3 Reacclimating and World Cup

I could sense the magic around the house, which I assumed was the 'protection' that I had from living with the Dursleys. It was weak and barely there.

'Some protection Dumbledore,' I thought with a scoff.

Walking to the door, I knocked on it. I heard some noise inside as the door opened and Vernon was standing in the doorway.

"Hello Vernon," I said. He moved to shut the door, but I gripped the doorframe and pulled it open forcibly.

"I thought you'd be staying with those freaks boy," Vernon grumbled as I walked past him into the house.

"While I would prefer that to coming back here, the Weasleys are coming to pick me up today and I need my stuff."

Moving to the cupboard under the stairs, I turned to Vernon.

"Unlock the door."

"You didn't think you could leave with those freaks and just come back and everything would be normal. You're going upstairs and maybe we'll let you come down to leave with Weasleys if only to get your freakishness away from us," Vernon said.

'Yeah, I'm not coming back here next year, Dumbledore be damned.'

"Vernon, let's get something straight. I'm done being your servant boy. I'm definitely not coming back here next summer, so I'll be out of your hair once I leave. Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be."

The cat was getting antsy in my pocket, scratching the inside of it and mewling softly.

"Until I say so, that cupboard isn't opening," Vernon said with an angry look on his face.

"Fine," I said and grabbed the lock on the cupboard. Blue flames formed on my hand that melted the lock. Vernon had yelled and jumped back at the appearance of the fire as I pulled open the door and grabbed my broom and trunk.

"Ha, now you'll be expelled boy," Vernon said, reclaiming his cool enough to taunt me.

"No, I won't, but we need to have a talk. You've enjoyed tormenting me for as long as I can remember, so let's get one thing straight. I'm done with you and this whole family. You won't see me again, and I won't see you. Capiche?"

"I'm not having that Dumbledore freak come knocking on our door asking where you are," Vernon said.

"Tell him to leave then. It's not like he checks how I'm living here anyway, or he would've noticed the way you guys treated me," I said, but at my words, Vernon's face shifted from anger to nervousness.

"Or has he? What aren't you telling me, Vernon?" I asked.

"It's none of your business boy."

"Let me try that again. Tell me why you looked so nervous when I said Dumbledore doesn't check up on me," I said and formed blue flames in the shape of horns on my forehead, channeling magic to make my green eyes glow eerily.

That served to sufficiently scare Vernon as he quickly said "The old man comes by every once in a while to make sure you're still here. I don't think he ever found out just how you were treated, but he had some idea."

The flames around me vanished as I smiled. "Now was that so hard? I'm taking Hedwig and waiting outside for the Weasleys. Don't bother me."

Walking upstairs, I grabbed Hedwig's cage. "We're getting out of here Hedwig. You can fly to The Burrow, I'll meet you there."

I let her out of her cage and she flew out the window. She knew where the Burrow was, so I wasn't worried about her getting lost.

Taking her cage, I carried my trunk and broom out the front door and sat down on a bench in the front of the house.

'So Dumbledore knew I wasn't being treated all that well. I'm not all that surprised, I always tried to tell him I didn't want to come back here. Hell, even my Hogwarts letter was addressed to the cupboard under the stairs. Professor McGonagall was the one on the letters though, so I guess she knew too. Just more proof Hogwarts isn't worth staying at.'

Letting the cat out of my pocket, I sat her down on the bench next to me. She stared up and me with an odd look on her face.

"Ignore that back there. I don't exactly have a good relationship with my 'relatives.' Basically treated me like a servant my whole life, I had to live under the bloody stairs for the first 11 years of my life. I'll be glad to be rid of them."

The cat nudged under my hand and I began to pet her head as she purred.

We sat on the bench for some time, with the cat curling up in my lap and falling asleep as I manipulated the wind to form a nice breeze. Eventually, the sound of a pop was accompanied by the appearance of Mr. Weasley on the sidewalk a little ways from the bench.

"Hello Mr. Weasley," I said.

He turned to me, staring at me for a second before saying "Harry is that you? You've sure grown up some."

"Yeah, it's been an interesting summer," I said, standing up, which woke up the cat. Placing her back in my pocket, I looked at Mr. Weasley.

"So I'm assuming that you're going to take me to the Burrow."

