"Are those… Veela?" Sirius asked, leaning forwards for a better view as a hundred silvery-haired witches in technically-modest-but-very-suggestive robes flowed out onto the field and began to dance to the Bulgarian Anthem. "Shit! They are Veela! I hope the Aurors are… are… why am I not feeling their allure?"
"Protective runes in the supports." Harry supplied. "Blocks or severely reduces spells and magical effects in either direction."
All the males turned to stare at Harry, who shifted uncomfortably under their gaze. "What?"
"You have a protective ward around the pitch?" Sirius asked, a grin forming on his face. "Nice one, pup."
"Is it just me, or do the Veela look disconcerted?" Hermione asked as she looked at the screen which was zoomed in on the leaders of the Veela cheerleaders. The women in question were looking around at the audience with confused expressions.
"They are." Remus agreed. "I would say that… are those Leprechauns?"
Harry looked up as what seemed to be a green-and-gold comet flew overhead, one that travelled the width of the pitch before seperating into two smaller comets that circled round, shedding what looked like golden sparkles over the cheering crowd.
"Jorel, turn the volume up, please." Sirius asked as the leprechauns finished their aeriel maneuvers which had culmunated in them taking the form of a giant shamrock.
"As you wish, sir." Jor-El replied and a line appeared on the screens set in strategic places around the Potter-Black private Box, extending to show that the volume was being raised, allowing the voice of former-Quidditch-player-turned-Ministry-Employee Ludo Bagman to make itself heard.
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"…and now the Bulgarian Team enter the pitch. I give you Dimitrov,
Ivanova, Zograf, Levski, Vulchanov and their Seeker, VICTOR KRUM!
"And now the Irish Team enter, it's Connolly, Ryan, Troy, Mullet, Moran,
Quigley and their Seeker, AIDAN LYNCH!
"And all the way from Egypt, our Referee. The acclaimed Chairwizard of
the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"
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"This looks like it will be quite a match." Albus noted from his chair set just beside and slightly lower than the Headmistress' Chair which Minerva McGonagall occupied. On Albus' shoulder, Fawkes chirped in agreement, then leaned forwards to take the candied cherry that Albus held up for him.
"You spoil that bird." Severus half-scoffed from his own chair, then he looked away from the pitch. "I see that Malfoy is paying close attention to the Chasers."
"I wonder if Lord Potter will be watching the Keepers or the Seekers." Flitwick mused before taking a swig from the mug that he held, a mug from which odd wisps of strangely-coloured vapor occasionally rose.
"…what exactly is that drink, if I may ask?" Albus asked curiously.
"Cavern Ale." Flitwick said before taking another swig. "The infusion of the foxglove petals gives it nicely tangy bite that contrasts very well with the arsenic."
Snape gave the earthenware jar by Flitwick's chair a long, suspicious look.
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"…and they're offff! It's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet!..."
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"Holy…" Harry gasped as he moved closer to the edge of the box for a better view as the Chasers passed the Quaffle between each other at blurring speeds. The Chasers wove between each other even as they spun to avoid the Bludgers and when Harry glanced across at the screen showing a map of the match, the purple strobing that indicated possession of the Quaffle didn't have enough time to settle on any of the dots before it was in motion again. A tiny sparkle of gold briefly appeared, only to vanish again as the Snitch made a brief showing.
"That's… incredible." Hermione breathed as she joined Harry, then she grinned. "Even you would find it hard to prevent them from scoring a…"
"GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL"
The holographic scoreboards updated to show that Ireland had managed to get the Quaffle past Zograf with Troy having been the one to get it through the hoop.
"Incredible!" Hermione repeated as Levski rose with the Quaffle in his hand, the other two Bulgarian Chasers moving into formation as he rejoined them.
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"I have a lot of practise ahead of me if I want to be as good as they are." Draco noted.
"I'm still somewhat surprised you haven't decided to try out as a Seeker." Blaise Zabini said as he joined the blond, a silver-engraved goblet in his hand. "After all, our current one is rubbish."
