If it feels like this, it is LOVE

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Chapter II: Meeting Mrs. Sharma

Hermione was the first to recover. She turned towards the woman and bowed her head slightly. The woman smiled and bowed back. With a short spoken "Wait a moment" she walked to her and started conversing with her in a strange, breathing language.

Meanwhile, the rest of the male population in the dressing room had stopped drooling as well, although their eyes were still lingering on the strange woman.

"I wonder who she is!" Kyle said.

"Who cares? She's beautiful!" Jonah, who was sitting next to him, replied.

At this comment, the two Japanese women rolled their eyes and muttered something that suspiciously sounded like "Men", before one of them decided to join the conversation.

"Baka! You too, Kyle! Just in case you haven’t noticed but she's an elf! Don’t you see her pointed ears?" Aiko exclaimed rather loudly.

The men looked at the woman again and finally noticed it.

"Oh, you're right! But what is a she-elf doing here?" Jonah stated.

Aiko barely resisted the urge to smack her blond team mate on the back of his head.

"Really, you should read the Prophet more often. If you did, you would have known that the Ministry had been looking for new mascots. But since they had no luck so far, they finally asked the Elves to support us!"

"Oh...you mean like those...what do the Muggles call them?"

"You mean cheerleaders?" Kyle replied, joining their discussion.

"Yes, something like this. Of course they have their own style of performances. But I'm anxious to see what the Indian Supporters have in store." Akiko said.

"Oh, I have a hunch. But we'll see soon enough what they're going to do." Anjali spoke.

Just then, Hermione finished her conversion with the she-elf. The beautiful woman left and so Hermione turned to her team again.

"Okay, I just spoke with Ithildriel and she said that the performance of the Indian supporters is starting in 10 minutes and lasting about 10 – 15 min. Then she and her group are going to do their performance. That means we have approximately 45 minutes to get ready."

Draco looked at his watch.

"Well, then I better go. I still have to change into my robes and meet the Indian Minister before the game. See you later! Good Luck for the game!"

He just stopped to give Hermione a quick kiss and to ask her a last question.

"I didn’t know that you speak Elvish!" he whispered into her ear.

"Oh, there are a lot of things you don’t know about me!" she whispered back with a mysterious smile on her face.

Draco just raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything about her remark. He gave her a last kiss and wished everyone good luck, before finally also leaving the room.

The female Quidditch Captain turned to her team again and clapped her hands together.

"So, let's get ready then!"

oOo

Draco was looking for the exit when he passed the group of now giggling she-elves, who were waiting for the beginning of their performance. He took a short look at them and noticed that all of them were wearing the same dresses, but had different hair colours, ranging from blond over red tones to deep black hair. There seemed to be some male elves, too, as he saw just now. They had the ethereal appearance like the female elves.

But Draco could see the difference and he had to admit that all of them were damn good-looking.

//But not as good-looking as my Hermione!// he thought by himself.

He passed the group and waved back, when the elves waved at him. Finally he found the exit and hurried outside.

oOo

Mione was clutching a lot of souvenirs, when she and her uncles came back from the traders, who sold them now all over the camping place.

Sirius raised an eyebrow, when he saw the fully loaded girl.

"Well, well, it seems like someone is really heavily loaded! Are you sure you can handle this alone or do you need some help?" he asked with a grin on his face.

"No, thanks! I'll be fine!" Mione said in a huff and disappeared into the tent which she shared with the rest of the females.

Sirius shook his head and turned to the Weasley Brothers.

"Did you have to buy her so much?" he asked.

"Aw, come on! Just let us spoil our only niece a little bit. It doesn’t hurt!" Fred and George replied grinning.

Sirius wanted to reply something, but was suddenly interrupted by a loud trumpet signal. Confused, he looked around.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Oh, that was the signal that indicates the soon starting game. We better get ready! We're supposed to meet Arthur in the Top Box!" Molly said, while gathering some things to eat and to drink in a small basket.

