Chapter 43: A different experience

"Do you have ability William?"

"ability?" asked William looking at Manuela to know what her question was about, they have only been three days since their classes started and he hadn't done anything special, the truth was not interested in standing out too much but of course he had to do it if he wanted to get points to attend another school during the next summer.

"You can find your way around the castle without any problems, all the students in their first days usually get lost and I think your classmates expected you to get lost, I heard them commenting on the disappointment during the breaks. I actually got lost in my first few days too and I wanted to see your expression when you complained about it."

"Hogwarts is also a maze with that changing staircase thing, I have a bit of experience" William scratched his hair, he couldn't get lost due to the existence of the mind's eye but it wasn't a matter that was easy to bring up when you don't have a logical answer, besides it's useful as a card up your sleeve for the most unexpected moments.

"Anyway, I think your classes are over, then you should come with me. Today the quidditch cup starts and while it's not like Hogwarts where you compete by houses here there is a way to see selections by country of birth. Wizards line up for their respective teams to compete every year and today Argentina plays against Brazil, you should come with me to support my country."

"But I'm not from Argentina"

"That doesn't matter, I am your guardian and you must be close to me therefore you must also support the team I support. Come on you have to paint your face for the occasion" Manuela pulled William running again through the corridors as if it was a playground, no one would think that she was one of the most outstanding students of Castelobruxo and it is likely that if she was at Hogwarts, Snape would have taken several points from her.

William was taken to a separate space to the normal students, under one of the stands of the quidditch stadium, there was a chair where William was thrown while Manuela painted his face with light blue and white colors, soon the white-haired boy had his face painted with the flag of Argentina and half of his hair in light blue.

"That you have white hair saves us a lot of paint, it's lucky because I thought you couldn't paint my face."

"Do I have to do it myself?" asked William as the paints came into his hands out of nowhere.

"I don't see anyone else around here who can help me with this difficult task" Manuela smiled happily and closed her eyes waiting for the paint.

"Sigh..." William sighed helplessly and started painting Manuela's face, he didn't have much to lose and he himself was interested in this whole selections thing.

When they finished painting the faces and arranging everything, they both went up to the stands and it was just like Manuela said before, basically all the students had their faces painted, there were flags and balloons everywhere. The stands could be distinguished immediately, Argentina in light blue on the right side and Brazil in green with yellow on the left side.

"Manuela dragged the unsuspecting William again as if he were a child, who was already on his third day getting used to the treatment he was receiving.

The wind was quite strong overhead but neither William nor Manuela seemed to mind as both of their attention fell on the quidditch pitch where the teams were already entering, each player on their brooms.

"There's the Argentinian team, my cousin Daniel is one of the chasers, there he is you can see him, he has brown hair" Manuela pointed directly to a young man, for William it was easy to spot him with his mind's eye "he's been in the chaser position for two years and is basically one of the best in Castelobruxo" Manuela's tone was full of pride to the point that she puffed out her chest to prove it.

"I hope to meet him before I go back to Hogwarts".

"It will be a little complicated to introduce him, Daniel is always busy with training and goes from one place to another as if he was always on the time limit, I don't remember the last time we had a normal chat as family, but the truth is that I don't mind since I know he is always busy" Manuela arranged her hair behind her ear while she spoke, William could feel that Manuela's words were not false but they didn't represent the whole story either.

Before the Argentina-Brazil game it was Manuela who screamed the loudest, a complete fan in William's eyes, it was football for him in his past life and the truth was that he had the feeling of nostalgia even he himself at some point shouted or got frustrated with some of the plays and celebrated one or another goal.

If someone from Hogwarts saw William acting that way near Manuela then they wouldn't think it was William himself, they would even think it was a trap, but right now William didn't care about any of that and was just enjoying the experience.