The stadium was packed with spectators all buzzing around excitedly before the Quidditch World Cup even began. The skies were now dark but the arena was brightly lit till the point it was even blinding to the eye! Aine climbed the stairs, led by Arthur Weasley who turned his head to check on the kids to make sure they were following closely. Hundreds, thousands of witches and wizard all over the globe were slowly making their way to their seats.
Aine gaped at the sight of the long flight of stairs ahead, they had just passed one-third of the stadium, and there were still lots of steps more to go. She looks down, from the railings as she stared at the oval velvety field, still empty but the music playing was hyping everyone up. Gaining strength, the party persevered until they were almost a third away from their destination.
"Blimey, dad! How far up are we?" Ron gasps, taking a couple of pants to catch his breath up. Mr Weasley glanced down, smiling encouragingly at the party, "We're almost there! Right, Elliot?"
"Definitely. We're just a couple steps away from our seats!" Aine's father replies, reassuring the lot who groans, clearly exhausted from eating a little too much earlier during dinner. He pats Aine's back and the girl continued to move on, "This is just exercise!" He added.
"I don't need exercise!" Ron mumbles and Elliot places a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it light while chuckling.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Weasleys and Estoileons." A voice chimed in from behind, and all heads turned to the voice.
"Malfoy." Arthur greeted with a solemn nod, while Elliot gave a polite smile. "My goodness, it's such a pity that you're all positioned high above. Must be tough going to watch the show. Perhaps if you don't mind, I could offer you a lower seat?" Lucius suggests, amused at the sight of the gingers whose faces were slowly darkening.
"I appreciate the kind offer, Malfoy, but I think we'll be fine up there," Mr Weasley replies with a forced smile, wanting to move on before his emotions get the best of him. He wanted his family to enjoy the match as close as possible but his pride didn't allow it, and looking at the faces of his family, he was sure that they didn't want such pitied offer.
Lucius hums, "Well, put it this way, then... If it rains— You'll be the first one to know."
"I'm sure we could all handle a bit of rain, don't we all?" Elliot added, and Aine, Harry and Hermione nodded.
The Malfoy clicks his tongue, eyes darting at Aine's father, and she could have sworn she heard a nasty remark from Draco's father saying, 'How unpleasant that the Estoileons have sunk into shame'.
The girl tried to say something, but Elliot firmly pats her shoulders, and she turned to him who smiled. Instead, Aine looks to Lucius, and a nasty thought crept up in her mind, and dare she glared at him which causes him to frown before her eyes locked onto the boy behind him.
"Father, Mother and I were invited into the minister's box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge, himself!" He brags gleefully with a smug, attempting to impress Aine. However, the girl wasn't. She never liked people boasting of their status over those who were— less privileged.
"Hmm," Aine murmurs ere her eyes drift to the woman approaching the Malfoys from behind. "Why hello there, Aine," he added before noticing the girl's attention drawn away to his mother. The boy smirks. "I bet you haven't met my mother, huh."
The Weasley children, Hermione, Harry and Aine look at the lady, her black hair was framed with strips of platinum blonde, just like her husband and son's hair. Her lips were painted in a dark shade of burgundy red and she grinned. She was... Very poised and elegant. Well, where's the surprise in that since they're a well-known noble wizarding family. Her family looked at her proudly, "This is my wife, Narcissa Malfoy," Lucius introduced.
There was an awkward silence and even the adults were stunned. No one dared to say a word, until Aine finally gave in, annoyed with the quietness. Was it so hard just to greet someone? Where are her friends' manners? She retreated from her thought and turns to Draco's mother, and bowed her head gracefully, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Malfoy."
Mrs Malfoy blinked back her surprise and she smiles at the girl, "It certainly is," she then looks to Elliot, "You've raised a very courteous daughter, Elliot." Narcissa complimented and Aine's father gazes at his little girl, "She is," he tells her, proud of his daughter.
She walks to Aine and her eyes soften, "What is your name, Miss Estoileon?" Narcissa asks and the girl replies, "Aine. Aine Estoileon."
"What a beautiful name." Mrs Malfoy noted before looking at the rest of the children, "I hope you enjoy your time here. And... Try not to embarrass yourselves while you're at it." She remarked and Harry squinted at her.
"See you soon, Weasley, Elliot." She bids them, "Come, Lucius, Draco." and the two Malfoys gave the party one last look before joining her back in greeting the ministers and other well-known spectators that were personally invited just like them.
Draco raises his brows and smirks at Harry and Ron, "See you in school!" he says harshly before shifting to Aine, and his eyes soften.
