I finally finished, yay! I would like to thank the election for a long, sleepless night of crying and anxiety.
Now, there will be no election quips in this fanfiction but there will be at least one in OotP because I'm salty, scared, gay and mad.
Side note, I'm at my grandma's and she's listening to Cotton Eyed Joe, I'm dying?
"I swear," Maddy Mender said, panting after adding on another slab of wood onto the horse-stable-in-progress, "if there is one more war I will actually implode. Not exaggerating. I'll just fold into myself and become a tiny black hole."
"Well, this one was a lot less destructive than previous ones," Annabeth Chase pointed out. "Surprising since this one was with basically the mother of - oh gods, your owl servant's coming."
"She is not a servant, she is a magic owl who gets to do whatever she wants," Maddy corrected as she followed Annabeth's gaze. "Also, that is not my owl, that is a different one." She squinted as the admittedly tiny owl got closer and closer. "That is absolutely Ron's, no doubt, no one else has that small an owl. OW!" The daughter of Hades exclaimed as the owl crashed into her face and got it's claws tangled in her hair dropping the letter twice it's size to the ground.
"Need help?" Annabeth asked as Maddy fought with the energetic owl to try to get it out of her hair.
"Yes, you have permission to cut it out."
Annabeth almost immediately managed to get the bird out and it flew down to the ground and excitedly waited as Maddy sat down, grabbed the envelope and opened it up without thanking the daughter of Athena. She quickly read over it and found that her friend, Ron Weasley, was asking her if she wanted to go to the Quidditch World Cup, which kind of reminded Maddy of the Olympics but with only one sport and two teams. On second thought, the FIFA world cup or the super bowl might be a better comparison.
Ron,
Yeah, I'm going to the world cup, Bella got me a ticket since her dad got one for his non-existent wife the Ministry thinks he has for some reason. I think Elliot is too since sometime at the beginning of the summer she sent me a letter that simply said 'I'M BEING FORCED TO SUFFER' followed by a really bad doodle of a snitch...
-Maddy
Maddy tied the letter to the owl's leg and it energetically flew away.
A few days later, Bella, who had been helping out around Camp Half Blood with some other Roman demigods since the war with Gaea had pretty much decimated the camp, got Maddy to take her to have lunch at a small New York restaurant before her dad apparated down to New York to pick them up and take them to his house in Ireland for a few days before the World Cup.
"So, what's your dad like?" Maddy asked Bella as they waited in a wizard shop really close to the Empire State Building that Maddy hadn't previously known about but Bella for some reason did.
"Well, loud," Bella started, "he has this really thick Irish accent-"
"You have a really thick Irish accent."
"I know, but his is like wow."
"But yours-"
"Is watered down from years of spending summers in America."
"I can't believe that. Enough with the lies, tell me more about your dad," Maddy stated.
"Alright, he's... weird? I don't know he's my dad, I don't know how to explain what he's like." There was a sudden pop! as Bella's dad made a very timely appearance. "Hey, dad!"
The tall, broad-shouldered, red haired man standing before Maddy said something in a deep voice and with a genuinely indecipherable accent. Bella was not exaggerating, in fact she has been under exaggerated.
"Hi, I'm Maddy - I mean, no wait that's right. For some reason I thought I said something else, I don't know what but," Maddy shrugged. "I'm Maddy."
"Ah, hello, Maddy," Bella's dad said and his accent was actually a lot easier to decipher since Maddy was prepared for the thickness of it. "I'm glad we finally get to meet, Bell has said quite a bit about you."
Maddy wasn't quite sure what to say next, so she ended up saying, "Cool..."
A few minutes later, after rudimentary chatting and catching up, Mr Nevra apparated the the three of them to the giant estate that belonged to the Nevras. It was actually rather large, in fact, it was large enough for Bella's grandparents to live in the mansion and for her to almost never cross their paths, which is exactly what happenes.
"This is almost as big as my dad's place," Maddy said as he looked around.
"Yep," Bella said, "it goes back to the time where people never moved away from their families and every person had at least twelve children. Now, come on, it's tour time!" She dragged Maddy around the house, finishing up at the room that she would be staying in, across the hall from Bella's.
