The Kind Hufflepuff

Chapter 73: Dissimulator

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The Kind Hufflepuff - Year Four

Chapter Seventy- Three: Dissimulator

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Cali wished she could say that she found portkeys to be pleasant but that would be a downright lie. Portkeys were basically the bane of Cali's existence and she didn't understand why nobody ever tried to make the experience better. Something had to be able to be done to not make it so bloody awful in Cali's opinion after they landed just outside of the stadium, kneeling over into the grass as she emptied the contents of her stomach. 

"That's awful," Peter grumbled, holding his stomach gingerly. 

"Agreed," the rest of the group replied simultaneously as they came back together.

"Gum?" Fleamont offered the group as they each took a piece.

"You're my life savior, sir," Cali told the man as she popped the minty gum into her mouth.

"Alright, let's go!" James cheered as he began rushing through the crowds, dodging the witches and wizards that walked slower than the excited boy. Sirius followed shortly behind him as the rest of the group fell back, watching the two boys run to the entrance.

"Who is the match against?" Cali asked Remus quietly, looking around at the flags that she didn't particularly recognize as the boy began to laugh.

"You knew about the drama but not the game itself?" She gave him a pointed look as he rolled his eyes. "Madagascar and Syria." Upon further inspection, she realized that there were two color schemes that everybody seemed to be following - Madagascar was green while Syria seemed to be red which made sense considering their flags.

"Who are we rooting for?" Cali asked Remus.

"I..." Remus began, thinking hard. "am not sure, admittedly. May want to ask James."

"Syria," Peter piped up. "James thinks Syria will win."

"Thank you Peter," Cali smiled. "Who do you think will win?"

"Madagascar but don't tell James I said that, he'd be upset," Peter fretted as Cali waved him away. 

"Nevermind that," Cali sighed. "I'm not afraid of the big bad James Potter."

It wasn't long before they were sitting in the stands of the match before the game had even begun. She was surprised to see the sheer amount of people carrying dissimulators around- some were even, badly, playing the odd shaped instruments as colorful smoke emitted from the instruments. So many people were using the instruments that it made the stadium filled with colorful clouds of smoke- likely adding a certain level of complication to the game itself once it begins. The dissimulator itself appeared to be a horn of some kind with the handle being a sort of black wooden material and a greyish white horn, appearing similar to a muggle trumpet that she had seen at a music store during the summer while she was with Greta. 

"Careful children, there's rumors that many of these instruments are actually wands," Fleamont warned the group as James bounced in his seat, his eyes scanning the crowds for familiar people. 

"Why would that be?" Peter asked the older man.

"A rebellious act," he had shrugged in response. "A war is brewing, many feel uncomfortable not having a wand on themselves. It was this man's way of controlling the crowd but as it turns out, severely limiting them and putting them under harsh laws pretty much did the opposite," Fleamont hummed as he looked around the stadium. "At the beginning of the season, there was nobody in the stands according to the papers. This time... Well, let's put it this way, it's awfully rare for this game to be sold out."

The game started soon after, and Cali would be lying if she had said she paid much attention to it. Peter Pettigrew had brought a muggle card game that absolutely fascinated Cali - Uno. She was immersed in the game as she tried to understand the rules, and even Remus had watched the pair and joined in on the later half of the game. 

"Did you hear about the Muggle game that released earlier this summer?" Remus asked Peter.

"Dungeons and Dragons, right?" Peter hummed. "What about it?"

"It has a lot of real spells within the game, I noticed a couple muggle kids playing in the parks near the house and they were shouting real spells," Remus explained. "It's quite bizarre."

"Maybe the creator is a wizard," Cali shrugged. "What about it?"

"It actually is something to note," Fleamont informed the group. "There's been rumblings of unease in the Ministry around the game. Many officials believe that the spells should be outlawed within our world as a way to prevent the Muggles from learning of our existence. That is mostly occurring in the States, but they're quite a fearful group and the British Ministry doesn't seem interested in fighting them on such a topic."

"So entire spells are just going to be wiped because of a muggle game?" Cali asked, surprised.

"There he is!" James exclaimed, seemingly the first in the crowd to notice Royston Idlewind walking through the crowd with a look of disdain. James' exclamation had garnered the man quite a bit of attention as he sent foul glares towards anyone he met the gaze of. Once he finally made it to the Top Box, a thousand or more dissimulators began to blow raspberries before turned back into a wand. Royston looked embarrassed, his cheeks red as he stood abruptly and bolted from the crowd just as the chanting for the game grew louder and louder.

"HE'S SEEN THE SNITCH!" Somebody in the crowd shrieked, and even Cali who hadn't watched a moment of the game turned to the match to see the Syrian Seeker diving down below with his arms outstretched for the Snitch- the Snitch jolted from it's grip and the Seeker spun around on the snitch, his knees keeping him on the broom alone as he hung upside down to grab the golden ball. Syria had won.

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Fun fact: I recently began watching NFL since I live in the States due to Taylor Swift's relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs Tight End, Travis Kelce. I did the edits for this just before the Super Bowl this coming weekend. But I actually wrote this chapter months ago.