The sun had barely appeared among the hilltops. The sky was a deep shade of purple, but slowly melted into a pearly pink. Arthur Weasley led nine children (Katie, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Chris, Niall and Fred and George) through the woods next to the Burrow. Fred and George, and Chris and Niall walked just behind Mr Weasley, Harry and Ron next, and the three girls hung back behind the crowd.

Katie was so exhausted that she was surprised her half-asleep legs were even managing to carry her. Up ahead, Mr Weasley was loudly explaining how they were going to use a Portkey, situated at the top of Stoatshead Hill, to get to the World Cup, though Katie wasn't really listening. She yawned loudly and Ginny gave her a look that read, 'I know how you feel.'

As they were trudging through the forests, their heads hung low, expressing their tiredness, two silhouettes became visible amongst the trees, illuminated slightly by the purple of the sky.

"Arthur!" a voice boomed. "Its about time, son!"

Mr Weasley waved as he sped up to meet his mysterious friend. "Sorry, Amos, some of us had a bit of a sleepy start." Mr Weasley said, glancing back at Ron.

The walking party came to a halt in front of Amos, who Katie could now see much more clearly. He was a ruddy-faced wizard with a scrubby, brown beard, and he was smiling broadly.

"This is Amos Diggory, everyone," Mr Weasley introduced the children to the man. "Works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

There was a chorus of a drowsy, "Hello."

At that moment, a branch in a tree overhead shuddered, and a boy jumped down, landing up-right on his feet next to Amos Diggory. Katie recognised him instantly from the Quidditch pitch. He was the Hufflepuff Seeker, though she couldn't quite place a name to his face.

"This strapping young man must be Cedric, am I right?" Mr Weasley said, firmly shaking the boy's hand.

"Yes, sir." Cedric said before redirecting his gaze to the nine other Hogwarts students. He gave them a small wave. "Hi."

Katie, Hermione and Ginny all glanced between each other, trying with all their might not to let grins spread across their face. Cedric was, and it was clear to see, extremely handsome.

Amos Diggory peered good-naturedly around at the kids. "All these yours, Arthur?"

"Oh, no, only the red-heads," Mr Weasley replied, pointing at his children. "Ron, Ginny and Fred and George. This here is Christian Blair and Niall Murray — Fred and George's friends, then there's Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Katerina Blair — Ron's friends."

"Merlin's Beard!" Amos Diggory cried, his eyes widening. "Harry Potter?"

"Er — yeah." Harry said, seeming unsure. Katie got the impression that he was fed up of everyone having the same excited reaction when they met him.

"Ced's talked about you, of course," Amos Diggory continued. "Told us all about playing against you last year... I said to him, I said — Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that will... you bet Harry Potter!"

Cedric looked very embarassed, and Harry was shifting around uncomfortably on his feet.

After a few more minutes of talking, the group, now consisting of twelve people, set up Stoatshead Hill. By the time they reached the top, Katie had a horrible stitch in her side and her muscles were threatening to seize up.

Amos Diggory led them to a musty old boot that was sat in the middle of the hill.

"You just need to be touching it. A finger will do." Amos said.

With great difficulty, all twelve of them squeezed around the boot and clasped on as though their life depended on it. They all stood there, in a tight circle, as a chill breeze swept over the hilltop. Nobody spoke. It suddenly occurred to Katie how odd this would look if a Muggle were to walk up here now... twelve people, two grown men, clutching this manky old boot in the semi-darkness, waiting...

"Three..." Mr Weasley muttered. "Two... one..."

It happened immediately. Katie felt as though a hook just behind her navel had been suddenly jerked irresistibly forwards. Her feet had left the ground and she could feel Hermione and Ginny on either side of her, their elbows banging into hers. They were all speeding forwards in a howl of wind and swirling colour; Katie's forefinger was stuck to the boot as though it was pulling him magnetically onward and then—

Katie slammed into the ground. Hermione and Ginny fell in a heap next to her. Mr Weasley, Amos Diggory and Cedric were the only ones left standing; everyone else was on the ground.

