"𝘿𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙥𝙞𝙙,"
"Well it's not first class, but it'll do," my dad beamed at me as I walked back into the main lounge area. Cedric was browsing the kitchen for snacks, and I walked over to the kitchen, joining him.
"We'll need some water of course," dad continued, and then turned to both his kids, who at the moment were stuffing their faces with bread rolls, "Cherry, Ced, why don't you both go get some firewood and some water?"
Cedric and I looked at each other.
"Well we'll go get the water but dad," Ced spoke after finishing the food in his mouth, "but we have an oven, why do we have to-"
Cedric was cut off by my dad. "This is how the muggles do it," he said matter of factly, "camping, so, firewood." My dad had a very enthusiastic grin on his face cause Ced and I to chuckle.
"Come on Cherry," Cedric beckoned me to follow him out the tent and we said goodbye to dad, making our way to the firewood stockpile.
We both grabbed as much firewood as we could carry and made our way back to the tent, not that far away from the stock and made a pile of firewood outside.
"Here you go dad, there are some matches in the kitchen, you can use them to start the fire while Chez and I go get some water," Cedric informed our dad and he nodded, thanking us and making his way into the kitchen to grab the matches.
Ced and I made our way in the opposite direction of the stockpile, towards the clean water taps. We both grabbed some large buckets, Cedric taking two and one for myself. We waited in the cue and then filled them all up. Cedric held them both in his arms, and I situated my bucket resting on my chest, holding the bottom with my hands. I could barely see over the top of the heavy metal bucket, but managed to move it around a little so I could see better.
Cedric, seeing me struggling, spoke up, "you okay carrying that?"
"Yeah, I'm good," I replied, finally managing to carry it properly.
"You sure? I can go put these in the tent and come back if you want?" He offered, but I shook my head.
"I'm fine Ced," I replied, beginning to walk on, back to the tent. On our journey back, we noticed everyone finally coming out of their tents. Many decorations had been hung up, celebrating the two teams playing in the Quidditch final.
My arms had begun to get very tired by this point. I could barely hold the large bucket up against my chest.
"Nick!" I heard Cedric yell, making his way over to the space to the right of us. His best friend Nick Taylor was also here. His parents were setting up their tent, while Nick was on the floor setting up the fire. I followed Cedric over to him.
"Hey man how are you?" Ced beamed, nodding his head up at his mate, unable to shake his hand because they were otherwise occupied. Nick stood up with a beaming smile.
"Cedric, my guy!" Nick called, "business good as usual. Dad got tickets through work."
"Yeah same here."
The two chatted for a bit, and I looked around at the surroundings, deciding to see what others were up to at this very moment. I then caught a glimpse of Harry, Ron and Hermione, causing me to double take. The three of them were also holding water buckets, chatting to a familiar face. I recognised him as Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor lad in my year with an unmistakable Irish accent. He was in a few of my classes at school.
Harry looked over at me and I smiled, taking my hand off the bucket slightly to wave. His face turned a bright crimson red and he looked around to see if I was actually waving at him. He offered me an awkward smile and tried to wave, but ended up spilling a little water down his front, causing me to giggle.
"Cherry," Nicks voice caused me to look back at both boys.
"Oh, hey Nick," I smiled, "how are you?"
Both Cedric and Nick looked over at Harry, who was now looking the other way, Ron smirking at him.
"Good, you?" He smiled, looking down at me and I nodded with a smile.
"Well, we should get going," Cedric finally spoke, "hopefully dads not burnt down the tent yet." My arms were close to breaking off. This bucket was getting heavier and heavier by the minute.
"I'll see you guys at school," Nick smiled, waving us off.
"See you mate," Ced nodded, setting back off in a walk.
"Bye," I spoke sweetly, earning a nod and a smirk from Nick and I followed Ced back to the tent.
"So what's the deal with that Potter kid," he spoke up, both of us nearing close to the tent.
"What do you mean?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowed. Although I did notice a little warm spread to my cheeks, hopefully going unnoticed my Cedric.
