AN: Technically I'm still within my month limit. Just :)

My dream-cast for Sam Andrews would be Isabelle Allen, as in the girl from Les Miserables. This is purely looks-wise though.

Dream-cast for James Sirius Potter? Or do you think they got it right in the epilogue scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two?

Chapter Three
Of How To Get To The Middle Of Nowhere And Regrettable Decisons

All in all, Draco had reacted better than Scorpius expected. Draco didn't blame Harry, or any of Scorpius' friends for Scorpius getting lost. Sure, he hadn't had a second of time to himself since he'd got back but he didn't really want any; he never had.

It had been all over the news of course; 'Unknown criminals attempt to blow up Head Auror and saviour of the Wizarding World; Harry Potter', 'There were thankfully no casualties', 'There is no lead as to who these mysterious culprits might be', 'It is unknown whether these were the same people who kidnapped The Boy Who Lived's oldest son; James Potter and prestigious Pureblood family's tragically orphaned; Jayna Blackwood, in October' etc. A whole lot of 'we have no idea' really so Scorpius was glad of his company; they were at least vaguely interesting.

Besides, the unusual companionship had given him a chance to look a bit closer at his family and had made him realise he'd actually taken his parents at face-value. Not that they were hugely different underneath their highborn exterior, but there were subtleties that Scorpius was only just now picking up on. It was a saddening thought that he didn't even know his own family.

There had always been tension between Narcissa and Astoria. Scorpius had assumed it was typical mother-in-law disagreement but now Scorpius was beginning to see that Narcissa didn't like how Astoria had brought him up. While his paternal grandparents had ratted out tens of their Death Eater comrades after the war in order to stay out of prison, they still very much believed in the Pureblood Supremacy. Astoria and Draco were a little more subtle, more fluid. When with families like the Goyles they were every bit the pompous rich beautiful couple that looked down on all who were 'less' than them. At home though, they were slightly less stiff. They didn't call Muggleborns, Mudbloods; they just didn't speak of them at all. Scorpius searched back through his mind and realised that it was only Lucius who'd ever said to him that Muggles were scum, and Draco had immediately interrupted and said that politics weren't allowed at the dinner table.

Scorpius wondered if that was why his mother often came home late from work; in order to avoid tension-filled meals. He'd only now began to see the pattern between his grandparents visits (which were frequent but they did primarily live in their cottage) and his mother's emergency work plans.

His mother's side of the family were less frequent but slightly more welcome visitors. Daphne Greengrass had gone through the same kind of shock to reality as her sister, and his maternal grandparents had never fully supported extremist Pureblood actions anyway.

He guessed that his parents, and therefore their views, had been changed by their experiences in the war that they both refused to speak of. While Draco spoke to his father with as much respect as he had before the war, it was clear that their views no longer lined up exactly.

Scorpius was very glad, then, that it was just him and his parents who were going to the Quidditch World Cup. He almost smiled when Draco informed him that Vincent Goyle and his father would not be meeting up with them as he was running a fever. Of course there would be no escape from the younger boy when September rolled around as Scorpius thought it was highly unlikely he'd end up in Ravenclaw, Gryffindor or Hufflepuff.

The three of them were portkeying to Germany where it was being held. Astoria had given her husband a look of utter outrage (though there was hint of teasing behind it) when he jokingly suggested they camped over; instead they were just going to watch the match and they were leaving at midnight, whether the match was finished or not.

Scorpius knew it was unlikely he'd have a chance to speak to Albus, Molly, Sam or James as they'd be surrounded by the press until they got to the game but he did wonder if he might see Jayna or Lydjah, if they were even going, which he doubted. He assumed Lien wasn't coming as Molly had given no indication she was taking her when they were shopping.

Speaking of Jayna though, that reminded him of another thing he needed to talk to his parents about. He had plenty of time; it was a little bit of stretch to get to where their portkey was taking off and Scorpius had violently protested the idea of side-along apparation; it was horrible enough the first time; he had no wish to repeat the experience.

