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chapter twenty one | basic instinct
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THE SPEED OF THE PLAYERS WAS INSANE — nothing like Maddie had ever seen before. The Chasers were throwing the Quaffle to one another so fast that Bagman only had time to say their names.
Maddie wasn't feeling as badly about not having Omnioculars now — watching the players with their rapid speed was much more exhilarating rather than analysing their every move.
"TROY SCORES!" Bagman roared, and Maddie let out a loud, excited cheer alongside her friends. "Ten zero to Ireland!"
"What?" Harry yelled, looking wildly around through his Omnioculars. "But Levski's got the Quaffle!"
"That's 'cause you're not watching at normal speed, you bell-end!" Maddie told him, although her eyes were elsewhere as Troy was now doing a lap of honour around the field.
The leprechauns watching from the sidelines had all risen into the air again and formed the great, glittering shamrock. Across the field, the veela were watching them sulkily.
"Can't believe you missed that goal, Harold," Maddie turned to the boy, who was now spinning his speed dial back to normal with an irritated look on his face.
Ron laughed at the nickname 'Harold'.
Within ten minutes, Ireland had scored twice more, bringing their lead to thirty-zero and causing a thunderous tide of roars and applause from the green-clad supporters.
The match soon became not only faster, but more brutal. Volkov and Vulchanov, the Bulgarian Beaters, were whacking the Bludgers as fiercely as possible at the Irish Chasers, and were starting to prevent them from using some of their best moves — twice they were forced to scatter, and then, finally, Ivanova managed to break through their ranks, dodge the Keeper, Ryan, and score Bulgaria's first goal.
"Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova — oh I say!" roared Bagman, as Bulgaria were now back in possession.
One hundred thousand wizards gasped as the two Seekers, Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from airplanes without parachutes.
"Krum! That's their only good player!" Maddie yelled. "Break his legs! Beat a bludger at him!"
"No! Don't shit on Krum!" Ron shouted in reply.
"You need to remember where your loyalties lie, Ronald," Maddie told him, shaking the shamrock hat on top of his head.
"They're going to crash!" Hermione exclaimed.
She was half right — at the very last second, Viktor Krum pulled out of the dive and spiraled off. Lynch, however, hit the ground with a dull thud that could be heard throughout the stadium. A huge groan rose from the Irish seats.
"He's so fucking bad!" Maddie said.
"Who?" Ron frowned, turning to her with the impression that she was still talking about Krum.
"Lynch! Always bottling it. Don't know why he's captain, or why Lee thinks the sun shines out of his ass,"
"It's time-out!" yelled Bagman's voice. "As trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"
Krum was using the time while Lynch was revived to look for the Snitch without interference — which was stressing Maddie out.
Lynch got to his feet at last, to loud cheers from the green-clad supporters, before mounting his Firebolt, and kicking back off into the air. His revival seemed to give Ireland new heart. After fifteen more fast and furious minutes, Ireland had pulled ahead by ten more goals. They were now leading by one hundred and thirty points to ten, and the game was starting to get dirtier.
As Mullet shot toward the goal posts yet again, clutching the Quaffle tightly under her arm, the Bulgarian Keeper, Zograf, flew out to meet her. Whatever happened was over so quickly Maddie didn't catch it, but a scream of rage from the Irish crowd, and Mostafa's long, shrill whistle blast, told her it had been a foul.
"And Mostafa takes the Bulgarian Keeper to task for cobbing — excessive use of elbows!" Bagman informed the roaring spectators. "And — yes, it's a penalty to Ireland!"
Maddie screamed and jumped, clutching onto Ron's arm with excitement because she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. He was too invested in the game to care about her tight grip — it was an important moment.
The leprechauns, who had risen angrily into the air like a swarm of glittering hornets when Mullet had been fouled, now darted together to form the words "HA, HA, HA!"
Maddie laughed at them. The leprechauns were way better than the veela.
