Cassia's POV

I opened my eyes to see that I was inside what looked like an old abandoned house. The window to my left gave a view of a graveyard just down the hill. Given that there were some stairs behind me, I could decipher that I was on the second floor. But aside from that, I had no idea where the hell I was. This house could be anywhere in Europe, or the world, for that matter. To make matters worse, I could feel a really painful headache coming on. It hurt the most in the area where my scar was. This meant one of two things: either Harry was in danger, or danger was present.
The room at the end of the hall sparked my curiosity. A light was on and the door was opened halfway. I could hear someone talking, but it sounded more like whispering because their tone was so quiet. I cautiously edged closer to the door so I could hear them better. At the same time, my headache only increased, and since Harry was nowhere in sight, I could only assume that the people in the room in front of me were enemies. One person was sitting in an armchair, which was facing away from me. Two other men stood in the room, looking at the person on said armchair.
Pretty soon, I heard footsteps heading in my direction. I turned around to see an elderly man coming up the stairs, with a flashlight in one hand and a walking stick in his other hand.

"Oh, no, no, no, my Lord Voldemort," I heard one of the men saying. I knew this wasn't good. "I only meant...p-perhaps, if we were to do it without them...?"

"No! The boy and girl are everything! It cannot be done without them, and it WILL be done exactly as I say!" Voldemort shouted. When I squinted to get a closer look, I saw his hand was all bony. To add onto that, he sounded weak, like he'd lost his voice or something.

The other man -- who was wearing a long leather coat -- knelt down so he was face to face with the dark wizard who had murdered mine and Harry's parents. "I will not disappoint you, my Lord," he assured him.

"Good," Voldemort said, "First, gather our old comrades. Send them a s-sign."

A hissing sound made me jump. The old man behind me jumped as well, because something was moving right beside him. I followed his gaze to see a large snake slithering across the floor. The reptile was about the size of a Burmese python. It went up onto the chair that Voldemort was sitting in, and hissed something to him in Parseltongue, with a feminine voice.

"Nagini tells me that the old Muggle caretaker is standing just outside the door," Voldemort informed his two followers. I tried to say or do something to intervene, but no words came out of my mouth, and my legs were frozen, unable to move.
Wormtail appeared in the doorway, frightening the old man and causing him to lift his hands in a form of surrender, as if to say 'I mean no harm'.

"Step aside, Wormtail, so I can give our guest a proper greeting," Voldemort ordered. "Avada Kedavra!" There was a flash of blinding green light. It struck the man, killing him instantaneously.

"Cassia! Cassia, wake up!" someone exclaimed, shaking my shoulders. I gasped and opened my eyes to see it was Ginny. My heart was pounding so hard that I thought it would jump out of my chest. I felt myself starting to hyperventilate. As hard as I tried to breathe normally, I couldn't. The dream had felt so real.

"It's okay, Cassi. It was just a nightmare," Ginny assured me, squeezing my hand tightly.

I squeezed her hand back as I took several deep breaths. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Soon, my heart rate calmed down, and so did my heavy breathing.
"Thanks, Gin," I whispered, sending her a grateful smile.

She smiled in return. "No problem. Mum asked us to get dressed and go wake the boys."

"You get the twins, I'll get my brother and Ron," I said.

Ginny jumped off the bed and rushed down the hall to Fred and George's room.

I slid out from underneath the covers and rummaged through my trunk, which sat at the foot of my bed. My bag I'd gotten for the Cup was hanging on one of the posts next to me. I grabbed it and packed a water bottle that I'd filled the night before, and extra clothes in it. Luckily, Mrs. Weasley had put an Undetectable Extension Charm on the bag so that everything would fit. Then I picked out an outfit for the day and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind me, before getting dressed.

I checked myself over in the mirror, making sure my hair and my makeup were okay. Then I brushed my teeth and put my toothbrush and toothpaste into my bag, along with my pajamas, and exited the bathroom. Call me crazy for going sleeveless, but in my defense, we were basically hiking, in the middle of the summer! I'm not wearing long sleeves in August!

