Time flew, and Gwen enjoyed her sausage, looking at all the hustle and bustle, while chatting with the other witches. Ludo Bagman passed, clad in striped Quidditch robes of yellow and black, with a picture of a wasp on his chest. Roberta exchanged some words with him, laughing merrily. They even huddled together for some minutes, whispering excitedly while Bagman whipped out a notebook and a quill. Gwen wrinkled her brow and lit a cigarette.
Manisha was sitting next to Gwen, smoking a cigarette, too. "Nice moonstone necklace you're wearing," she commented. "Is it new?"
Gwen blushed. Jonathan had given her the necklace before they had parted, but she didn't want to admit the fact to Manisha. He had been ordered to stay at the Department of Mysteries and continue investigating the murder case (and having an eye on Crow and Macnair, as he had told her).
"Erm, quite so…"
Manisha gave her a curious look, then looked at Roberta who said good-bye to Ludo Bagman, then back to Gwen again. She leaned forward, and touched one of the moonstones.
"Really pretty," she said softly, "do you know a lot about gemmology?" She looked up at Gwen, her dark eyes glittering under her long lashes.
"No, not very much, but Honoria has told me something about it," Gwen smiled, "she kind of provides me counsel once in a while. She uses gems for healing purposes. Isabelle's an expert, too, and I've also seen Eleanor wearing different gems."
"A lot of witches are in it," Manisha nodded, "there seems to be something in it."
"Oh, I am sure, there is," Gwen replied eagerly, taking a pull on her cigarette.
"Roberta doesn't believe in gems, I think," Manisha said more loudly, winking at Roberta.
"No, I don't," Roberta answered, laughing merrily, "Well, not for me, at last," she added hastily, "I do, of course, respect those who do. After all, gemmology seems to have to do with energies, the transmission of crystal energies, that is…" She fumbled at her green rosette. Then she suddenly frowned as if she were thinking of something that disconcerted her.
"So we are all Ireland fans, today, aren't we," Gwen tried to change topic, pointing at her own green rosette.
Manisha took the hint and started talking about the Irish Quidditch team.
Isabelle went with a saleswizard to buy a figure of Aidan Lynch, the Irish Seeker, and a pair of Omnioculars for her son, and a green hat for herself. Nicolas was excited.
And then, finally, a loud gong could be heard somewhere beyond the woods.
"That's the start signal!" Roberta's grey eyes were sparkling. Manisha jumped up from her camping seat. Nicolas nearly tripped over a tent peg.
They joined the crowd who followed the trail into the wood, which was illuminated by green and red lanterns hanging in the trees. Looks lovely, Gwen thought.
Suddenly Isabelle squealed with delight and was kissed on both cheeks by a huge witch with olive skin and dark eyes. The gigantic witch was dressed from top to toe in black satin, and wore opal jewellery. The delicate Isabelle, clad in her usual beige-coloured robes, looked like a fairy at her side. They were talking together in French.
"Gwen," Isabelle turned around, beaming with delight, "meet my former directrice, Madame Maxime, from L'Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons. Madame, this is my Ministry colleague, Gwendolyn Bale."
On and on they went through the wood together, Isabelle was talking to Madame Maxime, occasionally translating for Gwen, who was trying to avoid tripping over tree roots and finding her way through the dusky forest. Lumos, she mumbled and the tip of her wand lit up. Never mind the secrecy now, she thought.
Roberta, who had led their group, suddenly stopped and pointed to the enormous gold walls surrounding the long oval Quidditch pitch. "Look, Gwen!" she glowed, "marvellous, isn't it?"
Gwen had to admit that it looked wonderful and impressive, and she beamed back at Roberta, just nodding, and panting for breath.
After arriving at the huge stadium, which emanated a soft golden glow of light, they all climbed the purple-carpeted stairs to get to their boxes somewhere at middle height. On a gigantic blackboard, advertising messages for magical products and services were flaring up.
The air was filled with merriment and resounded with noise and laughter. Everyone was excited, the atmosphere was overwhelming and amazing, so that even Gwen, who had still no clue of Quidditch, got infected by it. On their way they had seen Timothy Oakden, his wife and two children from a far distance, he had waved at them enthusiastically.