"Oh! Okay! Mione, YOU BETTER GET READY OR WE'LL MISS THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME!" The dark-haired wizard shouted.

"COMING! JUST A MINUTE! I'M LOOKING FOR THE OMNICULARS......OH! GOT THEM!" it came from inside the women's tent.

One moment later she reappeared, carrying three pairs of omniculars.

"Okay, is everyone ready? Then let's go!" Molly said and everyone nodded.

Together, all of them started to walk to the stadium, following the crowds who were also heading this way. They only needed five minutes to get to it. When they had reached it, Molly led them straight to the Top Box, away from the main entrance. Mione was the first see the head of her grandfather who seemed to speak with the same blonde young man they had met earlier.

Only that he now wore black, official robes.

The young redhead hurried forwards and hugged the redheaded man, when she reached him, taking him by surprise.

"Hello Grandpa!!!" she said and hugged him once more.

The aforementioned one laughed quietly.

"You know I still need some air to breathe!" he said jokingly.

Mione smiled sheepishly and finally let go of her grandfather.

"So where are your grandmother and the others?"

"Oh, they must be coming in a minute or two. I rushed ahead, before they could stop me! Oh, there they come, Grandpa...!" Mione said and pointed at the group of redheads heading their way.

"Ah, finally! I hope you had no problems with your portkey! We had a few problems with some other, though!" Arthur greeted them all.

"Don't worry! There were no problems at all." Molly repeated, kissing her husband on the cheek.

While Mione now looked in awe around the gigantic stadium and the crowds taking their places, Arthur introduced Draco to his family.

"Folks, this is Draco Malfoy. He's the new Junior Ambassador in India. Draco, this is my wife Molly, my sons Charlie, Percy, Bill, the twins Fred and George, Ron and his wife Lavender, Remus Lupin, a family friend, my granddaughter Mione-" he pointed at the redheaded girl, "- and Sirius Black!"

"Hello!" the bunch of redheaded people replied and one by one, they shook Draco's hand.

"It's nice to meet you!" the blond young man said.

Only Sirius was a little bit surprised to hear about Draco's job. Turning to him, he said quietly:

"You didn’t tell me that you're the new Junior Ambassador! Arthur mentioned something, but I had no idea that you're the one he was talking about."

"O, I just got promoted last week! And since we haven’t been in contact until a little while ago, there was no chance to tell you about the promotion!" Draco whispered back.

"Well, in this case...congratulations!" Sirius replied.

"Thanks!" Draco smiled back.

Arthur then clapped his hands together.

"Okay, now that we're done with introducing, why don’t we sit down and wait until the Indian Minister arrives!"

"Well, that’s really not necessary, Arthur! I'm already here!" a female voice with a barely noticeable Indian accent.

Every turned their heads towards the direction, from which the voice had come. Especially Mione, who had expected a man, was surprised when the Indian Minister turned out to be an elegant woman, who was accompanied by seven people, five wizards and two witches.

Three of the wizards and one of the witches were Asian-looking, but wearing normal wizarding robes, except the witch, who was wearing a jade green cotton kimono with a simple but beautiful flower pattern.

//They must be from Japan!// the redheaded girl thought and looked over to the rest.

The two Indian wizards also looked like the other wizards with their dark red robes, but when she got a closer look at them and the other witch, her eyes grew big with surprise.

This woman and the minister looked totally identical as well as the two Indian wizards, who were also identical twins, just like Fred and George. The only visible difference was their clothing.

The minister wore a black Sari with glittering silver embroideries at the border, a suited top and some jewellery like a simple silver necklace, earrings, bangles, a small bindi between her eyes and jewellery on her forehead, which ended in her long black braid, in which also some silver strings were intertwined. The other witch wore the same ensemble, but it was golden instead of silver.

In Mione's opinion, both women looked absolutely pretty.

