After the forced forfeit to Brazil, the United Kingdom team had no room for any more losses. During the first round of the round-robin, the winners of the previous groupings were victorious against the second place countries. After round one: Brazil, China, and Egypt all had one victory with no defeats.

Four days after they lost to Brazil, the UK team would be facing the winner of Group C: China. On the same day, Russia would be playing Mexico on Pitch Number Two, about a mile away.

The players sat in the study area waiting for the coaches. Devon and Mrs. Potter left their office and walked in front of the white board. Devon turned toward Rose and Kaitlin. â€�“I assume that you two did not do any late night gardening.”

Kaitlin returned the coach’s question with a flat stare. Rose dropped her head onto her chest shaking her head. Devon next turned to James and Scorpius and both boys shook their heads in the negative.

â€�“Well now, we have a match with China. Now China is considered, by some, to be the weakest of the Group winners. You see, Group C ended up in a three-way tie with all of them losing two matches. China was declared the winner because they beat the other two teams that they were tied with, which means they lost their two matches to teams that lost four games. I’ve seen them fly; you can blow them out of the sky. The Keeper, Zeng Jian, is a blocker not a catcher. Chasers, if your teammate is attacking the goal, I want all of you to be in position to catch the deflections and score quickly.” Scorpius saw Kaitlin smile and rub her hands together like she was preparing for a feast.

â€�“Rhys, Zhu Peng, their Seeker is a good flier, but he does seem to follow the other’s Seeker and hopes jump in to steal the Snitch after the other has done all of the work. Don’t give him a chance, understand.” Rhys nodded.

â€�“Now their Chasers are a close knit, cautious side. They remind me a lot of the old Chudney Cannons. Rose, they will feint attacks and pull back. Feint and pull back. You must be patient. Let Geoffrey and Scorpius come to your rescue.” Rose shifted in her seat from the image of being rescued by the boys. â€�“Beaters, you must blast the off Chasers with the Bludgers. Chasers, when the Beaters are taking affect you must attack. We will start out in the Double Harris zone. However, if we get a lead, I want the world’s most intense Whirlwind ever played.”

Mrs. Potter turned toward the girls, â€�“Kaitlin, your parents will be in the stands this afternoon to see you play. By the way, they know about the forfeit and the flowers.”

For the first time since last year’s championship game against her cousin, Kaitlin looked unsure of herself. She just nodded and swallowed. Devon moved into the middle and extended his hand. The teams surrounded their coach and placed their hands on his. They all turned toward Mrs. Potter.

She smiled and waited like she relished the power she now had over them. â€�“On three, ‘Rule Britannia’.”

â€�“One…Two…Three. Rule Britannia!”

The team broke up and walked out toward the cafeteria. Scorpius walked out with Geoffrey and James not waiting for the Rose, as was his usual. Scorpius was half way through the serving line before he noticed that he had no food on his tray. He apologized to the other guys and went to the beginning of line. As he was about to restart the food line, he saw not five feet away at the stack of trays, Denis Federov and Rose chatting. He watched as Rose laughed at something the jerk said and she flipped her hair off of her left ear. The boy reached over and touched her on the hand. A week ago, he would have punched the jerk. Now, he just turned crestfallen towards the food line.

As he sat down, the coaches arrived with Lily. Mrs. Potter scanned those seated in front of her. â€�“Scorpius, where’s Rose?”

Bile rose into his throat and he said â€�“Probably sitting at the Russian table with her BOYFRIEND Denis!”

Everyone including Kaitlin turned to face him. The attention was too much for him. â€�“I’m not hungry.” He stood and he walked out of the cafeteria.”

Scorpius left the cafeteria and went to the changing room and donned his tunic. He sat there looking across at the tunic with the name Weasley on it. He closed his eyes and twice slammed the back of his head against his pine wood locker door. For the first time since he found Rose’s body in the Forbidden Forest and feared she was dead, he began to cry. The cry was not a weepy thing, tears just seem to swell until his eyes could not hold them and they rolled down his cheeks. He closed his eyes and thought about sending a message home to have his parents come and get him. He also saw the looks from his parents that would greet him. He knew he could not call them.

After a bit, he opened his eyes and found Albus sitting in front of his locker eating half a sausage sandwich. Reflexively, he wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his uniform. â€�“What are you doing here?”

â€�“I came to find you. I was afraid you might do something. You might walk off into the woods or trash the Russian camp and if you did that we’d be disqualified and you’d never survive what Kitty Kit would do to you.”

It was an attempt at a joke. A lame attempt, but he appreciated it. It was what Jimber would have done. â€�“Probably not.” He attempted to smile; it probably didn’t look a smile.

