With 100,000 Quidditch fans gathered here, even a little noise from each one would turn the entire camp into a boiling caldron, and as the afternoon passed on, the agitation not only didn’t diminish but rather grew more and more pervasive, so much to the point that even the summer air seemed to churn.
Felix remained in the tent, taking inventory of what would be used for the light show along with Lupin and the rest of the team, as they had planned to hold a Grand Magic Light Show the night of the Quidditch finals and continue until the end of the game. On top of that, Future World had spent a thousand Galleons on the text ads that would appear before the start of the Quidditch World Cup.
As the sun finally set and the twilight began to dissipate, Clammy and young shopkeeper Eric McKee slipped out to enjoy the evening, and there was lots of hustle and bustle outside, with vendors popping up with apparition every now and then, pushing carts full of various souvenirs through the crowds.
The Ministry of Magic also gave up their last resistance and let it be, and all sorts of signs of magic sprang up at once, “crackling” Apparitions, vigorous hawking and sales, joyful and noisy chatter … made the camp rowdy.
Lupin also went out, Felix stayed in the tent, fiddling with a layer of air wall on his left hand, as his right hand held the wand, he chanted softly: “Fulmen.”
A red bolt shot out from the tip of his wand and hit straight on his left hand. After waiting a second or two, Felix’s left hand trembled, he dispersed the magic and looked at the palm of his hand, which had a small red dot on it.
“The effect is still very limited…. but it has Potential.” Felix kept pondering. After another hour or two, Clammy and Eric returned with large bags, and they placed them on a side table, as Felix retracted his magic and looked at the various souvenirs in front of him.
There is a glowing green rose-shaped badge, and right now it is shouting loudly “Irish team will win!” Clammy pressed hard on the top of the rose, and it finally stopped.
And something that looked like binoculars with a variety of odd knobs and dials. “That’s Omnioculars,” Clammy introduced, “I thought it is brilliant, with it, you can able to magically slow down and replay the scenes.”
Felix tried it out, “It’s fascinating.” He kept flicking the buttons on it, and the whole world slowed down before his eyes, then Clammy slowly took out a small model of a Firebolt and gestured it in front of him.
There were also figurines of famous players’ collection, Eric McKee bought a full set of Irish team figurines as a souvenir, as he walked around the table with a smug look on his face, He didn’t pay attention and stubbed his toes on the table, as one of the figurines fell off the table.
“Oh, my Lynch -”
Eric said as he hastened to wipe the figurine’s ash-stained nose, “Bad luck go away, go away …”
Clammy and Felix both looked at him, and he explained, “That’s what my dad used to do, to chase away bad luck, to never let it ruin the big game.”
“Does it really work?” Clammy looked at him sceptically.
“Of course,” he introduced with gusto, ” We’re without a trophy for thirty years, there is a good chance of winning this year, and we have the most compatible team – Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! And, of course – Lynch!”
“He’s the Seeker?” Clammy nudged the ‘Lynch’ in Eric’s hand with her finger.
“That’s right, the Seeker is the soul of the team …” When talking about Quidditch, Eric became exceptionally chatty, and when he heard that Clammy didn’t even understand basic fouls, he stared as if he had found an alien.
“Let me tell you, there are many ways to foul Quidditch, such as the most common pulling and punching, elbowing, locking your opponent with a broom handle, and the relatively complicated …”
Felix quietly stepped back as he settled on an interesting game of creating a thick wall of air and throwing small odd things at it, like cups and forks, and then they would stuck in the air and move forward in slow motion, the exact speed of movement being related to the force with which you threw them.
Clammy was also attracted by this game, she tried to use her own cup to knock the professor’s cup out.
After failing repeatedly, she set her sights on Eric’s figurine.
“Absolutely not-” Eric said firmly, but he pulled another pile of figurines out of his pocket, ” You can throw this Bulgarian team one.”
Within moments, various cups, knives and forks, badges as well as figurines, and sealed bags of snacks were stuck in the air.
“Eric wins, by five points.”
…
It became completely dark and Felix invited everyone to eat, “Better eat something, we can’t watch the game on empty stomach, and we don’t know how long it will go on.”
“Where’s Lupin?”
