It was time for the Quidditch World Cup. Ron, Fred, and George were practically hopping in place, they were so excited to go.

Ginny visited Luna three more times in the last two weeks, and the girl was rapidly improving. She was already floating little rocks around with her single magic tendril. Those three visits also wasn't including Luna’s party that was just the four of them in the end. Luna’s dad didn’t want to spread the secret and had forced the disappointed Luna to promise to not tell anyone else about it. Luna was unnaturally focused whenever she was using her magic to do something. But as soon as she was done or taking a break, she sprouted magic trees from her palm and just stared at them with a big dopey grin and glazed over eyes. Ginny thought it was beautiful, but not so much that she was literally stunned by it whenever she saw it.

Ginny had tested it, and whatever was going on, as soon as she summoned her own tree made of magic, Luna immediately dropped what she was doing and stared at it. Even mid conversation sometimes she would get distracted and forget what she was saying. But she was improving with her magic quickly in only two weeks, so maybe Ginny was the one who didn’t appreciate her magic enough.

There had only been one more visit to Olivia at Azkaban. According to her, Balthazar told her that he was close to a solution in only another month or two. It was the first time he had ever given her an actual date, so Olivia was cautiously optimistic that it might really happen. Ginny had managed to cast the bubble head charm somewhat reliably on her own now under Olivia’s guidance. She’d still have some work to do when she got to Hogwarts before she could cast it perfectly every time, but she was almost there. Unfortunately Ginny couldn’t go this weekend because of the arrival of Hermione and… Eric to their house yesterday.

Ginny hadn’t missed Eric walking over to the load bearing wall of the house and leaning against it casually as everyone milled about. He had stretched up and rested his hand directly against the weak point of the enchantment holding the thing up. If he just injected the tiniest amount of his magic to break the enchantment entirely… Then the whole house would collapse in on itself with everyone inside.

He smirked at Ginny and flexed his hand against the wall threateningly. She hesitated and he smiled wider. Hermione said something to him and immediately Eric’s smile fell to a more natural size as he turned his head and answered her question. He pushed off the wall and stepped away from the wall as if nothing at all strange had happened.

That was the kind of thing Ginny had to deal with for that whole day. Eric drifted over to that wall and leaned against it when he knew she was watching, even letting out a tendril of magic to hover near it even when he was on the other side of the room and having a conversation with someone else. But Ginny could see him grinning and glancing at her from the corners of his eyes, waiting for her reaction.

Ginny tried to ignore it, but it put her on edge. He probably wouldn’t do it… But maybe he was impulsive enough that he actually would before he could stop himself? It was driving Ginny up the wall as she tried to ignore it as best as she could.

Unfortunately Hermione was trying to be nice to Ginny while she was in a terrible mood due to Eric’s actions. Ginny knew she was being rude to Hermione, but she couldn’t help snapping and being generally grumpy around the girl when she was around. Eventually Hermione just stopped trying to talk to her. Ginny was glad, when Hermione was talking with Ginny, Eric was in the background threatening to collapse the whole house on their heads as some kind of sick joke. He liked to jab his magic tendril a bit towards the wall in the middle of Hermione’s sentences so Ginny would flinch at something that Hermione had said.

It made Ginny feel a little bad for Hermione. Eric was clearly out for himself and didn’t care about her feelings all too much. And from what Ginny heard from Ron and Hermione they didn’t seem to understand Eric as well as Ginny did. Thinking it was just bravado or something and that he cared about them deep down. Maybe that was even true, but somehow Ginny doubted it.

But after a very stressful Friday with everyone gathered together, it was time to go to the Quidditch world cup bright and early on Saturday morning. Fawkes was going on a solo hunting trip in mainland Europe somewhere during the event. Her parents thought that the event would have too many people around in the crowds to have Fawkes with them. Ginny would have argued but… She didn’t think Fawkes would like it too much either. So hunting trip it was, and he’d be off doing his own thing for the whole world cup.

All of them were packed with their things and Sirius was carrying their tent on his back. When he’d heard about the trip, he’d bought his own ticket up in the big box where the rest of them would be watching the game from without a second thought.

