IMOGEN WAKES UP TO THE MOON LIGHTING UP HER ROOM and the smell of steamed rice and baked fish tickling her nostrils, making her mouth salivate. She opens her eyes, trying to blink the sleep away, to no avail. She cannot believe Clara's dad convinced her dad that camping in the middle of nowhere in a place filled with mud just to watch some Quidditch match was a good idea, the man doesn't even know what Quidditch is!
But what's done is done, so here she is waking up at the arse crack of dawn to get ready to meet up the Prunet's so they can head to the Quidditch World Cup together. After debating with herself on whether in was a good idea to jump off her window and just run for it, she decides to get dressed and get out of bed to go after the exquisite smell which was the reason she woke up.
"Morning, dad," she greets her father with a kiss on the cheek before sitting on the kitchen table. Her dad stands in front of the stove, cooking up the traditional Japanese breakfast he usually whips up whenever they're together during her time away from Hogwarts: steamed rice (a basic), baked fish (salmon, her favourite, mainly because it doesn't smell as much as any other fish), miso and soup and hard-boiled eggs.
"Morning darling," her dad greets back, joining her at the table, ruffling her hair, to which she swats his hand away, sticking her tongue out at him. "Is that what you're wearing?"
Imogen looks down to her pleated jean miniskirt, white crop top and platform sandals. "Yes, this is what I'm wearing. Why, do I look bad?"
"No, you look gorgeous, as always. I just thought you'd might want to switch the sandals up for hiking boots."
"What?!" the young girl exclaims, her eyes going wide as saucers. "But you said we were taking the car!"
"Yeah... About that..." Harold winces as he looks away from his daughter, feeling guilty about the decision he made without consulting his daughter. "Daniel and I sort of... made some new plans. We're meeting up with some wizards' friends of his in some forest. Dan said we're using something called a Portkey to get to the campsite. It sounded exciting when he explained it so... I said yes."
Imogen couldn't possibly imagine herself getting mad after knowing why the plans got switched up without her knowledge. Her dad, being a muggle, doesn't know much about the wizarding world or magic except for the few things she's explained over the years. She loves him for taking such big interest in her world and her the magic that rests inside her, especially ever since her mum decided to up and leave them for the same reason. "Dad! Why'd you have to be so cute... I can't even get mad at you now. You're emotionally manipulating me is what you're doing."
See, she may not show it much, but she has an exceptionally soft heart. The only two people to know that about her are her father and her bestie, Clara. And she's not planning on letting anyone know anytime soon either, she quite likes having people think she's a cold-hearted bitch at school, less people bother her because of it.
After discussing for a few more minutes, the family of two set the table and begin eating their exceedingly early breakfast (seriously though, having to wake up and eat a large meal so early in the morning must be a crime, she has half a mind to send all the responsible for that straight to Azkaban herself).
All jokes aside, Imogen finds herself enjoying this time with her dad. With her spending so much time away from him because of her studies at Hogwarts, summer break and the Holidays are the only times she gets to see him. And even then, their time together often gets cut short because of her father's job as a flight attendant. So, she does her best to bask in the moment and enjoy every single second spent with him, because she knows she'll come to miss him a whole lot once she's back at Hogwarts.
The Jolie's met up with the Prunet's some time ago and are now making their way up to Merlin knows where to get to the Portkey that's going to take them to the campsite all the people assisting to the Quidditch World Cup are staying at. Imogen's walking alongside her best (and only) friend, Clara. None of them are talking, Imogen because of her sore mood caused by all the walking and her hurting feet (she went with the platform sandals and spoiler alert: it wasn't the wisest choice, but fashion before everything else!). Clara's silence was simply caused by her grogginess. She woke up 10 minutes before she had to leave, and it was showing.
Harold and Daniel, in revanche, looked like they had drunk at least a dozen coffees. They hadn't stopped talking since they met up about everything one could think of, the differences between Muggle and Wizard education, how they liked their morning coffee, scrambled eggs, or omelettes... You name it.
As cute as it was during the first half hour, she quickly got irritated by their constant chatter, and add to that the pain in her feet plus all the shit eating flies that kept swarming at her (which she didn't understand, by the way, she put on her favourite perfume before leaving her house!) and the lack of sleep, she thinks it's safe to say she's a hair away from snapping at someone.
Unfortunately, that poor someone happens to be a tall red head when he accidentally bumps into the girl he hadn't seen, assuming it was only his family and brother's friends in the forest.
"Watch where you're going, you wanker! You almost sent my arse knocking to the ground," cries out Imogen, startled by his presence, having also assumed she wouldn't be seeing anyone in the middle of this creepy forest for at least a couple hours.
