An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Nine

The three Ministry wizards kept talking, and Crouch didn't even look at Percy as he took the teacup from him.

"I expect you'll both be glad when this is over?" asked Mr. Weasley, trying to ease the tension between Crouch and Bagman. They had very different styles, and it seemed to cause quite a bit of friction.

"Glad! I don't know when I've had more fun..." said Bagman, looking shocked at the idea. "Still, it's not as though we haven't got anything to look forward to, eh, Barty? Eh? Plenty left to organize, eh?"

I actually though Crouch might commit murder on the spot.

"We agreed not to make the announcement until all the details—"

"Oh details! They've signed, haven't they? They've agreed, haven't they? I bet you anything the kids'll know soon enough anyway. I mean, it's happening at Hogwarts—"

Now my interest was piqued. I temporarily stopped glaring at Crouch to focus on Bagman. Whatever he said next, I wanted to make sure I heard it.

Before Bagman could really give anything away, Crouch interrupted him, giving me another reason to glare.

"Ludo, we need to meet the Bulgarians, you know," Crouch barked, cutting off Bagman and shutting down any further discussion. "Thank you for the tea, Weatherby."

He shoved the full teacup back at Percy without even looking at him, and I couldn't help it. I snorted in disgust.

This finally got Crouch's attention. He turned and looked at me, as though noticing me for the first time. I didn't even blink. I stared him down, and although he didn't flinch, I felt confident he got the message: I didn't like him.

"Have we met?" he asked, looking confused.

"Yup." No further explanation.

"Hmm. I can't say I remember."

"Why am I not surprised?"

By this time Bagman had gotten to his feet, and his cheerful, oblivious attitude glossed right over all the tension.

"See you all later!" he bellowed, beaming around at all of us. "You'll be up in the top box with me—I'm commentating!"

Crouch looked away from me as soon as Bagman spoke, and the two men said their goodbyes before disapparating on the spot.

"What was that all about?" asked Ginny, leaning over to me again once the two men had gone.

"He's a jerk and I don't like him," I answered simply.

"What's happening at Hogwarts, Dad?" asked Fred, quickly addressing the most important issue. "What were they talking about?"

"You'll find out soon enough," answered Mr. Weasley with a cryptic smile.

"It's classified information, until such time as the Ministry decides to release it," Percy piped up. "Mr. Crouch was quite right not to disclose it."

"Oh shut up, Weatherby," Fred shot back. Percy blushed again, but the conversation quickly moved on.

Crouch and Bagman were both put out of our minds as the afternoon turned to night. The excitement hit a tipping point, and wizards started popping in and out everywhere you looked, selling all kinds of merchandise and Quidditch equipment for both teams.

Fred and George had given literally everything they had to Bagman, so while they weren't looking I bought the three of us these cool wizarding binoculars that did play-by-play analysis and basically recorded the match. All the Weasleys were sporting green and white for Ireland, so I decided to follow their lead with enough spirit gear to deck out me and the twins.