The whole group hiked towards a certain hill where they’d be taking a portkey to the tournament. They had to hurry since the portkey would leave at a specific time to carry them to the tournament. Portkeys were like apparition in the form of an enchantment, but they could carry people a very far distance without any mistakes once they activated and expended themselves. They could be put on anything, and once the group reached the top of the hill, Ginny stared at the item the portkey enchantment was put on. An old brown and musty boot that looked like it had been left outside for weeks.

There were two more people there already waiting. An older man and a tall boy that must be his son.

“Amos Diggory!” Dad called out, “Got here early, did you? Portkey’s not leaving for another thirty minutes, you know.”

“Figured I’d want to claim my spot before your big crew took the best grips on the portkey,” Amos joked, “There’s only so much room on this old boot, you know. Can’t believe the Ministry thought we’d have to use something this small for this many people. Have you met my boy Cedric? He’s going to be a sixth year this term. Going to be the best seeker in Hufflepuff on the school team, I say! Bring them the big trophy for the team for the third year in a row!”

The extremely handsome Cedric looked faintly embarrassed, “C’mon, Dad. I’m pretty good, but Cho Chang for Ravenclaw is great too. Our matches are always close.”

“Ah, don’t be humble boy!” Amos said jovially, “You’ll knock it out of the park, she hasn’t beaten you yet, has she? Oh, I’d heard that your youngest is a Ravenclaw, isn’t she Arthur? Don’t suppose she cheers against her brothers at the school quidditch matches, ay?”

Amos looked at Ginny and she woke up as she was staring at the handsome Cedric with strange feelings swirling inside of her. She felt oddly embarrassed and quickly spoke, hoping that nobody had noticed.

“Oh! I’m not too into Quidditch Mr. Diggory. But Ravenclaw always thrashed Gryffindor in their matches anyways. Gryffindor’s seeker isn’t great, so Cho Chang destroys them almost every time.”

Fred and George grumbled, but didn’t speak up to contradict her. Without a good seeker, Gryffindor was at the bottom of the rankings of the four houses in Quidditch, much to their annoyance.

“Hoh hoh. And she comes out swinging!” Amos said happily, “Why back in my day, I was quite the player on the school team you know…”

The conversation drifted away from Ginny as Amos kept speaking to the various adults. Ginny had to struggle to not stare at Cedric some more and eventually ended up staring at the ground and fidgeting.

“Somebody’s got a crush? Love at first sight?” Eric’s voice suddenly whispered from behind her softly.

Ginny jumped and turned around. She hadn’t been focusing on her magic sense, letting Eric sneak up on her amongst the crowd of other people milling about. She was so deep in analyzing why she was feeling so strange about Cedric that she hadn’t been paying attention.

“What do you want, Eric?” Ginny asked harshly, knowing that he was probably right. This was her having a crush on the handsome boy. It was her first time feeling anything like this before. What was she supposed to do?

“Nothing,” Eric said slyly with the corners of his lips slightly upturned and his eyes glittering as he stared at her, “Just an observation. Just thought that it was funny. You used to have that kind of crush on me, you know. Blushing and stuttering whenever I spoke with you. How things change…”

“Shut up, Eric,” Ginny said, “What’s your problem? Can’t we just leave each other alone? Why are you doing all of this?”

Eric shrugged, “Maybe I’m bored. Maybe I think it’s funny. Maybe I think that I saved your life and you’ve been nothing but ungrateful ever since. That kind of makes me mad. Is harsh words all I get for helping you when I could have just let you die?”

“You let Olivia get infected!” Ginny whispered harshly, “Her life was ruined because of you. You almost killed her with your flames when Lupin made you angry!”

Eric shrugged, his slight smile not dropping in the slightest, “Things happen. Either way, Lupin’s dead and the two of you survived. If I wasn’t there you both would have been eaten. I don’t think I deserve all of this hostility you’re throwing my way here.”