The door opened and the boys turned toward the nearing footfalls. Striding into the changing room stepped Mrs. Potter carrying a tray with three plates of food, a tea mug and two cups of milk. She handed Albus the largest plate, kissed him on the forehead and whispered something into his ear. Albus took the plate and milk. He turned and left the changing room to his mother and Scorpius. Mrs. Potter walked the tray over to the long bench on which Scorpius sat at the far end of. She placed the food on the bench in the middle, took the tea cup in her hands and sat at the far end so she was not looking at him but Rose’s locker. She took a sip.

â€�“It’ll mend. You probably don’t believe me, but it will…mend.”

Confused by her comment, Scorpius replied, â€�“What will mend?”

â€�“Your heart. You won’t believe the times I cried in the dark because I couldn’t seem to get him to see how much I really loved him.” Mrs. Weasley reached over and took a slice of buttered toast from a stack and began to nibble.

â€�“Who?”

â€�“My husband, of course. When I was young, I practically threw myself at him every time I saw him. I did everything short of tripping on the stairway to get him to notice his best friend’s ugly little sister.”

â€�“You’re not ugly,” he offered feeling weird about talking to Rose’s Aunt about feelings and stuff. The wafting fragrance of the cooked sausage caused his mouth to water.

â€�“Where were you when I was twelve?” she laughed quietly. â€�“Scorpius, Rose is thirteen and she is physically and emotionally changing from a girl towards becoming a woman. She is feeling things so new and intense that she has never felt before. Worlds are opening up to her and she isn’t certain what is what.”

â€�“That makes no sense.”

â€�“Right, that’s why people, like my parents, called them growing pains. It will happen to you, I mean look at Kaitlin and James. They can’t be with each other and they can’t be without each other. See how they each go out of the way to pick a fight. It was the same with Rose’s parents at their age.” Mrs. Potter took another sip of tea and turned astride the bench facing him. â€�“Scorpius, I’ll give you the same good advice Rose’s mother gave me at your age. Be the best yourself you can be, and if you two are meant to be, it will be.”

â€�“So, I should just wait and hope? I don’t wait well.”

â€�“The parent in me says be patient and maybe even talk to another girl or two. You might meet someone better for you, or at least make Rose jealous. The coach in me says take your anger and whack every Bludger you see at an opponent like it had Denis Federov’s face on it.” She smiled

Scorpius looked up at the woman, what she said about waiting was dung but the sausages were inviting. He reached out and took a slice of toast and a sausage. He made a sandwich and began to ponder her advice as he chewed. He saw a bat cracking Federov in the chin and smiled. Not all of what she had said was dung.

The whistles blew and Yu Lin captured the Quaffle and set up the triangle attack the coaches had told them about. Lin held the ball at the ready as Chen took up a position even with his. Suddendly from behind and between, Li Tao rushed at the goal. Lin started to pass to Li, but Albus moved in front. With no opening, he faked a toss to the charging player. Li quickly turned and flew back to his original position. As Li was flying Lin and Chen would fly towards each other and Lin faked handing the Quaffle to Chen. After assuming a new position, Li flew at the hoops and the whole play would start again. The Chinese offense seemed to be designed to lull the defense into a stupor, while their Seeker searched the skies.

That was the Chinese plan, but they’d never played a pissed off team with nothing to lose, like the Brits. On the second crossing of the Chasers, Scorpius hit both Lin and Chen with the same Bludger strike. The Quaffle fell and Kaitlin grabbed the ball. The Potter brothers rode a second behind and one on both sides of Kaitlin. She attacked the middle hoop. Kitty Kat fired the ball toward the left side of the center hoop. The ball bounced off Zeng’s hands toward James. He caught the Quaffle in his left hand and in one motion whipped it through the right hoop.

The match lasted an hour and ten minutes. Rhys, using his no-hands head on broomstick flying position, left Zhu in the dust leading to an early capture giving the United Kingdom a two hundred fifty to thirty beat down of the Chinese.

Meanwhile, across the institute, Russia beat Bulgaria by forty. After two games, Brazil and Egypt were both still undefeated and the UK and China were tied with one loss.

After the game, Kaitlin’s parents threw a banquet for the whole team. Scorpius declined claiming he had pulled a chest muscle on a Bludger strike. He ate alone at a long table by the wall until two girls wearing blue spangled outfits sat down at the other end of his table. They talked and giggled. He looked up and noticed the brunette girl was smiling at him. He smiled back. She and her friend took their trays to join some guys dressed in the same outfits. As they went by him, the brunette stopped and said, â€�“Hello, I’m Grace Jackson from Salem, Oregon. I saw you play today. I hope you don’t hit me like that if we were to play in the finals.”

