Very early on Monday morning, Alex found himself being awoken by his mother. "What time is it?" he asked groggily.
"Three in the morning," she said apologetically. "You know you have to get up early so you can catch the Portkey."
Alex groaned, remembering what his mother had said the night before. They were the only wizarding family in town, so there was no Portkey to take any of them to the Quidditch World Cup anyplace close by. Instead, they were going to Floo over to the Weasleys and use the Portkey that was located in their area. Unfortunately, that meant getting up really early, since the Portkey for that area was due to leave at five in the morning.
Ana then shook Neville awake, who had come over the day before so he could leave with his friends for the Cup and was staying in Alex's room, and after that went to wake Beth and Hermione. Alex rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stumbled into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash up. Neville joined him a minute later, and when they were done, they left the bathroom to the girls and went to get dressed.
Once dressed in jeans and T-shirts, with the jumpers that Mrs. Weasley had given them last Christmas over the shirts, since the early morning was a bit chilly, the two boys grabbed the rucksacks they had packed the day before and went downstairs to the kitchen. Ana smiled at them and handed them cups of tea to wake them up a bit. After that, she pushed a plate with a stack of toast on it and the butter dish in their direction. The pot of strawberry jam followed, which had a Color-Changing Charm on it so that it was green instead of red. "Just a quick bite to eat before we leave," she explained. "So that none of you get hungry before we finish setting up camp and make breakfast."
"So we're supporting Ireland, then," Alex remarked, seeing that a shamrock had been 'branded' on the slices of toast. "Well, since England, Wales, and Scotland didn't make it to the final, I guess Ireland would be the only logical choice, even if they're no longer part of the United Kingdom."
"Well, Ireland will most likely win," Neville said. "They've got a great team of Chasers that outscore the other teams by large margins. In their match against Peru, Ireland scored over twenty times, while Peru only got five goals."
"But what about Viktor Krum?" asked Alex. "He's a great Seeker and the main reason that Bulgaria made it to the finals. And he's only eighteen."
"But Viktor Krum is the only really great player for Bulgaria, while Ireland has seven," Neville countered. "Okay, Lynch isn't as good as Krum, but the other players are better than Bulgaria."
Hermione and Beth came down. After buttering a slice of toast, Hermione said, "Logically speaking, since Ireland's Chasers are so good, they would outscore Bulgaria by a large margin. If Viktor Krum catches the Snitch before Ireland is more than one hundred fifty points ahead, then Bulgaria will win. Otherwise Ireland will win, since tied scores don't normally happen."
That was quite true, since there had only been one instance of a tied score at a professional Quidditch game, and that was because the team that hadn't caught the Snitch had scored about two seconds before the Snitch capture. If that hadn't happened, the team would have lost by ten points. At Hogwarts, however, tied scores had happened three or four times since the formation of the house teams.
"We'll see," said Beth. "It's possible that Ireland will be more than one hundred fifty points ahead but Krum will catch the Snitch regardless in order to minimalize Bulgaria's loss. That situation has happened before."
"Hurry up and finish your toast," Stephan said. "You don't want to miss the Portkey." The four teens stopped talking and focused simply on eating.
Ten minutes later, they were ready to go and they grabbed their rucksacks and headed to the fireplace in the living room to Floo to the Weasleys. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Ron, Fred, and George were waiting for them, though Mrs. Weasley wasn't going to the Cup and was instead staying behind to get the school supplies. David and Cara were with them, since their parents, as Aurors, were part of the security detail and had to be at the site the day before, and so were Esther, Adam, and Leah. Percy, Bill, and Charlie weren't waiting, as they could Apparate to the site (Percy had passed his Appariation test two weeks ago) and so could sleep in.
Mr. Weasley (due to helping out the brother of Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department Magical Games and Sports) had won the raffle for ten Top Box tickets. Since Sirius had insisted on having the Gryffindor quintet be a part of the Top Box tickets he had gotten, that meant Mr. Weasley had three extra tickets, so the Rosenbergs had been invited. The whole large group set out for Stoatshead Hill, where the Portkey was located. Fred and George looked rather disgruntled, for just before the arrival of the Romanovs, Neville, and Hermione, Mrs. Weasley had Summoned all the Ton-Tongue Toffees they'd invented and were trying to smuggle out the house. She'd thrown the trick sweets out and had shouted at them for not getting rid of them as ordered and only getting three O.W.L.s each before she'd been interrupted by the Floo.
