A/N: Welcome back! More World Cup stuff! Nothing really to say here, other than Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all that good stuff. You'll be getting another chapter next week, since this was supposed to go up last week and I'm going to be doing my best to keep to my normal schedule. See you all in a week! Make sure to comment/review!
After dealing with their somewhat embarrassing situation, Harry, Susan, and Hermione began making their way around the Quidditch World Cup grounds. Their first stop was to attempt to find where the Weasley family had set up. Finding it had thankfully not proven difficult, as the Weasley family had a tendency to stand out no matter where they were. Fred and George Weasley were currently in front of the tent, setting up what appeared to be some kind of cart.
"Hello George. Hello Fred." Harry said, nodding to each of them in turn. While many had always had difficulties distinguishing between the pair, even with his limited experience, Harry didn't have such issues.
"Morning Harry!" George said, as Fred continued messing with the cart. "Looking to be our first customer?"
"Customer?" Harry questioned. George motioned to the signage above the cart that read "Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes".
"We've been doing pranks and the like around Hogwarts our entire tenure, it's what we like doing. Dad gave us an idea that we could probably make our own devices and sell them. Fun gags and items. We made a few batches and are gonna try and sell them around the grounds, see how they do." Fred said, as George unpacked a couple items. The display was somewhat eclectic, filled with things Harry had little idea how to process. There were what appeared to be ears on strings, hats with eyeballs on top, and a selection of funnels with Team logos on them.
"So what are these?" Harry asked, looking over the display.
"The Ears are our extendable ears. They let you hear things that would otherwise be out of earshot. You could set one outside your door to hear someone coming, listen into a private conversation, or listen to the Wizarding Wireless while you're supposed to be studying. The Hats are our lookout hats. They let you see from the eyes on top provided you close your eyes first. We figure some people may want to use these here if they're put behind someone tall in the stands. These things here are noise makers that say the chants of various teams when you use them. We've got Bulgaria and Ireland's national ones, but also a few other smaller teams like the Chudley Cannons for more general fans." George said, as Fred jokingly over-demonstrated the items.
"That's brilliant you two! Huh, well I guess I'll take one of those ears. Seems like a fun thing." Harry said, pulling out a galleon and handing it to Fred.
"Thank you kindly Mr. Potter for your patronage!" George said. "See that Forge? I knew we'd have customers!"
"Never doubted it for a minute, but you're Forge, I'm Gred." Fred said.
The talk outside brought Luna from the tent, who immediately came over to greet Harry with a hug and a kiss. "Hello Harry. I'm so happy to see you. Daddy says hi." She said, before looking over to Susan and Hermione. "Hello to you two as well. Seems that I missed out on some fun. Oh well, I will have my time."
How Luna could know that, Harry was unsure, but his youngest love was always incredibly perceptive, if anyone was capable of such a feat it would be her. Harry laced his fingers with hers and held her close. "Feel like exploring some of the grounds? Some of the tents look rather interesting, and if Fred and George here are any indication maybe some people have shops set up."
"Happy to go anywhere with you Harry. Let me let Mrs. Weasley know that I'm going." Luna said, kissing Harry on the cheek before walking back inside. She came out a moment later and locked her hand in his again. "Let's go."
The grounds were truly a sight to behold as Harry walked through them. Aside from the variety of tents set-up that Harry truly believed were more impressive than some of the houses he had seen, the sheer variety of goods at the small pop-up stores were impressive. From confectionaries to team spirit goods, it seems anything someone would want at a sporting event was there. Luna found herself drawn however to a small shop that was selling umbrellas. The man in the shop had a creature Harry wasn't immediately familiar with that was sniffing around his feet. It turned to look at them as they approached, before making a sort of honking noise at them. The man, who had been reading the paper, looked over it and greeted them.
"Hello. Got some umbrellas here. Charmed to keep the wind and rain off ya. Never know when the weather's gonna get worse." The man said, his northern accent coming through very clearly. "Let me know if you want something."
"May I pet your Niffler? He's very cute." Luna asked, kneeling down to the small creature.
"Oh, Skippy? Sure. Knock yourself out. Aim for the belly and he'll be your best mate." The man said, chuckling a bit. Luna nodded and pet the creature, surely going directly for his stomach, and scoring maximum points from the creature. Harry could simply feel the contentment coming from the diminutive mammal as it received his belly rub. Harry browsed through a few of the umbrellas the man had available, and found one that was particularly interesting to him. It was a fairly standard thing, blue in color, with a brass fennel and wooden handle. What intrigued Harry was the hollow inside.
"Excuse me sir, what's the hollow in the handle of this umbrella for?" Harry asked, looking over at the man.
