The Nargles and The Dragons
It was an exhausted Harry that practically had to be dragged to the dining hall for dinner. They'd somehow managed to play four games - only stopping for a quick snack around lunch time - before Mrs Weasley had come looking for them to demand they attend dinner. Something had definitely been said about behaving like civilized people and not eating on broomsticks. Harry didn't mind so much. He'd been in the air, won a game against Viktor Krum, even if it was the younger one, and was actually sort of ravenous. Harry wasn't quite so happy about it. His team had yet to play and he was highly disappointed. Of course, Harry was sure the kid was using the time to strategise. As much as he'd rather be in the air, seeing all the other teams play before competing yourself had to give you an advantage.
"I've been thinking Prince Myrrddin," young Draco said coming up to sit beside him.
He sounded just as pompous as Harry remembered him being before they reached Hogwarts. But now Harry recognised it as a sign of nerves.
"I think you can call me Harry," Harry said softly.
"Huh?" Apparently, Draco had not be expecting that. "Oh, well... If you're sure. You can call me Draco, I suppose. We are family after all."
The young boy's chest puffed out, clearly proud to be Harry's cousin. Although Harry wasn't sure if it was because he was Prince Myrrddin, the boy-who-lived, or because of everything he'd heard about in the books.
"What were you thinking about Draco?"
"Oh, yes. I forgot," Draco said with a blush. "Our team needs a name."
The rest of their team were sitting around them and they all looked up at that. Luna smiled happily. "I want to call us The Nargles."
George laughed lightly. He thought Luna was brilliant, and it was sort of catchy.
"What's a Nargle?" Draco asked.
"Oh, they're invisible creatures. They infest mistletoe and make exceptional thieves."
"I was thinking The Dragons," Draco said shyly. Well, sort of. Harry thought he was being shy but he actually came across rather aloof.
Seamus snorted. "You just want to name the team after yourself."
Draco blushed. "N-no. That's not it. I really like dragons. I used to ask to go visit the reserves constantly as a child. But Mother wouldn't allow it. She said it was too dangerous."
Terence Higgs nodded. "She was right. I've been to the reserve in Wales and nearly lost an arm."
Draco eyed him in amazement. "How?"
"I was eight, I think. Snuck up on a dragon while my dad was looking the other way and well, it didn't like that." Terence grimaced. "It breathed fire at me, turned my arm to ash. Had to regrow the entire limb."
Everyone stared at the boy in horror. Except Luna and Draco, who both looked highly jealous.
"I guess we could call ourselves The Dragons," Seamus said with a sigh.
Harry grinned at the boy. In fairness, The Dragons wasn't a terrible name.
George patted Draco on the shoulder. "You better play well if we're naming our team after you, Dragon."
Draco smiled brightly. No one except his mother usually called him Dragon. But he would allow it. George seemed pretty cool. Not as cool as Charlie, the one that worked with dragons, but cool enough, for a Weasley.
What they didn't know was that a very similar conversation was happening at the other end of the table. Young Harry's team were also discussing names. The same two suggestions had been made but Casius and Seamus had absolutely refused to name the team The Dragons on principle. They thought Malfoy's head was plenty big enough on its own. Not that they'd outright said that, although they had gotten pretty close and Harry had feared that they were going to start arguing. That was until Luna suggested calling the team The Nargles.
Seamus looked less pleased about being named after invisible - possibly imaginary - creatures, but he had to admit that it was better than The Dragons. Anything was better than naming their team after Draco Malfoy.
Daphne didn't care one way or the other, she was just grateful to be allowed to play. Usually her parents absolutely forbade her to play dangerous games like Quidditch. But they'd never know anything about, seeing as how they'd already been told that they would have to take a secrecy oath when they left Mother Magic's realm.
Meanwhile, Cedric had taken it upon himself to approach the adults about the idea of having weekends off. He really wanted the tournament to continue. He'd been disappointed when his team mates had pointedly refused to be called the badgers. He was just grateful that his teammates had also refused Susan's suggestion of the Puffskeins. They had settled on The Golden Snidgets and he couldn't be happier with their team name. The adults were hard to approach when they were all spread out across the table and he didn't really know who had the authority to make the decision. Except perhaps Harry. He settled on Amelia Bones because she seemed like a sensible sort of woman and she was the head of the DMLE so that had to count for something.