â€�“No promises.” He paused at a total loss for anything else to say, she looked over at her friend. Disappointed? He had to say something to her. He blurted the first thing that came to him, â€�“I’m Scorpius Malfoy from London, England.”

â€�“Oh, I know who you are.” Giggles burst forth from both girls. â€�“I’ve got to get to a meeting. You know, Scorpius, we play against Italy tomorrow. It would be nice to have a friendly face in the crowd rooting for me.” She reached over and touched his shoulder. He watched her walk all the way to her table. Scorpius, somewhat in a daze, placed his tray back for cleaning and on his way out of the cafeteria he stopped at the map of the United States and searched for Salem, Oregon on it.

The third game on the schedule was against the undefeated Egyptians. As the team was ready to leave for breakfast, a knock on the door occurred and Lily partially opened the door and immediately shut it.

â€�“It’s the guy in the leather jacket. You know the ugly, mean man.”

â€�“Lily, he can hear you through the door! Let him in,” shouted her mother.

Lily re-opened the door and the man with the black jacket entered. Through the door Scorpius, could see that a Chinese man waited outside. Scorpius’ eyes followed the tall man as he entered the study area, he was not angry. However there was an all-business air about him.

â€�“I need the coaches to accompany me to the Headquarters. I hope to have you back in a half an hour.”

Coach Devon was not happy. â€�“What’s this about? We are going through pre-game preparations for our match against the Egyptians.”

â€�“We will be collecting all of the coaches for this meeting.”

Mrs. Potter, looking at her sons, asked, â€�“Can we dismiss our team to the cafeteria?”

â€�“No,” the man’s answer came out a bit strong. â€�“All players must stay inside until the meeting is over.”

Devon and Mrs. Potter met eyes. Scorpius instinctively found Rose, who was looking back at him. For a whole two seconds, he forgot how mad he was at her. When he remembered he turned his gaze toward Albus. Albus had been looking at the two of them watching each other.

After the coaches left with the security man, the gossiping began in their wake.

Geoffrey announced to the group. â€�“I sleep by the wall and I had the window open for some fresh air. I woke up thinking that a lightning storm was happening. I saw flashes and heard whooshing sounds.”

Lily interrupted Geoffrey, â€�“Something woke me up for a second, but I just rolled over.”

Albus looked at Scorpius and silently mouthed, â€�“Wand battle?”

Scorpius shrugged and the two boys looked at Rose. She caught Scorpius’ eye for a second and turned toward her cousin. She nodded in agreement. If they were right, the only question was who had been part of the fight and where it had occurred.

James had the last word, â€�“At least my mum and Kitty-Kat can’t blame this on me.”

Kaitlin had a smile that said â€�“Just give me time…”

The coaches hadn’t been together as a group since the opening bonfire. Baum looked at the group around, took a deep breath, and nodded toward his assistant. The man in the back leather coat returned his nod.

â€�“Last night at approximately two twenty in the morning, local time, one of our security detail found a trail of fresh footprints coming from the surrounding woods toward the ACE camp. He notified the supervising agent and followed the trail. My assistant ordered a second agent to help the first agent. The first agent saw the person he was tracking was trailing a third party. Just outside of the Egyptian compound, the two intruders began a battle. When my agent arrived, they both turned on him and he was wounded. Sometime after my second agent arrived, the two both attacked and wounded him and then disappeared. It looks like they both Disapparatted.

We have strengthened the spells to not allow any such exiting of the facility. I did procure from my man the following memories. The NAMED agent waved his wand a giant Pensieve appeared on the desk. The memories were poured into the wispy waters and after a wand was waived a dark image appeared. Two men, one was a Caucasian wearing brown/green Muggle military style jacket and the second a darker skinned man in a green robe, fired their wands, jumped and dove in the throes of major combat. Ginny, from personal experience, saw that these two were mid-level Auror training or better. She noticed something odd on the collar of the green robed man and focused in closer.

The agent noticed her movement, â€�“A problem, ma’am.”

Ginny raised her hand out and concentrated on the green collar. In the red flash of a spell she got a good look. She summoned a sheet of paper and pencil from the desk. As she continued to follow the green robed man, she drew what the jewelry on the collar looked like. The man in the military style camouflage took a hit from a NAMED agent. He tore his fatigues and made a bandage out of it. The man’s undershirt revealed another symbol. However, she choose to ignore this good symbol.

When the memory was complete, the other coaches talked amongst themselves. Ginny heard phrases about cancellation and departing home. However, the leather coated man just silently waited for her. Ginny looked him in the eye and said, â€�“The man in all green had this symbol on his right lapel.”

