At about 1pm, now fully refreshed and awake, Demelza, Amy and I said goodbye to the Lovegoods and headed off to where our tents were. We found them already erected and with everyone else sitting outside, about to start eating plates of eggs and sausages. After Demelza and I dropped off our bags in the girls tent, we started eating quickly, not having realised how hungry we were.

We were halfway through when Dad jumped to his feet, waving and grinning at a man who was striding toward them.

"Aha!" he said. "The man of the moment! Ludo!"

Amy stood up too to greet her uncle.

"Been wondering when you'd show up" she said. "You haven't been blabbing on about more magic to the Muggles today right?"

Ludo pulled her into a one armed embrace

"Oh don't worry Amy, I assure you, everything is ok!"

"It's that type of attitude that will see us getting in trouble!" Amy replied, frustrated.

He ignored her.

"Arthur, old man, what a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming . . . and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements. . . . Not much for me to do!"

Behind him, a group of haggard-looking Ministry wizards rushed past, pointing at the distant evidence of some sort of a magical fire that was sending violet sparks twenty feet into the air. Percy hurried forward with his hand outstretched. Apparently his disapproval of the way Ludo Bagman ran his department did not prevent him from wanting to make a good impression.

"Ah — yes," said Dad, grinning, "this is my son Percy. He's just started at the Ministry — and this is Fred — no, George, sorry — that's Fred — Bill, Charlie, Ron — you already know Ginny and Demelza of course, and there's Hermione Granger and Harry Potter"

Bagman did the smallest of double takes when he heard Harry's name, and his eyes performed the familiar flick upward to the scar on Harry's forehead.

"Everyone," Dad continued, "this is Ludo Bagman, you know who he is, it's thanks to him we've got such good tickets —"

Ludo beamed and waved his hand as if to say it had been nothing.

"Fancy a flutter on the match, Arthur?" he said eagerly, jingling what seemed to be a large amount of gold in the pockets of his yellow-and-black robes. "I've already got Roddy Pontner betting me Bulgaria will score first — I offered him nice odds, considering Ireland's front three are the strongest I've seen in years — and little Agatha Timms has put up half shares in her eel farm on a weeklong match."

"Ludo" Amy sighed exasperatedly and pinched the bridge of her nose. Demelza and I couldn't help laughing, it was like she was the aunt and he the nephew!

"Oh Amy, I'm just trying to have some fun, wouldn't you agree we deserve it?" Ludo said

"Not when we're already many galleons in debt!" Amy replied fiercely.

"Silencio!" Ludo said, and Amy fell quiet.

"Don't mind her" Ludo said to Dad, "she's a bit of a party pooper sometimes"

"Oh . . . go on then," said Dad . "Let's see . . . a Galleon on Ireland to win?"

"A Galleon?" Ludo looked slightly disappointed, but recovered himself. "Very well, very well . . . any other takers?"

"They're a bit young to be gambling," said Dad. "Molly wouldn't like —"

"We'll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts," said Fred as he and George quickly pooled all their money, "that Ireland wins — but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch. Oh and we'll throw in a fake wand."

"You don't want to go showing Mr. Bagman rubbish like that —" Percy hissed, but Ludo didn't seem to think the wand was rubbish at all; on the contrary, his boyish face shone with excitement as he took it from Fred, and when the wand gave a loud squawk and turned into a rubber chicken, Bagman roared with laughter.

"Excellent! I haven't seen one that convincing in years! I'd pay five Galleons for that!" Percy froze in an attitude of stunned disapproval.

"Boys," said Dad under his breath, "I don't want you betting. . . . That's all your savings. . . . Your mother —"

"Don't be a spoilsport, Arthur!" boomed Ludo 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. . . . We'll add five Galleons for the funny wand, then, shall we. . . .

Everyone except Dad and Ludo were now laughing at Amy's silent but furious gestures at Ludo and the twins.

"Your niece is right you know" Dad said to Ludo

"I don't know who you're talking about, Arthur" Ludo said.

I thought this was going too far.

"OI" I yelled at Ludo, but Amy gave me a look that said "Don't bother, mate"

Dad looked on helplessly as Ludo 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 carefully.

Bagman turned most cheerfully back to Dad. "Couldn't do me a brew, I suppose? I'm keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and I can't understand a word he's saying. Barty'll be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."

"Mr. Crouch?" said Percy, suddenly abandoning his look of poker-stiff disapproval and positively writhing with excitement. "He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll . . ."

"Anyone can speak Troll," said Fred dismissively. "All you have to do is point and grunt." Percy threw Fred an extremely nasty look and stoked the fire vigorously to bring the kettle back to the boil.

As Ludo sat down beside Dad, Amy walked over and motioned for him to remove the spell.

"Promise me you won't keep complaining?" Ludo said to her

Amy bit her lip, rolled her eyes and stamped her foot irritably, then nodded.

"Finite" Ludo said

Amy beckoned for Demelza and I to join her inside the girls tent.

"Private word, now!" she said

We followed her inside, and made our way to the very back of the tent. We sat down and Amy cast her own silencing spell in the general vicinity.

"What exactly was so funny?!" she asked us furiously

Immediately Demelza and I felt awkward.

"This is a serious problem Ludo's got, and all you did was laugh along with everyone else!"

"Hey, I objected when he said he didn't know who you were!" I said

"Oh big deal, you still laughed at everything else!"

"Amy, look, we're sorry, ok, we should have been a bit less insensitive!" Demelza said

Amy seemed to reluctantly accept this.

"Has he always been like this?" I asked

Amy sighed, gnawing on her lip.

"Yes" she said. "As if my families difficulties weren't great enough already, I have to constantly watch to make sure he doesn't make us go bankrupt through gambling. Let me tell you, it's been bloody difficult affording all the birthday and Christmas presents for you two so far"

We immediately protested

"There's no need then mate!" I said

"Yeah, focus on yourself, presents for us aren't a priority" Demelza added

"Look, I couldn't do that to you guys, you don't deserve to miss out on things from me when you get stuff for me all the time"

"Then-" I began, but Amy cut me off

"I don't want to hear it. The point is, Ludo has always been reckless like that, both financially and security wise, and every time I try to intervene, he silences me, either figuratively or literally. It's getting to the point where I'm having to consider reporting him to the authorities. I don't want to do that, he's my uncle, and the only family I have left, not counting Sarah. If he gets in trouble with the goblins because I suspect he may be trying to scam them, and you know what they're like, then it will become the biggest nightmare ever! Worse still, he could even end up in Azkaban if he does it to people!"

She started crying at this point.

"I'm so sick of this shit! Why, why, why does everything in my life have to go so badly wrong all the time!"

Demelza and I sat down either side of her, much closer now.

"Whatever happens, you'll always have us mate" Demelza said

"Yeah, we're with you through thick and thin" I said "Andrew, Luna, Magda and Hermione too, trust me, we're not going anywhere"

Amy continued to cry silently for a few minutes, and we let her get it out.

"Come on" Demelza said, helping her to her feet "we've got a big game to watch tonight, let's just focus on that for now, ok?"

She wiped Amy's face with a tissue.

"Thanks guys, as always" she said eventually. "And yeah, I know you and they will always be around, it's... it's just hard, you know?"

"We do mate" I said, "trust me, we do"