"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce...the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!" Bagman said.
The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.
"I wonder what they've brought," said Mr. Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"
"What are veel -?"
But a hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field, and Dudley's question was answered for him. Veela were women...the most beautiful women Dudley had ever seen.
"Wow!" he said to Dean, who was grinning appreciatively.
"They don't make them like that at Hogwarts!" Ron, who was sat beside Dean said.
"Don't let Cho hear you say that," Dudley heard Ginny say, causing Ron to scowl and the twins laugh.
"Least he's got good taste—Cho is a pretty one," Fred said.
"Yeah, he could have fancied Milicent Bulstrode, then we'd have to disown him."
They all, even Hermione, laughed at that.
Once the music started, Dudley stopped worrying teasing Ron - in fact, he stopped worrying about anything at all.
The veela had started to dance, and Dudley's mind had gone completely and blissfully blank. All that mattered in the world was that he kept watching the veela, because if they stopped dancing, terrible things would happen.
And as the veela danced faster and faster, wild, half-formed thoughts started chasing through Dudley's dazed mind.
He reached out for his Ireland hat, about to throw it off the Top Box.
Luna grabbed his hands to stop him. "Wait," she whispered. "It's just a spell—ignore them."
The music stopped.
Angry yells were filling the stadium. The crowd didn't want the veela to go. Dudley was with them; he would, of course, be supporting Bulgaria, and he wondered vaguely why he had a large green shamrock pinned to his chest. Ron, meanwhile, was absentmindedly shredding the shamrocks on his hat. Mr. Weasley, smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and tugged the hat out of his hands.
"You'll be wanting that," he said, "once Ireland have had their say."
"Huh?" said Ron, staring openmouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field.
Hermione made a loud tutting noise. She reached up and pulled Ron back into his seat. "Honestly!" she said.
"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air...for the Irish National Team Mascots!"
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 oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display. Now 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 -
"Excellent!" yelled Ron as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Dudley realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.
"Leprechauns!" said Mr. Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.
"I knew it!" Luna shouted, jumping up and down. "Daddy is always right about these things."
"Cool!" Dudley said, too busy shoveling gold into his pockets.
"There you go," Ron yelled happily, stuffing a fistful of gold coins into Dudley's hand, "for the Omnioculars! Now you've got to buy me a Christmas present, ha!"
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!"
"Levski! That's who we need to score first!" Dean shouted.
"That's him, that's him!" yelled Ron, following Krum with his Omnioculars. Dudley quickly focused his own.
Viktor Krum was thin, dark, and sallow-skinned, with a large curved nose and thick black eyebrows. He looked like an overgrown bird of prey. It was hard to believe he was only eighteen.
Beside him, Luna didn't have a pair of Omnioculars so passed his pair to her so she could take a look.
Luna, however, instead focussed on the referee. "He has a very cute moustache," she announced.
Dudley laughed. He was glad Luna had sat next to him. She was fun.
Dudley took the Omnioculars back as the Irish team came out. They were all flying Firebolts, the best broom in the world.
The match soon kicked off. It was quidditch at a far faster pace than Dudley had ever seen. He had thought the Gryffindor chasers had been good but the Irish three blew them out of the water.
They were throwing the quaffle so fast that Bagman only had time to say there names.
Then -
"Troy scores!" Bagman shouted.
Dudley swore.
"That prat!" Dean shouted. "That stupid prat! I thought Levski was a sure thing!"
Dudley looked around at Lockhart. He looked stunned. He had just lost 20 galleons to Bagman.
The match continued. Dudley occasionally gave his Omnioculars to Luna so she could have a look, but she seemed uninterested in the match and instead used the Omnioculars to spot interesting people in the crowd.
"There's a man with a beard even longer than Dumbledore," she announced. "And one who is wearing a funny hat like an acorn."
Ireland were much better than Bulgaria. Even Bulgaria's dirty tactics failed to stop the onslaught. The only player who compared was Krum.
Ron had gasped in shock as Krum pulled off a Wronski feint, sending the Irish seeker crashing to the ground.
"A move I mastered at Ravenclaw!" Lockhart announced above the sound of applause to nobody in particular.
"That was brilliant!" Ron shouted, excitedly. "I told you he was the best in the world!" He was jumping up and down so much that Scabbers, who was sat on his shoulder, fell to the floor with a squeak. Ron scooped him up again and put him safely in his pocket.
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 Dudley didn't catch it, but a scream of rage from the Irish crowd, and Mostafa's long, shrill whistle blast, told him 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!"
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!"
The veela on the other side of the field leapt to their feet, tossed their hair angrily, and started to dance again.
As one, the Weasley boys, Dean and Dudley stuffed their fingers into their ears, but Luna, who hadn't bothered, was soon tugging on Dudley's arm. He turned to look at her, and she pulled his fingers impatiently out of his ears.
"Look at the referee with the funny moustache!" she said.
Near Ron, Hermione was giggling too.
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; Dudley, watching through the Omnioculars again, saw that he looked exceptionally embarrassed and had 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. "Now there's something we haven't seen before...Oh this could turn nasty...
It did: 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..."
Dudley turned his attention to the Irish beaters, watching them as they prowled the skies. They worked as a seamless unit—while one went on the offensive to break up the Bulgarian play, the other played defence, protecting the Irish chasers. He was reminded a bit of Fred and George, they did the same. He hoped to dislodge one of the twins from the Gryffindor team at some point, so watched the beaters closely to pick up tips. They were fast too—darting from one of the pitch to the other. They usually targeted the chasers, but on occasion, hit the bludger towards Krum to try and shake him off his game.
The Bulgarian beaters, meanwhile, were ruthless. Whacking the ball furiously and with great power. Indeed, Volkov and Vulchanov 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.
"Foul!" roared the Irish supporters as one, all standing up in a great wave of green.
"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 was making a very rude sign indeed at the veela across the field. 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. Watching through his Omnioculars, Dudley saw that they didn't look remotely beautiful now. On the contrary, their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders -
"And that, boys," yelled Mr. Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below, "is why you should never go for looks alone!"
Ministry wizards were flooding onto the field to separate the veela and the leprechauns, but with little success.
Luna was starting transfixed at the battling leprechauns and veela. "Look at them go!" she said. Dudley gave her his Omnioculars so she could watch.
"So cool! I never knew veela could do that!" she said.
With Luna holding his Omnioculars, he missed what happened next, but there was a loud groan from the crowd.
"What happened?" Dudley said, looking around.
"That little leprechaun has just had his beard set on fire," Luna announced.
Somehow Dudley doubted that was the crowd had groaned about.
"It's Krum!" Dean shouted. "A bludger broke his nose!"
"Time-out! Ah, come on, he can't play like that, look at him -"
"Look at Lynch!" Hermione cried.
Dudley grabbed the Omnioculars from Luna, who was now looking at a cloud, so he could watch. Lynch had gone into a deep dive.
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, Dudley 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 Dudley.
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.
"The Snitch, where's the Snitch?" bellowed Charlie, along the row.
"He's got it - Krum's got it - it's all over!" shouted Dudley.
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.