"Father?" He asked hesitantly as the exited their huge house, twirling his wand between his fingers.

"Yes Scorpius?" Draco looked at his son.

"Why did you call off my betrothal to Jay?" His father blinked a little and averted his gaze, the only sign that he was surprised.

"Jayna Blackwood?"

"Was there another Jay I was engaged to?" Scorpius asked wryly, hoping he wouldn't think he was being rude. Draco chuckled slightly.

"No… How did you find out about that?"

"Through the lady herself?" He said, giving him a look that clearly asked where on earth else he thought he'd got it from.

"You're still friendly with her?"

"Yes."

"Well at least you've got a bit of good influence." Astoria muttered. Scorpius carefully refrained from rolling his eyes.

"Is there a problem with the rest of my friends mother?"

"I just," Astoria ignored her husband's warning glance, "I'm wondering when you're going to grow out of this phase is all." Scorpius was rather impressed that his voice stayed as impartial as it did when he replied.

"'Phase'?"

"I know you like Albus and that other Weasley and… Leah was it? But-"

"It's Lien." That was all Scorpius said on the subject, turning his face away from his mother and back to his father. "If Jay's such a good influence why did you call it off?"

"Your mother and I thought it wouldn't be… Appropriate for you to marry a girl whose political views are very different to our own." Scorpius felt like saying 'your own' but didn't, keeping hold of the cool politeness that always occupied his words. "I didn't think you'd want to marry her."

"I don't. But you cut off probably the only tie, barring her sister, that she had left to this world, just after her entire family had died. It's no wonder she went to live with the Dawsons."

"You think her views could be changed back?" Astoria inquired, curious. Scorpius smirked.

"Oh definitely not. She's been living with them for a year now. They've been good to her."

"Of course they have," his mother scoffed, "they've got her inheritance within their grasp."

"I don't think that's the reason they took her in mother." Astoria shared an impressed look with Draco over Scorpius' head at the steel in his tone.

"Maybe, maybe not. It's a shame either way though; so much wasted potential."

"What do you mean?"

"Well of course there's nothing wrong with muggles. But they can never understand our world properly, never fit in as well as Purebloods can. And Halfbloods are torn completely between the two, so neither are quite as adept at magic."

"Seriously?" Scorpius said, finally snapping, "after you went to school with Hermione Weasley?"

"Exactly!" Astoria nodded, "I went to school with her. I'm not denying she's brilliant, for of course she is, but she had, and still has, to work unbelievably hard all the time; I knew that and I wasn't even in her year."

"Anyone would have to work hard to get to where she is."

"Even so; Hermione Weasley is an anomaly." Scorpius gritted his teeth but left it alone. "I'm glad you brought up betrothals though Scorpius; I've been thinking; perhaps Elsa Zabini? Or even Harriet Selwyn-"

"Oh look we're here!" Scorpius exclaimed loudly. Draco's snigger was not missed by his wife who swotted him lightly on the arm as they hurried after their son. He picked up the immaculate umbrella and raised his eyebrows. "Inconspicuous object?" Draco smirked back at his son, placing a hand on the black-and-white spotted umbrella at the same time as his wife.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Nope." Scorpius said cheerfully as the portkey glowed blue and something hooked his navel and sent them spinning across the world.

It was with reckless abandon that Lydjah threw on a mismatching outfit, an insouciant smile on her lips, and then raced downstairs, thankfully only slamming her leg on the poorly-placed chair in the corridor once.

The Dawsons' house was currently a mess of potential hazards. It wasn't usually the cleanest place on the planet but lately it had been an obstacle course of book stacks, dirty plates and fresh washing. The house was lived in definitely; photographs and postcards from various points in Lydjah's childhood decorated the fridge; her six-year-old artwork and nine-year-old poems littered the walls, much to her protest. The kitchen was bomb-wreck of haphazardly stacked food and different shapes and sizes of china, the longue an explosion of half-finished board games and at least seven different remotes, the dining-room a massacre of various papers of Alen's and several bits of parchment that Lydjah and Jayna had forgotten to hide. That was to say nothing of their bedrooms.