Mr. Diggory and Cedric were there already, having had to get up earlier than everyone else and they'd already located the Portkey, which was a large boot. There was nobody else joining them, since Luna and her father were already there and the Fawcetts (according to Mr. Diggory) couldn't or didn't get tickets. The three Rosenbergs and Hermione were the only ones that Mr. Diggory didn't recognize, so they introduced themselves. Since there were so many of them, it was decided that the teens would take the Portkey and the adults would Apparate right after them.
Once they arrived, a pair of tired and grumpy looking wizards met them. One was wearing a tweed suit and thigh-length galoshes, while the other had on a kilt and poncho. Clearly they didn't know very much about how Muggles were supposed to dress, though the first one seemed to have a somewhat better idea, since he would have been fine if it weren't for the galoshes.
When the adults arrived, Mr. Weasley picked up the boot and handed it to the wizard in the kilt, whom he greeted as Basil. Basil returned the greeting and after putting the boot in a box with other used Portkeys, told the party where their campsites were. The Diggorys were at the second field, while the others were at the first field.
They found Mr. Roberts, who was the (Muggle) manager of campsite. The Diggorys went on their way to the second field, and at point, Remus appeared. "Ah, there you are!" he exclaimed. "Mr. Roberts, they're with me."
Remus began leading the way to the where Sirius had booked two adjoining sites for everyone. They trudged up the misty field between long rows of tents. Most looked almost like ordinary Muggle tents, though the owners of some of them had slipped up by adding weather vanes, bell pulls, and chimneys. However, a few of them were so obviously magical that Alex wasn't surprised to hear Remus mention that Mr. Roberts had to be Obliviated several times a day in order to stop him from getting suspicious. Halfway up the field stood an extravagant confection of striped silk like a miniature palace, with several live peacocks tethered at the entrance. A little further on they passes a tent that had three floors and several turrets; and a short way beyond that was a tent that had a front garden attached, complete with birdbath, sundial, and fountain.
"Always the same," said Mr. Weasley, smiling. "We can't resist showing off when we get together."
"This is where we're booked," Remus said, pointing to a cluster of four tents at the edge of the field. A small sign hammered to ground read BLACK and another further on read ROMANOV. "Sirius isn't here to greet you because he refused to get up at five in the morning. He'll be up in a couple of hours, though. Anyway, the red tent is for the boys and the blue one for the girls. The other two tents are for the adults."
"Are you sure everyone will fit?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
"The tents will be bigger on the inside," said Beth. "Like the TARDIS, except with the tents, it's due to magic, not Time Lord technology." Seeing Hermione's surprised look, Beth added, "Yes, we've seen Doctor Who. Remember the telly that Aunt Sarah and Uncle Niko have?"
"That's right," said Hermione, remembering seeing the telly in the living room when it was their turn to host dinner and her surprise at that.
The girls then entered the blue tent and the boys went inside the red one, which on the outside didn't look much different from a good quality Muggle tent. On the inside, however, it looked pretty much like the interior of one of the vardos that the Romanov-Petrov clan had, except it was larger and had the addition of a bathroom. At one end was a kitchen area and the other was the sleeping area, which contained ten bunks in pairs of two. In between the two areas were the bathroom and a sort of living room area containing a sofa and a table with benches.
When they'd set down their things, they went back outside. Stephan was looking over a map of the campsite that Remus had gotten from the site manager. "It looks as if the tap is on the other side of field. Here, why don't your group of friends go get some water for us then, Alex and Beth?" Stephan gestured at a stack of five buckets next to him. "Cara, you can take the rest to get some firewood, and Fred and George, you can help with getting everything else set up. Remus and Sirius were more focused on getting the tents up and taking care of their own needs yesterday."
The Gryffindor quintet set off for the tap, gazing around the city of tents as they walked, for the sun had just risen and the mist lifting, enabling them to see things properly. Their fellow campers were starting to wake up, the families with small children doing so first. One boy no older than two or three was poking a slug with a wand he'd no doubt swiped from one of his parents, making it swell slowly to the size of a salami. As the quintet drew level with him, his mother hurried out of the tent and scolded Kevin for touching Daddy's wand before being interrupted by her stepping on the slug, causing it to burst.
