The Prince-Who-Lived

Chapter Thirteen

The Potter house was woken August 23, 1994, by one of its members galloping down the stairs and racing into the kitchen.

James Potter and his wife Lily both shared a smile that Harry did not miss as he came to the archway. He stuck out his handful of parchment tickets and stared at both of them before demanding,

"What are these? And why were they in my room?"

James smoothed his smile off his face. "What do they look like, Harry?"

Harry huffed. "Tickets. To the World Cup. You said they were sold out not two weeks ago! That's why you said I didn't get them for my birthday!"

James studied his fingernails with a small smile on his face. Harry frowned playfully. "You've had these for weeks longer than that, haven't you?"

"Maybe." James drawled.

Behind Harry, Nanna yawned loudly. Harry slipped aside and she walked into the kitchen to pull up a seat at the table. She was still wearing her nightgown, and a little disoriented. Harry calmed, and walked up behind her before holding the tickets in her range of vision, the title on them sticking out. She glanced over, and then did a double-take.

"No way! We've got tickets?" Nanna looked over at James with gleaming eyes. She then frowned. "You said they were sold out!" As soon as James took on an innocent expression, Nanna frowned. Harry quickly pulled the tickets to safety as she whipped out her Ebony and unicorn hair wand and sent a colour-changing spell at James. James hadn't expected it, and shortly ending up with vomit green robes. He spluttered in indignation, as the rest of the family laughed.

"James, you earned that one. You raised these kids. Did you expect them to take such deceit lying down?"

"Well, no." James admitted. "I just expected to have the confrontation somewhere other than the breakfast table."

Harry took his seat across from Nanna with a grin, his bowl already in front of him and a smile on his face. "And when did you expect the confrontation when you put the tickets underneath my glasses on my bedside table overnight?"

James pouted. "You weren't supposed to look." Harry just raised his eyebrow, and James laughed lightly. "You look so sneaky when you wear an expression like that, Harry. I sometimes wonder how much of myself you really inherited."

Harry quietly looked between his parents, and Lily smiled. "You look almost exactly like him when he would be arguing a prank with Sirius when you do that."

Harry nodded, and then looked back to his father. "Are Sirius and Remus coming as well? And what about the Longbottoms? Wait …" Harry frowned tightly. "Neville got tickets for his birthday, even if he himself isn't going. He never said whom …" James once more put on an innocent expression and Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm not talking to you for the rest of breakfast."

James tried to look offended. He failed miserably.

IIII

The next day, Harry got together with Ron, Hermione, and Neville to talk excitedly about the plans they had for the Quidditch World Cup. Arthur had gotten tickets from Ludo Bagman, all of them seats in the Top Box. Harry good-naturedly ribbed him about their excellent spots, but Harry didn't mind too much: the tickets his family and the Longbottoms had were just below. Having his friends together however, soon exhausted speculation about the World Cup and Harry smiled at them warmly.

"So, looking forward to the next school year?"

Ron laughed. "Can it get better than last year?"

Neville snorted. "Can't be worse than before then, at least. I hope the next teacher will equal Remus, though. He was really good."

"I hope Snape gets something rotten in his shoe for that." Ron grumbled. "Yapping about Remus like that. That was really unfair! Remus never did anything to him."

Harry coughed lightly. "Remus actually did a fair bit, Ron. Him and my dad and Sirius all did."

Ron looked at him curiously. Harry sighed.

"You know the Marauders? From Fred and George's talking?" Ron nodded slowly, a small smile gracing his lips. "My dad is Prongs, Sirius is Padfoot, and Remus is Moony. Remember?" Ron nodded again, and Harry glanced aside. "They picked on Snape a lot. Snape's got good reason to be grouchy. Although they've added Frank to their circle now …"

Ron looked torn between agreeing with Harry and being amused at the thought of Snape being teased. Hermione, however, wasn't amused at all and neither was Neville. Harry just shrugged, and gave Hermione a small smile.

"So, no time-turner this year, 'Mione?"

Hermione sniffed as Ron and Neville grinned. "No, I'm not going to be using a time-turner this year, thank you." Her nose came down and she smiled lightly. "I learned my lesson last year."

