CHAPTER FOUR
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-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH BAGMAN
LETS INFORMATION LOOSE

. . .

EVEN AFTER THE MISHAP Evie wasn't exactly the most cautious with her pots of water, arms aching as she attempted to follow Harry, Ron and Hermione around the increasingly busy campsite.

It was this lack of caution that led to the Potter girl walking into someone yet again. Except instead of a good looking teenager with slight attitude problem and bodyguards, it was a certain ex-Gryffindor Quidditch captain named Oliver Wood. 

Who didn't seem to mind in the slightest, his eyes lighting up when they landed on the girl. "Evie!" He exclaimed, the girl wincing when a sodden arm was thrown around her shoulder. "And Harry of courrse! How are the Firebolts."

Evie and Harry shared a look as Oliver began guiding them away from the path.

"I.. er - they're good." Harry swallowed, glancing apologetically back to Ron and Hermione, who were rather used to the twins being dragged off by the Quidditch captain during their days at Hogwarts; Oliver seemed to regard them as his 'prodigy projects' as Evie had named them.

In all fairness, Harry seemed to be better at getting out of them, but for Evie she was a little more susceptible to following Oliver down the rabbit hole of Quidditch tactics and ideas of match play-throughs - Oliver had been her introduction to the world of serious professional Quidditch.

"Good, good - they're great brooms, you better be looking after them. You both have broomstick servicing kits, right?" Oliver's gaze flickered from each twin. "If not then I have two spare in my tent - over here, chop chop."

"Ollie, darling, who's this?" A willowy sort of woman straightened up from a small fireplace, a wand poking out of her pocket. "You're soaked! What happened."

"Mum, Dad-" Oliver began, pausing just for a moment as a burly man that seemed to be the older version of the former Quidditch captain exited the small tent, "- these are the Potters, Evie and Harry." 

The twins assumed smiles on their faces, managing to extract their hands to shake the ones offered by the parents. They were rather thankful that neither Mr or Mrs Wood had that startled, almost starstruck expression, but they couldn't bask in the rare normality of an introduction; Oliver had let go of Harry's shoulder and turned to face Evie, looking incredibly serious.

"As you may have heard - I am assuming you keep up with Seeker Weekly?" Oliver paused, waiting for an answer. Evie nodded furiously, making a mental note to ask Charlie about how she would acquire a subscription to that. "Good, then you will have seen that I am the new reserve keeper for Puddlemere United."

"Oh, congratulations-"

"The column was a little bit small but I'm sure you saw my name nonetheless." Evie didn't exactly mind being cut off by Oliver; it had happened on so many occasions before, in conversation and at practise. He wasn't exactly doing it to be rude, it was just if he had a thought in his mind he could go off on a tangent without stopping for quite some time.

"Yes, I definitely saw it." The Potter girl nodded, her eyes sliding across to Harry, who was being incredibly helpful as her twin brother and trying not to laugh at her.

"Good. Then you should be glad to hear that I managed to have a conversation with the captain the other day - bloke called Orson - and put in a good word for you." Oliver had a smile on his face which the twins had only seen upon winning the Quidditch House Cup. "If you keep up the good work and make the team, you could easily be playing here one day - well not here, but you get the drift."

"Oliver - I've not even started my fourth year yet... I still have a month to go." Evie frowned, trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

"Well there's no harm in getting ahead, is there?" Oliver replied, with a shrug. "I've said a few good things about you - the both of you.. mostly Evie if I'm honest - so with any luck you'll get a visitor to one of your matches at some point to see if they're true."

Quite frankly, Evie couldn't believe her ears. "That's... wow." She was really speechless - Oliver had only been her captain for three years, yet he saw this much promise in her? "Incredible - it's incredible.. thank you so much."

Oliver opened his mouth to speak again, but was halted by Mrs Wood placing a hand on her son's shoulder.