"Yes, I'll apparate you there. Where are your glasses, Harry?"

"I don't need them anymore. I got contacts so they wouldn't keep falling off in whatever trouble I end up in for the year."

"Well, I guess that's smart. Shall we be going then? I'll come back for your stuff, I'm not good enough at apparating to take everything at once," Mr. Weasley said.

"Sure, will you be fine taking a cat along as well?" I asked, gesturing to the cat in my pocket.

"Oh, you got a cat Harry, that's nice. Yes, I should be fine taking the cat as well."

I moved over to Mr. Weasley and took ahold of his arm before a squeezing sensation surrounded me and I appeared outside of the burrow. Mr. Weasley quickly popped away to get my stuff as I shook off the feeling of disorientation.

"Meow," the cat said in annoyance.

"Yeah I agree, that was unpleasant. I really need to give you a name, I can't keep thinking of you as cat."

Mr. Weasley appeared with my luggage, setting it down as I picked it up.

"Well let's head inside, everyone's excited to see you again and I'm sure they'll be shocked with how much you've changed."

I followed Mr. Weasley in the door, finding Mrs. Weasley and Hermione talking to each other before their attention was drawn to us.

"Harry!" Hermione said as she rushed me and wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

"Meow!" the cat protested, Hermione's crushing hugs crushing her between us.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were there," Hermione said, petting the cat lightly on her head.

"Good to see you too Hermione."

Hermione stepped back, actually getting a look at me and I was surprised to see a light blush form before it disappeared.

"You seem to have changed a lot, Harry. I'd be careful of Ginny."

'I forgot about that.'

"Harry, I'm glad you're here," Mrs. Weasley said, pulling me into my second hug of the day. This time the cat had the presence of mind to jump out of my pocket and climb up my arm, ending up sitting on my head.

"Glad to be here. Should I just put my stuff where I stayed last time?"

"Come on Harry, I'll walk with you up there. Ron was asleep the last time we checked, so he should be there too," Hermione said, taking Hedwig's cage from me as I carried my trunk and broom up the numerous stairs of the burrow.

As we walked, we ended up coming across Ginny who was walking out of her room. She took one look at me and turned around, walking back into the room.

"Well, that was interesting."

"Well you're still the same old oblivious Harry," Hermione said with a laugh.

'Not oblivious, just willfully ignoring it.'

Eventually, we made it to the top where Ron was passed out on the bed. I put my trunk down next to the bed.

"Ron, wake up," Hermione said, lightly shoving Ron.

"Not now mione," Ron muttered but didn't wake up.

Hermione got more annoyed as she pushed Ron, causing him to roll out of the bed and land on the ground with a thump.

"Bloody hell Hermione, let me sleep," Ron said.

"Harry's here, I thought you'd like to see him."

It was at this point that Ron's eyes were finally drawn towards me.

"Harry mate, good to see you. Ready for the World Cup?" Ron asked, jumping up.

"Yeah, who've you got winning?"

"Bulgaria, with Krum on their team they can't lose," Ron answered.

We devolved into talk about quidditch before Hermione coughed loudly.

"How about we talk about something far more interesting, like what's going on with Sirius," Hermione suggested.

"Oh, he's doing fine. He's moving around a lot to keep from being found," I answered. Sirius had been sending me letters when he could, which I appreciated. It felt like I finally had an actual family member, but I realized that it was probably good that I didn't end up living with him. I'd much prefer him to the Dursleys, but I would probably end up being a replacement for my father in that relationship, and I was tired of everyone seeing me as one of my parents. I couldn't do well at something in Transfiguration without McGonagall saying I was just like James, or Flitwick saying I had Lily's talent in Charms.

We talked about random things, like how my trip to Italy went. I just said it was interesting and I made some friends while I was there.

Eventually, we had dinner and everyone went to sleep, ready to wake up early tomorrow to get a move on for the World Cup. The cat was sleeping curled up in a ball next to me as I quickly fell asleep, still trying to think of names for it.

The next morning I woke up with something on my face. Pulling it off, I found that it was a piece of paper with only one word written on it.

"Kuroka," I said aloud.

"Meow," sounded next to me as I looked down at the cat. It reached its paw out, pointing at the paper before scratching its ear.

