Author's Note: Some of the dialogue and many of the events described in this chapter are from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 8, "The Quidditch World Cup."

Narcissa frowned at Bagman with clear disgust on her face, but he didn't notice.

"'Everyone ready?'" he asked, both his voice and his face reflecting his excitement. "'Minister – ready to go?'"

"'Ready when you are, Ludo,'" Fudge replied.

Bagman took out his wand and pointed it at his throat.

"'Sonorus!'" he cried.

Bagman's voice then became so loud that it echoed to every part of the huge, crowded stadium.

"'Ladies and gentlemen…welcome!'" he yelled. "'Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!'"

Most of the people began to scream and clap. Those with flags waved them, filling the air with both the Ireland and the Bulgarian national anthems.

The huge blackboard now read "BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0."

Draco looked around excitingly. He caught sight of Blaise and his mother, who were screaming and clapping as loudly as anyone else.

Draco then caught sight of Theodore and his father. Mr. Nott was clearly enjoying himself, but Theodore was reading the book that he had borrowed from Narcissa.

What's wrong with him? Draco couldn't help thinking. How can he read with all this noise?

Before he could help himself, Draco glanced over at Hermione Granger, who was showing her excitement along with most everyone else.

See, Theo, even Bookworm Miss Know-It-All Granger is taking a break from reading, Draco thought. Strange. Since when did she like Quidditch?

"'And now, without further ado,'" Bagman yelled, interrupting Draco's thoughts, "'allow me to introduce…the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!'"

Draco looked down at the field, where hundreds of women were gliding.

But were they really women? Were they even human? They couldn't be human. They were much too beautiful to be human.

A part of Draco's mind remembered a time when his father had been explaining to him various different types of creatures.

Veela. These strange, intoxicating women that couldn't possibly really be women were veela.

Music began to play, and the veela began to dance.

"Come, Draco," they seemed to be saying. "Come to us, Draco."

"Yes," Draco breathed. "Of course I'll come to you. I'm coming. I'm coming."

Draco prepared himself to jump out of the box and down onto the field.

Out of the corner of his eye, Draco noticed that even Theodore was preparing to jump, the book that he had been reading hanging limply from his hand.

"Draco," his mother's voice cried from seemingly far away.

Draco blinked his eyes several times. The music had stopped, and the veela were now lining up on one side of the field.

Shaking her head in amusement, Narcissa pulled Draco back into his seat.

Lucius, meanwhile, had moved to pull Theodore back into his seat, as Mr. Nott was too enthralled by the veela to notice that his son had been about to jump out of the box with him.

Lucius then pulled Theodore's father back into his seat as well.

"Nott," Lucius hissed into the older man's ear, "I can understand the boys acting this way. But you, you should know better."

Mr. Nott gave Lucius a sheepish expression and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't remember being this hormonal when I was their age," Lucius muttered to Narcissa as soon as he had settled back into his own seat.

"No," Narcissa smiled, "you only got hormonal when you were around me."

Lucius grinned at his wife, remembering that one particular night in the Slytherin Common Room back when he had been in his fifth year and Narcissa in her fourth.

"Those women aren't that beautiful, Blaise," Lucius and Narcissa then heard Rosalind speaking scornfully to her son.

"Yes, Mother, they are," Blaise replied, his voice clearly showing how enthralled he still was. "They're more beautiful than even you."

Rosalind could only gape at her son.

"I think that took her down several pegs," Lucius smirked at his wife.

"Several well-deserved pegs," Narcissa smirked back.

"'And now,'" came Bagman's voice, "'kindly put your wands in the air…for the Irish National Team Mascots!'"

Their mascots ended up being, not surprisingly, leprechauns.

Draco dived under seats to gather the gold that the leprechauns had caused to fall down.

"Almost as good as the veela," Draco muttered to himself.

"Don't bother," Lucius told his son, grabbing his arm. "That's just leprechaun gold. It will disappear after a while."

"Oh," Draco said, getting back into his seat with clear disappointment.

"All the governing bodies in this world, both Wizarding and Muggle, can talk about conquering poverty and hunger all they want," Lucius spoke mockingly, "but no one is going to just hand out money like this. No one is that noble and kind, no matter how much they try to pretend they are."

Lucius then caught sight of Ron Weasley, who was scrambling eagerly for all the gold that he could gather.

"How typical of a Weasley," Lucius sneered.

Rosalind, meanwhile, was lecturing her son, who also had been trying to gather as much of the gold as possible.

Well, she didn't get as rich as she is from being stupid, Draco thought.

Draco then glanced over at Theodore, who unbelievably was once again reading his borrowed book. He paid no mind whatsoever to the gold falling down all around him.

He's probably read about leprechaun gold somewhere, Draco thought.

By this point, the leprechauns had made their way over to the opposite side of the field from the veela.

Bagman then introduced the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team.

Draco cheered with the rest of the crowd when Krum was introduced. The teenage boy then focused his Omnioculars to follow the Bulgarian Seeker.

Bagman then introduced the Ireland National Quidditch Team.

No one on the Ireland team, not even their Seeker Lynch, got as many cheers as Krum had received.

Bagman then introduced the referee, who was from Egypt. Draco, however, paid little attention to his name.

Then, the match finally began.

The speed didn't really catch Draco by surprise, as he had been to professional Quidditch matches before with his father.

Draco, however, didn't want to miss a single moment; so he spun the slow dial on his Omnioculars.

"You're going to miss things that way," Lucius muttered to his son.

