24/3/25

Sorry for delay. Working on this so much, and wanted them coming back, but felt it was getting too long.

Hopefully Next chapter won't be too far away.

Slowly, Jack, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and made their way through the lines and lines of tents to get to the free standing tap to get water.

They had to stop every now and then to let other wizards pass and not let kids bump into them as they were running around.

One witch was talking harshly to her husband about leaving his wand somewhere their two year old son could get to it, adding something about a slug.

"Um is it me or has everything turned green?" Ron asked blinking and looking around.

This clump of tents were green of all shades with shamrocks here and there, and Irish music was playing not too far off.

"Hey guys!" a voice called out and they all turned to see fellow Gryffindors: Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas.

"Hi," Jack said smiling liking all the decorations to honour Patrick and his brothers.

"Like the decorations?" Seamus asked, grinning. "The Ministry's not too happy."

"Ah why shouldn't we show our colours?" Seamus' mum asked coming over to see her son's friends. "You should see what the Bulgarian's have all over their tents. You'll be supporting Ireland of course?" she asked.

"How long have you been here then?" Jack asked when they all agreed to the forced on question.

"A few days," Seamus said shrugging, dogging a mini Quaffle that was just shot their way by some kids. "Had to get up early on the day we got here, but hey it's the Quidditch World Cup, right?"

"What about you? And where are you going?" Dean asked seeing the pots and buckets.

"We just got here about 10 minutes ago," Jack said, before striking a pose "And we are on a great and noble quest to... The Water Pump." he said pointing in the direction they were heading, getting eye rolls from his friends.

"Well you might want to get there rather quickly then," the voice of a woman – possibly having just come back from the tap seeing as she had a full bucket of water. "There isn't a time restriction on it, but the longer you wait, the more people will ahead of you."

"Good point," Jack said checking his invisible watch. "Well lets get going, then, Sir Lightning Bolt, Sir Whiny Weasel, and Lady Brownie Locks. TO THE PUMP!"

And he set off to cheers and laughter of the kids as he leaped over some of them and dogged others who were playing with that Quaffle from earlier.

All three rolling their eyes, and mumbling about their names, Harry, Ron and Hermione said goodbye and set off after him, at a more... relaxed and steady pace.

Once they were far enough away, and caught up to Jack, Hermione said: "I wonder what the Bulgarians have all over their tents for Mrs Finnegan to say that."

"Let's go and see," Harry said pointing to a patch of red tents most of which were showing off the Bulgarian flag.

As they passed through the village of canvas' they saw that almost all the tents were showing off the same face of a man in red and black flying-robes on a broomstick.

"Krum," Ron said quietly.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Krum." Ron repeated. "Victor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker."

"He must be really good to have this many fans showing his image off." Jack said counting quickly and getting to about 15 in that patch alone.

"Po-dobre vyarvaĭ, che e dobŭr, momche." a voice said the doorway to a tent beside Jack. (You better believe he's good, boy.) "Toĭ e naĭ-mladiyat tŭrsach, koĭto otborŭt na stranata ni e imal ot nad 30 godini. Samo na 18, oshte uchi." (He's the youngest seeker our country's team has had in over 30 years. Only 18, still in school.)

"E, nashiyat priyatel Khari tuk e naĭ-mladiyat tŭrsach na kŭshta v Khoguort·s ot edin vek." Jack replied smiling placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and spinning him around to face the man. "Toĭ ima svoya sobstvena Firebolt i strakhoten ekip, koĭto da go podkrepya" (Well our friend, Harry, here, is the youngest Hogwarts House Seeker in a century. He has his own Firebolt and a great team to back him up.)

"Um Jack what are you doing? What are you saying to him?" Harry asked worried.

"Telling him how great a Seeker you are," Jack said.

Looking Harry over, the man who looked of some form of importance gave a smile.

"Then I is hoping you grow up to play Victor one day," he said surprising them, but gaining smiles in return, before they continued on their way.

"Ok dude what exactly did you say to him?" Ron asked in a harsh whisper as they got going again.

"He was saying how great this Krum guy is so I just told him how Harry was the youngest Hogwarts House Seeker in a century." Jack replied shrugging, pausing to let some nice looking girls pass.

"How do you know Bulgarian?" Hermione asked as they neared the tap. "Follow up question, how can you speak it?"

"To answer both those questions," Jack said stretching himself a little, giving him time to think of an answer "You can learn a lot of things when you're on your own for long enough."

Frowning because that wasn't an answer, but giving up, Hermione turned to see how many people were ahead of them in the line.

Despite what that woman said from the Irish tents there didn't seem that many there.

"Must have come at the right moment then," Harry said smiling as they step forward, one man away from the tap.

Once he was gone, the group set their containers down and turned the tap on filling them up 3/4 of a way so not to lose any by accidental sloshing on the way back to the tent.

On the way back they came across a few more friends – one of which was Oliver Wood, Gryffindor's old Quidditch Capitan who wanted to introduce Harry and Jack to his parents, while also commenting how he was a reserve for Puddlemere United.

They were almost back when Harry pointed to a group of people chatting together possibly about the upcoming game.

"Who do you think they are? They don't go to Hogwarts do they?"

"Probably go to some foreign school," Ron said shrugging. "I know there are some, Bill had a pen-pal in Brazil years and years ago... and wanted to do an exchange trip to meet them, but mum and dad couldn't afford it. The pen-pal got all offended and sent him a cursed hat that made his ears shrivel up."

"Well if the pen-pal wanted to meet Bill so much, why didn't he come over here when he learnt Bill couldn't go over there?" Jack asked rolling his eyes. "Seriously you Wizards and your tempers..."

Harry had a surprised look on his face, but now he thought about it and going by the number of people who were here, he thought it was rather dumb to think Hogwarts was the only wizarding school in the world there was.