AN: Totally within the month again :)
My dream-cast for James would be Dylan Schmid, he plays young Baelfire in Once Upon a Time. I hate the person they got to play him at the end. Not the actual person I'm sure they're lovely but not for that part. I mean no offence if you liked him but no. He looks way too sincere instead of mischievous, his hair style's just wrong and he doesn't look anything like either of his parents, or how his parents were supposed to look. His hair is brown.
Dream-cast for Albus Severus Potter?
Chapter Four
Of Reactions to Quidditch Matches and Once In a Lifetime Experiences (Unless Of Course, You're Rich)
Lucy had always been quiet. It wasn't the normal sort of quiet, where one is just shy or afraid of loud noises. The closest she could compare it to was Luna Scamander's quiet sort of dreaminess, but even she was capable of shouting if needs be. Lucy didn't speak very often, didn't engage. Molly had learnt how to read her sister without words but it had taken a long while.
Audrey was pretty good at it and Percy could even draw out a smile if he tried but Molly was the only one who heard Lucy's voice, when she, very rarely, chose to speak. When she did speak it was usually only a single word, and one that made no sense to anyone except her but Molly treasured every one of them. Everyone in their family knew she was a bit different, and even James had learnt not to tease her for it, but no-one understood her. Not that Lucy would care if they did tease for it because she wasn't tuned in enough to realise that's what they were doing. She spoke through touch mostly; tapping her father's elbow when she was hungry, patting Molly's hair when her older sister was upset, holding her mother's hand whenever she was close enough.
Lucy had a different way of looking at things, sideways and backwards and flipped over to how everyone else did. Molly thought it was refreshing. She hoped when the younger girl was preparing to go to Hogwarts this time next year, others would see it too. Especially as Molly would be busy trying not to die every time they completed one of those task things.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by the girl herself. Lucy had tripped over but was refusing her father's help to get up as Percy tried desperately to be a good father while shouting angrily at a man who was attempting to shoot fireworks out of his wand in full view of the muggle cottage next-door. Molly pushed her dad lightly in the direction of the offender and waited patiently for Lucy to get up by herself.
"You ok to carry on collecting used portkeys?" Lucy's response was to take the box that was full of the strangest collection of objects from a rubber duck to an alarm clock, gently out of Molly's hands and place it on the floor before ambling the few paces to pick up an old trainer. Molly smiled.
Percy put his arm round her shoulders when she reached him, having sent off the fireworks man with a severe reprimand and made sure the muggle's curtains were still firmly closed. "Thanks Princess." Molly leaned her head on his shoulder. She had a bit of a rocky relationship with her dad; they didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things; she thought he was boring and he thought she was reckless (Molly didn't want to know what he thought of James), but whatever else her dad was, he was hard-working, and that included towards his family too. He always tried to make everything the best it could be, even if try was the operative word, and Molly did love him for it. "Wish your mum was here; she's much scarier than me." Molly laughed in agreement.
Percy had met Audrey through work, and that's usually all he said on the topic. Audrey however, loved to tell the tale; how she'd got awfully lost when trying to report for Auror training and had wandered into his department just in time to hear Percy swearing like a sailor after accidentally stapling himself while trying to clip some documents together. She'd grabbed him a coffee (for no other reason than he looked like he needed one), he'd shown her the way to the Auror department and it had taken him three weeks and a rather painful meeting of his face to the floor after tripping over his desk-chair for him to realise the coffee cup he'd thrown in the bin by his desk had her number on it.
Lucy grabbed Percy's hand and pointed shyly at the full box of used portkeys. "Is that all of them?" He asked, looking ecstatic. She patted his hand once. Percy took this to be affirmative. He kissed the top of her head. "Thank you." Lucy didn't respond, as was usual. "Alright; we're done here then. Better get going if we want to go shopping." With a smile he pulled out two galleons and handed one to each girl.
"Thank you!" Molly squealed, wrapping her arms round his waist and then grabbing Lucy's free hand. Percy chuckled and followed after his two daughters, only a slight flash of worry showing on his face as he regarded Lucy's apathetic expression.
