The sound of her husband complaining was about the only thing that Maria Eruditus could recall hearing throughout the day.
"Darling, shut up. If you wanted to go, you should have told me and we could have both asked for a day off work," Maria sighed as she continued reading the file of one of her patients.
"Maria, the world cup! I didn't even realize it would be tomorrow! They only gave me the case earlier today," William cried exaggeratedly as he sunk further into the couch he sat on. Maria rolled her eyes as she listened to her husband prattle on about how unfair it was that their daughter would be able to go but he couldn't.
"William, for the love of everything I can think of, stop whining about that or I will take your broom and throw you off the highest possible altitude I could go." Maria slammed the file shut in frustration, stopping the man in front of her mid-sentence. There was a beat of silence.
"You can't even get off the gr-" William yelped as he narrowly dodged the ceramic figurine that his wife had thrown at him.
✧✧✧
The following day, Gaia was buzzing with excitement as she went around her room, checking if she had everything she would need. Malia had invited their little group to the Quidditch World Cup, to which all four of them agreed to go.
"Gaia! Are you ready yet? Dad's about to leave so if you want to side-apparate with him, you should come down now!" Mrs. Eruditus shouted from downstairs. Gaia zipped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder before running down the stairs, nearly tripping on the last one.
"I'm ready!" Gaia said, a large grin on her face as she stood in front of her father. Mr. Eruditus mumbled something about unfairness before holding out one of his arms for Gaia to grab on. The girl did so and they disappeared in a flash, reappearing at an open field with multiple tents set up.
"I might be able to still catch the match if our case ends early. You better tell me everything," Mr. Eruditus playfully warned, a joking glare pointed at Gaia.
"I'll be sure to tell you what happens in the most taunting way possible." Gaia grinned as her father shook his head with a laugh, "Stay safe out there."
"You too, okay?" Mr. Eruditus said, ruffling his daughter's hair. She swatted his hand away with a small glare.
"It's a quidditch game, dad. What the worst thing that could happen?"
Mr. Eruditus only gave her a pointed look before apparating away. Not even a second later, a body collided with hers from the back. Gaia stumbled forward and fell to the grass beneath her.
"You made it! Ryker and Aisha are already here," Malia said as she sat up from her position on Gaia's back.
"That's great. Could you get off me?" Gaia said, attempting to wiggle away. Malia laughed and stood up, reaching out a hand to help Gaia stand up as well.
"Sorry, just excited. What team you rooting for?" The pair of friends started walking, Malia leading the way.
"You already know I'm rooting for Ireland." Gaia grinned, crossing her arms as she prepared for the argument that always came up between their group of friends.
"All you three have horrible taste! Bulgaria's obviously the superior team," Malia huffed, pushing open the flap of their tent with more force than necessary.
"Actually, I think majority means you're the one with horrible taste," Ryker teased, coming up to the girls with Aisha following close behind him. He wrapped Gaia in a side hug before crossing his arms.
"Blood status says I'm right." Malia grinned, holding back a laugh.
"Oh, forgive us! How dare us lesser breed insult the opinion of the high purebloods!" Ryker played along, bowing slightly with a laugh.
"Yeah, that's right." Malia laughed, pulling Ryker up as the two of them started discussing the upcoming match.
✧✧✧
"Fred, George!" Gaia called out as she spotted the familiar faces while they were walking up to their seats.
"Gaia! We didn't know you were coming to watch!" Fred greeted, pulling the girl into a tight hug, her feet lifting off the ground slightly.
"Like she'd miss it. My turn, Fred." George pushed his twin brother away just as he let go of Gaia and wrapped her up in his own hug.
"I missed you two!" Gaia grinned widely, "I see you two are supporting Ireland, the superior team." Gaia shot a look at Malia, who was decked out in Bulgaria's colors.
"Made a bet with Ludo Bagman," Fred said, his familiar mischievous grin starting to form on his face.
"Told him Bulgaria'd catch the snitch but Ireland's gonna win." The grin on George's face was nothing else but identical to his brothers. Gaia rose an eyebrow at their prediction, a cough behind her drawing her attention a second later.
"Right, Spreight was the one who told us. She's in on the bet, we'll split it among the three of us," Fred added, seeing Aisha's pointed look from behind Gaia.
"Aisha? I didn't think you'd be the gambling type, especially ones as unpredictable as this. How much?" Ryker said, looking between Aisha and the twins apprehensively.
"52 galleons, 17 sickles, and 7 knuts," George answered.
"And a joke wand." Fred winked.
"Of course, I added my own part to the bet. It's a recent development. I've just been feeling confident about my intuition," Aisha said, the smile on her face making her three friends curious about what she meant.
"Well, we'll see who really wins," Malia huffed, pouting subconsciously as her eyes darted around the group of Ireland supporters surrounding them.
✧✧✧
The field was still buzzing with noise even after the game. The sound of fans whooping and cheering surrounded the group as they weaved through the celebrating fans.
"Brilliant, Spreight! Just, brilliant!" Fred grinned as he handed over a handful of money to Aisha.
"Like I said, intuition's been great." Aisha returned the grin, waving as the twins disappeared into the sea of people. Gaia, Malia, and Ryker waved their own goodbyes.