Chris staggered quickly to his feet, clearly not wanting to be undermined by Cedric, who he still had nit forgiven for catching the Snitch during the the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match the year before. Niall, Fred and George followed suit, and Katie could tell that Cedric was trying very hard not to laugh.

Fred helped Hermione to her feet, George helped Ginny, Niall helped Ron, Cedric grabbed Harry, and then Chris held his hand out for Katie. He heaved her to her feet.

Katie turned around. They were standing atop of a hill, next to miles and miles of stretched land, and scattered across the fields were hundreds upon thousands of tent, bathed in a thick morning mist.

"Right everyone, this way!" Mr Weasley called. The Diggorys took off in the opposite direction, and the rest followed behind Arthur for another fifteen minutes of agonising walking.

They trekked to the very far end of the field, stopping by the edge of the wood.

"Ah, here we are!" Mr Weasley announced merrily. "Everyone inside!"

Katie watched with her eyebrows knitted together in perplexity as, one after one, her friends crawled inside the extremely small, extremely shabby tent. There was no way ten people were going to fit into the cramped space. Harry seemed to be having the same thoughts as Katie. He was eyeing the tent with a glimmer of disgust on his face.

Once it was only Katie and Harry left outside, Katie shrugged and clambered inside the tent. Her jaw dropped when she emerged in what looked like an old-fashioned, four-roomed flat, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms — one for the boys, one for the girls.

Hermione and Ginny were already unpacking, while Fred and George had made themselves comfortable at a rather small dining room.

"Ron, get out of the kitchen, we're all hungry!" Mr Weasley said.

"Yeah, get outta the kitchen, Ron!" Fred and George harmonised.

"Feet off the table." Mr Weasley scolded the twins, who took their feet down for a mere moment, only to put them back up as soon as their dad shifted his gaze.

"Feet off the table!" they echoed.

Mr Weasley picked up a dusty kettle and peered inside. "We'll need some water..."

"There's a tap on this map. It's on the other side of the field." Ron said, pulling a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket. He smoothed out the crinkles and showed it to Arthur.

"Well, why don't you take your friends and go get some water? You can have a look around while you're out." Mr Weasley suggested, handing the kettle and a couple of saucepans to Ron.

With a scowl, Ron took the containers and, handing some to Harry, Hermione and Katie, grumbled a, "C'mon."

Now that the sun had fully risen and was shining brightly in the sky, Katie could clearly see the tents of various shapes and sizes that spread for miles. In the distance, there was a particular group of tents that were exceptionally green, and their inhabitants were very loud. Katie expected that they were the Irish.

"Should we go see if Seamus is there?" Katie suggested.

Ron groaned. "No, my feet are killing me. Let's just get this bloody water so I can have a rest."

So they walked through the campsite, in the opposite direction of the Irish, and found themselves bang in the middle of the Bulgarians. Every single one of them had the same picture of a surly face with dark eyebrows flying above their tents.

"Krum." Ron said quietly.

"What?" Hermione inquired. Ron looked at her like she had three heads.

"Krum!" he exclaimed exasperatedly. "Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker!"

"He looks really grumpy." Hermione said judgmentally.

Ron rolled his eyes dramatically. "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."

As the four kids joined the rather long cue for the water tap, Katie heard her name being called. She turned her head to see Leo running towards her, waving frantically.

"Go." Hermione smiled, taking the saucepans that Katie had been carrying. With a quick thank you to Hermione, Katie went to greet her younger brother.

"Hey, you," she grinned, ruffling his dirty blonde hair. He grimaced at this action, but his broad smile quickly returned. "Where are mum and dad?"

"Setting up the tent," Leo told her. "They told me I could have a look around. Where are you staying?"

