Old Blood at Hogwarts

"Why do we have to get up so early?" Ginny asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting down at the table.

"We still have a ways to go," said Mr. Weasley.

"Walking?" Harry asked, "What, are we going to walk to the World Cup?"

"No, no, that's too far." Mr. Weasley said with a smile. "We only have to walk a short distance. It is very difficult to gather a large number of wizards together without attracting Muggle attention. . We have to be very cautious and choose the best time to go on the road, in such a grand occasion as the Quidditch World Cup..."

"George!" Mrs. Weasley suddenly shouted, startling everyone.

"What's the matter?" George pretended that nothing happened, but he couldn't deceive anyone.

"What's in your pocket?"

"nothing!"

"Don't tell lies to me!" Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at George's pocket, "Fly around!"

Some colorful gadgets jumped out of George's pocket.George reached for them, but missed them, and they jumped straight into the outstretched hand of Mrs. Weiss.

"I told you to destroy these things!" Mrs. Weasley said angrily, raising the thing in her hand, which was undoubtedly Fat Tongue Toffee. "I told you to throw away these things! Quickly throw them away. Pockets empty, come on, you two!”

It's a really uncomfortable scene.The twins apparently wanted to smuggle a large amount of toffee out of the house, and Mrs. Weasley used her flying charm to find the candies.

"Fly around! Fly around! Fly around!" she yelled, and toffees swished out from all sorts of unexpected places, including the lining of George's jacket, and Fred's In the cuffs of jeans.

"It took us half a year to develop these things!" Fred shouted aggrievedly when he saw his mother throwing the toffee aside.

"It's not bad to spend half a year on this!" Mrs. Weasley screamed, "No wonder OWLs can't get good results in the exam!"

All in all, the atmosphere was not very friendly when they left.Mrs. Weasley kept her straight face as she kissed Mr. Weasley on the cheek.The twins had an even worse attitude.They slung their rucksacks onto their backs and walked out without saying a word to their mother.

"Goodbye and have a good time," said Mrs. Weasley. "Behave yourself." She shouted at the twins' departing backs.But they neither looked back nor answered.

"I'll send Bill, Charlie and Percy on their way at noon," Mrs. Weasley said to Mr. Weasley.

At this time, Mr. Weasley was crossing the dark courtyard with Aaron, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, and set off behind Fred and George.

The air was cold and the moon was still high in the sky.Only a faint gray-green appeared on the horizon to their right, indicating that dawn was gradually approaching.

Harry asked Mr. Weasley: "How can we get there without attracting Muggle attention?"

"It's really difficult to organize." Mr. Weasley sighed. "The main problem is that there are about a hundred thousand wizards coming to watch the World Cup. Of course we can't find a magical venue that can accommodate so many people. Although some places Muggles can't get in, but imagine how we could cram a hundred thousand wizards into Diagon Alley or Platform 9? So we had to find a deserted swamp and took all precautions. The whole ministry has been busy with this matter for several months. First of all, we must stagger everyone's arrival time. People with cheap tickets have to arrive a few weeks in advance. Some people use Muggle transportation. But the number of people is limited. After all, we can't have too many people filling Muggle buses and trains. Don't forget, there are wizards coming from all over the world. Of course, there are still some people who use Apparition, but we must stipulate some A safe place to apparate them, away from all muggles. I think there might be a forest nearby that could be a good base for apparating. For those who are unwilling or unable to apparate, we use portkeys. This thing The role of a key is to transport wizards from one place to another within a specified time. A large number of people can be transported at one time if necessary. The Ministry of Magic has dropped nearly two hundred portkeys across the UK, and the one closest to us is At the top of Stoat Mountain, that’s where we’re going now.”

Mr. Weasley pointed ahead, where a large shadow rose behind the village of Ottery St. Catchpole.

"What kind of thing is a door key?" Aaron asked curiously.

"Ah, there are all kinds of things," said Mr. Weasley. "Of course, they are all inconspicuous things, so that Muggles won't pick them up and play with them... They will think it's someone else's random thing. Discarded……"

They walked with difficulty along the dark and damp path towards the village. There was silence all around, except for the sound of their own footsteps.As they passed through the village, the sky slowly became brighter, and the original darkness gradually turned into deep blue.Aaron's hands and feet were frozen.Mr. Weasley kept looking at his watch.

