CHAPTER ONE
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-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY SET OFF

. . .

"EVIE... EVIE? EVIE!"

As much of a cliche as it was, Evie's eyes flickered open and blinked in the darkness, more used to being greeted by that than the early morning light of the summer. It had almost been the same at the house in Privet Drive, where the twins were expected to wake before the Dursleys so that they could get a start on the chores before cooking breakfast - which almost always consisted of sausages and bacon or pancakes. It wouldn't kill them to have a piece of toast - in fact they could probably do with swapping their breakfasts for something more simple.

But now, it wasn't Harry shaking his sister awake in their shared bedroom at Number 4 or Hermione waking her up in their shared dorm at Hogwarts - actually, from the looks of it, it seemed like she wasn't even close to either of those places or being woken by her brother or best friend.

A sheet of ginger hair blocked her view from the rest of the room, Ginny's shadowed face grinning down at her just about visible. "Oh you look great in the morning Vi, just like a ray of sunshine." The Weasley girl let go of the shoulder she was shaking and straightening up.

"And you look like a Mandrake just pulled out of it's pot." Evie's nose wrinkled and she turned over, the chain around her neck cold against her skin. Ginny rolled her eyes and dragged the duvet off of her in retaliation.

"I would scream as well, but I don't think Perce, Charlie or Bill would appreciate it." The Weasley girl called over her shoulder, pulling the covers away from Evie's hands, which was groping around the stiff mattress that had made up her bed for the night to try and return to the warmth.

"It's no use trying to get back to sleep." Hermione's voice broke through Evie's waning state of unconsciousness. "Mrs Weasley will be coming through-"

The sound of the creaking door into Ginny's room pulled her even further from sleep, and when the dim light grew even brighter, she could see Mrs Weasley's silhouette by the door, dark staircase behind her.

"Good, you're almost all up." The woman bustled through, coming to the end of Evie's makeshift bed and placed down a small pile of folded clothes at the end. "There's breakfast downstairs, the boys are already on their way down. Evie, dear, you need to get up please."

"Mhm, I'm here." The ginger-haired girl, who had been mistaken as Molly Weasley's child for several years now, sat up after something seemed to kick in that it was necessary for her to wake up. "...Why?"

"Quidditch World Cup final, dear." Mrs Weasley replied, reaching down and wiping sleep from under her eyes. "I washed that jumper that Ron managed to spill gravy down, and your shoes are down by the door."

"Thank you." Evie's smile prompted the woman to look around, straightening the covers on the end of Ginny's bed before bustling out again.

A bubble of excitement was growing within the Potter girl's stomach as she woke up even further, memories of what had happened in the past twenty-four hours flooding back.

Letters had come from Ron and Mr Weasley inviting them to stay for the rest of the holiday, the latter having acquired some very good seats for the Quidditch World Cup final. After a rather explosive entrance at Number 4 Privet Drive in which the wizards had attempted to use the Floo Network into the muggle house - only Uncle Vernon had boarded up the fireplace and opted for using an electric one, something that Mr Weasley had been very excited to hear about, but there were other matters at hand.

Most of all, introductions between Mr Weasley, who, whilst interested in muggles, was incredibly magical and his enthusiasm to meet Vernon, Petunia and ickle Dudley-kins was taken badly. Fred and George got the twins' trunks from the rooms, and Fred very cleverly slipped one of his and George's products to Dudley as revenge for how he had bullied Evie and Harry for years.

Dudley had been on a diet, which made the colourfully wrapped sweet all the more irresistible. But as he learnt, he should never take candy from a wizard, as he ended up with a four-foot long tongue.

The twins had joined the four Weasleys in the now open fireplace, journeys enveloped in green flames. Having arrived at the Burrow, Evie and Harry met the two eldest Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie and reunited with Hermione and Ginny. Percy, the third eldest, they had met before, but since leaving Hogwarts it seemed he had turned even more work-obsessed than ever, idolising his new boss - Mr Crouch.

They had been placed in separate rooms for the night, and in all honesty it was nice for Evie to be staying with Ginny and Hermione over Ron, Fred and George - sharing a room with a teenage boy, even if it was her brother, was not at all fun.

Together, Harry and Evie had helped them set up for dinner that night and they had gathered around to eat. Chicken and ham pies had been the main course and, like Mrs Weasley said, Ron had managed to tip gravy over the girl sat beside him.

When the evening came to a close, Hermione, Ginny and Evie had climbed up to Ginny's room and sat on the makeshift beds, talking in hushed whispers. On several occasions, they had lapsed into silence and turned the lights off when Mrs Weasley climbed up to Ron's attic room to try and shut up the group of boys in there. Percy had gone a couple of times too, and Evie had sworn rather loudly when the players on Ginny's Holyhead Harpies poster disappeared at the sound of footsteps - she had been admiring it for several minutes.

Eventually, they had fallen asleep - but it seemed that, given the level of Evie's very much apparent state of tiredness - it hadn't been much. Considering it wasn't even light outside, and the clock in the kitchen had been close to midnight when Ginny and Evie had crept downstairs for some water.