"Over by the edge of the woods." Katie said and roughly pointed to where their tent was situated.

Leo shivered. "Spooky! But the pitch is on the other side of the wood, so you won't have far to walk tonight. Hi, Harry!"

Katie glanced over her shoulder to see that Harry had appeared behind her.

"Hi, Leo," Harry smiled at the boy before addressing Katie. "We're ready to head back now. Do you want us to wait?"

"No, no, it's fine. You go ahead. I'll follow in a few minutes." Katie waved Harry off then looked down at Leo. "Excited?"

Leo's already huge grin somehow got even bigger. "So excited! I can't wait to see Krum up close!"

Katie chuckled. She continued to talk to her brother for awhile before Leo announced that he should probably be heading back. Katie assured him that she would come visit their tent in the morning, then set off towards her own tent.

She ducked and dodged various already-tipsy wizards who tried to drag her into conversation or offer her drinks that she definitely was not old enough to consume. Walking with her head down proved to be a mistake when she harshly collided with something — or someone.

"Crap! I'm so sorry, I — Draco?"

It took less than three seconds for Katie's vision to re-focus after the collision, and her eyes focused on the blonde in front of her. His eyes were blown wide in surprise.

"Katie? Hey."

"What are you doing here?" Katie asked stupidly. She wanted to kick herself as soon as the words left her mouth. Draco raised an eyebrow and a small laugh slipped past his lips.

"I'm obviously here for the game, idiot." he said.

Katie scoffed jokingly. "Shut up, prat, I'm bad at making conversation."

Draco smiled. He fell silent for a few moments before saying, "Want to go for a walk?"

Katie took note of how he nervously bit his lip. She blinked confusedly, pleasantly surprised by the fact that Draco was being so civil.

"Oh, I'd love to, but I should really be getting back to the Weasleys—" she responded awkwardly.

Draco's eyebrows shot up. "You're here with the Weasleys?"

"And Harry, and Hermione, and my brother and his friend." she explained. She could see the confusion growing in Draco's eyes as he lost track of all the names.

"That's... a lot of people." he said, laughing slightly.

"We make it work. See you around, Draco." Katie smiled and continued walking and made it back to her tent with no further disruptions to her path. Her grin didn't falter as she thought about the fact that she had just had a civil, almost friendly conversation with Draco Malfoy.

"There you are!" Ron said upon Katie's entry to the tent. "We were worried you got lost. What took you so long?"

Katie's mouth opened slightly. She glanced at the entrance to the tent, then back at the nine other people inside, all of whom had their eyes fixed on her. She pointed outside with her thumb.

"I... I just ran into Draco, so I was talking to him for a bit." she said, more quietly than intended. Ron rolled his eyes at the mention of Draco's name.

"Git." he muttered angrily.

"He's the one you fancy, right?" Chris called from his bunk, not looking up from the book that he was reading. Niall, Fred and George snorted.

Instead of responding, Katie picked a cushion up off the couch and chucked it at her brother, who let out a yelp when it hit him square in the face.

That afternoon, all the ten people in their party gathered on the grass outside to enjoy some bacon and eggs. They had been discussing their score predictions for the game when Mr Weasley suddenly sprung to his feet, waving madly.

"Aha! The man of the moment! Ludo!"

Katie knew all too well that Ludo Bagman was the Head of Magical Games and Sports, and that he had once played Quidditch for England himself, but he did not look at all like she had expected him to. 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. His nose was squashed, but his round blue eyes, short blonde hair and rosy complexion made him look like a very overgrown schoolboy.

"Ahoy, there!" Bagman called as he happily bounced over. "What a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather, and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements... not much for me to do!"

Katie and Ron glanced at each other and tried to suppress their laughter when, as soon as Bagman said that, a group of haggard-looking Ministry wizards rushed past, pointing at a violent purple fire that was shooting sparks twenty feet into the air.