Ginny hesitated, before steeling herself, “Fine,” She managed to say, “Thank you, Eric. You saved my life. I’m grateful you didn’t just stand back and watch the both of us die while laughing.”

“Thank you, Ginny,” Eric said with an easy smile, “That’s all I wanted. You’re welcome.”

Without another word, Eric turned and walked away back over to where Ron and Hermione were talking with each other. Ginny kept more aware of her surroundings as they waited over the old boot and the portkey. Eric didn’t attempt to approach her again.

“Alright, everyone!” Dad called out, “It’s almost time! Gather around, gather around, pack in tight. Make sure everyone’s gripping the boot or you’ll be left behind…”

Everyone packed into a tight ball, all of them pinching a little piece of the dirty boot between their fingers. With so many people almost every part of the boot was being gripped by somebody. A hand shifted its grip slightly and brushed hers before resetting its grip. Ginny’s eyes followed the hand up its arm, and to the shoulders, until she was staring at Cedric Diggory who was standing directly next to her. Ahhhh! He was staring directly at her with his bright blue eyes and handsome face!

“Ginny, right?” Cedric said, “I’ve heard a lot about you. Is it true that you have a pet phoenix?”

“He’s not a pet!” Ginny blurted out, “He’s… he’s a person. Just in bird shape. A… a lot of people don’t get that. They think he’s less intelligent because he can’t talk like we do.”

“Oh, really?” Cedric said, sounding interested, “Is it true that you can talk to him because of your familiar bond? You must be one of the first ones to actually be able to talk to a phoenix for a long time!”

Ginny relaxed slightly as they kept talking about Fawkes, the heat in her cheeks and neck dying down, as well as her embarrassment and stuttering.

“Probably, even though Dumbledore didn’t have a familiar bond, he was still able to somewhat understand what Fawkes meant when he said something. But it wasn’t anything like words, or as well as I can understand Fawkes.”

“Interestin-”

“Alright!” Amos called out, “Tighten your grips everyone! Only a minute left until the portkey leaves!”

Cedric stopped talking and Ginny felt oddly disappointed as everyone went silent and tightened their grips on the old boot. Ginny noticed that Eric was staring at her, his eyes flickering between her and Cedric. As the last minute slowly ticked down, Eric’s eyes lit up and his smile slowly grew until it was inhumanly wide as he kept staring at her intently.

He mouthed something as the time drew close. Ginny didn’t understand so she focused again as he repeated himself, ‘I accept your apology,’ He mouthed and Ginny felt something tingle up her spine as a sense of dread washed over her. What did he mean by that?

Eric’s eyes flicked over to Cedric just as the portkey activated. The enchantment on the boot unfolded like some strange origami and looped and fastened their hands to where they touched the boot. From the attachments on the boot, the enchantment spread to create little bubbles of magic encapsulating each of the people touching the portkey. The enchantment kept unfolding and pulsing with magic in forms so complicated that Ginny could barely understand them. The portkey enchantment started to pulse faster and faster with magic as it prepared to transport them.

Ginny was still staring at Eric as he grinned widely as he stared at Cedric. It had only been a second, but Ginny’s sense of dread didn’t fade away as the enchantment began to fully activate and transport them. The second the portkey fully activated, Eric’s body sprouted dozens of fine magic tendrils that carefully nosed through the bubble of magic around him without breaking it. Before Ginny could react, his magic tendrils struck like a group of striking cobras to pierce the enchantment around Cedric’s hand and shattered it in a single strike.

‘No!’ Ginny shouted silently as the enchantment failed and the bubble of magic protecting Cedric during transport flickered and then disappeared. In surprise, Cedric let go of the boot now that the enchantment no longer held him in place. The portkey flashed one final time with Cedric only just barely grabbing the old boot again, not realizing that he wasn’t protected by the enchantment anymore.

In an instant, they were in the middle of an open field with hundreds of witches and wizards milling about the area, the portkey transporting them all hundreds of miles in an instant.

A woman stared towards their group and her eyes widened and she put a hand over her mouth with wide eyes. Ginny heard a wet gurgling sound next to her, and with horror she turned and looked down to where Cedric lay on the ground.

