The Weasley tickets were for the Top Box and by the time they reached it, the excitement was brimming from all of them. From where they sat at the front of the Top Box, they could see everything; it was all suffused with a mysterious gold light that seemed to be coming from the stadium itself. The pitch looked smooth as velvet from their lofty position. At either end of the pitch stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high; right opposite them, almost at their eye level, was a gigantic blackboard. Gold writing kept dashing across it as though an invisible giants hand was writing upon it then wiping it back off again. Watching it, they saw it was flashing advertisements across the pitch.

Ron was testing out his Omnioculars, staring down into the crowd on the other side of the pitch.

"Mental!" he said, twiddling the replay knob on the side. "I can make that old bloke down there pick his nose again... and again... and again..."

Hermione, meanwhile, was skimming eagerly through her velvet- covered, tasselled programme.

"A display from the team mascots will precede the match" she read aloud.

"Oh, that's always worth watching." Arthur said. "National teams being creatures from their native land, you know, to put on a bit of show."

The box filled gradually around them over the next half hour. Bella's father kept shaking hands with people who were obviously very important wizards. Percy jumped to his feet so often that he look as though he was trying to sit on a hedgehog. When Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, arrives, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered. Highly embarrassed, be repaired them with his wand, and thereafter remained in his seat, throwing jealous looks at Harry, who Cornelius Fudge had greeted like an old friend.

"- ah, here's Lucius!"

Bella turned around in her seat and spotted Draco, following after his mother and father into the three empty seats just behind her. He caught her eye and just as quick as she had turned around, she turned back, trying hard to focus solely on the pitch in front of her.

"Ah, Fudge." Mr Malfoy said, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister. "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 said, bowing and smiling at Mrs Malfoy. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr Oblansk - Obalonsk - Mr - well, he's the Bulgarian Minister for 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 daresay?"

It was a very tense moment indeed. Mr Malfoy and her father looked at each other and Bella was reminded of the fight they had both been involved in, in Flourish and Blotts, the summer before Bella's second year. Mr Malfoy's cold grey eyes swept over her father and then up and down the row.

"Good lord, Arthur." he said softly. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?"

Fudge, who hadn't been listening, said, "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." her father said with a strained smile.

Without another word, Mr Malfoy continued up the line until they reached the only three empty seats in the row; the seats behind Bella, Charlie and Fred. Draco sat in between his parents, in the seat directly behind Bella. She could bet that Draco could feel the awkwardness of the situation radiating from her and she couldn't even move in her seat she felt so awkward.

Next moment, Ludo Bagman charged into the box.

"Everyone ready?" he said, his round face gleaming with excitement. "Minister - ready to go?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo." Fudge said happily.

Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it at his own throat and said "Sonorus!" and then spoke over the roar of sound that was now filling the packed stadium; his voice echoed over them, booming into every corner of the stands: "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. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message and now showed 'BULGARIA: ZERO, IRELAND: ZERO'

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce... the Bulgarian team mascots!"

The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared their approval.

"I wonder what they've brought?" Arthur said, leaning forwards in his seat. "Ahh!" he suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"

A hundred Veela were now gliding onto the pitch. They began to dance and carnage ensued in the Top Box. Every male in the vicinity was doing their utmost to get closer to these girls; Draco had stood from his seat and attempted to climb over Bella's head. She shoved him off and he looked down at her with a dazed expression. When the Veela stopped dancing there were furious yells from all over the stadium. Draco looked embarrassed and took his seat hurriedly.

"And now," roared Ludo Bagman, "kindly put your wands in the air... for the Irish National Team Macots!"

Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet had come zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling towards the goalposts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the pitch, connecting the two balls of light. 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!" Ron yelled as the shamrock soared over their heads and heavy gold coined rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Bella realised that it was actually composed of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red waistcoats, each carrying a minute lamp of gold and green.

"Leprechauns!" Charlie said to her over the roar of the crowd who were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs for gold.

The great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the pitch in 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!" Bagman listen off the names of the players as they zoomed onto the pitch to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.

"That's him, that's him!" Ron yelled as Viktor Keynote flew onto the pitch, following him closely with him Omnioculars.

"And now, please greet - the Irish National Quidditch Team!" Bagman yelled, again listing the players as they flew onto the pitch to tumultuous applause.