"Leave the poor girl, like she said, she's barely even.. almost fourth year you say?" Mrs Wood was looking towards Evie, who nodded once again. "So that makes you fourteen. She's only fourteen Ollie, let the girl breathe."

"Thanks.. for everything." Evie swallowed, a smile on her face. "But I've already spilt so much of this water - on you, on that weird guy with bodyguards.. not to mention what Harry's spilt. I think it would be best for us to get back."

"Yeah.. I should change." Oliver was eyeing his sodden shirt sleeve. "But with any hope, we'll be playing on the same team again within no time at all."

Evie nodded, several more words exchanged between them before the four teenagers continued their way back to the tent.

"The hell was all that about?" Ron asked, falling into step beside her, struggling to keep in line with the only somewhat full pot of water. "Usually Wood is all over you two.. but that was just about you."

"At the party celebrating the win of the Quidditch Cup.. or the day after he said he was going to go for Puddlemere United." Evie admitted, glancing over at Harry. "He was drunk I think, almost mistook me for someone else. Then I said I'd like to play professionally when I'm older and well.. here we are."

"So that's what you want to do." Harry chimed in, nodding slowly as they continued walking. "Professional Quidditch. You'd be good at that."

The Potter girl smiled, head tilting slightly as she looked towards her brother. "I know, that's why I said it."

And as it turned out, Evie was in the right place for that, as continuously proven as they continued to pass the tents, finally reaching the Weasley lot once more.

Considering their early arrival, they had a long wait to go before the big match, a wait that consisted of eating sausages fried over a fire that took Mr Weasley a considerably long time to light (he didn't really understand matches, and had a pule littered around him by the end of it), greeting Bill, Charlie and Percy as they arrived after apparating in the forest behind them and listening to Mr Weasley as he told Harry, Hermione and Evie about his Ministry co-workers as they passed through into the campsite and out of it.

The Weasley children weren't too interested in any of this; they already knew any important people they needed to know, and the rest was just a blur of names they had asked about in passing conversation.

Ludo Bagman - who was nothing like Evie had imagined the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports to be - had appeared some point after Bill, Charlie and Percy had, and managed to get Fred and George to bet with him on the outcomes of the match, trying to convince everyone else to do the same but failing.

And then he promptly sat down beside the group.

"Couldn't do me a brew, I suppose?" Bagman asked, arranging his robes of yellow and black ar4ound him. "I'm keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and I can't understand a word he's saying. Barty'll be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages. Not to mention that absolute idiot of a child - letting him loose on the campsite? They're crazy. Couldn't get in a word edgeways with him.. and I think he speaks English and all" 

"Mr Crouch?" Percy repeated, suddenly abandoning his look of disapproval at even being in the presence of Bagman and seemed positively writhing with excitement. "He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll..."

"Anyone can speak Troll," Fred shrugged. "All you have to do is point and grunt." He began doing it himself and George soon followed; Percy threw Fred an extremely nasty look and poked the fire vigorously to bring the kettle back to the boil.

"I could try Gobbledegook." Evie grinned. "That's what goblins speak right? It's just a load of weird rasping noises. You could point as well, guessing it would help." Fred and George looked delighted and began doing just that. Evie now experienced one of Percy's glare herself, and admittedly it was rather chilly. But she soon warmed up when she saw the stick Percy was using to coax the fire go up in flames.

"Any news of Bertha Jorkins yet, Ludo?" Mr Weasley asked as Bagman settled himself down on the grass beside them all, glancing over at Percy, sending warning looks to the twins.

"Not a dicky bird," Bagman sounded far too comfortable and lively for such a topic. "But she'll turn up. Poor old Bertha... memory like a leaky cauldron and no sense of direction. Lost, you take my word for it. She'll wander back into the office sometime in October, thinking it's still July."

The group of teens surrounding the fire shifted uncomfortably. Bagman was incredibly casual about the subject, although everyone else looked as if there was something to be worried about.

