"𝙄 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩."
☟︎☟︎☟︎
"Come on Cherry!" my brother hollered from the bottom of the staircase, "if you don't stop pissing about, were gunna be late!"
He'd been repeating this exact act for the past ten minutes: yelling for me to hurry up so we weren't late.
I let out a loud grumble, letting my hair fall out of my hands. "I'm coming," I screamed back at my sibling, the anger clear in my tone of voice.
It was still very early and the sun was still rising in the distance. My family and I were meeting the Weasley's before the Quidditch World Cup, however we needed to wake up extra early so we would be on time. I had seen the Weasley children a few times around Hogwarts, especially Ron since he was in a few of my classes. I was thrilled about going to the World Cup and didnt want the Weasleys to think we were scruffs so I was eager to present myself in the best possible light. I was dressed casually in a pair of blue jeans, a multicoloured sweater (tucked in) with a brown belt and a pair of old, white, converse trainers.
My skin was still a little tanned from the summer and my face had a few sun born freckles. My brunette hair was neatly brushed, in a half up half down style and I had a pair of black converse on my feet.
I snatched the backpack from my bed before slinging it over my shoulder and running downstairs to my dad and brother. My dad was at the door with the keys ready in his hand and my brother was impatiently waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
"Okay I'm ready jeez," I huffed and ran out the door of our home. We lived in the countryside, surrounded by nature. It wasn't actually that far away from the Weasleys house. A lot of magical people lived out of the way of muggles most of the time. Our house had two floors with a basement and an attic. My brothers bedroom was below the ground floor however dads bedroom was on the top floor and mine in the attic.
We walked along the cobbled stone path through the woods, on our way to meet the Weasley's for the Quidditch World Cup. I could not wait. I've been obsessed with quidditch ever since I was eight years old. My brother had taught me how to play it during the winter break of his first year. But not only was I going to my first ever quidditch game, but my dads been talking none stop about this family, and I just hope they're as nice as he says they are.
After an entire hour of boring walking, we finally made it to a large clearing in the forest. Red and brown leaves were scattered along the floor around us, since it was almost the beginning of autumn, and a large oak tree stood proudly in the middle of it. The air was humid, however it was beginning to cool down.
"We're waiting for them here," my dad announced, "they shouldn't be too long."
I looked up at the large tree above us, branches spread in all directions. You could see the colour of the leaves changing throughout. The wind was mild. The sun was still out and the squirrels were jumping across the branches aimlessly, carrying as much food as they could. I smirked as I peered up at Cedric and he had the exact same look on his face.
Sometimes it scared me how similar we can be.
"We're gunna climb the tree dad," Cedric grinned and we both ran over to the tree, beginning to clamber our way to the top of it.
It took us a while to get up there, but when we did, we sat down on the thickest branch, dangling our feet off the edge. Cedric and I talked and laughed while we waited for the Weasley's. My brother and I were quite close. We haven't always been, but ever since our mum got put in hospital we've needed to be there for each other. We love each other a lot, in a sibling way of course.
"Arthur!" Our dad beamed, standing up from the ground. He had been sat on the ground beside the tree while we waited, fiddling with good pocket watch.
"The Weasley's are here," I muttered over at Cedric as a large group of people started making their way towards us. I was about to get down but my brother stopped me.
"Wait," he put his arm in front of me, stopping me from jumping down, "not yet."
I knew what he was planning and it made me smirk as we looked down at them from the tree. "It's about time son," my dad sighed as they approached one another.
"Sorry Amos," the tall ginger man apologised, "some of us had a bit of a sleepy start."
He looked back at one of his kids, Ron, who was in my year at school, was yawning like crazy and looked very tired. Next to him was a tall-ish raven haired boy with round glasses. I knew he wasn't a Weasley, since it was kind of obvious and he had fluffy black hair that looked rather overgrown. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn't quite put my finger in it. I couldn't see him that well from here but he was rather handsome.
