YEEAH!! TENTH CHAPTER!! :DDD

Ch. 10: Gaudy Outfits

Pitched in the thick of a summer grass slope was a burlap tent, about the size of a broom cupboard, or a New York studio apartment. Hermione noticed my distrustful gaze and leaned close, murmuring in my ear: "Enchanted".

And, she was right. That was a feeling I would have to get used to, I realized.

Mr and Mrs Weasley ushered everyone through the thick, cream-coloured flaps (I noticed I was the only one that didn't have to duck inside, much to my chagrin) and, as my know-it-all sister had lowly proclaimed, the tent was indeed enchanted.

The tent space was actually fairly large, and when I say fairly large I mean...seriously huge, why would anyone need this much room to spend one night? So far, I had counted a kitchen, dining room, and three separate rooms. One was for Ginny, Hermione and I and the other was for Ron, Harry, Fred, and George, while the third was for Mr and Mrs Weasley. Both held at least five bunk beds that, when you touched them, felt like heaven.

It was probably a bit melodramatic of me to think of these being god-sent pillows of squishy clouds, but you spend all morning trudging through the woods and spiralling out of the sky, then we will chat.

"Alright, kids!" Mr Weasley called us all front and centre into the kitchen. "As of right now, we have free time; you all may use this time to do whatever you'd like, but remember to stick together so none of us gets lost." He smiled and then looked at his watch. "We have five hours before we need to be at the field, so let's all meet back here thirty minutes till."

I knew what I was going to be doing for the next five hours. Happily, I looked at the girls' room and slowly made my way towards the bunks, trying not to catch anyone's attention. I stripped off my hiking boots and pulled off my flannel overshirt, and slowly started to crawl into bed when Hermione appeared next to my bedside, eyes sharp as a hawk. I was caught mid-stretch, one leg in the bed and one on the floor. Quickly, I slipped entirely into the bed as she pulled back my covers, fighting me.

"What do you think you're doing?" She scolded me with a laugh. "You can't nap now, I want to explore the grounds, plus this is a good opportunity for you to meet some of our schoolmates!"

Throwing my head back, I groaned and tossed my thick blanket over my head to try and catch up on my lost hours of sleep.

Hermione peeled the covers back gingerly, though I hardly put up a fight. "Come on, Elle! It'll be fun."

"Fine, fine!" I sighed and crawled out of my beautiful bed with a glare and threw my boots and flannel back on, taking an unnecessarily long time to do so. "Where are we going now?"

✧

The whole five hours were basically spent talking to Ginny and Hermione as we walked the circumference of every tent with in a five mile radius of us. I met a boy named Dean and even watched as Fred and George made a bet with a man named Bagman that Ireland would win even though the Bulgarians would catch the snitch. By the looks of it they bet quite a lot of money.

Eventually, the sun began to set and it was time to meet back up at the tent again. My legs were starting to get sore from walking around, but I made up for it with the excitement of watching the coming match.

"Everyone ready to set off?" Mr Weasley called throughout the tent, checking all the rooms to be sure no one was left behind. "We will be leaving in five minutes so make sure you have everything you need!"

Quickly, I poked my head out of the door that separated the girls' room from the dining room. "Okay! We'll be ready." I hastily shut it once more before Hermione could escape.

"Elle, I really don't think this is a good idea..." Hermione frowned at me, looking down at the pile of clothing I was forcing her to wear; it wasn't even that bad.

"It's not even that bad; I think you look cute," I pleaded at her; she could be a little melodramatic sometimes. Mostly, though she didn't know it, I wanted her to dress in these clothes because I didn't want to look ridiculous on my own with what I was going to wear.

"It's too...," she looked down at the bright colours that symbolized the Bulgarian team, "busy."

Scoffing, I rolled my eyes. "Mione, you look cute and I know Ron will like it." I wiggled my eyebrows at her and her face began to darken.

"I don't like him!" She whisper-yelled at me, trying to conceal what we were talking about, just in case the others were listening.

"Don't sweat it," I told her, pulling out my wand and transfiguring my clothes to express my love for the Irish team. "There, now I am just as busy as you are." I frowned down at the gaudy outfit as Hermione tried to bite back an amused smile. "Maybe even a little more," I mumbled uncomfortably, tugging on the skin tight, bright green, leather jeans I was wearing.

