Hey guys! Wow! I don't even know what to say. It's been so long since I have updated, and I am SO sorry! Life just got in the way.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the chapter! Thank you for having so much patience!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for Blake. Anything that looks somewhat familiar probably isn't mine.
{6}
It was one of the nicer nights the Burrow had that summer. The air was very light as opposed to the previous week's humidity. Charlie and Bill had gotten out two tables that they were going to set up in the garden for us to eat on. They hadn't noticed me yet and were bickering to each other. Suddenly the tables, which had been floating harmlessly, started fighting each other.
Behind me Fred and George walk out of the house. "What's this? Ah, hey George? Five sickles says Bill wins." Fred grinned wickedly at his twin.
"You're on." George answered with his own grin.
Shortly after the twins came out, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny stepped out into the garden.
While Fred and George cheered for their brothers, Ginny, Ron, and Harry laughed and smiled in amusement. Hermione stood off by the hedges, seemingly conflicted about what she should be feeling.
Before I could walk over to her, there was a loud crash as Bill's table tore off Charlie's table's leg. Above them a window opened and Percy's head came through with an annoyed expression. "Will you keep it down?!" He shouted down angrily.
Bill grinned back up at him, "Sorry, Perce. How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"
"Very badly!" Percy snapped, shutting the window with a clang.
Percy's bad attitude didn't have an effect on Bill and Charlie though because they just chuckled to each other and rearranged the tables so that Mrs. Weasley's dishes could be set atop them.
Soon enough it was time to eat, my favorite time of day. Everyone found a spot at the table to enjoy the amazing spread of chicken and ham pie, boiled potatoes, and garden salad. Harry, who sat across from me beside Ron and Hermione, was stuffing his face in a manner that you knew he was trying to be polite about it, but couldn't quite hold it in.
At the other end of the table, Mr. Weasley was eating and nodding along with Percy who was telling him again about his cauldron report.
"I've told Mr. Crouch that I'll have it ready by Tuesday. That's a bit sooner than he expected it, but I like to keep on top of things."
"Oh please." I mumbled to myself, honestly sick and tired about hearing about this stupid report for twenty-four hours, eight days a week.
"I think he'll be grateful I've done it in good time, I mean, it's extremely busy in our department just now, what with all the arrangements for the World Cup. We're just not getting the support we need from the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Ludo Bagman – "
"I like Ludo." Mr. Weasley said, breaking through Percy tirade and sparing everyone at the table. "He was the one who got us such good tickets for the Cup. I did him a bit of a favor: His brother, Otto, got into a spot of trouble – a lawnmower with unnatural powers – I smoothed the whole thing over."
"Oh Bagman's likable enough, of course,"
"Of course!" I muttered sarcastically over my teacup, remembering the Ludo's 'help' at the Quidditch World Cup.
"-But how he ever got to be Head of Department…when I compare him to Mr. Crouch! I can't see Mr. Crouch losing a member of out department and not trying to find out what's happened to them. You realize Bertha Jorkins has been missing for over a month now? Went on holiday to Albania and never came back?"
Bertha Jorkins had probably already been killed by this point by Wormtail, as one of the first casualties of the Second Wizarding War. It was sad that the war was already starting and there was nothing that I could do about it. But this just made me more steadfast in my mission to safe as many people as I could. If I couldn't save Bertha, or even Frank Bryce from Harry's dream, I could surely save Cedric.
"…if it was someone in my department, I'd be worried…" Mr. Weasley was saying as I started to pay attention to the conversation again.
"Oh Bertha's hopeless, all right," Percy said, and my face got hot. Even though I knew it was irrational, I couldn't help but feel indignation for Bertha. "No she wasn't!" I said suddenly before I even thought it through. Everyone turned from Percy to look at me. Faces that were drawl with boredom and disinterest turned into confusion and curiosity. "Nobody is hopeless. Just because she was a little more airy than others did-doesn't make her hopeless!"
"Bertha is!" Percy snipped back, completely disregarding the fact that I was talking about someone I shouldn't know, in the past tense. "I hear she's been shunted from department to department for years, much more trouble than she's worth." I scoffed. "But all the same," Percy intensified his voice to be heard over my silent scoff. "Bagman ought to be trying to find her. Mr. Crouch has been taking a personal interest, she worked in our department at one time, you know, and I think Mr. Crouch was quite fond of her – but Bagman just keeps laughing and saying she probably misread the map and ended up in Australia instead of Albania. However," Percy said, sounding much more worn than he actually was and taking a deep gulp of wine, "we've got quite enough on out plates at the Department of International Magical Cooperation without trying to find members of other departments too."
