Not long after Oliver left, the fire was hot enough to cook on. Harry and Mr. Weasley started cooking eggs and sausages, and as I surveyed our surroundings I caught sight of Bill, Charlie, and Percy walking cheerily out of the woods.
We waved them over, and Percy plopped down next to me.
"Just Apparated, Dad," he said loudly. "Ah, excellent, lunch!"
I turned and glared at him, and he gave me a strange look.
"What's the matter Alexa?"
"Nothing. But you're getting the firewood and the water next time, since you got to sleep in instead of helping with anything this morning." Percy just chuckled and turned his attention to the food. I sighed. It was a beautiful day, the air was buzzing with excitement, and I was surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world.
I really couldn't stay grumpy for long.
We ate and chatted for a while, and we were about halfway through our food when a boisterous-looking man in brightly colored Quidditch robes headed right for us.
"Aha! The man of the moment! Ludo!" Mr. Weasley called, jumping up to meet the man. Based on Percy's frown, I assumed this was the same Ludo Bagman that he'd been grumbling about for the past few days.
"Ahoy there!" Bagman called out, bouncing towards us and our tent. "Arthur, old man, what a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming... and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements... Not much for me to do!"
As he spoke, I noticed a bunch of other Ministry wizards rushing around behind him, looking exhausted and stressed.
Maybe there was something to all of Percy's criticisms of this man.
Just as the thought crossed my mind, Percy catapulted himself out of his chair and rushed forward to shake Bagman's hand.
A hypocrite and a kiss-up. Everything he did just gave his brothers more ammunition.
Mr. Weasley introduced us all, and Bagman didn't give anybody but Harry a second glance. To my surprise however, he didn't comment on Harry's presence. Instead, he launched straight into convincing us all to make bets on the match.
Much to Mr. Weasley's horror, Fred and George took the offer with everything they had. Percy gave them an especially long look down his nose. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what they were doing. They needed money to get Weasley's Wizard Wheezes up and running, and this was how they were going to do it.
"Mum's gonna kill them both," whispered Ginny, leaning over to talk to me.
"What makes you think she's ever gonna find out?" I whispered back.
"True, true... she can't kill them if she never knows about it... still, she has a way of finding things out. I wouldn't want to be them when that cat gets out of the bag."
I nodded in agreement. I leaned in closer to keep talking, but before I could another wizard appeared out of thin air. Percy's gasp was enough to identify the man, even if I didn't recognize him from our last meeting.
Mr. Crouch, Percy's asshole boss.
He and Bagman talked business while I glared daggers. He didn't notice, of course, but I felt better for doing it.
"Mr. Crouch!" Percy finally said, stooping over in front of the man he followed around like a lost puppy. "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Oh. Yes—thank you, Weatherby," he said absentmindedly. Fred and George literally did a spit take, and Percy flushed scarlet as he focused all his attention on the teapot. I doubled the intensity of my glare.
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.
Fred, George, and I quickly got everything on straight, and then, before we knew it, it was time to head to the pitch. Red and green lanterns lit the way, and the buzz of energy in the air was literally infectious.
"This is amazing," I breathed as we walked through the trees. People were laughing and talking and joking all around us, and the giddy feeling was unlike any I'd ever felt.
After about twenty minutes in the woods, we reached the stadium. It looked even more amazing at night, lit up and glowing a shimmering gold, towering like a beautiful beacon in the night sky.
We showed our tickets to a Ministry witch when we got to the entrance, and she beamed back at us and Mr. Weasley.
"Prime seats! Top box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, and as high as you can go."
Mr. Weasley beamed back at her, and then we headed inside. It was a long trek up many flights of stairs, and yet again I had to silently thank Nat and Clint for getting me in such good shape this summer.
"Alexa!" I heard a voice call out when we were about halfway up. I turned to see Oliver standing just off the stairs, waving excitedly to me.
"Hey, I'll meet you guys up there, okay?" I said, excusing myself from the rest of the party.
"Alright, but hurry up! You won't want to miss the start!" called Fred as he and the rest of our group continued climbing. I waved to him as promise that I wouldn't, then stepped off the stairs to meet Olivier.
"Alexa, are you—what are you wearing?"
I glanced down at my outfit, worried I had made some horrible mistake like the wizards with the kilt and Hawaiian shirt combo. Of course I hadn't, and I looked back up at Oliver in confusion.
"Why do you sound like my uncle Loki every time I try to wear sweatpants out of the house with him?"
Oliver completely disregarded that comment, instead gesturing to the green and white hat I was wearing.
"We met Victor Krum! He's one of the best players alive today! How could you possibly be wearing Ireland's colors right now?"
"I mean, they're kind of the home team, aren't they?"
"That doesn't matter!" cried Oliver, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Ah well, too late to do anything about it now. Where are you all sitting for the match?"
"Apparently we're up in the commentator's booth!" I said excitedly. Oliver's mouth dropped open.
"That's absolutely brilliant! Tell me you got a pair of Omnioculars."
"Umm, yes, if that's what these are," I said holding out my new wizard binoculars.
"Excellent! I'll focus on the Keeper and Beater game, you focus Chasers and Snitch once it's released. Between the two of us, we can get a great film of the game to study later."
I grinned. I missed this Quidditch lunatic.
"I will do my best Oliver. And I'll send you everything I get."
"Good, I'll look out for it. Now get going! You don't want to miss anything!"
I snapped to attention, saluted, then turned sharply on my heel. Oliver alone was giving off more energy than half of this stadium combined, and it left a smile on my face as I started working my way back through the crowds to the stairs.
Unfortunately for me, it was harder than I thought it would be to retrace my steps. I walked around a bit, but I couldn't find the staircase I'd started up with the rest of my party.
I looked around, trying to spot a good person to ask for help, and I saw a woman standing a little ways off to the side, like she was waiting for someone. She certainly wasn't busy, so I figured she was the perfect place to start.
"Hello there ma'am," I said, approaching her with all the Steve Rogers energy I could muster. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I took a detour to visit a friend and I seem to have lost the staircase."
"Of course dear, quite understandable," she sniffed a bit, looking down her nose at the crowd around us as she turned to point. "Just head straight that direction and you'll find them. Can't miss it."
"Wonderful. Thanks so much!"
She gave me a rather aloof nod, and I waved before venturing back into the throngs of people. After a few paces, I caught sight of the stairs, just like she'd said.
I darted through the last few people, eager to make it to the top box as soon as possible. I wanted to enjoy every minute of this!
In my excitement to reach the stairs, I didn't notice someone else trying to exit the same way I was trying to enter. I ran into them with a full head of steam, almost toppling both of us backwards for a long fall.
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, I—"
I looked up to see none other than Draco Malfoy standing before me, sneering at my abruptly ended apology.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me."