She lifted the paper toward the agent, but angled so all could see. The scribbled image on the paper showed a circle with a knife blade in it. The knife handle turned into a stick or a wand like object.

â€�“We noticed, thanks.”

â€�“Yes, but have you ever seen it? I did once on a criminal that my husband’s men brought in.”

â€�“Is your husband a private security wizard or something?” The man’s voice had just enough condescension to sting Ginny’s pride.

â€�“No, my husband is the Head of the Auror Office of the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Magic. I expect your boss or his boss has had contact with him.”

â€�“Aurors, huh?! I’ve heard they’re pretty good at what they do.”

Devon hooked Ginny’s arm in middle of a step towards the man she didn’t remember starting to take. Devon continued, â€�“I think what Mrs. Potter is saying that perhaps if you contact her husband’s office, they could aid in your investigation.”

Ginny heard Andropov stage a too loud to miss whisper to his assistant. â€�“Of course, England is the cause. If they had only listened-”

The Egyptian assistant coach turned to Baum, â€�“I think that Coach Andropov may have a point. If these interlopers had not been intercepted by your security, who knows what damage they might have done to our players. I must protest this upcoming game.”

Now, it was Ginny holding back an angry Devon.

The soft voice of a familiar willowy dusky skinned woman spoke up. â€�“Mr. Baum, as the head of the Egyptian team, I withdraw the protest. I’ve know Coaches Devon and Potter since their World Cup days. While the intruder may or may not be English, I know he was not acting on the coaches’ behest. And if there is no other news, I’ve got a team to get ready for a tough match.”

Baum seemed relieved by the graciousness of the Egyptian woman, â€�“Thank you, Coach Mounir. I am calling a delay in the start of all of today’s games to one o’clock local. Mrs. Potter, we will notify your International Sports Department to get the information from your husband.” Baum reached over to snatch the paper.

The Brits and Andropov were the last three left in Baum’s office. He glared at the pair and threw his hand up in frustration. When the Russian was out of earshot, she grabbed Bobby.

â€�“We need to get a message to Britain now. It’ll take at least a week for the Ministry’s bureaucracy to get back to us and I also need to contact Hoyle Grindus.”

Kaitlin was yelling as usual at James. However, it was not the usual just yelling at him for no reason, she had seen her Aunt Gwenog seated in the VIP area of the stands and was pointing her out to him. Scorpius didn’t care about retired players; he was searching to where he had been promised someone would be. He smiled as he saw a certain brunette sitting exactly where she said she’d be. She waved.

â€�“Who put a spring in your trainers?” asked Geoffrey following his gaze into the stands.

Scorpius made no attempt to answer him, nor did he try to hide his pleasure. He saw Rose was looking toward the far end of the pitch in the stands. As Rose stood on tippy-toes the lines of players passed each other. As the players shook hands, Scorpius eyed each one remembering Devon’s scouting report. The thin, brown haired girl shook his hand with a firm yet feminine grip. He was surprised by the length of her fingers. He could hear Coach Potter’s voice saying, â€�“Georgette-Salma Mounir is the adopted daughter of their coach. She’s the second best Keeper left in the tournament. Great hands, but has trouble making a strong release pass to her Chasers. We can intercept that or bottle them up because of that.”

Two square shouldered boys and a stocky girl shook his hands, â€�“Salah, Nazieb, and Said. Shayma Said tends to let the boys do the scoring. You could almost leave her alone in front of the hoop and she wouldn’t shoot. Essam Salah seems to rush his shots in the zone. Even if you can’t get to him, charge at him. Mustafa Nazieb is always on the attack. When the pressure is on he tends to play free lance. And he is dangerous when he free lances. He and Mounir have enough talent to go professional when they’ve grown.”

The Egyptian Beaters, Omar El-Adb and Ahmed Awad, were said to be nothing special. They got to all of the Bludgers an average player would get to and their shots were below average in power. After the comments, Devon had turned toward him and said, â€�“I want you to do for them what you did to the twins in the tryouts. They are undisciplined and you might get a couple of penalty shots for yourself.” The thought of scoring in front of the crowd or at least part of the crowd would be a dream come true.

The Seeker was a thin short young man. Scorpius doubted he was ten years old. â€�“Sherif Hassan, his father is a Muggle jockey, grew up racing horses, brooms, and rugs. He’s the first Seeker that will cause Rhys to break out into a sweat.” Hassan was so small, Scorpius wondered if he could ever hit him with a Bludger unless he was on top of him.

