Ah, the Quidditch World Cup, this should be fun…
I'm thinking that the new Part Title can give away the general point of this part (which is much longer than the first part)
Part 2: The Triwizard Tournament/the Rise of Marietta Edgecomb
Bit 1: The Quidditch World Cup
"Zach!" someone called from behind where he was standing. He whipped around and saw Cedric Diggory walking up to him.
Zacharias was approaching his fifth year at Hogwarts; he was much taller than he had been when he had first met Cedric on his first train ride to Hogwarts.
"Hey, alright then, Ced?" Zacharias said, smiling slightly. Cedric Diggory seemed to get better looking by the second, and Zacharias was happy for the company, his father had run off to find Ludo Bagman and make a few bets on the match.
"Yeah, just got here a few minutes ago," he said, looking around at the misty morning.
"I've been stuck here all night," Zacharias said. "You want some breakfast or anything?" he said, looking back at his tent (which was strangely lopsided compared to the others around it).
Cedric laughed a little. "What happened to your tent?"
He scowled. "I was having some trouble with that stupid charm you can use to erect tents, so it came out a little lopsided, it's fine on the inside," he added grumpily.
They went inside; the inside of the tent was disproportionately large. It looked like a small, badly furnished cottage. They sat down in some mismatched, lumpy chairs near a small oven.
"Have you seen anyone else?" Cedric asked.
Zacharias shook his head. "No, I'm betting they arrived this morning like you," he said.
"You're sharing this tent with your dad?"
He laughed at Cedric's question. "No, my dad has his own bloody tent."
"Cedric? Zacharias?" someone called from outside the tent. Cedric got up, stooping down and peering out the tent.
"Ernie!" Cedric said delightedly.
"Hey Cedric," Ernie said, walking inside the tent. "Nice set up Zach," he said, looking over at Zacharias.
Zacharias nodded.
Ernie pulled up a chair next to the pair of them. Ernie was a year younger than Zacharias, and two years younger than Cedric, but they liked him well enough. He was quite pompous at times, but he meant well for the most part.
"No Hannah?" Cedric asked, looking around as if he expected Hannah to appear in the middle of the tent.
"She couldn't get tickets," Ernie said, looking a little disappointed. Ernie and Hannah were inseparable, Ernie always claimed, when accused, in a very loud voice, that they were just friends.
"Seen anyone else?" Zacharias asked.
"I saw Harry Potter and his friends. Oliver Wood, Gryffindor's old Quidditch captain, was in my campsite. I think I saw Cho and that one friend of hers somewhere. Most of Gryffindor house is here, I saw Seamus and Dean in a tent that looked like it was made out of shamrocks…"
Zacharias snorted. "Anybody want some food or something?" he asked, looking around the tent.
"Yeah sure," Cedric said.
"Yes," Ernie said.
Zacharias shuffled through cabinets and his own bag, a few minutes later each of them had a cup of tea and some sausage.
"The Ministry is trying to make sure people cook like Muggles camping," Zacharias noted, turning off the oven. "But I don't really feel like making a fire," he added.
Ernie swallowed his bit of sausage. "You should be more careful, though," he said importantly.
He shrugged.
"Hello!" a cheerful voice said as a short, very pretty Asian girl stooped down and stepped into the tent, followed by a taller girl with curly red-blond hair. The Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang, and her fellow Ravenclaw Marietta Edgecomb walked over to where the three of them were sitting. Cedric swallowed very fast and nearly choked on his sausage.
"How'd you find us?" Zacharias asked suspiciously.
"The plaque outside your tent," Marietta replied coldly. "And we heard you guys talking."
They got chairs and joined the three guys.
"Who do you think will win?" Cho asked them.
"Ireland," Cedric said first.
"I'll give you five Galleons if Ireland wins," Zacharias laughed.
Cedric smiled. "I'll give you five Galleons if Bulgaria wins," he retorted confidently. They shook hands. "You're going to owe me," he added.
Ernie spoke up. "I'm quite confident in Ireland, Zacharias, maybe you should reconsider," he said in a very pompous, carrying voice.
"Bulgaria has Krum," Zacharias pointed out. "He's the best Seeker in the world."
