Kathryn Winchester and the Goblet of Fire
by Lady Dawson
Chapter Two: Camping at the World Cup
It didn't take long for Kat and Faith to become friends. So long as they were out of Rose's viewpoint, she really didn't care what they were doing anyway, but Kat noticed that there was a height of excitement around the household and the fact that the house-elf Missy was packing up some of their belongings. When she asked her sister about it, Faith explained that they were going to the Quidditch World Cup.
"The World Cup?" Kat said incredulously. She had never been to a professional game, let alone the finals. "You're kidding."
"Nope," Faith said as they were walking around the village again. A few of the passing boys who looked like they were their own age wolf-whistled at them, causing Kat to duck her head, turning a violent shade of red. Faith, on the other hand, only grinned shamelessly at them and blew a kiss to them.
"Anyway, Mom and Willard got tickets from Ludo Bagman, he's head of the Department of Magical Sports and Games. They're pretty good seats, apparently, but I practically had to hex them into next century just get them to include you in this family outing."
"Yeah," Kat muttered. She had no doubt that any of the Carlyles were going to be too keen on her going. "When are we going, anyway?"
"In a couple of days. We're leaving here and then we're gonna have to camp out with everybody else. It should be fantastic, though. Plus, there's probably going to be a whole bunch of our classmates there, so I'll be able to introduce you to some of them. I'm going to pretty much ignore all of the Slytherins and refuse to talk to any of them," she added darkly. "Nothing but a bunch of arrogant, greedy wizards who have need a good kick in the—"
"Faith!" Kat gasped, unable to believe her ears, even though privately she thought it was true. "Are you trying to get yourself arrested?"
"What? You can't get arrested for saying stuff that's true," Faith said sincerely as they walked towards the manor. "But the World Cup's gonna be great. And the sooner that we get there, the sooner that we can get as far away from Gil and Matt as we can. I mean, there's gonna be a thousand things to do there and . . ." Faith continued on chattering for miles on end while Kat only added an opinion or two here and there.
But sure enough, two days later, Kat found herself forced to get up at the crack of dawn in order to catch the Portkey for the World Cup. Thankfully, getting up this early meant that everyone was too tired to even think about snide comments to either of the sisters. And Kat found it hilarious that this was the first time that Faith was completely quiet and silent. Usually, she had her mouth going on twenty-four/seven.
By the time that they were halfway to Stoatshead Hill, however, Faith had woken up a bit and was talking—well, perhaps not a mile a minute, but she was still talking a lot more than one should at sun-up. Kat really tried to pay attention to her, but she was trying very hard to keep up with the rest of them and her legs were a lot shorter than the rest of them.
"Faith, do me a favour?" Gilbert finally said when they were about halfway up. "Shut your half-breed mouth."
The dark-haired twin shot him a withering look, stuck her tongue out at him, and continued to prattle on, mindless of the annoyed looks that their brothers were giving them. Kat smiled faintly; she could never hope to achieve Faith's sense of rebellion and bravery when it came to them. She preferred just to go with the flow. She was like water and so she would find her own path, moving to fit the space she was put into.
By the time that they had climbed the very top of the hill, Kat was exhausted and she would've collapsed had it not been for the fact that Faith was dragging her over to the group that was standing around at the top.
"Morning, Willard, Rose," a redheaded man greeted the adults while Faith and Kat walked over to the rest of the kids that were standing around.
"Why, Faith," one of the redheaded twins said in pleasant surprise. "I didn't think that we were going to be in your joyous presence today. You are absolutely—"
"Positively," the other twin added.
"Beaming with radiance," the first one said. "You grow more and more beautiful every year."
"And you two grow more and more charming every year," Faith said with a flirtatious smile at both of them. Kat couldn't help but smile as they laughed and continued to flower her with compliments and praises. "Enough, the both of you. Kat, this is Fred and George Weasley. Guys, this is my sister Kat Winchester."
"Sister?" Fred's eyes practically bulged out. "You said nothing about a sister!"
"Especially one as fair as this one," George added, making her blush.
"Thanks," she said awkwardly. She had never met anyone quite like this pair before. Certainly, she had a few boy friends at her last school, but none of them were like this pair of troublemakers. No doubt they were a couple of heartbreakers just by the look of them. "It's nice to meet you."
"She can't be your sister, Faith," a girl who was undoubtedly the twins' sister said. "She's far too nice."
Faith smirked as she turned Kat's attention to the rest of the group, which included two more redheads, the girl included, a bushy-haired girl, a dark-haired boy, and a handsome one. Her attention was instantly drawn to the handsome one, her heart fluttering in her chest as he looked at her, smiling at her.
"Hey, Gin, don't let these brothers of yours corrupt you, okay?" she said, grinning. "Okay, Kat, you ready? This is Ginny and Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Cedric Diggory. Everybody but Cedric is in Gryffindor house with me, but we still like you," she added to the handsome one, Cedric, who just chuckled at Faith's speech.
"Thanks, Faith," he said.
"No problem," she returned with a smile at him. Kat just watched Cedric until he caught her gaze and she turned a violent shade of red before averting her gaze to the ground, refusing to meet his eyes again for anything.
"Must be nearly time," Mr. Weasley said as he pulled out a pocket watch and looked down at it. "Anyone know if we're waiting for any more?"
Faith pulled Kat away from the others as they all started crowding around the Portkey, which was in the form of an old boot. "He's cute, isn't he?" she said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
"Be quiet," Kat implored her. "He's going to hear you!" Faith only laughed, her blue-green eyes filled with mischievousness as the sisters rejoined the rest of them, getting a good grip on the boot. Cedric was right next to her and she was sure that he was going to hear the way that her heart was pounding against her chest with every breath she took as his hand brushed against hers.
