after a quick tour of the girls' tent, which was slightly smaller than the boys', though without the smell of cats, harry, ron, elara, and hermione set off across the campsite with the kettle and saucepans.

now, with the sun newly risen and the mist lifting, they could see the city of tents that stretched in every direction. they made their way slowly through the rows, staring eagerly around. it was only just dawning on elara how many witches and wizards there must be in the world; she had never really thought much about those in other countries.

their fellow campers were starting to wake up. first to stir were the families with small children; elara had never seen witches and wizards this young before. a tiny boy no older than two was crouched outside a large pyramid-shaped tent, holding a wand and poking happily at a slug in the grass, which was swelling slowly to the size of a salami. as they drew level with him, his mother came hurrying out of the tent.

"how many times, kevin? you don't — touch — daddy's —wand — yecchh!"

she had trodden on the giant slug, which burst. her scolding carried after them on the still air, mingling with the little boy's yells — "you bust slug! you bust slug!"

a short way farther on, they saw two little witches, barely older than kevin, who were riding toy broomsticks that rose only high enough for the girls' toes to skim the dewy grass. a ministry wizard had already spotted them; as he hurried past harry, ron, elara, and hermione he muttered distractedly, "in broad daylight! parents having a lie-in, i suppose —"

here and there adult wizards and witches were emerging from their tents and starting to cook breakfast. some, with furtive looks around them, conjured fires with their wands; others were striking matches with dubious looks on their faces, as though sure this couldn't work. three african wizards sat in serious conversation, all of them wearing long white robes and roasting what looked like a rabbit on a bright purple fire, while a group of middle-aged american witches sat gossiping happily beneath a spangled banner stretched between their tents that read: the salem witches' institute. elara caught snatches of conversation in strange languages from the inside of tents they passed, and though she couldn't understand a word, the tone of every single voice was excited.

"er — is it my eyes, or has everything gone green?" said ron.

it wasn't just ron's eyes. they had walked into a patch of tents that were all covered with a thick growth of shamrocks, so that it looked as though small, oddly shaped hillocks had sprouted out of the earth. grinning faces could be seen under those that had their flaps open. then, from behind them, they heard their names.

"harry! ron! elara! hermione!"

it was seamus finnigan, their fellow gryffindor fourth year. he was sitting in front of his own shamrock-covered tent, with a sandy-haired woman who had to be his mother, and his best friends, dean thomas and aspen lovelace, also of gryffindor.

"like the decorations?" said seamus, grinning. "the ministry's not too happy."

"ah, why shouldn't we show our colors?" said mrs. finnigan. "you should see what the bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents. you'll be supporting Ireland, of course?" she added, eyeing harry, ron, elara, and hermione beadily. when they had assured her that they were indeed supporting Ireland, they set off again,though, as ron said, "like we'd say anything else surrounded by that lot."

"what have the bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents?" said elara.

"i'm wondering that, too," said hermione.

"let's go and have a look," said harry, pointing to a large patch of tents upheld, where the bulgarian flag — white, green, andred — was fluttering in the breeze.

the tents here had not been bedecked with plant life, but each and every one of them had the same poster attached to it, a poster of a very surly face with heavy black eyebrows. the picture was, ofcourse, moving, but all it did was blink and scowl.

"krum," said ron quietly.

"what?" said hermione.

"krum!" said ron. "viktor krum, the bulgarian seeker!"

"he looks really grumpy," said hermione, looking around at the many krums blinking and scowling at them.

" 'really grumpy'?" ron raised his eyes to the heavens. "who cares what he looks like? he's unbelievable. he's really young too. only just eighteen or something. he's a genius, you wait until tonight,you'll see."

"i think you're in love, ron," said elara in a dreamy voice. she pretended to swoon and harry, along with hermione, caught her.

there was already a small queue for the tap in the corner of the field. harry, ron, elara, and hermione joined it, right behind a pair of men who were having a heated argument. one of them was a very old wizard who was wearing a long flowery nightgown. the other was clearly a ministry wizard; he was holding out a pair of pinstriped trousers and almost crying with exasperation.

"just put them on, archie, there's a good chap. you can't walk around like that, the muggle at the gate's already getting suspicious —"

"i bought this in a muggle shop," said the old wizard stubbornly."muggles wear them."

"muggle women wear them, archie, not the men, they wear these," said the ministry wizard, and he brandished the pinstriped trousers.