"Is that what your name is? Kuroka?" I asked. That cat's head bobbed.

'Well, that adds more questions. Apparently, she knows how to write, I need to figure out what the hell this cat is soon.'

"Alright, Kuroka it is."

There was a lot of hustle and bustle as everyone got ready to leave for the World Cup. I tried to tell Kuroka to stay here, but apparently, she wanted to be a permanent fixture at my side as she continued to climb up me again and again.

Eventually, I just gave up and brought her with me. It turned out we needed to walk a while to get to whatever was taking us to the World Cup. Eventually, we reached the top of a hill.

"So what's up here that's going to take us to the World Cup," I asked.

"A portkey Harry." Fred or George responded.

"What's a portkey?"

"A portkey is an item that becomes a portal to a specific location." The other twin responded.

"So what object is ours?"

It was at this point that Mr. Weasley held up an object.

"Wow, an old boot," I said with a deadpan.

It was at this point that two more people walked up to us.

"Gang, this is Cedric Diggory and his father Amos Diggory. We're taking the same portkey," Mr. Weasley said.

"Nice to meet you all," Cedric said while waving.

With muttered greetings, we all took ahold of the boot.

"Hold on and don't let go." Mr. Weasley said when we were suddenly dragged away into a void. Everything was spinning around us when it suddenly straightened up and we slammed into the ground.

I didn't really feel anything due to my enhanced durability, so I stood right back up to see Mr. Weasley, Cedric, and Amos laughing as they slowly floated down.

"Yeah, don't let go my ass," I muttered.

"Meow," Kuroka sounded in annoyance. She didn't look shaken up from the journey, but I guess the fall wasn't exactly pleasant.

Once everyone had recovered, we made our way towards where the campground was. We had to show our tickets to a guy who was waiting before we were allowed to enter. We passed through a magic barrier and once we were passed it, we saw thousands of tents sprawled in front of us.

'So this is the Quidditch World Cup.' I thought.

Mr. Weasley led us to our tent, which had a magical charm on it to expand the inside. It was almost like it was a small house with how big the inside of it was. We all quickly put our stuff down inside and then went outside to explore the area.

Ron, Hermione, and I walked in one direction while the others went in another direction. As we walked, Ron talked about the game that would happen tonight.

"I mean, Krum's amazing. He's only a little older than us and he's the best seeker in the league." Ron said.

"Ha, you sound like a fangirl Ron," I responded.

"He's just really good, that's all," Ron replied, looking sheepish.

"Well, I for one wonder more about who the new DADA teacher is going to be, than who will win a quidditch game," Hermione said.

"Not a quidditch game Hermione, the quidditch game. It's the most important event of the year." Ron protested.

From there the two started bickering and I tuned them out, wandering a little ways away from them to get on my own. I walked between different tents, looking at all of the different people that had gathered for the game. It was as I was walking that I could feel a weird aura in the air, moving towards different people, but it completely avoided me.

'What is that?' I thought and activated my authority to try to track down the source. I was assaulted with tons of life signatures at once, but after a second I got used to it and tracked the aura to its source. Walking towards where I could sense the source, I rounded a corner to find an ethereally attractive girl walking around.

'She's the one putting off the aura?'

I moved towards her, not really sure what I was going to say, but I was curious what it was. It turned out I didn't need to say anything because as soon as I neared her she suddenly sharply turned around and looked at me in surprise.

She then rushed towards me and looked at me curiously.

"You are the newest Campione? I didn't expect it to be someone so young, and I especially didn't expect for it to be Harry Potter," she said.

"Wait, how the hell can you tell that I'm a Campione," I asked, suddenly worried that more wizards would figure out what I am.

My worry apparently showed on my face because she began giggling. "You don't have to worry about other people figuring out what you are. I'm a special case."

"What's so different about you? I mean besides that aura you're putting out everywhere."

"Oh, so you can sense the allure. That is precisely the reason I knew you were a Campione. I'm quarter veela and our allure behaves strangely around Campione. You're like a dead zone, so it's easy to tell when you're near."

"You're allure?" I asked, a little less confused, but still not sure what she meant.

"You don't know what veela are? We're a magical species that gives off an allure that draws in men, making them have a hard time focusing in our presence. It's passive unless we focus, so it's a bit of a hindrance for me." she said.