"Maybe you should try." Draco shrugged as Dimitrov flew past so closely that the wind of his passage briefly ruffled Draco's hair. "I've had Crabbe and Goyle professionally taught over the summer, now that they've been trained in the basics, they're surprisingly good at being Beaters. Nowhere near the Weasley Twins, but certainly able to generally hold their own against the other two Houses."
Blaise looked at the back corner where the two boys in question were sat, staring dully at one of the screens showing the match while swigging from Butterbeer bottles. Draco caught his disbelieving expression and half-smirked.
"Tell me, do you know what the phrase Idiot Savant means?"
"Wise fool." Blaise replied without thinking, then he paused. "No."
"Yes." Draco's smirk widened at Blaise's disbelieving expression.
"Them?!"
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"…Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova… oh I say!"
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Hermione yelped in shock as Krum sliced down through the Chasers, Lynch so close behind that they almost seemed to be sharing a single, long broomstick.
"They're going to crash!" Hermione yelled just as Krum spun to flare his robes out, then pulled up so sharply that his broomstick seemed to actually go backwards for a fraction of a second. Caught by surprise, Lynch hesistated an instant too long before following suit and while Krum pulled up successfully with a foot or so to spare, Lynch slammed into the turf, bouncing and rolling to a stop.
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"…and it's a timeout! Lynch just got ploughed by Krum who pulled
a perfect Wronski Feint…"
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"Good thing those models are so resilient." Pettigrew noted as he and Crouch stared at the motionless model resting on the tabletop. "That looked nasty, even via models… he's back up!"
The small model of Lynch rose up, wobbling slightly, then lifted into the air, briefly rejoining his team before continuing to ascend.
"Krum is good." Barty raised his glass of Dr Pepper to salute the Bulgarian seeker who was circling above the midpoint of the pitch.
"Go Bulgaria!" Peter cheered.
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"That must have hurt!" Diana Prince stated as she and the other four Obscurials watched the match that was projected holographically in front of them, their gazes flicking between the immaterial pitch and the screens showing close-ups of the different players.
"Quidditch players are tough." Peter Pan said admiringly as they watched the Irish Seeker return to the game, only slightly bruised from his unplanned contact with the ground and Amanda nodded in agreement with the youngest boy.
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"That was…" Cornelius Fudge shook his head in amazement. "Krum is very good."
"Vunce he finishes at Durmstrang, he vill be joining national team full time." Stefan smirked. "He is already great Seeker and vill soon be even better."
"He is already a credit to your country." Fudge offered and Stefan's smirk turned into a proper smile.
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"Looks like the Irish are going to win." Dominic noted, glancing at the scoreboard which showed that the Irish team was almost at the point of guaranteed victory irrespective of who caught the Snitch.
"Looks that way." Sirius agreed, glancing sideways to where Estelle Pritchard and Emma Granger were laughing about something.
"The Bulgarian Keeper seems really off his game today." Remus mused and Sirius shook his head.
"Nope. For Bulgaria, their Keeper's always been their weak point, mainly because they don't really see that position as important. The Bulgarians concentrate primarily on offence and Snitch-hunting which is why they tend to win, but the Irish prefer counter-plays, meaning that they are one of the few teams who can actually hold their own, but it leaves them vulnerable to the opposing Seeker until they get enough of a lead and… there goes Krum!"
The entire box went silent as Krum hurtled past, diving in a swoop that ended a bare foot above the grass, then he pulled up, one hand held high to show tha he had the Snitch.
"Did he…" Sirius began, then he looked at the score. "No, Ireland managed to sneak in one last goal. But why did he…?"
"The Bulgarian team are not that good in long games." Dominic supplied. "They go for speed and strength, but it costs them stamina. Their chasers were already showing signs of starting to flag, so Krum decided to end it on his terms."
"He's right." Remus added. "Did you see Volkov's last strike? He clipped the Bludger rather than striking it."
"I… missed that." Sirius admitted.