"Come on Cherry, I saw you two waving at each other," he continued and I gave him an annoyed look.
"I was being nice," I replied with a whiny tone, "you know, tryna make a new friend." Cedric gave me a look and sighed, shaking his head.
"Think he's got a bit more than friendship on his mind," he commented. I wanted so badly to hit him.
"Don't be stupid," I mumbled and Cedric shook his head once more, "I've only just met him."
"Cherry look," he sighed, looking a little uncomfortable, "I know....I know your getting older and-"
"Oh for god sake Ced-" I cut him off, groaning, but he cut me off in return.
"No, you need to hear this," he sighed again before continuing,"I know your getting older, and I know things are changing, and as much as I...hate the thought of you with boys...I know it's gunna happen eventually. And I just want you to be careful."
It did mean a lot that he cared. Even though it honestly was annoying how protective he can be at times. But he was my brother and I was glad to have a brother who actually cared, rather than one who didn't care at all.
"I know..and I will be," I smiled, "you don't have to worry."
Cedric and I had now made our way to the tent and saw dad outside, messing around with the matches box.
"Hey dad," I smiled, "you not got the fire started yet?" Cedric and I placed the water jugs down on the floor.
"Oh, sorry," he replied, "can't quite figure out how to get this working."
I let out a groan of happiness after placing the bucket down, spreading my arms out. "It's like I'm flying," I joked and Cedric laughed, shaking his head.
"Here dad I'll do it," I said, leaning down and taking the box from him. I did Muggle studies at School, so I had learnt how to do all this kind of stuff. Normally wizards would just use magic to light the fire, but because of the Quidditch Cup, we were already attracting enough Muggle attention as it is, so we had to do this without wands.
I struck the match across the side of the box, lighting it, and throwing the match onto the wood, the pit catching fire. The three of us sat outside, on some foldable chairs. It took around an hour to get the fire hot enough to cook anything so while we waited I made a cup of tea for everyone. We sat around and drank our tea, talked for a while. Dad cooked us egg and bacon sandwiches, which were delicious, and we had a good time just laughing and joking around.
Soon, salesmen were apparating every few feet, appearing with large trolleys full of nicknacks and extraordinary merchandise. There were tall green leprechaun hats that had dancing shamrocks on them and luminous rosettes - green for Ireland and red for Bulgaria. Bulgarian scarves adorned with lions that really roared, flags from both countries which played their national anthems as they were waved, there were tiny models of Firebolts, which really flew, and collectible figures of famous players, which strolled across the palm of your hand, preening themselves.
"I've been saving my pocket money all summer for this," I beamed with excitement.
"Same," Cedric chuckled as we strolled through the salesmen, buying souvenirs of all kinds. Cedric and I both bought ourselves a dancing shamrock hat and a large green rosette each. We also bought a rosette for dad and Cedric also bought a small figurine of Ireland's Seeker Aidan Lynch. The miniature Lynch figure walked backwards and forwards over Cedric's hand, smiling up at the green rosette above him.
"Wow! Look at these things!" I gasped, hurrying over to a cart, stocked full with what looked like brass binoculars, except that they were covered in all sorts of weird knobs and dials. I held them up to my eyes, looking through them up at Cedric, his head looking rather smaller than usual.
"Wrong way round you muppet," he laughed, taking them from me and turning them round the right way. He then rubbed the top of my head with his hand, messing up my hair and I chuckled, smoothing it down.
"Omnioculars," said the sales wizard eagerly, "you can replay action, slow everything down, and they flash up a play-by-play breakdown if you need it. Bargain - Ten Galleons each."
Cedric and I looked at each other, excitedly and took ten more galleons each out of our money sacks. "We'll both take a pair," Cedric beamed and the salesman took our money, both of us picking up a pair of binoculars and hanging them around our necks.
Our money bags considerable lighter, we made our way back to the tent and gave Dad his rosetta. I was in the middle of having a chat with dad when a booming gong sounded from in the trees, lighting a path to the pitch.
"It's time!" Our dad beamed, looking just as excited as Ced and I, "come on, let's go!"
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