I then headed into the bedroom Harry shared with Ron. To my surprise, Harry was tossing and turning in his sleep. He was having a nightmare, same as me. I rushed over to his bed just as Hermione came into the room.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, looking at me with concern in her face.

"I think Harry's having a nightmare. Kind of a coincidence, since I was, too," I answered. I started shaking Harry, trying to wake him up, but nothing happened.

Hermione sat on the other side of the bed and assisted me. "Harry! Harry!" she called his name. Nothing. He continued to thrash around in his sleep, gasping in pain (probably because his scar was hurting again, another detail he'd mentioned in his letters to me).

"Harry, wake up! Please, wake up!" I said, continuing to shake him.

Finally, after 30 more seconds, Harry jolted awake. I handed him his glasses and he put them on.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Cassia...Hermione...bad dream," he panted, trying to catch his breath. He then looked at Hermione. "When did you get here?"

"Just now," Hermione replied, "What about you guys?"

"Last night," Harry answered.

"Last week," I added.

Hermione went over to Ron's bed. "Wake up! Wake up, Ronald!" she hissed at Ron, really getting all up in his face.

Ron's eyes fluttered open, and his tired expression quickly became shocked as he yanked the covers up to his neck. "Bloody hell!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, stop it! You have a tank top and pajama pants on!"

"Get dressed. And don't go back to sleep," Hermione practically demanded.

"Uh, Hermione..." I pointed to Ron, who -- I just now noticed -- was already falling asleep again.

Hermione looked at him and groaned frustratedly. "Come on, Ron!" she said, slapping his cheek to get him moving. "Your mother says breakfast's ready!"

Ron only sighed and plopped back on his bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

"Should one of us wake him up?" Harry asked me.

"I've got this," I assured him, grinning mischievously.

"I'm almost scared to ask..." Harry joked.

"Be right back..." I ran downstairs to the kitchen. Once there, I pulled my water bottle out of my bag and unscrewed the top. Then I opened the freezer and grabbed a handful of ice, stuffed it into my water bottle, and then quickly screwed the top back on. With that accomplished, I raced back up the stairs and into the boys' room. "If this doesn't get his arse up, nothing will," I said as I unscrewed the top of the water bottle.

Harry let out a mock gasp. "You wouldn't dare..."

I smirked. "Wanna bet?" With a simple flick of the wrist, I splashed Ron's face with the water.

Ron screamed like a little girl and literally fell off the bed.

"Good, you're up," I said.

"Bloody hell! That was freezing!" Ron exclaimed.

"You were the one who refused to get up," I pointed out, earning an eye roll from Ron.

"We'll meet you guys downstairs," Harry told me.

"It's him I'm worried about," I sarcastically commented, pointing at Ron.

"Ha ha, very funny," Ron grumbled.

<><><><><>

On a happy note, I didn't have to worry about Ron falling asleep again, even though he was yawning quite a bit when he came down the stairs. Now we were hiking through the woods to Stoatshead Hill, where the Portkey was located. Mr. Weasley had told us that we were meeting up with a friend of his along the way, but given the fact that we had to get up at 4:30 AM and we'd been hiking for over 3 hours, it felt like we were just going on a wild goose chase.

"Ron, where are we actually going?" Harry asked.

"I dunno..." Ron shrugged in reply.
"Hey Dad, where are we going?" he called ahead to Mr. Weasley.

"Haven't the foggiest!" Mr. Weasley called back to him. "Keep up!"

Pretty soon, we reached a small clearing. A short man wearing a large backpack and carrying a walking stick was waiting for us. I had to squint to get a better look at him, being that I was in the back of the group.

"Arthur! It's about time, son!" the man exclaimed.

