Harry was woken up suddenly by a big black dog excitedly jumping all over his bed. Sirius had apparently decided that it would be a fun prank to wake his godson by giving him a fright, but this meant that Harry refused to take the blame for what happened next. Groggy from sleep and suddenly waking to find a giant mass of fur and teeth looming over him, he reacted violently and kicked out as hard as he could. It turned out that was pretty hard, as he sent the dog flying from his bed and bouncing across the massive room Harry now had as a bedroom.
Upon landing, Sirius instantly turned back into his human form and winced. Harry, seeing that it was actually Sirius, immediately switched from fear-induced violence to concern for his godfather. He fought with his covers for a few seconds, having gotten a little tangled when he kicked Sirius, before he freed himself and went to check on his godfather, helping Sirius pick himself up off the floor. Sirius winced as he stood and clutched at the side of his chest. Harry was worried, but his godfather waved it off, saying, "I'll be fine in a second," only to wince again as he tried to stand up straight.
Harry made his godfather sit on the edge of his bed and was about to go looking for his grandfather when Sirius told him to wait. He proceeded to pull out his new wand from Olivander's and cast a diagnostic charm on himself. Harry had seen Madam Pomfrey use that charm a number of times, and he knew exactly what the white light coming from Sirius' chest meant: a broken rib.
Sirius healed himself pretty quickly with the practiced ease of someone who had done the spell a hundred times. Harry was sure Sirius was about to flip out on him and braced for it, ready to tell Sirius that it was his own fault for jumping all over him while looking like a monster, but as soon as his rib was healed Sirius just laughed it off, saying "When you pull a prank you need to be prepared for the consequences. Normally it's so you can see and have a good laugh as the prank goes off, but if a prank goes wrong and someone gets hurt then that's on you as well. So it's my fault, not yours."
Harry was relieved Sirius wasn't mad, and now that everything had calmed down he asked how Sirius knew how to fix a broken bone. His godfather told him all about the Auror training he got after Hogwarts and how basic field medical spells were taught to them all. The main idea was to keep the Auror going until they could get a qualified healer later, but most got good enough with healing cuts and broken bones that it was rare they needed to see a healer for that. Harry asked if he would teach him those spells and Sirius agreed to consider it. With what the trio had told him and Charlus about their time at Hogwarts, he couldn't say the spells wouldn't be useful.
Harry went to get breakfast started as Sirius went to wake Hermione and found his grandfather already in the kitchen drinking tea. The two exchanged good mornings and Harry set some bacon to frying while he sliced up some tomatoes and lettuce to make BLTs. Cooking at the manor was so much more rewarding than cooking at the Dursleys. For one, Harry was only expected to cook one meal a day here while Sirius or grandfather Charlus did the rest, and secondly Harry was expected to eat the food he cooked. And of course, the people who ate the food always appreciated the food, even if they occasionally forgot to say thank you. Sirius walked in just as the first load of bacon was ready, so Harry used it to make sandwiches for Sirius and his grandfather before adding more to the pan. Hermione soon followed and smiled at Harry and gave him a kiss on the cheek when he gave her a plate with her breakfast on it.
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They travelled by portkey to the World Cup. The Weasleys had plans to go the morning of the game and come back the next day, which would interrupt Arthur and Percy's work schedule the least, but it would have meant getting up at four in the morning. Charlus had decided to go a day earlier so their portkey was at ten am instead and had spent some gold to have a private portkey. As long as it was outside the manor wards by the right time, then they wouldn't have to travel the ten miles to the nearest portkey point that had been set up. Charlus and Sirius had agreed to take any of the Weasleys with them that wanted to go with them a day early. Ginny, Ron, and the twins had all decided to go the day before, rather than get up so incredibly early, and all the other Weasleys could Apparate over at any time and so didn't need the port key.
The underage Weasleys all Floo'ed to the manor about an hour before they were due to leave. Harry gave the three that hadn't been here before a quick tour while Ron baited Hermione into a game of chess. The twins were as over the top as normal, bowing to Harry and calling him "m'lord" for living in such a swanky posh manor now, and Harry couldn't keep from laughing. Ginny was just as shy and withdrawn from Harry as she ever was; apparently she still hadn't gotten over her crush. Harry felt for the girl, but even if he wasn't with Hermione, Ginny just looked too much like Harry's mother and he wasn't into that.
