The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

XCII: Harry Duty

It was the first time Charlie Weasley had ever taken a port key and not fallen down on the other end of it. Bill clapped Charlie on the back, "Hey look at who's still standing up!" he shouted, grinning at his younger brother. It was just the two of them, their father, Mr. Diggory, and Cedric that were up - everyone else was in a great knot of limbs on the ground in the mushy moor moss, groaning as they worked to extricate themselves from each other.

Charlie pulled Ginny up as Bill reached for Ron and Hermione at the same time. Cedric tugged Harry to his feet and Arthur tugged on the arms of his twins, and Mr. Diggory took up Percy.

Harry dusted himself off and looked around as they were welcomed and directed the way to go by the portkey conductors and the whole crowd of them started up over the hill toward the camping site. While Mr. Weasley paid the muggle that owned the field they were camping in, Charlie stood a few feet off, looking around the massive crowd of tents that stretched off all the way to a thick line of trees at the far end, beyond which he could just barely see the flags in the parapets of the World Cup stadium, a magically transportable pitch with a great deal of collapsible spectator seating that the Ministry moved to different locations for each event.

Last year, the World Cup stadium had been erected in Croatia.

Bill threw his arm over Charlie's shoulders, his heavy cologne filling Charlie's nostrils even more than the earthy scent of the fields. "She's over there."

Charlie followed Bill's pointing arm and sure enough, there was Nymphadora Tonks, her hair bright pink, wearing her purple and grey Auror's uniform, laughing and talking to another couple aurors, standing at the edge of the woods to the north side of the field.

"I wasn't looking for Tonks," Charlie said.

Bill laughed, "Of course you weren't. Because Cha-Cha just loves looking over the sight of a sea of humanity."

Charlie groaned, "Don't call me that."

Bill mussed up his brother's hair and drew away, laughing as he turned back to Arthur, who was struggling with the muggle money, being helped by Harry Potter. Charlie rolled his eyes and fixed his hair, grumbling at his brother's retreating back. But if he was being honest, it wasn't like Bill was wrong or anything - Charlie actually had been looking for Tonks, and he really did hate the idea of wading through that whole sea of humanity he was overlooking - as much as anyone would hate the idea of wading into the depths of the ocean without a life vest if they weren't sure whether they could swim.

"Come along, Charlie! Don't want to get separated from the group 'til you see where our campsite is, then we can go off and explore some!" Arthur called jovially.

Charlie kept his eyes on the beacon of pink at the tree line as they walked, not wanting to lose sight of her so he knew where to go when they'd settled in.

Ron was prattling on about Viktor Krum and the twins were teasing him profusely about his admiration as they walked, stepping past ornate tents, glowing fire circles, delicious smelling foods, people selling trinkets, carrying buckets of water, children running after toy snitches, and wizards covered in orange, green, and white body paint screaming in deep accented voices as they hoisted aloft heavy pints of foaming golden beer.

"The Irish know how to party!" Bill commented, smirking.

"Ayyyyy!" the twins chorused.

Charlie was pleased to see they were nearing the line of the woods, not far east of where Tonks stood with the other aurors, and finally Mr. Weasley came to a stop 'round a tiny ten foot square patch of grass, nestled in the middle of about fifteen other tents, already erected and bustling with energy. In the front of the patch was a small sign hammered into the ground that read "WEEZLY".