She screamed as she saw Cedric’s gruesome state. His clothes were ripped and almost gone and his body was covered in deep gashes, carved out as if somebody had scooped chunks out of him with a massive spoon all over his body hundreds of times. He was bleeding heavily and blood was trailing out of the corners of his lips. He stared blankly into the sky as he lay on his back, twitching.

The surrounding crowd started shouting and panicking as more of them saw the flayed Cedric with a pool of blood spreading below him. Molly stepped forward and lifted her wand towards the boy as the whole group around them descended into shouts and panic. Amos was crouching over Cedric and babbling something incoherent as he cradled his head.

“Episky!” Molly shouted, “Somebody get the healers! Episky! Episky!”

Cedric’s wounds slowly stopped bleeding so much, although it wasn’t enough. He started paling as he continued to lose ever more blood. He kept coughing and blood started coming out in a spray with each wet hack of his lungs. Ginny remembered what Olivia had done when she was bleeding heavily when Lupin had attacked them. Molly’s healing spells wouldn’t be enough, and the crowd around them was milling around in confusion and panic, none of them seemed to be helping at all in time.

“Petrify him!” Ginny shouted as she tugged on Molly’s sleeve urgently, “Petrify him, it’ll stop him from losing more blood!”

Molly ignored her for a second, but after Ginny repeated herself louder she seemed to actually listen to her.

“Petrificus Totalus!” Molly chanted and Cedric froze, his body stiffening and freezing in place. He stopped bleeding, and he looked frozen in time. Ginny could feel the enchantment around him holding everything in his body, even his brain and blood, perfectly frozen in place with magical energy.

“I think they’re magical wounds,” Molly said worriedly while sweating slightly, “I’ll have to recast it, the curse might break in a few minutes if their magic starts interfering with it.”

Just as she predicted, Molly had to petrify Cedric again after he suddenly unfroze after another three minutes. Luckily in that time, the panicked crowd had settled down and people more skilled in healing magic had pushed through and started assisting.

Ginny let out a sigh of relief as the Ministry healers finally arrived and transported Cedric and Amos to St. Mungos so Cedric could be treated. The adults were in deep discussions with the Ministry officials, all in a heated argument about who was to blame for the ‘faulty portkey’.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

She turned an angry glare to Eric and stomped up to him, about to give him a piece of her mind. Cedric could have been killed by that! He nearly had been!

“I accept your apology,” Eric said when she was close enough, “And I think we’re even now, aren’t we? Nice and neutral again. Too bad about your new crush getting hurt by that faulty enchantment.”

Ginny opened and closed her mouth, seething in rage as she stared at the nonchalant Eric. The boy unfurled a hundred magic tendrils from his back and hovered them over him ready to strike at her as a silent threat. Despite everything, Ginny knew that she still couldn’t match him in skill just yet.

“Fine,” Ginny spat as she turned away, despite how it burned at her to not say anything, “Have it your way then.”

“I will.”

Ginny stomped away and stood apart from the rest of the group even after things had settled down. They moved to their assigned spot for their tent, the mood much more subdued than it had been before.

Ginny would normally be excited when Sirius unfolded and set up the tent that looked like it could barely fit three people inside. But once they went in through the entrance and inside it was a massive space, comfortable enough for all of them to sleep comfortably. Ginny took the corner as far from Eric as possible and generally wallowed in her own misery for a bit as Eric struggled to pretend he cared even the slightest bit about what he had done to Cedric in order to not stick out from the rest of the subdued group.

— — —

It was time for the match itself for Sunday afternoon, and all of them were walking up the stairs to the top box. The Minister of magic himself would be up there. Ginny was feeling a little better. Eric had stopped taunting her and largely pretended that she didn’t exist. Something that she was more than happy to do as well. Also they had received news that Cedric would be fine and was recovering quickly. He’d miss the tournament, but there didn’t seem to be any worries of scarring or anything similar. That was good, it would be horrible if his handsome face was ruined. Not… Not that it mattered if he was handsome or not! She was just glad that he was okay either way.