The next day, Harry discovered that Portkey travel wasn't for him. He had thought Floo and side-along Apparition were bad, but portkeys were just on a completely different level of hell. It was like a combination of being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner while being tumbled in a tumble dryer. How any of them were able to keep their feet when they landed Harry couldn't understand. They were greeted by a couple of Ministry workers who were up to the Ministry's usual standard for blending in with muggles. That is to say, they may as well have been carrying signs that say 'I'm a wizard'. The Potters and Weasleys were given directions to their camp site and sent on their way.
It was a ten minute walk to the campsite from the portkey point, but as it was a walk through the British countryside on a nice summer day, no one except Sirius, who was carrying the bag with the tent, felt any need to complain. Hermione hung back a little from the group with Ginny, the two witches cackling at whatever "girls only" thing they were talking about. Sirius and Charlus were talking about a match they had both seen when Sirius was still a teenager, and that left Harry talking with Ron and the twins.
"Toffee, Harry?" One of the twins (George, Harry thought, but he wasn't sure) offered Harry from a paper bag he pulled out of his pocket.
Harry didn't need Ron's warning of "I wouldn't, mate," to guess that the toffees were pranked; these were the twins after all. However, he had a better idea. As he reached out to take a toffee, he turned his head towards Ron so he was facing away from the twins and said, "Why? So there's more left for them to offer you?" Harry couldn't help that sounding harsh, but he thought up this little plan in seconds and didn't have time to come up with a better line. He did wink at Ron though to tell him he was turning the prank on the twins.
Hardy took one of the bristly-wrapped confections and unwrapped it. The twins had an excellent poker face and each of the twins also pulled out a toffee to keep up the ruse. Harry unwrapped his, and he had to give it to the twins. Whatever this was, it looked and smelled like real toffee. Harry mimed popping the sweet into his mouth, but instead palmed it and proceeded to pretend to chew. "This is excellent, thanks George." Harry's words had the twins stare slack jawed at him, and that was when Harry saw his opportunity and took it, popping the sweet into George's open mouth and watching to see what would happen.
The magic in the toffee activated almost immediately, and the toffee moved itself to the boy's teeth and then glued them shut, then splitting into segments and glueing different parts of the teeth, letting the victim breathe through the gaps if they have a cold. Harry was a little impressed. "Nice try, but you'll have to do better than that to prank the heir of the Marauders," he said. The four of them burst out laughing, the fourth being Sirius who was watching them, as George couldn't laugh with his teeth glued together. Fred, however, caught the line about the heir to the Marauders and as soon as he finished laughing at his twin's misfortune he begged to know what Harry was talking about.
"Oh, didn't I tell you I found out yesterday my dad was one of the Marauders? I even know who all the others were." Harry bragged, playing it up a bit. If he knew the twins, this would lead to a better prank than the toffee did, and he was sure Sirius would find it hilarious and would play along. He wasn't disappointed; Fred practically begged Harry to tell him who the Marauders were, and the only reason George wasn't joining his brother was that he was too busy licking the toffee off his teeth.
Ron, who couldn't see what Harry was doing, was laughing his ass off, but for this to work Harry needed Hermione and Ron to be in on it. He ran to get his girlfriend, telling Ginny he would return her in a few minutes, and in a quick huddle he told his friends his full plan. Hermione wasn't 100% on board with pranks, but agreed that Harry's didn't cause any harm and that she would go along with it. After all, the twins deserved it.
Harry then turned and addressed the twins. "Okay, here's the deal: Hermione, Ron, and myself all know the identity of all of the Marauders. All you have to do is convince one of us to tell you and we will."
Fred looked like he was about to start begging the three of them, but Ron held up a hand to stall him and said, "However, if you do it by annoying us or pranking us till one of us gives in then all you will get is a name."
"If, however, you earn the name from one of us, then it will also come with an introduction to at least one, possibly two, of the Marauders," Hermione finished for them. The trio laughed at the look of awe on the twins' faces and Hermione went back to her conversation with Ginny. Harry glanced over at Sirius and saw that the man was beaming with pride at Harry. He went back to talking to Ron about who he thought would win the match tomorrow.
They quickly got to the campsite and Grandfather Charlus gave Harry the money to pay, saying he got confused by muggle money ever since they got rid of the shillings. That made some sense to Harry; he himself may have been alive when Britain completed going decimal with its currency, but as it was eight months before he went to live with the Dursleys he never learned the old money system. However, his grandfather would only have used the newer money a handful of times in the ten years between the money starting to change and him getting caught in the time storm. Harry paid the campground owner and he was given a map and directions to their plot.