"Here we are," Roberta announced when they finally reached their box. Manisha had to climb some more steps to get to a different box, since she had bought her ticket earlier than the others. She looked a bit sad, and said: "We'll discuss the match afterwards! I'm looking forward to it!"
She had told them that she was going to meet Ali Bashir, an old friend of hers, who sold flying carpets, in her box.
Roberta, Isabelle, and Gwen sat down on the plushy seats, but Nicolas simply couldn't remain seated. He was trying out the new Omnioculars Isabelle had bought him and reported his mum in rapid French on his recent discoveries.
Gwen was just admiring the three 50 feet high goal hoops at either end of the pitch with their golden goalposts, when Ludo Bagman cast a Sonorus spell and welcomed the spectators.
And then the mascots of the Bulgarian Quidditch team appeared.
Later Gwen could only remember how Roberta and Isabelle had slapped her, dragging her back from the railing she had wanted to climb over, Isabelle laughing good-naturedly, and Roberta half startled, half worried.
"Have you never seen a Veela before?" Isabelle smiled.
Gwen, still slightly dazed, shook her head. The crowd was calling angrily for the Veela to come back. Gwen had half a mind to join them, but Roberta held her wrists in a firm grip.
"But you've heard of them?" Isabelle continued, helping Roberta to get Gwen seated.
"Yes, of course," she mumbled, "but I didn't know that they were so beautiful, so…"
"All right, ça suffit," Isabelle hastily stopped her, throwing a side glance at Roberta, whom she didn't know well enough to trust her with revelations about Gwen's preferences.
The Irish Leprechauns were a welcome change of topic. Nicolas was thrilled, and then the Quidditch match finally started. Isabelle's son pointed at the seekers, the Bulgarian Victor Krum, and the Irish Aidan Lynch. "He, too, wants to be a seeker one day," Isabelle explained.
The game was really exciting, even Gwen was impressed by Krum's Wronki feint, which Roberta – among many other moves – pointed out to her.
They all were happy when Ireland beat Bulgaria 170 to 160, despite Krum getting the snitch, and they left the stadium in high spirits to go celebrating.
~ooOOoo~
It was late at night, and the air was soft and balmy. Gwen and Manisha were sitting at a small fire Gwen had built, smoking their cigarettes. Isabelle and Nicolas were already sleeping in their tent, while Roberta was still out on the campsite, talking to some friends she had met.
"That was an exciting game," Gwen mused.
"Excellent game," Manisha smiled, "two brilliant teams, a lot of wonderful moves, a great atmosphere,…"
Gwen nodded. "That's right. You know a lot about Quidditch, don't you?"
"Yep, played it myself when I was at school. I was Keeper." She closed her eyes, obviously reminiscing.
For some minutes they just stared into the fire, engrossed in their own thoughts, and smoking their cigarettes.
"May I ask you a question, my dear?" Manisha suddenly asked.
"Yes, of course."
"A personal question, I mean."
Gwen looked at her curiously. "Well – why not. If I can decline to answer it."
"Of course you can," Manisha fidgeted on her camping chair. "I wanted to ask whether you are… do you… I mean what do you think about Roberta?"
Gwen looked taken aback. Had she been so obvious? She had thought Manisha would ask her about Jonathan, or even about the murder case. How could she possibly know about her feelings towards Rob? That is bad, Gwen thought, I don't want anyone at work to know – apart from Isabelle.
"I… wouldn't want to talk about her, when she isn't here with us. I think she's very nice, and certainly a competent colleague. I…"
"I'm sorry, I didn't want…," Manisha blushed. "I certainly didn't want to talk ill of her. I had the impression that you trust me, when you spoke to me in the lift the other day. I … I'm just worried about you."
Gwen frowned. "Worried? About me? Why?"
"About you and Roberta." Manisha looked straight at her without blinking.
"What do you mean?"
Manisha threw her cigarette butt into the fire, and took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry," she whispered, "I shouldn't have meddled. I just want to say that if … if someone … anyone were fancying Roberta, I would recommend them to steer clear of her, since she is already in love..."
