Chasing Love

Chapter Forty-Eight - The Quidditch World Cup

Mr Weasley led the way, as they hurried into the woods, following the lantern lit trail. All  you could hear was the sounds of thousands of people moving around them, shouts, laughter and singing. The atmosphere was so infectious that everyone couldn't help but grin. It took them about twenty minutes to walk through the woods until they found themselves at the bottom of a gigantic stadium. "Seats a hundred thousand. Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year. Muggle Repelling Charms on every inch of it. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again. Bless them,"Mr Weasley informed them as they walked towards the nearest entrance.  

"Prime seats!" the Ministry witch told them at the entrance when she checked their tickets. "Top Box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, and as high as you can go." 

The stairs into the stadium were a rich purple carpet, they climbed upward with the rest of the crowds which slowly filtered away through doors into the stands to their left and right. At last, they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box, at the highest point of the stadium and it was exactly halfway between the golden goal posts. There was about twenty purple chairs in two rows, and they filled in the front row. 

A hundred thousand witches and wizards were taking their places in the seats, the field looked smooth as velvet and at either end of the field there were three goal hoops, fifty feet high. There was also a large blackboard, advertisements kept flashing up on the screen in gold writing. 

"'A display from the team mascots will precede the match,'" Hermione read out.

"Oh that's always worth watching," Mr Weasley said, "National teams bring creatures from their native land, you know, to put on a bit of a show." 

The box filled gradually over the next half an hour, Mr Weasley kept shaking hands with very important wizard. Percy would jump up every time which gave him no time to actually sit down, when Cornelius Fudge arrived, the Minister of Magic, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered. Humiliated, he repaired them with his wand and then stayed in his seat for the rest of time, sending jealous looks at Harry, who Fudge greeted like an old friend, asked how he was and then introduced him to the wizards either side of him. "Harry Potter, you know," he told the Bulgarian minister loudly, who was wearing splendid robes of black velvet trimmed with gold and didn't seem to understand a word of English. "Harry Potter, oh come on now, you know who he is, the boy who survived You-Know-Who, you do know who he is -" The Bulgarian wizard suddenly saw Harry's scar and started to point excitedly at it. "Knew we'd get there in the end. I'm no great shakes at languages; I need Barty Crouch for this sort of thing. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat. Good job too, these Bulgarian blighters have been trying to cadge all the best places, ah, and here's Lucius!"

Eliza turned to see Lucius, Narcissa and Draco walk in, "Ah, Fudge," Mr Malfoy held his hand out, "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"

"How do you do, how do you do?"Fudge bowed to Narcissa. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr. Oblansk - Obalonsk - Mr. - well, he's the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, and he can't understand a word I'm saying anyway, so never mind. And let's see who else - you know Arthur Weasley, I daresay?" Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy looked at each other.

"Good lord, Arthur. What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?"

Fudge who hadn't been listening then said, "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest."

"How - how nice," Mr Weasley replied.

As the three walked past, Narcissa placed a hand on Eliza's shoulder, "You've grown up so much, we've missed seeing you dear."