They all walked up a long set of stairs to the top box. Dad and Sirius were both greeted warmly by the Minister. Sirius was polite, but Ginny knew that he didn’t like the Minister very much, partially blaming him for letting him rot in Azkaban for so long alongside Dumbledore. But things weren’t too tense as Fudge moved onwards to Dad to shake his hand as well. Draco Malfoy and his father Lucius Malfoy sat at the other side of the Minister’s big chair in the center.

“Arthur,” Lucius said as he approached, “I’m amazed you were able to get seats in the top box. I didn’t think the Ministry paid you quite that much.”

“Got the tickets from a friend,” Dad managed to say while looking like he was restraining himself from saying anything more.

“Lucius. How’s dear cousin Narcissa?” Sirius said from the side, “She fed up with you yet?”

Lucius gritted his teeth, but with a glance at the watching Minister Fudge bit his tongue before he spoke.

“We are quite happy, Sirius,” Lucius said, “We were… glad to hear of your innocence.”

“Yes, I’m sure you were. How unfortunate that the Black fortune now belongs to me rather than being inherited by the next oldest Black male. That would be… Draco wasn’t it? Half the reason you were arranged to marry Narcissa was for a chance at the Black fortune wasn’t it?”

“Enough,” Fudge said, “Gentlemen please. We’re here for the sports, yes? Let’s try to get along for at least a little while?”

Lucius grumbled and settled down, and Sirius smirked and didn’t say anything, evidently considering the argument won.

“Hey, Draco. Anybody try to poison you yet?” Ginny heard Eric ask as he approached the blonde haired boy and his father.

Ginny shook her head. She wasn’t going anywhere near Eric right now or… whatever weird relationship he had with Draco. Friendly one moment then threatening him the next.

She walked over to the seats on the far end so Eric wouldn’t be able to come over and sit next to her to make her uncomfortable. She looked to the seat next to her. There was an invisible man sitting there stiffly in the chair, she could sense it with her magic sense. Next to him was a strange looking creature standing at the base of the chair. It had big massive eyes and big floppy ears like an elephant. It was hunched over and had wrinkled leathery skin and was hunched over as it stood there in what looked like a threadbare sack. It was only a few feet tall as it stood there just in front of the chair with the invisible person sitting in it.

“Hello,” Ginny asked the creature curiously, “What’s your name?”

“Name? My name’s Winky, madame!” The creature said, “You’re… Oh my.”

“What kind of creature are you, Winky?”

“Winky is… Oooohh, a house elf, Ma’am. Winky… AaaaahhhhH!”

The apparent house elf’s eyes dilated massively as it kept staring at Ginny and it let out a little gasp as it fell to the ground and started twitching like it was having a sort of seizure.

“What the… Winky? Are you okay?” Ginny asked. She took a step forward and the house elf gasped again, the creature’s eyes nearly fully black now as it stared at her they were so dilated as it stopped twitching.

“Such magic…” Winky whispered, sounding almost drunk as it stumbled to its feet, “Can Winky have a taste? Please madame?”

“Uhm. Er, okay,” Ginny said despite the situation rapidly becoming extremely awkward. Her only saving grace was that everybody else was talking and didn’t seem to have noticed Ginny or the house elf yet. Would it be quiet if she just fed it a little of her magic? Hopefully.

Ginny extended a tendril of her magic and poked the house-elf with it. It stuck to the creature for a second. Ginny tried to tug it back, dissolve it, but the tendril was hardened as if stuck for a few seconds.

“Winky, hey! What are you doing?” Ginny demanded, “Stop that!”

Winky seemed to come to herself and Ginny’s magic tendril came loose from the house elf. Winky was hopping up and down, its eyes still dilated and jittering and looking all over the place like it was on drugs.

“What magic!” Winky said, “Mistress Weasley. Would you accept a position as Winky’s master? I’ve served the Crouch family for my whole life but… the magic… Yes, please Ms. Weasley?”

“What?” Ginny asked, completely confused, “Accept being your what?”