Alen and Sophia's featured parts of several computers and many mismatched pyjama sets all strewn in a strange sort of path through the room. Lydjah's shelves were as messed up and uncleared as always and there were more crumbs between her sheets then on the dirty crockery. Jayna's no longer showed any recognisable patch of floor as the many articles of clothing she couldn't be bothered to hang up hid it completely, not to mention the growing pile of books and the strange smell of her potions extra-credit homework (hidden inside her trunk) which gave the entire room a sense that some creature was hovelled away in there.

The reason for this was that Sophia, being the amazing person that she was usually the one clearing things up after the rest of her slobby family. However, Sophia was not currently at the Dawson household.

They'd come back from Roxanne's party only to find out that Sophia's godmother had passed away; that was the call her mum had received just as they were leaving. Sophia had been inconsolable for days. This was not, of course, the cause for Lydjah's grin because she wasn't that much of a horrible person. The reason was that in light of Sophia's recent sadness, Alen had decided now was probably not the best time to be dropping the whole magic bomb on her, and, fearing his daughter's wrath, hurriedly managed to find tickets for Jayna, Lydjah and himself for the final match of the Quidditch World Cup. They were, of course, quite possibly the worst tickets available and Lydjah was 98% sure they weren't even getting seats. She didn't mind though because one; you spend most of the time at Quidditch matches on your feet anyway, and two; they were going to the fucking Quidditch World Cup.

They'd been planning on going on a camping trip anyway so all Sophia knew about their plans was that she was no longer going so that she could visit her Godmother's family. Sophia was taking Dylan though as her Godmother's daughter, one of Sophia's closest friends, had always loved him.

Jayna had thought it would be frankly hilarious to prank Lydjah back for the pyjama incident and so hadn't woken her up in time for Lydjah to get ready. Unfortunately for her, Lydjah had managed to wake up on her own just in time (something she was certain would never happen again) but, for once, was going to let Jayna's attempt to be funny slide as she was too damn excited to think about much else. The two of them had sat up till late in the evening the night before discussing what it would be like in hushed voices and both of them were rather hyper now. Jayna had even gone as far as to try and help Alen to make their picnic tea (because buying food at the match was not worth the queues and the expense) which had gone rather disastrously as Jayna had never cooked before in her life. Lydjah said sandwiches didn't even count as cooking and how Jayna had managed to spray tuna all over the walls was a mystery to everyone but her (she'd hidden the whisk she'd tried to use when she'd (belatedly) realised tuna wasn't supposed to be whisked).

Teaching Jayna how to use more muggle technology… Well it obviously wasn't going well. Lydjah managed to crack up every time the toaster popped or the phone rang as Jayna still jumped a foot in the air. She'd just about handled the kitchen appliances (electric whisk excluded) though she still didn't understand how any of them actually worked but trying to introduce her to the internet was going disastrously. She remained thoroughly unconvinced that muggles were intelligent enough to create a huge amass of knowledge about literally anything but hadn't worked out there was an entire magical world hidden right under their noses, and was of the mind that Alen had added to the Dawson's internet which was why theirs was so good. Jayna was very interested in how muggles cured disease and disappointed at how little Lydjah knew. She asked Alen when she could, but it wasn't exactly his line of work and plus she could only ask out of range of Sophia.

Lydjah had finally caught up on all the many seasons of shows she'd missed while she was away and found Jayna's confused chatter amusing as she tried to work out how the characters in Merlin had managed to do wandless, non-verbal magic and why their eyes always glowed when they did. She was continually protesting over the incantations when they were used, stating that they made no sense, and how she highly doubted the real Merlin was as good looking as Colin Morgan, or in love with King Arthur.

