The prime minister kept his word on our invitation. Two days before the Quidditch world cup, my parents started ordering us to pack our bags and prepare for our trip to Dartmoor later the next day. House elves were prepping rooms for closure, and staff from The Palace Hotel kept coming up with thank you baskets filled with day old pastries.
"Why are they thanking us again?" Theo asked ruefully, his mouth filled with a croissant. It was the day of our departure and so the Palace Hotel was being extremely generous with breakfast pastries as a final parting.
"Take a wild guess, genius," Damion commented as he flicked Theo in the head while passing the table, newspaper in one hand, a half-eaten chocolate croissant balanced in the other.
I was picking ruefully at my pastry, unmoved to eat. My eyes were on the clock that read 10 minutes to 11am. We were to leave soon and Xander had yet to show up. Since July, Xander and I had gone on many adventures to past the time in New York. From sneaking off from the group at parties to hang out, to being near each other in public around our parents. I wasn't a fool about it either. I knew my mother was suspicious of how much time I spent with him. But there wasn't much she could do to pull me away when most of my activities spent in the city were with the socialites of my age bracket and Xander just happened to be part of that bracket.
And since my mother wasn't making any move against Xander and I, slowly I started to relax, thinking that maybe if she saw that I was happy with other guys in similar society as our family, she would lay off that stupid trade plan cooking in her head.
For it was true, I was happy with Xander. He kept my mind off of my parents, and knew how to have a good time, even in the most boring lectures and charity events sponsored by MACUSA.
We never went on dates. That felt too formal for us, and not really Xander's style. Rather, I would walk with my hand in his a lot, and when groups of us would run off away from our parents, I'd let him kiss me, just as on the Fourth of July.
It felt almost too good to be true when he told me in early August that his parents had received tickets to the Quidditch World cup through a family friend.
"That's means we can meet up at the game," I exclaimed hopefully, only to cause Xander to laugh, his wavy dark hair shielding his eyes subtly.
"Ava, you know my parent's friends will be nowhere near the British prime minister's box."
"So? I could always leave in the middle to come find you."
"You are unbelievable," He would joke as we would walk down central park in the August heat. "Only you would throw away the best seats in the house to come see me."
"Does that mean anything to you?" I would coo back nonchalantly only to get him pushing me off the path while I would giggle.
That conversation was two weeks ago. It was now August 24th, the day before the World Cup, and he and I haven't talked logistics since. He had promised to see me before I left, but things got tricky when my mother started keeping us indoors to pack.
"The car is waiting outside, all that's needed now are the children," Father announced as he stopped in the door way with my mother beside him in black suede boots up to the knee, riding pants and a flowing silver tunic to highlight the green in her eyes.
Those eyes were now looking pointedly at me and my uneaten breakfast.
"No one like's a picky eater, mon ange" She chastised. I stuffed the pastry in my mouth, where it tasted dry and stale, before exiting the room behind Ed, whose nose was in another book I knew not what.
The staff from the Palace were holding doors open for us as well exited the elevators and made it to the main entrance where our keys from the space were returned. Ed walked ahead, to the range rover stalled outside in the heat, and got in. Damion stayed near my parents as they listened to the last compliments from the host of the hotel, his left hand tapping anxiously on the marble counter.
Apart from Theo, Damion was unbelievably excited for the World Cup and was doing a pretty terrible job at hiding it. I couldn't find Theo in sight so I started outside toward the car, and that's when I found him.
He was standing by the opposite entrance to the hotel, near a stone fountain that was gated closed. He wasn't alone. Standing on the stone edge next to Theo, was Xavier, in his White polo shirt and maroon pants, his hair a screw from too many attempts at ruffling it.
The sight of him dropped the anxious mood I felt coming on immediately as I rushed to join them. He saw me coming, and nodded my way, causing Theo to turn to me as I stopped beside him.
"Did you get my owl? I didn't hear anything back from you so I thought-"
"Yes Ava, he got your damn Owl. Doesn't mean he has to respond," Theo cut in, annoyingly making me glower his way. Theo's blond hair was curling under the heavy humidity in the air making him look more and more like an over grown cherub.
I wonder how hard it would be to transfigure him into one.
"Quit it, Theo," Xander joked, jumping off the stone slab from the fountain, next to me. A knowing look passed over my brother's face, before he stepped back. Theo had been in numerous third wheel positions over the past month to know when it was time to duck out of a conversation.
"I'll see you tomorrow Xander. Be nice."
"Don't tell Mamen where I am, please?" I called after him as he started for the car. Theo only gave me a half wave before I turned back expectantly to Xander.
That warm bubbly feeling in my stomach was back, now that it was just Xander and I. You'd think I'd get used to him looking at me with those gold clusters in his eyes after a month, but it hasn't.