What was I thinking? This was ugly.

Hermione bit her lip at the sight of me, holding back a blurt of chuckles, and rolled her eyes, pushing her French braid behind her back. "Well, it'll have to do. Let's just go." I was more than happy to put myself in a more obnoxious outfit if it meant she would come out of her shell a little more.

Once my sister had committed to the outfit, we walked out of the room and joined the group waiting in the front hall. George and Fred walked over to me while Hermione struck up a conversation with Harry and Ron. She looked normal enough compared to myself.

"So, Elle." George slung an arm over my shoulder, his face was painted white and green for the Irish.

Fred slung his arm over my other should and continued the topic. "We hear from Ron that you are pretty good with charms." His face was smothered on yellow and red.

Frowning, I subtly slid out of their grasp, not preferring to be touched while under the obvious fact that they wanted something out of me. "Uhm, yeah I guess, but Potions is more of my forte," I trailed off. Their eyes lit up with excitement. "... Why do you ask?"

"How do you feel about a business proposition?" Fred and George grinned and chanted together.

"What kind of business proposition...?"

✧

The walk to the stadium was only around a mile long and it gave Fred and George enough time to try and thoroughly explain what they wanted me to do, all the while trying to remove the skeptical, obvious 'no' face I was pulling the entire time.

"Candies? Enchanted candies?" I had to admit that it was not all that bad of an idea, though I couldn't imagine why they would want my help. I wasn't all that interesting, nor did I know the first thing about making sweets. "And, why do you need me for this?"

George motioned for me to keep my voice down and whispered. "You can help us perfect the candy."

"Making it safe for our buyers and completely reversible." Fred grinned.

"And you really think that people are actually going to pay for sweets that will make them sick?" I whispered back at them with a grin. I know I would pay for that.

"You serious?" Fred chuckled.

"Who wouldn't?" George added in hushed tones.

I grinned at them, shaking my head and crossing my arms over my chest, weighing the idea in my mind. It was pretty smart of them to think about customer safety, but I wasn't sure if they were making the right choice. They hadn't even seen me make a potion, or even perform a charm. "Okay, I'm in, I guess"

"In for what?" Hermione poked me on the back, making the three of us jump from surprise at how silently she had snuck up on the three of us.

Scratching the back of my head, I smiled sheepishly. I didn't really want to lie, but something about the Twins told me that I should probably keep Hermione in the dark about this, for now. "Oh, it's a surprise..." I looked around to try and pin my lie on something and spotted Harry. "For Harry..."

Hermione frowned and glared at the twins. "Really? What kind of surprise?" I guess she knew their tricks.

"A birthday surprise, of course." Fred whispered to Hermione.

George nodded and quickly joined in on the lie. "Yeah, we know how poorly he is treated by his Muggle relatives so we hardly doubt that he did not get to properly celebrate his birthday, so we have something up our sleeves."

A divet formed on Hermione's brow as she speculated over what I was telling her. We hadn't known each other for a long amount of time, so I knew she was trying to figure out if I was lying or not. Unsure, she sighed in resignation. "Well, hopefully it isn't something that will explode in his face, but I think its a nice idea." Her mouth curved into a soft smile as I linked my arm with hers as we walked into the stadium.

Hermione didn't catch it, but I could overhear the one I thought was George whisper into his brother's ear with a snicker: explode in his face.

The bright lights of the stadium blinded me for a moment as we ushered our way inside. I tightened my grip on Hermione's arm as people poured in from all around us, bumping me too and fro. Once our group managed to climb up to our spot, I was able to get a good look at my surroundings of the place. There had to be at least ten thousand people here, most likely more.

"This is amazing!" I grinned and turned to Mr Weasley, the shining lights illuminating his ginger hair like a thinning halo around his head. "Thank you again, for having me!" I had to yell to be heard over the excited chatter of thousands of people all around us.

Mr Weasley stooped down, barely catching what I had said, and nodded. "Of course!"