Speaking of which, the veela on the other side of the field leapt to their feet, tossed their hair angrily, and started to dance again like they had when Bulgaria had scored.
As one, Lee, the Weasley boys and Harry stuffed their fingers into their ears, which Maddie found quite pathetic (to be honest) — but her attention flicked over to what was happening on the pitch, and her mouth dropped open slightly.
Hassan Mostafa had landed right in front of the dancing veela, and was acting very oddly indeed. He was flexing his muscles and smoothing his mustache excitedly.
"Oh my god!" she shouted. "Rank! Gross!" she shuddered.
"Now, we can't have that!" said Ludo Bagman, though he sounded highly amused. "Somebody slap the referee!"
A mediwizard came tearing across the field, his fingers stuffed into his own ears, and kicked Mostafa hard in the shins. Mostafa seemed to come to himself — he started shouting at the veela, who had stopped dancing and were looking mutinous.
"And unless I'm much mistaken, Mostafa is actually attempting to send off the Bulgarian team mascots!" said Bagman's voice.
Please do, Maddie thought. Although, she wasn't sure why she was feeling this particular way...
Ron started to speak.
"There's gonna be a fight, in a moment—"
He was almost right. The Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov and Vulchanov, landed on either side of Mostafa and began arguing furiously with him, gesticulating toward the leprechauns, who had now gleefully formed the words "HEE, HEE, HEE." Mostafa was not impressed by the Bulgarians' arguments, however — he was jabbing his finger into the air, clearly telling them to get flying again, and when they refused, he gave two short blasts on his whistle.
"Two penalties for Ireland!" shouted Bagman, and the Bulgarian crowd howled with anger. "And Volkov and Vulchanov had better get back on those brooms... yes... there they go... and Troy takes the Quaffle..."
Maddie cheered for her favourite player, yet again.
Play now reached a level of ferocity beyond anything they had yet seen. The Beaters on both sides were acting without mercy: Volkov and Vulchanov in particular seemed not to care whether their clubs made contact with Bludger or human as they swung them violently through the air. Dimitrov shot straight at Moran, who had the Quaffle, nearly knocking her off her broom.
"Fucking hell! That's a foul!" The young Jordan demanded.
"Foul!" echoed Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice. "Dimitrov skins Moran — deliberately flying to collide there — and it's got to be another penalty — yes, there's the whistle!"
The leprechauns had risen into the air again, and this time, they formed a giant hand, which looked as though it could be taking the form of a middle finger.
Maddie was cackling.
"The leprechauns are the best!" she cried.
At this, the veela lost control. Instead of dancing, they launched themselves across the field and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. Their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders.
Ministry wizards were flooding onto the field to separate the veela and the leprechauns, but with little success — meanwhile, the pitched battle below was nothing to the one taking place above.
"Levski — Dimitrov — Moran — Troy — Mullet — Ivanova — Moran again — Moran — MORAN SCORES!"
But the cheers of the Irish supporters were barely heard over the shrieks of the veela, the blasts now issuing from the Ministry members' wands, and the furious roars of the Bulgarians. The game recommenced immediately. Levski had the Quaffle, then Dimitrov...
The Irish Beater Quigley swung heavily at a passing Bludger, and hit it as hard as possible toward Krum, who did not duck quickly enough. It hit him full in the face.
"Yes!" Maddie cried out.
"Mads!"
There was a deafening groan from the crowd; Krum's nose looked broken, there was blood everywhere, but Hassan Mostafa didn't blow his whistle. He had become distracted, and Maddie couldn't blame him. One of the veela had thrown a handful of fire and set his broom tail alight.
Ron desperately wanted someone to notice Krum was injured. Even though he was supporting Ireland, Krum was the most exciting player on the field. Maddie honestly didn't care — as long as Ireland won, it didn't matter how.
"Time-out! Ah, come on, he can't play like that, look at him—"
"Look at Lynch!" Harry yelled.
Maddie's attention diverted to the Irish Seeker — he had suddenly gone into a dive.
