章節 19: Portkey
As the days passed, James practiced with his two new acquisitions: the wand and the Nimbus 1001. He was able to practice magic with the wand, since, according to his father, he will be placed with the tracing charm (which allows the Ministry to know the magic cast by wizards and witches under 17 years old) when he enters the Hogwarts Express. So, he can continue practicing magic in the training room without being punished.
On August 1, the long-awaited Quidditch World Cup began, only a month before Hogwarts started, but before that, he and his father, mother, and grandfather would go to see the World Cup final.
Australia, who won the World Cup in 1966, reached the semi-final and faced the dark horse of the Cup, the Japanese national team, a surprise to everyone that they had made it this far. The other semi-final was the England national team (supported by James and the entire British community) versus France, a classic.
As expected, Australia crushed Japan by 360 to 40, the Australian seeker managed to catch the snitch and finish the game in a relatively quick time. On the other hand, England suffered a bitter defeat against France, the English team was winning with a lead of 100 points, but unfortunately, the French seeker managed to catch the Snitch ending the game and winning by 50 points.
James wanted to break one of his old brooms in two, because of the stupidity of the English seeker, who at no time realized that the Snitch appeared. His grandfather cussed like he had never heard before and his father scowled for days.
The news of the defeat came out in the Prophet, blaming the English seeker very severely, James felt a little sorry for the player, he had done well in most of the matches and one mistake made everyone go against him.
His mother over the next few days spoiled him much more, preparing his favorite meal every day. On August 19 James went to bed early, the next day was the great final he would go to cheer for Australia, he did not want the French to win.
Australia would be looking to repeat the glory of the previous World Cup and win the two-time championship, France came with confidence for having eliminated the English team, the host of this Cup.
In James' room, his mother gently shook him to wake him up. James thought he had gone to bed not long ago.
"It's time to go, sweetie," Euphemia whispered.
"I'm coming..." said James in a sleepy tone and slowly opening his eyes.
"Well, in 10 minutes breakfast will be ready," said Euphemia leaving the room.
Lazily he sat up in bed, he could see through his window that the sky was still dark, it had been a long time since he had woken up this early, and it reminded him of his daily routine as Edward.
He managed to get dressed with narrowed eyes, his hair was very difficult to comb so he gave up. Yawning and waking up, she went downstairs on her way to the kitchen.
Euphemia was stirring the contents of a pot on the stove, and Fleamont sat at the table, looking at the Muggle newspaper. When he saw his son, he looked up and held out his arms so James could get a better look at his clothes.
Fleamont was wearing a short-sleeved shirt in neutral tones a pair of jeans that were a bit too big on him and black casual boots.
"What do you think?" he asked. "We should wear muggle clothes, your mother told me that the ones I wear in the village are very old-fashioned, so I buy these clothes at the new clothing store," he added.
"Yes... it's very nice," James replied yawning and sitting down at the table. Like his father and mother, he too wore his muggle clothes, although he had a much better fashion sense than his father.
"Quick breakfast, we have a little walk ahead of us," Euphemia said, carrying the pot to the table and began serving breakfast.
Since James could not appear they had to walk to a Portkey an enchanted object to send the person who touches it to a specific location. Most of the time, a Portkey is an everyday object that doesn't attract a muggle's attention.
According to his father, they had placed over a hundred Portkeys in strategic locations throughout Britain, they can transport a large group of people at a time, so they must go on a specific schedule and must be punctual.
When they finished breakfast, they left the house in the direction of a hill near Godric's Hollow, they had to pass the place where Gwen fell several years ago.
They trudged along the dark, cold, and damp path. Only their footsteps broke the silence; the sky lit up very slowly. James was too sleepy to want to talk.
After several minutes, they started up the hill, the ground was slippery and you had to be careful, James' sleepy eyes opened wide as he almost tripped twice. At last, they reached solid ground.
"Phew!" gasped Fleamont, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping the sweat on his forehead, "I'm not as young as before," he added complaining, Euphemia looked at him with rolled eyes.
"We have arrived in good time. We have 15 minutes," Euphemia said looking at the watch on her wrist.
"Now we must look for the portkey," said Fleamont.
Before they could break away and start searching a voice startled them, "Here, Fleamont! We already have the portkey!"
James turned his head and noticed three figures in the distance, the voice that spoke belonged to a bearded man, next to him was a woman who appeared to be his wife and then a sleepy-faced boy.
"Louis!" exclaimed Fleamont smiling as he strides towards the man who had shouted. James and his mother followed him.
Fleamont shook hands with a lean-faced wizard with a chestnut-colored beard, in his hand he held an old gray and black hat.
"Amanda! How are you doing?" greeted Euphemia with a smile to the woman who also smiled when she saw her.
"This is Louis Diggory. I had already told you about him and his wife Amanda, he worked a long time with your mother at St. Mungo's." Fleamont announced to his son. James stepped forward and greeted the couple. The Diggorys were a middle-class pureblood wizarding family.
"Oh, so you're James. Your father has spoken a lot about you, nice to meet you. This is my son, Amos Diggory, he will be starting Hogwarts in September like you," Louis said introducing his son. Amos Diggory had very curly brown hair, white skin, and brown eyes.
"Hi," said James greeting Amos.
Amos nodded his head, and his father seeing this frowned, "Greet properly," he said in a strict tone. In a lazy tone. Amos greeted James and the others properly.
James was too sleepy, so he didn't mind Amos' attitude at all.
"I'm sorry about that, the children at this age are very rebellious, right?" said Louis.
"Yes..." said Fleamont looking at each other with his wife, James had never been rebellious, he was quite the opposite educated, and very loving.
"Was the walk long?" asked Fleamont changing the subject quickly.
"Yes, we had to wake up at two, but well anything to witness the Quidditch World Championship, we wouldn't miss the final for anything, right Amos?"
"Of course. I hope the Aussies crush those French!" said Amos who when talking about quidditch was more excited.
With 1 minute left, the two families gathered around the old hat clutching Louis Diggory. They all stood in a tight circle as a cold breeze swept over the top of the hill.
This would be the first time James had ever ridden in a portkey, he always used floo powder, so he had never ridden in one, as they waited James thought about how strange he found the situation.
Imagine if a muggle just happened to get to the top of a hill and saw 6 people in a circle in total silence, looking at an old hat.
"Three..." mumbled Fleamont, looking at the clock, "Two... one..."
It happened immediately: James felt as if a hook, just below his navel, pulled him forward with great force. His feet lifted off the ground, going at tremendous speed amidst a swirl of colors and a rush of wind howling in his ears.
Finally, he touched the ground with his feet. When he looked up, he noticed that his parents and Mr. and Mrs. Diggory were still standing, Amos had fallen to the ground, and with a blush on his face, he quickly got up.
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