"This would be a whole lot easier if we could just use magic," chuckled Mr Cameron, looking down at the tents crumpled on the ground before them.
"Dang muggles," said Roderick, rubbing the back of his head as he regarded the complicated objects.
Since there were so many witches and wizards on Muggle land, no magic was allowed. This made things quite difficult for wizards who relied on Magic at home.
"Just use your wand," muttered Benjamin. "No ones looking!"
Roderick looked like he was going to agree, but Mr Cameron waved a finger at his son reprovingly. "Ah, ah, ah. No cheating. Everyone else is struggling, and so will we. Why don't you and Viola go get some water, I'm sure there's a pump around here somewhere, then I'll start breakfast."
Viola gave a start and looked around. She had been preoccupied taking in her surroundings. Despite the fact that no Magic was allowed, some of the tents were quite extravagant. One had a balcony going off of it, and another was shimmering with stars.
Benjamin looked at Viola and shrugged. "Alright."
Mr Cameron handed them both a pot, and a map which marked the nearest water tap. With those in tow, Viola set off after the older boy across the campsite. She felt slightly nervous. She didn't do very well around strangers as she could never think of something to say. Luckily Benjamin seemed far from shy.
"So," he said, slowing down so they could walk side by side. "You go to Hogwarts?"
Viola nodded. "Yes. I'm a third year."
"Fifth," said Benjamin, "What house?"
"Slytherin," said Viola.
"Ahh," said the boy, his face lighting up. "A rival! I'm a Gryffindor."
Viola wasn't sure what to say to that. She knew a pretty solid rivalry existed between most of the students from Slytherin and Gryffindor, and sure some students annoyed her (like Colin, Wish, and Pamela) but she wasn't really rivalrous towards anyone on Gryffindor - except Ginny Weasley.
Benjamin seemed to sense that he'd made Viola feel weird, because he laughed and said, "Don't worry. We're not in school right now, so it's okay for us to talk - I suppose."
Viola gave a small, slightly nervous laugh.
Around them, the campsite was beginning to wake up. The mist was rising with the sun, and now the sea of tents was visible whichever way you looked. There were all sorts of people there in all different ages, from elderly witches and wizards to tiny children. Some were setting up tents, while others, who had arrived days, maybe even weeks before, were emerging from their tents, yawning and rubbing their eyes.
Viola and Benjamin made their way past a group of teenage witches blasting the Weird Sisters out of a wireless. The air smelled strongly of a potion used to ward away annoying bugs such as mosquitos.
They were just making their way through the realm of the campers supporting the Irish (everything was green), when a voice called, "Oi! Ben! Over here!"
Viola looked around to see a group of teenage boys sitting out side one of the green tents. The recognized one of them as Grady McLaggen, the boy Ginny Weasley had hexed last year, and another was Grady's older brother, Cormac.
"Oh, hi," said Ben, changing direction and heading straight for the group of teenage boys.
With much trepidation, Viola followed. Cormac stood and shook Ben's hand firmly. "Good to see you Ben," he glanced at Viola, "Who's this? Your girlfriend?"
Viola blushed as all the boys turned to look at her. Ben laughed, "No. This is Viola, the daughter of my Dad's friend from the ministry."
"Oh. Excellent. My father also works at the ministry," said Cormac, "You're supporting Ireland, aren't you?"
Ben nodded. Viola squirmed uncomfortably knowing her father supported Bulgaria.
The boys completely ignored Viola as they began to talk and joke in loud voices. She stood off to the side awkwardly, waiting for Benjamin to finish up talking so they could go fetch some water.
The sun was rising higher and higher in the sky, and more and more people were flooding out onto the campsite.
When Benjamin finally finished gossiping with his friends, he apologized to Viola for making her wait, then they set off again. They finally reached the water tap to find that there was already a queue building. Viola and Ben quickly joined it.
"Looks like it will be a bit of a wait," said Ben with a sigh.