The next day they woke up in the early morning so they could have time to organize the tent they would be staying in. Mr Nevra apparated his daughter and Maddy to a place that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere where there were two grumpy looking men, one was holding a large gold watch, the other a thick roll of parchment and a quill. Both were dressed as muggles, though it was not well executed at all. The man with the watch wore a tweed suit with thigh-length galoshes and his colleague was in a kilt and a poncho.
"Good morning, Basil," Mr Nevra said cheerfully.
"Morning, Linus," the kilted wizard replied. "Your group ought to move aside, a large party's about to come in from Stoatshead Hill. Hang on, I'll find your campsite... Nevra... Nevra... ah, about a quarter mile that way, first field."
"Thank you, Basil!" Mr Nevra chimed and he, Bella and Maddy walked away. A few minutes later Maddy could very faintly hear Basil saying, "Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill."
Once they had reached their spot Mr Nevra simply waved his wand and a folded up tent flew out of the bag on his back and set itself up. It was a huge tent and it somehow had three stories and, Maddy later found, came with its own library, kitchen, two full bathrooms and four individual bedrooms each with their own half bathroom.
"That's a really big tent," Maddy said. "How does it have three stories and not collapse?"
"Magic," Bella grinned. "Literally. You should know this, Mads."
"Yeah, probably."
"Hmm," Mr Nevra thoughtfully stared at the mansion of a tent and then said, "This seems to be fine, I'm going to go explore!" He got a childish gleam in his eyes and skipped away.
"Your dad is... weird," Maddy noted.
"Yep, wanna go find - Neptune's beard, it's Harry, Ron and Hermione! Hey guys!" Bella began to wave frantically and Maddy turned to see that only a few tents away Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys were turning to face the two demigods. Bella and Maddy quickly walked over to the group.
"I thought I saw you two..." Hermione said. "Right when we got here, I saw you two walking away."
"You came from Stoatshead Hill?" Bella asked.
"Yeah," Ron confirmed.
"Whoa, aren't there a lot of wizards over there? The Nevra Estate's soooo far away from everything," the daughter of Bellona huffed.
"It's so big that her grandparents live in the same house as her and she rarely ever sees them," Maddy added.
"That is a big house," Harry noted and Maddy nodded.
"We actually live pretty far from everything too," Ron sighed. "We woke up before the sun even rose and had to walk for hours before getting to the portkey."
"But there are so many wizarding families that live around there, Ron. I don't care how long it took you but I guarantee you could walk to another person's house! If I remember correctly the Diggorys, the Lovegoods and the Fawcetts. Now that I list them there really aren't that many, but still. Also, there's probably some others that live around there."
"Ah, Maddy, Bella," Mr Weasley walked over to them, holding a mallet and a rope that he had been using while attempting to set up one of his tents. "Good morning, do either of you know how to put up a tent like a muggle?"
"No... also why?" Maddy asked. "You could just use magic."
"There's no magic allowed."
"But everyone else is using magic..."
"Well, we do like to show off when we gather and just because others aren't following the rules doesn't mean we won't too."
"I know how to set up a tent," Bella offered.
"Right, thank you. Harry, Hermione, Maddy, d'you think you could lend a hand as well?"
'Sure," Harry and Hermione said.
"I honestly don't know how to set up a tent and I'd probably end up knocking it over," Maddy shrugged.
Harry, Hermione, Bella and a few of the Weasleys started trying to set up the tents, Bella was done fairly quickly with the tent she and Harry had been working on and the other tent was set up soon after that as Bella gave them instructions on how to set it up and Harry joined Maddy and Ginny in sitting on the ground and watching the others struggle.
"The tents seem a bit too small for ten of us," Harry said as he sat down.
"They're enlarged on the inside," Ginny said.
"Like my bag of like everything," Maddy added, gesturing to the bag on her back. "Remember that? I haven't made a big deal out of this thing since like first year."
"Oh yeah." Harry said.
"We'll be a bit cramped," Mr Weasley called upon finishing setting up the second tent, "but I think we'll all squeeze in. Come and have a look."
One by one, everyone ducked into the bigger tent, which would be th boys tent while Hermione and Ginny would be sleeping in the smaller one.