"i'm not putting them on," said old archie in indignation. "i like a healthy breeze 'round my privates, thanks."

hermione and elara were overcome with such strong fits of the giggles atthis point that they had to duck out of the queue and only returned when archie had collected his water and moved away.

walking more slowly now, because of the weight of the water,they made their way back through the campsite. here and there,they saw more familiar faces: other hogwarts students with their families. oliver wood was there with corrine sharpe, the old captains of the gryffindor and hufflepuff house quidditch team, who had just left hogwarts. they both dragged harry and elara over to oliver's parents' tent to introduce them, and told them excitedly that oliver had just been signed to the puddlemere united reserve team and that corrine had started auror training.

next they were hailed by ernie macmillan, a hufflepuff fourth year, and a little farther on they saw cho chang, a seeker on the ravenclaw team. she waved and smiled at harry,who slopped quite a lot of water down his front as he waved back. elara, for some reason, unconsciously scowled.

hermione caught sight and raised an eyebrow.

harry pointed out a large group of teenagers whom elara had never seen before.

"who d'you reckon they are?" he said. "they don't go to hogwarts, do they?"

" 'spect they go to some foreign school," said ron. "i know there are others. never met anyone who went to one, though. bill had a penfriend at a school in brazil . . . this was years and years ago . . .and he wanted to go on an exchange trip but mum and dad couldn't afford it. his penfriend got all offended when he said he wasn't going and sent him a cursed hat. It made his ears shrivel up."

elara laughed even though she was still a tad irked by cho. elara couldn't figure out why and it was driving her the slightest bit mad. cho only waved at them. well, she had more waved at harry and ignored ron, elara, and hermione, but she only just waved. but harry had spilled water all down his front when he noticed. elara ultimately decided to figure it out later, because today was meant to be fun.

"you've been ages," said george when they finally got back to the weasleys' tents.

"met a few people," said ron, setting the water down. "you not got that fire started yet?"

"dad's having fun with the matches," said fred.

mr. weasley was having no success at all in lighting the fire, but it wasn't for lack of trying. splintered matches littered the ground around him, but he looked as though he was having the time of his life.

"oops!" he said as he managed to light a match and promptly dropped it in surprise.

"come here, mr. weasley," said hermione kindly, taking the box from him, and showing him how to do it properly.

at last they got the fire lit, though it was at least another hour before it was hot enough to cook anything. there was plenty to watch while they waited, however. their tent seemed to be pitched right alongside a kind of thoroughfare to the field, and ministry members kept hurrying up and down it, greeting mr. weasley cordially as they passed. mr. weasley kept up a running commentary, mainly for harry's, elara's, and hermione's benefit; his own children knew too much about the ministry to be greatly interested.

at last, the fire was ready, and they had just started cooking eggs and sausages when bill, charlie, and percy came strolling out of the woods toward them.

they were halfway through their plates of eggs and sausages when mr. weasley jumped to his feet, waving and grinning at aman who was striding toward them. "aha!" he said. "the man of the moment! ludo!"

ludo bagman was easily the most noticeable person elara had seen so far, even including old archie in his flowered nightdress. he was wearing long quidditch robes in thick horizontal stripes of bright yellow and black. an enormous picture of a wasp was splashed across his chest. he had the look of a powerfully built man gone slightly to seed; the robes were stretched tightly across alarge belly he surely had not had in the days when he had played quidditch for england. his nose was squashed (probably broken by a stray bludger, elara thought), but his round blue eyes, short blond hair, and rosy complexion made him look like a very overgrown schoolboy.

"ahoy there!" bagman called happily. he was walking as though he had springs attached to the balls of his feet and was plainly in astate of wild excitement.

"arthur, old man," he puffed as he reached the campfire, "what a day, eh? what a day! could we have asked for more perfect weather? a cloudless night coming . . . and hardly a hiccough inthe arrangements. . . . not much for me to do!"

behind him, a group of haggard-looking ministry wizards rushed past, pointing at the distant evidence of some sort of a magical fire that was sending violet sparks twenty feet into the air.

percy hurried forward with his hand outstretched. apparently his disapproval of the way ludo bagman ran his department did not prevent him from wanting to make a good impression.

"ah — yes," said mr. weasley, grinning, "this is my son percy. he's just started at the ministry — and this is fred — no, george, sorry -- george's girlfriend, aurora brightwind — that's fred — bill, charlie, ron — my daughter, ginny —and ron's friends, hermione granger, elara lestrange and harry potter."

bagman did the smallest of double takes when he heard harry's name, and his eyes performed the familiar flick upward to the scar on harry's forehead. he then glanced towards elara just a tad nervously, as if she were going to whip her wand out and blow him up. bagman then glanced towards aurora. everyone knew of her fae decent.

"everyone," mr. weasley continued, "this is ludo bagman, you know who he is, it's thanks to him we've got such good tickets —"

bagman made quite a large bet with the twins and aurora. they had even offered a fake wand. percy was embarrassed, but his embarrassment morphed into shock when bagman roared with laughter when the wand gave a loud squawk and turned into a rubber chicken.

mr. weasley looked on helplessly as ludo bagman whipped out a notebook and quill and began jotting down the twins' names.

"cheers," said george, taking the slip of parchment bagman handed him and tucking it away carefully. bagman turned most cheerfully back to mr. weasley.

