Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: No place in the minister's box for Harry and his friends, of course.

Chapter 8: The Quidditch World Cup

Not much later they were led into the stadium to take their seats. Those were of course rather bad since they were only children, but Harry was lucky enough to get one from which he could see almost all of the pitch. He took out his omnioculars to check whether they improved the view and found that he could actually see into the top box where Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of magic, sat next to some foreign looking wizards.

Mr. Bagman was there as well and behind him sat the unfriendly blond wizard that Harry had met during his second year and suspected was Mr. Malfoy, who had been one of the school governors back then.

And there, right next to Mr. Malfoy sat his house elf Dobby! But why was he covering his face with his hands?

He didn't get much time to wonder about it as the game was about to start. First the Bulgarian team mascots, the most beautiful women Harry had ever seen, danced.

There was quite a lot of shoving and screaming as the older male students all tried to rush onto the pitch to join in. A magical barrier stopped them however and the Professors soon re-established order among their charges, scolding and dragging the older students back into their seats as the Irish mascots followed up the Bulgarian women's dance with a shower of gold.

Once again the Professors had to scold as everybody tried to pick up as much gold as possible pushing, shoving and tearing it out of each other's hands.

"Why really!" Professor Flitwick squeaked. "And that in public! Aren't you ashamed of how that reflects on your institute?"

"It's not worth it," Professor Snape stated coldly. "Don't you even know that Leprechaun gold dissolves after a few hours?"

"Dissolves?" Harry gasped clutching his fistful of coins.

"Why of course," Hermione said as if everybody ought to know it. "Leprechaun gold is just for show. It dissolves into nothing."

"Oh."

Disappointed Harry and Ron let go of their haul and sat down again to see the actual match. That was truly impressive! Harry had never seen flying like this on the Hogwarts pitch and followed every move he could see with breathless delight. The end of the game was quite a sensation as the Bulgarian seeker Victor Krum caught the snitch, but the Irish team won anyway and well deservedly. The excellent combinations of their chasers had left no room for doubt which was the better team as far as Harry was concerned.