Harry, Neville, and Ron laughed. Hermione had indeed. She had used a time-turner the year before to get to all the classes offered at Hogwarts. Over time, she'd slowly begun to panic and stress. Finally, Neville had confronted her about it, as it was undeniable what she was doing: She was in all of their classes, and Harry, Ron, and Neville each took different electives, sharing only Arithmancy between Harry and Neville and Care of Magical Creatures between Harry and Ron. Around Easter, it became too much and she dropped Divination and Muggle Studies, returning to a manageable number of classes, much to the boys' relief.

Despite the time-turner issue, the last year had been a great one, and very relaxing. Beneath all of their noses, however, Harry had slowly and surely solidified his friendship with Alan Prince, Severus Snape's son. It had been a glorious year indeed.

Lily hollered for each of them to come back inside, and they readily complied. That evening was going to be dinner at the Weasleys, something no one who had ever heard of Mrs. Weasley's cooking would miss. It was one sure way to get teenage boys to move in good time.

IIII

The next day could not dawn soon enough. Harry and Nanna both insisted they show up early in the morning, waking at six o'clock and, through no encouragement from Harry at all, Nanna immediately jumped both their parents in their bedroom. It was a grouchy James and Lily who came downstairs that morning and sent token glares their son's way, who merely looked at them with an expression as bland as milk as he offered them some of the porridge he'd made. They took it gratefully, James with a heavy sigh.

"And I was looking forward to sleeping in this morning."

Harry grinned. "With a Quidditch happy eleven-year-old daughter? I don't think so."

"And I'm sure the 'Seeker son' had nothing to do with her jumping on us this morning at all." Lily observed.

"Funny thing that," Harry said through a mouthful. He swallowed. "I really did have nothing to do with that."

"He didn't do anything, mum, I wanted you up myself." Nanna chimed in. "He certainly wasn't deterring me, though, and he immediately offered to make breakfast after I woke up him up. I think he was already up, though, when I came in on him. He was in the bathroom."

Harry pinked slightly. Yes, he had been awake when Nanna came in. Fortunately for his little sister, he'd been in the bathroom with a locked door when she had. Puberty had hit, and he'd grown to an almost respectable height, but there were several other parts to male puberty and he'd been taking care of one of them. Harry elbowed his sister, and then stuck out his tongue. She returned the favour and went back to her meal as James chuckled and Lily smiled fondly. Harry rolled his eyes.

"So, when are we going? We've got a camping spot, right? And it's muggle clothes; you're both already dressed, I see." He asked, diverting the conversation from himself. His parents were dressed, his mother and father both in loose shirts and trousers. Lily must have dressed James for him to be so reasonable. He and Nanna both knew how to dress themselves, Nanna in a cute jumper, and himself dressed much like his parents.

James nodded. " We'll be leaving when the Longbottoms, Sirius and Remus arrive. The campsite is for all of us together, and of course your mother did a wonderful job on clothes." James leaned to peck Lily on the cheek, who rolled her eyes. "We'll be apparating, and taking you kids all side-along. Sirius and Remus should be showing up soon, and the Longbottoms should be arriving any time now by floo."

Harry and Nanna both brightened, and moved through their breakfasts. Harry excused himself to go check his daypack. Everything for the day was already in there, but he double-checked it, and then pulled open his drawer and removed the fake bottom. Beneath that was a small pile of letters. Harry pulled out the most recent, and double-checked the last paragraph.

The school had a raffle for tickets to the World Cup, a competition between the Sorcerer's School and the Witches Academy. Green got one, and the Alfaerus already had theirs. Geoffrey made sure we all had tickets, so I'll be there for the cup. We're going to be on the far park. They can't keep the two Salem schools near each other; they'd cause enough sparks to make muggles aware ten miles out. My godfather is having a hissy fit that he can't go, but it's completely reasonable that he can't. However, I managed to talk my father into coming with us. All I really had to do was mention Green and he started getting worried. After their fight over the basilisk, I think Green is rather wary of him; so bringing that up made up his mind to come with us. We should be in the seats below the top box, towards the front. I hope you'll be there too.

Alan Prince

Harry smiled. He and Alan didn't write often, just about once or twice a summer. Alan was working on talking Geoffrey into getting him two-way mirrors, but Geoffrey had insisted on trying to 'improve' upon the current enchantments much like he had on Alan's Firebolt. Alan was still getting on Geoffrey's case about getting the Firebolt, his13th birthday gift, back. The man was incorrigible, but Alan still sang his praises when talking about his childhood. Harry supposed that was what was important. In Alan's situation, where so many things could have gone wrong, it was amazing that so much had gone right.