"Yeah, I can see how that would be. Sorry, I never got your name." I sheepishly said.

"Fleur Delacour. It would be hard to not already know who you are Harry Potter." Fleur said with an amused smile on her face.

"Huh, I thought maybe I would be less recognizable without my scar."

"Your scar is gone? I had thought it was just hidden by your hair, but your eyes and hairstyle are distinctive as well."

"Yeah, becoming a Campione got rid of it. I'm not mad at that at all, though." I responded.

"The attention can be bothersome, can't it. I wish there was a way for me to turn off my allure, so maybe I could avoid the attention for a little while. It can get annoying when people can't even hold a conversation with you without drooling." Fleur said.

"Well, maybe you'll figure out a way to turn it off. In the meantime, you'll just have to look for special cases like me to talk to."

"I guess I will," Fleur said.

"Fleur, where are you!" was heard being yelled somewhere a little way in the distance, by what sounded like a little girl's voice.

"Sorry, that's my sister Gabby. I need to go meet up with her. It was nice talking to you, hopefully, I'll see you again." Fleur said.

"I'll be sure to try to catch you before the World Cup ends," I responded. Fleur nodded and turned to walk away towards her sister, giving me a wave as she left.

'Veela huh. Well at least I don't have to worry about other people finding out I'm a Campione.'

I turned around and began to walk back to where Ron and Hermione were.

'Hopefully, they're done bickering by now.'

It wasn't all that hard to find them. With [Scorching Winds] I could sense everything where there was air, so I quickly found the two of them.

"Done arguing?" I asked with an amused smile on my face.

"We were not arguing. Where did you get off to?" Hermione asked.

"Wanted to check out the grounds. It's interesting to see all of the people here from all over the world."

"Yes, all kinds of cultures coming together. Maybe this World Cup isn't such a waste after all," Hermione thoughtfully.

"And now she comes around. Right on mate, now she'll stop complaining," Ron said, causing Hermione to lightly slap his shoulder.

"Hush Ron. We should be getting back to the tent though," Hermione said.

We slowly made our way back to the tent. Once we made it back, we stood outside the tent and took in more of the sights for a little while until Mr. Weasley came back and told us it was time to head to the stadium.

He led us through the mob of people making their way over and up the stairs at the colosseum until we reached the top box, surprisingly.

"I helped Ludo Bagman out, so he got me these seats." Mr. Weasley explained.

Entering the box, we found Minister Fudge already there attempting to speak to a man. The surprise, however, was Fleur sitting in the box next to a tall blonde man, a woman who was putting off a slight allure, but it was much more tightly controlled than Fleur's was, and a little girl.

"Are you enjoying yourself so far?" Fudge said slowly.

The man just looked at Fudge confused. It was then that Fudge took notice of us, getting out of his seat and rushing towards us, shaking my hand.

"Harry Potter, how nice to see you again. Pardon me, I was attempting to talk to the Bulgarian minister, but he doesn't speak English. Over there is the French minister and his family as well."\

"Nice to see you again Minister. I'm going to just take my seat if you don't mind." I replied.

"Yes yes, of course, be my guest." Fudge said, moving out of the way.

Fleur and her family had taken notice of us when Fudge made his commotion, so she saw me after he moved out of the way.

"Harry, come sit over here." She said, gesturing to the seat next to her. Shrugging my shoulders and ignoring the surprised looks from the Weasleys and Hermione, I made my way over and sat next to her, with the rest of the group following suit and sitting either behind me and Fleur or on the other side with Fudge and the Bulgarian Minister.

"I didn't know you were the French Minister's daughter," I said to Fleur.

"Well, you didn't ask. I didn't expect to see you up here." Fleur responded. She then noticed Kuroka poking out of my pocket and pet her head lightly.

"And what's her name?" Fleur asked.

"Kuroka. As for how we got seats up here, my friend's dad works at the ministry and got the tickets. Oh, this is Ron and Hermione, they're my friends from school."

"Nice to meet you two," Fleur said to the two of them.

"Hi" Ron slurred a little, having difficulty talking to Fleur due to her allure.

'So this is how someone acts around an allure.'

"So you're a veela then? I've read so much about you." Hermione said.