"couldn't do me a brew, i suppose? i'm keeping an eye out for barty crouch. my bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and i can't understand a word he's saying. barty'll be able to sort it out. he speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."

"mr. crouch?" said percy, suddenly abandoning his look of poker-stiff disapproval and positively writhing with excitement."he speaks over two hundred! mermish and gobbledegook and troll . . ."

"anyone can speak troll," said fred dismissively. "all you have to do is point and grunt."

percy threw fred an extremely nasty look and stoked the fire vigorously to bring the kettle back to the boil.

a wizard had apparated at their fireside, and he could not have made more of a contrast with ludo bagman, sprawled on the grass in his old wasp robes. barty crouch was a stiff, upright, elderly man, dressed in an impeccably crisp suit and tie. the partingin his short gray hair was almost unnaturally straight, and his narrow toothbrush mustache looked as though he trimmed it using a slide rule. his shoes were very highly polished. elara could see at once why percy idolized him. percy was a great believer in rigidly following rules, and mr. crouch had complied with the rule about muggle dressing so thoroughly that he could have passed for a bank manager, like the ones elara had seen in the muggle movie 'mary poppins'.

"pull up a bit of grass, barty," said ludo brightly, patting the ground beside him.

"no thank you, ludo," said crouch, and there was a bite of impatience in his voice. "i've been looking for you everywhere. the bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the top box."

"oh is that what they're after?" said bagman. "i thought the chap was asking to borrow a pair of tweezers. bit of a strong accent."

"mr. crouch!" said percy breathlessly, sunk into a kind of half-bow that made him look like a hunchback. "would you like a cup of tea?"

"oh," said mr. crouch, looking over at percy in mild surprise."yes — thank you, weatherby"

fred, george, and aurora choked into their own cups. elara failed miserably to cover up her laugh with a cough. percy, very pink around the ears, busied himself with the kettle. mr. crouch, bagman, and mr. weasley all talked of the ministry for awhile. they talked of flying carpets, brooms, portkeys, and bagman alluded to another exciting event happening this year. bagman and mr. crouch disapparated.

"what's happening at hogwarts, dad?" said fred at once."what were they talking about?"

"you'll find out soon enough," said mr. weasley, smiling.

"it's classified information, until such time as the ministry decides to release it," said percy stiffly. "mr. crouch was quite right not to disclose it."

"oh shut up, weatherby," said fred.

a sense of excitement rose like a palpable cloud over the campsite as the afternoon wore on. by dusk, the still summer air itself seemed to be quivering with anticipation, and as darkness spread like a curtain over the thousands of waiting wizards, the last vestiges of pretence disappeared: the ministry seemed to have bowed to the inevitable and stopped fighting the signs of blatant magic now breaking out everywhere.

salesmen were apparating every few feet, carrying trays and pushing carts full of extraordinary merchandise. there were luminous rosettes — green for ireland, red for bulgaria — which were squealing the names of the players, pointed green hats bedecked with dancing shamrocks, bulgarian scarves adorned with lions that really roared, flags from both countries that played their national anthems as they were waved; there were tiny models of firebolts that really flew, and collectible figures of famous players, which strolled across the palm of your hand, preening themselves.

"been saving my pocket money all summer for this," ron told harry as they, elara, and hermione strolled through the salesmen, buying souvenirs. though ron purchased a dancing shamrock hat and a large green rosette, he also bought a small figure of viktor krum,the bulgarian seeker. the miniature krum walked backward and forward over ron's hand, scowling up at the green rosette above him.

"wow, look at these!" said elara, hurrying over to a cart piled high with what looked like brass binoculars, except that they were covered with all sorts of weird knobs and dials.

"omnioculars," said the saleswizard eagerly. "you can replay action . . . slow everything down . . . and they flash up a play-by-play breakdown if you need it. bargain — ten galleons each."

"wish i hadn't bought this now," said ron, gesturing at his dancing shamrock hat and gazing longingly at the omnioculars.

"four pairs," said harry firmly to the wizard.

ron, elara, and hermione broke out in protests.

"no — don't bother," said ron, going red.

"harry, absolutely not. ten galleons is too much -- "

"that's too expensive -- "

"you won't be getting anything for christmas," harry told them,thrusting omnioculars into their hands. "for about ten years, mind."

"fair enough," said ron, grinning.

"you're an ass, but thank you."

"oooh, thanks, harry," said hermione. "and i'll get us some programs, look —"

their money bags considerably lighter, they went back to the tents. bill, charlie, and ginny were all sporting green rosettes too,and mr. weasley was carrying an Irish flag. fred, george, and aurora had no souvenirs as they had given bagman all their gold.

and then a deep, booming gong sounded somewhere beyond the woods, and at once, green and red lanterns blazed into life inthe trees, lighting a path to the field.

"it's time!" said mr. weasley, looking as excited as any of them. "come on, let's go!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

-- uh oh here we go

JANUARY 8, 2020