Except for the nightmares, the summer had been uneventful. Harry sometimes had strange dreams about being in places he'd never been, with people he'd never seen. His latest nightmare, involving a strange baby creature, a snake and a Muggle had been particularly disturbing.
Fortunately, Ron and his father had gotten him an invitation to the Quidditch world cup. The tickets were free, apparently, garnered through the elder Weasley's political connections.
Steven and Amethyst were coming as well. Steven had sent a letter. Apparently he was able to afford to pay for his own tickets, as the basilisk money had been quite lucrative.
Harry's own portion of the money had more than doubled the size of his pile of gold in Gringott's. However, he hadn't touched the money for several reasons. First, it had to last throughout his time at Hogwarts and possibly beyond. His experiences at the Dursleys left him with a deep and abiding fear of going without.
Secondly, of he was to buy many new things, it would make the Dursleys suspicious. They'd want to know how he'd paid for everything, and the last thing he wanted was for them to learn that he had money.
So the offer from the Weasleys was a blessing.
He was sure he'd pay for what had happened when the Weasleys picked him up; Dudley shouldn't have been such a pig and he certainly shouldn't have taken candy from the twins. For the moment though he didn't care.
He had two weeks with the Weasleys and he was going to see the Quidditch finals. Furthermore he was going to get to see his friends. For the moment he wasn't going to worry about anything.
It was even worth getting up this early in the morning. It wasn't even dawn yet, and the air was chilly. Hermione looked particularly put out; she wasn't quite the Quidditch fan the rest of them were. She gamely tried to keep up though.
They all reached for the Portkey at once, and a moment later he felt as though he was being hooked from his navel. They were spinning, and he wondered why all Wizarding transportation had to be so unpleasant. Even brooms were less pleasant in bad weather than Muggle transportation.
A moment later they landed. Mr. Weasley had warned them that they would have quite a walk; it took a lot of work to bring one hundred thousand wizards to one place without alerting the Muggles, and so the Portkey sites were spread far and wide.
Having wizards apparate in on top of each other would be a nightmare. Splinching sounded bad enough to Harry without the risk of getting people's body parts mixed up. The last thing he wanted was to end up with someone else's arm or leg or something.
He was surprised then to see Steven Universe and Amethyst sitting a distance away on what looked like a Muggle golf cart.
It was a large one, with seats for six if the people in the back faced backwards.
"Hey guys!" Steven said.
Cedric quickly introduced his father, who seemed as excited to meet Steven as he had Harry before they'd left. Of course, after the basilisk incident last year and the troll incident the year before, Steven undoubtedly had quite a reputation among the parents at Hogwarts. Considering that Cedric was a Hufflepuff, even more so.
"They let you bring a golf cart?" Hermione asked.
Steven grinned. "Peridot built it out of spare parts. She thinks that the reason electronics don't work around Hogwarts is that there is too much magic there...layer after layer of spells cast in too small a space. She was hoping we could see if having this many wizards in one place would do the same thing."
"Hasn't done it yet," Amethyst said. "We've been making money for the past couple of weeks driving wizards around."
"Wizards really hate to walk," Steven said.
"Yeah...we've been making crazy money, even if some of the pure bloods won't give us the time of day." Amethyst scowled. "Some of them are really rude about it too."
Harry suspected that they were more offended by her than by the Muggle transportation device. Wizards didn't respect non-humans much. Of course, he had been known to be wrong in the past.
"So how much?" Hermione asked. She looked worried. "I didn't bring that much with me."
"We'd never charge you guys," Steven said. He grinned. "You guys are our friends."
"There's too many of us to ride on that though," Hermione said. "We'll have to make a couple of trips."
"A couple of wizards cast some spells to make it seat more people in return for a free ride;" Steven said. "You can't tell from the outside."
"That's illegal," Ron's father said, frowning.
"It's just temporary," Steven said. "The wizards who cast the spell say we'll be lucky if it lasts to the end of the finals."
Ron's father relaxed. "I suppose that's all right then. You haven't taken it out where Muggles might get hold of it, right?"
Steven shook his head. "We've spent the last two weeks right here. You guys will love it! They've got stands selling all kinds of stuff."
"Wizard food is pretty good too," Amethyst said.