"He's seen the Snitch!" Harry shouted. "He's seen it! Look at him go!"
Half the crowd seemed to have realized what was happening. The Irish supporters rose in another great wave of green, screaming their Seeker on... but Krum was on his tail. How he could see where he was going, Maddie had no idea. There were flecks of blood flying through the air behind him, but he was drawing level with Lynch now as the pair of them hurtled toward the ground again.
"They're going to crash!" shrieked Hermione.
"They're not!" roared Ron.
"Lynch is!" yelled Harry.
And he was right — for the second time, Lynch hit the ground with tremendous force and was immediately stampeded by a horde of angry veela.
"How has he fucking done that?!" Maddie yelled in frustration. "Useless! Absolutely dog shite!"
"The Snitch, where's the Snitch?" One of Ron's older brothers asked (Maddie didn't know who he was).
"He's got it — Krum's got it — it's all over!" shouted Harry.
Krum, his red robes shining with blood from his nose, was rising gently into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand.
Maddie's heart stopped, for a moment, until she looked towards the scoreboard.
It was flashing BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170 across the crowd, who didn't seem to have realized what had happened. Then, slowly, as though a great jumbo jet were revving up, the rumbling from the Ireland supporters grew louder and louder and erupted into screams of delight.
"IRELAND WINS!" Bagman shouted, who like the Irish, seemed to be taken aback by the sudden end of the match.
"KRUM GETS THE SNITCH — BUT IRELAND WINS — good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"
"What did he catch the Snitch for?" Ron bellowed, even as he jumped up and down, applauding with his hands over his head. "He ended it when Ireland were a hundred and sixty points ahead, the idiot!"
"He knew they were never going to catch up!" Harry shouted back over all the noise, also applauding loudly. "The Irish Chasers were too good... He wanted to end it on his terms, that's all..."
"He's a quitter!" Maddie yelled, not really sure if she meant it or not but just enjoying watching the frustration grow on Ron's face every time she said something that insulted Krum.
"He was very brave, wasn't he?" Hermione said, leaning forward to watch Krum land as a swarm of mediwizards blasted a path through the battling leprechauns and veela to get to him. "He looks a terrible mess...."
Maddie was filled with glee as she watched the Irish players do a few laps of honour clutching the golden cup. She didn't want it to end, not at all. The World Cup had practically been her whole summer — she had no idea what she was going to do now that it was all over.
Walking back to the tents took a long while, but Maddie did not care for she was happily striding alongside her friends, joining in with the cheers of the Irish when she could and going over the game's best parts.
"I can't even speak," she said, her voice hoarse and croaky from all of the shouting.
"I'm not surprised!" Ron replied. "I think you've damaged my hearing,"
"Don't be dramatic, Ronnie, just because you were busy winging about Krum—"
"I wasn't winging!"
"You so were!"
The two had many small bickers much like this that continued on as they walked, right up until the moment the Jordans had to separate from the group.
Maddie was knackered, and hungry. She couldn't wait to get back to the tent, now. Lee also seemed tired, too, but he didn't make it known. Or, he tried not to, at least.
"I just think someone should do a massive piss-up in their tent, you know, to celebrate the win, and everything," he said, as the three Jordans continued back to their tent.
"I agree," Maddie replied.
"Maddie, you're fourteen," their Dad said.
"And what? I've had firewhisky before!"
"Only because Lee's an irresponsible older brother!"
"I am not!"
"I'm not even going to get into it, we're all going back to our tent, and that's final,"
"Our tent could host a piss up!"
"Lee, no!"
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MADDIE HADN'T BEEN GREAT at staying awake — in fact, she drifted off to sleep much earlier than she intended to, listening to the cheering and the singing of the Irish happening right outside her tent.
But, the thing was — Maddie was never a deep sleeper. And so she awoke quite a lot throughout the night due to the loud parties, and faded back into sleep yet again.
However, things seemed to change for the last time the chaos outside woke up.