Jayna supposed that every time she did something that she'd done before with her family she would get this strange ache in her chest. She was carrying the image of Aleron cramming his Omnioculars to his eyes in her heart, gripping Dev's tiny hand in her own, feeling her father's warm arm around her shoulders and her mother's uncustomary giggles ringing in her ears as if they were right there next to her. Now, however, she was able to make new memories on top of them without trying to drown them out.
She did not want to think about her family right then, and so she thought about her friends instead. Lien's eyes couldn't get any wider. The poor girl was whipping her head backwards and forwards desperately trying to see everything in the shopping field. Jayna liked to think she'd grown up a bit since she first met Lien; she now found the muggleborn's wild-eyed excitement endearing instead of a mark of her ignorance.
Not that Lydjah was any better. Lydjah had no interest in the sport itself but the sheer atmosphere of the Quidditch World Cup was amazing-
Jayna's thoughts were quite rudely interrupted as a ginger headed youth emerged from the crowd and smashed his lips against Lydjah's. Lien and Jayna stood, staring in stunned disbelief at the couple. Alen's polite cough caused Lydjah to remember who she was with and she quickly moved back a pace, going paler in her embarrassment instead of blushing like most people.
"Erm Fred this is my dad and my friends Lien Irby and Jayna Blackwood." Fred ran a hand through his shaggy mop of hair and grinned. Jayna was quite impressed by this grin; if she'd come along and snogged say, James, and then realised Harry was standing right behind him she'd be mortified. "Guys; Fred Weasley."
"I remember; I saw you guys at Roxanne's party." Fred said to Jayna and Lien. "Great to meet you…?"
"Alen."
"Indeed." He smiled again before turning back to Lydjah. "Sorry I could only get away for a moment; we have to get to our seats. See you Saturday?"
"Yeah." Fred kissed her quickly and then dived back into the crowd. Jayna allowed her one moment of happy befuddlement before whacking her on the arm. "Ow!"
"That was for lying to me! 'I'm going to visit an old muggle friend' my arse! That's who you've been going to see every week?!" Lydjah managed a sheepish look. Alen raised his eyebrows at his daughter and she averted her gaze.
"Lydjah-"
"Don't want to have this conversation with you right now Alen." Lydjah interrupted, with a pleading expression on her face. Alen narrowed his eyes at being called by his first name but relented. Lydjah hoped he would forget by the time they got home. Jayna decided that helping her friend now would probably put her in a better mood for talking about Fred later, so immediately suggested that Alen go to buy them some drinks and meet them at the end gate of the shopping field while they did some 'long and very girly' shopping. Alen agreed, not looking the slightest bit fooled but wanting to get a pint of Dragon Scale for himself.
Jayna immediately rushed over to the nearest sales wizard who was carrying a tray full of omnioculars. "Fifteen galleons! Bargain price! Fifteen galleons!"
"We are not in an economic crisis anymore mate. Fifteen galleons is ridiculous." Lydjah and Lien exchanged shocked looks at Jayna's less-than-scarily-polite attitude. The sales wizard, a middle-aged man with a kind-enough smile and slightly greying blonde hair, seemed shocked as well before he looked up and registered Jayna's face.
"Miss Jayna Blackwood! I haven't seen ya in yonks!"
"A year is hardly 'yonks' Patrick. And this is the last place I would have looked for you. I thought you hated Quidditch!" Patrick pulled a face, his dusty-blue eyes watering slightly though Lydjah got the impression it was more to do with faulty tear ducts than any sort of emotion.
"That's true enough lass but a man's gotta find work where he can."
"Gardening to selling omnioculars is a bit of a difference though." Jayna pointed out. Patrick shrugged. "How's Mrs Bagby? And the kids?"
"Tamsin's as good as ever. Misses baking you and your siblings pies awfully. And our Lizzie's starting Hogwarts in September." Mr Bagby said proudly. Jayna gasped.