"Ah, forgot I had any of those out. That's what's known as a wandbroom. Put your wand in there and it lets you cast spells using the whole broom as the wand. People are pretty iffy about it, some people really like it, others don't. I like em, barely ever take my wand out of mine, but as an umbrella maker, I'm probably biased." He said, gesturing to his umbrella that he kept at his side. He pointed it up and gave out a small shower of sparks, before setting it back down.
"Huh… well, I guess I'll buy one then. I've been needing an umbrella anyway." Harry said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the five galleons the umbrella was priced at.
"You're up Skippy." The man said, and the small creature removed itself from Luna's loving hands to Harry's side, where he jumped up and grabbed the coins from Harry's hand and put them inside a pouch on his stomach. He then walked back over and laid down for Luna to keep petting him.
Harry couldn't help but laugh at the display, and the group said their goodbyes to the man as they walked off. As they began walking through the tents again though, Harry saw a familiar face. Fleur Delacour was helping to set up a tent with her father, but stops when she sees them. "Harry! Eet iz good to see you." Fleur said, running over to him and giving him a kiss on either cheek. "Papa, Harry is here."
"Hello Mr. Potter. Enjoying the festivities so far?" Jean-Paul asked. Fleur's father finished setting up the tent easily without his daughter's help.
"Yes sir, and it's good to see you again. Admittedly didn't expect to see you all here, Fleur mentioned she wasn't big on Quidditch." Harry said, somewhat dumbfounded by Fleur's greeting. She hadn't been like that before, he wondered what had brought that on.
"Yeah, Fleur never had much love for the sport. Gabrielle on the other hand is a fiend. She's off with her cousin talking to the Bulgarian team." Jean-Paul said. "You've probably heard of their new seeker? Gabrielle's infatuated with him."
"Figures, Viktor Krum has been the new infatuation with every young girl in Europe. Youngest player to ever play for a National Team, and in his first year rockets them all the way to the World Cup?" Susan said, looking over at Fleur. There was an emotion in her eyes Harry couldn't quite place.
"Ah, do not speak to me of zis person. 'E infuriates me to no end." Fleur said, looking away.
"You know him, Fleur?" Harry asked, looking to his French friend.
"Oui, he was my rival in dueling. 'E abandoned it before ze last year, and I 'ave never 'ad my opportunity to defeat 'im." Fleur said, her accent coming on thicker as she got angrier. " 'is younger brother Ivan, has been a rival to you as well I believe. I am glad to have seen you defeat him."
"Oh, is Fleur one of your dueling friends?" Hermione asked.
"Oh! Sorry, got so caught up I forgot introductions. Hermione, Susan, Luna, this is Fleur Delacour. We met at my first dueling tournament, her father trained under one of Professor Flitwick's good friends." Harry said, introducing them. "Fleur, this is Hermione, Susan, and Luna. They're my girlfriends."
"More 'zan one Harry? I thought better of you." Fleur said, her tone showing her disappointment.
"In his defense, we did put him up to it." Susan said, coming to Harry's aid. That lessened the blow a bit.
"Oh?" Fleur asked, curious. "Please, tell me more. 'Zis sounds like an interezting story."
"Well, there were five of us who all kind of fell for Harry, it's really easy. We also knew that he would never be able to choose between us, he just doesn't have it in him to make anyone sad like that. So since he was the last of his line, and therefore allowed to marry multiple partners, we figured we'd try all dating him. It's been great so far. Harry's really lovely." Susan said, grabbing onto Harry's arm. Harry flushed a bit at the attention.
Conversation with Fleur flowed easily after that, as Harry often found it did. They danced from dueling tips, to hobbies outside of dueling, to Fleur learning about what the girls liked. ANy tension that Harry worried about the girls having with Fleur, especially after that display earlier, washed away quickly. Fleur was every bit as friendly and intelligent as his girlfriends were, and it showed in their conversations, they were truly equals and were able to bounce off of each other with their quick wits. Fleur also had a dry humor about her, something which Hermione also had, and the two seemed to bond over slightly. The group had chatted an hour or so away before the sun began to set, and the group needed to return to their respective tents.
After dropping Luna off with the Weasley's, Harry, Hermione, and Susan returned to their tent for the night. After a quick dinner, and another awkward conversation about "appropriate affection levels", the group was off to bed. True to their word, Susan and Hermione had pulled their cots over to Harry's and cuddled with him throughout the night. Nymphadora found it adorable, and made sure not to tell Andromeda about it, although she imagined that Andy was well aware that it was happening.