Both Ravenclaws had cried buckets in the final episode and Jayna had expressed outrage that the extremely clear love between the King and his servant was never properly expressed. For the next few days whenever anyone thanked her she would glare ferociously at them and go into a very confusing rant about how some people say 'thank you' when really they mean 'I love you' (well confusing for all those who hadn't watched Merlin).

The only way she'd managed to get her friend out of her dramatics was to talk about Quidditch. Lydjah wasn't entirely sure who she should be supporting in the World Cup; Germany or Spain. Jayna had given her a weird look when she'd voiced this and said Spain, obviously, because they both spoke a little Spanish from their lessons with Professor Casales and in her opinion German sounded horrible (Lydjah wasn't entirely sure what this had to do with which Quidditch team she should support but agreed nonetheless). She had a feeling Germany were going to win; there's nothing like playing on your home ground (or so she'd been told) but it was definitely going to be an interesting match. She'd been unable to find out any of the odds or statistics from the previous matches from the Daily Prophet or the Quibbler; her dad had said that the less Wizarding post they got the better, and she thought asking Albus, James or Sam would no doubt end in a letter too heavy for her poor owl to carry.

As Sophia had already left there was no need to pretend to take the car, as long as they came back before she did. Alen did a quick concealing charm just in case, but charms had never been his forte and the car just ended up looking vaguely paler. Jayna stared at what she viewed as an overweight, loud metal death-trap with distaste; her few journeys in it to go to the cinema and the like had not gone well and had left Sophia profoundly confused when Jayna admitted she'd never been in a car before. Lydjah noted this expression with a grin; the first thing she'd looked up when she'd showed Jayna the internet was the average number of deaths from car crashes per year. Needless to say, it had made Jayna go a little green.

Alen had only fortified his house the muggle way and so there were no spells preventing apparation or portkeying. He checked his watch a final time and, noting the time, held his hands out to his daughter and her friend, turned on the spot, and vanished.

The leaves stirred slightly in the yard as the three remaining inhabitants of the house disappeared, catching round the wheels of the partly-invisible car and the shoes of the tall man cloaked in dark robes who was staring at the house with the strangest expression on his face.

Lien had been stood out in the garden for twenty minutes now, knowing fully well Lydjah and Jayna weren't supposed to arrive for another five minutes, bouncing excitedly and rechecking everything she had with her about fifteen times a minute.

She had a small purse of money (she'd spent most of her pocket-money on the ticket and had no qualms about letting Jayna pay the rest as she was fairly certain Jayna could spend 100 galleons every day and not have to worry until she was old and grey (yay that rhymed), but she was hoping she could buy at least one souvenir), a waterproof, a set consisting of an obnoxiously orange woolly hat and matching gloves, a 'simple German phrases' book, a packed tea and a small but firm box that Jayna had requested she bring. Lien didn't quite know why Jayna wanted the box but had given up trying to figure out what exactly went on in that girls head. Honestly sometimes it was like the Ravenclaw wasn't all there. Her sister had protested at the hat and gloves, asking why she needed them if it was already hot but Lien had a feeling the match would last long into the night and who knows what German weather was like?

There was a slight crack from behind her and she whizzed around, almost tripping over her own feet in excitement, glad that the tall hedges that framed her garden made it the perfect spot for apparation, to see Jayna and Lydjah looking slightly pale clutching a hand of Alen's each. Within a moment the colour had returned to their faces and they were both stepping forward to give Lien a hug.

"You're ok? We read about the incident in the paper and I know it said no-one was hurt but that paper also said Voldemort wasn't back a few years ago so-"

"Jayna we're all fine, calm down." Lien laughed. Jayna coloured slightly but she was smiling.

"Are you ready to go Lien?" Alen cut in, smiling politely. Lydjah sent him a look that told him not to crack one of his jokes right now.