"No! She's grown up so fast!"
"So have you." Patrick sighed, looking sadly at her. Jayna glanced away uncomfortably, trying to stop the tears that were pricking her eyelids. "I'm very sorry about your family Miss Jayna."
"I'm sorry you lost your job." She returned. "Did you get your last set of wages?"
"Nah, but it don't matter now." Jayna frowned.
"After all that work you put into our gardens Patrick, please let me pay you-"
"No." Jayna sighed.
"Fine. At least let me buy three sets of these omnioculars, at your ridiculous price." Patrick tried to shake his head but Jayna had already taken the money out of her pocket and snatched three pairs in return. She passed one to each of her friends. "I've got to go now but you're always welcome to owl me if you need anything yeah?" Mr Bagby nodded, looking a little teary himself and apparated away to a different part of the field before he could lose his composure. Lydjah tried to pay Jayna back but she shrugged it off, saying Lydjah could buy the next thing. Lydjah thought this was because Jayna knew they weren't going to be buying anything that was more expensive than fifteen galleons, but she agreed anyway.
Jayna looked apologetically at her friends. "Sorry guys; that was my family's gardener Patrick Bagby. I had to say hello."
"That's alright." Lien smiled.
"I'd completely forgotten about the household staff; I hope they're all ok."
"How many 'household staff' did you have?!" Asked Lydjah incredulously.
"Well my grandpa didn't like house-elves, less to do with the moral behind it and more because he was distrustful and paranoid about them for some reason, so we had a couple of cooks; Zoe Accrington and Malcolm Baddock, a gardener; Patrick Bagby, three maids; Tracey Davis and Flora and Hestia Carrow; their family name really went down in power after the end of the war though I don't see how it was their fault; they were perfectly alright to me, and a butler; Curtis Evercreech."
"Oh so not much then."
"My mum didn't want nannies for us. I mean, she didn't have to work but she did but she still thought we should be brought up by our family instead of someone different."
"Your mum worked?"
"Yeah she was on the Wizengamot."
"No way!"
"What's the 'Wizengamot'?" Lien asked sheepishly.
"It's the wizarding high court of law… Basically."
"Oh."
"Most of the rest of my family didn't though. My grandparents and my father didn't though my grandpa I think did voluntary research for the Ministry from time to time. My Uncle Anton was an architect; he helped redesign the street of Diagon Alley after it got destroyed in the war. And my Auntie Jozlyn owned the Leaky Cauldron after Madam Longbottom went to become the matron. Everyone else just lived off their old money." Lydjah just shook her head, marvelling at the difference of their childhoods.
"When did your family move to England then?" Lien asked, assuming, correctly, that they had to have lived for at least a little while for Jayna's mother to have been allowed into the high court for the whole of British wizards.
"Must have been a couple of years after the war; the year my parents got married… Two years before Cara so… Seventeen years ago?" Lien nodded.
"Ooh what do they do?" Lien asked, pointing to another sales person's wares. Violet and yellow rosettes clashed horribly in a tray hung round the sales witch's neck. On the violet rosettes there was a picture of an Erkling (Lien would later be informed they were native to the Black Forest of Germany) and on the yellow was, to her horror, a very familiar creature.
"Is that-"
"That horrible creature that almost killed Potter a few months ago?"
"Quintaped." Lydjah confirmed, wrinkling her nose. Jayna's support for the Spanish Quidditch team weakened slightly. All the rosettes were shouting but Lien couldn't make sense of the words.
"Why is Germany violet?" Lydjah asked, confused. Jayna shrugged.
"That's the colour of their player's robes. I think they're shouting the different players' names."
"Jägers; Adelheid Zilberschlag, Gebbert Tschida und Karsten Voss, Treibers; Carola Xylander und Eleonora Xylander, Hüter; Ignatz Rothbauer und Sucher; Malte Protz!" The violet rosette screamed in agreement.
"What?" Lien asked, as they stood in the queue for the rosettes.
