Human Design | Sirius Black

xxx. Dares and Late Night Conversations

ORLA'S VOICE WAS practically vibrating with excitement and warmth as Reece slowly drifted with the crowd out of the stadium. The World Quidditch Cup was being played between the United States and Egypt that year, hosted by Morocco, "I well want Egypt to win but I'm happy they haven't won already because this is all bleeding exciting," 

So far, the match had already lasted four days. Every evening, the crowd would settle in the stands to watch the game for a maximum of five hours with three thirty-minute breaks (unless the snitch was caught, naturally) and then return to their tents to sleep and the day could be spent going through the hundreds of market stalls that were perched up every day throughout the campsite, selling everything from binoculars and Quidditch merchandise to local spices and handmade ceramics. "That Nowak faint was deadly!" Orla continued, referring to the move done by the Egyptian Seeker at the end of the portion of the game that day. "I'm not saying lads are worse players than lasses but I kind of am because Virgin Mary it was lethal. I can't wait to see what Arafa does tomorrow, maybe she'll even catch the snitch."

Even though Reece was grinning with his own euphoria from the excitement of the game, he scoffed. "You're just this excited because you want to speak to Renato again." Renato was the Portuguese man who had his seat beside Orla. He was well-built with a kind expression on his tan face, but it was the melody in his low voice that was truly the source of his charm and his broken English only managed to make him more endearing. Because Renato had come alone to the Cup, he was more than pleased to keep Orla thoroughly entertained with his banter for all four days and Reece was quite sure she didn't even know what was going on in the match anymore.

Reece, on the other hand, had had the luck of sitting beside a young boy (around six or seven in age) who kept spilling his snacks all over himself and elbowing Reece in the ribs whenever he stood up in excitement to celebrate a goal made by the Egyptian team. His mother, who had three other children to keep in check, ranted to them in some blend of rapid Arabic and French because Reece would pick up a word he understood here and there among the plethora that he didn't and part of him felt bad for her because she barely had the chance to look at the game for a minute with four young children to look after.

"Aye, maybe I am," Orla admitted. "He's a charm. And I'm just a culchie, I'm not used to meeting fine lads like him – really just finding a decent lad at home is murder." He couldn't disagree and told her this as the crowd finally began to disperse with people heading toward the different campsites. Reece and Orla shared a two-bedroom tent she had borrowed from her cousin on one of the cheaper campsites that were derivatively much farther away (the Ministry paid for his two tickets and the campsite but since he was only a first-year employee, they didn't exactly offer him the best of the best in either) and had a thirty-minute walk from the stadium, through dozens of tents, the market, and more tents. "I'm shattered though," Orla continued, "I can't wait to crash."

But Reece wasn't feeling tired. The night was warm and there were still many vendors out haggling below their colourful canopies and carts. So he said, "I think I'll go look around the stalls a bit; Yrsa wanted me to buy her some tea." This was true; even though Yrsa had not wanted to come to the Cup, she had asked him to bring mint tea when he came back because despite her attempts at drying her own mint 'it just never tasted the same' and 'sure, England is known for tea but our tea is still shit cause we stole it and made it worse'.

Thus, the two parted ways as Orla continued past the market toward their tent whilst Reece broke off and turned left to walk through the first aisle of vendors. Some had retired for the night and there were gaps where a stall or two were missing, but the majority were still out, ready to sneer in all people returning to their tents. He walked slowly through the market. Now that it was evening and all the children and their parents had retired to their tents, it was quite a lot more enjoyable to survey the carts, firstly, because it was simply possible to see everything better, but also because it calmed the market from its height of havoc during noon. Once he had bought two bags of tea wrapped in plastic in a way that it could be mistaken for drugs, Reece continued to stroll through the market. Considering the previous day had been impaired by rainfall so extreme that it could have been poured down from a bucket, that night was surprisingly warm, with a complete absence of clouds in the sky which showed a magnificent collection of stars that was never visible in England in the same way.