"Your fault for even wearing these stilts as shoes in the first place, what kind of nutter wears that to walk in the forest?" asks the twin she assumed to be Fred. She only made that assumption because she knows George has always been the nicer twin. He would've probably asked the same thing without the nutter part.
"A sexy nutter, you arsehole."
"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror this morning?"
"Now, Fred!" Ha. She was right. "Leave this young miss alone and let her come say hi to everyone." A man with red hair sends a scolding look Fred's way, and she assumes it's his father.
She makes her way up the hill where the rest of the Weasley family is standing with her father, Clara, and Daniel. Unsurprisingly, she sees Ron standing with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger a few ways away. Those three are attached by the hip, she swears, worse than Siamese triplets.
After saying hi to everyone and having Ron and Harry gawk at her for a few instants (is it that surprising that she'd be at the Quidditch World Cup?) Arthur Weasley tells the group of 10 people to start looking for the Portkey, which he described as a manky old boot.
They had been looking for a couple of minutes when they heard someone shout out to Mr. Weasley.
"Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!"
She looks over at the man, who must be around the same age as Arthur himself. "Why the hell is he calling him son? They're both old and wrinkly." She mutters to Clara who's been sticking to her side since they joined the large group of people. She gets nervous when she's alone around a too big number of strangers. Clara snorts.
"Amos!" Greets Mr. Weasley when someone drops from a nearby tree. She looks up to the mysterious individual and sees that it's no one else than Pretty Boy Diggory. He's one of the most unattainable students at school (right after herself, of course). Everyone's dying to just get his attention because of his incredibly good looks (hence the nickname) and kind and talented nature. Imogen won't lie, she wouldn't mind getting a piece of that either. Not that she was actively trying, or looking for a relationship either.
"This is Amos Diggory, everyone," introduces Mr. Weasley "He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric?"
"Of course, we know Cedric sir. I think Fred and George might know him best out of all of us, actually." Says Imogen. She remembers Gryffindor losing to Hufflepuff last year on a Quidditch match and the twins being just so mad at Diggory because he caught the snitch. She's never seen such sore losers, it's kind of sad.
"Yeah..." he laughs nervously. "Hi."
Everyone responds, except the twins, which was expected.
"Long walk, Arthur?" Asks Amos.
"Not too bad," replies Arthur "We live just on the other side of the village there. You?"
"Had to get up at two, didn't we, Ced? I tell you; I'll be glad when he's got his Apparition test. Still... not complaining. Quidditch World Cup, wouldn't miss it for a sacksful of Galleons! And the tickets cost about that. Mind you, looks like I got off easy..." He cuts himself off, seeming like he has just taken notice of the many strangers standing in front of him. "All these yours, Arthur?"
"Oh no, only the red heads. Naturally." He chuckles. "This is Harold Jolie and his daughter, Imogen. He's a muggle, so he has a lot of things to tell me!" Mr. Weasley exclaims excitedly, to which some his children roll their eyes. "And this is Daniel Prunet with his daughter Clara, he helps out Xenophilius with the Quibbler."
They all exchange greetings with Amos.
Arthur then proceeds to present his youngest son's best friends. "This is Hermione, a friend of Ron's, and Harry, another friend-"
"Merlin's beard," exclaims Amos, "Harry? Harry Potter?"
Oh, for fuck's sake, here it fucking goes.
"Poor kid never gets a break." Clara speaks for what's probably the first time since they met up. Imogen turns to look at her, raising an eyebrow, signalling for her to continue. "I mean, he's fourteen. Having grown people acting like that towards you has to feel weird, wouldn't it? And add to that the fact that everyone in the Wizarding world knows all about him and already have an opinion on his person... He's lucky to have Hermione and Ron. It must be tough being Potter."
Imogen makes a face, gaping at her best friend, and then opens her mouth in a whisper-screech, as to not alert anyone else. "Clara! You haven't said a word to me in the 3 hours we've been together, and this is what you start with?"
Clara smiles lightly. "Just had to get it off my chest, I guess..."
"I mean, I get what you mean. It must suck to have every single witch and wizard out there scrutinize your every move." She agrees in a soft voice, glancing at the younger boy. He seemed to be extremely uncomfortable with the discussion he was having the Diggory adult. Poor kid.