"You excited for the game?" He asked casually, deflating my wondering mind. I shrugged matter-a-factly, knowing that I had told him already how I felt about Qudditch.
"As much as to be expected, I guess. Though I'm more excited to spend time with you and your friends during half time," I teased with a smile that transferred to Xander's face, though he seemed to be biting it back as he looked down at his Sperry's.
"I was thinking we could meet in the middle, which we could figure out after you find out where your family will be sitting," I continued logically, only to stop when I saw him look up with a pinched look to his smile. He was still smiling, it was just not his usual grin, if that made sense. It was the type of grin that made you pause and go "What? What is it?"
"I don't think we should make such a big deal about seeing each other at the game." My mind stumbled, trying to understand what he meant.
"Why?" Was all I could say back. His smile had gone crooked now.
"Just because you have some great seats and it would be a waste to try and go find me when you could just enjoy the game..."
"But I told you already that I could care less about the game. I don't care for Quidditch," I said back obviously.
"Yeah, well..." I crossed my arms subconsciously as I watched Xander backpedal in his head. "I just think that it would be good for us to have space since, you know, the summer is ending."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I muttered, as I felt my voice go unsteady and my throat tighten. Xander was still smiling crookedly, but now it was awkward. I was seeing him as my older brother's friend and not the guy I spent the summer with.
"Don't get upset, it's not like I don't like you and didn't have fun this summer. I just think that since we go to different schools and we're not dating, I thought it would be easier to just say goodbye here and see what's going on next summer."
Next summer? That once bubbly feeling in my stomach turned to acid as my nervous excitement turned spiteful.
I wanted to tell him to go to hell but it was something about the way he was looking at me almost pleadingly, that made me pause.
He never expected this to work out yet he still likes me enough to want to chat next summer. How thick in the head do you have to be to think that would ever work?
"Ava?" My gaze focused back on Xander who was now trying to play this off coolly with an attempt at his foxy grin. It wasn't as charming on him as I once thought.
"Ava! We're leaving!" My brother shouted from behind the gate. I gazed behind to see my parents marching out of the hotel toward the car, with Theo keeping watch by the passenger seat. I had to go.
I turned back to Xander, my mind still a mess of confusion but at least I wasn't crying.
"I'll see you next summer than. Enjoy the game." And with that, I turned and raced to the car, leaving a taken aback Xander to watch me make it to the car with only a raised eyebrow from my mother.
The car took us to the back end of central park where a designated portkey was waiting for some families that applied for early entry to the fields to set up. For once, I was glad Xander and his family were not the best at planning ahead with portkey signups, to ride along with my family. I knew none of the other families waiting by a mangled soccer ball sitting in the midst of a busy walk way of no-majs and their strollers and pets.
"Are we to really hop onto a portkey in front of all these no-majs?" Ed questioned Damion as they both eyed the quick moving crowd behind us. A porky woman in too many layers for the heat stopped in front of the soccer ball and pushed it gingerly with the toe of her boot. It didn't budge.
"Looks like we're doing it here. Might as well set up spells to cast onlookers away," She said in a heavy New York accent. Her chubby husband in less layers but still similar shape to his dear wife, was already wondering off to a patch of air to start spell casting when the time on people's watches started to chime.
"No matter on the onlookers. We got to go if we want to catch that portkey," Another witch ordered as she looked at her bird watch popping out at her at the dial of 11 am hit her wrist. The 15 of us crowded toward the too small portkey and hesitantly reached for a pinch of plastic. Theo and I being the shortest, kneeled on the ground and grabbed each other's shoulders in one hand for support before bracing ourselves as we let our left hands touched the soccer ball.
Like a hook snatching our center, we were flung in the air and straight into the sky like a rubber band before being slammed back to the ground with a soft thump causing the fifteen of us to drop the soccer ball in the heap. I hopped up in time to see my mother hastily getting up, and brush her blonde curls off her tunic irritated.
A line was forming where a man stood at a booth with a list of names and a box filled with finished portkeys by his side.
After getting checked in, we were guided past a forest clearing where a wooden cabin stood on a hill. Two children were chasing each other, looking remarkably mundane, while their mother watched from the side in a chair, aimlessly peeling away at a bag of potatoes.
"Are those no-majs? In the middle of a wizarding event?" Theo asked, taken aback at the seen. I too stopped to watch the scene in puzzlement. Though the idea was less shocking when I had pressing matters on my mind.
"Sadly, yes," Was all my father had to say before we walked on, along the path until we reached the camping ground. Lines upon lines of tents lingered the area, and with it, numerous witches and wizards milled about, greeting passersbers and friends as they hopped on by for a get together.
I felt a hand rest on my shoulder protectively as we walked along the path, and only had to look up to know it was my mother, looking around her with quiet dread. It took me another moment to realize we were in the Bulgarian section of fans, and had just passed a group of pissed drunk teenagers speaking loudly in a language I couldn't understand.