"It must have been Chasers first because there are three of them, then Beaters because there are two of those, then Keeper? Because the last one sounded like Seeker."
"Right."
"Xylander? Isn't that a relation of Owen's?" Jayna asked.
"Who's Owen?" Lydjah responded.
"Owen Xylander, Gryffindor in our year. His twin older brothers are the Beaters for Hufflepuff."
"Oh that Owen. I thought he was Dutch, not German."
"They're very close countries."
"True. You should ask James."
"Potter? Huh yeah."
"¡Cazadores; Octavia Núñez, Quim Loyola y Salud Juárez, Golpeadores; Udane Huerta y Wilfredo Franco, Guardián; Yadira Cuevas y Buscador; Bakar Azarola!" The yellow rosette roared back.
"I understood that!" Jayna and Lydjah shouted excitedly at the same time, and then the three of them broke down into giggles. So much so, that, by the time they got to the front of the queue, they were still in hysterics, and their order took a lot longer than necessary. True to her word, Lydjah bought all three of their one Galleon (ein Galleonen) rosettes, though it had taken a while as none of them spoke a lick of German past 'hallo'. Jayna and Lydjah were both wearing yellow, whereas Lien had controversially gone with violet. Lydjah was planning on evening it up by buying a German scarf, but she thought the Spanish rosette sounded and looked nicer.
None of them bought a flag when they reached that store as the horrible cacophony of national anthems that played whenever the flag caught the slightest breeze was awful, though all three bought scarfs. Jayna ignored Lydjah's ribbing that she'd only bought the Spanish scarf because it was in Gryffindor colours; yellow with red outlining it, but Lydjah wouldn't let it go, no matter how many times Jayna haughtily explained Gryffindor's colours were more gold and scarlet.
Jayna was quite enamoured with the Spanish Chaser Quim Loyola and bought a figurine of him that walked around on her palm and scowled prettily at everything it saw. Lien said he looked permanently grumpy but Jayna thought it was more dark and brooding. Either way they all agreed his eyebrow game was on point. Lydjah bought both Carola and Eleonora Xylander as she couldn't decide which one of the twins to get.
Before they could get out of his sight again Alen located them at the edge of the field and insisted that they get going though Lydjah personally thought he was trying to hide something in the shopping bag that was poking out of is magically large pockets.
Albus loved his family to pieces.
Sam's family was small, and Sam never mentioned her dad. Albus didn't know if he was dead, or had left them, or Sam just didn't like him but something had happened there. She seemed close to her sister though, and Albus knew she was coming up to Hogwarts this year.
Lydjah's family was pretty close from what he had gathered, especially with her being the only child, but there was the whole issue of her mother not knowing what her daughter and her husband were, plus the whole new dynamic adopting Jayna had thrown in.
Jayna's family seemed pretty sketchy before, and now they were all dead except for that I-can't-make-up-my-mind sister of hers.
Lien's had the same problem as Lydjah's in the sense that although they were aware that Lien was a witch, they could never understand it properly, and Lien would always be pulled between two worlds.
Scorpius' family was on the sketchy side of things too. Scorpius seemed fine with Lien and Albus had never heard him say anything that was racially motivated to anyone, but there was a definite private side to Scorpius and Albus hadn't been entirely honest when he said what he'd seen in Scorpius' sketchbook. There was a drawing of their homework group though the table and the library around it looked normal each of the people sat at the table were… Strange to say the least. Scorpius had drawn it from the perspective of where he usually sat, staring at everyone else. Roxanne was cut in half in her chair, straight down the middle so that blood was spurting out and drowning the rest of the chair in hot red liquid. Molly had her throat slit, and was staring out into nothing, somehow remaining upright in her chair. Lien was covered head to toe in a thick mud like substance but underneath she was glowing bright white. Scorpius had drawn Albus reading a book, and the angle was such that you could see both half of Albus' face and the pages of the book. Albus' face looked perfectly normal but the book pages were a mirror, and in their reflection Albus had no head, and his neck was bleeding freely over his beheaded corpse. And then there was Rose. Her red hair had turned into fountains of blood and her limps were flung across the arms of the chair, as if she was being crucified. She was raised above the seat slightly, her bloodied face turned up towards the sky, but her eyes were closed. At the bottom of the page, in perfect calligraphy, the picture was named 'Three Bloods'. The image was so haunting that it refused to leave Albus' head. And if that was what Scorpius was doing… Albus didn't even want to think about the rest of his family.