Early that next morning, the games started in earnest. The Tonks family and their guests made their way to the VIP section of the stands, which Harry had mixed feelings about. "Sirius, why are we in the VIP section?" Harry asked, looking to his godfather.
"Well, we are VIPs. Harry both you and I are heads of Old Families, with seats in the Wizengamot, like it or not we are kind of important. Susan here is also the niece of the Head of the DMLE, Amelia made sure we got seats here for the extra security, just in case." Sirius said.
Harry could understand that, his dreams of being a normal person had been removed years ago, and maybe it was just residual Dursley programming that made him crave normality in that way. Harry knew objectively that he wasn't simply a normal wizard, between family connections and his connection to Voldemort, such a thing was doomed to fail when he was a baby. It's not like Harry didn't benefit from that though, his status as someone special had allowed him the privilege of not having to choose between the several girls he had developed feelings towards, that was something Harry was exceedingly grateful for, as he wasn't sure he could handle seeing any of his girls with someone else.
Moving on from that thought though, Harry glanced around the crowds to see if he could find Luna. He imagined she would still be with the Weasleys, so he looked for a section filled with a large family of Redheads. Sure enough, in a section just below the VIP section, there was a solitary dirty blonde sat in a large group of red-heads. Harry split off from the group for a moment to grab her, and brought her back with them to the VIP section.
Looking around the VIP section, Harry saw a few faces he was familiar with, there was Fleur and her father, alongside what must have been her sister and mother. There was also Ivan Krum and his father, with a man that Harry didn't quite recognize. He was a larger man, dressed in quidditch robes, and curly blond hair.
"Oh, Harry! Come 'ere, you must meet my sister and my maman." Fleur said, calling him over.
"C'est Harry Potter? Le garçon que tu aimes?" the smaller girl seemed to ask Fleur. She flushed a bit, but nodded. The small girl smiled and said "Enchanté de vous rencontrer!"
"She has said it is nice to meet you. And it is nice to meet you Mr. Potter. My husband and daughter have told me a bit about you, it is nice to get to meet you in person." The woman, who must have been Fleur's mother said. She looked a lot like Fleur, and had Harry not known that Fleur was the oldest of Jean-Paul's children, he would have thought she was simply an older sister. "I am Appoline Delacour, and this little one is Gabrielle. We're very happy to meet you."
"It is a pleasure to meet you as well ma'am. If I may ask, how would I say it is nice to meet you in French? I'd like to say it so she can understand as well." Harry said, smiling at the older woman.
"Enchanté de te rencontrer aussi." Fleur said.
"Thanks, Enchanté de te rencontrer aussi Gabrielle!" Harry said, giving the smaller girl a big smile, which she reciprocated.
The announcer's voice then came over the roar of the crowd: "Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the 1994 Quidditch World Cup! We have two teams here who have fought hard to make it here today! So let's hear it for them! On the Home side we have the Irish Team, and their Leprechaun Mascots!"
At the announcers words, a collection of green clad Quidditch players began to do laps of the field on their brooms, while a collection of Leprechauns did a small dance in the sky, causing gold nuggets to rain into the stands. It was an impressive display for certain, and one that would get the crowd excited. Leprechaun gold unfortunately disappeared only a few hours after it was created, so unfortunately the fake gold wasn't even useful as a souvenir.
"And facing off against them, on the Away side we have the Bulgarian team, and their Veela Mascots!" The announcer roared, and players in red robes swooped along the field, while pretty women with silvery blonde hair made their way towards the stands. The stopped about a meter away from the front of the stands and began blowing kisses at audience members.
Harry watched as several of the men began tripping over themselves trying to get closer to the women, and watched as Ron Weasley nearly jumped out of the stands before he was reeled in by his Father.
"What's going on? I understand the girls are pretty but that's ridiculous!" Harry asked, causing some eyes to turn to him.
"You're not affected?" Fleur asked, looking at him.
"I mean they're pretty, yeah, but not 'throw myself off of the stands at them' pretty." Harry said.
"That would be the Veela allure Mr. Potter. It's an ability Veela have. Are you familiar with the story of Odysseus and the Sirens from Greek Mythology?" Appoline asked, as she looked towards him.
"Yeah, Sirens sing a song that's so beautiful that it lures men into the water near where they are, then they kill them and eat them. Odysseus had himself tied to the mast of his ship so he could hear the song without succumbing to it." Harry said, remembering the tale.
"Veela allure is very similar, it entices men in a similar way, with magically enhanced beauty instead of with song. It's not just that they are beautiful, their magic is actively overpowering people's minds. Some are more resistant to the effects than others, although you seem exceptionally resistant." Appoline said.
"Is that a bad thing?" Harry asked, somewhat worried.