"Sorry, Amos. Some of us had a bit of a sleepy start this morning," Mr. Weasley apologized, bringing us all to a stop. "This is Amos Diggory, everyone," he introduced the man to us. "Works with me at the Ministry, for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

I started getting really nervous. Oh Merlin, this is Cedric's dad, and I'm about to meet him for the first time! I hope he likes me. Will he like me? What if he doesn't approve of us dating?

Speaking of my boyfriend, he jumped out of the tree that stood behind his father.

"Ceddy!" I exclaimed. My anxiety was temporarily alleviated as I sprinted up to him and basically threw my arms around him. The force of me hugging him almost knocked him to the ground, but he managed to stay on his feet.

He chuckled, wrapping his arms around me. "Hey, love." I felt him place a kiss on my temple.

"And I think you know his son Cedric here, right?" Mr. Weasley asked the others.

"Hi," Cedric greeted my brother and my friends, giving a friendly wave as he did.

Mr. Diggory peered good-naturedly around at all of us. "All these yours, Arthur?"

"Oh, no, only the redheads," Mr. Weasley answered, pointing out Ron, Ginny, and the twins. "This is Hermione, friend of Ron's -- and Harry and Cassia, 2 other friends --"

"Merlin's beard..." said Mr. Diggory, his eyes widening. "Harry? Cassia? Harry and Cassia Potter?"

"Guilty..." I said sheepishly, raising a hand.

Mr. Diggory rushed over to Harry and I. "Great, great pleasure," he said, shaking our hands. "Ced's talked about you, of course. 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 beat Harry and Cassia Potter!"

Harry and I exchanged confused looks at each other. Neither one of us knew how to respond to this. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fred and George were scowling.

Cedric looked slightly embarrassed. "Harry fell off his broom, Dad. I told you, it was an accident..." he muttered.

"Yes, but you didn't fall off, did you?" Mr. Diggory roared genially, slapping my boyfriend on the back. "Always modest, our Ced, always a gentleman....but the best man won, I'm sure Harry'd say the same, wouldn't you, eh? One falls off his broom, one stays on, it doesn't take a genius to tell which one's the better flier!"

Since I knew Cedric wanted to introduce me to my father 'properly', I leaned close to Harry and whispered, "You go ahead, Harry. I'll be along in a minute."

Harry nodded understandingly and hurried to catch up with the rest of the group.

My hands started shaking uncontrollably. I was extremely nervous. I really wanted to make a good first impression on Mr. Diggory, and I wanted him to see that I was a good match for his son.

Cedric put his hands on my shoulders and started massaging them gently. "Shh...deep breaths, love. Deep breaths," he whispered. The feeling of his hands rubbing my shoulders was soothing. Within a few minutes, I was calmed down. "There we go..." he said.

"Thanks," I said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Don't worry about a thing, love. I know he'll like you," he assured me. He led me over to his father. "Dad, this is Cassia. My new girlfriend," he introduced me.

Mr. Diggory locked eyes with me, studying me. Then he looked at Cedric. "Ah, this is the girl you told me you'd taken a fancy to..." he said. He was silent for a few moments before we heard him exclaim suddenly, "Well, I must say, son, you certainly have good taste!" He chuckled, nudging Cedric playfully in the ribs.

Cedric's cheeks turned bright red, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. "Dad, please stop," he muttered, clearly embarrassed.

"Thank you, Mr. Diggory," I replied, thanking him for the compliment.

Mr. Diggory shook his head. "No, no, none of this 'Mr. Diggory' nonsense. Call me Amos, my dear."

I felt like a massive weight had just been lifted off my shoulders. He approves of us dating. Thank goodness!

"Come on, love. Let's keep moving," Cedric whispered to me.

The three of us then caught up with the others, who were all -- except Harry -- surrounding an old boot. At once, I realized it was the Portkey Mr. Weasley was telling us about.

"Why are they all standing around that manky old boot?" Harry asked.

"That's not just any manky old boot, mate," Fred told him.

"It's a Portkey," George added.

"Time to go!" Amos told us.