Putting up the tent was a chore. Charlus was the only one of them apart from Hermione who had any clue what needed doing, Sirius had always just used magic and Harry and the Weasleys had never been camping before. Still, with Hermione and Charlus telling them what to do, they had the tent up in just over half an hour. The tent was a large older style A-frame tent made of green canvas rather than the more modern dome tents with the ultra thin nylon walls. Even without the expanded space inside, it looked like it could comfortably hold eight adults, so the two adults and six teens looked like they would be completely comfortable. Of course, being a magical tent there was basically a large house inside. There were six bedrooms, so everyone would be sharing with at least one person once the elder Weasleys arrived. Ginny and Hermione would share, as would the twins, Harry was bunking with Ron while Grandfather Charlus' roommate was Sirius. This left two bedrooms for Percy, Charlie, Bill, and Mr. Weasley when they came tomorrow.
Once the tent was up, the teens decided to explore the campground. It was almost luckily the tent was green as they were right on the edge of a large collection of Irish families. A lot of them had draped their tents in green shamrocks. They did bump into Seamus Finnigan, who was excited to see so many of his fellow Gryffindors and introduced them to his 'mammy'* Mrs. Finnigan was a feared woman who, after taking in that they were British, was insistent that they would be "supporting Ireland of course." Which they could honestly say they were, most of of Ireland may not be part of the UK anymore but they were still British* and the UK's closest neighbour.
As it probably wasn't covered in the Irish news, Harry told Seamus about Sirius Black being his godfather and how Sirius had found Harry's grandfather alive and caught in a time storm. Seamus hadn't understood what a time storm was until Harry explained it, but his mother had and she was astonished that Charlus had escaped it unharmed. Apparently it's rare for a whole body to be caught in such a way, and the longer you are half in and half out the worse the long term effects are.
They ran into a few more people they knew, including Lavender and the Patil twins, who were quick to congratulate Harry on finding that Charlus was alive. Lavender was also interested in any gossip she could get out of Hermione on her relationship with Harry. They then ran into Oliver Wood, who was headed to see Katie and Angelina (apparently Alicia's parents hadn't been able to get tickets). With most of the Gryffindor team there, their former captain told them that he had been signed by Puddlemere United as a reserve keeper, an amazing position for a player just out of Hogwarts. He asked them who had gotten the captain's badge, but when they all confirmed that they hadn't received it they worked out that Alicia must have been given it.
The group of schoolchildren continued exploring and soon got to see wizards from all around the world. Some looked so much like British wizarding folk that it was only the languages or accents that hinted at them being from further away. Others though were more obvious, there was no way that wizarding culture in Britain wouldn't erode the tendency some of the people had to wear extremely bright colours. It would take a strong personality to stand out that much in British wizarding culture. Maybe that's why Dumbledore did it, Harry thought to himself. Maybe it was a display that said he was going to do things his way. Or maybe Dumbledore was just colour blind. Either could be true.
Hermione was really interested in the international witches and wizards, especially when she saw some African teenage wizards doing their magic without a wand, a feat that was considered only possible for the extremely powerful by the regular European school of thought. There were a lot of Japanese magicals here to watch as well, as Quidditch was pretty popular over there and their team had only been knocked out by Ireland in the last round. A lot of them probably bought tickets early, hoping their country would make the final, but instead they played off against Norway for third place yesterday, winning by 30 points. It probably explained why the Japanese were smiling so much; they hadn't had a team make it past the first round for the last thirty years, so to get third place was a massive improvement.
Soon after that they found themselves in a sea of red and black, and all the tents seemed to have a picture of one guy staring intensely out of the photo: Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker. Harry realised that they had put the general visitors between the Irish and the Bulgarians to create a buffer, probably in an attempt to keep both sets of fans as civil as possible. They decided at that point to loop back around to their tent. There was apparently some entertainment later in the evening but until then there wasn't much to do. Luckily the tent came fully stocked with chess boards, cards, and board games. Harry's mother had even added a few mundane board games when she and James had borrowed the tent, so there was also a copy of Monopoly.