In the changing room, Coach Devon reminded his team, â€�“Egypt wins marathons. They’ve no great strengths, but no big weaknesses. They play like Gwenog Jones’ Holyhead Harpies, the offense uses Hawk’s head and defense the Harris Double Zone. The coach, Maryam Mounir, is as smart as the sphinx and twice as calm. We must play our game and let them frustrated us.” As he said that Scorpius noticed the Devon looking at him and Rose. â€�“Remember, it took them over se.en hours to defeat Argentina. They don’t care about fatigue. I mean, they practice in the Sahara desert, so what’s a summer day in a Maine forest to them.”

As they took their positions, Scorpius saw Rose waving to someone sitting at the far end. Federov must be here.

It took twenty minutes for the first goal to be made, Nazieb had dodged a Bludger from Geoffrey, faked Albus almost off of his broom, and while being sideswiped by a desperate Kaitlin, snuck a shot past Rose’s stretching fingers off the inside of the hoop and through. Scorpius had spent the opening minutes of the match intercepting Bludgers before they could get to Awad and driving them home at Salah (three times) and twice missing the incredibly nimble Hassan. Mounir, on the other end of the pitch, was catching everything. In the first hour the only goal that the U.K. scored was when Kaitlin suddenly found that she and James were alone behind the defense. The reason for the freedom was that Scorpius had hit Nazieb in the solarplexes, with a strike causing an opening for the duo. James shot deflected off of the side of the left hoop and bounced through. Meanwhile, Rhys and Hassan were doing aerobatics that made the crowd ooh-and-ahh with its speed and gymnastic turns.

At the two hour mark, Coach Mounir called a time out with the score Egypt forty and the United Kingdom twenty. Devon and Potter tried to keep up the energy of their team by taking turns talking loudly while clapping their hands together. They took turns praising the effort of each member of their team.

Rhys interrupted Coach Potter, â€�“Can’t someone get Hassan off of my back? No matter where I fly, he’s there too, I can’t get rid of him. If I can’t look, I can’t grab the Snitch.”

Coach Potter, ignoring the interruption, looked at Rhys and said, â€�“Don’t get rid of him. Take a position at the third of the pitch, stand on your foot holds and pirouette like Scorpius did that one time. You’ve got a half a foot of height on him, use it. If you don’t find it, sprint up to mid-pitch and try again. It’s what Viktor Krum did against me in the World Cup final. Use it!”

Rhys nodded accepting the advice.

Kaitlin, who had been quiet for five minutes (a near game time record for her), asked, â€�“If Egypt has the lead and is trying to wear us down, why call the time-out? We should be calling for time not them?”

Devon looked at Mrs. Potter. She both nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders in response. Kaitlin had asked the perfect question. The coaches knew Maryam Mounir and her requesting time out had caught them off guard also.

â€�“Five minutes, coach” said the American referee as she flew past. The two adults nodded.

Devon shrugged and answered the question as best he could, â€�“There’s either an injury that is not apparent or she’s changing tactics.”

Geoffrey looked confused, â€�“Why change? They’re ahead.”

Rose, for some reason, turned away and looked up into the stands. Scorpius was livid. They were losing and she wants to flirt with her Russian boyfriend. A light went off inside of his head, he began to speak about a half second before Rose. When he started, she demurred.

â€�“She’s worried. We are way better than she expected. She knows Rose will keep it close until Rhys captures the Snitch. She needs a big lead quickly. So, she’s shifting into the one tactic that she’s seen that we couldn’t defend. They’re gonna Flukegutter us.”

Rose chimed in, â€�“Aunt Ginny, I think Scorp is right.”

Devon half growled in response, â€�“Damn, it does makes sense. Now, we practiced our new defense at Puddlemere. I don’t want you to use it until they prove they can outplay our old defense. They can’t be as good playing it as the Russians. James and Albus, I want you to block for Kaitlin on any breakaways. Hit him hard and as close to a foul as you can. We can’t take a penalty; ten points might mean the game.”

The whistle blew and the young Brits flew into formation awaiting the new strategy of the Egyptians.

â€�“Rhys!” shouted Coach Potter. The team turned to see her pantomime pulling back a broom stick and turning a circle as an example of the movement she had recommended to him.

Scorpius shuddered. When the Russians ‘Flukeguttered’ them, he had cuts and bruises on his arms, legs and head. He was the point man; it was his job to give up his body to break up the formation for the Chasers. He looked over to the stands, but he could not pick Grace out of the crowd.