“Oh, of course!” Winky said, while still twitching and jumping from foot to foot, “Ms. Weasley is still a girl, she needs approval of her family for those matters. Winky must spread the word. All house elves must know that there’s something better than these stuffy family magics out there!”

With a crack of air, Winky apparated away, leaving Ginny completely baffled about what had just happened. Were all the house elves that strange? No wonder why none of the students ever saw any of the ones that worked at Hogwarts. If they were that strange, then the Headmaster must have told them to not interact with students and have them freak everybody out.

After staring at the spot Winky had disappeared from for a long moment, Ginny shrugged and sat down in her seat next to the invisible man who hadn’t moved this whole time. The cheerleaders for each team started hyping up the crowd as everyone else in the top box started taking their seats to watch the show.

The first cheerleaders started with the Bulgarians. A bunch of beautiful women started jumping through the air in an acrobatic show of cheerleading. They were technically magical creatures known as Veelas. They sang some Bulgarian cheers, and Ginny noticed that their voices were laced with magic. All the guys in the whole place went wild as the magic sank into their heads, while shying away from all the girls after briefly brushing across their scalps. It enchanted the men to be lovestruck and enamored with the beautiful Veelas.

Several men tried to charge onto the field, but the Ministry security held them back until they calmed themselves down. It was like a love potion as a spell that was distributed through someone’s voice… Ginny shivered and glanced over to see Eric looking down at the Veela’s with a hungry look in his eyes. Not a look of love or desire like what most of the men and boys were suppressing. Eric had batted away the Veela’s magic trying to sink into his mind with a dismissive wave of his magic tendrils popping out of his scalp as soon as they tried to sink into him.

But Ginny could tell that Eric wanted that Veela magic for himself. So he could bypass the love potions entirely and spell people with his favorite effect directly.

Ginny could only hope that he would fail. She wasn’t sure what she could even do to stop him from studying the spell in the air all around them.

Eventually to Ginny’s relief the Veela stopped singing and Eric looked frustrated, having not figured out how to replicate it. That was lucky.

Next was the Irish team. They had a series of fireworks and flying wizards dancing on the air and dressed as leprechauns. After a few minutes of working the crowd, there was a final round of fireworks showing a dancing leprechaun made of the lights holding a giant pot of gold. As the finale, the leprechaun turned over the pot of gold and gold galleons rained from the sky and all over the stadium. Fred, Ron, and George looked excited and worked to pick up as many coins that rained on them as they could. Scrabbling on the floor to pick them up as Lucius Malfoy sneered at them and Eric looked at them with a mocking grin.

Ginny picked up one of the coins, and poked it with her magic gently. It dissolved into a puff of loose magic.

“They’re not real,” Ginny said, “Just a transfiguration or something.”

Fred, George, and Ron stopped and stared at the coins they had been gathering.

“Yes, Leprechaun's gold disappears after a few days,” Sirius added, “It’s not real money, just a prop.”

Dad looked surprised and glanced at Molly at Sirius’ statement.

Ginny’s three brothers stared at the gold they had gathered and Malfoy who they had noticed for the first time was sneering at them.

“Oh.” Ron said in disappointment, “I suppose that makes sense. The Ireland team isn’t that rich, I guess.”

The three boys got teased by Sirius and Ginny for a bit before returning to their seats while looking a little glum. But everyone was quickly distracted as the actual Quidditch players started coming out to loud cheers from the stadium.

After the teams were announced, Minister Fudge stood up next to the Bulgarian Minister of Magic who was sitting directly next to him on the side closer to the Malfoys.

Minister Fudge put his wand to his throat, “People of Britain! Visitors from abroad!” Fudge said and his voice boomed across the whole stadium.

“The event we’ve all been waiting for! The Quidditch World Cup! Let the games-”

Fudge raised his wand and fired a spell into the air and it shot into the center of the field where it exploded with a loud bang like thunder.

“Begin!”

As soon as the words left Fudge’s mouth the players started the game, moving at high speeds on their brooms to play the game faster than Ginny could even track. Fudge sat back and everyone started observing the intense game.