"What's a Portkey?" Harry asked.

"I'll explain later," I said as we all lowered ourselves to the ground (with some difficulty due to our backpacks getting in the way) and placed a hand on the boot. Harry, however, seemed hesitant.

"Ready? After three! One -- two --" Amos started to count down.

"Harry!" Mr. Weasley snapped.

"...Three!" Amos finished counting, just as Harry placed a hand on the boot.

I felt as though a hook behind my navel had jerked irresistibly forward -- pretty uncomfortable feeling -- and there was a bright flash of light as we all became airborne. My hand felt like it was magnetically stuck to the boot. I couldn't move it at all.

It seemed like we were in the air for hours, but it was only mere minutes before Amos suddenly said, "Let go, kids!" This earned him an incredulous look from both Ginny and Hermione.

"What?!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Let go!" Amos ordered.

I practically ripped my hand off the boot and we -- Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, the twins, and I -- crashed to the ground. I thanked my lucky stars that none of us broke any bones from the impact. Amos, Cedric, and Mr. Weasley landed a bit more gracefully. And by that, I mean they drifted back down onto the ground, landing on their feet.

"I bet that cleared your sinuses, eh?" Amos mused.

I pushed myself up onto my feet and rushed over to Harry, holding a hand out to him.

"Thanks, sis," he thanked me as he took my hand and allowed me to pull him up.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah...traveling by Portkey is definitely going to take some getting used to," Harry answered. "So what exactly is a Portkey?"

"Wizard use it to teleport from one place to another. They use a specific spell to charm an ordinary object, and the object becomes a Portkey. All they have to do is touch it and hold on for a few seconds, and they're transported," I explained as we continued our trek.

Cedric appeared right beside me, intertwining his fingers with mine. "It could be an old boot, a bag...just about anything, really," he added.

After another hour of walking, we came to the top of a hill overlooking what appeared to be a campground, which I guessed was our destination. A countless number of tents stood all over the place, and there were some children flying around on toy brooms.

"Well, kids, welcome to the Quidditch World Cup!" Mr. Weasley announced to us.

Amos turned to him. "Parting of the waves, I think, old chap. See you at the match." He started to walk in another direction.

"See you later, Cedric," Harry said, waving.

Cedric leaned down and planted a soft kiss on my lips. "I'll see you tonight at the match, alright, love?" He ran a hand through my hair as he spoke.

In response, I stood on tiptoe and kissed his nose, making him chuckle. He waved goodbye to us before walking away with his father to the tent assigned to them.

Mr. Weasley led us among the rows of tents until we found the one labeled 'Weasley'. He gestured to the open tent flaps. "Home sweet home."

One by one, everyone entered. Harry and I were last. I pulled the flap close to me and made a gesture at Harry. "After you," I said.

Harry chuckled. "Why, thank you," he replied in a fake posh accent as he stepped inside.

I went in right behind him. The tent was way bigger than it appeared to be. It was basically the inside of a house, disguised as an ordinary camping tent.

Hermione and Ginny immediately made a break for the bedrooms. I could hear them giggling.

"Girls, choose a bunk and unpack," Mr. Weasley told them.

While Fred and George made themselves comfortable by sitting at the table and putting their feet up, Ron being Ron decided to go check out the kitchen.

"Ron, get out of the kitchen. We're all hungry," Mr. Weasley scolded him.

"Yeah, get out of the kitchen, Ron!" the twins chorused.

"Feet off the table!" Mr. Weasley scolded them.

"Feet off the table!" the twins copied him. They put their feet down, but once their father's back was turned, they put them right back up again.

"I love magic," Harry muttered.

I casually draped an arm around him. "You and me both." Five minutes of awkward silence passed before I decided to speak. "Harry, tell me the honest truth. Are you okay with me having a boyfriend?" I asked.

Harry's eyes met mine. "I wasn't at first, but that was just the protective older brother side of me, even though I'm not that much older than you. But I'm okay with it now. Cedric's a nice guy and I trust him, and I'm -- I'm really happy you found love."

