Chapter 22 - The World Cup
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe… JKR owns all!
AN: Well here is another chapter for you enjoyment! Thanks to Turnlach for his wonderful BETA work!
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"Come on! Come on! Up you get!" Came Sirius's voice while Hermione, who had taken to sleeping in the same bed as Harry, snuggled in closer to him, trying to go back to sleep.
"We're up!" Harry yelled to Sirius who was still banging on the tent, yelling at them to get up. Harry took a look at his watch, '6:00 a.m.' it read. Harry groaned again and lay back down in bed.
Harry leaned over and kissed Hermione softly and she sighed, loving the feeling of his lips. "Come on sweetheart… we better get up." He said softly. Hermione just groaned at this but did slowly get up.
About thirty minutes later both Harry and Hermione were out of their tent, showered, and eating their breakfast. In another ten minutes the group was making their way to the Quidditch stadium.
While on the road, Harry noticed a sea of red hair ahead of them, "Ron!" Harry called out. One of the people turned around.
"Hey Harry!" he called out and the entire group came to a halt and waited for them to catch up. When they finally reached them, the adults said hello to each other before they started talking about god knows what.
"So how do you think the game is going to play out?" Harry asked, already knowing how it would.
"Fred and I have forty galleons on Irish winning, though Krum catching the snitch." George said proudly.
"Yep, that should be a good start for Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes." Fred said, puffing out his chest and making himself look like Percy. Harry just shook his head, while Ron laughed and Hermione giggled softly.
"What about you Harry? Got anything riding on the game?" Fred asked, Harry just shook his head 'no'.
"It wouldn't be fair you know." Harry said.
"Why?" both the twins asked in unison.
"Well you know, I myself having the inner eye, already know the outcome." Harry said, making a perfect impression of Trelawney. Everyone started to laugh at this.
The rest of the walk took about ten minutes, until they arrived at a huge stadium in the middle of nowhere.
"Come on guys! We're all in the Minister's box, right at the top." Arthur said excitedly. They all started making their way up the number of different staircases.
"Harry look at this!" Came Ron's voice, Harry looked at what he was staring at; "It's Viktor Krum! Bulgaria's seeker!" Ron said excitedly.
Harry could feel the hate boiling up inside him, he had a vivid memory of the last time he had seen that man.
--- FLASHBACK ---
"Ron!" Harry yelled out, Ron turned around to face him, "WHERE IS SHE!?" Harry screamed.
"I-I don't know! S-she said she was meeting Krum… said he had something important to tell her." Ron said, his fear growing. Harry turned on his heel and bolted from the room. Once out of Hogwarts grounds he apparated right into Diagon Alley.
"Hermione!" Harry screamed though his link.
"Harry… please…" he heard the desperate cry of Hermione's voice.
"Where are you?" Harry thought quickly
"In the basement of the Hogs Head." she said quickly through their link.
Harry didn't think, he apparated right in front of the Hogs Head and threw the door open. The bartender looked up as Harry made a very loud entrance.
"Where the FUCK is your basement?" Harry whispered, though the bartender clearly heard him. The man pointed to the door on his left, shivering in fear at the sight of Harry's glowing emerald eyes.
Harry quickly opened the door, just in time to see Krum hit Hermione across the face. Harry's anger soared at the sight. With a have of his hand he sent Krum flying and watched as his back hit one of the buildings support beams and twisted around it, easily breaking his spine.
Harry then rushed over to Hermione, checking her quickly before giving her a deep kiss...
--- END OF FLASHBACK ---
"Harry. Are you alright?" the voice of Hermione came, breaking him from memories of another time.
"What… oh yeah I'm fine." Harry said softly, Ron and Hermione just nodded and they continued up to the Minister's box.
"What was it Harry?" Hermione whispered so that only he could hear.
"Nothing… just memories of Krum." Harry said though he practically spat Krum's name out.
"Can you tell me?" Hermione asked softly, while giving his hand a reassuring squeeze.
"No… you know that if I told you this stuff… a lot could go wrong… it doesn't matter though, it won't happen this time." Harry said softy. Hermione nodded her head in understanding. She hated the fact that Harry couldn't tell her everything, but she understood why he couldn't.
When they finally made it to the minister's box they showed the Auror guards their passes and entered. All of the kids went instantly to look over the edge of the box out into the crowd.
"WOW! This is going to be GREAT!" Ron said happily.
"Live it up Weasel, I doubt it's ever going to happen again. What did your family do? Sell your sister into slavery to get these tickets?" Came the drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.
"You know Malfoy… I bet no one would be able to prove anything against us… if you were to say, fall over the edge to your death." Came Harry's cool reply, his eyes flashing dangerously. Draco backed up a little at Harry's words before giving one last sneer and turning back to his mother and father.
"Ah, Harry! Nice to see you again." Came the voice of Cornelius Fudge, "Doing well I hope." he said, holding out his hand, which Harry shook… only because it would have been rude not to have.
"Yes doing fine." Harry said. He could see Percy looking at Harry with jealousy etched on his face.
"Have you met Lucius before, and his wife Narcissa?" Fudge asked, introducing the two Malfoys.
"Yes, we have met a couple of time." Harry said, his voice betraying no emotion. Harry nearly killed the senior Malfoy right there when Harry noticed his eyes flicker to Hermione's parents, and sneered.
"Oh yes, and of course you know young Draco Malfoy here, one of your friends at school." Fudge said pointing out Draco, who just sneered at Harry.
"Yes… we know each other." Harry said, Iit was then that the Bulgarian Minister walked into the box, he was talking quietly in Bulgarian to a young looking wizard before he spotted Fudge and walked over.
