're something so interesting about Meadowes don't you think. Like a pet" He winked and flashed a wide smile at her.
Remus shifted angrily next to me, " Come off it Lestrange" he snapped.
Rabastan grinned at purred at Doe.
" Would you stop Rabastan?" Bellatrix hissed at him, " we don't associate with that kind"
" The good kind?" Lily asked angrily.
Bellatrix narrowed her eyes on her, " And what would you know about the good kind, you filthy little mudblood?"
Lily stepped back like she had been slapped.
Doe saw Snape's face flicker a quick emotion before going back to his usual cold expression.
James drew his wand. So did Rodolphus.
" You Potter's are all so arrogant" Malfoy snapped from beside Narcissa.
" Come on, let's just go" Remus said, " this isn't worth it"
James didn't move, both he and Sirius had murderous glances on their faces.
" James, come on" Lily said grabbing his arm leading him away, while Doe pushed Sirius away from them.
They led them away from the group of Slytherins and up the flights of stairs towards their seats.
" I want to kill them all" James said angrily climbing the stairs.
" They're terrible" Peter added.
" I want to rip Bellatrix's throat out" Sirius agreed.
" I wouldn't mind watching Rabastan suffer" Remus said darkly.
" They're not worth it" Lily said quickly, " they're just not"
" Lily's right" I said as we found their seats, " they've always been evil".
Doe sat in between Lily and Remus. The entire arena was crowded with wizards and light from all of the wands. The pitch was empty, but from every side you could see the large posters that adorned every side.
" BETS TAKE YOUR BETS! WILL IT BE ENGLAND OR ROMANIA? BETS HERE!" A wizard said walking up and down the rows.
Remus sat silently next to Doe, his expression slightly tense.
" Are you alright?" she asked him.
" I hate Rabastan Lestrange" he said quickly.
Doe squeezed his hand. " Forget him, " she told him, " he's not worth ruining your night"
Remus took a deep breath and then grabbed her face, pulling her towards him and snogging her.
She hadn't expected that, but she responded enthusiastically. Remus never kissed her like that in public.
" What was that for?" Doe asked happily when they broke apart.
" I love you," Remus said softly, " that's why"
Doe smiled, " You know I love you".
The crowd around them burst into loud cheers and they looked up to see a lighted Union Jack Flag in the sky and the England players burst through it, causing little lighted balls to fly into the crowd.
The England side of the arena screamed loudly cheering on the team as sped around the arena, doing tricks on their brooms. Doe saw Ludo Bagman fly by waving happily. His face was plastered on many posters all around the arena.
Their entrance was interrupted as Romania flew into the arena, met with cheers from the opposite side. They players were covered in Red and Yellow and flew around the arena with lightening speed, on their new '69 Shooting Stars.
The minister of magic stood up in the minister's box and looked at the crowd, smiling happily.
He lifted his wand to his mouth and voice amplified all over the stadium.
" WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WITCHES AND WIZARDS TO THE 407th QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP"
Everyone on both sides of the arena burst into loud cheers. The noise was almost deafening.
The minister waited for it to quiet down and then spoke again,
" SO WITHOUT ANY FURTHER ADO, LET THE MATCH BEGIN!"
He flashed his wand forward and the game began.
Watching the Quidditch World Cup was nothing like watching a game at Hogwarts.
Doe had even seen Puddlemore United play, but even this was different. They players were very good. They flew by so quickly and scored that you had trouble keeping track of who was who.
If it wasn't for the loud commenting that was going on, Doe wouldn't have been able to follow along.
James and Sirius were leaning forward watching the entire game carefully, cheering at the appropriate times and screaming when something interesting happened.
It was quite the spectacle to watch.
Both teams were very good, so the entire game was very close. Doe had never seen a quidditch match before were both team scored so much.
They were almost three hours in, when something finally changed. Antoin Antonecsu, the Romanian seeker darted quickly from his position above the game and tore after something. The English seeker Gregory Wallanbee chased after him, catching up to him. Both of their hands reached for something shiny that was invisible to the audience.
For a moment, it was dead silent.
Then Wallanbee raise his hand and started to yell.
Clasped in his hands, was the Golden Snitch.
Everyone around them began to yell loudly.
Sirius and James pulled each other into a hug and Peter began to cheer loudly. Some people were in tears and the Minister was beaming.
" WE WON" a wizard said behind Doe, his hands slamming down on her shoulders. The entire England side of the arena was blissfully happy.
The bet wizard from earlier walked around handing out the winners gold.
" THIS DESERVES A CELEBRATION" Sirius said happily.
" I think there's some firewhiskey in the tent" Peter said quickly.
" Than let's go!" James said happily.
They followed the crowd out of the arena and headed towards the tent.
" It was such a good game, did you see that tricky move by Antonescu? Brilliant!" James said as they approached the line of tents.