Earlier in their tent, Draco had made sure that both his parents knew all about the amazing Omnioculars that he had bought.

Lucius's words quickly proved to be right, as Draco was watching Levski with the Quaffle on slow speed on his Omnioculars, while in reality Ireland had scored.

Draco burned with fury.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Narcissa spoke. "Didn't you say that you could replay action and get a play-by-play breakdown on that device?"

"That's what I was told," Draco replied, immediately brightening up.

Draco then adjusted his Omnioculars to normal speed. He would be doing a lot of replaying and re-watching as soon as the match was over.

It didn't take Draco long to notice that the Irish Chasers were beyond excellent. It was as if they were able to read each other's minds.

The match, meanwhile, became even faster and even more brutal. The Bulgarian Beaters showed no mercy when hitting the Bludgers at the Irish Chasers.

"Someone is going to get hurt," Narcissa muttered. "Someone is going to get seriously hurt. Why would anyone want to make a career out of being on one of those deathtraps?"

Draco was too caught up in his excitement to hear his mother.

Lucius, however, had heard his wife. He reached behind Draco to place a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"They'll be all right, Narcissa," he spoke soothingly. "They do this all the time. If they don't know what they're doing by now, then they deserve to fall off their broomsticks."

"You sometimes have a very twisted way of being comforting, Lucius," Narcissa responded.

At that moment, Bulgaria scored its first goal.

"You both better cover up your ears," Lucius told his wife and son.

The veela then began to dance in celebration.

Lucius turned Draco's head away from them so that he wouldn't start dancing as well.

After the veela were finished with celebrating, Draco took note of Krum and Lynch, who were both descending down so quickly that they were nothing more than blurs.

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

"Krum isn't, you filthy little Mudblood," Draco muttered.

Draco's words proved to be right. Krum pulled out of the dive at the very last second. Lynch, however, wasn't as fortunate. He hit the ground with a loud thud.

"See, Granger," Draco muttered, "you don't know everything after all."

"'Fool!'" Arthur Weasley cried. "'Krum was feinting!'"

"Thank you, Arthur Weasley, for telling everyone what was already obvious," Lucius sneered.

Draco snickered at his father's words.

Narcissa, meanwhile, was wincing at the sight of Lynch.

"He's going to be just fine," Lucius told her.

Lucius decided that it wouldn't be wise to tell his wife that this was perfectly normal for a Quidditch match. She already worried enough as it was that Draco played Quidditch at Hogwarts.

By this point, Lynch had gotten back onto his broomstick, and the match continued.

Draco watched as the Bulgarian Keeper Zograf flew out to meet the Irish Chaser Mullet.

Draco wasn't able to catch what exactly happened, but whatever had happened had clearly been a foul.

"There shouldn't be fouls in Quidditch," Draco grumbled angrily. "They take all the fun out of the game."

The leprechauns, meanwhile, flew into the air to form the words "'HA, HA, HA!'"

The veela responded by tossing their hair angrily before they began dancing again.

"I can't believe the referee," Narcissa hissed in disgust. "He should know better than that."

Draco couldn't help but snicker when he caught sight of the referee, who was flexing his muscles and smoothing his mustache in front of the dancing veela.

"Is everyone in this stadium a teenager?" Lucius muttered.

At that moment, a mediwizard (his fingers in his ears), came running over the field towards the referee. The mediwizard kicked the referee hard in the shins, which was enough to bring the man back to his senses.

The referee then began to yell at the veela. They quickly stopped dancing. It was clear they weren't happy.

Both teams now increased their levels of ferocity.

When the Irish team was fouled once more, the leprechauns rose into the air to form a rude hand gesture, which was pointed at the veela.

The veela began to throw handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. Through his Omnioculars, Draco noticed that the veela no longer looked beautiful in any way. In fact, they looked rather monstrous.

While Ministry wizards were trying to resolve the situation between the mascots, the match continued above them.

Then, Krum took a direct hit to his face from a Bludger that had been sent his way by Irish Beater Quigley.

Narcissa winced.

"He's going to be just fine," Lucius tried to reassure his wife.

At that moment, Lynch suddenly went into a dive.

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

Draco was too caught up in his own excitement to make any snide remarks.

Krum, whose face was completely covered in blood, was quickly catching up to Lynch. They were quickly approaching the ground.

"'They're going to crash!'" Hermione Granger screamed for the second time since the match had begun.

"'They're not!'" Ron Weasley responded.

"'Lynch is!'" Harry Potter commented.

"Why does Potter have to be right?" Draco grumbled.

And indeed, Lynch crashed into the ground, while Krum did not.

Krum also managed to catch the Snitch.

The scoreboard now read "BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170."

"'IRELAND WINS!'" Bagman yelled. "'KRUM GETS THE SNITCH – BUT IRELAND WINS – good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!'"

Draco looked over at Blaise, who had turned his head and was looking at him with a horrified expression on his face.

Draco just grinned. He then glanced over at his parents. Lucius was too busy with comforting Narcissa and muttering to her over and over again, "It's over, it's over" to notice the exchange between the two boys.

Draco directed his attention back to Blaise, who was still looking horrified.

I've come out on top, Draco thought happily, and Blaise is now going to look like an idiot for daring to challenge me.

Draco was going to make sure, though, that Blaise didn't try to give him leprechaun gold. Draco wouldn't put such an underhanded trick past the other boy. They were, after all, both Slytherins.

Theodore, meanwhile, was still reading his borrowed book.