Okay I lied about starting 4th year on last chapters AN. There's this one and one more before the actual beginning of year 4, though the next chapter does finally have some action at least. Also probably gonna earn the M rating on that one so be warned. I'll do this and the next as a double upload to get us through the summer and into the 4th year. Enjoy.
Harry sat on the couch, reading a book about occlumency with Hermione propped up against him reading her own book. This had become a somewhat common occurrence recently, as Sirius had met with Hermione's parents and arranged for her to come and spend time with them occasionally. He and Harry had also visited her home for dinner on a couple of nights so far. Sirius enjoyed getting out and seeing different people and just generally living his life. More than a decade wrongly imprisoned had made him miss out on enjoying his early adulthood. He had cleaned up well since his trial, having started a regimen of potions for his malnourishment and other assortment of problems that Azkaban had caused him. He was back to a nearly healthy weight and his skin had regained some color and even his hair looked clean and well groomed. On his outings he was putting the Black wealth to good use, he was rarely seen anymore not dressed in a fancy custom-tailored dress robe or suit and tie. He had discovered a particular fondness for Armani, some of the best muggle clothes money could buy.
He had just walked in the door wearing one of the aforementioned Armani suits with a large grin on his face. "Guess what I've got?" He said in a singsong voice.
"Another 'hot date'" Harry said as he raised a hand to perform air quotes, never looking up from his book.
Sirius sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Come on now, I'm not a whore!"
Harry finally looked up from his book and sent a deadpan look at his godfather.
"Okay, okay, maybe I like the company of a beautiful woman or three; that's not the point though. I happen to have three tickets for the top box at the Quidditch world cup." He replied, pulling the tickets out and waving them.
Harry was instantly exited. He hadn't known the world cup was coming up, but he loved quidditch and to have a chance to watch the championship was amazing, especially in the top box. "Wow, thanks Sirius!"
Hermione wasn't as enthused; she was happy she would get to go and spend the time with them, but she had never been an avid Quidditch fan like Harry. "Thank you, Sirius."
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With a pop the trio appeared in the middle of a large field with tents surrounding them on all sides. "Wow, there is a lot of people here." Harry mused as he looked at row upon row of tents and their sometimes-odd decorations.
"About a hundred thousand, according to the best estimate of the ministry." Sirius said as he led them down the path a way. "And here" he gestured with his hand at an empty space in the row. "Is our home away from home for the next couple of days.
At Sirius' insistence they had arrived the day before the match, according to him it was to bask in the environment and fanfare; Harry knew, though, that he was only interested in finding 'foreign delicacies'.
Sirius reached into his pocket and pulled out a shrunken pouch. "I'm guessing neither of you have ever used a wizarding tent?"
Harry shook his head in the negative. He had never even heard of such so he couldn't have used one.
"I've read about them but that's all." Hermione added in.
"Well, they are quite a marvelous invention. They are similar to a storage pouch, small on the outside but massively expanded inside." As Sirius said this, he tapped his wand to the small pouch, causing it to grow to the size of a normal backpack. He reached inside and pulled out yet another bag, this one tall, round, and thin. He sat the backpack down before removing an ordinary looking tent from the tall bag and sitting it on the ground in the middle of their lot. With another tap of his wand the tent folded itself out and expanded to look like a normal muggle tent, similar to an igloo in shape.
He walked forward and opened the zippered door, gesturing inside. "This is where the magic happens. Ha, get it? Magic tent, magic in bed." He wiggled his eyebrows as he said the last, eliciting a roll of the eyes from the pair of teens as they walked by him and into the tent.
"Oh my." Hermione was the first to react as she looked around. The tent was complete with 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and its own bathroom.
"When you said magically expanded, I thought you meant a large tent, this is a bloody house!" Harry said with wide eyes. "This must have cost a fortune."
"It wasn't too awful. This is a higher-end model and it only set me back about 100 galleons. I think you can get a single bedroom version for around 50."
The price really wasn't as bad as Harry was thinking it would be. He immediately thought of the possibilities of owning such a thing. "If they make bags and tents, what else can be expanded like this?"
Sirius prepared to answer but Hermione beat him to it. "Bags, tents, trunks, rooms or even whole houses."
Harry was intrigued by an expanded tent, but the trunk sounded even better; he had to have a trunk at Hogwarts, it would be nice to have a home away from home. "I wouldn't mind having a trunk like this for Hogwarts."
