There Ain't No Moonlight, After Midnight

Roger's reaction to the Veela didn't bother Vicki in the slightest. Whilst nearly all of the males were enchanted every time the Veela's were dancing (with many other men in the crowd stealing glances at them even when they weren't dancing), Vicki was also fascinated by their beauty. She had enough self-confidence about herself, she could appreciate other women's good looks without getting jealous.

"They're hot." She said as she leaned over to Roger, both of them not taking their eyes off the Veela.

She also didn't mind that he ignored her throughout the match, only taking his eyes off the match every now and again to watch the Veela dance. She was on the same page, she had spent some of the match admiring the Veela, watching the quick paced game in front of her and had also managed to throw in some quick perves at Aidan Lynch, the Ireland Quiddich Captain.

"What can I say, I have a thing for hot Quiddich captains. Sue me." Vicki joked when Roger caught her one time, he only chuckled and kissed his girlfriend's head.

Vicki and Roger had a very strong and highly sexualised relationship. They were both open with their friends about what they got up to and had a very open "you can look but not touch" policy when it came to other people.

However Vicki did mind when Roger breached this policy. A group of girls a similar age to them both brashly beckoned Roger over to where they were seated. They didn't even mind that he was with Vicki, in fact she could see in their cheeky grins, Roger was a challenge to them. They wanted to see if they could get the handsome boy to abandon his pretty girlfriend to spend time with them.

Upon hearing the gasps of the crowd Vicki turned towards the game just in time to catch Krum's Wronski Feint. Her attention was on the game a little longer for her to make sure her beloved Aidan Lynch would recover from hitting the ground so hard.

When she looked up after Lynch mounted his broom and kicked off, she saw the group of girls giggling overdramatically at something Roger was telling them. One of the girls was brushing her hands through his sandy hair, whilst another one was touching the front of his shirt.

Vicki sent them a look of disgust (which was not noticed by Roger or the girls as they were too busy flirting) and got off her seat and stormed off.

The thought of charming another man in front of Roger crossed her mind, for a split second. She was wearing a green halter dress with a pleated hem, make-up that had been applied very carefully and her usual slick and shiny hair had been curled into loose ringlets. She knew she was in a position to easily find some poor schmuck to throw herself onto in front of Roger but she held herself back.

The Ravenclaw inside her told her it wasn't a logical thing to do. What would a few seconds of satisfaction lead to? Nothing. She will have done exactly what she was mad about and would lose all power in the situation.

The good inside her also told her not to do this. It wasn't right to mess with someone else's feelings. She was also better than this. She didn't need to act like a bad girlfriend to get even with him.

Instead she retreated to the main bar. If there were a muggle sporting event attended by hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of people, there would be thousands of bars to accommodate the thousands of patrons. Wizarding culture was different. In the magic world there was still a large drinking culture, perhaps even more so than in the muggle world as Butterbeer (which had a very small alcoholic percentage but there was still alcohol present) was served to children on a regular basis. But this drinking culture did not extend to sporting events, the two were mutually exclusive. It was common for muggles to quickly down cold beers as they watched their favourite football teams kick a football around a field. It was not usual for magic folk to enjoy a cold frothie as the quaffle was passed around the pitch.

Therefore there was only one bar in the entire stadium. To be fair it was very large to house the people from the large crowd who may want to drink, and the bar was quite packed with the people from the crowd who did want to drink.

Due to the sheer amount of people, it was impossible for the bar tender to focus too much on Vicki, and how her dress and make-up made her appear a lot older than sixteen, she managed to easily acquire a glass of Firewhiskey.

From there it seemed like the rest of the match went by very quickly. She kept one eye on the game and another on the social scene in the bar. She mingled with a few groups but ended up finding a group of American witches in their twenties who convinced her to do a few shots with them.

After Krum caught the snitch they bid farewell to Vicki as one of the witches had too much to drink and was shooed out by the bar tender who was shooting red sparks at the group. This was unfortunately directed at Vicki too, as the bar tender said held up his wand and stared down at Vicki as if daring her to stay, but then a familiar voice spoke up, familiar as it had been the voice booming through the stadium throughout the whole match.

"Whoa, steady there. I can vouch for this girl. In fact, I wish to buy her a drink. What's your poison?" Ludo Bagman appeared, addressing the bar tender but then turning to Vicki.

"I…I dunno! I've had a bit of everything tonight. I started on Butterbeer but I've progressed to doing shots of the strongest stuff I can get my hands on!" Vicki exclaimed in an excited manner, grinning wildly as she was now a little drunk.

