Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

The World Cup

My eyes wandered over the many stands that hadn't been here for our walk in, the green and gold items sparkling and drawing everyone's attention as the crowds swarmed to purchase souvenirs.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had gone to find the Bulgarian stands after Ron had purchased a decent chunk of green and gold. The twins and I continued around the stands despite both of them having handed over their entire life's savings to Ludo Bagman to bet on the game.

"We could have kept a bit, I suppose. Didn't think about all of this." George muttered, eyeing a few children who were waving Ireland flags which sang the team's fight song.

"If only one of us was smart." Fred grinned, shoving a hand deep into his pocket and pulling out a few silver coins.

"You git! We were supposed to pool everything!" George shot him a nasty look, but a smile hid beneath it.

"Aw, come on Georgie. We can share it." He smirked as he dropped the coins into the booth owner's outstretched hand and pulled a tall green hat from the shelf. It glowed green and gold every few seconds and I laughed as he dropped it on my head.

"Fine, but that's coming out of your half when we win." George said pointedly as the three of us continued down our path.

A few hours later, the ten of us sat around our dying fire, the sun having dropped behind the clouds, painting the sky orange while we waited for the game. Fred had disappeared a few minutes ago, but returned once a loud bang echoed across the woods to us.

"It's time!" Arthur jumped from his spot, excitedly. "Let's get going, come on!" He waved his arms as if to summon the group to follow him. Harry and Ron sprung up immediately, barely leaving any room behind Mr. Weasley as they raced to the woods. I started towards Fred who was now wearing a new black hoodie and holding the gray sweater from this morning out to me.

"Thank you." I smiled, pulling it over my shirt in anticipation for the cold that was sure to find us as soon as the sky got dark.

"You're gonna need it, dad says our seats are really high up. Gonna be windy up there." He shrugged, the excitement clear on his face.

"Cassidy, you almost forgot your hat!" George came running up from behind us, the oversized hat once again being dropped on my head. I pushed the band up out of my eyes and shot George a look.

"Surely it's someone else's turn with the hat now?"

"Well yeah, but you look so cute in it." Fred smirked and I shook my head, feeling the best rush to my cheeks and wishing it was just a little bit darker out.

The sound of Harry's gasp brought me back to the scene before me. Giant golden walls more than double the size of the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch stood before us and thousands of witches and wizards swarmed the entrances, presenting tickets to the staff guarding the gates.

"Come on, Weasley's! And honorary Weasley's!" Arthur corralled us towards the nearest gate and handed the woman a stack of paper tickets.

"Ah, these are good seats." The lady smiled, standing aside to create a path for us to enter. "You're going all the way up, top box. You're the first so far. Enjoy the game." She smiled at the lot of us as we thanked her and began our climb.

"All the things Wizard-kind has done, and still no elevators." I muttered under my breath, earning a laugh from Hermione in front of me.

At last, the stairs stopped and we stepped into a decent sized box lined with seats. No one else was here, so I followed the trio, Bill and Charlie towards the front row, the twins falling in next to me and Percy and Arthur next to them.