Viola nodded. She began to look around, watching the different people gathering behind them with interest. There was a group of girls speaking what sounded like German, and behind them a old man in a flowered nightgown. He seemed to be arguing with another man about putting on a pair of trousers.
"I bought this in a Muggle shop," the old man said stubbornly. "Muggles wear them."
"Muggle women wear them, Archie, not men, they wear these!" the other man said, thrusting the trousers at Archie.
"I'm not putting them on," said Archie. "I like a healthy breeze 'round my privates thanks."
Viola had to quickly look away from this scene to hide her giggles.
And behind old Archie . . . Viola felt her face turn red as she made eye-contact with a boy who had messy hair and round glasses. Harry Potter. He was standing with his friend Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger had just darted out of the queue. Harry quickly looked away.
Viola used to fancy Harry, but after he beat Slytherin in a match, she had decided she didn't like him anymore. But now the grudge at Harry for winning had faded far away . . .
Viola continued to steal glances at the boy while they waited. It wasn't too long before there turn at the water pump came. After they had filled their buckets up with water, they headed past the rest of the queue.
"Well if it's isn't Viola Lestrange," said a very cool voice.
Viola halted and looked around. A girl with a freckled face, long brown hair and sharp green eyes had just stepped out from the queue. Morgana Rosier. And beside her was Bertha Bulstrode. Two people Viola was incredibly un-fond of.
"Oh," said Viola, staring at the two. "Morgana. Bertha."
"Wow," said Morgana, rolling her eyes. "She remembers our names. So, set any boggart's on anyone recently?"
"No," said Viola coldly, folding her arms across her chest. She'd forgotten that Morgana and Bertha didn't know that Ava Scarlett was the one who'd been in control of the boggart. And seeing as Ava was Viola's friend, Viola had no intentions of doing her in.
Suddenly Bertha's jaw dropped and she stared at Viola in awe.
"Wait, is your mom here?" Bertha asked. "Can we meet her?"
Viola's chest filled with panic as she remembered the small lie she'd told her fellow Slytherins concerning the fact that Bellatrix Lestrange was her mother.
Viola was spared the difficulty of coming up with a answer by Morgana turning to Bertha and saying, "Don't be stupid! Of course not! Her mother's in Azkaban! Remember?"
"Oh . . . right," said Bertha, her face falling.
Relief flushed over Viola as she remembered that her aunt and uncle were in prison.
"Wait," said Morgana, suddenly frowning. "Who are you here with if both your parents are in Azkaban?"
"Uhh, my Uncle," Viola lied. She turned to Benjamin who was looking back and forth between the three girls."Come on Benjamin, we should go."
Viola turned away from Morgana's suspicious glare, and headed back towards camp. Ben hurried after her.
"What was that all about?" he asked.
"It was nothing," Viola said, hurriedly avoiding the conversation.
"But . . . Roderick's your dad isn't he?" continued Benjamin. "He's not in Azkaban though . . ."
"I know," said Viola. She was walking at a rapid pace.
"Then why'd you say-"
"I said it's nothing," Viola said rather sharply.
"Slow down will you?" said the boy, grabbing her arm.
Viola turned to face him. He lifted his eyebrows at her and guessed, "Enemies of yours?"
Viola shrugged. "More or less."
Benjamin nodded. "Alright I won't ask anymore questions. Let's head back to camp."
🦇🦇🦇
After helping the twins and her father gather wood and Harry, Ron, and Hermione came back from fetching water, Ginny sat down by the fire Hermione was currently helping her father to light with matches (Arthur Weasley had his heart set on the whole Muggle experience).
They still had about an hour to wait for breakfast, but Ginny wasn't bored as she joked with the twins, watched Harry out of the corner of her eye, and her father kept up a running commentary on the Ministry wizards passing by. They'd just got started frying the eggs and sausage when Bill, Charlie and Percy arrived after Apparating onto the campsite.
