T W E N T Y - O N E

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Adeline had been to many magical places before. She had been to Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade more times than she could count, and Platform 9 and 3/4s had been one of chaotic experiences of her life up until that point. Merlin, she went to a boarding school where the staircases moved at whim and there were magical corridors and rooms that not even the professors knew about.

But none of those even compared to the campgrounds of the Quidditch World Cup.

Up until that point, summer had been mostly uneventful for Adeline. Without the usual summer assignments, Adeline didn't have her magical workload to distract her whenever she was home. She had learnt to knit and discovered she had a knack for it, even without using magic. Adeline had started out simple with socks and gloves, but had worked her way up to knitting full-on sweaters for herself. She was thankful that the girls had planned a trip Diagon Alley after the Cup so she could see what magical yarns she could find.

But right now, thoughts of trips of Diagon Alley were completely forgotten in the midst of the World Cup campgrounds. Estelle's dad had sent them on a mission to get the water, but the girls had been taking detours that they would likely not be back until right before they had to leave for the stadium. The campsite they were staying in was in the middle of the sea of Irish supporters, and Adeline's vision felt overloaded with the color green.

Then again, it wasn't like the girls were any better. Estelle was from Ireland, so it was made pretty clear from the beginning who their allegiance would be to. Since none of the other girls were particular to either team, they had decided to go along with Estelle and deck out in green and white. Adeline had even managed to knit a green sweater that she now had tucked into a short pleated white skirt in the days in between Estelle sending the letter and her picking Adeline up.

Despite this, Adeline was glad when they moved out of the "Irish" territory and into campsites with all the different wizarding groups from around the world. Sure, Adeline had read about how the wizarding laws varied across the world and the different magical schools like Hogwarts. But it was another thing to see all them together. It hadn't truly hit Adeline how far magic stretched until now.

"Holy Merlin, is that Cedric Diggory?" Melanie exclaimed, ducking behind Adeline's tall frame. "Did he get even cuter over the summer? How is that even possible?"

Adeline looked in the direction Melanie kept staring at to see that she was in fact right. The three girls burst into giggles at Melanie's embarrassment, as it was a rarity for the normally confident and bubbly Hufflepuff girl.

"Why are you hiding from him?" Estelle pointed out, pushing a mortified Melanie out from behind Melanie. "Aren't you two friends? He's literally your Quidditch captain!"

Shrugging her shoulders, Ophelia added, "Well he has gotten crazy cute. Even if he's a little bit too pretty boy for my taste."

"Cedric's always been pretty..." Melanie sighed in an almost lovestruck sort of way. "He's quite sweet too. Quiet but strong."

"Let's get out of here," Adeline grinned before tugging Melanie, and the rest of the girls, off in a different direction. "Let's get the water before Melanie faints."

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When the group finally reached the stadium, they ended up having to do much more climbing up stairs than any of the girls anticipated. But the farther up she went, Adeline couldn't help but become more excited because wherever the seats were located, they were going to have the most amazing view of the game.

Ophelia was the first of the girls to enter the box they had tickets for, and when she saw who was inside, she couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter. "Oh, this is about to get interesting."

Before Adeline could as what Ophelia meant by that, Estelle's dad moved to the side, revealing several redhead teenagers sitting in the front row, talking eagerly about the game to come. Adeline didn't fully recognize them until one of the boys turned around and grinned maniacally before hitting another guy sitting next to him in the shoulder, causing him to turn around as well.

"Addie?"

Adeline felt her heart skip a beat in her chest. George Weasley had managed to get even more attractive during the summer apart, if that was even possible. She could've sworn that he had even grown a few centimeters, and his hair was nearly shoulder-length now. But his wide smile was still the same from when Adeline last saw it back in June. The same one she had pictured every time she read one of the letters he wrote her.

There was a small nudge on Adeline's shoulder, and she quickly realized it was Estelle pushing her forward because Adeline had completely frozen in place.

Adeline waved shyly at George as she made her way over to the front row of seats where the girls were going to sit. "Guess we did end up seeing each other at the World Cup," Adeline tried to joke as she moved down the row, finding herself now standing next to George.

George glanced over at Fred, and after making sure he was distracted by talking to Ron and Ginny about something, leaned down and whispered, "I finally finished the book."

"You did?" Adeline beamed. "What'd you think?"

Shrugging in a casual sort of manner, George replied, "It was alright."

Adeline raised an eyebrow. From the way he described the book in all of their letters over the summer, George didn't just think the book was "alright."

"You certainly seemed to think otherwise in your letters," Adeline teased, making the tips of George's ears go bright red. "Are you sure about that?"

"You know I have a bit of a bad boy reputation to uphold around here," George shot back in a similar tone of voice, making Adeline laugh brightly. "Can't go around announcing to the whole world that I actually enjoyed an old romance book!"

"George, the day you're considered a 'bad boy' is the day that I drop Charms class."