"Quarter-veela and most of what English books say about us is wrong anyway," Fleur responded.

"Why would most English books be wrong about you?" Hermione asked.

"English men tend to have a stereotypical view of us that we're all harlots and use our allure to manipulate men to do what we want," Fleur answered.

"But your allure does cause men to do what you want, doesn't it?" Hermione asked, looking pointedly at Ron.

"Fleur, do you want to introduce me to your family." I cut in, not wanting to deal with where this conversation was going. Hermione had a tendency to ignore social norms in the pursuit of knowledge, and she seemed particularly annoyed by Fleur, probably because of the concept of the allure in general.

"Oh, my apologies I got distracted. This is my mother Apolline, my father Jean, and my little sister Gabby. She's a huge fan by the way." Fleur said, faking like she was whispering a secret to me at the last part.

"You're Harry Potter right. Do you really fight dragons and save girls from danger." Gabby asks, bouncing in her chair excitedly.

"Well, I haven't met any dragons yet. Maybe I will soon. If you get in any danger though, I'll be sure to save you." I responded.

"You better," Gabby said, pointing her finger at me with a serious look on her face.

Someone else came in through the entrance. Turning around, I found Draco and his family entering the top box.

"Lucius, come sit over here." Fudge called out to him. Lucius made his way over to them, while Draco stopped in front of me for a second.

"Found your way up to the top box, now have you, Potter," Draco said.

He then turned and looked at Fleur while saying "You'd be better off sitting with me, I'm sure scar head isn't very entertaining."

Fleur looked at him strangely and said "Yes, I'm sure the talking ferret would be much more entertaining. Do you do shows?"

I started laughing, with Ron doing much the same in his allure-addled haze.

Draco turned red before swinging on the balls of his feet and going over to sit with his father.

"He somehow got tired of bothering me at school and decided to bother me in public too," I said.

"Yes, well those types of people are the most annoying," Fleur said while smiling.

It was at this point that horns were sounded and the game was beginning to get started, so we stopped talking for the moment.

First, the teams flew out with their mascots. The Irish team flew into the air with a giant leprechaun following them. It threw the gold into the air in all directions, with some of it falling towards us.

Picking up a piece I looked at it closely. I could sense magic coming off of it, but I wasn't sure what it did.

"It's leprechaun gold. It will disappear after a little while." Fleur said.

After the Irish team came the Bulgarian team. They flew out with Viktor Krum in the lead. After they flew out, a group of women came onto the field, dancing and swaying to the music. I could feel a concentrated allure surround me as the people around me began to act up.

Ron was rushing towards the edge of the box, attempting to climb out of the window. Quickly running forward, I pulled him back inside and sat him down in his seat.

"Your friend is particularly susceptible to the allure," Fleur said, looking amused.

"Yeah, between you and me, he's a little weak-willed," I whispered back to her.

The veela display went on for a little while longer until the leprechaun threw some gold at them. They responded by shifting, changing into a bird-like hybrid form, and began to throw fireballs at the leprechaun.

Turning to Fleur, I looked at her curiously. "Can you do that?"

"Get me angry enough and maybe you'll see," she said teasingly.

It took a little while, but the mascots were calmed down and the game began. Watching professional quidditch was an entirely different experience from the school games. Everything was so much more fast-paced and intense. I was sucked into the game, having some small conversation with Fleur, but mainly concentrating on the game.

The Irish team got up by a lot of points early on, with the Bulgarian team slowly bringing it back. It was during the game that I felt someone go into my pocket and take my wand. They were small, so it was probably someone's house-elf. I just let them run away with it, waiting for a little bit before causing the wind to pick up, causing the house-elf to trip and drop my wand. I then moved it back into my pocket by controlling the wind before it could recover.

'Why would a house-elf try to take my wand?'

Ignoring it for now, I continued to watch the game. Krum suddenly dived towards the ground, with the Irish seeker following him. Right before he hit the ground, he suddenly pulled up, streaking into the air. The Irish seeker wasn't so lucky, crashing into the ground head first.

"Oh and Krum pulls off a Wronski Feint." The announcer said.

Right after that, Krum flew solidly in a direction and caught the snitch, ending the game in a loss for Bulgaria.

