The meeting happened at Sirius's flat on the twenty eighth of July, 4 days before the matches began.
He had asked for a Thursday afternoon, which was when most people were available, and had been deliberate in each letter: I have a plan for the World Cup. I think you should come. Bring whatever Galleons you can spare — not everything you have, just what you could afford not to see for the next three weeks. I'll explain when we're there.
The phrasing had been chosen carefully. Could afford not to see was doing more work than it appeared to be doing.
Harry was already there when Ron arrived, having been at Sirius's for ten days by then, having served the required fortnight at Privet Drive with the contained efficiency of someone who had decided the minimum was precisely what the situation called for. The Dursleys had received a formally worded letter from St. Mungo's in June, signed by Sirius's solicitor, explaining the legal implications of neglecting a wizarding minor under the protection of his now-legally-cleared godfather, and had apparently read it several times and then left Harry alone, which Harry had reported in a brief owl as significantly improved circumstances.
Harry was in the kitchen when Ron arrived, making tea with the ease of someone who had learned where everything was kept.
'All of them said yes,' Harry said, before Ron could ask. 'Fred and George seemed very interested.'
'They would be,' Ron said.
Hermione arrived seven minutes later, precisely on time, with her bag over her shoulder and the expression of someone who had been forming hypotheses since the letter and was ready to test them. She kissed Ron once on the cheek, which had been the greeting since the second week of July and which both of them received with the easy quality of something that had found its pace without requiring the pace to be discussed.
'The World Cup,' she said.
'Yes,' he said.
'You know something,' she said. Not a question.
'I know several things. I'll cover them once everyone's here.'
Ginny arrived with Luna, which was not planned but had become a pattern since Easter. Luna was carrying something wrapped in brown paper that she had apparently brought as a gift for Sirius's flat and would explain at the appropriate moment, which was very like Luna.
Neville came in just behind them, slightly out of breath from the Knight Bus, with the expression of someone who had formed opinions about the journey and was keeping them to himself out of consideration.
Bill had come back from Cairo in June --- a temporary secondment to the Gringotts London offices for the summer while the Egyptian team rotated, a thing that happened every few years and that Bill had managed to arrange for this particular rotation with the quiet efficiency of someone who had reasons to want to be in Britain and had found the professional mechanism for it. He had turned up at the Burrow three days after the end of term with a dragon-hide bag and a tan that made his mother touch his face when she opened the door, and had settled back into the household with the ease of someone who had spent enough summers away that returning had become its own practiced skill.
Bill arrived in his work robes. Charlie came directly from somewhere outdoors in clothes that showed it but had changed enough for a flat visit. Percy arrived at the exact agreed time, in the specific way Percy arrived everywhere, and gave the room the brief register-taking look of someone confirming attendance.
Fred and George arrived three minutes late with the quality of people who had been available for forty-five minutes and had made an aesthetic decision about the correct moment to enter.
Sirius came downstairs with three additional chairs carried easily, set them down, and looked at the assembled group in his sitting room with the expression he sometimes had — the one that was still faintly astonished to find itself in a room full of people who wanted to be in it. He claimed the armchair.
'Right,' Ron said.
The room settled. Even with Fred and George in it, which still occasionally surprised him. But they were watching with the quality they had when they were paying proper attention, and the others had taken their cues.
'The World Cup,' he said. 'I'm going to tell you what I know about the results, and then what I want to do with it, and then you can ask questions.'