AN:

Sorry for taking so long. had exams to fail, essay to fail. I'm kidding. i hope i did okay this year. tralalal

two more chapters to go. Thanks for reviwing. thanks for reading.

Chapter 23:

June 1st

A sunny day of nearly summertime, the grounds were full of people. As they all awaited for the last 3 games to start. Tied for first place is none than SWA and Hogwarts. Third place is Durmstrang, next would be LCM, then comes the Beaubaxton and last AIS. It had been heard that AIS is trying its best to give SWA the hardest game of their lives…

Armand stopped writing as he was approached by Professor McGonagall. He put down his quill and smiled at his old Headmistress.

"There are so much people" She commented as they watched the parents of the players, as the parents who wanted to watch the final games were housed at Hogsmade, chatter and gush over their children. Clearly they were all proud of their children. Armand made a waving action towards his Aunt Cal who was bulging a beach ball with her 7 month pregnancy with the baby David Weasley. She hadn't let go of Stella and Jeff's hands since she got to the great hall. The twins looked very embarrassed that their mid-40s year old mother was pregnant, if not that, she was being too motherly that even Percy had to save Parker from her death grip earlier.

"You children grow up so fast…" McGonagall said as she smiled warmly at Armand. He smiled back and said that she wasn't getting any older. Of course the old woman laughed it up and told him to stop lying.

"Aww Minnie, haven't seen your hair turn gray yet! So you arent old" Armand joked and watched as the old woman smile appreciatively.

"Thanks Bill…Armand! You look like your father sorry" Armand just smiled and watched at McGonagall walk slowly towards AIS's headmaster. His eyes however traveled to two of the SWA players who were standing by the edge of the crowd silently conversing amongst themselves. Nicola and the seeker, Lyra, were standing there confidently but yet he could somehow sense their awkwardness. He was about to stand up and greet them when he saw his cousin Sirius talk to the two.

"Don't you just hate our families?" Lyra commented as she downed her punch. Nicola sniffled and nodded. Both of their families had a trend of never making school appearances. Not even Nicola's brothers were going to the tournament. They said that Nicola had been in enough, and them watching it, that it could last them their whole life.

"I wish at least my elf would come around you know" Nicola said but she was cut off when Sirius placed a peck on her cheek.

"You still have me" he said. Lrya snorted and said "I want my boyfriend here…maybe I'll be kissed before AIS tries to slaughter me" and walked away saying something about more punch. Sirius handed Nicola a fresh glass with more punch in it and stood there looking around before he leant in and whispered. "You aren't my girlfriend yet, contradicting popular belief"

"Yet?" Nicola said as she tried not to laugh. Sirius just nervously scratched his head and smiled awkwardly. She then said, ask her too late then the "Yet" will never come around. Sirius sputtered and watched as the 16 year old girl walked away smiling and waving at him like a cat who got tuna.

At that moment across the room Stella was thinking one thing. "Why isn't my mother letting go of my hand" she silently cursed her father and her twin when her father had called for Jeff not a second ago.

"Are you embarrassed you're with me sweetie?" Cal said too cheerfully. Stella didn't have the heart to say that she embarrassed her mother was holding her hand as if she was a 10 year old in a park.

"Oh there is your boyfriend!" Cal shouted as she waved at Mike who was holding back his laughter. Callista Silverio-Weasley was never that loud in public.

"Good afternoon Prof Weasley" Mike said as he reached the two women. He gave Stella a sympathetic smile.

-----------

The highly awaited AIS game was about to start and Armand sat silently with his sister in the ravenclaw stands. He wanted to see what it feels like to be in the stands with the other students. It should be a wonderful review actually, he thought that at least. His boss had something up his sleeve and he wanted to know what he was exactly suppose to see during these games.

"Armand…" Francesca said as she poked him awake. He had been staring into space the whole time. He blinked a few times and looked at Francesca oddly.

"never mind…the game is on" she said and looked ahead. He looked too and saw the AIS come out of the dock and do laps around the pitch.

An hour after Lyra swished and swooshed up and down, left to right, the AIS beater wanted her dead she swore he did. He had the deadly glint in his eyes, that glint that could might as well mean he was out for her blood. Slowly turning upside down into a full vertical descent she heard the crowd "oohhh" and "ahhh", apparently that move she was doing was dangerous. Well it was, but anything just to not get hit by the bloody bludgers.

Pulling up abruptly, she sent the bludger buried into the pitch. She was satisfied, but there was still another bludger. Or not. The AIS beaters decided to go after Shirlay and Nicola who was starting a power play between themselves.

--------

Gillian decided to sit with Stella today. Her coach had asked her to see if Stella was up to the task of being a harpie. Truth be told, Stella did not even know that she going to get recruited. Gillian pressed her coach to hold off the offer of recruitment till Stella's graduation. She didn't want Stella to get distracted by the news of a possible recruitment.

"I honestly think Nick and that seeker Lyra are the best of the SWA team. I still haven't seen the other's outshine those two." Stella commented as she watched Nicola barrel with the quaffle in her hand as to avoid another incoming bludger. AIS was playing hard alright.

"They beaters are pretty good too. That Anne girl is pretty good. She had her chasers clear for a bit until they started to target the seeker" Gillian said. Zooming past them Lyra, the seeker of SWA had been following the snitch. Right behind her was the AIS seeker who had been shouting in Italian "Take her down now!" to the to other AIS team.