I blushed, feeling the familiar pit of debt in my intestines. It was rare that I allowed people to do things for me, and this felt like I needed to repay him in some way or another. The family had allowed me in out of the blue, just like that. "Really," I shouted up at him, playing with my fingers as I did, "I've never had anyone do this for me."

He shrugged it off with a grin. "Oh please, you are practically family already."

The family quip threw me off. Could people really be that generous and caring without expecting anything back in return?

"He's right," one of the twins shouted, taking me by surprise.

Turning, I arched a brow and peered up at the one with the messy Bulgarian colours smothered over his cheeks. "Hermione's been Ron's friend since year one, so you've hitched a plus one." He pulled at his shoulder-length tresses and pushed them from his eyes with a smirk.

"Fred," I remembered, though there was a hint of doubt in my voice. I sized him up, trying to find some distinction between him and his brother that I could recall so I wouldn't mix them up in the future.

"Very good." Fred waved a hand over his face then motioned to George who was animatedly talking with Ginny on the other side of us. "The paint gives it away."

I admitted the truth with a small chuckle, shaking my head. A breeze blew past, sending my mess of curls into the air as I crossed my arms over my chest and shrugged. "I've never known twins before, so it's a new experience. I'll figure out who's who soon enough, though."

"All along, you'd been one yourself; funny ain't it?"

Fred jumped into the conversation with his siblings and I was left alone to ponder that, taking in my surroundings and realising one very important and horrifying thing. Fuck, we were up high.

Our seats where almost at the very top and we could see everything that was going on in the stadium. Nervously, I leaned over the rail to look down at the field below and felt my stomach drop and nausea kick in.

Quickly, I jumped away from the edge and sat down in my seat, trying to keep myself from fainting. We were really really high up.

"Hey, Elle, are you alright?" Ginny put a cautious hand on my shoulder and looked at my greening face with alarm. "You don't look too well."

I tried to laugh it off, but it came out in a strangled cough, so I resorted to clamping my lips shut as I shook my head in a slow, ridged: no.

"Oh, it's the height thing, right?" She tried to press an answer out of me.

Taking a steady breath, I nodded, feeling my stomach settle down now that I was no longer peering over the edge of the stadium seats. I hadn't climbed this high in a long time. "Yeah, I'll be fine." Ginny frowned in concern, so I faked a sickening smile to reassure her. "I swear."

Hermione sat down next to me, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket as the cold night wind began to grow stronger. "Why are you so afraid of heights anyway? I mean, you did shove Fred for pulling you off of the port-key earlier."

A tad ashamed of my actions from earlier, I blushed and scratched the back of my head. My gaze rolled towards the twins, but they and Ron and Harry were distracted by the Veelas on the field performing before the start of the match. "Yeah, I feel bad about that. It's... it's kind of a silly story."

Ginny and Hermione just gave me blank looks that said to continue. "Okay, well when I was five, I was obsessed with the swings. I wanted to swing so high that I would go in a full circle around the pole supporting the swing." I paused and waited for them to catch up.

"Wait, so you actually did it? And that is why you are terrified of heights?" Ginny asked, alarmed.

I chuckled again. "No, no. I was up really high one afternoon, and this kid came in between the swing-sets and grabbed my chain, causing my swing to suddenly stop and me to go flying through the air. When I landed in the dirt, I fell face first and cut open my forehead and broke my wrist." I shrugged off the memory.

Hermione gasped and Ginny held her wrist as if she was in pain from my story. "Ouch," they nodded at each other.

"But, yeah. I was so young that the event scarred me and I just am terrified of heights forever now." I joked and rubbed my arms from the cold.

"Blimey, dad!" Ron blurted out as he looked over the rail in astonishment. The wind whipped his hair around his head and for a minute it looked like he was about to fall, teetering off the rail like he was. "How high up are we?!" My eye twitched at his oblivious reminder of how high we really were.

A cold voice rang out from the side of me and I looked down to see a man in his forties and a young man who was obviously his son standing on the stairs. "Well, let me put it this way." He smirked. "If it rains, you will be the first to know."

I could tell by the way the Weasleys and Hermione all glared at the two men that they were greatly disliked. Even I caught myself glaring from the toe-headed man's snide comment.