His blue-grey eyes fastened on her own blue-green ones for an instant and he gave her a smile before looking away as Kat felt the Portkey begin to activate. Kat winced as she remembered why exactly she didn't like using Portkeys as they all began to rush forward and she felt like she was being shoved through a very tight tube with no room for any of them. Everything was spinning around her until, just when she thought she was going to be sick, her feet slammed onto the ground and she would've fallen over had someone not reached out and caught her.
"Thank you," she said, trying not to sound windswept until she looked up and saw Cedric Diggory standing right in front of her.
"No problem," he said, bending down and picking up her backpack, handing it to her before he went back to catch up with his father.
Beside her, Faith was getting to her feet, looking no worse than she felt as a pair of Ministry was waiting for them, taking the boot and tossing it into a box with some other used Portkeys.
"Morning, Basil," Mr. Weasley said.
"Hello, there, Arthur," Basil said. "Not on duty, eh? It's all right for some. . . . We've been here all night. . . . You'd better get out of the way, we've got a big party coming in from the Black Forest at five-fifteen. Hang on, I'll find your campsite. . . . Weasley . . . Weasley . . ." Kat noticed her mother looking a bit impatient and annoyed that the Weasleys were getting their information before them and Willard looked no less put out. "About a quarter of a mile's walk over there, first field you come to. Site manager's called Mr. Roberts. Diggory . . . second field . . . ask for Mr. Payne. Carlyle, second field as well."
"Thank you very much," Rose said flatly as she pulled her sons away from the Weasleys as though she thought they might contaminate them. Mr. Weasley's expression darkened but he said nothing. "Come along, girls," she added forcibly.
"Coming, Mom," Faith said lightly. "See you guys later, hopefully," she added, giving Kat a wink and a pointed look. "And if not, then we'll see you at school."
"Bye, Faith," Cedric said with a smile at them. "Bye, Kat."
"Bye," she said, making herself look at him and saw that he was only just watching her.
After a chorus of goodbyes, Faith pulled Kat with her. "Come on, we don't want them to go off without us," she said, rolling her eyes. "Knowing Mom, she'll pitch the tent and then let Gil and Matt have the best beds." Kat took one last look back at Cedric and found that he was still watching her, giving her a friendly wave when he saw her looking back.
Reluctant though she was to go with her family, Kat followed Faith as they reached the second field and found Mr. Payne, who was, in fact, probably the only real Muggle around for miles and miles. Although he was suspicious of all of the happenings going on, he was a friendly enough fellow and provided them with maps and gave them firm directions for where they were supposed to go to.
They reached the campsite in record time and Willard took one look around the site before giving it an approving nod. "It'll do," he decided before pushing two tents at the two girls. "You two, make yourselves useful and pitch these. Hurry it up, now," he barked.
Faith sighed and took one of them, dragging it over to the far end. "Pitch that small one over there," she advised Kat in an undertone. "That one supposed to be ours. Best to put some distance between us."
"Good idea," Kat agreed as she did as her sister suggested, managing to pitch the tent without much trouble, climbing into the tent and looking around at her surroundings. It was much less extravagant than anything she thought that the Carlyles would own, decorated in a simple, homey atmosphere.
With a grin, Kat climbed up onto one of the beds, tossing her backpack onto it and climbing onto it as Faith came barging in, looking annoyed.
"Thinks she can scare me," she grumbled. "I swear, even that woman is able to turn a nice family event into a total nightmare. One of these days, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind."
"What's she done now?" Kat wanted to know.
"Just the same old thing; thinks that I didn't do a good enough job and that the tent's going to come crashing down in the middle of the night because I rigged it to smother them all in their sleep. One of these days, I might just do that just to spite her. Maybe I'll ask Fred and George for help with that. They'll do anything for a laugh."
Kat couldn't help but laugh. "So which house did you say Cedric was in, anyway? You said that he was the only one who wasn't in Gryffindor, right?"
"Yeah, he's in Hufflepuff," Faith said as she tossed her bag on the remaining bed and went rummaging through the kitchen, finding a bag of multi-flavoured popcorn and tossed another one to Kat. This popcorn not only had butter and caramel, it also had chocolate and strawberry and loads of other flavours too. "He plays Seeker on the Hufflepuff team. Pretty good, too, almost as good as Harry. Last year, though, when Gryffindor and Hufflepuff went up against each other, dementors attacked and Harry fell off of his broom, so Cedric ended up getting the Snitch."
"Hmm." Kat tried to make her inquiry sound as uninterested as possible. "But you see him a lot?"
"Not really, just know him from around," Faith admitted as she sat down on the bed. "Most of the girls have crushes on him; he's pretty much the big man on campus. Why so interested?" she added teasingly.
Kat looked down, feeling her face heat up. "No particular reason," she said as she concentrated on the popcorn instead.
"You like him," Faith said suggestively, waggling her eyebrows. "Wow, Kat, I've got to admit, you've got good taste. He's really cute, popular, a Quidditch player, and a complete gentleman. Not much more that you can ask for."
"For goodness sake, Faith, I just met the guy!" Kat said in aggravation, though privately, she knew it was true. Just the way that he made her feel inside felt really nice and different. His mere presence caused a whirl of emotions that she never felt before.
"Your point being?" Faith smirked as she stood up. "Fred and George, while sometimes obnoxious, are truthful when it comes to compliments they give to girls. You're a beautiful girl, Kat. Use it," she said. "Now come on, let's go check out the rest of the campsite and see everything that's going on," she whined as she headed towards the tent door.
Kat laughed as she followed her sister.