AS A FEELING OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA ROSE IN THE YOUNG GIRL AS SHE PUSHED THROUGH THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE moving around them as her and her companions followed the lantern-lit trail. Aria attempted to keep up with the group but felt herself getting pulled backwards with every eager shove from the witches and wizards that rushed to get to their seats. But just when she was about the become frustrated she felt a hand grab hers and pull her through the crowd back to the front of the group. She glanced at her savior and her eyes locked with Harry's causing her heart to skip a beat however as she went to thank him someone cut her off with another shove and a shouted apology resulting in her to snap out of her trance and look at Hermione with a smile letting go of Harry's hand automatically missing that feeling of warmth that came with it unaware of Harry's lingering glance before Ron nudged him to pay attention as they continued their path in awe at the arena around them. The loud shouts and laughter caused an impatient grin to appear on the girls face as she walked amongst her best friend who held the same expression on hers. It was breathtaking.
"Oh hello!" Aria greeted as her and fellow peers came across a Ministry witch at the entrance suddenly being pulled out of her enhanced day dream.
"Hello to you too, great day isn't it?" The witch beamed before turning to Arthur "Tickets please?"
Arthur displayed the groups individual tickets causing her to quickly glance over them and beam, "Straight upstairs, Arthur, and as high as you can go."
Climbing up the rich purple carpeted stairs with the rest of the crowd the Weasley party managed to eventually reach the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box situated exactly halfway between the golden goal posts on the field. Aria took in her surroundings once again, observing the field itself as she noticed how smooth it looked from their lofty position. Mentally recording every moment she experienced. The field stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high; right opposite them was a gigantic blackboard where gold writing kept dashing across it as though an invisible giant's hand were scrawling upon it and then wiping it off again as it flashed advertisements on the board.
Aria sat next to Hermione skimming through their individual velvet covered tasseled programs they had purchased moments before while Ron pulled out his Omnioculars - that Harry had purchased for each person in the group - and began to test them. Aria had managed to block out the surrounding conversations of the people who arrived as she read the program up until she heard one name in particular Lucius and that was when her, Hermione, Ron and Harry all turned quickly to see the family of four edge along the second row to three still empty seats right behind Mr. Weasley.
"Ah, Fudge." Lucius greeted with a sly smile holding out his hand as he reached the Minister of Magic. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"
"How do you do, how do you do?" Fudge questioned smiling and bowing to Mrs. Malfoy. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr.Oblansk — Obalonsk — Mr. — well, he's the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, and he can't understand a word I'm saying anyway, so never mind. And let's see who else — you know Arthur Weasley, I dare say?"
Tension fell between the two gentleman as they looked at each other before Lucius cold gray eyes, that always seemed to cause Aria to tense up, swept over the man and then eventually up and down the row.
"Good lord, Arthur, What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?" Lucius remarked rather softly under his breath to where Fudge couldn't hear as he continued his introduction, "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest."
"How - how nice," Arthur strained a fake forced smile as Lucius eyes moved to Hermione who became suddenly pink but stared back never the less causing his lip to curl devisiouly causing Aria to attempt to stand up protectively knowing exactly why he was staring at the young girl like that as she became aggravated rather quickly yet Harry who was sitting on the other side of her pulled her down by the arm before she could make any sudden moves, resulting in Lucius's eyes to move to the brunette who know gripped whatever her hand found first in irritation as she stared back at the man. The two remained heavy determined eye contact as he smirked amused by the interaction and then he nodded sneeringly to Arthur before continuing down the line to his seats. Draco shot the group of friends one contemptuous look then settled himself between his mother and father.
Aria finally exhaled a breath she didn't realize she was holding until she sat down and she felt slightly more at ease that familiar warmth rising within her causing her to furrow her eyebrows and glance down to what she was holding to see Harry's hand wrapped onces again in hers.
"Slimy gits," Ron muttered as Aria removed her hand from Harry's grasp and turned to face the field again.
"I feel like I'm going to be sick - just by looking at them." Aria muttered as she sat her hands on her lap pulling her jacket up to give her hands more warmth then they had already.
Next moment Ludo Bagman charged into the box.
"Everyone ready?" he questioned gleaming excited "Minister - ready to go?"
"Ready when you are, Ludo." Fudge responded comfortably causing Ludo to whip out his wand and direct it at his own throat and announce, "Sonorus!"
His voice echoed over them in seconds, booming into every corner of the stands like his wand was an extremely powerful microphone.
"Ladies and gentlemen . . . welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"
The spectators screamed and clapped as thousands of flags waved and the huge blackboard was wiped from its last message to the scoreboard.