Stella looked up at the score board and held her breath. SWA was at 10 goals in while AIS was only at 5 goals in. If Lrya caught the snitch now it would mean that she had to somehow get the same score with Hogwart's last game against Durmstrang tomorrow.

As if in slow motion, Gillian saw the SWA captain, a chaser, throw the quaffle towards Nicola who was near the AIS goal. But instead of putting it into the goal Nicola passed it to Shirley, the other chaser. She was near to the two seekers and she threw the quaffle right when Lyra passed her by. She distracted the other seeker who panicked and barreled down like a plane shot down. She watched closely waiting for the seeker to plummet but just before he hit the ground a cushion of wind caught him dead in a stop. Shirlay breathed out. She honestly thought they would get her into a foul.

"You alright there?" Nicola asked as she hovered beside Shirlay. She didn't even notice that the snitch was caught already. Shirlay looked at Nicola and nodded. Oh that was close. "Good thinking how'd you call that?"

"Easy, Montilla is as predictable as me when it come to chess….mind you I kicked his ass once before too"

"Oh Nick-o- laaaa, I forget you are technically related to that jerk" Lyra laughed as she hovered passed them holding the snitch in her hand. Nicola made a face and headed down with the others to their loading dock. They were in the finals, and hopefully against Hogwarts.

-------------

June 4th

Besides the tense air in the castle grounds, everyone is excited for next week's match between the two champions. Both leading the pack by 100 points each, Hogwarts and SWA will go face to face for the coveted Inter-School Quidditch match. In a recent interview with the game heads of all the schools, it had already been suggested that SWA will host the next games. This is, apparently, to bring mor popularity to Quidditch in the US and Canada.

In third place is Durmstrang Krum seems to be pleased until Hogwart's Oliver Wood made a comment that got Krum's knickers in a twist. It was not long after that Wood's own wife sent a good ol' howler to him and Krum to stop the childish rivalry these have had since their national team days.

In a press op set by the coaches, SWA and Hogwarts sat together for an interview. Both the reserve teams and the official teams were invited and had a say as to how they were excited yet nervous for next week's game. After which the SWA team had to run for their tents as all of them had rolls of parchment to hand in towards their Teachers Advisors. We then asked the Hogwart's team how they felt about SWA. In the most diplomatic way, though I don't know how these kids can put their blood ties aside, Stella Weasley, the Hogwarts captain said that

"We are glad that we have an opponent like SWA. I believe that Maria Cobbs has shaped a great team and I wish that my team has been trained well enough to go on head to head with the US and Canada's best, if not greatest, school Quidditch team."

We had asked them if they were worried that the SWA team, who is rumored to have the rare four elementals in their team, would cheat. Eva commented, "SWA is a honest team, they play by the rules. Even they have the four elementals with in their team, we are sure they would not cheat using their powers. As far as we've seen, they've only used their powers to save falling people or people who are in trouble like the dude from durmstrang who somehow got tangled on his goal hoops."

Jeff Weasley, of the reserve team, then commented that even if Montilla and Silverio were in someway related to him and his twin, they leave pitch politics in the pitch. Later that night we found that the Silverio, Agiular, Steves and Moran having an outside bbq dinner by their tent with some of the Weasley kids and the twin's parents. Nicola Silverio is the second cousin of the younger Weasley twins and a grandniece of the world famous Jullieta Catalan.

The WWW has hosted a legal pot bet for the last games. People say that the odds of SWA or Hogwarts would win is a toss up. No one really is sure who will win. Even the elder Weasley twins said that "it's hard to predict, normally we'd be biased towards Hogwarts, but we know the SWA and Hogwart's coaches and we know how good both teams are. We wish them both luck and advice them to not kill each other in the process of winning the cup" Fred Weasley said laughingly.

Tuesday, June 10th, the game that rival's the popularity of Ireland vs Bulgaria in 1995, is going to commence on 1pm of the afternoon. Rain or shine, these two teams will play, we wish them all luck.

-Armand Weasley

-------------

­Percy put down the newspaper. He sipped his coffee and laughed inwardly. This whole thing was going to be hard to cover. He was even employed to somehow make the pitch bigger as parents, recruiters, newspapers from all over Europe was going to go see this event. He had been working closely with the Wood and the Head of International relations, to get Pitch A which was normally for the school's use bigger. It took them a week or so to get the pitch bigger and now he was just making sure everything was secured for the audience.

"Papa?" some called. He looked to the side and saw Parker already dressed and ready to go to rehearsals. They had somehow gotten her to take her exams earlier and right into the RBBC program for the summer. Minnie was a bit upset that Parker was leaving, but she arranged it so that Parker will still get the magical education she needed to take her OWLS and NEWst. Minnie had even a distinct feeling that Parker would beat her own mother's record in NEWTs.

"Yes, we shall get going…"

"How are they the twins I mean" Parker asked as she got into the car. She looked up and saw her mother waving from the window. Cal had been advised to stay in bed until the baby settled in better.

"Great…have time to go watch the last game?" Percy asked as he turned out of their street and into the main road. Parker nodded and looked happy. She wanted to go watch the championships.

"I made arrangements already. Your mother cant even go. Your Aunt Hermione wont let her unless we drive up to Scotland. I refuse to drive that long…we'll side apparate how's that?"

"Sure"

Oliver looked at the bigger pitch A. He's stomach twisted nervously. He didn't want anything to happened this time around. Not when his daughter and god children were playing. He stashes his own broom beside him the whole time they were practicing there. He didn't want anything to happen at all. Maybe a nosebleed would do, but nothing else.

AN:

thanks for reading