"See you soon, Miss Estoileon," said Draco in a low alluring voice, one that made Elliot glance at the Malfoy boy grimly.
Once they were gone from their sights, Ron burst out, "Damn, what in the bloody baron was that all about?" Mr Weasley instantly whips his head at his son, "Ronald", he warns before Fred smirks, "Yeah, Ronald! Language."
"Oh shut it, Fred!"
"BOYS."
"Sorry, dad. Was trying to correct our little brother's foul mouth."
Arthur groans, he wondered how was he able to control these boys of his for a decade and a half. The answer is, well— He didn't. Molly Weasley was the one who managed to break the bickering the children had, and it was such a shame she wasn't around.
Elliot pats the Weasley father before taking the lead up to their seats, the game was starting almost any moment now, so it'll be best if they quickly head to their places. "Come on, everybody", he turns the group before they picked up the pace and hurry.
Once they were there, Aine's eyes went wide, "Wow... This is pretty high, huh?"
"Scared, Aine?" Harry asks and the girl scoffs, "Of course not! It gives me the adrenaline."
Aine held onto the railings, leaning forward and beaming at the passionate spectators, lights were beaming in every direction, and the whole stadium was filled with colours of greens and reds and they were divided between fans of the Bulgarian team, and the Irish. Ballons soared through the stadium and started to float above Aine to the dark sky.
"Arthur! Elliot! Over here!" Mr Diggory calls out, waving at the team who just climbed up. "Thank goodness, you guys aren't late!" He added and Mr Weasley chuckles, "Met with some troubles just now."
"Hahahaha, well, come sit down!"
"Come on you lot!"
"Hey Cedric," Harry called and the Amos Diggory's son nodded his head, extending a hand out to him which Harry took, before leading him and his friends to their seats next to him.
Aine could hear the roaring cheers from both the audience and Weasleys, Hermione was brightly waving the Irish team's flag while Harry was clapping enthusiastically. It was just so amazing to see everything right then and there. "This is bloody awesome!" she beams excitedly.
"Language!" Fred commented and she whips her head to him, darting playfully at the ginger-head boy.
"HERE COMES THE IRISH!" a voice boomed through the speakers, and from behind, a voice shouted, "Duck!"
Everyone from the highest floor quickly dodged their heads as a group of players zipped behind them, "WOOOOOHOOO!"
"IT'S THE IRISH!"
"THERE'S TROY!" Fred pointed, "AND MULLET!" George adds.
"AND MORAN!" Harry appends, cheering and clapping loudly.
Ron quickly captures a picture of the Irelands before looking at the players swooping the stands while emitting green and white smoke. He stood there, dazed and his lips curled, "Bloody hell."
The Irish National Quidditch team soars through the stadium, setting fireworks through the pitch. The fire crackles and explodes into another firework, causing a chain of illuminations that made the audience wild before it morphs into the team's mascot which was a Leprechaun. It skipped, clapping its feet and waved to everyone, then it made a silly dance which caused a wave of laughter, and a ripple of shamrock glistens down to the stadium, Aine, alongside Ginny stretched their hands, hoping to grab a piece. They giggled, onto to find it exploding into tiny fireworks.
Slowly descending, the Irish team swooped past the stands once more, and faces of the members flashed onto the screens— Chasers: Mullet, Troy and Moran, Beaters: Connolly, Quigley, Keeper: Barry Ryan and Seeker and Captain: Aidan Lynch.
"WOOOOOOOOO!" Harry exclaims, excited to see the Ireland team's seeker.
"AND WELCOME! HERE COMES THE BULGARIANS!" the commentator shouts and the Weasley twins repeated his words, yelling at the top of their lungs as the Bulgarian Quidditch Team zooms through the Leprechaun, making the image explode into a thousand stars. The players face were serious and their grins reflected their confidence.
The Bulgarian team passes the Irish, and the two captains exchanged a mutual nod before the team shoots through the crowd, and the audience applauded as a player from the Bulgarian team swiftly moves his broom backwards and did a mid-air flip with one hand holding onto his broom.
"Who is that!" Ginny exclaims, hooked at the sight of the impressive stuns the man had just done.
"That, my sister, is the Bulgarian team's seeker, Viktor Krum!" George replies, "Woah!" Aine claps, as the Bulgarian seeker did another flip before joining smoothly back with his team, circling the arena.
"KRUM! KRUM! KRUM! KRUM! KRUM!" The audience cheers, as a section of the stands reveals the cards, and all of the planks are added together with an image of Viktor Krum, fisting the air with such charismatic gaze that was enough to make most of the females swoon over him.