"Yea, I noticed you had just an ordinary trunk. You could get one that's expanded with multiple areas for storing your things and organizing them better as well as a place to stay. Not to mention you can get multiple trunks connected; you could leave one at home and come and go as you wished." Sirius replied.
"It's the one we bought when Hagrid took me Diagon Alley my first year. I didn't know there was any other choice."
"We'll have to go shopping once we get home. It's time to introduce you to the finer things in life." Sirius said as he brushed some imaginary dirt off the shoulder of his suit that Harry vaguely remembered him saying costed nearly 3000 pounds.
"Sure thing, Padfoot." Harry said noncommittally.
"Anyhow, take whichever rooms you'd like; they are all soundproof so as to not disturb the other residents with any extra-curriculars you may get into." Sirius finally got a rise he was looking for out of Harry as his face got a slight red twinge.
Hermione for her part held it together better and simply rolled her eyes once more. "You can't be serious."
"Well, actually, I-"
"Don't. Please don't." Hermione cut Sirius off before he could finish the name pun.
Sirius only grinned bigger at that. Strike two, he had got on Hermione's nerves now as well. "Anyhow, there are your rooms, you can figure out who gets which." He turned and started to walk off before looking over his shoulder. "Unless you intend on sharing." He barely got the door to his room closed as a cushion from the nearby couch bounced harmlessly off it, courtesy of Hermione who now also sported a red face.
"And strike three." Sirius said with a chuckle as he began to unpack his things.
Hermione and Harry were both embarrassed at the moment. In typical teenage fashion, even a small mention of sex would get them flustered, Harry particularly so. Hermione was the first to get over it and made the executive decision. "I'll take this one, then, if that's okay with you."
Harry simply nodded and she disappeared into her room to unpack as well.
Left alone, Harry shook off his embarrassment and made his way into his own room. He was once again surprised by the size and luxury of it. This room in a tent was twice the size and a dozen times nicer than his 'room' at the Dursleys had been. It even had its own bathroom with a shower in addition to the common bathroom outside. He laid down across the bed to test it out and instantly fell in love. It was the most comfortable bed he had ever laid on; it felt just like floating on a cloud. "Yea, I have to get one of these for Hogwarts."
After unpacking his things, he made his way back to the common room to find Sirius sitting on the couch waiting and was joined by Hermione just a few moments later. "I definitely have to have one of these to take back to Hogwarts when I go. That bed is just amazing. And there's so much space, I could fit a whole house in my dormitory."
"What could you possibly need a three-bedroom house at school for?" Hermione asked in her normal 'Hermione' tone.
Before Harry had a chance to answer Sirius beat him to it. "Man, I would have killed for one of these in my days. Do you know how much better it would have been to sneak girls into my house instead of a broom cupboard?"
Hermione couldn't even come up with a response. Sirius was trying his hardest to get under their skin. With a glance at the red-faced Harry, he noted that he was being quite successful at it too.
"Maybe we can even get you a pair of connected trunks; one for each of you?"
"Dammit Sirius!" Hermione had her outburst and instantly covered her mouth and went wide eyed. She was normally the language police and here she was having a slip-up.
"What, you could still sleep in your own room. Who has their mind in the gutter now?" Sirius laughed as the genius girl was rendered speechless. He was quite enjoying torturing the teenagers today.
'Perhaps that isn't such a bad idea, in a non-perverted way of course. I could act as if I was going to bed then pop right into the luxury suite here.' Hermione mused as she tried to tune out Sirius' laughter.
Harry's thoughts, on the other hand, were running more on the dirty side. 'I could have girls over… I don't even know any girls like that, though. Well, Hermione is pretty cute but she's my friend. Wait, did I say she was cute. Does she think I'm cute? It doesn't matter we're just friends. We could be more though, couldn't we? Ugh."
After getting settled in and unpacked Harry and Hermione went their own way, browsing through the various vendors who were selling souvenirs and knick-knacks. They had bought a couple of small Irish flags and were each sporting a dancing shamrock hat and green rosettes, and most recently Harry had bought them each a pair of Omnioculars.
Along the way they noticed several lots still empty and figured that most of the locals wouldn't come until tomorrow morning, though they did see a few friends along the way.