"Two firewhiskeys my good man." Ludo grinned cheesily at the bar tender as he put an arm around the much younger girl. She raised an eyebrow questionably at him. She couldn't tell whether he was drunk on alcohol, or drunk on the excitement of the post-game energy.

The barman shot Bagman a look before preparing the drinks. Even though the barman thought Vicki was old enough to drink, he still obviously thought she was too young for Bagman. Vicki on the other hand was just trying to pretend Bagman wasn't courting her and was just being friendly. She didn't want to return to Roger just yet. A big fight was brewing between them, right now was the calm before the storm and she wanted to enjoy the quiet bliss for as long as possible.

"Cheers." Bagman said as he clinked glasses with Vicki, and she sent him a small smile in appreciation of the drink.

Bagman held a sly smile on his face as he put his back to the bar, resting his elbows behind him as he took a long look at the girl to his side. His eyes fell to the figure the dress she was wearing showed off. A figure that was well matured past the sixteen short years she had been on the earth. At the back of his mind he was aware it was a little inappropriate to be eyeing a school girl this way, but when she was dressed like that, it was hard to look away. Besides, he knew he was a retired popular sport star. They were meant to chase after young and pretty girls.

"I'm due back at the minister's box very soon. The teams are coming for a meet and greet. I just nipped out to get a quick drink in preparation." Bagman stated to Vicki.

"Big important man." Vicki sarcastically responded as she saw through exactly what Bagman was trying to do, but decided to smile at the end so she wouldn't look too rude.

"So, where's the boyfriend? If you were mine I'd keep a very short leash on you. I'm sure all the boys drool over you." Bagman mentioned to Vicki.

"Oh, um. Clearly not him. He ran off with some other girls." Vicki awkwardly stated and looked down and nervously played with the hem of her dress, as the gravity of the situation started to hit her. Her long standing boyfriend ran off at the first opportunity he could to flirt with other girls, not even a glance back at her, with no thoughts about her feelings whatsoever. The anger was quickly leaving Vicki's body, it wasn't a very nice thing that Roger had put her through tonight. She was shattered.

"Aww, well he's a bloody fool he is. Why don't you come to the minister's box, you can be my special guest?" Bagman suggested to Vicki.

Both Fred and George were paying close attention to Ludo Bagman's absence. Fred had suspicions that he may have been trying to skip on coughing up on the bet that he and George had laid down, but George thought Fred was being too paranoid.

"He's not going to leave the minister's box halfway through his duties to avoid paying a few galleons. There's still so much he has to do. He's coming back." George explained to Fred after Bagman gruffly excused himself.

Fred saw George's point and stopped eyeing the entrance as he excitingly discussed the match with Ron and Ginny.

As time began to wear on and both the Bulgarian and Irish teams had entered the box Fred's anxiety began to rise again. He noticed even George started watching the door periodically.

Fred didn't want it to be too obvious he was awaiting Bagman's arrival so he decided to turn his back and get deep into discussions with both George and Harry about the upcoming Quiddich season. There was one topic that could easily get Fred's mind off Bagman.

"Slytherin will rely on whatever bribes Malfoy can get them this year. Hufflepuff have pretty boy Diggory who will try to snatch the snitch before the other teams can score. What do you think Davies will have up his sleeve for Ravenclaw?" George asked curiously, creating an opening for his twin to butt in and finish the conversation as usual, but it was Harry who spoke up before Fred could say something witty.

"Cho Chang? She is a good seeker." Harry quickly suggested, the first thing that came to mind when the Ravenclaw Quiddich team was suggested. Luckily for him no one noticed his eagerness to find any reason to mention the pretty Ravenclaw seeker.

"Davies could use his girlfriend somehow. She's good looking." Ron shallowly butt in.

"Ron!" Hermione snapped loudly.

"What? She is. I'm not being disrespectful to women or anything, I'm just mentioning that she is good looking. It's an observation!" Ron whined loudly.

"No, it's not that. Quieten down, she literally just walked in." Hermione quietly mentioned, looking embarrassed as she nodded her head towards the doorway.

All three boys whipped around to look at the entrance but none faster than Fred. Hermione was right. There stood the glamorous looking Victoria Hartwell in all of her glory standing behind Bagman. Most of the others lost interest straight away and turned back to converse amongst themselves, but Fred's gaze was stuck on her. He had seen her roll up her school uniform skirt and had seen her wear nice clothes on the weekends but he had never seen her dressed up in the way she was tonight. He thought she looked absolutely stunning.