— — —

Three hours later, Ginny was rather bored. The game was pretty interesting… for about thirty minutes or so. Not that things weren’t exciting still. But it was all the same, and Ginny couldn’t bring herself to pay attention to it anymore. Ron, Fred, and George were still fully invested and cheering for the play by play. Hermione looked vaguely awkward, but tried to stay engaged to go along with her group. Eric was talking with the rest of them, appearing to enjoy himself even if he wasn’t adding much to their discussion of the players or the sport itself.

The adults had stood up and were milling around the top box and talking with each other, only breaking away and observing the game when the crowd roared at a particularly amazing play by one of the players. Ron was talking nonstop about Victor Krum, the seventeen year old seeker from Bulgaria. He and the Irish seeker were neck and neck and had almost caught the golden snitch a few times already. But each time they interfered with each other and the small flying golden ball managed to slip away from them both.

Ginny wondered what Alexa would say if she was here to see all of this. No doubt she’d be loudly complaining right next to the Minister of Magic, not even caring if other people heard her dumping on Quidditch as a sport. Yes, maybe it was best she wasn’t here actually…

The invisible man next to Ginny hadn’t moved the whole time she was here. She’d tried to talk to him a few times, but he hadn’t said or done anything in response so she’d given it up. Maybe he just didn’t want to talk with the other adults which is why he was hiding under that invisibility cloak so he could watch the game in peace? That house elf Winky had never returned even after all of this time.

Ginny casually inspected the invisibility cloak with her magic sense. She had heard about them, but never seen anything similar to it before. It was rather interesting how it worked. The light didn’t even ripple around it like how Ginny thought it should be for an illusion. It was like there really was nothing there…

Ginny peered closer with her magic sense and frowned as she realized that the man under there was under a spell. She hadn’t noticed before because of the magic from the invisibility cloak.

She inspected the spell closer and realized with a jolt that it was the imperius curse, the same one that Lupin had used to control Olivia!

“Oh no!” Ginny said, “Are you under the Imperius?”

She reached out and pulled off the invisibility cloak from the man without him moving to stop her. He was frozen in place, only his eyes shifted over to stare at her as he remained sitting ramrod straight in his chair.

Ginny reached out and tapped his arm and with the work of a few of her magic tendrils shattered the imperius curse on the man.

The man with black hair and sunken eyes gasped and immediately slouched.

“Are you okay?” Ginny asked, “What happened?”

There were shouts of surprise from across the box as Minister Fudge pointed at the dark haired man with a trembling hand.

“Barty Crouch Junior!” Fudge shouted, “Aurors, arrest him!”

Before Ginny could react the black haired man’s hand snaked out and reached into her pocket and pulled out her wand from her robes, He grabbed her with his other hand and pointed the wand at her head as the Aurors in the corner of the room started to rush in. Ginny prepared her tendrils to push the man’s hand away, but didn’t stop him yet as he held the wand to her head, causing everyone in the room to freeze.

Ginny could tell that the man didn’t have a spell charged yet. She had five magic tendrils latched onto his hand, waiting to yank hard and force him to drop the wand the second she thought that he would actually cast something at her.

But he was probably just scared and confused right now with him being cursed and everything.

“Back! B-Back all of you! Or the girl gets it!” The man holding her hostage shouted and Ginny tensed. Okay, maybe she should stop him before…

The black haired man shoved her to the ground roughly and Ginny fell flat on her face to the floor, moving her magic tendrils to force the man’s wand hand open even as she did so. There was shouting above her and as Ginny rolled over she saw the black haired man run to the edge of the box and with a desperate cry leap over the railing into open air, with Ginny’s wand rolling on the floor behind him.

Two red stunning spells from the Aurors sailed just above him before the man fell out of sight. There was a thirty foot drop into the stands below. Was he trying to kill himself with a drop that high?!

“Minister! Protect the minister!” One of the Aurors shouted as half of the Aurors all rushed to Fudge and surrounded him with all of their wands pointed outwards and looking tense.