"You don't think it might be time to send someone to look forher?" Mr Weasley suggested tentatively as Percy handed Bagman his tea.

"Barty Crouch keeps saying that," said Bagman, his round eyes widening. "But we really can't spare anyone at the moment. Oh - talk of the devil! Barty!"

A wizard had just Apparated at their fireside, and he could not have made more of a contrast with Bagman, sprawled on thegrass in his old Wasp robes. Barty Crouch seemed to be the absolute opposite; dressed in a stiff suit, mustache perfectly curled at the ends and shoes shined so much you could see our face in them.

"Pull up a bit of grass, Barty," Ludo said brightly, patting the ground beside him, as if their topic of conversation hadn't been on a completely upsetting topic just seconds before.

"No thank you, Ludo," Crouch replied in a clearly impatiet t. "I've been looking for you everywhere. The Bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the Top Box. And another for the brother."

"Oh is that what they're after?" Bagman nodded, seeming to understand now. "I thought the chap was asking to borrow a pair of tweezers. Bit of a strong accent and that boy refused to translate for me."

"Mr Crouch!" Percy exploded, sinking into a weird half-bow that made him look like a hunchback. Behind him, Fred and George began to copy him. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Oh," Mr Crouch exclaimed, looking over at Percy in mild surprise."Yes - thank you, Weatherby"

"Weatherby??" Evie repeated, the twins choking into their own cups as Percy turned pink and busied himself with making up another cup.

"Oh and I've been wanting a word with you too, Arthur," Mr Crouch said, his gaze falling upon Mr Weasley. "Ali Bashir's on the warpath. He wants a word with you about your embargo on flying carpets."

Mr Weasley let out a deep sigh. "I sent him an owl about that just last week. If I've told him once, I've told him a hundred times: Carpets are defined as a Muggle Artifact by the Registry of Proscribed Charmable Objects, but will he listen?"

"I doubt it," Mr Crouch accepted a cup from Percy, who eemed dto be rather in awe of being in the man's presence. "He's desperate to export here."

"So, been keeping busy, Barty?" Bagman asked breezily once the conversation about exportation grew to a close.

"Fairly," Mr Crouch replied dryly. "Organizing Portkeys across five continents is no mean feat, Ludo."

"I expect you'll both be glad when this is over?" Mr Weasley said.

Ludo looked shocked. "Glad! Don't know when I've had more fun..." The group of teenagers seemed to get the impression that this was the most work Bagman had done in a while. "Still, it's not as though we haven't got anything to look forward to, eh, Barty? Eh? Plenty left to organise, eh?"

Mr Crouch raised his eyebrows at Bagman. "We agreed not to make the announcement until all the details are-"

"Oh details!" Bagman waved the word away like a cloud of mosquitos. "They've signed, haven't they? They've agreed, haven't they? I bet you anything these kids'll know soon enough anyway. I mean, it's happening at Hogwarts -"

"What's happening at Hogwarts?" Evie spoke up, glancing around at the group. Fred, George, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all wore similar expressions to her; utter bewilderment.

"Ludo, we need to meet the Bulgarians, you know. Retrieve Aleksander, if he's still running around the campsite." Mr Crouch announced sharply, cutting Bagman's remarks short. "Thank you for the tea, Weatherby."He pushed his mug of undrunk tea back to Percy and waited for Bagman struggled to his feet, swigging down the last of his tea,the gold in his pockets clinking.

"See you all later!" Bagman smiled. "You'll be up in the Top Box with me - I'm commentating!" He waved, Crouch nodded curtly, and both of them Disapparated.

"What's happening at Hogwarts, Dad?" Fred asked at once. "What were they talking about?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Mr Weasley replied, smiling around at them.

"It's classified information, until such time as the Ministry decides to release it," Percy added stiffly." Mr Crouch was quite right not to disclose it."

"Oh shut up, Weatherby," Fred said. And that seemed to be the end of the matter for now.

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