ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀ 4

under pressure

"What? Why not?" Harry frowned. "What's wrong with him?"

"Freedom is getting to his head, Harry Potter, sir," Winky told him sagely. "He is wanting paying for his work!"

Harry frowned, befuddled. "Shouldn't he?"

"Oh, no," Winky moaned. "House elves is not paid, sir. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks. I says to Dobby, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby, but he does not listen." She shook her little head. "I am good elf. I is not liking heights at all, sir, but master sends me to Top Box and I come, sir."

"Who is your master?" Hermione asked, looking quite furious. "Why would he ask you to come here?"

"Winky's master is Mister Barty Crouch, miss!" Winky told her excitably. "He says to save him a seat, so Winky stays and sits, because she is a good house elf."

Hermione looked ready to argue, but Ron nudged her. "Don't bother. I've heard they're all like this. Well, except Dobby."

"Yeah," Harry grimaced. "Dobby was weirder."

We focused back on the match, though Hermione kept looking at Winky from beside me. I was watching the advertisements go by, and was pleased to see a familiar face.

"There's Angela!" I exclaimed, pointing at her face next to Angela's Fabulous Faces: Want the face of your dreams? We'll make it fabulous!

"That's Angela?" Ron gawked, and he wasn't the only one. The twins also looked mildly stunned as they looked at her.

"Jeez, Lila. You didn't mention your dad's girlfriend was an angel," Fred said. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Oh please, it's in her name. And besides, she's way too old for you."

"Everyone ready?" Ludo Bagman suddenly stood, shining with excitement. "Minister?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo," said Fudge. Ludo nodded and pulled his wand from his pocket to direct it as his throat. He muttered "Sonorus," and began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen . . . welcome!" His voice boomed like a speaker over the entire stadium and the crowd fell silent. "Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

The spectators in the crowd began to cheer and clap. Thousands of flags rose from the crowd and waved about while national anthems were screamed over each other. The advertisement board in front of us cleared and changed to a scoreboard reading BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce...the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

On the right of the stands, being completely red, there was a roar of cheers and clapping. Remembering the veela Angela told me about, I was excited to see what they looked like. "I've heard they brought veela!"

"What are veel -?" Harry began to say, but stopped when he saw them glide out onto the field. Looking on, I saw that they were indeed very lovely creatures, with shimmery skin and bouncy, luxurious hair. Music began to play, and suddenly, the veela began to dance with grace that I'd never seen before.

It took everything to tear my eyes away as I looked to Hermione and Ginny, expecting looks of equal fascination. However, their eyes were trained disapprovingly on Harry and Ron, who were leaning forward looking utterly spellbound. The boys suddenly stood up, looking as if they were about to jump off into the stadium. Harry placed his foot on the wall, looking determined.

The music stopped suddenly, and Harry blinked back into reality, looking very dazed.

"Huh?" Ron said, looking equally confused. "Why'd they stop?"