"Yes, because providing a search party would be such an inconvenience." I said, none too quietly. But Percy went on with no comment or pause. "As you know, we've got another big event to organize right after the World Cup." The Triwizard Tournament, naturally. Just then Percy gave a significant cough and looked towards us, or Harry, Ron, and Hermione, sitting at the other end of the table. "You know the one I'm talking about, Father. The top-secret one."
"Oh, please." I snorted and grabbing my cup for a drink. Completely done with Percy's antics.
"He's been trying to get us to ask what that event is ever since he started work." Ron muttered to Harry and Hermione. "Probably an exhibition of thick-bottomed cauldrons." Close, but no cigar Ron.
I ended up drowning out Percy's voice with Molly's voice, but then Charlie, who was sitting beside me, turned to me. "How do you know Bertha?" I looked at him startled out of overhearing Molly's attack on Bill's appearance. "What? Oh, I don't." I said, looking at him before getting more salad. "I just know of her. It just irks me when people disregard others because they don't think they're as amazing or spectacular as they are. Nobody's hopeless. Just because they might not be as good at something as you are, doesn't make them hopeless, it just means that they excel in another area." I explained, noticing that Harry was looking at me curiously. I turned back to Charlie to see his expression. His eyebrows were furrowed, but his eyes were kind and understanding. "I completely agree." He said, dropping the frown and smiling crookedly. "That's why I like working with dragons. Their emotions are much less complicated than humans."
"Ha! Yeah, I bet." I laughed, turning away and looking across the table at the trio. All three were staring at the twins, who were in a deep discussion about the World Cup, which Charlie enthusiastically joined.
"Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," One of the twins, Fred I think, said.
"Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven," Charlie retorted back smartly. "I wish England had got though. That was embarrassing, that was."
"What happened?" Harry asked, eagerly leaning his body forward in curiosity.
Charlie's face flattened as he stated, "Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten. Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."
"I never trusted Luxembourg." I said conversationally, pretending that I actually understood what they were talking about. The looks I received told me that I wasn't fooling anybody.
By the time the sun had completely set, we had already had homemade strawberry ice cream. Mr. Weasley had lighted candles to provide light in the garden, but other than that the only lights were those of the back porch and the stars. Summer moths were fluttering about and the air smelled sugary from the flowers and the desert. I lend back in my chair to watch a pair of firefly fly above my head, and then I heard Ron whisper loudly, "So – have you heard from Sirius lately?"
Eavesdropping, but not moving my head so they wouldn't suspect, I listened closely to their conversation.
"Yeah, twice. He…okay. I…him…day. He might…back…I'm here.
"Look at the time." Mrs. Weasley suddenly exclaimed, making my head snap up to look at her. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you – you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to The Cup. Harry, if you leave your school list out, I'll get your things for you tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There might not be time after the World Cup, the match went on for five days last time."
"That sounds awful." I said quietly to myself the same time Harry says excitedly, "Wow – hope it does this time!"
"Well, I certainly don't." Percy sniffed, crossing his arms, "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."
"Yeah," Fred called over to Percy. "Someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?"
"That was sample of fertilizer from Norway! It was nothing personal!" Percy uncrossed his arms, balling his hands into fists with his face turning red.
As everyone got up from the table, Fred leaned into the table, whispering to Harry, "It was. We sent it."
We wasted no time getting into bed that night. Although we did attempt to get to bed at a somewhat decent hour, I didn't actually fall asleep until well after midnight.
It seemed like it had been barely five minutes before Mrs. Weasley came into Percy's room to wake me up. Although my body was used to waking up early to go on runs, I still felt heavy with sleep and my eyelids wouldn't stay open.
"Time to get up, dear." Mrs. Weasley said as she gently shook me awake. "Would you wake everyone else up? I've got to get back to the kitchen." She said in a rush, making sure I was awake enough to understand her sentence.
"Sure thing, Mrs. Weasley." I said, stretching. Quickly sliding out of bed, I dressed, pulling on a pair of sneakers before dashing out the door to brush my teeth and toss my hair into a ponytail.
Ready in record time, my made my way to Ginny's room to wake the girls up. "Ginny! Hermione!" I whispered into the room. "Wake up! It's time to get ready!" I moved to where Ginny was sprawled out across her bed and shook her arm. "Ginny get up." Then I called across to Hermione before moving back to the door, flipping on the lights and leaving without waiting to see if they got up.
I let my feet carry me up the stairs to Ron's attic room. Knocking swiftly on the door, I didn't wait before I opened it and went into the dark room. Carefully sidestepping the twins on the floor, I went to Ron's bed to wake him first.
"Ron, wake up." I said, shaking his shoulder.
"Hmm…"
"Ron! Get up!"
"Wha-? Bloody hell! Blake! What are you doing?" Ron shouted, pulling his covers up to his chin, as if he were dressed in some unseemly fashion. Rolling my eyes, I turned away to see if Harry woke up from Ron's exclamation. "Waking you up, obviously."