There were still screams, and shouts and all kinds of bangs sounding throughout the campsite — but they no longer seemed to be sounds of celebration, and instead sounds of terror.
Maddie couldn't tell if it was her half asleep state playing tricks on her. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, in an attempt to wake herself up more. The only light that filled her tent at this moment was coming from outside — a sort-of golden glow.
It's a firework, or something, Mads. The girl told herself. But as she sat and listened even longer, she began to think otherwise.
"Lee!" she spoke, getting up and rushing across to her brother's side of the tent. "Lee!"
The boy grumbled upon being woken up.
"What?"
"Can you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"Outside," Maddie said. Lee sat up and opened his eyes, frowning at his little sister with confusion. But her face was stiff and serious, unlike the awful cover-up expression she had whenever she was pulling a prank — and this was enough to tell him that she wasn't joking.
"I think something's wrong," said Maddie, looking at Lee with concern.
Just as she finished speaking, a crash sounded, causing both siblings to flinch. The noise was followed by an abundance of screams and they both exchanged wide eyes.
"Dad!" Maddie called out, but Lee hushed her.
"Dad's not here," he said. Maddie's expression grew even more horrified.
"What do you mean?"
"He went somewhere earlier, left me in charge. I think he mentioned Bagman. He was just going to get a drink, or something,"
"Then why hasn't he come back?" Maddie exclaimed, her voice filled with terror.
Another loud bang echoed about the campsite.
Lee got out of bed and dragged his sister into the main part of the tent, his mind completely baffled with what to do.
Maddie headed over to the door of the tent and poked her head out to understand what was going on.
Fires were burning everywhere, and people were running — fleeing — but what it was they were trying to escape from Maddie didn't know. She could only see something moving across the campsite towards them. Something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire.
Lee grabbed Maddie's shoulder and dragged her back away from the tent door.
"Are you fucking mad?!" He told her.
"What are we gonna do?" Maddie asked, feeling extremely helpless with the knowledge that their father was not around to tell them what to do.
Fuck what if he's dead? What if he got caught in the mob, or the fire?
"We need to go," Lee said, after a moment of thinking.
"What out there?!" Maddie retorted. "Outside?!"
"Our tent could be the next to get set on fire, and we'll be no good trapped inside it,"
"What about Dad?!" Maddie said. "He might come back for us!"
"Yeah and those people might get here before him," Lee argued. "Then what?!"
"No!" Maddie yelled. "Don't go outside! No, I'm not doing it! You're stupid!"
"Mads, you're coming with me whether you want to or not,"
"Dad might—!"
"Dad's not here!" Lee shouted back.
Maddie felt defeated. And afraid. She had no idea what to do or who to listen to. She didn't want to go outside amongst all the commotion, she wanted the safety of their tent. But how long would their tent stay safe for? Lee had a point about it being lit aflame...
So, for the moment, she just had to put all her faith in her big brother.
"Fine," she said, as Lee grabbed ahold of her arm and pulled his wand from his pocket. Maddie did the same.
She might die, who cares if she does magic outside of school?
"Stick with me, don't wander off," Lee told Maddie, before the siblings emerged from their tent into the chaos that was happening outside.
A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, were marching slowly across the field. Their heads were hooded and their faces masked.
Lee and Maddie ran through all of the commotion — dodging the large groups and rushing around them, pushing past whoever they could to get back to their portkey.
Maddie kept looking around for any sign of her Dad. The further they ran away from the campsite, the more sick she began to feel in her stomach. She felt awful for leaving him. Wherever he was.
Lee did, too. But he had to look out for his little sister first, and he was determined to get her to safety before anything else. And so whilst she became distracted by everything going on around her, he had to focus on his basic instinct — which was telling him, get Maddie out.
"Lee," Maddie tried to get her brother's attention over all the commotion. "Lee — LEE!"
"What?!"
Maddie pointed to a few meters across from them — where a group of red-heads were currently making their own way out of the campsite.
Lee had never been so relieved to see a familiar face.
