Courage

-42-

"I wonder what they've brought," said Mr Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"

A hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field. Veela were extremely beautiful women. Their skin shone moon-bright and their white-gold hair fanned out behind them without wind.

The music started. The veela had started to dance. They danced faster and faster. Layla rolled her eyes, envy forming in her at the effortless beauty of the veela. Layla had to put in so much effort to look pretty, and veela put in no effort at all. Layla's envy only grew, though, when she saw almost all of the Weasley boys, plus Harry, entrances by the veela.

Bill's eyes had gone wide, and he looked completely entranced. Fred and George were leaning so far forward on the walls of the Top Box, Layla was scared they might fall off. Ron had got up, his eyes glazed over, with his arms in front of him as if he was about to dive into a swimming pool. Charlie, however, was humming along to the music, apparently paying no attention to the veela.

"Ron? Ron!" a voice shrieked. Layla turned to see Hermione waving her hand in front of Ron's face. "Ron, snap out of it!"

Layla jumped, looking away from Ron and Hermione and turning to Harry. Harry had gotten up as well and put his foot on the wall of the Box.

"Harry, what are you doing?" said Layla, bemused.

The music stopped. All of the boys seemed to snap out of it, but still, angry yells were filling the stadium from all over. The crowd didn't want the veela to go. Ron was absentmindedly shredding the shamrocks on his Ireland hat. Mr Weasley, smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and tugged the hat out of his hands.

"You'll be wanting that," he said, "once Ireland have had their say."

"Huh?" said Ron, staring openmouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field.

Hermione made a loud tutting noise, glaring at Ron, an unknown look in her eyes, while Layla reached up and pulled Harry back into his seat.

"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air... for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light. The crowd oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display. Now the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands. Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it.

"Excellent!" yelled Ron as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Layla realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.

"Leprechauns!" said Mr Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.

"There you go," Ron yelled happily, stuffing a fistful of gold coins into Harry's hand, "for the Omnioculars! Now you've got to buy me a Christmas present, ha!"

The great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome — the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you — Dimitrov!"

A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.