The tent looked like an old-fashioned, three-room apartment, complete with bathroom and kitchen while still having a similar feel to the Burrow with the crocheted covers on the mismatched chairs and a strong smell of cats.
"Well, it's not for long," said Mr. Weasley, mopping his bald patch with a handkerchief and peering in at the four bunk beds that stood in the bedroom. "I borrowed this from Perkins at the office. Doesn't camp much anymore, poor fellow, he's got lumbago." He picked up the dusty kettle and peered inside it. "We'll need water..."
"There's a tap marked on this map the Muggle gave us," said Ron. "It's on the other side of the field."
"Well, why don't you, Harry, Hermione, Maddy and Bella go and get us some water then-" Mr. Weasley handed over the kettle and a couple of saucepans "-and the rest of us will get some wood for a fire?"
"But we've got an oven," said Ron. "Why can't we just-"
"Ron, anti-Muggle security!" said Mr. Weasley, his face shining with anticipation. "When real Muggles camp, they cook on fires outdoors. I've seen them at it!"
"Don't worry, we have like two ovens in ours," Bella whispered.
Shortly afterwards, Harry, Maddy, Ron, Hermione and Bella set out to get some water. There were people emerging from their tents and beginning to cook their breakfast, lighting fires either with their wands or matches. There were also small children, running around with their parents wands or flying on toy broomsticks.
"Er - is it my eyes, or has everything gone green?" said Ron.
It wasn't just Ron's eyes. They had walked into a patch of tents that were all covered with a thick growth of shamrocks, so that it looked as though small, oddly shaped hillocks had sprouted out of the earth. Grinning faces could be seen under those that had their flaps open. Then, from behind them, they heard their names.
"Harry! Ron! Hermione! Maddy! Bella!" It was Seamus Finnigan, a fourth year Gryffindor. He was sitting in front of his own shamrock-covered tent, with a sandy-haired woman who had to be his mother, and his best friend, Dean Thomas, also of Gryffindor and, to the surprise of the five of them, Elliot.
"Oh thank Merlin!" She exclaimed. "Later, nerds!" She stood up and walked over to her friends.
Seamus and Dean seemed unfazed by this as the former said, "Like the decorations?" with a grin. "The Ministry's not too happy."
"Ah, why shouldn't we show our colors?" said Mrs. Finnigan. "You should see what the Bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents. You'll be supporting Ireland, of course?" she added, eyeing Harry, Ron, Bella, Maddy and Hermione beadily.
When they had assured her that they were indeed supporting Ireland, they set off again, though, as Ron said, "Like we'd say anything else surrounded by that lot."
"I've been here for weeks," Elliot said as they walked away. "Seamus and Dean came a few days ago and they were a break from my awful family so I joined them but they weren't much better! All they would talk about was Quidditch and they, of course, got really pissy when I told them I was supporting Bulgaria, even though I am only supporting any team because my family are a bunch of avid Ireland supporters."
"That sounds sooo awful, El," Maddy rolled her eyes. "You definitely win the award for worst summer."
"I wonder what the Bulgarians have got dangling all over their tents?" said
Hermione curiously as they exited the Irish area.
"Let's go and have a look," said Harry, pointing to a large patch of tents upfield, where the Bulgarian flag -white, green, and red- was fluttering in the breeze.
The tents here had not been bedecked with plant life, but each and every one of them had the same poster attached to it, a poster of a very surly face with heavy black eyebrows. The picture was, of course, moving, but all it did was blink and scowl.
"Who is this moody bird of prey?" Maddy asked upon seeing the picture.
"How dare you," Bella hissed.
"Krum," said Ron quietly.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Krum!" said Ron. "Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker!"
"He looks really grumpy," she noted. "'Moody bird of prey' is a good description for him."
"'Really grumpy? Moody bird of prey?" Ron raised his eyes to the heavens. "Who cares what he looks like? He's unbelievable. He's really young too. Only just eighteen or something. He's a genius, you wait until tonight, you'll see."
"He's fucking amazing," Bella added.
There was already a small queue for the tap in the corner of the field. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bella and Maddy joined it, right behind a pair of men who were having a heated argument. One of them was a very old wizard who was wearing a long flowery nightgown. The other was clearly a Ministry wizard; he was holding out a pair of pinstriped trousers and almost crying with exasperation.