The Indian minister took Mr. Weasleys hand and shook it with a big smile on her face.

"Arthur, it's such a pleasure to see you again. It's been a while." She said.

"You're absolutely right, Jaya! When did we last meet?"

"I believe it was last year on the International Ministry Ball!"

Arthur laughed.

"Oh yes. I remember. But I'm glad that you're here now!"

"The same goes for me, Arthur! But I hope you still remember my oldest twin sons," With that she gestured to the two Indian wizards. "Kumar Sunil and Aadesh Salman!"

"Of course I do! How are you?" Arthur said.

"Fine, Sir!" both wizards exclaimed and shook hands with Arthur.

Then the Indian woman turned to her twin.

"And you'll surely know my twin sister Jayanthi!" Jaya said.

"Of course I know the head of CHC Inc., the only spell research firm here in Great Britain! We'll work together sometimes. Jayanthi!"

"Arthur!" Jayanthi said and also shook Arthur's hand.

"And finally, there are Meiko, Keiko's Twin sister and Keiko's triplet sons, Ryo, Ryu and Ran!"

"Oh, we didn’t have pleasure to meet until now, but I've heard of them. You must know, I don’t see Keiko that often as you do! But it's nice to meet you at last!" Mr. Weasley said.

"Who's Keiko?" Mione whispered to Sirius.

"Oh, you mean Keiko Akase. I believe she's the Japanese Minister of Magic." He whispered back.

After shaking the hands of the Japanese wizards and the witch, it was now Arthur's turn to introduce his family. It was almost the same procedure, until Fred and George were about to be introduced. It happened not often that eight grown people firstly stared at the red-haired twins and then began to giggle uncontrollably like some silly teenagers.

"Is everything alright, Jaya?" Arthur asked, a little bit confused about the sudden change of behaviour.

Jaya took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"It's okay. I'm really sorry, but I just had a sudden flashback. Of course I remember your twin sons, especially after what happened last year at the Ball!" she said.

A quick shadow rushed over Mr. Weasleys face when he tried to remember what the Indian Woman had meant. Then he flushed, when he finally remembered.

"Oh, that evening!" he said and looked at his family.

While the twins grinned at the memory, the rest of the Weasleys also looked embarrassed. Only Sirius, Remus and Mione remained neutral, since they had no idea what the others were talking about.

"Jaya, I'm really sorry about what happened that evening!" Arthur finally exclaimed.

But the Indian Woman just smiled.

"Don’t be! I and the other Ministers agree that it was a quite unforgettable evening. It certainly brightened up the mood that day."

"What did you do?" Mione asked the twins.

"Oh, we spiked the food with an improved version of our canary creams and the drinks with a newly invented colour changing potion!" Fred answered with a smirk.

"Must have been a funny sight!"

"Oh yes, indeed!" the twins breathed, smiling dreamily at that special memory.

Jaya also smiled at the little girl.

"You're right, young lady. Just imagine every single minister and their families turning into overlarge, colourful birds and staying like this for a very long hour. It took us nearly a month after the ball to find out what had happened."

The Indian delegation chuckled at this, until the female Minister raised a hand to quiet them.

"You must be Miss Potter, Mr. Weasleys granddaughter! It's to meet you at last! Your grandfather told me a lot about you. Of course only good things!" She said and offered her hand to the young girl.

Mione took it and shook it politely.

"Thank you, madam. It's nice to meet you, too. You have a nice dress. But isn’t it a little bit too cold?" the redheaded girl said respectfully.

This innocent comment made almost everyone of the Adults chuckle, except Mrs. Weasley, who let out a shocked "Mione!" But Jaya just laughed.

"Maybe you're right, but it's nothing that can't be solved by good warming spell!" she replied.

The she turned her attention to Sirius and Remus.

"And you are must be Mr. Black! I know you from your books. My younger children love them very much!" she said.

