01

It was early in the morning in late July when a loud noise came from her window and woke up Hermione Granger. She opened it and saw a familiar grey owl laying on the roof just below it, as if it had hit the window. She recognized the owl immediately as Eroll, who belonged to the Weasley family. Attached to his leg was a clipping from a news article and a letter from Ron. She untied the string holding the papers to the owls leg and let the clumsy creature into her room. She read the news article first.

"QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP TO BE HELD IN ENGLAND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 30 YEARS"

Hermione opened the letter and read it as quickly as possible.

Hermione,

Dad scored tickets to the quidditch World Cup! Can you believe it? Anyways, mum wants to know if you can come stay with us for the rest of the summer and come to the game with us. We can floo to your house tomorrow at noon. Harry's invited too but we don't know if he can make it with the muggles. Mum wants to send him a letter the muggle way, but I don't reckon she knows how, or if it'll get there in time. If that's the case we can just floo there. Write back right away if you can come. And please give Eroll some food. Thanks.

Hope to see you soon,

Ron

P. S. I would've sent this with Pig but he's already on his way to Harry's. Hope Eroll doesn't die on the way.

Hermione stared at the letter for a few seconds before running downstairs to her parents in the kitchen.

"Mum! Dad! Guess what? Rons dad got tickets to the Quidditch World Cup! And they've asked if I want to go and spend the summer with them!" Said Hermione ecstatically.

"Oh sweetie! That's great! Of course you can go. When are you leaving, and how are you going to get there? Do you need us to drive you?" Ms. Granger asked.

"No, it's alright, mum. They're flooing here tomorrow at noon."

"Remind me what flooing is again, dear?" Asked Mr. Granger.

"It's one of the ways that wizards travel. We can travel by fire, or they can apparate or use flying cars and such," Informed Hermione

"Ooh, alright dear. That's lovely. Would you like a waffle?" Asked Ms. Granger, who couldn't keep up with how fast her daughter was speaking.

"Yes please mum. I just need to respond to Ron first. I'll be back in a few." Hermione ran upstairs and wrote her response.

Ron,

YES. I asked my parents and they said I can come to the World Cup and stay there for the rest of the summer. I can't believe your dad got the tickets! I've still got to eat breakfast but I'll make sure to give Eroll some of my waffle.

Love from,

Hermione Granger

"Stay here Eroll, I'll be right back," Hermione commanded. The bird looked at her quizzically with its yellow eyes and it's perked ears. Hermione rushed downstairs and grabbed a waffle off the stack on the table, then quickly made her way back upstairs before her parents could question her. She fed the waffle piece by piece to Erroll until there was nothing left. She then took the letter and gave it to the bird and he flew away.

The day went by in a flash. Hermione packed all her clothes and schoolbooks in her trunk, along with her key to her Gringotts vault and her wand. Hermione was excited to see her friends again before the school year started. For the rest of the day, she just relaxed with crookshanks and talked with her parents about the wizarding world.

The next day, Hermione woke up at the crack of dawn, and so did the butterflies in her stomach. She usually got nervous before leaving the house, especially if she wasn't returning for a while. she went downstairs to go eat breakfast, probably some cereal of sorts. She pushed open the door to the kitchen to find several different types of cut up fruits assorted in trays, as well as a variety of different flavours of muffins on the counter. Her parents came out of the dining room and gave her a big hug.

"We'll miss you loads Hermione," said ms. Granger softly.

"Have fun at school. And come home for Christmas this year!" Said Mr. Granger.

"Thanks mum, thanks dad. I'll miss you too, and I'll try my best, but it depends on my studies," Hermione replied.

The three of them spent the rest of the time they had together laughing and eating different fruits and muffins and other breakfast foods.

At noon, the flames in the fireplace grew especially large and George Weasley jumped out into their living room.

"Hermione! Great to see you! Where's your trunk? Would you like a treat?" He asked. As he held out a handful of taffies, Fred came out of the fireplace.

"George no! We've got to test them on the muggle! That way we can keep them longer and get back at him!" He said hurriedly, looking behind him towards the fireplace.

"You're not giving a trick to my dad, are you?" Asked Hermione. She didn't want some practical joke to be pulled in her house. At least not under her watch.

"Blimey no!" Exclaimed Fred. "It's that sorry excuse of a cousin of Harry's that we're trying to get. Harry told us he was on a diet, that just makes him even more desperate for treats!" The twins snickered as Mr. Weasley flooed into her living room.

"Hello Hermione! Great to see you again! You all ready to go? Ron's on his way. Ginny insisted on coming, but we didn't know how large your fireplace was. Anyways, as soon as Ron gets here, we'll get ready to go." As soon as Mr. Weasley finished, a blast of fire shot up into the top of the fireplace, and Ron appeared.

"Dad, Ginny is relentless. Told me if we didn't come back with Hermione in 5 minutes that she would floo here herself," Ron whined. Then, covered in ashes, Ron made his way over to Hermione and gave her a hug.

"Nice to see you Hermione," he shrugged.

"You too, Ron," she replied. As she and Ron quickly hugged, Hermione's father came into the room.

"Ah! Hello Arthur, how do you do?" Asked Mr. Granger as he walked upstairs.

"Oh! I'm very well, thank you William, and you?"

"Oh I am fine, thank you. Jean dear! Arthur and his children are here!" He shouted down the stairs.

Ms. Granger ran upstairs and smiled at Mr. Weasley. "Hello Arthur," she greeted. "Hello Ron, Fred, George, how are you all?" She asked politely.

"Good," they all grumbled. They all clearly wanted to go home.

"Alright boys, enough of the attitude, grab Hermione's things and let's go."

Hermione watched as George grabbed her trunk and Fred grabbed Crookshanks in his cage and they disappeared into the fire. Next Ron left. Hermione hugged her parents goodbye and walked into the fireplace, still ablaze from when Ron left.

On the morning of the World Cup tournament, Hermione woke up bright and early to the smell of food cooking in the kitchen. She quietly stepped over a sleeping Ginny and tiptoed down the stairs to avoid waking up Harry and the Weasley family. Much to her surprise, Mrs. Weasley was cooking a large pot of porridge and treacle for everyone, but there were two guests who weren't a part of the Weasley family were sitting at the table. At her footsteps, they turned around and revealed their faces.

One was a boy, a few years older than her, who she recognized from Hogwarts. Cedric Diggory. He was as handsome as all the girls at school claimed. His dark hair was tousled and his grey eyes gleamed as he smiled and greeted Hermione. She immediately became self conscious of her bedhead and morning breath, and put up her hair. The other man must have been Cedric's father. He had the same facial features and the same dark hair as Cedric, but he had a much fairer complexion.

"Amos, Cedric, this is Hermione, she's one of Ron's friends, she'll be joining you for the game," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Hi," greeted Cedric. Hermione smiled and looked to Ms. Weasley to hide the redness that grew on her cheeks after he addressed her.

"Hermione dear, breakfast won't be ready for another twenty minutes, why don't you go take a shower before the boys and Ginny wake up," suggested Ms. Weasley with a smile. Hermione looked at Cedric and he smiled once again. She could feel the heat rising to her face even more as she quickly turned and ran to the upstairs bathroom.