02

Hermione came down from her shower to see a very cranky Weasley family sitting around the table, along with Harry and their guests. The Weasleys had taken every seat at the table besides the one that was next to Cedric, but it was very evident that Ron was longing to sit next to the coolest boy from Hogwarts from the way he was staring at the empty chair. Amos and Mr. Weasley were having a conversation about the Hogwarts house-league quidditch, which they had somehow dragged a tired-looking Harry into.

"-Well, of course Harry understands. He would've said the same thing, wouldn't you Harry! Two boys are on a broom and one falls of and the other doesn't, you tell me who's the better flyer!" Hermione heard him say as she sat down in the chair next to Cedric. He grumbled and murmured to himself as his bragged about his 'excellent quidditch skills.' "I hate when he talks about me like this. I've told him a million times that those were unfair circumstances," Cedric whispered to Hermione.

Hermione turned her head and looked into Cedric's eyes. She forced herself not to start blushing as she let out a small squeak in response. She quickly looked away and started to shovel down her porridge. She had a long day ahead of her and she needed all the energy she could get.

"So boys and girls, are you ready to go?" Mr. Weasley stood up as the children were scraping up the last spoonfuls of porridge from the bowls. Hermione, Harry, and Cedric rested their bowls and spoons down in the sink as the rest of the family and guests all cheered and marched out the door, leaving a heap of dishes on the table for Mrs. Weasley to clean up.

The Weasleys and co. wandered on for what seemed like hours. Hermione and Ginny walked at the back of the crowd, whispering among themselves. Every once in a while, Hermione would catch the eye of Cedric, who would occasionally look behind him, and flushed.The group stopped marching once they to the crest of a large hill. The group gathered around an old dirty boot, and Hermione saw that Harry's eyebrows were furrowed with confusion, similar to her own.

"Err... What exactly does a manky old boot have to do with the Quidditch World Cup?" Harry asked.

The adults and Cedric stared at Harry, confused, momentarily forgetting that he grew up in the muggle world. "Harry, this is a portkey, it'll take us to where the World Cup will be held," replied Cedric.

"All right, it's a minute off, better get ready," announced Mr. Weasley as he stared at his watch. "You just need to touch the portkey, that's all, a finger will do," he told Harry and Hermione as the rest of the Wizards bent down to touch the boot. Their large backpacks made it difficult find a space that allowed them to reach the boot, but Hermione and Harry finally managed as Mr. Weasley started to count down.

"Three... Two... One..." For a moment, nothing happened and Hermione wondered just how ridiculous they looked. Nine people, two of them were grown men, all hovered around touching an old boot. She could tell Harry was thinking the same thing as he stifled a laugh beside her.

All of a sudden, the portkey lifted them off the ground and Hermione's stomach churned and her head spun as they were being transported to another place. In a quick moment, they landed flat on the ground, and she heard several groans coming from all around her. She looked up to see Cedric and the two adults standing up. They seemingly had a perfect landing. Cedric held out a hand to her and she took it, but she wasn't ready to stand up, and when she did, she stumbled into Cedric's chest. He caught her and held her in his arms until she was steady. When she was well balanced and stable again, he gave her a charming smile and went to go help the others stand up, and Hermione's cheeks turned a violent shade of red.

Hermione was disappointed to find out that Cedric and Amos would not be staying on the same campground as them. It gave her less of a chance to goggle at him. As they reached their campground, the Diggorys continued walking on, after giving them all waves goodbye, and in Hermione's case, a wink from Cedric, which did not go unnoticed by the twins. They snickered at her as Mr. Weasley started giving them their set-up chores.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to go fetch water from the tap, which meant that the three of them had to walk for nearly a kilometre, dodging people riding brooms, and avoiding angry ministry officials. Ron spent the whole walk complaining about how his father wanted to do things the muggle way.

"-honestly, it would be much easier if he just used a water summoning charm instead of making us fetch it ourselves. Who cares if the muggle sees, they can just place a memory charm on him, you heard what the bloke said, he already has a memory charm placed on him every half hour!"

"Ron I don't think you get it, he shouldn't have to have a memory charm placed on him at all! The Wizards should be more careful around muggles, they know that!" Harry responded. "And besides, you don't even know how to use the water summoning charm, and we're not allowed to use magic outside of school!"