"Just put them on, Archie, there's a good chap. You can't walk around like that, the muggle at the gate's already getting suspicious-"
"I bought this in a Muggle shop," said the old wizard stubbornly. "Muggles wear them."
"Muggle women wear them, Archie, not the men, they wear these," said the Ministry wizard, and he brandished the pinstriped trousers.
"I'm not putting them on," said old Archie in indignation. "I like a healthy breeze 'round my privates, thanks."
Hermione and Bella were overcome with such a strong fit of the giggles at this point that they had to duck out of the queue and only returned when Archie had collected his water and moved away.
Walking more slowly now, because of the weight of the water, they made their way back through the campsite. Here and there, they saw more familiar faces: other Hogwarts students with their families. Oliver Wood, the old captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who had just left Hogwarts, dragged Harry and Bella over to his parents' tent to introduce them, and told them excitedly that he had just been signed to the Puddlemere United reserve team. Next they were hailed by Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff fourth year, and a little farther on they saw Cho Chang, a girl who played Seeker on the Ravenclaw team. She waved and smiled at Harry, who slopped quite a lot of water down his front as he waved back, which caused Elliot to laugh madly and Maddy to say, "Stop it."
"Stop what?" Harry asked.
"Romantic feelings, Harry, they're gross," she contorted her face is disgust.
"What are you talking about?" He chuckled nervously.
"Harry, you just slopped water all over yourself just because you got waved at." Harry fell silent at this and simply glared at the daughter of Hades.
"You've been ages," said George when they finally got back to the Weasleys' tents.
"Met a few people," said Ron, setting the water down. "We also found Elliot. You not got that fire started yet?"
"Dad's having fun with the matches," said Fred.
"Ooh matches," Elliot's face lit up. "Those are fun."
"You are not going near them," Bella sighed.
Mr Weasley was having no success at all in lighting the fire, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Splintered matches littered the ground around him, but he looked as though he was having the time of his life.
"Oops!" he said as he managed to light a match and promptly dropped it in surprise.
"Come here, Mr. Weasley," said Hermione kindly, taking the box from him, and showing him how to do it properly.
At last they got the fire lit, but it was nowhere near hot or large enough to cook anything over it. It would take another hour at least to get to that point.
"Hey, guys," Elliot said as she fished around in one of the pockets of the honesty large pants she was wearing. "Remember that potion I was working on last year?"
"Yes," Maddy and Hermione nodded.
"Kind of," Bella added.
"No..." Harry and Ron said, their heads cocked to the side in confusion.
"Well, I finished it!" Elliot said and pulled a small phial from her pocket. It was filled with a pink liquid. "And now, I'm going to test it."
"What does it do?" Harry asked.
"No clue, hopefully you'll see what it's supposed to do," she shrugged and without further ado she uncapped the phial and poured the contents of it over her head while the others shrieked in alarm at the suddenness of it and the high probability of the potion not being safe.
Slowly, the pink solution began to disappear from Elliot's being everywhere but her short hair, which was now a vibrant pink.
"Ah yes, a success," she nodded, satisfied with the results.
"Why would you do that!" Hermione exclaimed. "What if it was poisonous! Or dangerous!"
"Relax, Hermione, I know well enough to avoid mixing together toxic ingredients. I know you know this because you are just as smart as I am. Besides, I figured this couldn't be worse than being turned into a brown yeti."
"Did that happen?" Bella asked.
"Yes it did. Although, that might have been partially on purpose because I almost got to skip out on a family dinner but instead everyone started saying that cousin Priya might have captured me instead of an actual yeti."
"Wow, your family is amazing at insults," Maddy said dully.
"No they actually are, I just don't care enough to recreate their insults to their full extent."
After this they all sat down to wait but they weren't bored at all since the Weasley's tent was pitched right alongside a kind of thoroughfare to the field, and Ministry members kept hurrying up and down it, greeting Mr Weasley cordially as they passed. Mr Weasley kept up a running commentary.
After a long time of that, the fire was finally ready, and they had just started cooking eggs and sausages when Bill, Charlie, and Percy Weasley came strolling out of the woods toward them.