"Thank you, Harry," I said, letting my head rest on his shoulder.

<><><><><>

When nightfall came, we met up with Cedric and his father, and made our way to the stadium where the match was being held. Our seats were literally at the top, so obviously there was a little stair-climbing involved. And by a little, I mean a LOT.

"Blimey, Dad, how far up are we?" Ron asked as we turned a corner and saw yet another flight of stairs.

"Well, put it this way..." we heard an unpleasant voice say from below us. We all looked down to see it was Lucius Malfoy and his bullying got of a son, Draco. "If it rains, you'll be the first to know," he said.

"Ugh, don't these guys have anything better to do than harass us?" I whispered to Harry and Cedric.

"Clearly not," Harry muttered.

"I never liked the Malfoys," Cedric agreed, "Always acting like they're better than everyone else, walking around with their noses in the air..."

"Welcome to the club," I remarked.

Cedric chuckled. "Draco so deserved that beatdown you and Hermione gave him, Cassia."

I smirked. "He's had it coming since first year."

"Father and I are in the Minister's Box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself," Draco bragged.

Lucius blocked Draco off with his cane. "Don't boast, Draco. There's no need with these people," he scolded, eyeing us.

"Let's just keep moving," I whispered to the others.

We kept going up, but I felt something digging painfully into my shoe. I looked down to see it was the head of Lucius' snake cane. The head 'bit' down on both my shoe and Harry's.

"Do enjoy yourselves, won't you? While you can," Lucius said to us. His voice had this foreboding edge to it, like he was dropping hints that something was going to happen. I eyed him warily before following my brother up the stairs.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime to me, we reached the top section of the stands.

"Come on up, take your seats!" Mr. Weasley encouraged us. "Told you these seats would be worth waiting for!"

Looking down, I saw he was right. The top section was overlooking the entire pitch below, so we could see all the action.

"Come on!" George cheered.

Seven players wearing green and white uniforms flew onto the field.

"It's the Irish!" George exclaimed. He and George pointed out a few of the players, like Mullet and Troy. Above us, bright green fireworks exploded and took the shape of a leprechaun, which tipped its hat at us and started dancing a little jig while most of the crowd chanted "Irish! Irish! Irish!" over and over.

"Here come the Bulgarians!" Fred yelled as a stream of red entered my line of vision. Sure enough, players dressed all in red flew into the pitch. One of them started doing some tricks on his broom, showing off.

"Who's that?" Ginny asked, pointing to the guy.

"That, sis, is the best Seeker in the world!" George answered.

The crowd started chanting "Krum! Krum! Krum! Krum!" In that instant, I knew it was Victor Krum.

"KRUM!" Harry, Fred, George, and Ron all yelled.

"Good evening!" I heard Fudge announce, making the stadium quiet down. "As Minister for Magic, it gives me great pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to the final of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup! Let the match begin!"

And with that, the final was underway.

<><><><><>

The match wound up being a nail-biter. Krum had caught the snitch, but Ireland was the winner. Fred and George had (idiotically) bet all their money on this happening and the money they'd been rewarded with was fake. Currently, we were all inside the tent. Fred had an Irish flag draped over his shoulders as he and George did a little jig like the firework leprechaun had previously done.

"There's no one like Krum," Ron bragged.

"Krum?" Fred questioned.

"Dumb Krum?" George added.

"He's like a bird, the way he rides the wind," Ron boasted. "He's more than an athlete...he's an artist." Fred threw the flag over Ron's face.

"Think you're in love, Ron," Ginny joked.

"Shut up," Ron muttered.

"Viktor, I love you," Fred crooned, grabbing Ron's hand.

George grabbed Ron's other hand and joined in the song. "Viktor, I do..."

"When we're apart, my heart beats only for you!" Harry and I jumped in, finishing the lyrics.

Shortly afterward, the sound of screaming coming from outside filled our ears.