A short way further on, they saw two little girls, barely older than Kevin, riding toy broomsticks. A ministry wizard had already spotted them; as he hurried past the quintet he muttered distractedly, "In broad daylight! Parents having a lie-in, I suppose-"
Here and there adult wizards and witches were emerging from their tents and starting to cook breakfast. Some, with furtive looks around them, conjured fires with their wands; others were striking matches with dubious looks on their faces, as though sure it couldn't work. Witches and wizards of various nationalities could be seen around them.
"Er - is it my eyes, or has everything gone green?" Ron asked.
It wasn't just Ron's eyes. They had walked into a patch of tents that were all covered with a thick growth of shamrocks, so that it looked as though small, oddly shaped hillocks had sprouted out of the earth. Grinning faces could be seen under those that had their flaps open.
"I think we've reached the section with the Ireland supporters," Alex said. "And I thought Mum was slightly over-doing it with the shamrock toast and green jam."
Behind them, they heard their names being called and the five turned around to see their fellow Gryffindor fourth-years, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, sitting with a sandy-haired woman that had to be former's mother in front of their own shamrock covered tent.
"Like the decorations?" Seamus asked, grinning. "The Ministry's not too happy."
"Ah, why shouldn't we show our colors?" asked Mrs. Finnigan. "You should see what the Bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents. You'll be supporting Ireland, of course?" she added, eyeing the quintet beadily. When they had assured that they were indeed supporting Ireland, they set off again, though, as Ron said, "Like we'd say anything else surrounded by that lot."
They then went to see what the Bulgarians had over their tents, which turned out to be posters of their Seeker, Viktor Krum. All the picture of him was doing was blink and scowl, which made Alex wonder if he didn't particularly care for having his picture taken. When Hermione commented that Krum looked really grumpy, Ron retorted that it didn't matter what Krum looked like, since he was a Quidditch prodigy, being only eighteen.
There was already a small queue for the tap in the corner of the field. The quintet joined it, right behind a pair of men who were having a heated argument. One of them was a very old wizard who was wearing a long flowery nightgown. The other was clearly a Ministry wizard; he was holding out a pair of pinstriped trousers and almost crying with exasperation.
"Just put them on, Archie, there's a good chap. You can't walk around like that, the Muggle at the gate's already getting suspicious-"
"I bought this in a Muggle shop," said the old wizard stubbornly. "Muggles wear them."
"Muggle women wear them, Archie, not the men, they wear these," said the Ministry wizard, and he brandished the pinstriped trousers.
"I'm not putting them on," said Archie in indignation. "I like a healthy breeze 'round my privates, thanks."
The quintet had to work very hard to stifle their giggles, and in fact, Hermione and Neville both had to duck out of the queue and only returned when Archie had collected his water and moved away.
When he was gone, Beth said, "I wonder if he was the Archie that's president of the F.A.R.T. movement."
Hermione made a choking noise, then asked, "What's that?"
"It stands for 'Fresh Air Refreshes Totally'," answered Alex. "They're this fringe movement of wizards that refuse to don proper Muggle clothing when in the Muggle world and prefer robes. I think Dad said once that they believe trousers 'stem the magical flow at source'."
There were giggles at this as they filled the buckets and made their way back through the campsite. Due to the weight of the filled buckets, they had to walk more slowly. They were stopped several times by Hogwarts students wanting to say hello. Oliver Wood, who had just graduated, excitedly told the quintet that he had just been signed to the Puddlemere United reserve team and dragged them over to his parents' tent to introduce them.
"You've been ages," said George when they finally got back to their tents.
"Met a few people," replied Ron, setting his bucket down. "I see the others have arrived."
Alex set down his bucket and looked up to see that Ivan, Jonas, Vera, and their parents were there, and that Aunt Maria and Uncle Tobias had dropped by to say hello. Vera looked disappointed to see that Percy wasn't there yet, but got over it quickly and went to help Remus and her mother with the preliminary preparation of the food, since the fire wasn't hot enough to cook anything just yet.
There was plenty to see while they waited or helped with setting things up, however. Their tents seemed to be pitched right alongside a kind of thoroughfare to the field, and Ministry wizards kept hurrying up and down it, greeting Mr. Weasley, Uncle Niko, and Aunt Sarah cordially as they passed. The three kept up a running commentary, mainly for Hermione's and the Rosenberg's benefit, since the others already knew enough about the Ministry to not be that interested.