After a few more moments, Arthur tells everyone to place themselves around the Portkey and Imogen holds back a gag at its sight. It looks like it smells of cheese and sewers, it's just so disgusting. Nonetheless, she motions to her dad to place himself on her left. She feels someone press themselves against her right shoulder and when she looks over, it's none other than Cedric Diggory. She looks him up and down before setting her gaze back on the god-awful boot and placing a finger on it, motioning for her dad to do the same.
Mr. Weasley counts down from three and once he's done, Imogen feels it immediately. She feels herself jolt forward and start spinning wildly, the wind making her hair go in all directions and causing her pleated skirt to rise, probably revealing her arse for all to see. Her father and Cedric won't stop knocking into her smaller frame either and when she looks over at them, she sees that they're struggling to get some of her hair away from their mouths. That's what you get for squeezing me half to death, you ogres, she thinks to herself.
Suddenly, she feels herself touch the ground and she swears she could've kissed. She's never using a Portkey again.
"If I knew I was going to get caught in a fucking tornado, I would've worn some fucking safety shorts!" She exclaims, causing the three girls present to chuckle and everyone else to just look away, uncomfortable. Her dead gives her a small slap on top of her head, telling her to be decent. She sends a small sarcastic smile his way. "Okay, daddy. So tell me, what did you think of your first trip using a Portkey?"
Once they got told the directions to their campsite by a wizard dressed up as a muggle (very poorly, might she add, she had never seen her dad turn so red from keeping his laughter in), the Jolie's and Prunet's met up with a real muggle booking tents, which her dad had to pay since Daniel was getting confused with muggle currency.
After having booked the tents, the party of four made their way to the campsite, trying to find a place to them themselves up in. Imogen looks up at her dad, seeing his eyes wide as saucers.
"This is so weird. Do you people not know what regular tents look like? This is not blending in at all! What kind of tent has a chimney? Bloody hell!" Imogen lets out a loud cackle at her dad's distress, along with Clara's dad. Clara just sends an amused look her friend's way, never one for being loud.
After a couple more minutes of just looking around, they find a perfect spot, just big enough to fit two tents. Imogen and her dad quickly get to work on their own because Clara and Daniel have never dealt with any muggle kind of objects, so them helping was out of the question.
"Alright! The tents are a bit small, girls, so if you wanted to share one together, well... Daniel and I are too big to share one, be too cramped up."
"I don't think we'll be cramped at all, Harold. It's quite the opposite, we've got almost too much room to ourselves. Come and look inside."
Daniel opens the flap, motioning for the teenage girls to go in first. Imogen crouches down and crawls her way inside, and what she sees makes her mouth drop. She didn't just enter a regular tent, no, the thing is a shitting flat. She looks around and sees two doors, leading up to what seems to be two bedrooms and another leading up to a small bathroom. The room she's standing in is completely furnished, there's a small green couch standing in the middle of the room, and the entire thing is carpeted too. She doesn't know what she excepted from a magical tent, but it certainly wasn't this.
After a few seconds, she hears someone gasp loudly. She turns around to see her dad, having the same reaction as her, except times fifty. His eyes keep darting around every single cranny of the tent, not believing what's before him.
"This shite is fucking bonkers. You can't just surprise me like that, Dan. I'm one hair away from going into bloody cardiac arrest." Imogen rolls her eyes at how dramatic he is. No wonder she turned out the way she did, with a dad like this.
"Now where would the fun be in that?"
Once everyone was done with all the theatrics, everyone got settled in the tents, the best friend's fathers agreeing to let their daughters share one (after Harold making sure both girls knew the boys are absolutely forbidden from entering, of course.)
The girls watch their fathers leave and as soon as they both disappear from their sights, they both quickly scramble to pick up their belongings and rush to the bedrooms, both wanting to get the best one.
"Move, you skank!" shouts Imogen, shoving Clara out of the way. Most people would think Imogen is a horrible friend with the way she treats poor, quiet, defenceless little Clara. What most people don't know though is that Clara treats her the exact same way behind closed doors. The two girls act exactly like sisters would, constantly arguing and calling each other horrid names. Anyone who doesn't know them would tell you they're enemies if asked, but it's just their way of showing love to each other.
"No, you move, you trollop!"
first chapter!!! its kinda sucky and i'm not totally satisfied with it so maybe i'll come back and change a few things up, but i'm still publishing it because im just so excited to get this story started!!
not much is happening but we get a pretty good glimpse at imogen's relationship with her dad and her personality, so i hope u liked it :D the next chapter cedric and imogen are gonna have their first proper interaction + we'll get to take a better look at clara and imogen's friendship!
idk when it'll be up though because the only time i can write is on weekends and wednesdays as the rest of my time is taken up by school :/
anyways, have a good day/evening :)!