Seamus and his family were there already, and they were quite glad to see the pair sporting the Irish colors. Their tent was loudly decorated with shamrocks, flags, and banners. Harry could tell by the speech and smell that the adults at least were already well into a bit of whiskey. They chatted for a bit before taking their leave and strolling further, enjoying the sights.
They passed several odd-looking tents; one with peacocks roaming around the front yard, several with shamrocks just like the Finnigan's, and several with the Bulgarian flag and posters of the players-mainly Victor Krum. They saw a group of tents together with a banner stretched between a couple of them that read "Salem Witches' Institute" and inside Harry saw several very attractive looking witches along with some men that he didn't pay much attention to sitting around a campfire chatting. There was even a group there from Africa, sitting around cooking what he thought to be a rabbit on a bright purple fire.
Soon enough the sun began to set, and the pair made their way back to their home away from home. They arrived to find a note from Sirius that said "Don't wait up" with a crudely drawn thumbs up drawn beside it. Harry sighed and threw the note back onto to table before going into the kitchen to dig out something for dinner.
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The following morning found the pair back roaming the area once again, this time noticing that several of the empty spots were in the process of being filled. They stopped to chat briefly with Luna and Xenophilius, much to Hermione's dismay, before bumping into Cedric and Amos Diggory, Cho Chang, Oliver Wood, and Finally the Weasleys.
This was the first time either of them had seen the Weasley family since the funeral, and while most things had gone back to relatively normal, they could both see that Arthur had aged quite a lot in the short time. Ginny was as quiet as ever, owing it to Harry's presence though he didn't realize as such. The Twins were seemingly their normal selves. And finally Percy was looking as if he had a stick up his arse, same ole. They had found the family along with Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch Senior, the twins in the process of betting their entire life savings on the game.
"We say," Fred Started
"That Ireland will win." George finished for him.
"But Krum will be the one to catch the snitch." The chorused together. "We have thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, and three knuts on it."
"Boys," said Mr. Weasley under his breath, "I don't want you betting… That's all your savings… Your mother -"
"Don't be a spoilsport, Arthur!" boomed Ludo Bagman, rattling his pockets excitedly. "They're old enough to know what they want! You reckon Ireland will win but Krum'll get the Snitch? Not a chance, boys, not a chance… I'll give you excellent odds on that one."
Mr. Weasley looked on helplessly as Ludo Bagman whipped out a notebook and quill and began jotting down the twins' names.
"Cheers," said George, taking the slip of parchment Bagman handed him and tucking it away into the front of his robes.
Bagman turned most cheerfully towards Harry. "Ahh, Mr. Potter, how are you today? Would you like to get in on the wager?"
"I'm fine, thanks." Harry paused for a moment thinking on it. Hermione was just about to berate him for even thinking of gambling when he finished. "I'll put a hundred galleons with Fred and George. Ireland wins but Krum gets the snitch."
All the Weasleys and Hermione paled at that while Ludo had to suppress a giggle. "Well, you may be absolutely barmy, but I'll take it. A hundred galleons on Ireland, but Krum gets the snitch." He wrote out another note and handed it to Harry before shaking his hand.
"I expect you'll both be glad when this is over?" said Mr. Weasley.
Ludo Bagman looked shocked.
"Glad! Don't know when I've had more fun… Still, it's not as though we haven't got anything to look forward to, eh, Barty? Eh? Plenty left to organize, eh?"
Mr. Crouch raised his eyebrows at Bagman.
"We agreed not to make the announcement until all the details -"
"Oh details!" said Bagman, waving the word away like a cloud of midges. "They've signed, haven't they? They've agreed, haven't they? I bet you anything these kids'll know soon enough anyway. I mean, it's happening at Hogwarts -"
"Ludo, we need to meet the Bulgarians, you know," said Mr. Crouch sharply, cutting Bagman's remarks short. "Thank you for the tea, Weatherby. "
He pushed his undrunk tea back at Percy and waited for Ludo to rise; Bagman struggled to his feet, swigging down the last of his tea, the gold in his pockets chinking merrily.
"See you all later!" he said. "You'll be up in the Top Box with me - I'm commentating!" He waved, Barty Crouch nodded curtly, and both of them disapparated.
"What's happening at Hogwarts, Dad?" said Fred at once. "What were they talking about?"
"You'll find out soon enough," said Mr. Weasley, smiling.
"It's classified information, until such time as the Ministry decides to release it," said Percy stiffly. "Mr. Crouch was quite right not to disclose it. "
"Oh, shut up, Weatherby," said Fred.
