Beneath Her Skin

Chapter Two

Alastriona was getting lost in the crowd.

Witches and wizards from all around the world just didn't seem to notice her until they'd already barged into her, although they were always extremely apologetic. Each time she was knocked back she had to push her way through more people to get back to her friends.

Blaise called Theo and Darcy back when he realised Alastriona had yet again fallen behind. He pulled her close as the crowd shuffled around the group. "Get on my back." He demanded. 

"What?" Alastriona pulled a face, thinking she misheard him.

"Get on my back, otherwise you'll keep getting pulled back and Finn would kill us if we lost you."

Alastriona was about to protest but Theo smiled and clapped his hands, "Brilliant idea! Come on, Little Red, hurry up!" He encouraged from the side.

Alastriona then realised if she didn't do this that they wouldn't be able to see all the sights before the game started and she didn't want her friends to miss out on anything.

She nodded and Blaise turned around and kneeled on the ground. Alastriona wrapped her arms around his shoulders and as Blaise stood up he held onto her legs. "Wow! So, this is what the world looks like from up here!"

The group laughed at her and started moving forward again. They saw many familiar faces in the crowd while they walked around, including Ernie Macmillan who greeted the group politely and offered them all a friendly smile and wave. Darcy looked up to Alastriona but the girl just shrugged, she was happy that Ernie seemed to have moved past being angry at her for not wanting to date him.

They walked for a bit longer when someone called out to them, "Alastriona!" They turned and found Cedric Diggory with his father sitting outside their tent having a cup of tea.

"Cedric!" Blaise bent down so Alastriona could slide off his back, she and Darcy ran over to Cedric. He put his cup of tea down and left this fathers side as Alastriona hugged him tightly around the waist, he laughed and patted her hair before letting go. Darcy hugged him too.

"I was bloody confused just then," Cedric laughed and scratched the back of his neck, "I thought you'd grown Alastriona!" 

Darcy, Theo and Blaise laughed at this, Alastriona smiled softly and just shrugged, "No such luck, I'm afraid. Are you just here with your dad, Ced?"

Cedric shook his head, "We came with the Weasley's, we've got seats together and they're really good ones too!"

Cedric's dad stood up and came over to them and introduced himself, "Amos Diggory." He shook hands with them all, "Always nice meeting Cedric's friends."

Cedric smiled and his cheeks turned a light shade of pink, "Dad this is Alastriona Breen, Darcy Mint, Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini."

Amos smiled kindly at all of them but his eyes came back to Alastriona, "You're on the quidditch team with Cedric!" Alastriona nodded. "Cedric's told me all about you, you had a wonderful first quidditch season by the sounds of it!"

Alastriona blushed under her freckled cheeks but managed a small nod, "Cedric's a great captain to play under."

They chatted for a while longer before they parted ways, Alastriona hugged Cedric one last time before climbing onto Blaise's back again, "Are you sure you aren't tired?" 

"You're about as heavy as a puffskien, Alastriona." Blaise turned his head and smiled up at her as she laughed.

There were salesmen everywhere the group turned, Theo and Blaise both bought themselves Omnioculars, which were very similar to muggle binoculars except that you could watch the quidditch players in slow motion or have the Omnioculars show exactly what play the team was performing.