"You three got really lucky. That would've been a big amount of money to lose." Ryker was still in disbelief that the three had gotten it exactly right, but he really wasn't complaining that his team won. Gaia was laughing at a sulking Malia who kept muttering about Krum being the only member redeeming the team.
"You're just saying that because you're bitter. You love the whole team," Gaia squeezed in between laughs. Malia sighed.
"You can't be sure about that," Malia snapped.
"You'll be fine Snake," Ryker grinned at her, an obviously smug expression on his face, "Maybe we should've made our own bet."
"Stop rubbing it in. She's already hurting," Gaia reprimanded but the teasing smile on her face said otherwise. Malia shoved Gaia away, grumbling as the three fell into laughter. The sound of screaming cut off their laughter.
"What was that?" Ryker asked. Then, a crowd of people came running past them, screaming something unintelligible. Malia gasped, staggering backwards.
"Death eaters!" Malia's voice shook with terror as they saw the hooded figures marching towards them.
Aisha screamed as a fireball landed on the ground beside her. That seemed to pull them out of their daze and they started running.
"The forest! We should go into the forest!" Gaia shouted to her three friends.
Malia had been holding onto Aisha's wrist tightly, who in turn held Gaia, who held Ryker. A hand on Gaia's arm separated their line and she was faced with one of the hooded figures.
What the figure said next made Gaia freeze, his voice sending shivers down her spine as her body started shutting down part-by-part. Suddenly, Gaia was yanked back, and they began running the other direction.
"Idiot! You don't stare at a death eater when they grab you!" Ryker said, shifting their hands so that he was the one holding onto Gaia instead of the other way around. He gripped onto her wrist tightly, weaving through the panicking people running in different directions.
Gaia didn't say anything, barely responsive as Ryker pulled her through the crowd. He looked back and inhaled sharply, cursing before starting to run faster.
"I don't know what you said or did but we're being followed by that death eater," Ryker said, glancing back every now and then.
"He... He said..." Gaia only mumbled, her mind a mess of swirling thoughts as repressed memories started hitting her all at once, tears building up in her eyes.
Ryker glanced back at her in concern, though he knew it probably wasn't the time to ask.
"C'mon, into the forest." Ryker pushed Gaia in front of him, still glancing back in case the person was still there.
They stopped once they were quite deep into the forest, catching their breath. Gaia fell to the ground, her eyes staring ahead of her blankly.
"Gaia..." Ryker trailed off, crouching in front of the girl and wrapping her into a hug.
Gaia felt like she couldn't breathe.
It were as if her mind had completely blocked out anything outside. She didn't feel Ryker rubbing her back, nor did she see Malia and Aisha arrive with the twins. She didn't notice Fred kneel down in front of her and call her name multiple times, a frantic expression on his face.
She didn't process anything for a few minutes, only heaving out sobs as memory after memory played through her mind.
Soon, Fred's voice started penetrating through the sea of thoughts.
"...ia? Gaia? Please, what's wrong?" his muffled voice entered her mind.
She looked up, launching herself onto the boy in a split second, her sobs not lessening in intensity.
✧✧✧
The ministry had appeared a few moments after the Dark Mark appeared, but the death eaters were already gone by then.
"Gaia!" William Eruditus let out a breath of relief at the sight of his eldest daughter exiting the woods with her friends. He noted the way one of the Weasley boys held onto her but decided he'd question them later.
"Dad," Gaia croaked out, pulling out of Fred's grasp as she took off running to her father. The man engulfed her in a hug, running his eyes over her a few times to make sure that she was unharmed, frowning when he noted how her form was shaking and her eyes were swollen.
He knew his daughter well enough to know when she was upset or about to cry. And so, he pulled her into another hug and looked to her group of friends.
"What happened?" he asked.
"We're..." the group all looked at each other, "We're not sure, sir," Fred answered.
"She was pulled by a death eater during the attack," Ryker supplied.
Judging by the way their other friends' snapped to him, William could tell that none of them were aware of that fact.
"What?" George asked sharply.
"I don't know what happened, but he grabbed her, then he said something but I couldn't hear what it was. She kind of just, stopped responding after that," Ryker explained.
William looked down at his eldest, his brows furrowing.
"Sweetheart, what happened?" he asked.
The girl tightened her grip on her father's robes, her form starting to shake once again as she sobbed. William felt his heart break as he witnessed his daughter breaking down in front of him, crushed by the fact that he didn't know what was wrong or what to do.
"Sweetheart, please. Talk to me, honey," William coaxed, starting to feel helpless when her body started shaking even more.
When she finally answered, William found himself selfishly wishing that he hadn't asked what was wrong.
✧✧✧
Gaia's group of friends watched on, each of them feeling their heart break as well as they witnessed the Ravenclaw breaking down in her father's embrace.
Fred could still feel the dread that took over him when he found Ryker crouched in front of a shaking Gaia. He nearly cried himself, but he had to make sure she was alright first. But now that her father was there to comfort her instead, he found no reason to try and stop his tears.
"C'mon. Dad might be looking for us," George said to his twin.
"But..."
"She'll be fine. C'mon."
Fred let his gaze linger on her a bit longer, what's left of his heart shattering to pieces when he saw her hair in a dark midnight blue.