But the time or lack of sleep didn't seem to matter suddenly, because today was the day of the Quidditch World Cup final. And Evie had never been so excited to go somewhere.

Almost as quickly as she was to try and go back to sleep after Ginny had woken her up, Evie had shot up out of her bed, hurrying to pull on her clothes - the jumper that Mrs Weasley had washed for her and a pair of jeans that Aunt Petunia had gotten from a charity shop when she realised that she could no longer give her Dudley's old clothes. They were way too big and the poor girl had to hold them up with a belt that could wrap around her waist twice and rolled up at the ends.

With their bags packed at some point the busy night before, they dragged themselves downstairs to the kitchen, which looked almost exactly the same as it had the previous time that Evie had been in it. Except, unlike at midnight, the kitchen was full of life.

"Morning." She mumbled, slipping into the spare seat beside Harry, Ginny and Hermione making their way onto the others. Mrs Weasley slid a bowl of porridge across the worn wood, and Mr Weasley, who was always on the brink of mixing Ginny and Evie up, passed the first the treacle and the second the strawberry jam. The both of them promptly swapped.

"Sleep well?" Harry eyed the bags under her eyes, Evie shrugging as she poured the treacle over her porridge.

"Why do we have to be up so early?" Ginny, who had been the picture of awakeness when shaking Evie from her slumber, seemed to have changed her mind, rubbing hereyes and sitting down at the table.

"We've got a bit of a walk." Mr Weasley took a spoonful of porridge.

"Walk?" Harry repeated. "What, are we walking to the World Cup?"

"As if." Evie jabbed him in the side with her elbow, shaking her head as she did. A flicker of doubt flooded through her suddenly, and she stopped stirring a particularly thick vein of dark treacle. "...Right?"

"Of course we aren't." Mr Weasley said, smiling. "We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup -"

"George!" Mrs Weasley interrupted suddenly, having been focused on summoning their bags down into the entrance way by the door and now turning her attention to one of the twins.

"What?" George asked, in an innocent tone that deceived absolutely nobody.

"What is that in your pocket?"

"Nothing!"

"Don't you lie to me!" Mrs Weasley pointed her wand at George's pocket. "Accio!" Several small, brightly colored objects zoomed out of George's pocket; he made a grab for them but missed, and they sped right into Mrs Weasley's outstretched hand.

"We told you to destroy them!" Mrs Weasley was furious, holding up what were unmistakably more Ton-Tongue Toffees - they were the sweets that had made Dudley's tongue loll out of his mouth and grow to over four feet long. "We told you to get rid of the lot! Empty your pockets, go on, both of you!" It was the least pleasant of scenes; the twins had evidently been trying to smuggle as many toffees out of the house as possible, and it was only by using the Summoning Charm that she had been using to bring their bags downstairs Mrs Weasley managed to find them all.

"Accio! Accio! Accio!" The woman yelled, and toffees zoomed from all sorts of unlikely places, including the lining of George's jacket and the turn-ups of Fred's jeans.

"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted at his mother as she threw the toffees away. Evie watched as one of the toffees missed the bin and skidded behind it. Hopefully, when no one was looking, she would be able to retrieve it.

"Oh a fine way to spend six months!" Mrs Weasley continued to shriek. "No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!" Faces were made across the kitchen, all clearly uncomfortable, and Evie wouldn't be surprised if the sound had woken Bill, Charlie or Percy up - they were having a lie-in rather than getting to the World Cup final the same way as Mr Weasley and the rest of them were, as all three of them had passed their Apparition test.

The atmosphere, that had been filled with weary excitement and anticipation, had turned sour after that and they finished their bowls of porridge in silence. Then, they had gotten up from the table and headed over to the front door, quietly passing each other the shoes that they had left there the day before and pulling them on.

Fred and George had hoisted their backpacks over their shoulders and disappeared into the dark before Mrs Weasley could say goodbye. "Well, have a lovely time!" Mrs Weasley said. "And behave yourselves." She called after the twins' retreating backs, but they didn't look back or answer. Evie used this distraction to hurry back to the kitchen, drop down onto her stomach and reach for the colourful wrapper, pocketing it and hurrying back to the group, just as they were leaving.

"I'll send Bill, Charlie, and Percy along around midday." Mrs Weasley said to her husband, kissing him on the cheek as Evie slipped her arm through one of the staps of her rucksack. "Evie - just before you go." An arm reached out and stopped her.

The Potter girl stopped in her tracks, turning slowly away from Harry and back to Mrs Weasley. "Yes?" She asked, trying to slowly push the sweet further into her pocket.

"You've managed to get something down your front again - it wasn't Ron, was it?" Evie had to stop herself from looking relieved, shaking her head and smiling. "Good, good, just stand still." Mrs Weasley pulled her wand from the pocket in her apron. "Tergeo." The woman said, and the dust from laying in the floor disappeared. "Now, off you go, and watch your brother and Ron for me!"

Evie nodded as she was sent on her way, rushing to catch up with Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione as they set off across the dark yard. Where exactly they were walking to, nobody except Mr Weasley was quite sure just yet, but they were all always up for an adventure.

Seeing as that was all that seemed to happen to them.

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