We made it around the Bulgarian and Irish fan areas and through a throng of Brits, beating on the odds when we reached a more open camping ground, away from the forest landscape. Tents were not as creatively decorated here, as most of them were a plain tarp white.
My father found our tent by the call number and quickly there was a rush by my siblings and I on who got what room. A squabble erupted between Ed and Theo on who got the top bunk and who got the bottom bunk in the last room of the bunch as Mamen announced that I got to have my own room as the girl and Damion could have his own room as the eldest.
"That's so unfair. What does being the eldest have to do with anything?" Theo erupted grumpily from the bottom bunk shortly after being beaten by Ed and his massive book that he had his nose tucked into once again.
My room was small and decorated in clean white linin and maple wood, like the rest of the tent. It had a dresser against one wall and a bed on the other where I sat pensively. I watched two wizards fly off in the air on brooms through the small window situated by my bed as my mind started to drift.
I wasn't proud of how little I reacted towards Xander earlier that day. If I could do it all over again I would yell at him, calling him out for messing with me all summer. And to think I was considering inviting him to visit Beauxbatons this year during Winter break. The idea made me glum as I heard footsteps running through the wood of the tent outside. Theo was up to something most likely.
I rubbed my eyes closed, to tune out the bright afternoon light outside when I caught the outline of Xander's foxy grin in my mind. I felt a pain in my chest before shooting my eyes open and shaking the thought out. Why did he have to smile the whole time he dumped me? No, it was not even dumping me. He said we hadn't been dating, which made us what? Friends who kissed and flirted?
I felt my cheeks blushed red at the last time he kissed me, could remember how his hands had encompassed around me like a warm blanket that could only make me feel calm.
I missed that feeling.
Suddenly the sound of shattering glass came from outside my door followed by heeled footsteps from my mother.
"Theodard! What is this?" I pushed myself off of the bed and made it out to the common room area where the kitchen morphed out with the dining area. Theo had been in the process of looking for food in the cabinets when he accidently let one of the glass jars of flour go flying to the ground, and now lay all over the white tiled floor of the kitchen. My father came from my parents' room and stopped short next to my mother with a flat expression. He took one look at Theo balanced on the counters and to the flour on the ground before storming off, muttering to my mother to fix the mess before people arrived.
Who the hell was to be coming so soon after we got here? I wondered as I watched silently as my mother came at Theo threateningly while absently tapping her wand at the mess of flour on the ground. The contents rose into the air and flouted back into the repaired glass jar before finding its original place in the cabinet, away from Theo.
"But Mamen, I'm hungry. And those pastries were disgusting at the palace."
"You sound like a baby, Theo. A big fat baby," Damion commented from the doorway of his bedroom, closest to the kitchen. Theo gave our brother a stubborn glance before jumping off the counter and closing the cabinet slowly. I watched as Mamen looked on anxiously, her hand still holding her wand pensively.
"You have to keep yourself in line for your father this weekend, Theo," My mother warned before turning to the rest of us that had tricked into the coach area of the common room. Ed was looking up from his book to listen to our mother.
"I know, I know," Theo said airily as he walked out of the kitchen and landed into one of the baggy chairs next to me. "I have to behave so that Father doesn't try to beat me again in front of company. Don't worry Mamen, I'll make sure to watch my temper." My mother gave Theo a warning look that he returned before she put her wand away subtly.
"You all should know that your father has important business at this Quidditch Cup and it's all of your jobs to behave yourself and not get in his way, is that clear?"
"Yes, Mamen," We all uttered in a monotone before she walked off with her head held high.
"What could father have going on from work that would have to happen at a World Cup?" Ed asked, peering curiously at Damion. But my eldest brother knew as much as us in that regard, or so he let on, as he shrugged unsure.
"All I know is that he is meeting with important figures for work."
"Figures? Like who?" I asked curiously. But before Damion could respond, we could hear our mother calling us to come say hello to our guests.
Together we walked out to the entrance of the tent where standing in the green pasture was a family presented with their usual prickly manners and icy blond hair. I felt a groan leave my throat at the sight.
As if my day could not have gotten any worse, Draco Malfoy and his family had to show up.
-
Hello there,
Thank you to all of you who have managed to stay on this book during my hiatus. As we all are going through COVID 19 in various ways, I sadly had to stop writing as part of my step to figuring out online classes from home. Really threw a wrench in my writing plans.
I hope you are all doing well and are safe at home. While it took me awhile to write this last chapter, I feel my groove coming back and with summer fast approaching, I will finally have all the time in the world to write! So please understand that my hiatus is over and I will start updating regularly again. See you friday.
Lots of Love,
-WG-