The two boys turned to Hermione for her opinion, but she was still out of it, thinking about her static touch with Cedric Diggory. When she didn't respond, they shrugged and started discussing the possible outcomes of the quidditch match later.

Hermione watched as Harry and Ron drooled over the dancing Veela before the match. Hermione could see how beautiful they were but didn't understand how Harry and Ron could be so attracted to women who they didn't even know. She turned around to find that Cedric wasn't as affected by the Veela dances as the other boys were. He was staring straight at Hermione, and gave her a quick smile before turning his attention back to the show, whereas the twins sat with their mouths agape as they watched the Veelas spin and dance.

When the music stopped, Hermione looked to see that Harry had his leg up on the wall and was doing some sort of dance move, while Ron was making an upset face that the Veela had finished dancing.

"Harry? What are you doing?" She asked. He seemed to be in a sort of daze. When he heard her question, he suddenly went pink and sat back down in the seat between her and Ron.

Harry and the Weasley boys were screaming and shouting as the game came to a finish.

"AND IRELAND WINS!" Shouted Ludo Bagman through his wand. "KRUM CATCHES THE SNITCH- BUT IRELAND WINS!"

At that final statement, if someone were to say 'the crowd went wild,' it would be an understatement. Hermione covered her ears as wizards and witches all around her shouted- both in happiness and frustration, but her ears still ached from the intense volume of the crowd's passion.

Hermione and the Weasleys made their way through the crowd to their tent for dinner, though when they reached their tent, they found that the original singing and chanting had changed to screaming and blasts of spells coming from wands.

"Everyone! Grab your jackets and run! RUN!" Shouted Mr. Weasley. "I'm going to help, go to the forest and STICK TOGETHER!" He pushed them all out of the tent and ran towards Ludo Bagman and the other ministry members.

The eight children ran, Charlie, Bill, Percy, and Fred, who had grabbed Ginny's hand, ran ahead. Eventually, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were so far behind that they couldn't see the others.

"Guys! I can't believe it, I've lost my wand!" Said Harry as they came to a halt.

"Again?" Asked Hermione. She was completely astounded. The amount of times Harry had lost his wand or left it somewhere was so large that it was unknown.

Just then, they spotted a man muttering a curse. They watched in silence as a green light came out of the end of his wand and formed the shape of a skull and a snake in the air. The man ran as he heard a commotion nearby and a house elf came out of the trees with a wand in their hand.

"Hey! That's my wand!" Said Harry as he spotted her, but before he could get it back, curses were being shot at the four from each direction.

"STOP! Those are my children!" Shouted Mr. Weasley from the bunchhe ministry members looked at Harry as he took his wand back from the house elf. Then they looked at the symbol in the sky.

"You! You did this! You've put up the dark Mark!" Said Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, to Harry.

"No! Sir! There was a man, he was right there in those trees! He made that symbol and ran as he heard you coming!" Shouted Hermione as the minister pointed his wand at Harry.

"Well, why don't we just find out what the last spell that was used! Unless this house elf was the one who placed the Dark Mark?" Said a man with a deep voice.

"No, I was not placing the evil Mark sir, no sir, I is just getting out of the way sir. I is meaning no trouble!" Said the house elf.

"Give me the wand, boy!" Shouted the man. Harry reluctantly handed him the wand and the man said a spell that Hermione didn't recognize. All the men gasped when a green light emerged from the tip of Harry's wand. "Boy! You're in a lot of trouble!"

"No Archie! Stop! He's just a boy, he doesn't even know what the Dark Mark is! Please, he is clearly in shock. I know this boy, and he is not evil, actually he's the exact opposite! Blimey, Archie! Don't you recognize him? It's Harry Potter!" Shouted Arthur as the man pointed his wand at the four children and the house elf.

The man clearly realized his mistake and hurriedly gave the wand back to Harry, muttering an apology. The four and Arthur went to find the others.

Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Arthur found the others at the field that they were brought to after using the portkey the day before. The others had sought out shelter at the edge of the forest, near a small creek, which is where they all sat when the whole group reunited.

They all made it back to the Burrow after a few hours of disassembling their tents and setting up a portkey after the attackers were gone. Ms. Weasley greeted them all with a hug and started crying when she realized that everyone was okay. They all went to bed and had a restless sleep.