"You got that box?" Jayna asked. Lien passed it over. "Perfect." Jayna nodded with a grin, slipping it into her pocket.

"Yeah I'm ready to go." Lien said slowly, trying to shake out of her confusion over Jayna.

"Alright then." Alen took a crisp packet out of his pocket. "Do you know how portkeys work Lien?"

"Yeah Molly explained it to me. Molly Weasley that is; her dad's-"

"The head of the department of Magical Transportation."

"Yeah. I kind of forgot for a moment there that they're famous."

"Oh Percy not so much. I just see him occasionally in my job. Alright then; put your hands on the packet everyone." There was a slight crinkle as they all placed their hands on the crisp packet and Lien waved enthusiastically to her sister who was watching out of the window before apparently vanishing into thin air. Pearl had seen it before when Professor Vector had apparated from their living-room but it was still unnerving.

Lien fell awkwardly on her arse as she let go of the portkey. Jayna managed to stay on her feet for a second before Lydjah crashed into her ankles and sent them both sprawling. Even Alen was a little unsteady and they all took a moment to just sit down and gather themselves. As soon as Lydjah had untangled her legs from Jayna's the younger Ravenclaw was stood up brandishing her wand with delight casting little green bubbles from her wand and giggling. Lien watched this with a little shock; Jayna was definitely not the haughty ponce she'd met at the train station a year ago but Lien still didn't expect her to be frolicking and laughing happily at bubbles like a three year old.

"I haven't been able to use magic all summer!"

"Except at Roxanne's party. Or the various times we've been to Diagon Alley." Lydjah said wryly. Feeling mature, Jayna stuck her tongue out at her, or at least as far as Jayna's tongue would go. It was only then that Lien looked past the grass she was sitting in, following the breeze to where it shimmered slightly and then caught one of many flags sticking up out of tents. The tents themselves were amazing; some were palaces of silk, others four stories high and still others had exotic animals roped to the front. People were everywhere; some in muggle clothing, some in Wizarding robes, shouting to each other, dancing and drinking. The whole atmosphere was filled with friendly jabs to the supporters of the opposing team. Black, crimson and gold screamed for her attention while scarlet and dark yellow paraded past in all directions. Magical fireworks were going up all over the place; spelling out 'Spain sucks!' and 'Germany can-' well Lien didn't really want to read what Germany could do but it was obvious to see tensions were high.

Alen was depositing their portkey in a box guarded by a grumpy looking wizard who was glaring rather fiercely at Jayna.

"No magic allowed outside the muggle repelling barriers miss-" Jayna turned to the wizard with a mock-frown, about to put her wand away as he'd asked, "Oh Miss Blackwood I- I worked with your father Miss, fine man, fine man, such a tragedy, can I possibly help you with anything?" He bowed slightly. Jayna's frown became real as she pocketed her wand, but she immediately straightened out her expression on seeing the older man's slightly scared face, trying to look as friendly as possible.

"Thank you. Directions would be wonderful sir." The wizard, obviously flustered, stuttered and nodded.

"Yes, yes erm if you go down that path in front of us and take the first right- no left then right then another right you should find yourself at the shopping field. I'm sorry you have to go through that field to get to the stadium-"

"Perfect; I can't wait to buy a Spanish scarf." Jayna smiled. "Are you supporting a team?"

"No, no I-" Just then another group of people arrived. With another awkward bow of his head the grumpy wizard scurried away. Jayna sighed, looking at her hands as if they were the root of her problems. Lydjah grabbed one of them and Jayna looked up startled.

"Come on idiot my legs are still numb from you squashing it with your gigantic arse." Jayna swatted at her and held out her other hand for Lien. Lien took it hesitantly, wondering what she was going to do. Immediately Jayna began bounding down the path and dragging them with her in some kind of half-skip half-run leaving a protesting Alen jogging behind them.