"Just Apparated, Dad," said Percy loudly. "Ah, excellent, lunch!"
"Is it just me or does he seem more pompous than usual?" Maddy whispered.
"He's been boasting all summer," Ron replied, "about that and his job. All he'll ever talk about's his job, which he think's so important even though the only thing he does it write reports on cauldron bottoms."
They were halfway through their plates of eggs and sausages when Mr Weasley jumped to his feet, waving and grinning at a man who was striding toward them. "Aha!" he said. "The man of the moment! Ludo!"
Ludo Bagman was a very noticeable person, he was dressed in long, yellow Quidditch robes with thick black stripes and an image of a wasp on his chest. He looked as if he had once been powerfully built, possibly as strong as the average Camp Half Blood demigod, but he'd obviously spent many years not exercising so his robes were stretched across his stomach. His nose was squashed as if it was once broken. Thanks to all of this along with his round, blue eyes and blond hair Maddy thought he looked considerably like the children of Dionysus, or at least Castor and Pollux at camp, they were the only children of Dionysus Maddy had ever seen.
"Ahoy there!" Bagman called happily. He was walking as though he had springs attached to the balls of his feet and was plainly in a state of wild excitement. "Arthur, old man," he puffed as he reached the campfire, "what a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming... and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements... Not much for me to do!"
Percy rushed forward, a hand outstretched, he obviously wanted to make a good impression even if he had loudly voiced his disapproval of the way he ran the department multiple times in the half hour that he had been there -things like this made Maddy think that Percy was better suited for Slytherin than Gryffindor- then Mr Weasley began to introduce them, and then Bagman began taking bets -Fred and George bet all their savings and a fake wand that Bagman found delightful that Ireland would win but Krum would catch the snitch, and Maddy might not know much about Quidditch but she knew that that was a stupid bet.
"I'm keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch," Bagman said after asking for a brew. "My Bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and I can't understand a word he's saying. Barty'll be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."
"Mr Crouch?" said Percy, suddenly abandoning his look of poker-stiff disapproval and positively writhing with excitement. "He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll..."
"Anyone can speak Troll," said Fred dismissively. "All you have to do is point and grunt." Percy threw Fred an extremely nasty look and stoked the fire vigorously to bring the kettle back to the boil.
"Looks like your brother's got a crush on his boss," Elliot whispered to Ron, Fred, George and Ginny, all of whom stifled laughter, Harry, Bella and Maddy smiled and Hermione sent them disapproving looks. A wizard dressed in a muggle suit suddenly apparated next to the fire.
"Pull up a bit of grass, Barty," said Bagman brightly, patting the ground beside him.
"No thank you, Ludo," said the man, and there was a bite of impatience in his voice. "I've been looking for you everywhere. The Bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the Top Box."
"Oh is that what they're after?" said Bagman. "I thought the chap was asking to borrow a pair of tweezers. Bit of a strong accent."
"Mr Crouch!" said Percy breathlessly, sinking into a kind of half-bow that made him look like a hunchback. "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Oh," said Mr Crouch, looking over at Percy in mild surprise. "Yes, thank you, Weatherby." Fred, George and Elliot choked into their own cups and just about everyone else was holding back laughter. Percy, very pink around the ears, busied himself with the kettle.
"Oh and I've been wanting a word with you too, Arthur," said Mr Crouch, his sharp eyes falling upon Mr Weasley. "Ali Bashir's on the warpath. He wants a word with you about your embargo on flying carpets." Mr Weasley heaved a deep sigh.
"I sent him an owl about that just last week. If I've told him once I've told him a hundred times: Carpets are defined as a Muggle Artifact by the Registry of Proscribed Charmable Objects, but will he listen?"
"I doubt it," said Mr Crouch, accepting a cup from Percy. "He's desperate to export here."
"Well, they'll never replace brooms in Britain, will they?" said Bagman.
"Ali thinks there's a niche in the market for a family vehicle," said Mr Crouch. "I remember my grandfather had an Axminster that could seat twelve, but that was before carpets were banned, of course." He spoke as though he wanted to leave nobody in any doubt that all his ancestors had abided strictly by the law.