Noise rose downstairs, and Harry quickly returned to letter to it's partners in the hidden drawer. There was a total of four letters; Alan and him only sort of stayed in contact over the summer. He'd already sent his return letter to Alan, so he'd hear from him next either at the World Cup or Hogwarts. Quickly, Harry returned the false bottom and grabbed his bag, rumbling down the stairs as Sirius raised his voice to wonder just where his godson was. Rounding the corner brought him directly into view.

"Ah, there's the little twerp. Harry, you almost held us up."

"Sorry, there was something I was sure I was missing so I had to check." The lie was easy after spending most of last year frustrating Alan while learning the more subtle arts of speech. "I was wrong, though. So, who's taking whom? We're doing side-along, right?"

Sirius grinned and slung his arm over Harry's shoulders. "I get to side-along you, prongslet." Harry rolled his eyes. He hated that nickname. Sirius didn't notice. "Everyone else is distributed. Oy, James. Everything together?"

A look around the room proved it ready. Everyone had miraculously managed reasonable clothing likely due to Lily's influence, even though Sirius was rather gaudy in his Halloween choice of colours. As for apparation, Frank had Neville; Alice, Melanie. Remus had hold of Connor, with James holding Nanna and Lily was apparating alone. James nodded, and counted down. Harry tucked tight against Sirius. Side-along wasn't the greatest feeling in the world, and he was always nervous.

"Five," Frank popped away, "Four," Remus went, "Three –"

Harry felt squeezed on all sides, an uncomfortably tight sensation that held until he almost couldn't stand it anymore and then, with a faint sound, it was gone. Harry stumbled slightly in stepping back, and then swore under his breath, removing his glasses to rub at his eyes.

"I hate apparation." Harry griped. Sirius just grinned.

"It's not that great, but it is very useful."

"Whatever." Harry returned his glasses and glanced around the small wood they'd appeared in. "Where's the others? Sirius, did you get us lost?"

A glance up proved that to be very likely. Sirius looked rather trapped and was muttering under his breath. Harry glowered lightly at him and looked around himself, finding nothing more interesting than a lot of woods. Finally, he heard a faint strain of conversation.

"Hey, there's someone talking over there." Harry pointed. Sirius followed his finger and listened.

"Good listening, prongslet." Sirius said. "I missed that. Lets go see where we are."

Harry frowned, and muttered something disparaging about Sirius' skill as an auror. They approached, and Harry was relieved to note that whoever was speaking was speaking English. Trying to communicate with someone non-English with Sirius hanging around wouldn't be cool. Finally, they came into view and Harry fought a wry smile off his face. They were looking at the back of a scruffy looking, brown-haired man who spoke with an American accent. Harry recognized him from second-year, and he also recognized the dirty-blonde man he was talking with. Curious about why there were out in the apparent middle of nowhere, Harry coughed slightly and stepped in front of Sirius.

"Excuse me, sir?"

The scruffy man turned, and Harry bit back a smile as it was confirmed he was indeed Geoffrey Alfaerus. He, however, apparently didn't care for recognizing Harry, and only gave them an annoyed glance before speaking up.

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

Harry could've beaten his head against a tree. Sirius sighed.

"We were hoping to ask you that."

Green threw his hands in the air, and pulled his wand. "Point me, Ginger."

The wand spun and stopped, aiming straight off to the right. Geoffrey stared at Green.

"Why didn't you do that ten minutes ago?"

Green flushed. "I wasn't thinking. You never did it either."

Geoffrey muttered something that involved cauldrons and wands in a non-sanctioned combination. "The man high on mercury and lead has a working brain. We also never thought to check our coordinates, nor to move up a tree to check the surroundings outside the forest." Geoffrey dragged Green along in the direction the wand was pointing. Having no real other choice, Harry and Sirius followed. After several minutes, Harry knew a lot more about Point Me charms - such as the incantation, parameters, limits, and variants - and the different poisonous gases that could affect thought than he had previous to it, and they finally arrived at the campsite. Harry was glad for a muggle-born mother. Most of the other wizards had made an absolute botch of dressing muggle-style. Even Sirius' Halloween look of orange and black looked reasonable next to a wizard in striped green trousers and a spotted nightgown, which was the one that immediately found them and glared.