Gwen tried to keep her face straight. She looked again into Manisha's eyes, and all of a sudden something strange happened. She felt like falling through Manisha's pupils. It was like sliding down on a chute, which turned into a dark tunnel. And at the end of it she saw a picture of Roberta and Timothy, standing side by side in front of the Arch. Timothy had his arm around Roberta and both were staring at something, which Gwen recognised at once. It was Archibald's body, lying face-down on the dais.
Manisha blinked. Gwen looked away, shocked.
"What was...?" Manisha squinted heavily.
Before Gwen could say anything, they heard loud voices and screaming on the campsite.
Roberta came running towards them.
Gwen got up abruptly. "What's the matter?" She threw her cigarette into the fire.
"Death Eaters! We need help! There are Death Eaters harrassing the Muggle campsite manager and his family," Roberta panted. "Hurry up, I'll wake Isabelle, this is bad…"
Isabelle was already stucking her head out of the tent. "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a?" she murmured sleepily.
A green light was seen in the distance
„Take Nicolas and get him to the woods," Roberta replied. „Would you come and help me?" she addressed Manisha and Gwen. „Ministry wizards are trying to help the Muggles, we must support them."
Suddenly a loud bang could be heard, people were shouting.
„We're coming," Gwen made sure she had her wand. Isabelle had put a jacket on her son. He was looking bleary-eyed and tousled. She took him by the hand, and looked at Gwen. „I'm off," she said hastily and headed towards the woods.
„Death Eaters?" Manisha mumbled, and followed them.
~ooOOoo~
Gwen, Roberta, and Manisha tried to get closer to the masked wizards. The sight of the four Muggles floating up in the air was eerie. Gwen was getting furious, and Manisha looked grim. Rob shoved some wizards aside, and Gwen admired her deft way of proceeding. They recognised other Ministry people trying to get through to the Death Eaters. People around were shouting, some whistled and laughed, others looked worried.
"Can't do anything from here," Gwen heard James Croaker's voice. She looked around and saw him talking to a red-haired Ministry wizard. "I don't want them to fall down if I interrupt their Levitating spells."
Gwen waved to James. "Can we help you?" she shouted. James looked up. "Hi Gwen! Good to see you. Great, come on." He beckoned them nearer. "We're trying to get nearer. It seems that only some of the Death Eaters are holding the family up in the air. The rest of them is protecting them against – us."
Suddenly the Muggle woman in the air was turned upside down. Gwen gasped. People laughed and pointed at her underwear. More and more people joined the crowd. Manisha was pushing two rather drunken wizards away and tried to stay close to Gwen and Roberta.
Now Gwen was near enough to get a glimpse of the masked wizards, she strained her eyes, but it was too dark to recognise anyone. James Croaker and the red-haired wizard got even closer than her, and she heard James shout: "Let them down! This is a Ministry action. Let them down immediately!"
Whether they pretended not to hear or really didn't catch his words Gwen couldn't tell. Roberta was trying to get close to one of the wizards who was fending another Ministry colleague from his cronies. Gwen caught sight of a gap at Rob's side and shoved through.
One of the Death Eaters turned around, looking at the crowd before him. This means he is not one of those who hold the Muggles up in the air. Gwen pressed ahead further and got eye-contact through his mask. Pitch-black eyes. Got you! she thought. She knew she could do this. Her eyes locked into his, boring deeper and deeper, her whole mind focussed on the task at hand. She took a deep breath. Now he couldn't cast her off anymore and stared vaguely. Gwen pointed her wand at him, and jubilated inwardly. "Incarcerous", she muttered. Thick ropes wrapped around the wizard's arms, binding them on his back.
"Well done, Gwen," she heard James Croaker shout, who together with the red-haired wizard was holding onto another Death Eater. Two other masked wizards jumped forward and snatched their friend from the officials' clutches. James swore loudly.
Three other Death Eaters stormed forward, shouting something, and pointing at Gwen. Roberta turned around and saw Gwen trying to lead away the bound Death Eater. She started running.
But it was too late. Before she could reach her colleague, three jets of red lights hit Gwen and Roberta, who fell to the ground with a thud.
~ooOOoo~