Harry was exited. This was the first time in his life he had ever been able to attend something like this and just have fun. He was seated between Hermione and Sirius, only a few seats down from Fudge and the Bulgarian minister. Right in front of them sat the Weasleys, and at the other end of the box he noticed Lucius and Draco Malfoy.
The box was filled with the scent of fancy cigar smoke and scotch, though the smoke stayed cleared out by a vent hood similar to a potion shop. Several of the high circle attendees were enjoying their expensive vices, if you could call it that; most only smoked in settings such as these.
It was actually a fairly pleasant aroma, Harry conceded. Even Sirius had pulled out a cigar and a glass of brandy from somewhere. He looked over to Harry thoughtfully for a moment before offering both to him. Cut loose and live a little while you're young." He said before lighting the tip of the cigar with his wand. He then looked to Hermione who quickly shook her head no, indicating she had no interest in either.
The smooth smoke from the cigar tickled at the back of his throat; it was rough for just a second and made him want to cough before he exhaled and felt the relief. Coupled with the fine brandy, Harry actually enjoyed the taste; he could definitely see why the combination was so popular. "This is great! Thanks Sirius."
"Just don't tell Molly where you picked up the habit." Sirius replied with a chuckle as he lit his own freshly acquired cigar. "She'd skin us both alive if she saw you."
(We will assume here for the sake of not giving a shit that magic will counter any negative effects, coupled with the fact that wizarding society seems to be a hundred or more years behind us and it was acceptable to smoke and drink and whatever at 13 so…)
"Ladies and gentlemen. . . welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"
The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message and now showed BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.
"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce. . . the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"
The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.
"I wonder what they've brought," said Mr. Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"
"What are veel -?"
But a hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field, and Harry's question was answered for him. Veela were women. . . the most beautiful women Harry had ever seen. . . except that they weren't - they couldn't be - human. This puzzled Harry for a moment while he tried to guess what exactly they could be; what could make their skin shine moon-bright like that, or their white-gold hair fan out behind them without wind. . . but then the music started, and Harry stopped worrying about them not being human - in fact, he stopped worrying about anything at all.
The veela had started to dance, and Harry's mind had gone completely and blissfully blank. All that mattered in the world was that he kept watching the veela, because if they stopped dancing, terrible things would happen.
With a shake of his head Harry broke free of the trance he was in and shuddered. Most every male in the place was looking at the beautiful women in a daze.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked.
"Umm, I'm not sure. I was in a trance for a moment there."
"Veela allure. Very dangerous to the male mind. It seems you have a certain resistance to it's effects though." Some unknown lady answered in response to Harry's confusion. "Don't feel bad, as you can see it affects most males strongly."
After just a moment and some angry sounding boos from the crowd, the veela had made their exit, allowing the men to regain their composure.
"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air. . . for the Irish National Team Mascots!"
Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light. The crowd oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display. Now the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands. Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it -
"Excellent!" yelled Fred and George together as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Harry realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.
"Leprechauns!" said Mr. Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.
The great shamrock dissolved; the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome - the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team!
After a moment spent naming each of the players as the zipped into the field, Bagman took a breath and began again. "And now, please greet - the Irish National Quidditch Team!"
Seven green blurs swept onto the field; Harry spun a small dial on the side of his Omnioculars and slowed the players down enough to read the word "Firebolt" on each of their brooms and see their names, embroidered in silver, upon their backs.
"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"
A small and skinny wizard, completely bald but with a mustache to rival Uncle Vernon's, wearing robes of pure gold to match the stadium, strode out onto the field. A silver whistle was protruding from under the mustache, and he was carrying a large wooden crate under one arm, his broomstick under the other. Harry spun the speed dial on his Omnioculars back to normal, watching closely as Mostafa mounted his broomstick and kicked the crate open - four balls burst into the air: the scarlet Quaffle, the two black Bludgers, and (Harry saw it for the briefest moment, before it sped out of sight) the minuscule, winged Golden Snitch. With a sharp blast on his whistle, Mostafa shot into the air after the balls.
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This was Quidditch as Harry had never seen it played before. It was a whole different level than he was used to seeing at Hogwarts. He was pressing his Omnioculars so hard to his glasses that they were cutting into the bridge of his nose. The speed of the players was incredible - the Chasers were throwing the Quaffle to one another so fast that Bagman only had time to say their names before it was gone again.