"As did I." Harry agreed. "But… it's probably a good thing I wasn't planning to become a professional Quidditch player. I don't think I could have blocked at least half of those shots."
"You could probably have blocked more than Zograf did." Hermione mused as she wiped her forehead. "But… wow! What a match!"
Almost everyone nodded as the Irish leprechauns rose into the air, forming a floating Shamrock once more to the background of cheering from the Irish fans and the rising complaints and boos of the Bulgarian followers, a rising swell of anger that suddenly subsided as a platoon of red-cloaked Aurors flew overhead.
"Wow!" Graham gasped. "They're flying just like Omni-Man!"
"How are they doing that?" Luna Lovegood asked, her eyes wide as she pointed up and Sirius smirked.
"It's a thing that my new company, BlackWolf Industries, came up with." He replied. "Moony and I reverse-engineered the belt and stuff that Moldyshorts used to fly without brooms and we made a better version. The DMLE now equip all of the Aurors with them, allowing them to fly while using both hands for whatever they need doing, although they still use broomsticks when speed is of the essence."
"True." Remus agreed. "Broomsticks have special runes engraved on their core wood that allows them to go fast and the longer the runic line is, the faster the broom. Oh, there are several tricks used, such as seperating the control arrays and placing them to flank the core rather than be attached to the front, but for a broomstick to go faster than, say, forty miles per hour, it has to be at least four foot long. There was just no way to duplicate that with the greaves, belt and bracers."
Luna drifted off, looking very thoughtful and Domonic stepped forwards.
"BlackWolf ?"
"Yep." Sirius nodded. "My godson's company needed some competition that wasn't the Malfoys. Between BlackWolf Industries, Evans Enterprises and the Malfoy Family's White Wing Artificers,we now effectively own the Wizarding world… well, the parts of it that aren't government controlled. Heck, we even arranged to have the Hog's Head expanded in exchange for a share."
"Which really just means that Sirius and I get our drinks there free." Remus noted.
"And Abe's producing a lot more of his Butterbeer." Sirius added. "Did you know that the Malfoys own the brewery that makes the regular Butterbeer?"
"…explains why when we were at Hogwarts, Lucius always had several crates ready to share whenever he wanted something from those older than him." Estelle mused from behind them.
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"Dolores?"
"Yes, Minister?" The Undersecretary in question simpered as Cornelius Fudge strode past her towards his office. "Is there a problem? I thought that you would still be at the after-party with the Bulgarian Minister."
"He had to head back to officially confirm the promotion of Durmstrang's Acting Headmaster to the position of official Headmaster as part of his preparation for the Tri-Wizard." Fudge replied as he settled himself behind his desk. "I think I remember something about it, but I'm not sure… who was the previous Headmaster?"
"That would have been Karkaroff, sir." Dolores supplied and Fudge snapped his fingers as the memory surfaced.
"Ah, yes! The Death Eater who repented and testified against the others… well, those who didn't claim to have been Imperioused… like Malfoy."
Dolores carefully remained silent, hiding her opinion on that particular matter.
"By the way, how are Crouch and Bagman doing with the arrangements for the Tri-Wizard?"
Dolores managed not to sneer as she answered.
"They are doing quite well, although I believe that it is mainly due to their new assistant… Weatherby, I think his name is."
"The importance of competent assistants is often under-appreciated." Fudge declared. "If he needs any help…"
"I shall endevour to free up some of my time should it be required." Dolores offered without hesitation.
"Dolores, I sometimes wonder what I would do without you."
"Let us hope you never need to find out, sir."
"Indeed."
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Authors Afternote – Flitwick's Cavern Ale contains at least two poisonous ingredients, meaning it would probably be fatal to humans (although Hagrid would likely enjoy it…).
To all those reading this, do not be tempted to use either Foxglove (aka Digitalis) or Arsenic anywhere near food. There is a reason that powdered foxglove is not sold in health-food stores and why Arsenic is not found in a shaker next to the salt and pepper.