The siblings rushed over too meet the Weasleys, who chorused out their names upon noticing the two.
"Maddie!" Ron let out.
"Where's your Dad?" Maddie asked, noticing Mr Weasley was also missing.
"Helping the Ministry..." Ron said, a frown appearing on his face upon noticing the girl's distress. "Where's yours?"
Maddie shook her head, ignoring the tears pricking at her eyes. "I don't know,"
She turned back to look at the group of masked figures, but her eye caught something else. There were four floating people hovering above them. Her heart completely dropped.
"Is that..?" she choked out, but could not finish her sentence.
"Mr Roberts," Ron confirmed. The Muggle campsite manager.
The other three looked as though they could be his family.
"Fuck," was all Maddie could say.
The tent in front of them caught aflame, and one of the twins toppled over.
"Ginny, keep going!" Maddie could hear him say.
"Shit!" Lee let out, and sprinted alongside the group to go and help.
But somebody else got there quicker — a small, brunette girl. She seemed to appear out of nowhere, in fact, to help the boy up. And within a matter of seconds, she was gone again.
Sooner or later they reached the trees, Maddie ending up being dragged by both Ron and Lee, after being caught in the middle of a fire and inhaling so much smoke she could barely breathe.
The many groups that had reached the woods merged into one as everyone continued to run. The colored lanterns that had lit the path to the stadium had been extinguished. Dark figures were blundering through the trees, children were crying, anxious shouts and panicked voices were reverberating around them in the cold night air. Maddie felt herself being pushed further forward by people whose faces she could not see. Then she heard Ron yell with pain.
"Ron?!" she cried hoarsely, coming to a halt.
"What happened?" said Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Harry walked into her. "Ron, where are you? Oh this is stupid — lumos!"
She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground.
"Tripped over a tree root," he said angrily, getting to his feet again. Maddie sighed with relief.
"Well, with feet that size, hard not to," said a drawling voice from behind them.
Harry, Ron, Maddie and Hermione turned sharply. Draco Malfoy was standing alone nearby, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees.
"Why you looking at Ron's feet, Malfoy?" she said. "Didn't realise you were into all that? Who would've thought,"
"Yeah, go fuck yourself, Malfoy," Ron said.
"Language, Weasley," said Malfoy, his pale eyes glittering, ignoring Maddie's remark. "Hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you?"
He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment, a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione defiantly.
"Granger, they're after Muggles, "said Malfoy. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around... they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."
"Hermione's a witch," Harry snarled.
"Have it your own way, Potter," said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."
"You watch your mouth!" shouted Ron, taking a step towards Malfoy.
"Don't try it, Malfoy, I'll shove that wand of yours up your ass!" Maddie snapped, charging forwards but being dragged back by Hermione.
"Never mind him," she said, also seizing Ron's arm to restrain him.
There came a bang from the other side of the trees that was louder than anything they had heard. Several people nearby screamed. Malfoy chuckled softly.
"Scare easily, don't they?" he said lazily. "I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to — trying to rescue the Muggles?"
"Where're your parents?" said Harry, his temper rising. "Out there wearing masks, are they?"
Malfoy turned his face to Harry, still smiling.
"Well... if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"
Maddie was raging, she could strangle that boy right on the spot, if it wasn't for Hermione's firm grip on her arm.
"Oh come on," said Hermione, with a disgusted look at Malfoy. "Let's go and find the others."
"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger," sneered Malfoy.
"Keep talking, Malfoy, see what happens," Maddie spat.
"Come on," Hermione repeated, and she pulled the three up the path again.
"I'll bet you anything his dad is one of that masked lot!" said Ron hotly.
"Well, with any luck, the Ministry will catch him!" said Hermione fervently. "Oh I can't believe this. Where have the others got to?"
It was at this moment Maddie realised Lee, alongside Fred, George and Ginny, was nowhere to be found.
"Oh, shit," she exclaimed.
Lee was going to kill her.