The day went by surprisingly fast. Ginny and the rest of them met several important wizards (including Barty Crouch -Percy's boss- and Ludo Bagman who was head of the Sports Department at the ministry, and who'd got them their tickets. The latter of the men wasted no time in getting Fred and George caught up in a bet), and Ginny saw several people she knew from school when she took a walk around the camp with Fred and George.
She ran into Luna Lovegood who'd been on the campsite for over a week; Wish Proctor and Pamela Vance (they immediately began squealing about the Bulgarian seeker, Viktor Krum) ;Demelza Robbins; and Viola Lestrange who glared at Ginny like she was hoping to hex her with her eyes.
Soon enough dusk arrived, and excitement settled over the campsite along with dark as everyone prepared for the match ahead.
🦇🦇🦇
The Quidditch World Cup was quite the event.
Viola's favorite part was actually before the game began, and the team mascots came out. Viola had read all about both Veela and leprechauns. It was quite amusing to see Benjamin almost do a flip off the stadiums to impress the Veela women.
Once the game began, Viola sat next to her father in the stadiums, watching the red and green players zoom around. It seemed to be a very exciting game- but Viola could hardly hear the commentary going on over the yelling around her.
"Go Bulgaria!"
"No! Lynch! Get the snitch! Get it, get it, get it!"
"There is no point encouraging them! Bulgaria is going to win!"
"Don't be stupid man! Your team couldn't catch a bludger if they tried!"
Since Ben and his father were supporting Ireland, while Viola and her father were supporting Bulgaria, there was a lot of arguing going on between them.
"Dad! Will you shut up?" yelled Ben, who was dangling over the side of the stadium, trying to hear the commentary. "Me and Viola can't hear a thing!"
Viola sent the boy a grateful look, but the two older men continued to shout.
"I can't!" yelled Mr Cameron, jumping from his seat, "Ireland must WIN!"
It was a dirty, exciting game throughout which Mr Lestrange and Mr Cameron continued their shouting.
"Haha! The Wronski feint! I can't believe your idiotic seeker fell for that!"
"Foul! You can't just hit who ever you want with that bat!"
"Look at that fire! You can't say Ireland has a better Mascot, that's for sure!"
"Go Moran! Go! Go! Go!"
The game came to an end when Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker caught the snitch, but Ireland won.
"Oh no!" groaned Ben, leaning back in his seat and looking to Viola. "This means they'll only argue more!"
Ben was right about that. All the way back to the campsite Mr Lestrange and Mr Cameron could be heard yelling at each other.
"Krum got the snitch!"
"But Ireland won!"
"But Krum got the snitch!"
When they arrived at the camp, Viola headed into the tent for bed, while the boy's stayed out around the fire they had built.
Viola fell asleep to the sound of her father and Mr Cameron's voices arguing over which team was better.
🦇🦇🦇
As the Weasley's, Harry and Hermione made their way across camp along with the flood of spectators coming from the stadiums, raucous singing was born toward them on the summer night air. Over head leprechauns were shooting overhead in celebration of the Irish winning. The green little men cackled loudly and waved their lanterns.
It had been a very exciting game. Ginny had been on her toes the whole time. There had been one frightening moment when Viktor Krum pulled a Quidditch move (known as the Wronsky Feint) and the Irish seeker, Aiden Lynch, slammed into the ground. Ginny had hung over the side in horror to see if he was alright. Charlie quickly assured her that he was. And the game only continued to get more exciting from there.
As they headed back through the woods, Ginny's ear was still ringing from Hermione's screams of excitement.
When they arrived back at the tent, everyone was too excited to go to sleep.
"Can't we just stay up a little while?" Ginny asked her dad.
"Oh . . . alright," said Arthur Weasley, giving in to his daughters request. "One cup of hot cocoa and then bed."
So they all settled around the table in the middle of the tent with mugs of hot chocolate, and began to argue amiably about the match they had just watched.
Ginny soon found her eyes sagging as she thought about flying, quaffles, goal posts and snitches.
Ginny's last conscious thought before she dozed off was someday I want to play Quidditch.
Then she fell face forward into her hot cocoa.