The brilliantly blond haired boy smirked and added. "We are on our way to the Minister's private box. By invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself!"

Before I could filter my words, they spilt out. "So what?" However, none seemed to hear me over the shouts of the crowd as something happened on the pitch below. Or, even if they did, the two didn't seem to care or acknowledge me in any way.

The elder man lightly hit his son in the chest with his cane with a small grimace. "Don't boast Draco. There is no need among..." He gave each and every one of us a disgusted look. "...These people."

My eyes twitched a little, but I was in control of my tongue this time.

The boy named Draco looked at me as if he was just seeing me for the first time. His eyes quickly traveled back and forth from Hermione and I in a puzzled and calculating manner.

"Come along, Draco." His father pulled on his coat and Draco was forced to leave without saying anything more.

"Who were they?" I asked once they were out of earshot.

Ron shook his head with a foul grimace. "The Malfoys. Terrible, the whole lot of 'em." Everyone in my group just nodded in agreement.

"Welcome ladies and gentleman!" A voice boomed throughout the whole stadium, silencing every excited bystander. "To the annual Quidditch World Cup!" And with that we were off.

The game lasted well into the night and I suddenly became fairly hungry in the middle of it. Sifting through my pockets I found some spare money I had brought for the occasion and smiled. Six Galleons and ten knuts. "Does any one want anything? It's on me." I offered and everybody turned me down but Ron.

"Ehh, box of Chocolate Frogs?" He asked.

"Sure, it's on me," I replied, the pair of us sharing a smile.

"Thanks!"

Whistling to distract myself from the steep decline from up this high, I walked down two flights of stairs and managed to find a snack stand that wasn't very busy. I contemplated the sign, trying to decide what sounded good.

"Are you going to buy something or not? People are waiting you know, Granger." A cold voice rang out from behind me, for a sliver of a second I wondered if Hermione had followed me, but I realised rather quickly that they were trying to get my attention.

Instead of replying, I kept staring at the sign and gnawing my bottom lip in contemplation. "Hmm. Maybe just a hot chocolate would be good right now...," I muttered to myself.

"How dare you ignore me!" The voice sneered in disgust. "Filthy mudblood."

The hairs on the back of my neck rose at the word the person behind me had just used. Turning around in a rage, I jabbed my finger into the small chest of the boy demanded to know what this guy's problem was. "Is there a foot long stick shoved up your ass!? Or what?!"

The cold voice belonged to Draco Malfoy and his face seemed to grow paler by my words. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." I glared at him with disgust. People who had problems with people's blood were obviously pretentious assholes.

"Who do think you are talking to, Granger?!" Draco sneered and spat at me.

My right eye twitched. "And that is another thing, why do you keep calling me that? It's not my name. E-L-L-E, asshole. It's easy. Now, piss off." I sneered right back at him and flipped my hair in his direction, immediately ending our conversation.

"How may I help you?" An amused, young girl smiled at me.

Sighing, I reached into my pocket and produced my money, my anger having taken my mind off of food for the time being. It didn't really sound appetizing anymore. "A box of Chocolate Frogs and one hot chocolate, please and thank you," I quipped, still pissed off.

The boy behind me began muttering to himself. "Stupid mudblood, I thought she couldn't get any worse."

My bones filled up with enough quiet rage that my ears began to tingle, every one of his words sparking another round of white hot hatred through my veins. "That will be five Sickles." The girl told me, eyes shifting from the boy behind me to myself with a small frown.

"Hold on a second." I sifted for another Sickle in my pocket, dropping four on the wooden concession stand counter.

"Come on, Mudblood. Hurr--" Anger seeped from my pores. Where did this kid learn to use such offensive language? Before I could control my movements, I turned around and decked him in the face.

His face was priceless. With a mixture of horror, shock and pain he grabbed his cheek and cursed at me. "Wait till my father hears about this, you will be dead!" He yelled at me before stalking off.

"Can't wait, fuck face!" I called after him, before realizing I had probably caused a scene. By the looks people were giving me, I would be surprised if Hermione hadn't heard the news by the time I'd returned.

Sighing, I rubbed my sore knuckles and paid the girl. "I really should not have done that..." I mumbled to myself.