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The entertainment turned out to be hundreds of stalls and carts popping into the campsite. Some were just businesses selling trinkets and foods from around the world, but a lot of the stalls had the Krum poster that the Bulgarians all had hanging on their tents and were also selling the green shamrocks that the Irish were decorating their tents with. There were also figurines of the players, hats, scarfs, jerseys, basically if you could slap a team logo on it they were selling it. Harry even caught Hermione looking interested in a set of Irish-themed witches underwear set, though she blushed and refused to look at Harry for ten minutes when she noticed that he had caught what she was looking at.
The twins were doing everything they could think of to make the rest of them laugh and have a good time, though it was obvious why. Sirius had even pulled Harry aside and congratulated him on the prank, but insisted he had to be there when the twins were told he was Padfoot, just so he could see the look on their faces. Hermione found a Japanese food stall that was selling sushi bento boxes and she got one each for herself and Harry. She offered Ron the same, but he refused to even consider the sushi when he saw that it included raw fish, opting instead for a yakitori bento. Harry was surprised to find he enjoyed the sushi, but he did find the texture of the raw fish weird.
Some of the stalls were also games, and one attracted Harry's attention. From America, it was called the jinxed broom, and it obviously took its inspiration from American mechanical bulls. The idea was for every minute you could stay mounted on the broom without touching the floor you earn a point, and then you could cash in your points for a prize. It was a galleon per try, and you could accumulate points over multiple tries If you wanted to spend all your money. Harry remembered his first ever Quidditch game and he was sure he could handle it.
After checking with Sirius and Charlus to see if it was okay, Harry joined the line of other teenage boys all eager to try their luck on the game. A few of them did rather well, but only one lasted more than three minutes. On his turn Harry paid the guy running the stall his galleon and mounted the broom. The broom instantly started to fly around the roughly fifteen foot by fifteen foot by fifteen foot area that was covered in charms to prevent injury. The broom bucked, spun around making Harry corkscrew, and made almost impossible turns, yet Harry kept his grip. Harry could hear Hermione and the Weasleys on the side line clearing him on
"Go on Harry."
"You got this."
"Just like your first Quidditch match."
One thing Harry hadn't counted on was that he had no idea how long he had been on the broom. While watching from the sidelines there was a large clock everyone could see, and the guy running the game would announce after every thirty seconds. On the broom however, he wasn't able to look in one direction long enough to see the clock, and the announcer was all too easy to lose track of. So all Harry could do was hold on for the ride for as long as he could. Eventually, he finally lost his grip during a particularly wild maneuver that involved the broom shooting up then doing two successive one-eighties right after one another, and before Harry could adjust his grip he was thrown down onto the cushioning charms below him.
"Absolutely incredible folks, this young man just lasted for six minutes and 47 seconds. It's proof of what I have been saying, folks, this is a game of skill that is completely doable." The guy running the game announced as he walked over to Harry and gave him a hand to get back to his feet. "Might I have your name, young sir?" The man asked, his American accent quite thick. Harry gave the man his first name only to find that the man had hit him with a silent voice-amplifying charm.
Harry could hear a few whispers of "It's Harry Potter!" from the crowd but thankfully a lot of the people watching were foreign and had not heard of his name, or if they had it was not important enough for them to remember. "Well Harry, you have managed to build up six points in only a single round which means you get to choose any prize you like. What do you want?" The showman asked him.
Harry thought for a second, then called Hermione over and had her pick the prize for herself. Hermione gave Harry a kiss before choosing a large fluffy stuffed dragon in red and gold. The guy had obviously done a little research on magical Britain, because all four of the Hogwarts house colour schemes were available. The dragon came with a little clip that the owner carried, and the dragon would hover along about half a foot off the floor lazily and uselessly flapping its wings as it followed the clip. It also boasted an illusionary fire breath and warming cuddle function, and it was the same size as a small Labrador. Hermione called it Sparky, and when she hugged it she commented that it was like it had just come out of the dryer.
Unfortunately, the guy running the stall was nice about it, but basically banned Harry from trying again. He explained that the cost of the prize Harry earned was more than what Harry paid to enter. Most people needed to try three or four times to win six points, and this was after all his business. Harry was disappointed but understood where the man was coming from.
