𝐎, 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 ⎥ "He wants a fight with
a God? I'll give him one."
﹙ from stardust we came, to stardust we return ﹚
Prisoner of Azkaban - Deathly Hollows
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
* * *
ELARA WAS IN AWE OF THE TENTS. after a quick tour of the girls' tent, which was slightly smaller than the boys', though without the smell of cats, harry, ron, elara, and hermione set off across the campsite with the kettle and saucepans.
now, with the sun newly risen and the mist lifting, they could see the city of tents that stretched in every direction. they made their way slowly through the rows, staring eagerly around. it was only just dawning on elara how many witches and wizards there must be in the world; she had never really thought much about those in other countries.
their fellow campers were starting to wake up. first to stir were the families with small children; elara had never seen witches and wizards this young before. a tiny boy no older than two was crouched outside a large pyramid-shaped tent, holding a wand and poking happily at a slug in the grass, which was swelling slowly to the size of a salami. as they drew level with him, his mother came hurrying out of the tent.
"how many times, kevin? you don't — touch — daddy's —wand — yecchh!"
she had trodden on the giant slug, which burst. her scolding carried after them on the still air, mingling with the little boy's yells — "you bust slug! you bust slug!"
a short way farther on, they saw two little witches, barely older than kevin, who were riding toy broomsticks that rose only high enough for the girls' toes to skim the dewy grass. a ministry wizard had already spotted them; as he hurried past harry, ron, elara, and hermione he muttered distractedly, "in broad daylight! parents having a lie-in, i suppose —"
here and there adult wizards and witches were emerging from their tents and starting to cook breakfast. some, with furtive looks around them, conjured fires with their wands; others were striking matches with dubious looks on their faces, as though sure this couldn't work. three african wizards sat in serious conversation, all of them wearing long white robes and roasting what looked like a rabbit on a bright purple fire, while a group of middle-aged american witches sat gossiping happily beneath a spangled banner stretched between their tents that read: the salem witches' institute. elara caught snatches of conversation in strange languages from the inside of tents they passed, and though she couldn't understand a word, the tone of every single voice was excited.
"er — is it my eyes, or has everything gone green?" said ron.
it wasn't just ron's eyes. they had walked into a patch of tents that were all covered with a thick growth of shamrocks, so that it looked as though small, oddly shaped hillocks had sprouted out of the earth. grinning faces could be seen under those that had their flaps open. then, from behind them, they heard their names.