They began to climb Stoat Mountain, occasionally stumbling upon hidden rabbit holes or slipping on dark, slimy grass blades, unable to breathe evenly to speak.Every time Aaron took a breath, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest, and his legs gradually became unable to move. At this moment, he finally found that his feet were on flat ground.

Mr. Weasley took off his glasses, wiped them with his jersey, and said breathlessly: "Yes, we arrived on time - there are still 10 minutes..."

Hermione was the last to reach the top of the hill, clutching the hem of her shirt with one hand.

"Now we just need to find the door key." Mr. Weasley said, putting on his glasses and squinting on the ground to look for it. "It won't be very big... quickly look for it..."

Everyone spread out and searched separately.However, they had only been searching for two or three minutes when a shout broke through the quiet night sky.

"Here it is, Arthur! Come here, son, we found it!"

On the other side of the mountaintop, two tall figures stood out against the starry night sky.

"Amos!" Mr. Weasley smiled and strode towards the man who called him.Others followed.

Mr. Weasley shook hands with a red-faced wizard with a short brown beard who held something in his other hand that looked like a moldy old boot.

"Let me introduce to you, this is Amos Diggory." Mr. Weasley said, "He works in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. This is his son Cedric, I think you all know him?" "

Cedric Diggory was about 17 years old, a very handsome boy.At Hogwarts, he was captain and seeker of the Hufflepuff House Quidditch team.

"Hi there," Cedric said, turning to look at everyone.

Everyone said "Hi," but Fred and George didn't say anything, just nodded.The twins have yet to fully forgive Cedric for beating their Gryffindor team in their first Quidditch match last year.

"It's a long way, Arthur?" Cedric's father asked.

"It's okay," said Mr. Weasley, "We live on the other side of the village. What about you?"

"You got up at two o'clock, didn't you, Ced? To tell you the truth, I really hope he passes the Apparition exam early. But... there is nothing to complain about... The Quidditch World Cup must not be missed, even if it has to be A pocketful of Galleons. In fact, it did cost that much to buy the ticket. But I finally got through it, and it wasn’t too difficult..." Amos Diggory looked at Wes around him kindly. The three Lai brothers, Aaron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny, "Arthur, are these your children?"

"Oh, no, the one with red hair is the one." Mr. Weasley pointed out his children one by one. "This is Hermione, Ron's friend; this is Aaron, Ginny's classmate; this is Harry, also Ron's friend."

"Oh my God!" Amos Diggory's eyes suddenly widened, "Harry? Harry Potter?"

"Well, yes," said Harry.

"Ced, of course, talked about you," said Amos Diggory. "He told us about him playing you last year... and I said to him, I said, 'Ced, here's the thing. You can tell your grandchildren about it when you're old, it's amazing... you beat Harry Potter!'"

Harry obviously didn't know how to respond and said nothing.Fred and George both frowned again.Cedric looked a little embarrassed and muttered quietly: "Harry fell off the broom, Dad. I told you... it was an accident..."

"Yeah, but you didn't fall off, right?" Amos said loudly and affectionately, patting his son on the back, "Our Ced is always so humble, always behaves like a gentleman... But the one who wins is always the best, I'm sure Harry would say the same, right? One falls off the broom and the other stays on it, you don't have to be a genius to do that Who can tell who is the better pilot!"

"The time is almost up." Mr. Weasley said quickly, taking out his pocket watch again and looking at it. "Do you know who else we are waiting for, Amos?"

"No, the Lovegoods were there a week ago, and the Fawcetts didn't get tickets," said Mr. Diggory. "There's no one else in the area, is there?"

"As far as I know, there are none." Mr. Weasley said, "Okay, one minute left... We should all be in our places..." He turned to look at Aaron, Harry and Hermione, "As long as you meet Portkey, that's it, just stick out a finger."

As they were all carrying large, bulging knapsacks, it was difficult for the ten of them to gather around the old boot that Amos Diggory was holding.They stood there, in a tight circle, while a cool breeze blew across the top of the mountain, and no one spoke.