"Unless they catch the Snitch the second the game starts, that's irrelevant, Ireland's Chasers are practically unbeatable," Cho pointed out.
Marietta looked grumpy, and bored by the proceedings. She wasn't the biggest fan of Quidditch, she crossed her legs and started tapping her foot.
They had a long discussion about Quidditch, arguing about who would win and which players were more talented. Finally a siren sounded.
"This is it," Cedric said excitedly.
"I'll find you after the match and collect my winnings," Zacharias told him, punching him in the shoulder.
"More like to give me mine," Cedric laughed, punching him back.
They laughed and separated to find their respective parents. He found his father talking to a Ministry official he didn't know, nor did he care to know. "Ah, well this is my son Zacharias," he said to the man, who was very badly disguised as a Muggle. "He's about to start his fifth year at Hogwarts," he added. "Well, I must be off."
They found their seats; they were about halfway up the giant gold stadium, somewhere in between the green-clad Ireland supporters and the red-clad Bulgaria supporters.
"Veela," his father remarked as the Bulgarian mascot entered the field.
Zacharias blinked. His head felt empty (which was a nice change because normally it never stopped) and he stared at the Veela.
Was it human? Probably not. But that didn't bother him, because Veela, it turns out, were extremely beautiful.
He felt someone smack him in the back of the head lightly, and he came back to his senses. "Don't get distracted," his father said. "The match is much more interesting."
His father was right, the match was much more interesting.
"Ced!" he called, finding Cedric on the way back to his tent with his father.
Cedric turned and smiled. "Pay up then, Zach?"
Zacharias nodded, pulling some gold out of his pocket and handing it to Cedric. "Next year, I'm winning the bets," he muttered.
"Not likely," Cedric said, laughing. "See you later, then," he added, hurrying to catch up with his father.
Zacharias returned to his tent. He could hear the Irish celebrating off in the distance, but he was more concerned with getting some sleep…
"Zacharias," he heard someone hiss after what seemed like seconds of sleep. "Zacharias, you need to get out of here."
He opened his eyes and saw his father standing at the flap of his tent, holding his wand. "Did you hear me? Get up and leave! Go into the woods, I'll come find you later."
"What in the bloody hell is going on?" Zacharias asked, he could hear bangs and screams in the distance.
"Death Eaters, go!" his father snapped.
Zacharias nodded and left the tent quickly. He looked around and headed in the direction of the woods.
"Zach!" he heard someone call. He turned quickly and saw Cedric hurrying up to him. "What's going on?" he asked as they rushed into the woods.
"I have no bloody idea," Zacharias muttered.
"Have you seen Cho?" a girl's voice asked behind them. They turned and saw a tearful Marietta Edgecomb running towards them. "I lost Cho in the crowd!"
"I'm sure she'll know to get through the woods," Cedric said as they continued walking. They finally got to the other side of the wood, where it seemed all of the underage wizards and witches had hidden, along with mothers with toddlers. They sat down under a large tree, looking around for any sign of Cho or anyone else they knew.
"Hey guys," Ernie said, joining them. "What do you thinks going on?"
"Dad says it was Death Eaters," Zacharias said, looking back towards where they could still hear shouts and bangs. "But Who-Know-Who's out of commission, why would Death Eaters show up?" he said skeptically. "It's probably just some drunken idiots."
After a few minutes of tense silence, there were gasps and screams all around the woods.
"Oh my G- look!" Cedric said, pointing up over the tops of the trees. Zacharias looked up.
"It's the Dark Mark!" Marietta groaned, standing up. They all stood; there was panic all over the woods.
They heard movement behind them and turned quickly; they saw a woman larger than any they had ever seen. She was talking in rapid French to a large group of kids maybe their age, and ushering them into a group.
They didn't have time to make heads or tails of this when a group of Ministry wizards ran out of the woods.
"Dad! Dad what's going on?" Cedric called, seeing his father emerging in the group. Amos Diggory turned to someone and pointed at their group, he and Zacharias' father hurried up to the four of them.
"Someone cast the Dark Mark," Amos said. "With Harry Potter's wand, the only thing we found at the scene was Barty Crouch's house elf, so whoever cast it Apparated almost instantly. No one is hurt or anything," he said.