New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|13| Chapter Thirteen

T H I R T E E N

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The Weasley family area on the campsite was just as chaotic as Saffron had anticipated it to be. Hermione has mentioned in their way towards them that Mr Weasley had struggled quite a bit with setting up camp and by the time the four of them made it to the tent, a flustered Mr Weasley was still struggling with the fire. It made Sirius and Sage's experience look like a walk in the park in comparison.

The funny thing was that Mr Weasley appeared to be perfectly content with his continuous cycle of trial and error with the matches. Hermione quickly went to his aid the second she saw the sheer amount of broken matches around him. Mr Weasley stood up to greet the new arrivals. He was as warm and friendly as ever. Saffron tried to reciprocate those attributes in return but she struggled to be as cheery as she normally was, as her mind was in a whole other place entirely.

Saffron prefaced a lot of things in her mind as it spiralled out of control, mulling over why her elder sister would be talking to a Malfoy. Undoubtedly, there had to be a logical response as to why Maya would do such a thing. Maybe he was bothering her. Perhaps she was telling him off for some bad thing he was doing to someone else. Saffron didn't know for sure. All she knew that there was no way that Maya would willingly speak to such a person who she was so different from. A part of Saffron wanted to leave the Weasleys and go back to their tent to see if Maya was there to try and discover what had gone down. But the busy atmosphere of the Weasleys only got busier as a man called Ludo Bagman appeared on the scene. 

The man was making an effort to go against what the Ministry had asked of the wizards or he was just oblivious. As he was wearing very noticeable Quidditch robes that were yellow and black with a large wasp stitched across the front of it. It was like he was screaming that he was a wizard to the Muggles who owned the land and Saffron certainly frowned upon it. Saffron didn't know who he was but the way Mr Weasley addressed him so formally told her that he was a very important figure in the Ministry. At first, she thought he was an Auror because he had such an injured nose but it turned out he was a former Quidditch player, which she really should have known straight away based on what he was wearing.

Mr Weasley introduced them all to Ludo Bagman and credited Bgaman as the reason why he had managed to get good tickets for his family.

Predictably, Bagman was taken aback when he heard that Harry was there but he didn't let that distract him from the business he clearly as attending to by being at their tent. That being gambling.

"Fancy a flutter on the match, Arthur?" Bagman enquired eagerly, the coins in his pockets rattling. "I've already got Roddy Pontner betting me Bulgaria will score first - I offered him nice odds, considering Ireland's front three are the strongest I've seen in years - and little Agatha Timms has put up half shares in her eel farm on a weeklong match."

"Oh...go on then," Mr. Weasley looked cautious. Saffron wasn't sure if it was because he was low on money or because of his wife's reaction should he find out he wasted money on something like betting. "Let's see...a Galleon on Ireland to win?"

"A Galleon?"Bagman frowned. "Very well, very well...any other takers?"

"They're a bit young to be gambling," said Mr. Weasley. "Molly wouldn't like -"

"We'll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts,"  Saffron's jaw dropped when Fred and George poured all the money they had out of their pockets. "that Ireland wins - but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch. Oh and we'll throw in a fake wand."