He didn't think his family was better in some way, but he was oh so very, very glad that he had his family and not anyone else's. He loved all his cousins and aunties and uncles and siblings and of course his parents. Sure; he didn't get on so well with James most of the time but that was over petty things, and if he found Louis' air of superiority annoying so what? Albus knew he could count on his family; always.
Bill and Charlie were chatting with Percy, who'd arrived to the VIP box a few minutes ago, most probably about the last few people to arrive via portkey that Percy had to sort out. The British Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was chatting quite happily to his dad, and Albus had to keep reminding himself that they were friends. It had only been in recent years that Albus realised having the Minister for Magic round for tea every month wasn't usual and since coming to Hogwarts he'd tried very hard not to drop names. He'd read the article Rita Skeeter had done when they'd come to the last Quidditch World Cup and had found it more amusing than insulting, especially the part where his mum had hexed her. He wished his mum was with them here but Albus knew she loved reporting the Quidditch World Cup almost as much as she loved playing the sport. Albus was hoping next summer that he and James could invite their little group of friends back to his for another adult vs kids match; they were even again as the adults had won the last one by a mile.
On his right Hermione was attempting to talk to Angelina but the seasoned Quidditch player was too intent on the pitch to respond in much more than monosyllables. As ever, Hermione was refusing to support either team, and Albus noted with a bemused smile that she already had her wand out; just in case. Ron, Louis, Hugo, Dominque and George were all talking in hushed voices as they listened to the rundown of how Germany and Spain had made it to the final; well Ron, Louis and Dominque were listening to George's translation of the German as he was the only one who spoke it. Albus had a feeling George was making most of it up as Ron looked rather confused at his brother's retelling.
Fleur was chatting with Victoire, both looking a little tearful. After the match Victoire was going off with Teddy, and not coming back till Christmas. Teddy, fearing Bill would try (again) to convince (threaten) him into staying, had decided to skip out of the Quidditch World Cup and visit his grandmother before he left instead. As the Quidditch World Cup had been pushed back so far Neville and Hannah Longbottom had decided it would be best for them not to go in order to set up at school properly, and Luna and Rolf were currently back-packing around the alps; Albus had quite lost track of which magical creature they were trying to find now. Unfortunately for the magical newspapers, this meant the 2018 Quidditch World Cup would not include a 'Dumbledore's Army Reunion' like the last one. Lorcan and Lysander Scamander were there however as they were being looked after by Lorcan's godparents; Harry, Ron and Hermione. They'd already been pulled into James' game of Truce but had escaped injury by offering truce straight after they'd poured James' blackcurrant-squash-filled bottle over his head.
The Spanish Minister for Magic was chatting amicably to the German one though Albus thought he could hear slightly offensive 'accidental' insults as he tried to translate his Spanish into German. The current Queen of Spain; Leonor, was also there as she was a muggleborn witch. It was very rare she got a chance to go to an all magic event and the muggle newspapers were disappointed when they couldn't find photographs of Queen Leonor's latest holiday. She was entertaining the Scamander twins whom Albus didn't think quite grasped that she was royalty, though if they had he doubted they'd treat her any differently, by producing little red, yellow and black fire sprites that danced round their hands from her wand. The fire didn't seem to be painful to touch.
As for Albus, he was sat with Rose, listening to her talk about how excited she was for their second year of school. Albus didn't see it himself; obviously he was excited to go back to Hogwarts but second year seemed much the same as first, but with harder homework. James had been gloating about all the new subjects he was taking all summer, and Albus was very disappointed to find out they only studied magical theory for the first year unless you took it as an option. Of course, his favourite subject was still Charms, but Magical Theory had been a close second.