Mr Weasley decided to introduce the kids to Ludo Bagman. "This is Fred — no, George, sorry — that's Fred — Ron — my daughter, Ginny — then there's Chris and Niall, Fred and Goerge's friends — and here we have Ron's friends, Hermione Granger, Katie Blair and Harry Potter."

It was hard for Katie to miss the double-take that Bagman done when he heard Harry's name, and his eyes performed the familiar flick to the scar on his forehead.

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 pretense disappeared.

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 which played their national anthems as they were waved; there were tiny models of Firebolts, which really flew, and collectible figures of famous players, which strolled across the palm of your hand, preening themselves.

Katie and Ginny rushed excitedly through the crowds, squandering their money on silly souvenirs. They both purchased a dancing shamrock hat each and laughed hysterically at how stupid they looked perched on top of their heads.

"This is so cool!" Ginny yelled happily over the loud bustle of the crowd.

Their money bags considerably lighter, they went back to the tent. Niall was waving an Irish flag and loudly belting the Irish national anthem — mind you, it was sung in, no surprise, Irish, so Katie had no idea what he was saying. Fred and George had a good go at singing along, although, they were really only making very loud noises.

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

"It's time!" Mr Weasley announced, looking as excited as any of them. "Come on, let's go!"

Mr Weasley led the nine Hogwarts students through the wood, following the lantern-lit trail. The excited shouts, cheers and singing around them was highly infectious, and Katie found that she couldn't stop grinning. Ginny was trying to say something to Katie but she couldn't hear it over all the loud talking and yelling.

The walk through the wood took twenty minutes, until at last, they emerged on the other side, and Katie felt her breath get caught in her throat. She found herself standing at the foot of an enormous stadium, the golden walls of which seemed to stretch on endlessly.

Fred and George were chatting excitedly and pointing at the shimmering stadium. Hermione let out a squeal of delight, and Ron looked as though he was going to faint — he was extremely overwhelmed.

"Seats a hundred thousand." Mr Weasley told everyone. "Ministry task of five hundred have been working on it all year. Muggle-Repelling Charms on every inch of it. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again... Bless them."

Mr Weasley led the way towards the nearest entrance, which was already surrounded by a swarm of shouting witches and wizards.

Ginny was latched onto Katie's arm, shaking and bouncing around on the balls of her feet from excitement, and Katie was feeling the exact same as the younger girl. Her stomach was twisting with unbearable anticipation. Never in her life did Katie think that she would be at the final of a Quidditch World Cup.

"Prime seats!" the Ministry witch at the entrance said when Mr Weasley handed in their tickets. "Top Box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, as high as you can go."

And so another few minutes of agonising hiking ensued, but Katie knew that it would be worth it... and it was. It really was. The Ministry witch had not been lying when she said that they had prime seats. They found themselves in a small box, at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly half way between the goal-posts. About twenty purple-and-gilt chairs sat in two rows here. Mr Weasley ushered everyone into their seats in the front row, but Katie dashed to the edge of the box and peered down at a sight that she never could have imagined.

A hundred thousand witches and wizards were taking their places in the seats which rose in levels around the long oval pitch. Everything was suffused with a mysterious golden light that seemed to come from the stadium itself. The pitch looked as smooth as velvet from their position.

Katie heard a shifting beside her and turned her head to see that Harry had joined her at the edge of the box. He was gazing out into the stadium, his eyes glimmering with unmistakable joy. Katie smiled at him when he noticed her looking.

"It's incredible." Harry breathed, awestruck.

"Yeah," Katie agreed with the same amount of wonder in her voice. "And just think, maybe one day, we could be out their playing for England."

Harry suddenly seemed much more alert. He cocked his head to the side and a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

"You want to play professionally?" he inquired, sounding slightly surprised.

Katie shrugged nonchalantly. "Everyone keeps telling me how good I am, so I might as well put my skills to good use," she pulled a bag out of her pocket and offered it out to Harry. "Toffee?"