When the whistle blew, Nezieb tossed the Quaffle in bounds to Said. From the movement of the Beaters, it was obvious that they were getting ready to try the Flukegutter. Scorpius and Geoffrey were at the ready. As the play was being organized, they both spotted the Bludgers and raced to get into position. As Awad got in front, he was struck on the shoulder blade by a strike from Grindus. Awad, who was not ready for the blow, lost his balance striking his fellow Beater, knocking them off course. Scorpius had to adjust his angle when the Bludger moved up-pitch from him. As he started to turn to attack the Egyptian formation, he saw Hassan standing on his footholds stationary trying to block Rhys. Scorpius couldn’t believe his luck. Instead of swinging left as originally attended, he swung right and drove the ball into the small of the Egyptian’s back, knocking the boy off one hold and left him desperately gripping the footholds with his hands.

The strike was all that Rhys needed. Jones flew to mid-pitch looking wildly around and Scorpius saw him drive his broom into the middle of the slowly organizing Flukegutter attack. It was at that point, Scorpius realized he was supposed to at the point to defend the Chasers. Scorpius trailed Rhys keeping close behind him. As Scorpius approached Kaitlin and his position in line he saw the Snitch buzz past the girl heading toward the sideline. Rhys had almost collided with Said in his attempt to get to the Snitch. Rhys unexpected flight again disrupted the Flukegutter. However, Rhys came out of the crowd with no idea where the prize was. He looked frantically around until he saw Malfoy flying low toward the sideline pointing to his left. Rhys followed Malfoy with his eyes and regained the location of the target. As Rhys got up to speed, he heard Scorpius shouting at him and pointing above. It had to mean Hassan was gaining. Rhys put his forehead on the broomstick, his hands behind his back and his tiptoes in the holds. While this position gave him an almost perfect aerodynamic position, it left him easy prey to being jostled by a Bludger or an Egyptian. However, Hassan was too far away and the Egyptian Beaters were too busy leading the Flukegutter. Egypt scored just seconds before Rhys Jones grabbed the Golden Snitch with his left hand. The United Kingdom won one-hundred seventy to fifty.

When the third round was over the standings were: Brazil with three wins, United Kingdom and Egypt with two wins each and China and Argentina both with one win. In theory, they were tied for second however the way the schedule stood the U.K. would have to play the winless Cubans followed by Argentina, who had used the U.K. strategy to take down the Chinese. It would come down to Brazil vs. Egypt. If the Brits won out, they would need Egypt to lose to Brazil.

Kreacher opened the door, allowing Harry Potter and Ron Weasley into the entryway. The old elf offered to take the umbrellas and rain jackets from the two men. Harry handed over their umbrella and his slicker. Ron did not.

â€�“Stay here, until I can summon my Master or Mistress.” As Kreacher began to walk away, they heard in a low raspy grumble, â€�“The blood-traitor Weasley is too good to give Kreacher his coat. He’s afraid old Kreacher would soil it. Kreacher wouldn’t take his dirty coat, if he offered it. No, sir, Kreacher would dump in the bin and good riddance.”

By the time Kreacher got near the portrait of Mrs. Black, Astoria came around the corner and looked down the hallway. She seemed to glide her way toward her two guests. While Harry had never really considered Draco’s wife much, he had always noticed how easily she could put on and drop whole personalities. Such ability was probably a highly desirable Slytherin trait.

â€�“Misters Potter and Weasley, how nice for you to drop in. I hope, you are not here on some ‘official’ business. I mean, nothing has happened to our children, has it?”

Harry shook his head in the negative and relief, for an instant, filled Astoria’s face. It was replaced almost instantly with the Hostess’ simpering mask she wore.

â€�“We are here on business. Didn’t Draco tell you we’d be dropping by?” Harry asked.

The mask slipped again for a second. â€�“No, he is so busy running the store that it must have slipped his mind.”

A knock came to the door behind the two visitors, Astoria now seemed really concerned. Harry knew that if Ginny had that look, she would be telling him off about five minutes after company left. He wondered if it was a universal expression that all wives get after a certain number of years of marriage.

â€�“Excuse, me.” Astoria stepped in between Harry and Ron to open the door. On the stoop stood Hoyle Grindus wearing black silk dress robes, white gloves, waist coat, diamond stick pin, diamond cuff links, and top hat. Astoria called into the ether, â€�“Krowker.”

The younger Malfoy house-elf showed up and began to collect Grindus’ coat, gloves and hat. Harry and Hoyle eyed each other. They both knew each other by reputation having only met briefly after Lucius rise to power at an out-of-the-way Muggle pub suggested by Grindus. It was meeting that both parties agreed for mutual protection to pretend had never occurred.

â€�“Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, I assume.”