"WOOOOOOHOOOOO!" Aine and her friends went on fire, jumping up and down, waving both teams' flags and hurrahed, filled with anticipation and shock.
The crowd soon silenced down when a voice echoed through the stadium, "Welcome! Welcome, everybody! Good evening!" A man announce from the lower stands, and Aine peered over Ron's shoulders, catching a glimpse of a man wearing a bowler hat, with his wand pointed to his neck, "As Minister of Magic, it gives me great pleasure to welcome— each and every one of you— to the final of the 422nd Quidditch World cup! Let the games— BEGIN!" He says happily, shooting a spark through his wand to the pitch and with that, the match began as the players lined up opposite of each team.
Hassan Mostafa, the referee joined the teams on the pitch, he places a bouncing crate onto the ground before looking at both teams, eyeing at every member, "Ready?" he asks and the team captains nodded, eyes focusing on the crate.
Mostafa kicks the crate and four balls emerged into the air— A scarlet, leather Quaffle, two black Buldgers that sped out of sight, and the smallest ball, Golden Snitch that is also the most crucial out of all the balls.
"3... 2... 1!"
The four balls were shot through the air as the whistle blew off, and the players sped away, with the chasers trying to catch the quaffle, the commentator went, "Mullet's got it! Oh, it's Troy! Moran! Ahhhhhhhh Dimitrov has got the quaffle! No! It's back to Moran! Troy! Dimitrov snatch! And ohhhhhhhh! Levski! AND. BACK. TO. MULLETTTTTT!"
Watching the players play was super tedious since they were all zooming around with such incredible speed that was unable to be seen with their eyes. But the loud cheers from the crowd only meant that the game was becoming more intense. And boy, Aine was invested. She was seen cheering rather loudly when the Irish team's Seeker darted through the Bulgarian's Beaters with the Quaffle before drawing away Ivanova through the grounds of quidditch stands.
Troy sweeps past the stand, causing an array of cheers and claps before dropping the Quaffle in his hand to Moran. The other Irish chaser picked up his pace, avoiding the bludgers his teammates had sent to the opponent group. He groans as soon as the Bulgarian team's beater, Volkov whacked a Bludger with his bat towards Moran's broom causing his amazing speed to be stopped abruptly. There was a wave of 'BOO's' and 'YEAH' among the audience, and Aine for one who was cheering for the Irish's team was outraged, "HEY! THAT WASN'T FAIR! I WAS ENJOYING HOW WELL AND FAST HE WAS!" she yells on top of her voice, surprising her friends.
But her rage soon dissolved away as she started screaming with joy when Moran drops the Quaffle to Levski who caught it—
"TROY SCORES!" Bagman roared through the speakers and the stadium erupted with applause and cheers as the Irish Chaser did a lap of honour as he circled the fields. "GO TROY!!" Ginny cheers and Aine squeals as she blew a kiss to the chaser who winked at the spectators.
"Ten zero to Ireland!" The commentator announced and Harry looks at the team players who kept going, bewildered, he asked, "Wait! Why?! Levski caught the Quaffle!"
"Harry! If you're not going to watch at normal speed, you're going to miss things!" Hermione shouted, dancing up and down as she waved her hands in the air with the Ireland flag. Furious, the boy quickly dialled the speed of his Omnioculars back to normal as he resumed watching the game.
The Irish team was amazing with their team play and coordination, it was just perfect and seamless as if they were each reading each others' minds, which was probably true. However, the Bulgarian team was also superb and not to be taken lightly as their passion surged through their play. Within ten minutes, the Ireland team had already scored two more goals, bringing the score to Thirty-Zero, causing the fans of the Irish team to cheer even louder than before.
As the game went on longer, the goals that were scored grew faster and the match was hyping everyone up. However, it was also becoming more brutal as the Bulgarian Chasers started swinging the Bludgers aggressively to the Irish Chasers— Mullet, Troy and Moran. Every whack sent Aine flinching as the ripping sound of the Bludger hitting onto the players was harsher. She imagined their bones breaking as soon as the impact falls onto their body and grimace at the thought of having to reform their bones with the infamous Skelegrow.
"My my! This match is getting even spicier, aye? And OH!! Valchanov's hit had caused the bees to scatter! WHAT A TURN OF EVENTS!" Bagman shouted as the Bulgarian's Beater shot the Buldger to the Ireland team before it hits Quigley, one of the Irish Beater's side, causing the man to be thrown towards the stands until he couldn't hang on from the pain. Aine watches as his eyes falter before rolling up and falling from his broom from such height. Nevertheless, he landed softly and fell slowly from the spell: Arresto Momentum, one she knew well from the match that saved Harry in her second year at Hogwarts.