They followed the wizard's instructions, right up until the last turn. Bright lights were coming from the other direction and a cacophony of shouting. All three girls immediately stopped. Jayna and Lydjah drew their wands, ignoring Lien's whispered reminder of the no-magic-allowed rule and the three of them headed down the path, though not until Lydjah had made an arrow out of sticks for her father.

Sam was rather regretting not taking Jayna's offer of going with her and Lien. She supposed it probably came down to knowing she could just about stomach James paying for her ticket but letting Jayna would have made her feel like a leech. She knew Harry was famous, like seriously famous. But it was twenty years ago now! Honestly, some of the Quidditch players were just walking without any sort of bombardment in full view across the fields to their places in the changing rooms because every camera was focused on the Potter tent.

Ginny was perhaps the only member of the press actually interviewing the players but she had a small band of reporters trailing her too, from various other magazines.

She hadn't seen Molly or her sister as they'd both been dragged off to help Percy keep the portkeys under control, or at least that's what Al had said. Audrey, she knew, was one of the Aurors on patrol though Sam had a sneaky suspicion that she'd deliberately volunteered to get out of dismantling portkeys.

Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Louis, Dominque, Charlie, George, Angelina, Roxanne and Fred were mostly escaping the brunt of the press, especially Fleur, Victoire, Angelina and Roxanne as their hair colour didn't immediately mark them out as a member of the Weasley family. They'd managed to go to the shopping field and get back without being trampled though George was now being thoroughly told off by his wife (with a silencing charm around them so the press couldn't hear of course) for the bright red lipstick smeared on his cheek, though she seemed to be more amused than angry.

Ron and Hermione had spent most of the day holed up in the tent; playing a singular game of monopoly that Sam had joined in with before she'd been unfairly ganged up upon and made bankrupt (Sam didn't think Rose appreciated her new rainbow dye shampoo. She thought she'd appreciate it even less if Sam told her she only had to wash her hair with normal shampoo for it to disappear). Hugo had spent the day discussing Quidditch with Lily. Sam didn't have the heart to tell them they had no idea what they were talking about.

The game of monopoly was still going with Hermione currently winning, as expected, with Rose in second, Albus third and Ron just about hanging in there so Sam decided to brave outside again.

She squinted her eyes as she stalked out of the tent, focusing on the two messy mounds of dark hair just in front of the bright camera flashes that were threatening to blind her. Harry had agreed to answer an hour's worth of questions that he deemed appropriate at his wife's suggestion; insisting that they go away afterward. This was about three quarters of an hour ago. Initially Sam had gone out with James and Harry but the not-so-subtle questions about her relationship with James had caused her to have what James affectionately called the 'someone is going to have their face kicked in' look and Harry had kindly said that he needed someone to track Ginny down and find out if she was sitting in the VIP box with them or in the press box. The walk around the campsite had calmed her down and besides she needed to give Harry his answer.

Steeling herself she got right up to the fence behind which screaming fans and reporters were yelling and managed to convey to Harry that his wife would unfortunately not be sitting with them before turning to face James with a slight scowl on her face. As always, James was loving the attention. Sam knew what she saw in him as a friend; he was brave, loyal, funny, adventurous, quick with his wand, not afraid to talk to her when she was in a temper, never hypocritical, determined and protective of the weak; something he never viewed Sam as. But Sam could not understand what all the other girls saw in him. Can't they see they'll never be able to compete with his reflection? He has it all; what could you possibly offer him?

Jayna was possibly the only one who'd seen all this and still liked the idiot, though whether that was over or not Sam didn't know, or in all honesty, particularly care because Sam knew the truth. April hadn't or Josie or Sally or Laura or Riley (thank god) or Rephia or Irene (though she'd come close which was he'd broken it off). Girls were either intelligent enough to stay away from him, not interested in a long-term relationship or stupid enough to fall for him. Sam knew James would never let anyone get close enough to him that he'd begin to doubt his reflection, never go out with someone who'd make him feel like he needed to dress-up or make him nervous about a date. And while that sounded shallow on the surface, which it was, Sam knew it was this deep-rooted fear of willingly leaving yourself vulnerable that James, alike many others, possessed.