They both nodded. Ron spoke as he extended his hand toward Grindus â€�“We met while I worked with my brother George. George and my sister Ginny had developed the prototype of the Weasley Comet. You refused to negotiate with me.”

Hoyle Grindus sucked in his cheeks like he was mentally trying to place the incident. He shrugged. â€�“Don’t remember. I don’t deal with underlings. I only meet with people who can sign the final papers. No hard feelings, Weasley?”

Ron shook his head that there were none, but Harry had noticed a flicker of annoyance with Grindus at calling Ron an ‘underling.’ As the three began to follow Astoria down the long hallway, Draco stepped out of kitchen. Harry saw Draco trying to put away a pair of reading glasses into his vest pocket before anyone noticed them.

â€�“Ah, Hoyle, Potter, Weasley do come into the kitchen. Astoria, we will be plotting for about an hour. Could you have an elf bring us coffee, tea and those Weasley Ginger Snaps?” Draco gave his wife the biggest smile Harry had ever seen Draco give. Astoria seemed unfazed by his charm offensive. â€�“I promise that if we find a way to overthrow the Ministry, we will run it by you first.” He tried smiling again. She pursed her lips and turned her cheek toward him. Draco looked out of the corner of his eye at his guests and gave his wife a quick kiss. However after receiving her husband’s kiss, she turned into the kitchen as if to join the council.

Draco turned to the other men looking sheepish. Ron snorted at Draco’s embarrassment, showing Draco he was enjoying the predicament.

Hoyle spoke up, â€�“Astoria, we are going to being discussing tactics and strategies. Surely, you have something more interesting to do.”

Astoria sat at the end of the table in which she normally sat at meal time. Smiling, she pointed to the available chairs as if she was inviting the men to join her.

Harry and Ron sat. Draco hovered at the end of the table trying to get his wife’s attention. Hoyle would not give up, â€�“Perhaps, instead of staying, Draco could just take you to LeClaire’s in Paris and let you pick out a bobble or two. My wife loves shopping there.” Hoyle gave her a hopeful smile. He must have thought she was negotiating with them. Draco knew better.

The three younger men looked incredulously at each other. A bobble from LeClaire’s would probably cost an Auror’s annual salary.

Draco sat leaving only Hoyle standing. â€�“Draco?”

Astoria did not give her husband a chance to answer. â€�“I see a filled room with fathers and a grandfather, but not one mother. Now, if you can tell me that you could have this meeting at the Weasley or Potter’s home without including Hermione or Ginny attending please do. I will then contact them to see which side they would be on.” Ron and Harry were happy to sit this one out.

Astoria pulled out her wand and began playing the smiling hostess. She took requests and filled the cups of the men with tea or coffee. Everyone loaded up on the biscuits. Harry was surprised that they tasted exactly like Molly’s recipe.

â€�“I’m giving you forty minutes. I’m a busy man,” stated Grindus, as he put a silver pocket watch on the table in front of him to remind them all he and his time was much more important than their time was.

Harry hid a smile; it was a trick that almost every Slytherin barrister pulled when interrogation of their clients was going on. The meeting could take a half an hour or four it depended on the honesty of the participants. He thought an hour was optimistic.

Harry reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a folded envelope. â€�“I just received a letter from my wife in the United States.” Draco perked up, perhaps he was looking for news about Scorpius. Harry had said his opening while he was concentrating on Grindus. From the little reflexive swallow, he knew Ginny’s hunch had been correct.

â€�“On the night before the team’s victory over Egypt, a battle occurred in the very campground in which our family is staying.” Draco leaned forward looking at Harry like he was trying to take in every nugget of spoken or unspoken information. Hoyle Grindus sat like a stump.

â€�“Was anyone hurt? Why would someone attack our children?” asked Draco.

Harry let Ron reply. Ron liked to correct Draco and Harry let him, â€�“Oh, our caravan wasn’t the target of the attack. Egypt, the team they were to play, was.”

Draco looked properly confused. Grindus remained unmoving.

Astoria lifted her cup to her lips, but did not take a sip of her Earl Grey. She began talking over her tea cup asked, â€�“Could it be gambling? Maybe someone wagered a large sum on the match and is trying to ‘grease the skids’ for a U.K. victory?”

Harry and Ron caught each other’s eye. They knew she was sharp, but this was very intuitive. Ron spoke again, â€�“We actually thought of that and checked all known parlors (legal and not). No large sums have been bet either way on this tourney. The real gamblers don’t trust teenagers to be consistent enough to risk their gold.”

She nodded in response, but Harry could see her mind racing for a solution. Draco was still locked onto Potter. Grindus just looked down at the ticking watch.