"So, been keeping busy, Barty?" said Bagman breezily.
"Fairly," said Mr Crouch dryly. "Organizing Portkeys across five continents is no mean feat, Ludo."
"I expect you'll both be glad when this is over?" said Mr Weasley. Bagman looked shocked.
"Glad! Don't know when I've had more fun... Still, it's not as though we haven't got anything to took forward to, eh, Barty?" He'd been about to continued but was stopped by a sharp voice.
"Bagman!" A woman in a muggle suit with long, curly brown hair pulled back into a ponytail with brown eyes and dark skin was marching forward, frowning deeply. Maddy then realised that this was her mother Eleanor Mender.
"Ah, Eleanor!" Bagman said happily, his cheery face juxtaposing her stern and angry one. "Lovely to see you!"
"I told you not to wear your old Quidditch outfit, how many times do I have to tell you, wear muggle clothing at large wizarding events in places where muggles can get suspicious. Do you know how many times we've had to obliviate the muggles working here just because of you?" Every word she said was clearly articulated despite the fact that her teeth were clenched.
"But, Eleanor-"
"Stop it," she said sharply, pointing at Bagman, her hand stiff. "If you aren't wearing discrete enough clothing the next time I see you I am going to make sure someone from either my department or the Department of Wizard-Muggle Relations confirms that your outfit will not attract suspicion."
"I don't have any muggle-"
"Buy some," she interrupted Bagman again.
"But Archie-"
"Isn't wearing Quidditch robes," Maddy's mother interrupted once again, then she sighed and turned to Mr Weasley, suddenly smiling. "Arthur."
"Eleanor," Mr Weasley greeted. "Would you like a cup of tea."
"I'd love one, thanks," she sighed. "I may not be the head of the department yet but there's so much to do, especially since Amelia's got to look after her niece, so I get all the work she doesn't have time for."
"Sounds hard," Mr Weasley said.
"Yeah, we've got too many Aurors, but a lot of them are new so they're really more trouble than they're worth right now, then we have not nearly enough people from the Improper Use of Magic division and the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, then we only have one person from the Intoxicating Substances division who isn't here on a break. You'd be surprised at how many people overdrink at events like this."
"I would help if I could," Mr Weasley sighed.
"Ludo, we need to meet the Bulgarians, you know," Mr Crouch suddenly spoke. "Thank you for the tea, Weatherby." With that he'd given back his tea as Mr Weasley handed Maddy's mother her cup and he pulled Bagman away.
"Thank you, Arthur," she took the cup, her eyes began to look around at the kids. "Are these your children? I have met you five before," she pointed to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bella and Elliot. "Hello, Maddy, I was not expecting to you here. I didn't know you knew the Weasleys."
"Yeah," Maddy said, "I've know Mr Weasley longer than I've known you, mom."
"Oh. And everyone else, Arthur? Your children, yes?"
"Yes," Mr Weasley said quickly. "This is Percy, he's just started at the Ministry, and this is George, that's Fred, Bill, Charlie and Ginny."
"Which department?" She asked Percy.
"The Department of International Magical Cooperation," Percy replied quickly.
"Ah, so you're under Barty?"
"Yes, he's an excellent head of department."
"He's... decent," she said. "Of course, he's much better than Bagman." Percy was about to say something more, obviously in defence of Mr Crouch, but instead she introduced herself. "By the way, I'm Eleanor Mender, Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and, as you all have probably gathered, Maddy's mum. Well, I've got to go. Thank you, Arthur. Bye, Maddy." And, without having taken a single sip of it she handed back the cup of tea to Mr Weasley and speedily walked away while yelling at a woman who was shooting out colourful sparks from her wand high into the sky.
"What was Bagman talking about when he said there was more to look forward to?" Fred asked his dad.
"You'll find out soon enough," said Mr Weasley, smiling.
"It's classified information, until such time as the Ministry decides to release it," said Percy stiffly. "Mr Crouch was quite right not to disclose it."
"Oh shut up, Weatherby," said George.
"Why would you buy so much?" Maddy asked, looking at the many things Bella was wearing and holding. She was wearing an Ireland themed scarf and a green hat covered in dancing shamrocks while she held an Irish flag that played their national anthem when it waved, as well as a figurine of some Chaser from Ireland as well as two pair of omnioculars.