Harry blurrily blinked up at me when I got to his cot. "What's going on?" He yawned.
"It's time to wake up, Harry. Get ready to leave." He stared at me for a bit, processing the sentence I just said, before looking down at the floor where Fred and George were sleeping.
"'S' time already?" Fred said, untangling himself from a pile of blankets on the floor.
"Yup." I said, trying to navigate the floors without tripping over bodies and blankets. "Your mother is making breakfast, so up and at-'em."
I push open the door and hopped down the stairs to see if Hermione and Ginny were awake yet.
When I got back to Ginny's room, the girls were still in bed. Groaning, I went to their beds. "Guys, seriously, get up!" Tossing back their blankets and ignoring their groans of protest, I went back to the door to go downstairs. "Don't make me come back up!" I threatened before leaving. I couldn't really blame them for wanting sleep, I was about to fall over myself with exhaustion, but I made myself stay awake.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley was setting a plate of bacon on the table before going back to stir a big pot on the stove. "Smells good Mrs. Weasley," I said walking in and seeing Mr. Weasley sitting at the table. "But it's way to early to eat."
"I know dear," she said, sympathetically. "But I don't like the idea of you kids hiking without eating."
Mr. Weasley caught my gaze and rolled his eyes, smiling. Laughing a bit, I took a piece of toast and a few pieces of bacon. Waving them in front of Mrs. Weasley, I made a show of eating them. "Oh stop it, cheeky girl."
I wiped my fingers on my pants and remembered my overnight pack was still in Percy's room. "I'll be right back, I left something upstairs." I announced before dashing up the stairs, passing a trail of sleepy boys on the way up.
By the time I had grabbed my pack and my lip balm that was lying on my bed, and got back down stairs, the boys were already in the kitchen and the girls were stepping downstairs with Mrs. Weasley leading the way.
"We've got a bit of a walk," Mr. Weasley said as I walked in behind the girls.
"Walk?" Harry asked. "What, are we walking to the World Cup?"
Mr. Weasley smiled and laughed, "No, no, that's miles away. We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup-"
"George!" Mrs. Weasley shouted suddenly, making all of us jump.
"What?" George said innocently, digging his hands deeper into his pockets.
"What is that in your pocket?" She asked, making me realize what was going on and feel a pang of sympathy for the twins.
"Nothing!"
"Don't you lie to me! Accio!" She said, waving her wand at George's pocket and producing a handful of colorful objects. George tried to make a grab for them, but he failed to reach them as they landed squarely in Mrs. Weasley's open palm.
"We told you to destroy them! We told you to get rid of the lot!" She said angrily, shaking her fistful of candies at the twins. "Empty your pockets, go on, both of you!"
Not waiting for a response, Mrs. Weasley summoned all of their candies, finding them in the most peculiar places: inside their clothing seams, and it the turn-ups of their jeans.
"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted at her furiously.
"Oh a fine way to spend six months! No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!" Mrs. Weasley answered, throwing the pile of candies into the trash.
Around the room, everyone's expressions showed just how uncomfortable the encounter was to witness. It's not fun getting yelled at by your mom when company is over, but the company always feels more awkward because you never know what you're supposed to do. Thankfully, soon it was time to leave and we could finally escape the crowed house and the yelling. Although even as we were walking away, the twins ahead of everyone else, still fuming from the toffee incident, Mrs. Weasley shouted, "Well, have a lovely time and behave yourselves!"
She turned to Mr. Weasley and said, "I'll send Bill, Charlie, and Percy along around midday," while the rest of us tried to catch up to the twins.
Making a face at Ginny, I blew out a large breath and bent down to pick off a piece of dewy grass off of my shoe before walking after the group.
After walking for ages, in total silence apart from our footsteps and the sound of Harry and Mr. Weasley talking, we came to a village that lead to Stoatshead Hill. The morning was cold and a little misty and although the moon was still out, the sun had finally peaked out from behind the horizon and turned the sky into a nice blue instead of the inky black it was before.
We made it to the top after a few minutes, and with almost everyone wheezing.
"Whew." Mr. Weasley panted, before taking off his glasses. He wiped them on his sweater before replacing them on his head. "Well, we've made good time – we've got ten minutes…" He trailed off, looking at the ground. "Now we just need the Portkey. It won't be big...Come on..."
Spreading out to find the Portkey, we all took different directions. I was going to branch off with the twins, seeing as they were searching alone, but noticing a frown on both of their faces, I figured I would probably be better off searching by myself. It wasn't even two minutes later when a shout cut through the air.
"Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!"