"Thank you very much for the compliment, madam! It's nice to hear that British children aren’t the only ones who like my stories. But may I introduce my best friend Remus Lupin? He's the Potions Professor at Hogwarts."

"It's a pleasure, Madam!" the werewolf replied.

"It's mine, too!"

Finally, after another exhausting round of shaking hands, everyone managed to sit down und watch the crowds getting to their places.

"So, Arthur! How long is it until the match starts?" Jaya then asked.

"Not long, so about 30 minutes! I'm really anxious to see who will win the match!"

"You're not the only one, Arthur! Everyone here in the stadium will feel the same! Although I hope that our team wins!"

Arthur chuckled.

"We'll see soon!"

Just then, the gigantic screen, which occupied more than three quarters of the opposite side, lit up and thousands of voices began to scream of joy, when the opening of the most famous TV Show in the whole wizarding world began to play.

"OH MY GOD! I can't believe it! It's them!" Mione suddenly squealed, jumping up and down on her seat.

"Calm down, Mione. It's just a show!" Sirius said.

At these words Mione almost fell from her seat.

"Just a show? Just a show? It's my favourite show and they are here. Live. So how can you say it's just a show?" the redheaded girl scolded.

"Okay, I'll take it back. Just calm down if you don’t want to miss the whole show." Sirius laughed.

Mione huffed, but turned her attention back to the screen, where now two young twin women with microphones in their hands could be seen. Both of them were waving to the crowd and waiting for the applause to die down.

When it had stopped, both witches turned to their audience and started their show.

"Welcome, welcome! It's so good to see many people here at the Scottish Highland Quidditch Stadium. We're your hosts tonight. I am Parvati Patil..." the first woman said.

"...and I am Padma Patil. And..." the second woman added.

"YOU'RE WATCHING THE PATIL SHOW, WHICH IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP 2006, THE HIGHLIGHT OF AN EXCITING QUIDDITCH SEASON!!!" both chorused in unison.

That brought them many cheers and applause from the people in the stadium. It took several minutes for them to die down again. Then Parvati spoke on.

"THIS YEAR'S FINALISTS ARE THE TEAM OF INDIA, WHICH MADE IT FOR THE FIRST TIME INTO A WORLDCUP FINAL, AND THE OTHER FINALIST IS, OF COURSE, THE ENGLISH NATIONAL TEAM!!!"

Again, an ear–splitting applause rang through the stadium.

"BUT FIRST WE'D LIKE TO WELCOME THE INDIAN MINISTER OF MAGIC, MRS. JAYASREE DEVI SHANKAR SHARMA AND HER DELEGATION AS WELL AS OUR OWN MINISTER, MR. ARTHUR WEASLEY AND HIS FAMILY!

BUT BEFORE WE CONTINUE, A SPOT FROM OUR SPONSORS OF THIS WORLD CUP!"

Both ministers now appeared on the screen and waved smiling to the applauding audience, before they were replaced by some advertising spots. Some things never changed. Mione, on the other side, had a hard time not to jump up and down on her seat. Not only that her idols were just a few meters away, but she also was live on TV now. If only her father were here...

Mione sighed.

"Is everything okay, Mione?" Sirius asked, noticing it.

"Yeah. I just wished that Daddy could be here with us!" the redheaded girl answered.

"You know how moody he gets at this time of the year! Working is his way of dealing with it."

"I know, I know!" Mione replied, knowing that Sirius was right.

oOo

Meanwhile, both teams were waiting in two separate rooms beneath the gigantic screen, watching the other side of the stadium with awe.

"Decent crowd, I must say!" Jonah exclaimed at the sight of their audience.

"Yeah, there are definitively more people than at the last World Cup." Ling answered from his side.

Anjali, on the other side, scanned the crowd as if she was looking for someone special.

"I wonder if mum made it today. She wasn’t sure if she could come. Could you give the omniculars for a moment, Hermione? I just want to take a quick look at the Top Box." The Indian woman said finally.

