~~PART ONE- READING THE SIGNS~~

~Chapter 1- The Campsite~

The sun beat down on a Muggle campsite in the woods where I was working hard to pitch a tent Muggle-style. It was far more difficult than it appeared, and I was tempted to draw my wand and magically pitch it when no one was looking, though it was too risky with so many Muggles about. Finally, after an unnecessary amount of time and frustration, I managed.

I walked inside and saw that the tent was influenced by magic. It was expanded to have a bathroom and kitchen area along with four bunk beds. Happy that I wouldn’t be sleeping in a bag on the hard ground, I flopped down on a lower bunk and stared at the wooden boards of the bed above me. My stomach growled, making me realize how truly hungry I was. The Quidditch world cup was only a few hours away, and I couldn’t go on an empty stomach.

The flap of the tent opened and my cousin came in. After taking in the obviously unforeseen surroundings, she noticed me on the bed.

“Lyra, are you coming to help us start the fire?” she asked.

“Nobody told me we were starting the fire,” I replied plainly, though not rudely. “And since we’re out in public, you should call me Lindsey. Identity purposes, remember?”

“All right then, Lindsey. So, what do you think of this hairstyle? I decided to try for blue. Red was getting a little old.”

I looked at her extraordinarily bright blue hair, which was in a low ponytail with pieces of bangs falling out of it.

“I think it looks fine,” I said indifferently.

“I don’t,” she said as she approached the mirror in our tent. She screwed up her eyes really tight, and a second later her hair turned an aqua-green color, just as unnatural as the blue had been (along with every color she made her hair for that matter).

“How’s that?”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t make a difference to me.”

“Well, it wouldn’t. You’re stuck with brown hair and brown eyes for your life. Why don’t I just…you know…change it up a bit.” She approached me with her wand and pointed it at my head. “What would you like? Black with green streaks?”

“Dora! I know you’re a Metamorphmagus, but you don’t have to rub it in my face!”

She laughed. “Okay, okay. Brown hair works.”

“Thank you,” I muttered as I stood up from the bed. “All right, what about that fire?”

I followed her out of the tent to where my aunt and uncle were sitting by a fire pit. They appeared to be preparing food. As soon as we walked out, my aunt approached us and exclaimed, “Oh, perfect! Will you two go to the tap and get some water? It’s time to cook dinner.”

She was Andromeda Tonks, my mother’s sister, my aunt, and my guardian. She was a wide-eyed woman with brown hair like me, though hers was lighter. This was an advantage when it came to hiding my identity. Nobody ever doubted that Andromeda was my mother (ironically, I looked more like her than Dora did, even though Dora was her own daughter—yet, I knew this was because Dora had changed her hair and facial features with her Metamorphosing).

“Yes, we’ll get some water,” Dora said in answer to Andromeda’s request. “I’m starving! Let’s go.”

“Make it fast,” said the man in front of the fire pit. “I’m so hungry I could eat a centaur!”

Dora rolled her eyes; I groaned. Typical Ted. Needless to say, Ted Tonks was my uncle: Muggle-born, a rather large man with a jolly attitude, quite a slob (the exact opposite of his wife), and the cause of Andromeda’s family disownment. Though he had proven to be a great guardian over the years, many people looked uncertain when I claimed he was my father. I didn’t look like him at all, and the only false explanation I could come up with was that I had inherited all of Andromeda’s genetics.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Dora said, acknowledging Ted’s joke about the centaur. “Come on, Lindsey.” She motioned for me to follow her.

“Keep an eye on her, Nymphadora,” Andromeda said.

“Yes, I will.”

I felt a tiny pang of irritation. It seemed that everyone always thought I needed to be looked after like some small, helpless child. Just because I had to hide my identity from the world didn’t mean I had to be protected at every moment—I was fourteen, plenty old enough to know not to talk to strangers or wander into unfamiliar places. But there was no point in saying anything, so I trailed behind Dora as she left our tent area.

We set off through the campsite, following the map Andromeda gave us. Almost everything here was decorated in green for Ireland and red for Bulgaria, the two teams playing in the match, but other tents had decorations according to their respective country.

“Festive, isn’t it?” Dora asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Now, where’s that tap?”

“That way,” I said, pointing across the field.
“That’s perfect. Whoa!” She had just tripped over a toy broomstick on the ground. A little witch, no older than three, came walking forward to retrieve it, giving Dora a nasty look before snatching the broom up and returning to her tent.

“Nice going, Nymphadora,” I mocked.

“Don’t call me Nymphadora,” she snapped. “My mother’s the only one who calls me that and—”

“Look out,” I warned.

“Augh!” she said, jumping over a tree stump at the last moment.

“You should really watch where you’re going,” I said.

“Sorry. It’s not my fault I’m so clumsy.”