"You four were the nuts who apparated out of the area, aren't you? You're nearly breaking laws with that! Did anyone see you, and give me your names. You're holding everything up; we were half-afraid to have to send people searching for you already."

Sirius drew himself up in indignation, but Geoffrey snorted. "Get off it already; after apparating across that giant puddle, I think a difference of less than a mile is damn right on target. I'm Geoffrey Alfaerus, and if you'll excuse me, we need to be getting back to our group." Geoffrey gave Sirius a small nod and brushed straight past the official. Harry fought not to laugh, as the man spluttered and turned on Sirius.

"Sirius Black, with Harry Potter." Sirius introduced them. Harry supposed belonging to the ministry meant he should respect it's parameters, so he couldn't get away with pulling out shock value. Not a lot of wizards could apparate between countries, much less all the way across the Atlantic. Sirius' was just a silly mistake. "And there was no one in the general vicinity of where we arrived save Mr. Alfaerus there. Definitely no muggles."

The official huffed and growled, but quickly turned away at another shout. "Alright fine, you're with the rest of the Potters and such. Go find them yourselves and you'll be right in there with your campsite."

Sirius nodded, and the ministry man left, scurrying off to pester someone else. Sirius sighed, glanced around, and pulled his wand, casting a discrete spell. The wand spun, and then pointed straight into the massive hubbub. Sirius grinned. "Prongs is that way, pup. Let's go."

Harry nodded slowly and followed Sirius into the crowd. And it was very crowded. People were passing them on all sides, and Harry saw more wizards then he'd ever run into before in his life. It was worse than walking through the ministry in the middle of the day. There seemed to be random languages being bandied about, and people dressed in everything from undeniable robes to nightgowns, to plus-fours and galoshes to one woman in a wedding dress complete with train. Passing a water spigot, Harry stopped Sirius and ran over to Ron and Hermione, standing in place behind an old man in a flowery woman's nightdress, and ministry wizard with trousers in hand stalking away furiously.

"Hey, good to see you." Harry called.

Ron looked up and smiled. "Hey there mate. You just arrive?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, Sirius got lost in apparation so we arrived where we shouldn't have. How are you Hermione?"

Hermione beamed. "It's amazing being here, Harry. Bill and Charlie are even in to see the Cup as well, and we took a portkey in. Did you say you apparated?"

"Side-along, with Sirius. He got lost." Harry shot an amused grin Sirius' direction, who merely brushed him off and glanced around at the area. "Curious about the mechanics, Hermione?" Harry teased. Hermione stuck her tongue out at him, and stepped up to the tap to fill the kettle in her hands. "Is Mr. Weasley insisting on doing everything the 'muggle way'?"

Ron groaned. "Absolutely everything, Harry. From fetching water, to pitching the tents, and probably cooking too. How are you going to be doing things?"

"Ron," Harry began, smiling lightly, "I've got the Marauders. Sirius, Remus, my dad, and Frank. What do you think is going to happen?"

Ron didn't get a chance to finish as a blond boy suddenly burst out of a group just behind Sirius and nearly bowled the older man over. Both staggered dangerously, and the blonde let Sirius go before he had regained his balance.

"You stop running with that, Andrew, before I pull your teeth! That letter is goddamn private, you flea-ridden parasite!"

The scream came from farther back, and only made the blonde laugh harder. He moved to continue running, but Harry quickly tripped him as he passed, and grabbed his arm on the way down, trapping him down. Shortly thereafter, Harry was surprised to see Alan race in and, finding Andrew pinned, immediately ran up and pinned him beside Harry, grabbing the arm Harry had, and pulling it roughly up.

"Let - go." He growled.

"It's just a letter, Alan, you're having a fit over a letter? Hogwarts girlfriend, then? Ye-ouch! Alan, ouch!" He griped. Alan had shifted his weight from being fully on Andrew's chest, which made how Andrew was breathing a good question, to being closer to his left shoulder, the arm holding the letter, and had furthered pressure on it. "Fine, fine, give, give. Take the letter already. Not worth a dislocated shoulder, it ain't."

Alan snatched the letter up, and leapt lightly up, still glaring dangerously at Andrew. Harry noticed they were nearly the same height, with Alan having finally hit puberty later than he himself had, and Andrew apparently slightly ahead of him. Both were thin, but Alan was getting gangly while Andrew looked merely lithe. There seemed to a strange quality to Andrew's motions, but he merely smirked and raced back the way they'd come without waiting for any other signal. Alan began to grumble under his breath, something about boys and parents and far too many similarities before he shoved the letter into his pocket, and gave Harry a wry smirk. Harry returned it with a mocking bow.