"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"

A small and skinny wizard, completely bald but with a moustache as large as Bella had ever seen, wearing robes of pure gold to match the stadium, strode out onto the pitch.

"Theeeeeeey're off!" Bagman roared.

Bella was on the edge of her seat as she watched the fourteen players zooming across the pitch. She raised the Omnioculars to her eyes and pressed the play-by-play button, watching in slow motion, while glittering purple lettering flashed across the lenses and the noise of the crowd pounded against her eardrums.

"TROY SCORES!" Bagman yelled and the stadium shuddered with a roar of applause. "Ten-zero to Ireland!"

Bella adjusted her Omnioculars to their normal speed and sat them underneath her chair so as not to damage them. Within ten minutes, Ireland had scored twice more, bringing their lead to thirty-zero and causing a thunderous roar of applause from the Irish supporters.

Bulgaria scored their first goal and the Vella went insane, dancing in celebration. The boys in the Top Box put their fingers in their ears and screwed their eyes shut, trying to prevent the Veela from taking their mind off the game. Draco hadn't yet tried to clamber over Bella's head again so she assumed it had worked.

The more the game wore on, the dirtier it became. One hundred thousand witches and wizards gasped as the two Seekers, Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the centre of the Chasers.

"They're going to crash!" Hermione screamed.

At the very last second, Viktor Krum pulled out of the dive and spiralled off, Lynch, however, hit the ground with a full thus that could be heard throughout the stadium.

"FOUL!" Bella roared, jumping to her feet.

"It's time out." Bagman yelled. "As trained medi-wizards hurry onto the pitch to examine Aidan Lynch."

"He was feinting!" Bella yelled, flailing her arms in the air, looking over the side of the box onto the pitch.

Lynch got to his feet at last, to loud cheers from the green-clad supporters, mounted his Firebolt and kicked back off into the air. Bella returned to her seat but sat on the end, gripping the underside so tight her knuckles had gone white.

After fifteen more fast and furious minutes, Ireland had pulled ahead by ten more goals. They were now leading with one hundred and thirty points to ten, and the game was getting dirtier still. The Beaters on both teams were now acting without mercy and Fred and George were talking loudly and animatedly how they could learn some tricks to beat Slytherin in the up-and-coming Quidditch matches.

The game was filled with such anticipation that Bella thought her heart might give out at any moment. The Irish Seeker, without warning, dived and Bella was certain he had definitely spotted the Snitch.

"He's seen the Snitch!" Harry yelled. "He's seen it! Look at him go!"

Half the crowd seemed to have realised what was going on, the Irish supporters rose in a great wave of green, cheering their Seeker on. Krum was on his tail, gaining level with him with every passing second.

"They're going to crash!" Ginny shrieked.

"They won't!" Freya yelled.

"Lynch will!" Harry roared.

And he was right - for the second time, Lynch hit the ground with tremendous force, and was immediately stamped on by a horde of angry Veela.

"The Snitch! Where's the Snitch!" Charlie bellowed in Bella's ear.

"He's got it - Krum's got it - it's all over!" Harry yelled.

Krum was rising gently into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand. The scoreboard was flashing 'BULGARIA: ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY, IRELAND: ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY' across the crowd, who didn't seem to have realised what had happened. Then, slowly, the rumbling from the Ireland supporters grew louder and louder and erupted into screams of delight.

"IRELAND WIN!" Bagman bellowed. "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH - BUT IRELAND WIN - good lord I don't think any of us was expecting that!"

"You said that would happen!" Bella cried, jumping up and down in front of Fred and George. "You said Ireland would win but Krum would catch the Snitch!"

At that moment, two panting wizards arrived at the entrance to the Top Box, carrying the Quidditch World Cup, which the handed to Cornelius Fudge.

Bella was in a whirl of emotions as the Bulgarian and Irish teams came into the Top Box, every eye in the stadium on them. Her hands ached from clapping and the muscles in her face were becoming strained from all of the smiling but she dare not stop.

At last, when the Irish team left the box to perform one last lap of honour, Bagman pointed his wand to his throat and muttered, "Quietus"

"They'll be talking about this one for years," he said hoarsely, "a really unexpected twist that... shame it couldn't have lasted longer... ah yes... yes, I owe you... how much?"

Fred and George had scrambled over the back of their seats and were standing in front of Ludo Bagman with broad grins on their faces, hands outstretched.