There were three other kids who looked to belong to Arthur Weasley. A set of twins o new to be Fred and George Weasley, and a young girl, I knew to be Ginny Weasley, in year below me. The last person was a girl with curly, light brown hair. I knew she wasn't a Weasley, but I recognised her from a few of my classes.
"It's alright Arthur, kids are kids right," my dad sighed.
He's talking about me.
I rolled my eyes. I just like to sleep in okay, is that a problem?
"Indeed, this is Amos Diggory everyone," Mr Weasley introduced my dad to his kids, "works with me at the Ministry."
"Now," Cedric whispered and we both jumped down at the same time, landing on our feet in front of Arthur Weasley, causing many of the other kids to jump a little.
"And you strapping young man must be Cedric am I right?" Mr Weasley shook my brothers hand.
"Yes sir."
He then turned to me with a smile, "And you gorgeous young lady must be Charlotte ."
"I am," I smiled and shook his hand, "but everyone calls me Cherry."
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Cherry."
"This way," my brother said, pointing in the direction of the forest. And within seconds, we all began to move again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the two girls look over at my brother then at each other and smile, blushing. I honestly wanted to throw up. I now recognised the curly haired girl more up close. Her name was Hermione Granger. She was a Muggleborn Gryffindor in my year. She was in a lot of my classes including my Muggle Studies class last year, however I believe she dropped out at the end of the year.
"You must be Harry Potter," I heard my dad yell, grabbing my attention. Harry Potter. I thought I recognised that boy. Harry Potter was a famous Wizard, who defeated You-Know-Who back when he was only an infant. He was also the Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team at Hogwarts. Hufflepuff had played against him last year and he fell almost a hundred feet to the ground after being attacked by a dementor.
I made my way over to the boy with a smile.
"Amos Diggory," he shook Harry's hand, "pleasure."
"Oh and this is my daughter Charlotte Diggory, but we call her Cherry for short" my dad put a hand on my back and I held my hand out.
"It's nice to meet you officially," I smiled sweetly, holding out my hand for him to shake and he just stared at me, keeping eye contact for a little longer than I expected. Now I was up close I could see him better. His figure was a little muscled and he was quite a bit taller than me. But it didn't take much to be taller than me. He had bright blue eyes and round black glasses. His smile was gorgeous and his cheeks were slightly rosy, which I thought was really cute. He also had a rather large lightning bolt scar which was slightly covered by his long fluffy hair.
"Erm - yeah, it-it's nice to meet you too," he smiled, looking into my eyes as he shook my hand. His hands were big compared to my small delicate ones. His were large and incredibly soft, for some reason, I could feel heat rise up to my cheeks.
My dad went ahead, leaving Harry and I to walk behind. Why dad why? Is he trying to get me in uncomfortable situations?
The two of us trudged behind everyone, both of us creating small talk as much as we could.
"We have met before," I chuckled nervously, "although you may not remember. During the Hufflepuff verses Gryffindor Quidditch match last year. I'm a chaser on the Hufflepuff team, and my brothers the seeker. We're also in quite a few lessons together."
Harry stared at me wide eyed, a slight smirk on his face and I sighed, covering my face with my hands.
"Sorry," I apologised, "that sounded proper stalker-ish of me didn't it?"
Harry chuckled, shaking his head, "no it's okay, I totally understand."
It was a weird conversation, with a weird amount of eye contact. Although he did seem quite nice, which honestly isn't what I was expecting. He also introduced me to Ron and Hermione officially. I think it's safe to say I was very interested in what it was like for Hermione to grow up with Muggles. And it turns out Ron and I both shared a quality for always being hungry, which I found rather funny.
When we finally made it to the edge of the woods, we climbed up a large hill. At the top, a portkey was waiting for us. This time it was a brown boot. We all sat down around it in a circle, placing a hand on top.
"Everyone get into a good position," Mr Weasley instructed us all. Of course, Cedric and I had done this many of times before, so we knew what to do.
"Why are they all standing around that manky old boot?" Harry asked the twins and they responded with a small chuckle.