â€�“An eyewitness’ memories were examined after the battle, and my wife noticed two interesting things during the replay. The first thing was that one of the attackers wore a pin shaped like this.” Harry held up a re-creation of Ginny’s original drawing which she had included in her letter.

Draco pulled the paper towards him. â€�“I’ve seen this, but I’m uncertain what it stands for.” He looked at Hoyle, who was ignoring the drawing, and slid it towards Astoria.

She reached over, took the drawing and scanned it. She pushed the paper back to Harry. â€�“I know this symbol well. I use to have one myself. During the year that Snape was the Headmaster, Pansy Parkinson designed and Blaise Zabini sold these as a sign of solidarity with the new Regime at the Ministry. The only buyers were Slytherins and very scared non-Gryffindors.”

â€�“Zabini?” asked Ron. â€�“Do you know where he is?”

Astoria responded, â€�“He and his family went to the Continent after the fall of the Dark Lord. I heard he had applied for a teaching post at Durmstrang and was turned down. He lives in some old Manor in Lincolnshire, I believe. I know his daughter is a Slytherin in Scorpius’ year. Why?”

Harry responded this time. â€�“Ginny described the man with the pin was a tall angler light brown skinned man. Sounds like your old friend Blaise to me.” Harry turned toward Grindus. The Malfoys had come through better than he had thought they would. Harry wondered about Hoyle.

Hoyle reached for his pocket watch as if to pick it up, as he asked, â€�“Is that why you called us here? So you could question us about an article of jewelry on someone’s collar?”

â€�“Yes and no. You see my wife noticed that the man fighting the man with the pin was wounded and when he made a bandage of an undergarment, the undergarment had the symbol of Comet Broomworks on it.”

All eyes turned toward Grindus, his eyes dropped to his left hand which held the open watch. Hoyle Grindus slowly lifted his eyes to look at Potter and Weasley and over to Draco. He ignored Astoria totally. He answered Harry’s charge to Draco not to Harry. â€�“Remember, what I said about Goyle and his threats to abduct my grandchildren last year.”

Draco nodded, â€�“You said something about as long as you have an ounce of gold, you would protect your own. Is that what you did? Was the wounded man someone you sent to protect the team?”

Grindus nodded silently. â€�“The wounded man is currently being treated at a company healer’s place just south of Holyhead. He’s been replaced by a new man, Gwayne Pierce. I can confirm to you from my man’s reports that the wizard he fought was Zabini. He found Zabini’s campground and he learned from a scroll that the man is working directly for Lucius. As to why the attack on the Egyptians, you got me? I can sense Lucius’ fingerprints on this, but I just can’t figure out what he wants.”

Harry looked over at Grindus. â€�“Of course, Ron or I will be given total access to the man as soon as the Healer was cleared him. So we can question him and maybe help find clues your man missed.”

Grindus looked perturbed for an instant and his look was replaced with that of a parent giving a present to a favorite child at Christmas. â€�“Of course, it would be against the law not to let you have access to him and I never would do that.”

Harry smiled at the mock sincerity of the man and took a long slow pull on his now lukewarm coffee. The Auror office and the two people he could trust that knew Lucius Malfoy best knew it was a plot but none could see what the plot was and how to thwart it.

Ron spoke up. â€�“We could add an Auror to the Grindus’ surveillance. Teddy maybe.”

Harry shook his head. â€�“The Americans would never allow our outside ‘interference’. And with the way things are with the Minister, we can’t just pull any Aurors off of the line to chase shadows in America. Besides, what happens if our man and Hoyle’s men disagree on what our orders mean. We could have our two men fighting each other and Zabini.”

â€�“Does the minister need to know?” asked Draco.

Harry nodded affirmative. As much as he disliked Lee, Lee was still the Head of State and Harry’s boss.

Draco leaned forward and sporting a sneer familiar from his childhood days curling on his lips, Draco’s long missing drawl re-appeared in his voice as he said to Harry. â€�“Even, if the visiting Auror was the father of two of the players and his Godson came along also to cheer for Britain in an International Quidditch match. What politician could deny a father’s permission to go and for that story to be featured in the Prophet.”

â€�“If it’s in the Prophet, won’t that tip of you father?” asked the Dolt Weasley.

â€�“My father knows the instant Harry leaves his office to go to the loo. Of course, the story features Harry, but Lupin is conveniently absent from the story. Zabini will follow your every move and the boy can coordinate with Hoyle’s man.”

Everyone around the table smiled and Ron Weasley said out loud, â€�“Good thinking, Draco.”

Harry was not sure which of the two men, Ron or Draco, were more shocked by the comment. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Astoria give her husband a very appreciative look.