The match went on, despite an injured member who soon continued after being treated by the Healers, gaining a loud encouraging ovation from the audience. Ivanova yells as he broke through the Irish's formation, avoiding the Keeper, Ryan and at last: scoring Bulgarian's first goal.
"Ten-Thirty to the Bulgarians!" declared Bagman.
Harry immediately shouted "YEAAAAHHH!! YOU GO, IVANOVA!!"
"GO BULGARIANS! GO BULGARIANS!!" Ron chimed in yelling, a broad smile on his face.
After scoring their first goal, the Bulgarian team started picking up their pace, motivated by their first point. With a fierce battle between each team's Chasers as they started snatching the Quaffle from their opponent's reach. While the Chasers and Beaters were working hard to overtake their competitor and the Keepers who were focused on making sure they block their respective goals. The Seekers chase was equally intriguing to watch, there were gasps from watching both team's seekers: Captain and Seeker Lynch and Seeker Krum dived down, head first in a terrifying speed.
"SEEKERS LYNCH AND KRUM ARE FLYING DOWN AT SUCH A RATE! ARE THEY GOING TO CATCH IT! ARE THEY GOING TO CRASH!"
"They're going to crash!" Hermione screams, covering her eyes beside Harry who gulped. "I can't watch this!" Aine winces next to Ginny who frowns, peeking with one eye to see what was happening. "I hope he can crash into my arms instead! Not the ground!" The Weasley's little sister exclaimed.
"Oh, Godric! Oh, Godric— Ginny, what's happened?" Aine asks her friend who replies "I can't see it too, can you see it?"
"Nope. I'm busy closing my eyes. I don't want to see the gore, even though it piques my interest to see it!" Aine answered, her face contorting as she waited for the awful thud to happen. Yet, it didn't. "Is he dead?" she asks but Ginny simply gasped, smacking wildly on Aine's arm.
"What? What is it!"
"OPEN YOUR EYES!!"
Aine peeks from one of her eyes before it widened and her mouth went into an 'O' shape as she witness the feign Krum had done as he pulled his broom as hard as he can before the crash. Aiden Lynch, however, wasn't so lucky. Aine watched as his face shifted to shock when the distance between him and the ground was closing in. Aine quickly shuts her eyes again before seeing what could happen, but the loud dull thud was more shuddering to hear.
The stadium grew silent and audible gasps could be heard, "Oh f—" Aine curses before a huge groan rose from the Irish stands.
"Is he—"
"No, Aine. He's very much alive." came a voice she didn't expect to hear, she opens her eyes to see Cedric who smirked at her.
"Oh, like you?" she questions him, not daring enough to see the Irish Seeker.
"Well, perhaps?" Cedric replies.
"That's a question you're asking me and I don't even know."
"Hmm."
"Aine, look!" Hermione pointed but she shook her head, "No! I'm not going to see it!"
"It's Troy!"
"WHERE?" Aine whips her head back immediately that it made a little crack sound from her neck, she looks at the Irish Chaser with a forced smile, "Ow, that hurt."
"Dear lord, Aine! Calm yourself!" Ron tells her, worry in his tone.
"I don't want to be hearing that from you, Ronald," she replies, jerking her head to one side as another cracking sound was heard within her neck and her friends who looked at her worriedly and in disbelief. "That's better, now!" She added.
Ron cringed and the twins looked to her, one with wonder and the other frightened. "You're a little scary, Aine... You know that, right?" Ron says to her.
"Mmhm. Good to know my plan is working!" She replies, eyes glued back onto the match.
"Wait. What plan?" Harry questions, which Aine simply shrugged and grins to her friend, "Secret!" she whispers loudly.
Her friends stared at her dumbfounded, fearing and interesting them before she looks at them all, "Aren't you lot going to watch the game? Because the Irish just scored another two more goals."
A series of 'WHAT?!' came from her bunch of friends, quickly turning back to the field.
─── ⋆⋅☀⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☀⋅⋆ ───
Oh, my gosh. You have no idea how infuriating this chapter was to write! I seriously spent two weeks writing it because I didn't know how to write the Quidditch World Cup Match scenes and procrastinated quite a bit! Since the actual movies cut quite a lot of scenes of the actual match, I thought it'll be fun to write it here! I hope it doesn't seem weird in this chapter!
I really tried my best! Hehehe >///<
- Zeneria