CHAPTER FIVE
✧
-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY COLLIDE
ONCE MORE 

. . .

"PRIME SEATS! TOP BOX, STRAIGHT UPSTAIRS, Arthur, and as high as you can go!" The Ministry witch that was checking Mr Weasley's tickets stepped aside to let the group through, immediately beginning their climb to the top of the stadium built especially for this event - it seated 100,000, as the twins found out. 

The rest of the day had passed quickly since Bagman and Crouch's disappearance to work, and when the time finally came, Mr Weasley began to lead them through the woods, past all the vendors with their Omnioculars and miniature figures of the players. Harry and Evie had bought both themselves a pair and Ron and Hermione, and the four were fiddling with them as they began their ascent to the very top of the stadium. 

They continued their way up the purple-carpeted stairs, the crowd doing the exact same filtering out through doors into the stands on their lefts and rights. At last, the group emerged out into the Top Box, which was rather small and right at the very top of the stadium, twenty or so purple-and-gilt chairs looking out across the hundred thousand witches and wizards taking their seats below.

"Shitting hell that is high." Evie's eyes widened at the sight, not caring whether or not Mr Weasley heard her at that point. The actual field seemed tiny to them, a sight of green against the gold filter that the stadium seemed to exude from it's very structuring. Advertisments flashed across a blackboard across from the Top Box, swirly gold handwriting attempting to sell anything from cleaning products to robes. 

"Dobby?" Behind Evie, Harry's exclaimation turned his sister right around. But looking closer, they saw it not to be Dobby but a house-elf who called herself Winky. She knew Dobby though, and reported that he was getting himself in all sorts of trouble since getting his freedom - he wanted to be paid for his work, which was apparently was taboo to such creatures.

Winky, on the other hand, was a rather loyal servant to her 'master'. Despite her dislike of heights, she had come up to the Top Box in order to reserve seats. It was more of a complete fear of heights though, and soon enough their conversation was cut short by Winky hiding her face.

Since Harry and Evie had begun their conversation with Winky, plenty of others had entered the Top Box. Amongst them was a group trailing behind Cornelius Fudge, who the twins had been introduced to the previous year following them running away from Privet Drive. 

This stopped them in their tracks. They had been attempting to make their way to their seats that Hermione and Ron had saved amongst the first rown, but Fudge had a smile on his round face as he came to a stop in front of them.

"Harry and Evie Potter, you know." Fudge told who was clearly the Bulgarian Minister of Magic loudly. He didn't seem to understand a word of English. "The Potter twins?... Oh come on now, you know who they are... the two who survived You-Know-Who.... you do know who he is -"The Bulgarian wizard suddenly spotted Evie's scar by her temple and started gabbling loudly, spotting Harry's seconds later. 

That reaction was actually rather nice - the Minister seemed almost excited by this. 

"Добър ден!" Evie greeted the man, who smiled at her, bowing his head as she shook his hand. Harry and Fudge looked rather alarmed. "It's just 'hello'.. I picked it up just from walking through the campsite."

"Impressive, I suppose." Fudge sighed, before nodding towards the man shaking Harry's hand. "Knew we'd get there in the end, I'm no great shakes at languages; I need Barty Crouch for this sortof thing. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat... Good jobtoo, these Bulgarian blighters have been trying to cadge all the bestplaces... ah, and here's Lucius!"

"What?" Evie didn't stop herself from exclaiming and turned to see Draco Malfoy, his father and the woman who must be his mother. "Oh great, time to deal with this blond prick." She muttered to her brother, who wasn't trying too hard to hide his expression of distaste.

"Ah, Fudge." Lucius Malfoy said, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister of Magic. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"

"How do you do, how do you do?" Fudge said, smiling and bowing to Mrs Malfoy. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr Oblon..sk? Oblonsk?"

"Oblansk." Evie corrected. Harry looked a little shocked by this again. "He has a name tag, Harry."

"Don't tell me your turning into an insufferable know-it-all like Granger." Draco droned.

Now, Evie wasn't one for kicking up a fuss unecessarily. She could easily have a go at Draco in the corridors of Hogwarts, but in the Top Box there were far too many important people there for her to risk the attention. Taking a deep breath, she let her gaze drift behind Malfoy, spotting two oddly-familiar men taking their places at the back of the box. 

"Now, now Draco." Lucius didn't react at all, but Draco jerked to the side suddenly, and Harry, Evie, Ron and Hermione watched as Mr Malfoy's cane returned to the floor. "Friendly house rivalry, of course."

"On that note, I'm going to take my seat." Evie muttered to Harry and turned her back on the conversation, just as it grew tense as Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley came face to face once again. The last time it happened there ended up being a fight in Flourish and Blotts, all with Gilderoy Lockhart being present. 

She passed most of the Malfoys, reached Fred and George and pausing. "Hey - you two." She stopped, turning towards them. The both of them tore their eyes away from the scene, tense expressions on their matching features. "I managed to rescue one of your toffees that didn't quite make it to the bin.. I've got it back in my bag at the tent." 