"Well, if it is any consolation," The clerk handed me a steaming cup of cocoa and Ron's candies. "He had it coming to him, and if you had not decked him, I would have reached across this table and done it myself."

I chuckled and nodded. "Well, that does make me feel better. " I stuck my hand out to her. "Elle."

"Katie, nice to meet you." She shook my hand warmly and grinned.

"Well, I'd better get back to the game. It was nice to meet you too."

✧

In the end, Fred and George had been right, surprisingly. The Irish had won even though the Bulgarians had caught the snitch. I didn't doubt my favourite team at all but, by the looks of things, Ron was taking this pretty hard.

It was roughly around twelve-thirty in the morning when we started a fire and Ron began bragging about the Bulgarians. "The Irish just got lucky, if they were to play again, the Bulgarians would win the next time around."

Chuckling, I shook my head. "I highly doubt two hundred points is 'just got lucky'."

Ron objected with an obnoxious scoff. Hermione, who was curled up with a book by the fireplace peered up to meet my gaze with a 'just-ignore-him' smirk. "They have the best seeker in the world," Ron explained, "Viktor Krum, ever hear of him?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Krum's just a meathead on a stick."

"Krum is more than an athlete! He is an artist!"

"Dumb, Krum." Fred and George chanted, hopping around like, what I assumed were cavemen, thwapping their chests with their fists while and I laughed with Hermione, sitting down beside her as she snapped her book shut to watch the antics from the boys.

"You're in love Ron!" Ginny cried and roasted a marshmallow in our tiny fire.

Harry and George began to sing a love song to Ron while Fred danced around them in joy. "Shut up, Ginny." Ron mumbled.

The ground suddenly shook with a great force and people were screaming outside. "Sounds like the Irish are getting their pride on!" George grinned, while I cheered to the sound of firecrackers and swayed at the tent vibrated with the impacts.

Hoping around with the Twins, I noticed Mr Weasley check outside the tent, my smile dripping off my face like hot wax as his relaxed posture straightened out to a pin-rod and he rushed away, holding his wand firmly.

Quickly, I ran and looked outside to see masked people marching in between the tents and burning everything to the ground, yet the most horrific part of the whole scene was the people floating in the air above them, silently screaming. Even though the marching people where a mile or so off I immediately recognized one of the Muggles was Katie.

"It's not the Irish!" Mr Weasley choked out, continuing to rush around the tent and grabbed everything that was necessary to be off. Meanwhile, my mind was still trying to process the image of the concession stand girl, screaming in horror.

"Fred! George! Stick with Ginny; do not lose her! Elle, Hermione, Harry, and Ron watch out for each other and get to the port-key!" He commanded, snapping everyone into a flurry of motion as I stood in the midst of it all, dumbstruck. Mr Weasley rushed from the tent and called over his shoulder. "Now!"

Baffled, I forced myself to move, unable at first. However, once my legs got moving, I managed to get back to the room I was sharing with Ginny and Hermione, yanking my backpack off the ground and over my shoulder, glad that I had packed light.

"Elle, come on!" Hermione's panic was clear in her voice. She gathered the rest of her things and soon we were outside, flames and shouts all around us.

Swiftly, I ran out of the tent and grabbed on to Hermione-who had Ron's hand- and Harry's hand so we all would not get separated.

Hoards of people kept coming in all directions trying to break our bonded hands, we almost made it out of the wreckage unscathed until I felt Harry drop down to the ground next to me, causing me to go down with him and break my hold onto Hermione and Ron.

Scared people thrashed against me, pushing me farther and farther out into the distance, carrying me away. I found my hand empty as Harry was pushed to the ground, but as I fought to try and pull him back up, more people came screaming, thousands of them all running.

"Harry?!" I called out, but I couldn't see or hear anything outside of the screams, outside of the sound of fire, the sound of pain. "Hermione?! HERMIONE!?" I yelled louder, but again, no one was there. Only I, and a sea of unfamiliar faces.

<edited 10/08/17: wow, lots of stuff went down. and look, elle didn't pass out, very proud.>

(10-YA A/N):

Sorry this one took a minute to be posted! I'll try to get another out soon this week!

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