Rose was cut off as James let out an almighty shriek, causing Sam next to him to fall into hysterics. "IT'S STARTING!" Immediately everyone's attention (barring Lorcan who was quite content with his fire sprites) turned to the pitch. The game was on.
James spent most of the first few minutes of the match alternating between embarrassment over his overly loud shout and terror that they were going to bring out a huge group of Quintapeds at any moment. Fortunately, as the Quintapeds were now more legend than fact (though the slight fracture of his tailbone that occasionally still twinged was inclined to disagree) the real thing had been replaced with illusions. He was unprepared for the German Erklings after his unfounded terror over the not-very-realistic Quintapeds (they didn't even seem mildly aggressive) and so when they started cackling in that horrible entrancing way he had to be grabbed by the scruff of his neck so he didn't try to wander over the side of the box. Harry explained that they were only entrancing to children, but James didn't see the problem till he mentioned that they liked to eat human flesh. It was only after one of them shot a dart (thankfully missing Spanish Chaser Salud Juárez, though to be fair she had been taunting it by flying lazy circles above its head) that they were hauled off again. The match started with some confusion but it was on both sides, so there were no disadvantages.
James jammed his omnioculars to his eyes, knowing Sam was doing the same next to him. Within three minutes it was clear that the German Beaters; the Xylander twins (James was fully planning on killing Owen when he got back to school for not mentioning this), were going to thrash their counter-parts. Quim Loyola had barely touched the Quaffle when a Bludger slammed into his stomach. One of the Xylanders (they were identical; James had no idea which was which) had used a wicked Bludger Backbeat, and Wilfredo Franco was left completely confused as to where the aggressive ball had gone.
With confusion still reigning, Adelheid Zilberschlag and Karsten Voss performed a great rendition of the Porskoff Play befuddling their only real remaining opposition; Yadira Cuevas, and scoring ten points.
Thankfully, by the time the Quaffle got thrown out again the Spanish had worked themselves out, and without using any particular tactics scored the next two goals, though their third attempt was blocked by Ignatz Rothbauer, bringing the score to 10-20.
The next few minutes were fast and furious, but with no goals scored on either side. James found himself wishing that Teddy was here; him breaking Victoire's nose was quite possibly the funniest part of his day in the last Quidditch World Cup.
James had to watch the playback on his omnioculars in order to understand the next few seconds. Octavia Núñez aimed a punch towards Gebbert Tschida. He obviously ducked out of the way, and it seemed that, that had been what Octavia was hoping for. In less than a second she was stood on her broom performing the Dionysus Dive. It was only then that Rothbauer realised that the punch had actually been a Transylvanian Tackle and that Núñez had scored a goal. Unfortunately for Núñez, neither of her other chasers had also realised this, and it was only Seeker; Bakar Azarola's quick-thinking that stopped her from a very messy death after she'd leaped off her broom during the dive.
James leapt to his feet as he heard the confused roaring all around him.
"What's happened?" He yelled at Sam.
"Malte Protz caught the snitch! Germany's won!"
"What?!"
"Azarola was too busy catching Núñez and Protz saw the snitch!" Then James was roaring too, yelling as Sam wrestled him to the floor. Harry pulled them off each other, a grin on all three of their faces, and punched them both lightly in the arm. Up at the front George was singing a very odd song that went something along the lines of "Germany, Germany, I think it's called Deutschland, sucks to the Spanish, Germany rules!" Núñez was crying while her teammates reassured her and the Germans did victory laps around the pitch. When James went to the edge of the box he could see the back of Scorpius' head in the second VIP box, with his sharp-featured father and beautiful mother, and, if he really craned his neck, he thought he spotted Lien stood on an enlarged box, clapping as though Christmas had come early though even with her box James doubted she could see from where she was stood at the back of the crowd.
The man with the strange expression was nowhere to be found.