The game continued for a while, Ireland going up Thirty – ten, when Ludo yelled out again. "Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova - oh I say!" roared Bagman.
One hundred thousand wizards gasped as the two Seekers, Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from airplanes without parachutes. Harry followed their descent through his Omnioculars, squinting to see where the Snitch was -
"They're going to crash!" screamed Hermione next to Harry.
She was half right - at the very last second, Viktor Krum pulled out of the dive and spiraled off. Lynch, however, hit the ground with a dull thud that could be heard throughout the stadium. A huge groan rose from the Irish seats.
"Fool!" moaned Mr. Weasley. "Krum was feinting!"
"It's time-out!" yelled Bagman's voice, "as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"
Harry hastily pressed the replay and play-by-play buttons on his Omnioculars, twiddled the speed dial, and put them back up to his eyes.
He watched as Krum and Lynch dived again in slow motion. WRONSKI DEFENSIVE FEINT - DANGEROUS SEEKER DIVERSION read the shining purple lettering across his lenses. He saw Krum's face contorted with concentration as he pulled out of the dive just in time, while Lynch was flattened, and he understood - Krum hadn't seen the Snitch at all, he was just making Lynch copy him. Harry had never seen anyone fly like that; Krum hardly looked as though he was using a broomstick at all; he moved so easily through the air that he looked unsupported and weightless. Harry turned his Omnioculars back to normal and focused them on Krum. He was now circling high above Lynch, who was being revived by mediwizards with cups of potion. Harry, focusing still more closely upon Krum's face, saw his dark eyes darting all over the ground a hundred feet below. He was using the time while Lynch was revived to look for the Snitch without interference.
"I'll have to remember that Wronski Feint." Harry thought to himself.
After another while of playing, it was quite clear that Bulgaria was outmatched here. They were trailing 170-10 and things weren't looking good for a comeback.
"Look at Lynch!" Harry yelled.
For the Irish Seeker had suddenly gone into a dive, and Harry was quite sure that this was no Wronski Feint; this was the real thing. . .
"He's seen the Snitch!" Harry shouted. "He's seen it! Look at him go!"
Half the crowd seemed to have realized what was happening; the Irish supporters rose in another great wave of green, screaming their Seeker on. . . but Krum was on his tail. How he could see where he was going, Harry had no idea; there were flecks of blood flying through the air behind him, but he was drawing level with Lynch now as the pair of them hurtled toward the ground again -
"They're going to crash!" shrieked Hermione.
"They're not!" roared Sirius.
"Lynch is!" yelled Harry.
And he was right - for the second time, Lynch hit the ground with tremendous force and was immediately stampeded by a horde of angry veela.
"The Snitch, where's the Snitch?" bellowed Charlie, along the row.
"He's got it - Krum's got it - it's all over!" shouted Harry.
The scoreboard was flashing BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170 across the crowd, who didn't seem to have realized what had happened. Then, slowly, as though a great jumbo jet were revving up, the rumbling from the Ireland supporters grew louder and louder and erupted into screams of delight.
"IRELAND WINS!" Bagman shouted, who like the Irish, seemed to be taken aback by the sudden end of the match.
"KRUM GETS THE SNITCH - BUT IRELAND WINS - good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!" He then stopped for a moment and cancelled his sonorous charm before looking towards Harry and the Twins. "I'll be damned. I'll just be God damned. You boys called it, and at phenomenal odds, you're going to break me."
The twins and Harry shared a round of high fives and chuckles as they cashed in from Bagman. 12 to 1 odds on their bets; Bagman Paid them an even 480 galleons and Harry 1200. With that kind of loss he wasn't sure he would even break even on the rest of his pool.
"Just don't tell your mother you've been gambling," Mr. Weasley implored Fred and George as they all made their way slowly down the purple-carpeted stairs.
"Don't worry, Dad," said Fred gleefully, "we've got big plans for this money. We don't want it confiscated. "
Mr. Weasley looked for a moment as though he was going to ask what these big plans were, but seemed to decide, upon reflection, that he didn't want to know.
They were soon caught up in the crowds now flooding out of the stadium and back to their campsites. Raucous singing was borne toward them on the night air as they retraced their steps along the lantern-lit path, and leprechauns kept shooting over their heads, cackling and waving their lanterns. When they finally reached the tents, nobody felt like sleeping at all, and given the level of noise around them.