"Sounds like the Irish have got their pride on," Fred remarked.

But he was wrong. Those weren't happy screams or cheers. They were screams of fear. Of pure terror. A burning pain in my head further confirmed that danger was present.

"Stop! Stop it!" Mr. Weasley snapped, taking the flag from Fred. "It's not the Irish. We've got to get out of here, now," he said. He pulled us all out of the tent. Fire surrounded us on all sides. "Get back to the Portkey, everybody, and stick together! Fred, George, Ginny's your responsibility!" Mr. Weasley ordered us.

We didn't think twice before running. Smoke was everywhere. I looked around, trying to find a clear path, and I saw this group of people wearing all black clothing and silver masks. They were lighting all the tents on fire and aiming curses left and right.

I glanced behind me to see Harry struggling to keep up. Without hesitation, I ran back to him and grabbed his hand. The two of us pushed our way through the crowd, trying to catch up to Hermione, Ron, Cedric, and the others, but we couldn't. To make things worse, we got knocked over and practically trampled by some people running away. That, combined with all the smoke everywhere, made us both black out.

<><><><><>

When I came to, I saw someone walking amongst the ruins of the World Cup. From what I could see, it was a male, and he had a long, black jacket. I internally panicked. He was the guy I'd seen in my nightmare about Voldemort.

The man pulled out his wand and pointed it to the sky. "Morsmorde!" A green light appeared and took the form of a giant skull, with a snake coming out of its mouth. If my headache wasn't bad enough, it was ten times worse.

I crawled over to Harry and shook him. "Harry -- Harry, wake up. We have to get out of here!"

Harry slowly opened his eyes, but then he shot straight up when he saw me. "Cass? What's wrong?" He looked around. "Where is everybody?"

"I don't know, but we have to get out of here. Now," I answered. I helped him to his feet and we ran as far away from the man as we could go before he could spot us. In the distance, I heard Cedric, Ron, and Hermione calling our names. Soon enough, they came running in our direction.

"We've been looking for you for ages! Thought we lost you!" Ron exclaimed.

Cedric pulled me into a tight hug. "Are you alright, love? Did they hurt you?" he asked, scanning me with his eyes for injuries.

"No. I'm fine. We're both fine," I replied, before attacking his lips with my own. I kissed him like my life depended on it. As much as we both enjoyed it, the need for oxygen forced us to pull apart.

"What's that?" Harry suddenly asked, looking up at the mark in the sky. A couple of seconds later, he was grunting in pain as he held his scar. I held mine as well. The pain in my head was twice as bad as his.

Several Ministry workers surrounded us and shouted, "Stupefy!", which forced us all to duck for cover.

"Stop! That's my son!" I heard Mr. Weasley yell. He and Amos ran up to us, just as the other wizards ceased fire. "Ron, Harry, Cassia, Cedric, Hermione, are you alright?"

A middle-aged man wearing a bowler hat and a billowing cloak ran over, pointing his wand in our direction. "Which of you conjured it?" he asked.

"You can't possibly --" Mr. Weasley started to protest.

"Do not lie! You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!" the man snapped at us.

"Crime?" Harry and I echoed.

"Barty, they're just kids," Amos defended us.

"What crime?" Harry asked.

"The Dark Lord, Harry. That's his mark," Hermione whispered.

Harry and I exchanged knowing looks. "Voldemort..."

"Those people tonight, in their masks...they're his, too, aren't they? They're followers?" Harry asked.

"Death Eaters," Mr. Weasley responded.

"Follow me," the Ministry official ordered, starting to walk away.

"There was a man before," Harry said. He pointed to where we'd seen him. "There!"

"All of you, this way!" the official ordered.

"A man? Who?" Mr. Weasley asked as we all started following after the guy.

"I don't know," Harry replied.

"We didn't see his face," I added. I glanced back up at the sky, at the Dark Mark. Something bad was happening, and this was just the beginning.