Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Thirty-Five

"I wonder what the Bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents?" said Hermione.

"Let's go and have a look," said Harry, pointing to a large patch of tents upfield, where the Bulgarian flag - white, green, and red - was fluttering in the breeze.

The tents here had not been bedecked with plant life, but each and every one of them had the same poster attached to it, a poster of a very surly face with heavy black eyebrows. The picture was, of course, moving, but all it did was blink and scowl.

"Krum," said Ron quietly.

"What?" said Hermione.

"Krum!" said Ron. "Viktor Krum!"

"Ron, I don't know who that is."

"He's the Bulgarian Seeker," I explained.

"He looks really grumpy," said Hermione, looking around at the many Krums blinking and scowling at them. I smirked at Hermione's observation.

"'Really grumpy?" Ron raised his eyes to the heavens. "Who cares what he looks like? He's unbelievable. He's really young too. Only just eighteen or something. He's a genius, you wait until tonight, you'll see."

There was already a small queue for the tap in the corner of the field. The four of us 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. The latter 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 old Archie in indignation. "I like a healthy breeze 'round my privates, thanks."

I let out an embarrassingly loud snort and erupted into such a strong fit of laughter that Hermione, who was also giggling, had to pull me away from the line.

After getting the water, we headed back, walking more slowly now, because of the weight of the water. We made our way back through the campsite. Here and there, we saw more familiar faces: other Hogwarts students with their families.

Oliver Wood, the old captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who had just left Hogwarts, dragged Harry and I over to his parents' tent to introduce us.

"Oh, and you'll never believe it," he told us. "I've just been signed to the Puddlemere United reserve team!"

"That's great, Oliver!" I exclaimed, hugging him. "I'm so happy for you!"

Next we were hailed by Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff fourth year, and a little farther on they saw Cho Chang, a very pretty girl who played Seeker on the Ravenclaw team. She waved and smiled at Harry, who spilled quite a lot of water down his front as he waved back. I nudged him and smirked, wiggling my eyebrows teasingly. Harry elbowed me and hurriedly pointed out a large group of teenagers.

"Who d'you reckon they are?" he said. "They don't go to Hogwarts, do they?"

" 'Spect they go to some foreign school," said Ron. "I know there are others. Never met anyone who went to one, though. Bill had a penfriend at a school in Brazil ... this was years and years ago ... and he wanted to go on an exchange trip but Mum and Dad couldn't afford it. His penfriend got all offended when he said he wasn't going and sent him a cursed hat. It made his ears shrivel up."