"What a surprise seeing you here, Prince." Harry answered. "Had I known that was your letter I never would have stopped him."

"It was lucky chance you managed it to begin with Potter." Alan returned. His eyes flashed dangerously, and he gave a mocking bow in return. "He's definitely more of a challenge than you are. Are you rooting for Ireland or Bulgaria?"

"Ireland, of course." Harry drawled, inspecting his nails. "Bulgaria's only got Krum worth anything."

"Fancy that." Alan sounded disgusted. "If Bulgaria wasn't so terrible I'd be inclined to switch. Let's hope your cheering doesn't bring down the fervour of my Irish, hm?" Alan turned and stalked off, and Harry took every ounce of control he had to look irritated. All of last year, they'd cultivated their apparent rivalry, and Harry had gotten a lot of practice for their public encounters. Now, it was a strange game of seeing how much meaning they could insert into a display, and then maintain it afterwards for the rest of their friends. Harry knew he had succeeded. Even Neville, who had suspected the beginnings of respect between them second year, was now thoroughly convinced Harry and Alan were at each other's throats in the most pleasant of manners. Their rivalry had slowly begun to rival Alan and Malfoy's. Sirius walked over as Alan left and snorted.

"What a twat." He grumbled. Hermione glared at Sirius, but he ignored her. "Well Harry, I'd suspect your father is going to skin me alive for getting lost by now, so we should move along. From what I remember, you've got seats just below them, and once we're set up you can wander again."

Harry nodded and bid Hermione and Ron goodbye before following Sirius into the crowd once more. They passed more different language groups, and slipped by a few arguments between ministry officials and blatant magic use and finally Sirius' wand slipped slightly to follow James' movements and Harry found himself faced with his family and one irate mother. When Lily saw Harry and Sirius she ran over immediately and pulled Harry into a hug while glaring at Sirius at the same time.

"What kind of overgrown buffoon are you, Sirius? You can't even manage to apparate properly and you get yourself in trouble all the time. We've been here for a half-hour and you don't even show up. What did you do, get off target by a mile or more? You can do that when you're alone, but Merlin save you if you do that with Harry again."

"Mum," Harry spoke, "I did delay him a little when I saw Ron and Hermione so that I could go say hi." Lily's eyebrows relaxed minutely and Sirius looked slightly more relaxed. "However that was only about five minutes. He really did miss his target by a lot." Lily's glare returned to Sirius, and Harry slipped away with a roguish grin.

As Lily lit into Sirius once more, Harry darted over to greet his father and look at the tents they'd set up. There were three tents, one for the adults, one for the boys, and one for the girls. They looked like decent looking tents from the outside, two single tents and one that might have fit three, but a glance inside showed what resembled an open, single room flat with a small bathroom in the two single tents and a sturdy, one bedroom flat with kitchen in the adult's tent. There would be a fairly tight squeeze, but nothing too bad. It was only for a single night anyways. For the World Cup, Harry would've slept out in the open. Slipping his head into the boy's tent, Harry found Neville already inside, a book on his knees and his daypack by his side. Harry strolled over and pulled up a seat next to him.

"Howdy." He offered. Neville barely looked up from his book to wave slightly. A glance showed the title to be 'Herbology and Potions' and the book to be at least a few hundred pages thick. Amused, Harry quickly slipped it from Neville's grasp, checked there was a bookmark in place, and then shut it and slid it across the hardwood floor to the wall. Neville yelped.

"Harry, that was my birthday gift!"

"From who, Hermione?"

"Yes!" Neville grumbled. "She'll kill you for tossing it around, once I'm through with you. You don't throw books!"

Harry raised his hands in defence. "I didn't throw it, I slid it! It hardly hit the wall with any force. What on earth are you doing reading when we're at the World Cup anyways? This is huge, Neville! And you're reading a Potions text?"

Neville ground his teeth. "Harry, you know better than everyone else that I have never been very interested in Quidditch. In fact, the only reason I'm coming is because Arthur got tickets for two extra people." His tone did a complete flip, "I actually wanted to talk to you about that, Harry."

Harry blinked, and pulled his legs crosswise. "I'm listening."