"No problem. Here it is!" the Captain said and passed them to her friend.

"Thank, Mione!"

With these words, she looked through the glasses and scanned the part of the stadium, where the Top box was located.

"Ah, there it is...Yes, I can see her next to Aunt Jaya. I'm so glad that she made it." She said relieved.

Just when she put the omniculars down, one of the twins poked her at her shoulder.

"Anjali, could you look for our mom, too? She said she also would be at the Top Box." The Japanese woman said.

Anjali smiled at her.

"No problem, Aiko! Give me just a minute!" she replied and looked again through the glasses.

She had found her in less than a minute and then put down the omniculars again. Turning to the Japanese twins, she took a deep breath and said:

"Okay, your mom is here...and your cousins, too!"

That earned her two strange glances and four raised eyebrows.

"I know. Mom said they'd be probably here for a short visit!"

Anjali raised an eyebrow.

"Really? And this strange coincidence does not make you think?" she said.

Aiko wondered at first what their seeker could have meant and then suddenly exchanged meaningful glances with her sister and then both Chasers turned their heads to the Indian woman.

This one sighed. She already had suspected something like this.

"You don’t really think that they are on the other team...?" Akiko stuttered.

"What else! You know they are practically glued together!" Anjali replied dryly.

"Uh oh...!" The twins exclaimed in unison.

Hermione, who had listened half-heartily to their conversation, pricked up her ears at that last comment and she decided to join in for the moment.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your small talk, but there's something I really would like to know. What do Aiko's and Akiko's cousins have to do with today's match?"

Anjali sighed before she started to speak again.

"Well, it's a long and complicated story. Do you want the short or the long version?" she asked.

"Short one!" Hermione answered.

"Ooookay! We were just discussing the possibility of a sudden change on the Indian Team!" she said to Hermione.

"You sure?"

"99 percent sure! Don’t ask me why but I am!"

"But what do your cousins have to do with it?" Hermione asked the Japanese twins.

"Well, what Anjali is trying to say is that our cousins, triplets by the way, and her cousins, also triplets, are to be engaged soon and usually one does not go anywhere without the other near by. Plus her cousins are chasers, too, and they were playing in the first Cup eliminations. Which means there is a high probability that they are on the Indian team." Aiko said.

"But I've seen the semi-finals between India and Japan. And there were only men on the team!" Hermione replied.

"Yes, I know. The men were the replacement chasers because my cousins had some muggle illness at that time and couldn’t play. But last week, when we celebrated my uncle's birthday, they were well and fit again. I should have known then that they were going to play today."

Hermione sighed this time and massaged her temples.

"Okay. Let's say they are on the other team! Are they good?"

Anjali smiled.

"Yes, they are. But you three are better!"

The English Team Captain just stared at her seeker, but also started to smile.

"If you say so…We'll see!" she ended the conversation and all four women began to laugh heartily.

Just at that moment something so strange happened at the ground of the stadium that it got the attention of all present people, especially the male members of the English Team.

"Hey, guys, you really have to see this!" Kyle suddenly exclaimed.

Anjali, Aiko, Hermione and Akiko looked questioningly at each other before joining their team mates.

"What's so interesting? Any nice ladies out there?" Jonah teased his friend.

This one just shook his head and pointed a finger to the stadium ground. The English Quidditch team looked to the spot Kyle was pointing at and suddenly gasped in unison.

"Oh my god! I can't believe they managed to get them." Anjali murmured.

The others didn’t know what she had meant with these words but they would know soon.

Right now, they just stared at the big lake and the gigantic lotus flowers which just had magically appeared.

oOo

To be continued....

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Yes, finally an update after a long time. It's my Christmas present for you this year. I hope you like it. I'm sorry for the detailed scene with the Indian Minister but it's important for the first epilogue, which will come…someday.

See you until the next update. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for your reviews!

^^ Terrenis-chan