[6]
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The match wasted no time in getting underway from the time that Mostafa blew the whistle for the match to begin. It was incredibly hard to keep up with the speed at which the players performed. Ravenclaw had been known for the house with the fastest plays, however, compared to the professionals that were playing, they moved no faster than a slug on the pavement. The quaffle was tossed back and forth so many times that Milo could already feel the strain in his neck. He wasn't the only one having immense difficulty trying to keep up, only several minutes into the match, Minvera had purchased everyone in the group a pair of omnioculars so that they were able to catch plays without missing anything.
Ludo Bagman was having immense difficulty keeping up with the current plays himself as it sounded like he could only call out the name of the Chaser who held the Quaffle before it changed hands. However, to a trained eye like Cedric, who was watching intensely, he didn't miss a single play between the Chasers. It was like he knew where the quaffle was going to go with every play and he didn't have to strain himself to look back and forth.
Milo didn't know where to look, so he decided to note the amazing creatures that had decided to show up as the mascots to the match. Of course, just as he looked down, he missed the first scoring from the Irish.
"TROY SCORES!" Bagman announced before the crowd roared with cheer and applause from those supporting the Irish. "Ten–zero to Ireland!"
The boy clapped his hands, especially as Cedric and Minerva were jumping up and down in the stands. As he looked down the way, he could see Pomona adopt similar actions to what he was doing. She appeared just as lost as him when it came to keeping up, which brought Milo to giggle at her expression. But his attention was grabbed when the leprechauns on the sidelines lifted up into the air to form a glittering shamrock to celebrate the first goal, while the Veela sulked before where he and the rest of his group were sitting.
Milo had a tempting thought and he was sure his mother was going to scold him for it, but between her and Cedric, their eyes were glued to the quidditch players, no one paying any mind to him. He saw it as the perfect opportunity to slip away as he made his way down through the stands. Several people watched him, trying to figure out what he was doing, while a few shouted in protest, thinking that Milo was attempting to steal a closer seat.
But that wasn't the case at all as Milo leaned slightly over the railing where the Veela were sitting with sulky expressions.
"Excuse me, Miss?" Milo cupped his hands around his mouth and called to one of the Veelas that was closest to him. "Excuse me!"
The majority of them attempted to ignore the boy, thinking he was nothing more than one of the men trying to fulfil whatever weird desires they had. However, one of them eventually did look over her shoulder, before picking herself up and walking to where the boy was leaning over the railing. Plenty of people had stopped watching the match to watch the interaction between the two.
"What is it that you want, boy?" Her English was flawless, even though it was laced with a heavy Bulgarian accent as she approached, as was everything about her. Her hair was that of a white-gold and her skin appeared to be that of porcelain-making, paired with bright blue eyes and a seductive grin, it wasn't a wonder why plenty of men and even some women in the stands were trying to get near them when they danced.
Milo wasn't one of them. The only reason why he had moved closer to the pitch was to hopefully ask a Veela a few questions that he had on his mind. She was waiting for the boy to ask her for a kiss on the cheek or perhaps something far beyond that as it wouldn't be the first time, but she was pleasantly surprised as the boy leaned his arms on the railing to begin his questions.
"Hi," he began, " it's nice to meet you. My name is Milo Potter, I promise I won't take up too much of your time, I just had a few questions and I was wondering if you would answer them, please?"
The politeness had caught her off guard and it seemed to attract the attention of the other Veela, very curious seeing as one of the members had yet to smack the boy for saying something inappropriate.
"What is your question?" She asked with a smile.
"Does it hurt?" Milo started off his question and instantly witnessed her roll her eyes. Unbeknownst to the boy, it sounded like the very beginning of a terrible pick-up line that she had heard countless times before. "When you sprout the wings from your back during your Veela form, does it actually hurt or do you not feel a thing at all?"
The Veela just stared at him for a few seconds, the question leaving her speechless as it did not take the direction she had anticipated.
"Er..um...no, it does not hurt," she finally answered, bringing Milo to smile before he started up with plenty of other questions pertaining to Veela magical abilities, from the properties of their hair to the ability to manipulate fire.
It took Minerva and Cedric the longest time to notice that Milo was missing from where he had been standing in between them. When they finally started to look around, Pomona pointed out with a wide grin down towards the pitch itself. Minerva and Cedric were able to see at the moment that Milo was not only talking to one Veela but three. The women were all cooing over Paden that rested in Milo's hands, completely neglectful to the other Veelas that were dancing around to celebrate the Bulgarian's scoring.
"Merlin, help me," Minerva chuckled, "I'm surprised the match hasn't been stopped due to jealous outrage from other men."