The other half of the Aurors stood at the railing and started casting spells downwards over the edge. Ginny picked up her wand and stood to her feet as Sirius and her family rushed forward and began to check on her. The crowd below them was shouting and screaming. After verifying that she was unhurt, her family released her and they all watched the chaos going on down below them.

“Aurors, after him!” One of the Aurors shouted below with the voice magnifying charm from the railing of the Balcony as he cast another spell, “He’s escaping into the crowd! He’s a confirmed death eater!”

The screaming and chaos from below only grew more intense as the crowd began to panic even more. The players on the Quidditch field all started flying away, abandoning the game as the crowd began to stampede as the Aurors shouted and cast various spells after the fleeing man.

The men on the balcony stopped casting spells down and started shouting and pointing with their wands towards where they spotted the man in the crowd below. The Aurors from around the stadium were closing in on all sides in large numbers where the people in the balcony pointed, their signature blue robes pushing through the crowd that was fleeing the stadium.

— — —

Barty Crouch Jr. limped through the panicking crowd, dragging his definitely broken leg behind him as he moved. He was lucky that the crowd and the stands that he’d fallen into were so chaotic with so many people or he’d have been caught in an instant by the Aurors. To think that after years of being under the Imperius curse of his father that he’d be released by a curious little girl… Not that he understood how she’d freed him.

But he was sure that it had been her that had caused it. He hoped that she was a pureblood, it would be such a shame if she would be killed when Lord Voldemort returned to Britain after he finished recollecting his strength.

Oh, how he’d make his father pay for what he had done. His mother sneaked him out of prison when he was near death at Azkaban, only for his father to bind him with the Imperius curse when he moved to escape after. The Ministry had thought him dead, his mother taking the polyjuice potion to take his place for the execution by the Dementors. Something that his father had been more than eager to lay solely on Bart Crouch Jr.’s feet like it wasn’t Father that allowed it to happen! The man was unable to kill Barty Crouch Jr. because of Mother’s final wishes, but also couldn’t let him leave where he could search out Lord Voldemort again.

So Barty Crouch Jr. had remained under the Imperius charm for years in Father’s home. Forced to eat, forced to go to the bathroom, forced to stand in place silently for hours on end as the days passed, only for Father to yell at him when he returned from work, blaming Junior for Mother’s death all over again.

Yes, Father would pay for what he’d done to Junior. Just because he’d tortured a few filthy blood traitors to insanity with Bellatrix Lestrange…

He smirked as he ducked his head down and blended into the fleeing crowd around him. He had stolen his wand from a random wizard who had brushed by him in the chaos. The Aurors had lost track of him and the mass of them were converging on a point behind him that he’d been at a minute ago where they had lost track of him.

He was almost free, near the exit and past the anti-apparition wards keeping him from escaping from this place. He just barely suppressed his cry of triumph as he raised his wand and prepared to apparate away as he stumbled beyond the wards on his broken leg.

He prepared to cast the charm… And then stopped. No! No, who had done it?! Father! He’d kill him, where was he! He wouldn’t go back, he wouldn’t! He’d rather die!

But no matter how much he raged, his wand lowered to his side as his body was forced to look around to the fleeing crowd. His eyes began to glow golden as he inspected the surroundings. This… This wasn’t the imperius curse. What was this?

“Beyonder…” Barty Crouch Junior’s mouth said slowly, “You are here. And I have a proper body with magic this time. I’ll fix all of your disruptions later. But first, we must remove the root of the problem…”

The stranger controlling Barty Crouch Junior’s body waved the stolen wand and his broken leg snapped and healed itself in an instant with a precise burst of magic.

His body turned back to the Quidditch stadium where even now the Aurors ran towards him with their wands raised through the view of the exit, most of the crowds having fled by now.

His body raised his wand and smiled. “At last, I can start to fix all the damage to the great design you’ve caused, Beyonder.”

Then his body moved and began charging directly back into the Quidditch stadium, with Barty Crouch Junior only able to watch helplessly in response.