"Ah yes, the Bulgarian Minister this is Harry Potter." Fudge said point to Harry. Harry nearly laughed when the minister gave Fudge a strange look, Harry knew that he could understand English and was just playing with him.
"You know… Harry Potter! Boy-Who-Lived…" Fudge continued, but the Bulgarian was still playing stupid. Fudge sighed then pointed to his forehead and then to Harry.
The Bulgarian minister looked at Harry's forehead and then started pointing excitedly at Harry's scar, quickly speaking in Bulgarian.
"Knew we would get there soon… personally I'm hopeless with the languages! Need Barty for that." Fudge said then started to look around, "Speaking of Barty… he should be here… oh wait, there is his house elf saving his seat." Fudge said pointing out Winky, "Well I will see you later Harry." Fudge said before turning back to the Bulgarian minister and started to try and explain something.
"Bloody idiot Fudge." Harry mumbled as he walked back over to his friends. He had been tempted a number of times in the last five minutes to cut loose, but managed to get his temper under control.
Ludo Bagman then walked into the box, "Ok everyone! Are we ready?" He asked as he walked out to the stand, he then pointed his wand at his throat and mumbled "Sonorous."
"Welcome everyone to the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!" he said, his amplified voice carrying out though the stadium.
"Today the Bulgarian National Team will be playing the Irish National Team." he yelled out. In the crowd, thousands of flags were being waved.
"So without further ado, I would like to welcome Bulgaria's team mascots!" he said and now hundreds of Bulgarian flags were being waved more vigorously into the air, as about a hundred Veela glided out onto the pitch. He watched with a smirk as Ron and Draco slowly got up from their seats and wondered to the edge. He remembered when he was affected by them, he wanted nothing more than to jump off the edge and join them on the field.
The Veela started to dance and Harry softly chuckled at the large goofy smile that was planted on Ron's face, he then looked over at Hermione who was looking back and forth between Ron and Harry, a confused look on her face.
"What's so funny?" Hermione asked, Harry chuckled and leaned forward to give her a light kiss on the lips.
"You know what Veela are right, love?" Harry asked in a whisper, she seemed to be thinking of a little while before she mouthed 'oh' then looked back at Ron and giggled.
When the Veela stopped dancing Ron seemed to snap out of his daze and look over at Harry who had a large smirk on his face.
"What?" Ron asked confused as he slowly walked back to his seat. Arthur leaned forward to Ron.
"Ron, I suggest next time the Veela start to sing you block your ears." Arthur said, "They have a… certain effect on males." he then looked over at Harry, "I don't understand why it didn't affect you though Harry."
"Oh it did… but I had Hermione right next to me, and personally she is much more attractive than any Veela." Harry said, Arthur smiled knowingly.
'Yes they really are in love if Hermione can stop a Veela from affecting him' Arthur thought to himself.
"And know I would like to welcome the Irish National Mascots onto the field!" Came Ludo's voice.
A green looking comet shot from the changing room, it had a gold tail that seemed to be floating down onto the crowd, which made them go wild. When the comet finally passed them, you could see that the comet was actually made up of about a thousand tiny little men, all dressed in green. When the tail passed hundreds of Galleons fell from it, bouncing off everyone's heads onto the ground.
"Leprechauns!" Mr Weasley exclaimed.
"HERE." came Ron's voice and he shoved a handful of galleons into Harry's hands. "That's pay back for the money you lent me last year." Harry nodded and took it; he didn't have the heart to tell Ron that the money would disappear.
Hermione bent down to start collecting the coins, but Harry stopped her, she looked at him in confusion before he explained.
"Leprechaun gold isn't real… it will vanish in about 28 hours." Harry explained, Hermione then nodded in understanding.
The comet then settled on the other side of the pitch form the Veela.
"And now ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team!" Ludo said, the Bulgarian side of the crowd cheered wildly.
"I GIVE YOU… DIMITROV!" Ludo said, a person dress in scarlet robes flashed out from the changing rooms at the bottom of the stadium.
"IVANOVA!"
Another player shot out, they were blurs since they were moving so fast.
"ZOGRAF!... LEVSKI!... VULCHANOV!" Ludo said, as the scarlet figures shot out into the field.
"AAAAAAANNNNDDD KKKRRUMMM!" the last figure that shot out got the loudest applause. Harry watched though his Omniocculars that he had brought for everyone the night before and scowled as the thin figure with a large nose flew around the pitch.
"And now I would like to welcome the Irish National Team to the field!" Ludo roared, this time the thousands of green flags were being waved into the air.
"I GIVE YOU… CONNOLLY!... RYAN!... TROY!... MULLET!... QUIGLEY!... AAANNNDDD THEIR SEEKER… LYNCH!" Ludo said, naming each player as they came out onto the field.
The game went exactly as Harry remembered it, Lynch getting ploughed when Krum performed the Wronski Feint. The Bulgarian side getting vicious when they were losing, giving off manly fouls for Ireland.
The uncalled beater hit that happened to break Krum's nose just before he once again caused Lynch to get Ploughed before he caught the snitch, ending the game Bulgaria 160, Ireland 170.
"Why the hell did he catch the snitch? They were too far behind!" Ron screamed out.
"He knew they were not going to win, so he ended it with him catching it not Lynch." Harry reasoned, Ron agreed with him.
"He looks pretty messed up." Ron commented looking though his Omniocculars. Harry then looked down and agreed. There was blood flowing from his nose, and his uniform looked covered in it.
"Come on guys! Let's head back to the camp!" Sirius said. They all nodded and left the box, talking rapidly to each other about the match.
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Well that it for now… Next chapter we will see how the fight at the world cup plays out…
Luke