BULGARIA: 0 , IRELAND: 0.
"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce . . . the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!" he called out causing the right hand side of the stands which was a solid block of scarlet, to roar in approval.
"I wonder what they've brought," Arthur questioned leaning forward in his seat in attempt to see only for him to suddenly whip off his glasses and polish them hurriedly on his robes before exclaiming, "Veela!"
"What are veel -?" Harry began to ask but stop talking once a hundred veela women glided out onto the field, Aria couldn't deny the fact that each and every single one of them were absolutely stunning on the outside but when the men in the group eyes landed on the women and their jaws they were hypnotised by their beauty Aria couldn't help but roll her eyes at the boys expressions. As the beautiful women were exposed to the crowd, they were mesmerized making the young girl chuckle slightly under her breath exchanging a dumbfounded glance with Hermione who seemed even less impressed with this act. Aria glanced back to Harry who now stood up with one of his legs resting on the wall of the box causing her to get up and drag him away from the wall when the music cut off causing him to blink as Aria exclaimed, "Seriously? Harry, what are you doing?" she asked in disbelief as Harry, stunned by his own actions - gathered himself as he threw the young girl an embarrassed glance before sitting back down in the seat as angry protest filled the stadium while the women lined up.
Arthur smiled slightly at his youngest son - who was currently shredding the shamrocks on his hat - and leaned over, tugging the hat out of his hands.
"You'll be wanting that," he commented "once Ireland have had their say."
"Huh?" Ron stared open mouthed at the veela who were now lined up along one side of the field, still standing up in shock causing Hermione to scoff making a loud tutting noise as well as she reached up and pulled Ron back into his seat exclaiming in the process, "Honestly !"
"and now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put yourwands in the air . . . for the Irish National Team Mascots!"
In the next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light. The crowd let out an satisfied exclaim as though at a fireworks display. And as the rainbow faded, balls of light reunited and merged forming a great shimmering shamrock which rose up in the sky and began to soar over the stands. As heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats.
"Excellent!" Ron exclaimed as Harry nudged Aria and pointed to the shamrock causing the girl to squint only to see it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.
"Leprechauns!" Arthur exasperated over the loud shuffling of the crowd of whom were fighting to retrieve the gold as Ron dove for his own fistful before shoving it into Harry's hand.
"There you go," Ron yelled happily "for the Omnioculars! Now you've got to buy me a Christmas present, ha!"
Aria only laughed at this with a shake of her head as the great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela and settled themselves down to watch the match.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome — the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you — Dimitrov!"
A scarlet figure on a broomstick zoomed onto the field in a blur.
"Ivanova!"
Another player exited.
"Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand — Krum!"
"That's him, that's him!" Ron yelled following Krum with his Omnioculars as each individual watched with their own.
"And now, please greet — the Irish National Quidditch Team! Presenting — Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand — Lynch!" Bagman yelled causing seven green blurs to fly onto the field.
"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"
After that announcement a small and skinny wizard wearing pure gold robes walked onto the field - he carried a large wooden crate under one arm and his broomstick under the other. Hassan then mounted his broomstick and kicked the crate open causing the four balls to burst into the air.
"Theeeeeey're off!" Bagman screamed "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!"
The speed of the players was incredible almost to the point where without the Omnioculars Aria didn't know if she was going to be able to keep up. But eventually in seconds of fast paced Quidditch playing and Bagman screaming plays across the stadium in order to overpower the screams of fans rather it was protest or support, Ireland had won the game despite Krum catching the snitch.
And at last after cheerings were erupted from the stands and Aria's hands felt numb from clapping and her voice felt gone from screaming the Irish team left the box to perform another lap of honor on their brooms while Bagman pointed his wand at his throat and muttered "quietus."
"They'll be talking about this one for years," he spoke hoarsely "a really unexpected twist, that. . . . shame it couldn't have lasted longer. . . . Ah yes. . . . yes, I owe you . . . how much?"
The twins had just scrambled over the back of their seats and were standing in front of Ludo Bagman with broad grins on their faces, their hands outstretched causing Aria to roll her eyes with a smile at their actions and once they collected their prizes they bounced over to her like little kids that had just one at an arcade and grinned showing her their prizes as they danced together in victory of their home - or closest thing to their home - team's achievement of the greatest quidditch game Aria had even attended in her life and she owed it all to the Weasley for including her in this once in a lifetime experience she would never forget not knowing that everything was going to go down hill the minute they left that stadium.
[edited? yes! (12-28-2021)]