As they loaded what possessions they had into the golf cart, Harry asked Steven where Pearl and Peridot were.
"Pearl doesn't care about Quidditch," Steven said. "If I was playing she'd come, but otherwise...and Peridot doesn't understand sports at all."
"I'm just here for the funnel cake," Amethyst said.
"I didn't think they'd have that here," Steven said, "But there are some American food stands over by the common."
They all loaded in, and although it was a tight fit, they all managed to fit inside. To Harry's surprise, Steven took the wheel.
"Amethyst's been teaching me to drive," Steven said. "After a couple of weeks, I've gotten pretty good."
"Wizards don't know about driver's licenses," Amethyst said. She hesitated. "I dunno if you need them for a golf cart anyway."
A pair of wizards dressed as Muggles approached them from the west.
One of them, dressed in a business suit walked up to the cart and peered inside. "It looks like you've got everybody."
"We've got everybody," Steven said. "I hope you enjoyed your coffee."
"You're a lifesaver," Basil said. "We've been here all night. You all need to get moving; we've got another party arriving in less than fifteen minutes and it looks to be a big one."
"I know the way to their campsite," Steven said.
"Get going, then," Basil said. He looked at Mr. Weasley. "Hello Arthur. Must be nice being off work."
Steven did something, and the engine purred to life. It was quiet, and they began moving right away.
"You should have seen the way that guy was dressed before I set him straight." Steven shook his head. "They both would have stood out like sore thumbs."
They drove a half mile across the moor. Although it was still dark, the carts headlights illuminated everything and the trip only took a couple of minutes.
"Peridot wanted to make this thing fly," Amethyst said. "I thought it'd be fun, but Snape kept talking about magical secrecy or something."
Considering that she was a purple woman Amethyst couldn't be that worried about secrecy.
They pulled up next to a stone cottage. A man stepped out and Harry was surprised to see that it was Mr. Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker.
"There used to be a regular person here taking all the camp reservations," Steven said. "But they were having to obliviate him ten times a day. We managed to talk them into sending him on vacation and letting Mr. Filch step in for him."
Filch scowled at Steven, but he didn't cause any problems, taking Mr. Weasley's money.
"Mr. Filch doesn't really like dealing with wizards," Steven murmured as Mr. Weasley stepped out of the vehicle in order to pay Mr. Filch. "But he likes the extra money, and this way he gets to go to the finals without anybody giving him charity."
A moment later Mr. Weasley was back in the vehicle.
Steven drove them between row after row of tents. Most of them were mundane looking, although there were often tell tale signs that something wasn't normal. Most Muggle tents didn't have chimneys after all.
Occasionally there was a gaudy eyesore of a tent. One was three stories tall, and others were of unique, eye catching colors.
They pulled up to an empty site with a wooden sign posted.
"We'll have to put the tents up by hand," Mr. Weasley said, "Since we're out in the open around Muggles."
"I can show you how!" Steven said. "We've been doing it all week. There are wizards who'll pay you to put up their tents for them."
"Since when have you been so determined to make money?" Hermione asked. "I thought you had plenty already."
"We didn't want to go back to the bank," Steven said. He shrugged."And Amethyst eats A LOT. Besides, after a while it got to be fun. A lot of wizards will talk to you while you are driving them or putting up their tent. It's a good way to get to know people."
Steven was true to his word, and he showed them how to put the tent up quickly and efficiently. The sun still hadn't risen by the time they were done.
When he stepped inside, his jaw dropped. It looked like a three room flat. It was bigger on the inside. Still, it would be cramped as there would be ten of them once everyone arrived.
"Me and Amethyst managed to get a tent just three rows over," Steven said. "If you want to come over there it won't be a problem."
"I'll move some of my piles," Amethyst said. "It won't be a problem at all."
Mr. Weasley started talking about making a fire, which Steven was excited about for some reason. Harry looked at Hermione and he couldn't help but grin.
Harry had never been on a family vacation, or any kind of vacation at all. This was something he could get used to easily. The game hadn't even started and he was already having a blast.
Mr. Weasley asked them to go get water. Steven, of course knew the location of a nearby tap, and he offered to take Harry and Hermione while the others gathered firewood.
"Want to learn how to drive a golf cart?" Steven asked.
The day just kept getting better and better.