Their conversation was quickly cut short, however, by Hermione rushing over to greet Adeline after a summer apart. This seemed to surprise most of the box – minus Estelle, Melanie, and Ophelia – who hadn't expected the two to become friends. But here they were, sharing stories from their summers and talking about how excited they were for the upcoming year.

Behind her, Mr. Badin and who Adeline assumed to be Mr. Weasley greeted each other excitedly. Ophelia and Melanie were flipping through the enchanted program, picking out the Irish team members they were most excited to see play and what tactics they could take from the players. On Adeline's other side, Estelle was fiddling with the rosette that she had pinned on her chest, trying to make it so that it wasn't lopsided. Hermione had gone back to Harry and Ron, and the trio seemed to be fiddling with these strange binocular-like objects that Adeline had seen vendors. The whole Weasley family seemed to be talking avidly amongst each other, even Percy, who Adeline had rarely seen get excited over Quidditch like this. Adeline couldn't help but be fascinated by mascots for the Bulgaria and Ireland, which were leprechauns and veela respectively.

The mood, however, quickly shifted the moment the Malfoy family walked into the box.

Adeline hadn't noticed them at first. But the whole Weasley clan had gone quiet upon seeing them, along with Harry and Hermione. To hear such a bustling and lively box turn so quiet was incredibly jarring, and Adeline exchanged a look with Hermione, who looked just as wary as her.

Despite Draco being two years younger than her, Adeline had seen him more times than she wanted to around Hogwarts. Her most vivid memory of him was during her fourth year when the Chamber of Secrets was open, and Draco was praising the monster and loudly hoping that the monster would kill another one of the "filthy muggleborns."

Needless to say, Adeline was not Draco Malfoy's biggest fan.

Mr. Badin and Mr. Malfoy greeted each other graciously, but Adeline could see the way that Estelle's dad glared at his back as he walked away, clearly only being nice for appearances sake. However, Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley did not keep up those same pleasantries, and the two did not even try to greet each other.

But with one look at the Minister of Magic, the two fathers realized that today was not the day to start a fight. The Malfoy family, however, didn't seem to mind sending horrible looks towards Hermione and making snide comments. But Hermione, ever the Gryffindor, kept her chin up and seemed to let all the comments brush past her. Adeline admired her for that and how she stayed so brave. That could – and had – never been Adeline. She was thankful that Draco and the Malfoy family knew very little of her, giving Adeline the opportunity to almost hide behind Estelle.

The Quidditch match quickly came to a start, providing an exciting distraction from the tension in the box. Adeline had never seen a Quidditch game like the World Cup today. Up until this point, the most intense game she had ever seen was the one between Gryffindor and Slytherin at the Quidditch final that past spring. But even that paled in comparison to the match in front of her.

The Irish were absolutely destroying Bulgaria. The Chasers seemed to move as one unit and were moving so fast that they just seemed like one big green blur to Adeline. She couldn't keep her eyes off the game, even ignoring the comments from Melanie and Ophelia about how they were going to try and convince their captains to use some of the plays for Quidditch that coming year. Adeline had never been so invested in a game where Ophelia or Melanie weren't playing, and she now could understand how people became so fanatical when it came to Quidditch.

"Viktor Krum sure is handsome," Estelle sighed, her eyes darting back and forth as she kept track of the players on the field. "Even with a bloody nose."

Adeline shrugged. "Sure, but he seems way too surly and stuck-up for me. He needs to loosen up and smile a little bit."

Beside her, George couldn't help but sneak a smile.

"Look at Lynch!"

Harry's yell attracted the attention of the entire box, who were now staring intensely at the Irish Seeker, who was now in a dive towards the ground with Krum not too far behind. Knowing this meant he's seen the Snitch, the whole stadium erupted in screams as they waited to see whether the game would come to an end. Adeline felt herself nervously grab onto George's hand, squeezing it so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Everything next seemed to be a blur. Lynch crashed into the ground for the second time that match and was immediately stamped by the furious veela mascots. But none of the attention seemed to be on him. Instead, everyone in the stadium seemed to be focused on Krum's raised fist, where a golden glint could be seen even from Adeline's box high above the ground,

BULGARIA: 160 - IRELAND: 170

"Ireland wins!" Lugo Bagman screamed, causing the Irish side of the stadium to let out an ear-splitting roar. "Bulgaria catches the Snitch, but Ireland wins! Good Godric, I don't think any of us were seeing that coming!"

The box seemed to burst at Ludo's announcement. Mr. Badin was in near tears as he hugged a cheering Mr. Weasley, and the whole row of teenagers was screaming over the game and how brilliant it was. Adeline felt herself being tugged into a hug by Estelle, her hand being pulled away from George as he went to celebrate with Fred and Bill Weasley. The Malfoy family seemed to look over the whole scene with a look of disgust, but no one there seemed to care.

But, one of the best moments from that celebration for George was not when he realized that he had won the bet with Fred against Ludo Bagman. It was the brief moment after Ireland had won where Adeline was still holding onto his hand, smiling widely beside him and cheering louder than he had ever heard.

And, although Adeline couldn't quite realize it yet, seeing George celebrate beside her was one of her favorite moments too.

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