I didn't recognize the two slim figures on the other side of the hill, but I knew they were the Diggorys. My theory was confirmed when Mr. Weasley shouted back, "Amos!"
Like cows, we all followed Mr. Weasley over to the two Diggorys. Amos Diggory was tall and slim like his son, but he had a scruffy brown beard. He was holding a beat-up brown boot that looked like it took part in a science experiment, a.k.a. the Portkey, in one of his hands. His son, Cedric, was Captain and Seeker of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. But that's common knowledge for most. He was also extremely good-looking, but in the way most clean-cut, 'pretty-boys' usually are.
"This is Amos Diggory, everyone." Mr. Weasley introduced. "He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric?"
"Hi." Cedric said, looking at everyone and smiling slightly.
Everyone else answered a small 'hi' back, except for me and the twins, who just nodded. At least I smiled at the poor guy.
"Long walk, Arthur?"
"Not too bad," Mr. Weasley answered Amos. "We live just on the other side of the village there. You?"
"Had to get up at two, didn't we, Ced?"
"That sounds awful." I muttered, unnoticed by the conversing men.
"-I'll be glad when he's got his Apparition test. Still…not complaining…Quidditch World Cup, wouldn't miss it for a sackful of Galleons – and the tickets cost about that. Mind you, looks like I got off easy…" Amos finally drifted off staring at the group of kids surrounding Mr. Weasley. "All these yours, Arthur?"
"Oh no, only the redheads," Mr. Weasley answered, shaking his head and pointing out his kids. "This is Hermione, friend of Ron's – and Harry, another friend –"
"Merlin's beard," Amos interrupted, gaping. "Harry? Harry Potter?"
Harry looked uncomfortable, and shifted his feet from side to side. His ears started to turn red. "Er – yeah."
"Ced's talked about you, of course." Thanks Ced. "Told us all about playing against you last year…I said to him, I said – Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that will…You beat Harry Potter!"
I had always disliked Cedric's father in the books. Although he did lose his son, he never sat right with me. Maybe it was because he was so unknowingly rude to Harry.
"Harry fell off his broom, Dad," Cedric muttered, embarrassed. "I told you…it was an accident…"
"Yes, but you didn't fall off, did you?" Amos said, self-importantly, slapping Cedric on the back. And even though I tried to remind myself that Amos Diggory was a good man, I couldn't help thinking, 'it's people like this.'
"Always modest, our Ced, always the gentleman…but the best man won, I'm sure Harry'd say the same, wouldn't you, eh?" It's amazing that this man was fangirl-ing over Harry just a few seconds ago.
"YES! Yes, it is great, isn't it?" I cut in, honestly, I couldn't listen to his waffle anymore. I clapped my hands together loudly and faked a pleasant smile on my face. "Say, don't we have somewhere we need to be? We should leave, now." I said, turning to look at Mr. Weasley and grinning like a maniac.
"Ah!" Amos said, undeterred, but distracted. "And who is this? Arthur, I don't think you introduced us!"
Mr. Weasley blinked for a bit.
"I'm Blake!" I said, sticking out my hand. "It is so nice to meet you Mr. Diggory. I'm the exchange student staying with The Weasleys."
"Wonderful! Well, I hope you like Hogwarts, Ced's mother and I always loved Hogwarts, we always found a few broom-closets, but never-mind that! What year will you be in?"
"Sixth – "
"Ah! Sixth year too, my Cedric's going into his sixth year as well, maybe he can show you a few ropes, eh? What do you say, Ced?" Amos said joyfully, slapping a red Cedric on the back again and winking in my direction. I was growing more and more uncomfortable by the second. Thankfully, Mr. Weasley cut off whatever Amos was going to say next, no doubt another innuendo about Cedric and me.
"Must be nearly time! Do you know whether we're waiting for any more, Amos?"
"No, the Lovegoods have been there for a week already – " I wondered briefly if I would see Luna. "- and the Fawcetts couldn't get tickets. There aren't any more of us in this area, are there?"
"Not that I know of," said Mr. Weasley. "Yes, it's a minute off…" He said staring at his watch. "We'd better get ready…"
"You just need to touch the Portkey, that's all, a finger will do – " Mr. Weasley said, looking at the three non-Weasleys of his pack.
We all gathered around Amos, who was still holding the moldy boot, and tried to touch a bit of it. Granted, it was very difficult because there were about ten of us and we all had huge backpacks. I was unfortunate enough to be jammed in between Fred and Amos. One who was still in a bad mood, and the other had just insinuated that his son and I should 'hang out'. Merlin.
"Three…two…" Mr. Weasley counted down, staring, unblinking at his watch. "…One."
Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think about the chapter. Hopefully, I will be able to update soon, but then, you all saw how well that turned out last time, so I make no promises. But, I will try my best!
Until next time!