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"IT'S MY OWN LITTLE WORLD."
MAGNOLIA LOVEGOOD hummed to herself while sitting on a tall branch in a tree. Her father and sister were working on setting up their tent for the Quidditch World Cup, and Magnolia had asked her father if she could wait for Hugo in the trees. His parents weren't coming, but he'd be meeting them there, and staying in their tent. Xenophilius had agreed, and she happily made her way to the woods. Trees were her happy place, though she thoroughly enjoyed lying down on concrete in a heavy storm. If she were to list all of her favorite things, she'd be talking for days.
Hearing footsteps and voices, and assuming it was Hugo and his mothers dropping him off, she jumped down from the tree, stumbling a little bit when she hit the ground.
She found out, however, that is was not, in fact, Hugo and his mothers.
A bunch of red-heads, with a few others were looking at her with wide eyes. "Hello!" She waved.
"Bloody hell!" A boy shouted, clutching his hand to his chest.
Whilst the others were startled, Cedric looked at the blonde with a smile. She was wearing a pink shirt with strawberries on it, with green pants. She typically dressed colorfully when she wasn't in her Hogwarts robes.
"Who are you?" A girl with bushy hair asked. A girl with red hair stepped forward and looked at Magnolia.
"You're Luna's sister, aren't you? She's in my year. I'm Ginny." Ginny extended her hand.
"Loony - I mean, Luna Lovegood?" One of them asked, and she sent a glare their way. She hated that nickname.
"I'm Magnolia Xena Lovegood. I do believe I've heard about you." Magnolia smiled, shaking her hand firmly. Ginny smiled, deciding she liked the girl as much as she liked her younger sister.
"M-Magnolia, hey!" Cedric stuttered, earning a confused glance from two boys who were clearly twins. "How are you?"
"I'm doing well, Cedric. You can call me Maggie, you know? We do cross each other's paths from time to time. How are you?"
"Oh, well, Maggie, I'm doing lovely. Really excited about the tournament. Supporting Ireland, I presume?" Magnolia nodded excitedly, showing him a miniature figure of the Irish Seeker, Aidan Lynch.
"Pleasure to meet you, Magnolia. I'm Amos Diggory. We should be going now. Would you like to walk with us?" Cedric's father asked.
"Oh, thank you! But I'm waiting for my friend, Hugo. I wanted to meet him by the trees to make sure he didn't run into any Blibbering Humdingers." Magnolia smiled, waving at them as they said goodbye.
As they walked away, the one who'd clutched his chest muttered something, causing Ginny to smack him over the head.
It was about fifteen minutes later that Hugo arrived, hugging his mothers goodbye, and they made their way back to the tent. Hugo put his arm around her shoulder as they walked, sighing happily.
***
"This is amazing!" Magnolia shouted, practically leaning over the barriers that kept them from falling. Hugo had a grip on her hand, making sure she wasn't going to fall.
"I know! Gwen is going to be so jealous!" Over the years, Magnolia had gotten all of her friends to bond with each other. Gwen was a quidditch lover, and played Keeper for Slytherin. She hadn't been able to make it due to some family ball that she was attending. Bea didn't care much about the sport, and decided to stay home so she didn't have to be around the loud, drunk fans. Hugo played as a chaser on the Hufflepuff team, and while Magnolia didn't play, she loved to watch it. She attended every match whether it was mandatory or not.
"Oh, no! I think Krum sees the snitch!" Hugo frowned, as he was also rooting for Ireland. Magnolia looked at her sister, who sat happily in her seat with green, white, and orange face paint on. Magnolia had applied it, herself. She'd let Luna do hers as well.
"Ireland is going to win, I know it." Magnolia smiled, leaning further over the barrier. She was confident she wouldn't fall — she'd perfected her balance after she had fallen out of trees so many times. Her father couldn't count how many times Magnolia had come back home bleeding, asking for him to heal it so she could get back in the trees. Xenophilus loved his daughters, and saw Pandora in them everyday. Magnolia would never admit it, but she sometimes felt as if he preferred Luna over her. Maybe it was because she was the youngest, or maybe because Magnolia was the spitting image of Pandora, and it made her father sad — but Magnolia wanted to do something to make him proud.
"I want to stay up here forever!" Magnolia shouted. Hugo smiled. "Why's that?"
"It's my own little world. No one can think I'm insane or odd." Hugo squeezed his best friend's hand, hating how much she got bullied for being eccentric.
The match went on for what felt like hours, but just as Magnolia had told Hugo — Ireland had won. Krum had seen the snitch; he actually caught it, but Ireland's points were too far up for Bulgaria to win.
They sat in their tent, Magnolia now wearing a flower crown Luna had fashioned.
"You look stunning, Mango. I do think I have a talent for flower crowns, now." Luna spoke. The sisters both shared the same high pitched, dreamy voice. Luna had started calling her 'Mango' when she started talking, as she couldn't actually pronounce her sister's name.
"I think you do. Are you going to make one for me?" Hugo asked, sitting next to Luna on the floor. Her face lit up. "Of course, Hugo!"
Magnolia was humming to herself again, fiddling with the butterbeer bottle cap she wore around her neck. She wanted to tell Gwen all about the World Cup, but didn't want to make her jealous. Perhaps she'd play it down a little so she wouldn't be too upset.
Screams could be heard through the land of tents, alarming the family and Hugo.
Magnolia could tell these weren't excited screams, they were the horrified ones that haunted her dreams every night.