"Because I can. Take these," she replied excitedly, shoving the second pair of omnioculars into Maddy's hands.
"We better hurry up, girls," Mr Nevra said. "Our seats are high up, we want to get there before too many get there!"
"How high up?" Maddy asked.
"The second highest row. Don't worry though, I'm sure that Jupiter-"
"Zeus."
"-won't mind since you won't actually be flying."
"Yeah, probably, it's just kinda nerve wracking. I go higher up in Hogwarts, so it's fine," Maddy shrugged.
The three of them entered the huge stadium, which could seat a hundred thousand according to Mr Nevra, and sat in their spot right under the top box where several important people, as well as the Weasleys, Ron, Hermione and the de la Mares, were sitting.
Just above Maddy's eye level there was a giant blackboard that kept on scrawling out different messages in golden text that was complete murder on her eyes. It was completely indecipherable and she honestly wasn't interested enough in it to cast the spell to translate words from English to Ancient Greek, though Bella had cast the Latin version of the spell on herself.
"Ooh, a display of the team mascots," Mr Nevra said as he thumbed through a program. "That should be interesting... I wonder what they brought."
"Me too," Bella grinned. "I hope they're displays are just as good as the last ones!"
Suddenly, Maddy and Bella both jumped in alarm as the loud voice of Ludo Bagman resonated throughout the stadium. "Ladies and gentlemen... welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!" The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. "And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce... the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"
The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.
"Oooh," Mr Nevra said as he leaned forward in his seat. "Veela!"
"What are Veela?" Maddy asked just as a hundred or so veela glided out onto the field. They were women, and clearly very good looking women, but it was clear to Maddy that they weren't human and it wasn't just because of their white skin that shone like the moon and silky, golden hair. She wondered what exactly the Veela were as thunderous music began to play and the woman began to dance.
All around Maddy, as the Veela began to dance faster and faster, everyone seemed to be drawn to them and there were even several people who had stood up, Bella had in fact gone up to the rail and leaned over, the only things keeping her from leaping over the edge was her father holding on to the back of her shirt.
As the music stopped everyone sat back down, Bella was blushing furiously and she took her seat, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.
"What in the name of Hades was that?" Maddy asked over the many angry yells of people who wanted the Veelas to continue.
"Er, Veela just naturally attract people, it's honestly weird that you didn't seem to be effected in the least," she replied.
"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air... for the Irish National Team Mascots!"
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 oohed and aahed, as though at one of the Hephaestus cabin's fireworks display. Then, the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands. Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it, but it was soon discovered to be gold.
"Leprechaun gold vanishes after a few hours," Mr Nevra said to the two girls, both of whom were going to grab some of money. "They're worthless."
"Oh," Maddy sighed disappointedly.
The great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the Veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you, Dimitrov!"
A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.
"Ivanova!"
A second scarlet-robed player zoomed out.
"Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand Krum!"
"Aaahhh!" Bella screamed excitedly as she jumped up and down in her seat. "It's him! It's him! Krum!"
"I thought you were an Ireland of supporter," Maddy said.
"I am but Krum's still bloody brilliant!"
"And now, please greet the Irish National Quidditch Team!" yelled Bagman. "Presenting, Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand Lynch!" Seven green blurs swept onto the field. "And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chair Wizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"
Maddy didn't pay much attention as the game was being set up and even after Bagman screamed, "Theeeeeeeey're OFF! And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!" Bella was standing up on her seat and dancing around awkwardly with her omnioculars pressed against her face, her head snapping in every direction to follow the game.
"Fingers in your ears!" Mr Nevra called over the roar of the crowd as Bulgaria made their first score. The Veela danced in celebration on the ground as the game continued.
There was a loud uproar at one point when the Irish seeker, Lynch, hit the ground, breaking his nose.
Not long after that, the game ended with Ireland winning but Krum had caught the snitch.
"IRELAND WINS!" Bagman shouted 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!"
"That was amazing!" Bella cheered. "This is the perfect ending! Ireland wins but Krums is still a badass who caught the snitch!"