They explored the other stalls and played a few more games, but no more wins as spectacular as Harry's bucking broom ride. Towards the end of the evening, once it got dark, there was a wizarding fireworks display. Harry wasn't sure what they did to keep the muggles from seeing it but they must have done something, because there was no way watching a lion made up of red firework sparkles and a leprechaun made of green firework sparkles do battle for ten minutes wouldn't have had every muggle for miles coming to see what was going on. The two combatants remained in a deadlock the whole time with neither side winning. The point was to get everyone excited for the match the following evening, not to stir up trouble from one side of the other. After that was over, they all went back to the tent for some hot chocolate before going to bed.
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The next day started rather lazy. There was no entertainment in the day and everyone knew they would be up late watching the game, so they decided to sleep in till around lunchtime. Only then did they have to get up, because everyone was getting hungry and the rest of the Weasleys were due to join them soon. Charlus and Sirius took over the kitchen, and after three quarters of an hour everyone was happily eating.
About half way through their lunch there was a call from outside the tent and Ginny ran out to find her dad and three oldest brothers. While everyone else was greeting the four, the twins slipped back into the bedrooms and made Harry, Ron and Hermione's beds, leaving a card on each pillow so that they would know who was responsible, an obvious attempt to butter them up to get the identity of the Marauders from them.
They spent the afternoon mostly just anticipating the start of the match, as there was little to do otherwise. Harry and Hermione showed Mr. Weasley how to play Monopoly, but despite being eager to learn the wizard just wasn't very good at it. He often got the different bits of money confused, which was a feat in itself because the notes all had their number printed on them in large font right in the middle. Harry and Hermione did end up sneaking off for a walk in the woods alone, they told everyone it was a walking date but in truth it was little more than a snogging session once they were sure enough they were far enough away not to be disturbed.
Finally it started to get dark and a bunch of torches lit up, showing everyone the way to the stadium. The sides of the path filled with vendors selling to the people as they walked past as they made their way to the stadium Harry saw a stand selling omnioculars and got a set each for Hermione, Ron and himself. They were ten galleons each, but as they would also automatically record the whole game and let you watch it back again and again, Harry thought they were a good price.
The crowds thinned as they climbed higher and higher in the stands until they reached the top box. Cornelius Fudge, the British Minister of Magic, was already there along with two people who appeared to be the Irish and Bulgarian ministers. Other seats in the box were already filled with people that looked influential. Harry recognised a few members of the Wizengamot from Sirius's trial, including unfortunately the Malfoys. There were also witches and wizards he had no clue about but assumed they were either the owners of big companies who had sponsored the cup that Harry didn't know, or were important people from Ireland and Bulgaria.
Once Fudge saw Harry he pulled him into a conversation he was having with the two foreign ministers. "Ah, and here we have Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." The Irish minister's eyes went wide and she shook Harry's hand. The Dark Lord had led more than a few raids into Ireland, refusing to see it as a separate country. The Bulgarian minister, it appeared, did not speak English and he only realised who Harry was after Fudge kept pointing at Harry's forehead, but once he understood who Harry was he also eagerly shook Harry's hand.
Harry was rescued a few minutes later by his grandfather. "Minister, I need to get Harry seated, so I'll be taking him now," and started to turn Harry away from the group. However, as he did, he leaned in and whispered something to Fudge, and Harry almost wished he hadn't heard it. "If you pull my heir into another publicity stunt like that without both his and my permission, I will drag you before the Wizengamot where I will gut you. Clear?" The colour drawing from Fudge's face was all the answer Grandfather Charlus seemed to need, and neither the Irish nor Bulgarian minister showed any sign of having heard what was whispered.
Harry was shown to his seat and he sank down into it next to Hermione, ready to watch the match. The leprechauns' display was interesting, but Harry only picked up one coin to look at it when they were told by Sirius that the gold was fake and would vanish in a few hours. Harry honestly couldn't tell the difference between the leprechaun gold and a real galleon he pulled from his pocket. The veela annoyed Harry, for some reason they barely affected him at all and he and Hermione had to tackle Sirius to keep him from jumping from the top box to go meet them. Years in Azkaban had destroyed all of Sirius's mental shields. Grandfather Charlus just looked sad as he sat in his chair, staring off at nothing while he idly stroked the wedding ring he still wore.
Soon, though, all that was forgotten as Ludo Bagman, the Head of the Department for Magical Sports and former beater for the Wimbourne Wasps, stood up, and after a quick voice amplifying charm opened the match. "Witches and wizards, we are here for the final of the 1994 Quidditch World Cup!" A cheer rose up from the crowd. It was time for Quidditch.