Melody Riddle and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 7: The Quidditch World Cup

"Ready when you are, Ludo," the Minister said comfortably.

Ludo whipped his wand out, directed it at his own throat, and said "Sonorus!" to speak over the roar of the crowd like a microphone.

"There's a good spell," Draco muttered to me.

"Becky can beat that volume with her own voice," I sniggered, to which Draco chuckled in return.

"Ladies and gentlemen... welcome!" Ludo said over the crowd's excited screaming and clapping. "Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup! And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce... the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

A hundred women glided out onto the field... very beautiful women at that. I found myself glancing at Draco and Lucius, who were instantly captivated by them. Narcissa and I traded looks and burst into laughter. These creatures had to be veela, women who dazed the thoughts of men and made them want to do impressive things to get their attention.

"Good thing they have us with them to make sure they don't do something stupid," I muttered softly to her. She nodded with a big smile.

No wonder Draco is on Bulgaria's side – unless he doesn't know the mascots are veela, I thought as the music began to play and the veela started dancing. I watched Draco closely as his expression became blissfully happy. Well, wait until they stop and then he'll be devastated along with every other guy in this stadium.

When the veela started dancing faster, I could hear the minds of every single man in the stadium...... What can I do to make them notice me? Jumping from the box into the stadium sounds like a good idea... but is it enough? "Wow..." I mumbled, "How stupid." Draco started to stand, so I grabbed the back of his robes and sat him right back down. The music stopped and Draco broke out of his trance.

Angry shouts filled the stadium as the veela stopped and went to line up along one side of the field, and they were especially loud coming from Draco. I found myself plugging my ears as tight as possible with a wince.

"Come on! Let them dance a little m — ow!" Draco turned to glare at me after I had harshly pinched his arm. Somehow, upon looking at me, his expression had softened considerably from anger to calm. "What was that for?"

I smirked, "Need I remind you that we're here for Quidditch, not veela?"

"And now," Ludo roared, returning our attention back to the Quidditch pitch, "kindly put your wands in the air... for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

Next, what looked to be a green-and-gold comet came zooming in. It circled around the entire stadium and then split into two comets, each heading toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced across the field, connecting the two comets together. The whole crowd oooohed and aaaaahed at the display. The rainbow faded and the two comets flew to merge together, forming a great shimmering shamrock which soared over the stands. Gold coins fell down everywhere like golden rain.

Draco bent down and picked up a bunch of the gold. "Look, enough for each of us to get anything we want from Hogsmeade this year."

But why would they just give us free gold? I wondered to myself. My question was confirmed a second later. In the shamrock were thousands of leprechauns, tiny little bearded men with red vests that each carried a minute lamp of gold or green.

"Draco, it's leprechaun gold. It'll just disappear later," I whispered to him as the crowd gave tumultuous applause. He dropped it all back to the floor again.

"Of course...... at least the veela give you better entertainment."

I snorted, "True. Entertainment for the men, at least. For the women, the entertainment is the men in the stands being entertained by the veela."