Until the Very End

Bagman & Crouch

When the Weasleys (minus Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Mrs. Weasley, of course), Harry, and Hermione set off early in the morning, there was barely any light from the sun. Everyone except Mr. Weasley was yawning occasionally and rubbing their eyes to try to get the still-present sleep to leave.

After walking for a good while, Mr. Weasley told the bunch to split and start looking for the portkey. They had only been at it for a couple minutes, however, when a shout rent the still air.

"Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!"

Two tall figures were silhouetted against the starry sky on the other side of the hilltop.

"Amos!" said Mr. Weasley, smiling as he strode over to the man who had shouted. The rest of them followed.

Mr. Weasley was shaking hands with a ruddy-faced wizard with a scrubby brown beard, who was holding a mouldy-looking old boot in his other hand.

"This is Amos Diggory, everyone," said Mr. Weasley. "He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric?"

Cedric Diggory was an extremely handsome boy of around seventeen. He was Captain and Seeker of the Hufflepuff House Quidditch team at Hogwarts.

"I know him," Harry whispered to Hermione. "He plays for Hufflepuff. He's the one that wanted a rematch last year when I fell off my broom." Hermione nodded; she vaguely recognised him from school, walking down hallways and such.

"Hi," said Cedric, looking around at them all.

Everybody said hi back except Fred and George, who merely nodded. They had never quite forgiven Cedric for beating Gryffindor in the first Quidditch match of the previous year.

"He's cute!" Ginny whispered to Hermione as Mr. Weasley chatted with Mr. Diggory.

Hermione looked him over. He was rather handsome, with chocolate brown hair that curled into ringlets on his head. He was very tall, lean and built for Quidditch. Hermione, as well as everyone else that had ever watched a game of Quidditch in their lives, knew that you had to be very fit to keep up with the game; Cedric was no different.

Hermione was pulled out of her reverie by Mr. Weasley loudly interrupting a rather nasty comment Mr. Diggory was in the process of voicing.

"Must be nearly time," said Mr. Wesley quickly, pulling out his watch again. He and Mr. Diggory began walking. "Do you know whether we're waiting for any more, Amos?"

Hermione and Ginny lagged behind the group, and as Cedric made to fall in with the Weasley boys and Harry, he spotted Hermione and smiled. She gave a friendly smile in return, but Ginny let her mouth fall open slightly as they walked behind him, and she kept looking from Hermione to Cedric, and back again.

There happened to be another person who noticed this exchange, and he was very curious to know what was between Hermione and Cedric, if anything.

*********

When they arrived at the campsite, the sight that greeted Harry and Hermione was like nothing they'd ever seen before. Hundreds upon hundreds of tents were lined up neatly in rows, some towering over the others with multiple levels and turrets. Some had makeshift gardens with plastic decorations, and others had different varieties of flowers and plants. Some even had live animals (one had peacocks) tethered to the entrance.

"Always the same," said Mr. Weasley, smiling. "We can't resist showing off when we get together. Ah, here we are, look, this is us."

They had reached the very edge of the wood at the top of the field, and here was an empty space, with a small sign hammered into the ground that readWEEZLY.