When the fire was at last ready, Sirius came out of one of the adult tents, which was green and patterned with shamrocks to show his support of Ireland. "Good morning, everyone," he said cheerfully. "Is everyone here?"
Mr. Weasley was about to say no, but at point, Bill, Charlie, and Percy came strolling out the woods toward them.
"Just Apparated, Dad," said Percy loudly. "Is-" Whatever he was about to say was cut off when he spotted Vera and rushed towards her. Vera hastily handed the frying pan she was holding to Remus and then she and Percy greeted each other with a hug and kiss. The two only broke apart when Fred said, "Get a room, you two!"
As they were eating breakfast, Ludo Bagman appeared. He was wearing his old Wimbourne Wasp Quidditch robes and looked very cheerful as he greeted the group and was introduced to everyone. Alex said, "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Bagman, even if you did play for Wasps."
Bagman blinked, then said, "Ah, I take it you're an Appleby Arrows fan?"
Alex nodded. "I don't hold it against you, since you also played for England and Mum and Dad said you were really good. I wish I had been able to see you play, since you'd retired before I was old enough to really appreciate Quidditch matches and remember them properly."
Bagman beamed at the praise and then asked the group at large if any of them fancied a flutter on the match, mentioning a couple of other people that had made wagers with him. Mr. Weasley bet a Galleon on Ireland to win, and Remus, Stephan, and Uncle Niko did the same. Sirius put twenty Galleons down on Viktor Krum catching the Snitch, even though he was supporting Ireland.
"Any other takers?" asked Ludo Bagman, who had looked slightly disappointed at the low bets before recovering quickly.
"They're a bit young to be gambling," Ana said firmly.
However, Fred interrupted, saying, "We'll bet seventy-eight Galleons, fiffteen Sickles, three Knuts," as he and George quickly pooled their money, "that Ireland wins - but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch. Oh, and we'll throw in a fake wand."
Bagman was quite impressed and amused with the fake wand, which gave a loud squawk and turned into a rubber chicken. He noted the wager, adding five Galleons for the funny wand, telling Mr. Weasley not to be a spoilsport when he tried to tell his sons that he didn't want them betting and that it was all their savings. Alex knew that the last wasn't true, as the twins still had the five hundred galleons that he had given them from the sale of the basilisk remains, and that the money they had wagered was what they had earned from working at Petrov's Potions.
Barty Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Percy's direct boss, turned up. In the aftermath of Sirius's release and Wormtail's arrest, there had been talk of demoting Mr. Crouch, but in the end he had only been fined and put on probation for six months. Sirius was barely civil to the man, since Crouch had been responsible for sending him to Azkaban without a trial. If it weren't for Remus, Sirius probably wouldn't have been polite at all.
After Crouch and Bagman had left, Luna turned up. As Sirius had gotten a dozen tickets for the Top Box (the Ministry was still wishing to make amends for his wrongful imprisonment), he had decided to give the remaining five to Luna, David, Ivan, Vera, and Jonas. That way they could sit with their friends. He had asked Cara, but she said that she'd rather be with her friends, who weren't going to be in the Top Box.
Luna greeted everyone and then settled down to sit with her friends. There was excited talk until dusk, when the group went to walk among the salesman and pick out souvenirs to buy. The Gryffindor quintet all bought green rosettes, which were squealing the names of the players, and Ron and Alex got a dancing shamrock hat and a collectible figure of Viktor Krum each. Neville and Beth got small flags of Ireland, and Hermione got programs for them all. Their last purchase was Omnioculars for each of them, which they had to pool their money in order to come up with the fifty Galleons, since Neville and Ron were both a couple of Galleons short. (They had each only brought ten Galleons with them).
After that, they returned to the tents. The others were all sporting green rosettes, and the Ravenclaw quintet also had the shamrock hats. Mr. Weasley and Sirius had Irish flags, and Jonas and Ester had gotten figurines of the Seekers of both teams. Shortly after that, a deep, booming gong sounded somewhere beyond the woods, and at once, green and red lanterns blazed into life in the trees, lighting a path to the field. It was time to go to the stadium.