"Madam Bones?" he asked with as much confidence as he could muster.
"Yes, Heir Diggory," she said, giving him a warm smile.
"We were thinking that it would be really good if we could make these breaks sort of regular. I know we don't really know what day of the week it is. I mean... do days of the week even exist here?"
"No. Heir Diggory. They do not," Croaker said from across the table. "We are outside of time."
"Right. So... we can't use those to decide breaks but we were sort of thinking it would be nice to have weekends off. We'd like to have a Quidditch tournament and you know the Ravens really want to explore Mother Magic's library. And..."
Madam Bones looked sharply at the young man, before nodding her head. "I imagine that can be arranged. Five days of reading, followed by two days of rest. It shouldn't be too hard to do."
"Will the other adults agree?" Cedric asked nervously.
"They're just as tired as you are," Moody said. "I imagine they'd appreciate regular breaks too."
The next day they all made it to the dining room for breakfast before heading to the chamber where they played Quidditch. Young Harry's team were the first to play, beating Fleur's team by one hundred and fifty points. All because young Harry had somehow spotted the snitch before even a single point had been scored. Harry looked slightly disappointed that he wouldn't be able to stay in the air longer, but he enjoyed watching the others play. Especially with his new cousin Draco explaining all the different plays.
Then the two Viktors went head to head and somehow managed to get a draw. It was a close call but both teams finished with two-hundred points. The second game had run much longer than the first and had made them all late for lunch, which resulted in a scaulding from Mrs Weasley until Arcturus told her to get a grip. They were kids and they were having fun. Finally, after lunch it was Harry's turn again. This time he was playing against Fleur's team. He had to admit that Charlie was an excellent Seeker. They had very different styles but that just made the whole game more fun. They both got close to catching the snitch several times, playing literally neck for neck the entire game.
Eventually, Harry had caught the snitch and won the game, when he spotted it hovering near the archway out of the chamber. He'd dropped into a deep dive with Charlie in close pursuit. His fingers had just wrapped around the snitch when Charlie's hand wrapped around his own. That had been close.
Dinner was waiting for them in the dining room once they'd all showered. Harry sighed heavily when he realised that they'd have to start reading again in the morning. He really wasn't looking forward to the rest of this book. Or the next one for that matter. After dinner, Harry returned to the chambers that he shared with his family. He didn't really feel up to being surrounded by everyone else. Most of his family were off doing their own thing but he was pleasantly surprised to find Sirius and Severus sitting by the fire, each with a book in hand.
He wasn't sure he'd ever seen Sirius looking quite so domesticated. It almost made him laugh. In fact, he did snort in surprise.
"I told you that people wouldn't believe you could read," Severus said, eyeing Sirius with a small smirk.
"Yeah. Yeah. Of course, I can read," Sirius said.
Harry joined them by the fire, only then noticing that they both had a copy of the first book in hand. "Why are you reading those?" he asked, nervously.
"Making notes," Severus replied, not looking up.
"Why?"
"Things that need to change," Sirius said. "We're worried we might have missed something."
Harry frowned. That made sense. The emotions in the chamber were heightened and so it would probably be all too easy to miss something. He reached for the book on ruines that he'd started reading the night before and decided not to worry about the books for now. In only a few short hours, he'd be back in the main chamber with everyone else and that was the last thing he wanted to think about.
Team Names:
Cedric - The Golden Snidgets
Harry - The Dragons
Viktor - The Firedrakes
Harry - The Nargles
Fleur - The Thunderbirds
Viktor - The Graphorns
Fleur - The Fwoopers
Round Two Scores:
Harry Vs Fleur: 150 - 0
Viktor Vs Viktor: 200 - 200
Harry Vs Fleur: 210 - 70
Tournament Points:
Harry: 41/2
Viktor: 38/2
Viktor: 26/2
Fleur: 23/2
Cedric: 17/1
Harry: 15/1
Fleur: 12/2