"I don't want the top box. Do you want to sit up there with Ron and Hermione while I take your seat? Cause I'm really not interested and I'd rather sit with my parents, honestly."

Harry chewed his lip. The top box would mean being up there when the teams finished, and sitting with his friends, and having the best seats. But it would also mean sitting with the Malfoys and the minister.

"I don't know. I'll have to ask my parents, but maybe."

Neville gave him a small smile. "Alright. I knew you'd like it."

Harry cuffed him gently on the shoulder, and stood. "Well, I plan on taking a walkabout. You coming with, or just going to sit and read?"

Neville raised his eyebrow at Harry and Harry laughed before ducking back out of the tent. On the front lawn, Harry was surprised to find Geoffrey Alfaerus, Alan, the blonde Andrew, and several others including Green talking with his parents. Alan gave Harry a short glance, and then turned back to looking bored. Harry approached, and heard his father talking warmly with Geoffrey.

"- It would be an honour, really. I'm surprised; not a lot of people tend to be that curious about our aurors, much less really want to ask about what sort of tactics and such we use. Have you been here in Britain often, or what?"

"I'm just curious." Geoffrey offered. "It's slightly related to Alan, my charge, but otherwise it's idle curiosity. Alan was born here, before he came to me."

Alan rolled his eyes again, and spoke up. "Geoffrey, as curious as you are, I'm not. Can I take Andrew and go find something else to do?"

Geoffrey waved a negligent hand his direction, and Alan left. Harry watched his direction for a moment before turning back to the crowd around Geoffrey. They were all pulling up seats around the merry little fire his dad had going, and Harry walked over during the introductions and stood behind Sirius' shoulder. Of their group, Sirius, Harry's father, Frank, Alice and Lily were all seated there, with Remus very possibly in his tent. This was proved when Remus stepped out and joined them. In front of Alice were Connor and behind the group, Melanie and Nanna were playing with dolls, both of them wearing their wands, Nanna's on a cord Harry knew was tucked under her shirt, and Melanie's hanging in a makeshift holster on her waist.

Harry turned back to pay attention as he heard several names. Apparently they were all from Salem Sorcerer's Academy, the male equivalent to the Salem Witch's Institute. Present were Geoffrey, his older brother Freyr, and two of a set of triplets, the Quintelyuvs, of whom Green was the youngest and who apparently was not actually named Green. Hearing his real name, Telesphore, Harry wasn't surprised he used Green instead, although where Green was drawn from was still unknown. They also could apparently talk tactics, strategy, and technical details as well as his parents, as not a minute into the conversation Harry was lost. Tapping Sirius on the shoulder, and gathering the attention of the whole crowd, Harry leaned to ask his dad if he could go walk around. James smiled and nodded, but stopped him from leaving immediately.

"I'd just like to introduce my son, Harry. He's fourteen, a Gryffindor at Hogwarts."

Geoffrey smiled warmly and nodded to Harry. "Indeed. I remember meeting him Alan's second year." Green nodded to that as well. However, the reminder of Alan made Sirius and James slightly uncomfortable, remembering Harry and Alan's apparent rivalry. Harry solved the issue and nodded slowly, slipping off from the campsite to walk around the many other tents, and purposefully following the same way he'd seen Alan leave. He passed through several groups of people, and finally, in among several students Harry thought might be from Beauxbatons but couldn't be sure, Harry found Andrew, preening and smiling flirtatiously, and on the outskirts was Alan, leaned up against a tree and watching with a bemused expression. Harry approached him sidelong, watching Andrew cautiously. Alan noticed him without any indication and spoke up.

"He's always flirting with everything with a pulse, Andrew is." He drawled. "But he can keep a secret even through threat of bodily harm. Then again," Alan tilted his head and smiled lightly, "that would mean little to him considering that he's not really alive to begin with."

"Pardon?" Harry asked, dead curious about that phrase.

"Andrew's a vampire. Don't ask for the explanation; you wouldn't be able to see straight even by the time the game started if I tried explaining. Even I don't follow it that well. How's your summer been?"

"Good." Harry said with a smile. "Better than I expected. You got my letter?"

"That was the one Andrew ran off with. He was convinced 'Harry' was short for 'Harriet' and it was from a girlfriend." Alan growled. "Brat can't seem to think with the proper end half the time. And when he does you can't really tell save that he uses more words to say the same things."