" Very interesting" Lily agreed.
A large congregation of wizards moved around them. Every british wizard present was thrilled and celebrating loudly.
Cheering, singing and boisterous noises could be heard all over the grounds. No one knew how to celebrate quite like the british.
They all sat down outside of our tent enjoying watching everyone celebrate the win. Sirius, James and Peter had taken out the bottle out of the tent and were indulging in a celebratory drink.
" I knew England could do it" Peter said boldly.
" All hail Ludo!" James said happily.
Doe opened her mouth to speak but stopped abruptly. Over the cheering and celebration, loud screaming could be heard.
Doe walked out past the small crowd near them.
A group of cloaked, masked wizards were walking together shooting stunning spells and throwing fire from their wands.
Doe recognized them instantly as Death Eaters.
They seemed to be targeting specific witches and wizards. Muggleborns.
" We need to go, NOW" Doe said quickly running back to her friends.
They were already on their feet. As the Death Eaters got closer, witches and wizards were fleeing quickly, causing a stampede.
Soon everything became an unrecognizable scene of terror and fire.
Spells were flying everywhere and wands were drawn, but it was hard to tell whether they were coming from the group of Death Eaters of the ministry officials trying to combat them.
Doe kept getting pushed and pulled away from everyone else, getting lost in the massive group. She felt my hand slip from Remus' as a group of old wizards flew past.
" DOE" she heard him call loudly but she couldn't see him. More wizards kept running past, making it hard to see anything.
" Meadowes!" A gruff voice said as someone pushed past her. It was Moody.
He was heading towards the crowd of approaching Death Eaters.
" I need you Meadowes, I don't where any of my bloody aurors are" he snapped.
Her wand was already drawn, but she didn't know what to do.
" But I'm just a student" she said quickly.
" Time to prove yourself" Moody said angrily, gesturing for her to follow him.
Doe didn't see any of her friends anywhere, so she took a deep breath and followed Moody heading towards the group of Death Eaters.
She had to be crazy. She had only been training for a few months.
She didn't have near enough skills to battle death eaters.
But something told her that disobeying Moody and running away wasn't very becoming of an auror.
She followed Moody, wand drawn and began shooting stunning spells at the masked Wizards.
The sight of them alone almost brought her to her knees. Their masks were metal and it made them unidentifiable. She shot silent spells at them, watching them narrowly miss her flashes of blue light.
Moody stood next to her, shooting spells with ease but also missing them.
Ministry wizards came up behind them and also began shooting spells.
One of the Death Eaters set fire to the ground between them and in a quick moment, that flames reached so high that none of them could see anything in front of them.
" BLOODY HELL" the senior auror next to her said angrily.
When the extinguished the flames they found that the Death Eaters had disapparated. Leaving only hundreds of tiny fires and a giant sparkling Dark Mark in the sky.
Moody growled angrily.
Doe's chest was rising and falling as she tried to take in what had just happened.
" You alright, Meadowes?" Moody asked behind her.
She turned to him quickly and tried nodding reassuringly, but she knew she must still look terrified.
" That was pretty impressive" he said," you've been paying attention when I say constant vigilance"
" You haven't given me much of a choice" she said slightly exasperated.
Moody shook his head with a chuckle, a gesture that was obviously meant to be lighthearted but appeared angry due to his intimidating exterior.
" Well you certainly did, I'll be sure to remember this Meadowes" he said honestly.
" DOE!" Sirius said running up from the dwindling crowd of fleeing wizards. Remus followed closely behind him.
" Where were you? I got so worried" Remus said pulling her into a tight hug.
" Sorry, Moody needed my help" Doe said quickly.
Remus' eyes darted quickly from her to Moody, " You don't mean..,you didn't duel them did you?"
" She did" Moody said roughly, " put up a damn good fight too"
Doe gave Moody a small smile.
" And I missed it?" Sirius said incredulously, " I would've loved to be there"
" Constant Vigilance, Black!" Moody said, " you shouldn't want to fight them. That's how you die"
Sirius sighed at the reprimand, obviously not happy Moody was chastising him outside of the ministry.
" Now, get out of here, you lot. The ministry was some things to deal with" Moody said pointing back to the woods and towards the exit where they could apparate.
They left quickly, not wanting to stay any longer than necessary.
" You had me insanely worried" Remus said, " and with good reason, you could've died"
" But I didn't" she pointed out.
Remus sighed and rolled his eyes.
" Come on, Moony. Doe's a little badass, let her enjoy it" Sirius said clamping his hand down on her shoulder.
She smiled at him. She hadn't wanted to do it, but Sirius as a fellow auror trainee knew that regardless of the danger she had to do it.
Remus wrapped an arm around her, " Well let's get out of here before you decide to battle You-Know-Who yourself"