What Sam didn't know was that it would take someone who had the same vulnerabilities, an entire year's worth of awkwardly dancing round each other and the death of this person for James to realise that he didn't actually have much of a choice when it came to who he gave his heart to.

Of course, currently, almost all members of the eight-person team still possessed the entirety of their hearts. Molly's heart would always be her own. There would never be rips or tears and that was perfectly ok. While James was scared of losing his heart Molly had simply decided she liked hers in her own chest. Lien's heart was large enough to knock down a giant and as of yet still wholly her own. Albus' heart was much the same though his was rather lost which is why it took him awhile to be aware of his own feelings. Sam had lost a good chunk of hers to Lee, but had gained back the equal amount from the Ravenclaw. James was still guarding his with a reflective mirror and Lydjah currently held tens of tiny fragments of other people's hearts no matter how much she tried to be rid of them though had yet to lose any of her own. Jayna's head said that she had only lost a tiny piece, her feelings said the whole thing was gone, but really the only truth was that hers was still broken in half from the loss of her family because even though she'd cello-taped it back together she knew it could never heal until she sewed it into a new shape and she wasn't ready to let them go yet. Scorpius' was half-cloaked in shadow under lock and key with armed guards defending it day and night. The only person who could steal Scorpius' heart was someone who hadn't meant to, and therefore hadn't been detected.

"James?" James turned and caught sight of Sam, giving her their usual high-five. "You done admiring yourself yet?" James rolled his eyes with a good-natured smirk plastered to his face.

"You don't find the fans interesting?"

"Your father's fans?" Sam pointed out. "No." James frowned at her.

"Lover's spat?" A smarmy voice inquired from behind the barrier.

"We're not going out. He's my best friend, not my 'lover', as I believe I explained earlier." Sam said, as cordially as she could.

"And your name dear?"

"Sam Andrews."

"Muggle-born?"

"Does it matter?"

"You go to Hogwarts I presume? A Gryffindor?"

"Yes."

"How long have you been friends with James?"

"Since first year when I broke his nose."

"Broke his nose you say? That sounds like an interesting story."

"It is, and one I'm not telling. You coming James?" James perked up as the attention moved back to him.

"Where?"

"Shopping of course; idiot." James only had time to nod, pouting a little at leaving the eager reporters, before several very familiar voices were calling out across the crowd. Both Gryffindors searched the throng of people but it wasn't until Lien made her way to the very front (small bony elbows came in handy sometimes) of the barrier (she was only just taller than it) that they finally saw her and the rest of her group.

"We saw the camera flashes and heard the shouts and thought there was some kind of duel going on so made our way over." Lydjah was shouting, over the sound of the press and the screaming fans.

"Come this way." Sam yelled back, pointing away from the press. At first a few followed them but quickly made their way back to Harry. James pout grew more pronounced. Once they were out of earshot James gave Lien a hug, asking the same 'are you alright' question she'd heard too many times since the incident in Diagon Alley.

Unfortunately before they could do much more than exchange pleasantries Harry finished his promised press time and informed Sam and James that they had to start making their way to the stadium in order to get to the VIP box. Sam was assured that there were still opportunities to grab some German-supporting face-paint and several figurines of the Quidditch players as well as the binoculars James claimed could rewind and slow down the action as it was happening, but if they went into the shopping field they'd get mobbed. Alen finally turned up then and started shaking Lydjah for being so stupid before he realised the saviour of the Wizarding world was stood three metres in front of him. The two groups dispersed and when Sam saw the tall man in the dark robes and the strange expression she thought nothing of it, dismissing the strange shiver that ran down her back as nothing more than anticipation for the game.