Identical smiles covered their faces. "Of all the people mistaken to be a relative, I think your my favourite." Fred grinned. "I reckon we should make that slimy git's dream come true and slip him some ginger dye later in the year." 

"Make a note of that." Evie nodded before passing them, taking her seat at the end of the two seats at Hermione and Ron had saved for the Potter twins. 

She let out a sigh, eyes settling on a certain row of seats plenty of feet down, where a witch was using magic to retrieve her dropped scarf. It was a very noisy atmosphere, but it was electric with a sort of excitement that Evie recognised after winning the House Cup the previous year - except it was that feeling and amplified by thousands. 

There was a rather loud noise at the end of the box, and Evie turned to see the Minister exclaiming and clapping a boy on his back, Fudge looking mystified as there was a lot of very rapid Bulgarian being spoken. 

The boy turned, and she recognised where she knew the two men at the back of the box from - they were that idiot's bodyguards, the one she had bumped into with a pan full of water. Their eyes met, and didn't stray even as Harry sat down in the seat beside her. 

"Lucius Malfoy is a prick." He grumbled, and eventually Evie looked towards him. The boy had stopped by the Malfoys, where Lucius was talking to him. 

"I agree." The twin nodded. "And Fudge is just immune to seeing it all because Malfoy senior donated to St. Mungos." 

"Slimy gits, the lot of them." Ron chimed in, leaning over a little and recognising the dark haired boy with the family. "The damp patch dried nicely then? I still can't figure out where I know him from."

"Well perhaps you'll find out soon." Hermione joined in the conversation. All she got was three sets of very confused eyes staring back at her. "Well - he's coming to sit besides Evie."

"What?" The girl's eyebrows darted upwards, but there was no more time for her to react as she felt a presence on her left, the seat beside her being filled in. A small smile appeared on her lips and she met Hermione's eyes. The Granger girl shook her head a little, seeming to get the idea rather quickly that Evie was planning on having a little fun whilst they waited for the match to begin.

Behind Hermione, Ginny was leaning forward, her head nodding. 

Evie didn't even need to make the first move, a voice suddenly in her ear. "There's no use in fighting with Draco." He said, the tone a little lower and more conspiratorial than their initial meeting. 

"And how would you know?" Evie already could guess half the answer, turning back in her seat, legs crossing as she met his eyes. 

"My mother and father have been trying to convince me to befriend him for several years now." The boy was well-spoken, seemingly someone of a family equal to the Malfoys - but Bulgarian. "No matter how much I say it, they don't believe that I don't want to be friends with that.."

"Prat.. bastard.. idiot.. slimy git - you need more suggestions?" 

"I think you've given me enough there, Evelyn Potter." So he seemed to know who she was, green-blue eyes grazing over her scar, and as much as Ron seemed to be racking his brains, neither knew who he was.

"It's just Evie." The ginger girl corrected. "Nobody calls me Evelyn really.. except my Uncle and Aunt and a professor or two at school." Her nose wrinkled at the reminders at how her full name had been barked by Vernon and Petunia Dursley on various occasions.

The boy's gaze rested on her for a moment, eyebrows jerking upwards just for a moment and the corner of his lips tilting upwards. "Just Evie then." He corrected himself, musing.

"You're not going to tell me your name?" Evie asked, deciding to give up on trying to get Ron to recognise him through his appearance and just asking.

"I prefer to remain mysterious, although I do believe you'll find out soon enough." The dark-haired boy rested back in his chair, head twisting back towards the pitch. 

"Awfully cocky, aren't you?" The girl sniped, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"That's me."

She didn't seem to be getting anything more out of him and sat back in her own seat, looking over to Ron. He was trying to mouth something to her, and from what Evie could actually make out it was a question. She wasn't all that talented in the lip-reading department, so she just look confused. Ron began to gesture wildly around at the stadium, and she kind of got the hint.

"So, I'm guessing you're a pretty big fan of Quidditch." It was an obvious question to ask and Evie herself would just dive into the good stuff about the sport. But she needed to be thorough for Ron. 

"I.. have an obligation to. So it's lucky I enjoy it." The boy replied. "I prefer to play though. I'm guessing you do as well? What position?"

"Chaser, you?"

"Beater." He said, reaching up to push hair out of his eyes, letting it rest over the sides of his forehead. "You any good?" He already knew - everyone did. It wasn't hard when his friend Nikolai recieved copies of the Daily Prophet every day since his very first day at Durmstrang, and when the Potter twins went to Hogwarts, they reported everything they could manage to.

"Supposedly. Or at least I'd like to hope so." Evie was being modest and she knew it. Her mind flickered back to a conversation on the way back from the water pump. "Oliver Wood said that he's already told the captain of Puddlemere United about me and I'm not even graduating for another four years."

"So you must be." The boy noddes slowly. "Oliver Wood?" He repeated the name.

"Old captain and Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team." Evie informed him. "And my self-proclaimed mentor. He graduated last year and plays on the reserve team. So, is professional quidditch in your future?"

"I'd say so." Tthe boy nodded. "It runs in the family."

✧