"It's probably because they're all taking notes," Pomona joined in on the laughter, holding some truth to her words. The men around were probably trying to figure out how Milo was managing to speak with the Veela without getting attacked.
Cedric only folded his arms in amusement, betting that once Milo was finished speaking with the Veela that he was more than likely going to attempt to talk to the leprechauns next. With a smile on his face, Cedric turned back to the match, knowing that Milo wasn't going to take much interest in who had the quaffle or who was close to the snitch because the boy probably never expected magical creatures to be present.
He looked up just in time to see both Seekers diving towards the ground, although Cedric couldn't see the Snitch in sight. It was only at the last second did Viktor Krum pull his broomstick up, while the Irish Seeker, Lynch went crashing right into the ground. Nearly everyone in the stands flinched at the sight of him ploughing right into the grass roughly. Immediately, a time-out was called, bringing the mediwizards out onto the field to offer the seeker some potions for a quick healing.
However, from that point on, the match was getting even more intense with every passing second. Ireland continued to score goal after goal against the Bulgarians but in retaliation, the Bulgarians were becoming brutal out on the pitch. There definitely an excess of foul plays taking place, while it seemed the Mostafa continued to blow his whistle to penalise the team. The Bulgarian Keeper was called out for cobbing or rather elbowing the living hell out of one of the Irish Chasers, giving the penalty to Ireland.
Immediately, the angry leprechauns from before rose into the hair and formed the words "HA HA HA" shimmering in front of the Veela. Even Milo's Veela companions seemed offended by the gesture as all of the Bulgarian mascots turned tossing their hair over their shoulders and began dancing. But that ended up causing more problems in the long run as the Mostafa was caught in the middle of their dancing and placed in a trance. All of a sudden, the referee had stopped with his duties out on the pitch and was smoothing down his moustache before flexing his muscles and making his way over to the women.
"Now, we can't have that!" Bagman called out in amusement. "Somebody slap the referee!"
A mediwizard darted across the pitch and kicked the referee hard in the shins, but even that didn't seem to solve the issue as suddenly, Mostafa (mainly out of embarrassment for his own actions) was calling for the Veelas to be removed. He claimed they were too distracting, which led to a massive uproar, not only from the Bulgarian team but from the crowd as well. All the while, the leprechauns had changed their formation around a bit to form the taunting " HEE HEE HEE" in the direction of the Veela.
The antics of the Bulgarian team cost them two penalties towards Ireland, but it had only caused them to be royally pissed off as the Beaters became absolutely ruthless.
Milo had made his way back to his mother, Cedric, and Pomona with a bright look on his face, just as one of the Bulgarian Beaters had nearly knocked one of the Irish Chasers off her broom.
"Foul! Dimitrov skins Moran – deliberately flying to collide there – and it's got to be another penalty – yes, there's the whistle!"
Following up, the Leprechauns decided to up the ante as they formed together and made a hand, only the hand was showing off quite a rude gesture that made the Veela breathe fire. They weren't dancing anymore, instead, they were throwing handfuls of fire.
"Aren't they just absolutely beautiful, Cedric?" Milo clapped his hands together. Cedric glanced over at his boyfriend briefly, his expression not really agreeing with Milo's statement. He wouldn't really claim that the Veela were beautiful in that moment. He could only see sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders.
"Uh, they're gorgeous, Milo," the boy said before letting out a laugh.
At some point, Krum received a bloody nose but continued to play through it, while the Ministry workers were trying to get the Veela to calm down. However, Milo grabbed Cedric's arm and began shaking him profusely. "Look, look!"
He pointed in the direction of the Irish Seeker, Lynch, who was now diving with Krum on his tail. It was a brief second through the omnioculars but Cedric saw it, the Snitch. It wasn't a tactic to get the other to crash, they had both spotted the Snitch. It took awhile for everyone in the stands to catch on to what was happening, but they finally seemed to notice.
Milo thought they were going to crash again as he covered his eyes, and he wasn't wrong, at least, he was half correct. Lynch hit the ground, only to be stampeded by the hoard of angry Veela, while Krum made the grab and caught the Snitch.
"IRELAND WIN! KRUM GETS THE SNITCH – BUT IRELAND WIN – good Lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"
Certainly, no one had seen that play ever happening, except for two infamous red-headed twins that had placed down all their earnings on a very special bet. Milo cheered, along with his mother and Pomona. The two women embraced in a happy hug while Milo let out a screech as Cedric squeezed him tightly. It was going to be a night of celebrating, that was for sure. The Irish team held up the cup, even though Lynch to be stuck in a daze from his second crash, he certainly looked happy about the victory.
While the Bulgarians weren't thrilled at the loss, Milo was pleasantly surprised as some of the Veela waved in his direction before they made their way off the pitch.