That was Dora, the clumsy witch who had miraculously managed to become an Auror for the Ministry of Magic after being out of Hogwarts for just four years. The way she could change her appearance at will greatly helped her in this office, but she always walked with two left feet, an obvious disadvantage. Her transformation powers almost made up for this, though. I had a strong envy of her—I would give a lot to be able to change the way I looked, because people often stared at me in public and I knew they were thinking of Bellatrix. I looked too much like her with my pale skin, brown eyes, and dark hair.

It was soon after the Dark Lord Voldemort’s downfall that Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange were sent to Azkaban, and nobody would tell me why. All I knew was that Bellatrix screamed as they dragged her away, yelling, “No! I have a daughter who needs me! Lyra needs me! Don’t send me to Azkaban; I need to look after her!”

The Ministry assumed she was making it up as an excuse to get out of being arrested, but they searched their records and found out that the Lestranges did in fact have a daughter. They said the words Bellatrix screamed as she was shut in her Azkaban cell were, “Fine! Send her to Narcissa! Send her there, not to my blood traitor sister! Send her to Narcissa!”

Of course Narcissa Malfoy, her younger sister, wouldn’t take me, so I was sent to Andromeda. The Ministry wanted to keep me a secret from the world, so I was given a false name and took the last name of my aunt and uncle: Tonks. I was recorded as being their daughter rather than their niece, and to the world I was known as Lindsey Tonks, not Lyra Lestrange.

That was how my life had always been, even during the summer after my third year at Hogwarts, at the Quidditch World Cup campsite.

“Look up ahead,” Dora told me.

“What?” I snapped out of my trance. My parents’ arrest was something that had played through my head so many times to the point that I felt like I had witnessed it myself. I remembered where I was after a blurry second in which I had to tell myself to put that scene out of my mind.

“This must be where the Irish are camping,” Dora remarked, pointing ahead to an ocean of bright green where the tents were emerald waves decorated in shamrocks. To my surprise, I heard someone call my name.

“Hey, Lindsey!”

I spun on the spot to the source of the sound and saw Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor boy in the same Hogwarts year as me. He was completely dressed in green for Ireland. He stood next to his best friend, Dean Thomas, also in my year and house.

“Hi, Seamus. Hi, Dean.”

“Seamus, who’s this?” a woman asked as she approached. She had the same sandy-brown hair as Seamus—she had to be his mother.

“This is Lindsey Tonks. She goes to Hogwarts with Dean and me,” Seamus explained. “But I’m not sure who this is.”

“This is my sister, Nymph—” I began, but Dora cut me off.
“I’m Tonks, just Tonks. I prefer to go by my surname only.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mrs. Finnigan said. “You will be supporting Ireland, right?”

“Yes,” Dora confirmed. “Nice decorations.”

“Thanks,” Seamus said. “The Ministry doesn’t like them, but it’s better than what the Bulgarians have on their tents.”

“Which is what?” Dora asked.

“Why don’t you go see?” Seamus suggested with a hint of disgust. “You’ll see how pathetic they are.”

“We will,” Dora said. “We have to pass through their area to get to the tap anyway. Well, we’ll see you around; we need to get some water.”

We walked on and found that the green ended. The tents we saw now were covered in Bulgarian flags and…giant posters of Viktor Krum, the famous Bulgarian Seeker. Though I had never seen him, there was no mistaking the young man that Bulgarian Quidditch fans practically worshiped. It wasn’t just Bulgaria, actually—he was world-famous, and one of his fans was standing right next to me.

“Is that Krum?” I asked Dora.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I can’t believe we’re actually seeing him for real tonight! You know, he’s about the same age as I am, give or take a few years.”

“Dora, there’s the tap,” I said to her, but her eyes were full of a dreamy expression. “Dora! Stop dreaming about Krum; I found the tap!” I kicked her in the ankle and her mesmerized look instantly vanished.

“Ouch!”

“Well, that’s what you get! You’ll see him at the match tonight, but right now we need water! I’m starving!”

“Okay! But honestly…” she said as we walked toward the queue for the tap. “What do you think of him?”

“I don’t think he’s very handsome,” I said flatly. “His eyebrows are all thick, did you see? And all the posters did were blink and frown. Really, he looks like he’s always grumpy. He’s just a Quidditch player, after all.”

This was the wrong thing to say, because Dora faced me and said, “Just a Quidditch player? Viktor Krum is a legend!”

Obviously she wasn’t the only one who felt this way, because the girls in line behind us were glaring at me. I rolled my eyes at them and moved up in line.

Once we got our water, we traipsed back to the tent. On the way I saw more fellow Hogwarts students including Oliver Wood, the former Gryffindor Quidditch captain; Cedric Diggory, an older Hufflepuff student who was also a Seeker for his Hogwarts Quidditch team; Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw girl who was sitting with her father and eating what looked like miniature purple pumpkins on sticks which gave off a foul odor; and the Weasley children—Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, and their friends Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. They were with a man who was unmistakably Mr. Weasley, a balding wizard with red hair and glasses.