He was also curious. Why was she with Bagman, and where was Davies?

"Alright missy, I need to get back to my duties. You come and find me later, I want to get to know you better." Bagman said to Vicki in a seductive manner and Fred tried to suppress a scoff. To his delight however Vicki looked disgusted as soon as she turned away from him and her eyes scanned the room.

He quickly looked away as he didn't want her to catch him staring at her. He did sneak a few looks at her as he noticed she seemed lost and didn't know where she should sit.

Fred gulped. He was lucky today to be able to converse with her without her boyfriend present. At Hogwarts it was like they were attached at the hip. He didn't know if the opportunity would present itself again and right now he risked her walking out, out of sheer awkwardness. It was time for him to be his usual playful self and swallow down his shyness and nervousness he held due to his crush on her. He had to stop her leaving the box.

"Oi, Hartwell. Over here!" Fred yelled loudly as he turned to Vicki and waved.

He noticed the Malfoy clan sneering and shooting him dirty looks due to his outburst but he couldn't help but grin as she automatically made her way over. Fred was at the end of the bench and gruffly told everyone to scoot down to make room for Vicki.

She graciously popped herself down next to Fred and due to the tight squeeze some of her body parts were resting on his own. He was making a note not to think about it.

"Thanks. I felt like a total loner." Vicki mentioned as a small awkward smile ran across her face.

"Fred, I think our newest addition is a bit intoxicated." George piped up suddenly.

"George, I think you're right. I can smell it on her." Fred smirked back.

"Shh! I don't want to get kicked out or charged or whatever for underage drinking!" Vicki stated in a hushed voice as she nervously eyed Arthur Weasley who was a few seats down in conversation with his two eldest children, who had yet to notice Vicki's arrival.

"So where's Davies?" George asked her curiously and Fred was grateful his twin had asked her that, as he desperately wanted to know, but also had another question he wanted answered as well, which he was now safe to ask.

"And what's the deal with Bagman?"

Vicki blinked at both the twins as she decided in her head which question to answer first.

"Um. Roger went off with some girls and abandoned me, so I went to the bar. Bagman came by and insisted that I come up here with him." Vicki responded to the twins questioning, purposely deciding to give a condensed version as she didn't feel like elaborating on Roger's (most likely) infidelity happening at the current moment, or Bagman's creepy obsession with her.

Although Vicki had answered the two questions that Fred wanted to know, it opened up a lot more that he now wanted to know the answer to. Why would Roger go off with other girls when he had the best one as his girlfriend? What was Vicki going to do about it? How much time did she spend with Bagman alone and was she enjoying his attention?

Instead, he asked the one he knew he wanted an answer to the most.

"So, are you and Davies still together?" Fred blurted out.

He expected Vicki to be taken back by how blunt he was. Instead she was composed and ready with an answer, as she had come to the conclusion she was about to answer a lot earlier.

"I don't know. We have a lot to talk about later I guess. It's going to be a lot for him to talk his way out of, however." Vicki answered and gave a sarcastic kind of smile which made Fred's heart leap. Her and Davies might now be over, and he was finally speaking to his crush properly. He had written Victoria Hartwell off a long time ago so he had only ever watched from a distance. But it was as if the stars had aligned and he now stood a fighting chance.

The thoughts swimming around Vicki's head were very different. She was absolutely shattered at what Roger had done to her tonight and now the booze had stopped flowing her thoughts were creeping back to the serious talk that was now looming. Roger was her first love and now she was a different person she didn't know how to function without him. She also now felt pathetic for feeling that way, she knew no respectful Ravenclaw girl should place such importance on a boyfriend. But she was a teen girl in love. Like many other girls her age she had made her boyfriend the centre of her world and now it was tumbling down.

"Well, you can sit with us until the end of the celebrations. You're going to soon watch Bagman cough up money to us that he owes, that should give you some entertainment." George responded, as he was much more neutral to the situation than his twin, and was genuinely wanting to make the girl feel better with no underlying motives.

Vicki smiled as she thanked him. She appreciated how the twins had taken her under their wing tonight. Although she was never the butt of their jokes she had seen some of the pranks they had pulled on people throughout the years as she got entertainment out of it. Some of them had been a little cruel, so she was surprised they were being so nice to her, an outsider they didn't really know.

She definitely appreciated it however, and happily launched into conversations about the match that had just wrapped up. She wanted to repay their kindness by making sure she didn't dampen the mood.