"Ha, we guessed it." The twins cheered. Apparently, that had put a bet that Krum would catch the snitch, but Ireland would win.

Everyone in the box began to get up and slowly make their way towards the exit.

"Well, this has been fun, Fleur. Hopefully, I'll get to see you again sometime." I said.

Fleur surprised me by giving me a hug before standing back and smirking. "I may be seeing you sooner than you think." was her response before she started to follow her family out of the box.

After she left, Ron was a lot more clearly able to think. "Harry, you have all the luck."

"Maybe if you could actually talk without drooling, you'd have some luck to Ron," Hermione said, looking annoyed at Ron.

This of course set the two off to bicker. I tuned them out, ignoring their arguing as we made our way back to the tent. I laid down and went to sleep for the night soon after.

I have woken up abruptly when Mr. Weasley rushed in.

"Wake up, everybody wake up. Death Eaters are attacking."

I jumped up quickly got dressed. Joining with Ron and Hermione, we headed outside with everyone else.

"Ron, Hermione, Harry stick together. Meet at the portkey." Mr. Weasley said. We nodded and moved as a group towards the portkey. People all around us were rushing about, trying to get away from where spell fire could be heard. Fires were raging around us.

As we were moving through, the stampede of people slowly separated me from the group.

'Damn it, I have to find them.'

Using the wind, I tried to locate them, and I did, but I also could sense a large group of people surrounding Fleur and her sister.

'It could be guards, or it could be death eaters. It wouldn't hurt to check it out.' Rushing towards that area quickly, I stepped into a clearing to find a group of death eaters surrounding Fleur. I didn't need to worry that much, however, because she was making short work of them, taking them down while simultaneously protecting her sister.

Moving to join her, I fired off quick disarming spells at a couple of the death eaters that were left. They looked surprised as their wands flew out of their hands, giving me the element of surprise to hit them with a stunning spell, sending them down for the count.

"Harry lookout." I heard Fleur yell behind me, but I didn't bother to try to block the spell, letting it splash uselessly against my skin.

'Campione magical resistance is nice.'

Taking the opportunity while the death eater looked surprised, I hit him with a stupefy spell as well. Moving over the bodies on the ground that Fleur left, I made my way over to her and Gabby.

"Are you two alright?" I asked.

Fleur looked a little worn out, but otherwise fine, as she replied "Yeah, we're alright. Gabby it's safe now, look Harry Potter came."

Gabby slowly peaked out from behind her sister, before her eyes lit up when she saw me. "You said you'd save me and you did." She then rushed forward and came me a hug, but she only came up to my legs so she was just hugging one of my legs.

"Fleur, Gabby where are you." I heard a voice calling out.

"Here," Fleur called back. From the trees emerged their mother and father, along with another group of men.

"Are you two alright?" their parents asked, coming towards them.

"We are fine, Harry and I managed to deal with them," Fleur said.

Jean turned to me and held out a hand, which I took for a strong handshake. "Thank you for helping my daughters."

"It was no problem, sir," I responded.

The family began to check up on each other, and I began to feel awkward, not really sure what to do in these situations. Inching my way out of the clearing, I was about to leave to go find the Weasleys when Fleur noticed me leaving.

"Harry, you're leaving?"

"Yeah, I just need to go find the Weasleys, I'll be fine."

Fleur came towards me and gave me one more hug before pulling back and saying "Be careful. Although, out of anybody here, I'm pretty sure you're the one with nothing to worry about."

"I will, I'll be seeing you, Fleur. Hopefully not like this though."

I walked out of the clearing and moved to where I could sense the Weasleys. Making my way over to them, I found the group standing around the portkey waiting for me.

"Harry, what happened?" Hermione said while rushing towards me.

"I got a little sidetracked. Are you all ready to go?"

Everyone nodded and we all grabbed ahold of the boot to head back to the burrow. We made our way back from the hill towards the Weasley home. Once we got there, we entered to find a frantic Mrs. Weasley, who upon our entrance, rushed forward and pulled the group into a big hug.

'I'm getting a lot of hugs today.'

"I'm glad you lot are alright." She said.

From there, everybody calmed down and had a little food since it was breakfast time before either heading up to take a nap or staying downstairs. I decided to follow suit and walked upstairs, falling into the bed and falling asleep.