Mr. Weasley spotted Dora and Ron, Harry, and Hermione spotted me—we were also in the same year and house. Dora and I walked over to them.

“Nymphadora!” Mr. Weasley said. “I didn’t expect to see you out here! How’s it going in the Auror office?”

“Fine, thanks,” Dora replied.

“I brought the kids out here for the match, of course. This is my oldest son, Bill, and this is Charlie—I believe you went to school with them? And this is Percy—”

Percy Weasley stood up straight and pompously shook Dora’s hand, saying, “Pleased to meet you, Auror Tonks.”

“He’s just started working for the Ministry,” Mr. Weasley went on. And this is Fred—no, sorry, this is George, that’s Fred.”

Two twin boys waved in unison and held out their hands to shake, but Mr. Weasley said, “Now, boys, don’t give her any fake wands! She’s an Auror!”

George scowled at his father and muttered, “I can’t believe you don’t trust us,” but I swore I saw him stuff something into his robe pocket.

“And this is Ron, my youngest son; Ginny, my daughter; their friend Hermione Granger; and Harry Potter.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dora said as she shook their hands. I saw her eyes move to the infamous lightning-bolt scar on Harry’s forehead.

“I’m Nymphadora Tonks, but you can just call me Tonks,” she told them quickly. “And this is my sister, Lindsey.”

“I’ve met most of them. We go to school together, remember?” I said as I exchanged smiles with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

“Oh, that’s right! You said you were in the same house as Harry Potter! Sorry, I may be an Auror but I’m still extremely clumsy and forgetful…”

“She tripped over a toy broomstick earlier,” I told them. “And she almost tripped over a tree stump.”

“Anyway,” Dora said with an obvious edge in her voice that told me to shut my mouth, “Lindsey, we need to get back. Mum and Dad are waiting.”

She began to rush me away.

“See you at school,” I said to them quickly. “Or at the match, if you’re sitting near us.”

“We’re in the Top Box!” Percy Weasley boasted. “Dad got tickets at the Ministry! He works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, and I just started working in the Department of International Magical Cooperation! It’s great working there! I really think that I can…”

But whatever Percy could do, I never found out, nor did I really care. Dora muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like, “Pompous idiot.”

“Ron complains about him,” I told her. “I never really knew Percy, but when he was in the common room doing homework, he always told people off for talking to him. He’s obviously dedicated, but he is really self-centered. But the twins are funny, they’re always making jokes. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, Dora. Who says we need Top Box seats anyway?”

We finally made it back to our tent where Ted had started a fire. I placed the bucket of water on the ground and sat next to Dora on a log that had been dragged over as a seat. Andromeda scolded us for being late.

“Sorry,” I said. “But we met some people along the way and stopped to talk.”

We cooked some sausages and vegetables over the fire and ate them in the twilight. When we finished, Dora said, “Lindsey, we should buy some souvenirs.”

“Okay!” I said brightly. “Is it okay if we go?” I added, turning hopefully to Ted and Andromeda.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind if you stayed behind and helped me clean up,” Andromeda said. “But I suppose that’s okay.”

“Come on Mum, you know I’m terrible at cleaning spells anyway,” Dora said. She turned to me. “Well, let’s get our money!”

We went inside the tent. I grabbed my purse which had a fair amount of wizard money in it. Dora grabbed her bag and headed out with me.

“Hold on…” she said as she stopped in front of the mirror. She screwed up her eyes and turned her hair green. Then she concentrated again and her eyes, which had been blue before, now blinked with emerald irises.

“How’s that?” she asked me as she turned around and tucked her bangs behind her ears.

“Why don’t you just turn yourself into a leprechaun?” I joked.

She gave me a nasty look and strolled out.

“Dora, I was joking!” I called as I ran out of the tent after her. “I didn’t mean to offend you!”

“I know you didn’t,” she said, smiling. “Now, souvenirs!”
We approached the salesman selling all sorts of hats, pins, scarves, and flags for Ireland and Bulgaria, figurines of the players (the Krum models seemed to be the most popular), and Omnioculars, which allowed things like watching the game in slow motion or zooming in close. I bought a pair of Omnioculars as well as a green Irish hat with a shamrock on it. Dora bought the same hat (which, as she pointed out, went perfectly with her hair), an Irish scarf, and Omnioculars too.

Suddenly a loud gong sounded from somewhere in the woods and a path of green and red lanterns lit up and glittered along a path. Andromeda and Ted hurried over to us.

“It’s time to go!” Ted exclaimed. “Follow that path!”

We walked along the trail of lights toward the stadium, and as we did so I was filled with anticipation at the thought of seeing the legendary Quidditch World Cup.