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"There was blood everywhere!" Silas cried out before flopping back onto one of the sofas. "It was amazing. Best day of my life."
It was a mutual agreement once everyone made their way back to the tent, claiming that it had been an incredible match. Silas was replaying every play over and over in his head, while he and his father were reenacting the plays in slow-motion much to the amusement of everyone else. Milo was sitting near the entrance of the tent, hoping that Harry would stop by after the match, but he was sure that the Weasley family were celebrating in their own way. Eventually, Milo just accepted the fact that Harry wasn't going to show before he sprawled back into a large armchair with Paden resting in his lap.
Paden had yet to recover from all the commotion of the match from the screaming to the fire, it was a lot for the little bowtruckle to manage, and it left him absolutely exhausted. Milo was suddenly feeling the effects of growing tired himself, it had certainly been an eventful day. From having to deal with Amos, walking the grounds, the match itself, interacting with the Veela and the celebrating afterwards, it only took several minutes for him to fall asleep in the chair.
Minerva had heard the light sound of the snoring, walking over and seeing that Milo was asleep and on his chest, was a sleeping Paden. She decided to leave him there, for the time being, knowing that no one else would probably be going to bed anytime soon, especially since Silas appeared wide awake, talking excitedly with Neville.
She went to grab a blanket to throw over him, only to turn and see that Cedric had already grabbed one and was holding it out towards her.
"I had a feeling that he was going to crash shortly after we got back here," Cedric told her. "Since he was the first up this morning with all that energy, I was wondering when it was all going to finally catch up with him."
She only smiled in response before placing the blanket over her son and allowing him and Paden to continue resting.
"The Veela were actually very sweet," Milo informed Lily and James as he sat across from them in the clearing. He had found themselves greeting the two after drifting off. "The one I spent the majority of the time talking to, she told me her name was Natalia and she said I could always send her a letter if I had anymore questions. So I have established another connection, although I really wish I could have gotten one with the leprechauns. I did manage to snag plenty of leprechaun gold, it'll be useful to attract a niffler once I get to back to Hogwarts."
"Milo, son, I love you," James told him, " but you just went to the Quidditch World Cup and you've only told us about the mascots, what about the match?!"
"James!" Lily scolded the man. "Don't listen to him, Milo, we're-"
"Sorry, Dad," Milo grinned, "I didn't watch much of the match, there was too much going on for me to handle. It was overwhelming, talking to the Veela was the only way that I could keep myself calm during the time."
James sighed. "No, it's fine, don't apologise, son. I just get carried away, I'm glad that the Irish won and I'm very happy that you were able to speak with the Veela. And look at you, making pen-pals with a fine-"
He stopped himself as Lily glared at him, waiting for him to continue. "What were going to say, dear?" she asked, her tone chilling.
"Um...I forgot," James said quickly, "you know, this old mind of mine, seems to be slipping!"
"You're eternally twenty-one years old!"
Mil was about to tell his parents to quit their bickering when suddenly, a cold wind seemed to was over the three. Suddenly, Artemis appeared before them, her face didn't hold a smile within her greeting, causing James and Lily to stand up first.
"What's going on?" Milo asked as he pushed himself up.
"Milo, you need to wake up now and get your family to safety," Artemis warned him, "I'm afraid something dark is taking place where you are now. Wake up!"
Her sharp tone, immediately caused Milo to open up his eyes, only to find that he wasn't the only one stirring. Everyone at the same time seemed to be sitting up from where they had been resting in the tent. Cedric had been asleep beside him, but Milo quickly shook him awake.
"Cedric, come on, get up!" Milo called to him frantically, and Cedric's eyes opened, bringing him to sit up. Sirius and Elspeth were up on their feet, Sirius had wasted no time getting Silas and Neville up.
"What's going on?" Cedric asked in a groggy voice. Milo had no idea what was taking place, but outside of their tent, he could hear yelling, screaming and the sounds of crying in the distance. Elspeth had her wand ready, heading towards the exit of the tent, but Sirius grabbed her by the wrist.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked her. Elspeth carefully removed his hold on her before offering a faint smile.
"My job, remember?"
With a swoop of her cloak, she vanished, leaving the rest in the tent to stand around quietly for a few seconds. However, Minerva took charge and claimed they had to get the children away from the scene. But the screams getting closer and the smell of smoke entering the tent, it was Pomona that was ushering all of them to clear out through the back.
She advised Cedric and Milo to lead Neville and Silas away from the scene of chaos. But as the adults left them, the four didn't seem sure of what to do or where to go, until Milo looked off in the distance and saw the Ceryneian Hind, standing at the edge of the forest.
"Come on!"
(The ever-beautiful Artemis with the Ceryneian Hind, done by the lovely cendriia)