"That's not just any manky old boot mate," One of the Ginger twins answered as he walked by. I think it was Fred.
"It's a portkey," The other twin, George, added and walked over to the boot and knelt down between Fred and his sister Ginny.
"Come on," I beckoned Harry over and he knelt down beside me, confused. I placed my hand on the boot along with everyone else and my dad counted down with a loud voice.
"Ready everyone?!" My dad yelled, staring down at the pocket watch in his opposite hand, "one, two-"
"Harry," I yelled, noticing he didn't have his hand on the boot. He immediately panicked and placed his hand in top of the boot, everyone immediately flying up into the air.
Everyone screamed as we spun around frantically up into the clouds, our feet leaving the ground. I could feel Harry and Cedric on either side of me, their shoulders banging into mine. We were all speeding towards the sky in a howl of wind and swirling colours. A huge flash of light caused my eyes to squeeze closed and when I opened them, I knew exactly what we were to do.
"Let go kids," Mr Weasley yelled.
"What?!" Hermione screamed, and his kids stared at him confused.
"Let go!" I yelled, causing everyone, including myself, to immediately take their hand off the portkey. There was another flash of light and I fell to the ground, my dad, Mr Weasley and Cedric beside me, all of us still standing, though looking very windswept. Everyone else thudded down on the ground groaning from landing on their backs.
"Bet that cleared your sinuses ey?" My dad joked, brushing his clothes down. I giggled and walk up to Harry holding my hand out for him to take, offering a helping hand. He took my hand, allowing me to help him up and I beckon him to follow me.
"Come on," I beamed, running up towards everyone else, "this way."
Our group climbed up to the edge of the hill we had landed on. Looking over the hill, we saw the beginning of the World Cup. We saw tents being set up, people gathering everywhere, chatting to one another. We all began to make our way though. People were outside cooking, kids were playing. Banners were hung, tents were full of decorations supporting the two teams. It made me even more excited than I already was.
We finally made our way to the tents and bid farewell to the Weasley's and friends. My dad lead Cedric and I to our tent which had a sign above it saying 'Digorey'. The tent was small on the outside, only about ten foot wide and ten foot long. I turned to Cedric with a confused face, who also had confusion across his face. We had booked this tent for one night, and it didn't even look big enough to put two beds in, never mind three.
"Don't be fooled kids," our father chuckled, "go on inside."
After brief hesitation, I reluctantly opened the tent and stepped inside. I gasped, to find that our tent was huge on the inside. In fact, it looked almost exactly like our house at home. The living room was the same, two brown leather couches faced each other to the left of us, a dark brown coffee table between them. Beige knitted blankets lay folded across the back of the sofas across from the fireplace. To the right a small kitchen, very much similar to the one we have at home, with a circle shaped dining table along with it. A small bathroom and three separate bedrooms ahead of us, one for me, one for dad and one for Ced. I gaped around, my mouth open wide with shock.
"Wow," I gasp in awe.
"I second that," Cedric chuckled behind me.
I immediately skipped over to my bedroom to sort my things out. My bedroom was quite similar to the one I had at home. Although it was a little smaller, and there were no windows considering it was a tent. There was a small dresser to the left and a small single bed to the right, which I placed my bag onto and jumped up, laying back and taking everything in.
It's always been my dream to play for a national quidditch team. And now I get to watch an actual game. And not the stupid little ones they host at school, a proper one. Ireland vs Belgium. Britain hasn't hosted the World Cup in thirty years. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I love quidditch so much. I have posters in my room at home. Mostly of the Appleby Arrows since they're my favourite team, but I also have a poster of the Bulgarian seeker Victor Krum. He's the best seeker in the world. And very good looking might I add. I'm on the Hufflepuff team as Hogwarts, chaser. I have been for two years. My brothers the seeker and captain. We always practice and come up with new plays together at home and it's the best thing ever.
I couldn't wait for the quidditch World Cup to start. It was like I had ants in my pants, jumping around every ten seconds. I was so excited I couldn't breath.
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