I arrive about a minute before Mr. Weasley, and he is not happy with Fred, but thankfully, Fred doesn't rat me out. Just as Mr. Weasley gives them the riot act, Mrs. Weasley comes into the room. "You wait until I tell your mother -" "Tell me what?" She looks pissed, until she spots Harry. "Oh hello, Harry, dear," she says, and then she gets mad again. "Tell me what Arthur?" He hesitates. He was bluffing before. Mrs. Weasley repeats herself. "It's nothing, Molly," Mr. Weasley mumbles. "Fred and George just - but I've had words with them -" "What have they done this time? If it's got anything to do with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes -" "Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" says Hermione. "He knows where he's sleeping. In my room, he slept there last -" "We can all go," I tell him pointedly. "Oh, right," says Ron, understanding. "Yeah, we'll come too," says George, but Mrs. Weasley puts a stop to that real quick.
While we're going up the staircase, we explain to Harry what Weasley's Wizard Wheezes is. Then, we're interrupted by Percy. "Hi, Percy," Harry says. "Oh hello, Harry. I was wondering who was making all this noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know - I've got a report to finish for the office - and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs." "We're not thundering," says Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic." Then, Harry says the words I've been dreading. He asks Percy about his job. Percy will go on and on about it with the smallest prompting, as was shown to me last night. It takes a few minutes before Ron makes Percy mad enough to go back in his room.
Every square inch of Ron's room is covered in Chudley Cannons stuff. I can hear the tiny gray owl hooting wildly. "Shut up, Pig," says Ron. We have to squeeze into his room because of the extra beds. "Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in there room. Percy gets to keep his room all to himself because he's got to work." "Why do you call that owl 'Pig'" I ask. "Because he's being stupid. Its proper name is Pigwidgeon." I cock an eyebrow but don't say anything. "Where's Crookshanks?" Harry asks Hermione. "Out in the garden, I expect. He likes chasing gnomes. He's never seen any before." Harry turns to me. "Where's Maple?" "Since we left by Floo Powder, I let her travel here on her own. She should be here in a day or so," I answer.
"Percy's enjoying work, then?" "Enjoying it? I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of his boss. According to Mr. Crouch... as I was saying to Mr. Crouch... Mr. Crouch is of the opinion... Mr. Crouch was telling me... They'll be announcing their engagement any day now." "Have you had a good summer, Harry? Did you get our food parcels and everything?" While Harry's family was dieting over the summer, I did my part and sent him cakes, non perishables, things like that. "Yeah, thanks a lot. They saved my life, those cakes." Ron is then about to ask about Sirius, but I silence him with a look. We shouldn't do this in front of Ginny. "I think they've stopped arguing," Hermione says. "Shall we go down and help your mum with dinner?" "Yeah, all right," says Ron. We all leave his room and go to the kitchen.
"We're eating out in the garden," Mrs. Weasley tells us when we enter. "There's just not room for eleven people in here. Could you take the plates outside, girls? Bill and Charlie are setting up the tables," Mrs. Weasley says. I ignore what she tells Ron and Harry to do. Instead, I take some plates and head outside. Instead of setting up the tables, they are making the tables battle each other in the air, causing a lot of crashes and bangs. Ginny starts laughing and Hermione looks like she wants to break it up. After a few minutes, Bill's table knocks the leg off of one of Charlie's. Then, Percy pokes his head out of his room. "Will you keep it down?!" he bellows. "Sorry, Perce. How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?" "Very badly," says Percy.
By seven, everything is set up and we're eating. I try my hardest to ignore Percy's talk about his job because it's so dull. I pay more attention to the conversation about the world cup. "It's got to be Ireland," says Charlie. "They flattened Peru in the semifinals." "Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," says Fred. I recall who they're talking about from my books. "Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven. I wish England had got through. That was embarrassing, that was." Personally, I would rather the United States be in the World Cup, but that's just me. "What happened?" asks Harry. "Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten. Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."After dinner, Mrs. Weasley gives us strawberry ice cream - that's actually very good. Once I'm finished eating, I go to bed as soon as I can because tomorrow, we have to leave very early.