"Not at all, in fact for many it would be seen as quite the benefit. No Veela being able to manipulate your mind with a simple magic trick." Appoline said, while her eyes rested on Fleur for a second. "I myself am Veela, like my mother before me, and my daughters after. Would you mind if I tried to use my Allure? I promise to not harm you."
"Sure, go ahead. Sorry if I do something stupid girls." Harry said, causing the girls to laugh a bit.
Harry watched as Appoline starting staring into his eyes, and he could swear that she started to glow and have a small wind around her. "Anything Harry?" Appoline asked.
"You look a little different, but I don't feel anything." Harry said.
"It's certainly working on me Mrs. Delacour." Sirius said, as he started trying to get up in his seat. Andromeda and Nymphadora sat him down.
"Interesting. Dear can you help them hold down Mr. Black? I'm going to give Harry the full force, and see if he can take it." Appoline said. Jean-Paul nodded, and helped the Tonks women hold down Sirius.
Harry for sure could see Appoline glowing slightly, and the breeze seemed to catch her hair in a much more flattering way. Harry however was mostly unphased. "Well?" Appoline asked.
"I mean, you look prettier than you did before, but that's about it. Maybe glowing a bit?" Harry said.
Appoline stopped glowing, and Sirius sat back down. "Very sorry about that Mrs. Delacour." Sirius said.
"No worries, I am a particularly powerful Veela in the first place, and I would expect few men to be able to handle my powers at full blast. Even my dearest Jean-Paul is putty in my hands when I go all out, and he's had twenty years of marriage to build his resistances."
"And with introductions out of the way, let the match begin!" Came the voice of the announcer over the roar of the crowd, and all eyes turned to the stadium to watch what Wizards considered the pinnacle of sport.
Harry watched the crowd around him more than the game itself during most of this. A trait that was shared by Hermione, given neither of them were true Quidditch fans. The joy of sporting events like this is always the energy of the crowd around you, and Harry felt that was certainly strong in the VIP box. Susan and Gabrielle were cheering and jeering respectively, watching as Ireland scored goal after goal against the Bulgarian team. Harry glanced around and gauged the reactions of the other spectators around him. Some, like Sirius and Nymphadora were just excited to see such high level play of the sport, neither of their preferred teams having made it to this point in the tournament, and some like Fleur and Appoline, simply smiled at the joy it was bringing the others around them, the two older women smiling at their sister and daughter as she got into the game.
Harry had to admit, Viktor Krum's flying was exceptional. Harry'd been on a broom more than enough times to recognize how difficult many of the maneuvers he was pulling were, and Krum made it appear almost effortless. Given how talented his brother had been at dueling, it seems the Krum family simply bred savants.
Examining the VIP box more, Harry saw a few others who caught his attention. The large man in the Quidditch robes he had spotted earlier was sitting and talking with a man Harry had recognized from a textbook Parvati had shown him last year during the Buckbeak trial. That was Bartemius Crouch, former Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The two men seemed in deep discussion about something, and given their attention being on each other and not the game itself, Harry imagined it wasn't Quidditch. Harry also recognized a few students from Hogwarts with who he could only assume were their parents. Pure-blooded obviously, and likely people in higher echelons of the ministry.
Harry turned his attention back towards the game to see Bulgaria score their first goal of the match. They were a touch behind, the score currently sitting at Ireland 30 and Bulgaria 10, but there was still plenty of game left to play.
What followed Bulgaria's goal was a beatdown unlike any Harry had ever seen at Hogwarts. Ireland's offense was relentless, scoring goal after goal against the notably strong Bulgarian defense, setting the score at a staggering 170 - 10. Bulgaria needed two more goals and the snitch to win, but they couldn't seem to break through the Irish defense for a goal, or even stop the Irish offense. That's when three sets of eyes caught sight of the Golden Snitch. Viktor Krum, the Irish seeker Aidan Lynch, and Harry Potter all locked their gazes on the small golden orb that fluttered about the pitch. Krum and Lynch dashed off in a race for the orb, with Krum managing to catch it, managing to put a foot of distance between his hand and the Irish Seekers. That signaled the end of the game, setting the final score at 170 - 160. Despite Krum's quick fingers, Ireland had prevailed this time; taking them to the 1st place spot in the Winner's Podium in what Susan told him was the first time in over a decade anyone had defeated Bulgaria.
Harry cheered with the crowd as Ireland was awarded the World Cup, and everyone began funneling out of the stadium, back to the tents. It was early afternoon, and Ireland fans would be spending the rest of the day cheering for their victory. Harry hoped that Bulgaria fans would find the good spirit to join in as well, and celebrate an admirable performance, if not a victory.