Link of Hogwarts

Forty

The climb to their seats are rather jarring to Hermione who has never been a fan of height, much less the ridiculous structure that the magical people seemed fond of. Despite reminding herself that it is all magic, the logic of physics being ignored does not make her feel any better...nor does the sight of Link leaning over the visually unsafe railing, even if she knows that magic made it safe.

So she gripped onto Ron like her life depends on him. Ron winced at the pinching but said nothing, letting his friend hang unto him. Sirius bumped into the Malfoy family on their down where it is densest. They exchanged curt greeting that barely hid their animosity to each other. At one point the children worry that wands will be pulled out but luckily that didn't happen.

Thanks to Sirius, they get a good seating. Arthur Weasley confessed that he had thought to accept the only tickets available that he could effort but it would be the wind blew the hardest so he's extremely thankful that Sirius included the Weasley clan in his purchasing of the tickets.

The introduction of the teams and their mascots bring some funny and uncomfortable reaction to Link. The leprechaun made him laugh because of how much they reminded him of this odd man in his mind dressed completely in green and believe himself to be of a fairy race. They cast a spell into the air that burst into gold coins that the Twins quickly tries to gather. Link take one look at the gold coin that landed by his shoe and decided to leave it be.

Then the Bulgarian mascots, the Veela shows up and Link found that he felt strange. He shifted in his seat and noticed how the males in the stadiums appeared stoned, for lack of better words, at the appearance of the Veela.

Having read about them, Link acknowledged that they are extremely attractive but all his mind could think of is that their coloring is off by a shade or two. In his mind he's seeing different faces with similar name looking at him in disdain, dressed in different royal dress designs. Feeling properly scolded, the itchy feeling disappeared and he adopted a stony expression and pretending to be part of the bench while one hand grabbed Ron who's about to 'float' out of his seat while Hermione wrestled with a dazed looking Neville whose face had gone slack.

Then something happened between the mascots on the fields and the Veela transformed right before his eyes (or rather through the Omniculars); cruel beaks instead of lips and scaled wings. Blinking, he pulled the device away from his eyes. They launch across the field with fire in their hands, screeching at the leprechaun.

He looked at his friends and found the older wizards laughing at them. Sirius even went as far as to say that "it is a completely normal reaction" while the women of the party pouted at their male counterparts.

After the mascots successfully separated, the referee began introducing the team to the spectators and one whole side of the stadium showed their favored player; Viktor Krum.

The rain fell in the middle on the game and adult witches and wizards shoot out spells to cover the area they sat under to stay dry. Link saw different variations of spells used and find himself fancying the one that conjured an invisible umbrella with the wand as the handle. He managed to get Hermione to discuss about the spell with him and had changed seats with Ron to do so.

They both agrees to look it up once they found the time to do just that...

Meanwhile Ron fanboy-ed over the Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum, raging when the player's nose got busted by a Bludger sent by the Irish Beater. Yet the game carries on and Link spotted the Snitch several times throughout the game. Once his friends figured out that he kept noticing the position of the Snitch, they begged him not to spoil the game for them though Hermione kept being tempted to ask Link to just end the game.

At one point, they shared a dirty joke as Ron replayed the part of wizard picking his nose that he managed to catch over and over, causing both Hermione and Ginny to roll their eyes at the boys and their humor.

In the end, Bulgaria caught the Snitch but Ireland outrun them...something that Link overheard the Twins betting with Bagman the evening before. Ron argued that it just shows how good Krum was at his game and swooned at the player's portrait. Link snickered with Neville that Ron's as bad as "Hermione with Lockhart", to which the ginger took offense.

Sirius invited Molly to have a cookout at his tent and she glad accepted the offer. They then found out that Link has great cooking skills as he helped them around the kitchen. The reason he does so is because Sirius wanted to cook like a Muggle but Molly has no idea how so he helped them along with Hermione helping Molly on the side. In the end Molly roped all her other children to learn alongside her.

Arthur and Remus managed to escape by accepting a drinking invitation from some old school friends...

The celebration of the end of the Quidditch World Cup continued right past midnight and well after a very filling dinner. Link was sleeping when he suddenly woke up. His instincts tingled and he jumped out of bed, swiftly putting on his clothes and shoes, tying his belt with his wands holsters and putting on the travel pouch that he had managed to create with Dobby's help. He then run down the spiral stairs and peeked out the tent, taking note that Sirius had gone out for to join Remus and Arthur which left Link alone in the tent.

Soon he noticed a familiar face coming towards him and Sirius pulled him inside, "I need you to run out the back, alright? Just...just stay out and hide in the woods,"

As he lead Link out, Link finally heard the emergency situation that the muffling charm on the tent had stopped. He could see shapes bouncing in the air like string less dolls, screams crying out in fear and terror...

Sirius grip on his arm brought him out of whatever it was that took over him and Link looked at his godfather, "Link, let me handle this. You go find your friends. Arthur should have sent them to the woods," He pushed the boy in their direction, "Go! And stay close together!"

Having nothing else to do, Link followed his direction and ran past the ruined stalls and burning tents, past dueling magical and masked terrorists. People screaming in fear and children crying for their parents echoed in his ears. He felt numb as he ran past them.

He wanted to help them...

He wanted to stop and confront the people who abuses the owner of this camping site...

He would have stopped but Sirius's worried face forced him to keep moving. He ran through the dense wooded area in depth of the night, body low to an almost crouch, ears out for the voices of his friends. Someone shot a spell and Link dropped to the ground. He then rolled behind a tree and listened.

Someone's moving in the wood, giggling quietly to themselves in a deranged manner. They then disappeared, only the crushing of rotten leaves and branches announced that there's someone there. Then that too disappear.

He then heard some spoke in French and Hermione's voice haltingly answering them. He quickly headed in their direction and found the rest of his friends. The person speaking French had left when he reached them and it was Luna who noticed him, "Oh, it's Link,"

His friends turned to him and Hermione quickly pulled him into their close circle, asking questions about his wellbeing before huddling closer together as more sounds from the campsite reaches them. Link looked at his friends and kept on hand on his wand holster, ready to whip it out to defend them.

As they wait out the danger, they speaks in hushed tones of their recent experience. Hermione looked sick when she recalled the poor Muggle family who owned the place being treated so cruelly. Luna simply looked sad while Ginny looked furious. The Twins whispered between them, keeping an eye out for their brother Percy who was part of the team in charge of the event, worried.

Ron kept an eye out for their surrounding while Neville kept his senses on Simon who had appointed himself as their alert, hissing now and then.

Then the sky lit up in bright toxic green and Link saw the image of a skull with a snake slithering out its mouth like a living tongue floating above the camping ground. The image alone sent chills down his spine. Even the sounds of battle fell silent at the sight...

One of the Twins cursed, "That's the Dark Mark,"