"Sounds like the makings of a perfect friendship." Harry innocently returned. Alan snorted. Andrew glanced out from the circle of girls and then made a very low, very fancy bow before smiling brightly and leaving the circle, walking off down another path. Alan stood and followed, Harry circling around the back of the tree to tag along. If Alan trusted Andrew, Harry did. They caught up with him in short order, and Andrew looked between them curiously before smirking down at Harry.

"Nice job tripping me. Hadn't thought you'd do that, so I went straight into the dirt. Good hold, too."

Harry smiled back at him, thinking Andrew seemed damn odd even if he did have that undead excuse. The questions that came to mind made his head spin.

Andrew apparently was used to this, though, and he just smiled playfully. "Just don't think about it." Andrew offered. "Chances are half of what you think is wrong and the rest is just not-quite-right."

Harry nodded, and stuck out his hand. "Harry Potter."

Andrew blinked and did a double take before looking over at Alan. "I never thought you'd play that side."

Harry heard a soft clink of metal on metal. Harry could just see Alan with his hand in his pocket, which unfortunately reminded Harry of Alan's habit of keeping his guns there. He tried not to think too hard on it. Alan spared him the effort.

"My godfather gave me a real pistol this year, Andrew, and undead or not it will not be pretty if I shoot you with it. I am not a nymphomaniac like you, and so please stop assuming such. Just because you feel gypped that I'm not available …"

Harry fought down his nervousness and let himself laugh at Andrew's rather interesting expression. He looked torn between amusement, worry, and disappointment and apparently none won out on the others. After a little while, Alan removed his hand from his pocket and Andrew relaxed. Alan continued speaking.

"Velorian hanging about?"

Andrew shrugged and chuckled. "Once he wakes up, maybe." Alan gave him a curious look. "Mom just announced she's pregnant. Dad freaked out, panicked, and then didn't seem to be able to form a coherent sentence. He settled for hugging her tightly and causing all the people around them to stare before he dragged her into their tent. No one else was really interested in following."

Harry laughed right along with Alan, and snorted. "I think not a lot of people would've followed that sort of thing."

Andrew rolled his eyes good-naturedly and their walking took them towards another patch of tents. Harry stopped walking, and Alan turned to face him.

"Where are you sitting?" He asked pleasantly.

"Either in the area right below the top box, or possibly inside the top box."

Andrew whined, "Lucky. I want to sit in the top box."

"The minister would have a hissy, Andrew," Alan sneered.

Andrew returned with a distinctly predatory grin. "That's half the fun."

Harry rolled his eyes. "And where are you guys sitting?"

"Right below the top box as well, probably the row ahead or behind you guys." Alan returned. "Why might you be able to get into the top box?"

"My friends got their tickets directly from Ludo Bagman. They have one more seat than they need. Neville hadn't wanted to bother coming at first, but because of that extra seat, he agreed because otherwise he'd be really bored at home. He just didn't want his parents to spend money on something he wasn't that interested in. Anyways, he doesn't care for being up there, so he offered me that seat while he would sit down with our parents."

"Definitely sit up there." Andrew assured him. "You get all the good sights, and then the teams have to walk in front of you. It'll be great!" Andrew smiled, and Harry couldn't help but notice his canine teeth. Apparently he stared a moment too long because Andrew laughed and Harry truly stared as not his canines, but the teeth in front of them suddenly sharpened and lengthened into fangs. The teeth disappeared so fast Harry wasn't sure if they'd been there to begin with. "Something tells me vampires aren't all that common over here." Andrew drawled, smiling in some morbid amusement. Harry shook his head and looked over at the tents before sighing softly.

"I suppose I should be getting on my way. It's been nice talking to you, Alan. Nice meeting you Andrew." Harry smiled.

Alan nodded slowly. "Nice chatting with you too."

Andrew gave him another look-over that made Harry want to start walking right then, and then smiled slowly as Harry fought the urge. "Nice meeting you as well, Harry." The tone made several more suggestions than Harry wanted, and he simply nodded curtly and left. Behind him, he heard Alan speak despairingly to Andrew about his libido, resulting in a warm laugh. Harry smiled faintly. It was always so nice to talk to Alan. Everything just seemed to make sense.

A/N: Well, here's the beginning of fourth year. I hope you like it! Next chapter in two weeks, unless I'm inundated with reviews to do otherwise. Thank you to the one review the little interlude got, and I hope to hear from more of you all! See you on the first of November, then.

Fire & Napalm