To no surprise, I get woken up earlier than should be allowed the next morning. I hate the look of the tired looking girl that is me in the mirror, so I make sure to put a little extra effort in to look good. I put on short shorts that are a little tighter, and a fitted silver sparkly tank top with a paisley pattern and white flats. As for my hair, I put it in a voluminous ponytail and wrap a strand of my hair around the rubber band. My face needs a little more help. I do a casual brown smokey eye look with black mascara to make my look more awake, and the only way to make me look less pale is to contour a little bit. I am the very last person to make it to breakfast, and when I walk down there, I notice brightly colored things zooming around the room. I quickly recognize them to be Ton-Tongue Toffees. "We told you to get rid of the lot! Empty your pockets, go on, both of you!" The only way that Mrs. Weasley gets all the candy is by using the summoning charm. "We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouts at Mrs. Weasley as I eat some toast. "Oh a fine way to spend six months! No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"
I'm not very happy with Mrs. Weasley when we leave. I only say goodbye to her out of politeness. I wish she would be more supportive of the twins' dreams. They're making their own money for pete's sake! I walk hand-in-hand with Fred as we walk across the yard with us in the lead. "So how does everyone get there without all the Muggles noticing?" Harry asks. "It's been a massive organizational problem. The trouble is, about a hundred thousand wizards turn up at the World Cup, and of course, we just haven't got a magical site big enough to accommodate them all. There are places Muggles can't penetrate, but imagine trying to pack a hundred thousand wizards into Diagon Alley or platform nine and three-quarters. So we had to find a nice deserted moor, and set up as many anti-Muggle precautions as possible. The whole Ministry's been working on it for months. First, of course, we have to stagger the arrivals. People with cheaper tickets have to arrive two weeks beforehand. A limited number use Muggle transport, but we can't have too many clogging up their buses and trains. Some apparate, but we have to set up safe points for them to appear, well away from Muggles. For those who don't want to Apparate, or can't, we use Portkeys." I block out the rest of what he's saying because I know what port keys are.
We walk in the dark toward the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, the only noise coming from our footsteps. I'm thankful that it's dark because as we climb a hill, I start to sweat a little. I wipe it away before anyone notices. "Whew," pants Mr. Weasley as we finally reach the top. "Well, we've made good time - we've got ten minutes. Now we just need the Portkey. It won't be big... Come on..." We all start to look when we hear a shout. "Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!" I see two people start to walk towards us. "Amos!" Mr. Weasley shouts. We follow Mr. Weasley over to the two newcomers. "This is Amos Diggory, everyone. He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric?" All of us say hi to Cedric except Fred and George. I smirk.
"Long walk, Arthur?" Amos asks. "Not too bad. 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 sackful of Galleons - and the tickets cost about that. Mind you, looks like I got off easy..." Amos says as he looks at us. "All these yours, Arthur?" "Oh no, only the redheads. This is Chloe, Fred's girlfriend and friend of Ron's, this is Hermione, another friend of Ron's - and Harry, another friend -" "Merlin's beard. Harry? Harry Potter?" I giggle at Harry's reaction. "Ced's talked about you, of course. Told us all about playing against you last year... I said to him, I said - Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that will... You beat Harry Potter!" Cedric looks embarrassed.
"Harry fell off his broom dad. I told you... it was an accident..." "Yes, but you didn't fall off, did you? Always modest, our Ced, always the gentleman... but the best man won, I'm sure Harry'd say the same, wouldn't you, eh? One falls off his broom, one stays on, you don't need to be a genius to tell which one's the better flier!" This makes me like Amos a lot less. So much so that I glare at him. It's not Harry's fault he fell. The weather sucked and there were about a hundred dementors. "Must be nearly time," says Mr. Weasley, clearly trying to change the subject. "Do you know whether we're waiting for any more, Amos?" "No, the Lovegoods have been there for a week already and the Fawcetts couldn't get tickets. There aren't any more of us in the area, are there?" "Not that I know of. Yes, it's a minute off... We'd better get ready..."
I walk with Fred to the old boot that turns out to be our Portkey. To fit us all in, we have to stand as close together as possible, which means I'm squished in between Fred and George. "Three... two... one..." Mr. Weasley mutters. I feel a hook behind my navel and I'm jerked forward. My feet lift the ground, and I feel Fred and George's shoulders bang into mine. My hair is getting messed up! I complain internally. Then, my feet hit the ground. I just barely manage to stay upright, although I'm one of the few that do. The only other people that keep their balance are Mr. Weasley, Amos, and Cedric. The first thing on my mind is fixing my hair. Before anyone can get a good look at me, I take my brush out of my bag, brush my hair out, and redo my ponytail. "Thanks for the help, Chloe," Fred says sarcastically as he stands up. I look at him, and see that he's just joking. I smile. "Priorities," I joke back. He smirks.
*Author's Note: Finally this week is over! I've had the worst week. My dad got laid off due to COVID-19, my car was hit in a hit-and-run Wednesday morning when I was asleep and we couldn't find the guy (my car was totaled) and my jury duty got postponed to the week we were supposed to go to Vegas! To make it worse, this all happened the week before I turn 21! (My birthday is tomorrow). Tell me your quarantine is going better than mine lol*