“Probably met a friend and talking a little longer, I’ll be sure to bring him something to eat.” Felix said.
“I wish the competition would go on for ten days and ten nights.” At the dinner table, Clammy Vera said sincerely. Then they would have more time to show the magic lamp.
Felix laughed.
“Vera, you haven’t made a decision yet? You already can consider yourself as a part of the company.”
Clammy said with embarrassment, “I haven’t thought about it yet, I like the job of a Curse-Breaker, but it’s also great here … Am I being a little greedy, Professor?”
Felix shrugged, swallowed the chicken in his mouth, poured himself another glass of iced lemonade, and smiled, ” You’re having a happy annoyance. I can’t help much with that, but there’s no need to rush to make your decision or stress yourself out.”
He raised his glass and toasted distantly as he said again, “You’re always welcome here, Vera.”
At that moment, Lupin came in from outside the tent with a worried look on his face, Felix poured him a glass of lemonade, he expressed his thanks, and his eyebrows were stretched, “Just visited Harry and there was a close call.”
“What happened?” Felix inquired, directing the dishes to float over to Lupin, “I suggest you try this, fried halloumi cheese, Eric bought it from a vendor, it tastes phenomenal with chicken.”
Erik McKee, who seated next to Clammy, smiled restrainedly, and Lupin patted him on the shoulder and said gently, “Thank you.” He sat down and explained, “Sirius stayed with the Weasleys and ended up meeting Barty Crouch, you know …”
It became clear in Felix’s mind that Sirius might have some animosity towards Barty Crouch by the looks of it, but Lupin’s words took him by surprise.
“It was Barty Crouch who made the provocative remark,” Lupin’s brow furrowed again, and he said slowly, “Crouch was in charge of the defense of the whole camp, and when talking about the Death Eaters, Crouch brought up the old issue by saying that there were many Death Eaters on the loose -”
“But Sirius has been proven innocent.”
“Yeah, but he kept looking at Sirius as he spoke, and you know Sirius’ temper, the two already have an old grudge, if Harry hadn’t dragged …” Lupin shook his head and didn’t go on, but Felix could totally guess what was going on.
Probably he would have pulled out his wand.
The low, mellow sound of a gong came from somewhere in the woods, and immediately, thousands and thousands of red and green lanterns bloomed brightly in the trees, brightening the path to the stadium.
“It’s time!”
The four stood up, walked out of the tent, and followed the surging excited crowd into the woods, when they emerged from the other side of the woods, they got greeted by a huge oval-shaped open-air stadium, its interior so brightly lit up that the light coming through reflected half of the forest with a golden lustre.
“It’s claimed to be able to hold 100,000 people.” Eric murmured.
They took their tickets for the top box and made their way up, the stairs leading to the top were covered with a fuchsia carpet, and when there were no more stairs ahead, they already stood at the highest point of the stadium.
You can see a spectacular sight below, with 100,000 wizards taking their seats one by one, Clammy tugged on his sleeve and pointed somewhere, and on the side of that stadium stood a huge chalkboard with various advertisements writing on it in a loop –
‘Cornflower: a flying broom for the whole family – safe, secure and with a built-in anti-theft buzzer …’
‘Future world, watch the game, see the light show, say goodbye to old lamps and blinking torches, the future is at hand -‘
Felix nodded his head to indicate that he saw it. Soon, people began to enter the small box they were in, the Weasleys, the Malfoys, Sirius, Harry, and Hermione, followed by
Cornelius Fudge and the Bulgarian Minister of Magic.
Lucius Malfoy cast an icy glance at both the Weasleys and Sirius indifferently, with a slight nod of greeting, then clambered enthusiastically with Fudge, when Felix looked at him, he subconsciously avoided his eye contact.
”Haven’t you figured it out yet, Lucius.” Felix thought to himself.
After the crowd settled down, the only voices left in the small compartment were those of Fudge and the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, who spoke like a chicken. Fudge missed Barty Crouch immensely; despite their mutual discord, Crouch’s talent is evident to all, and he knows at least a hundred languages, including the language of many magical creatures.
A little later, Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman arrived together, Crouch sporting a horribly serious expression with a frosty look on his face, but Fudge was going crazy with the Bulgarian Minister’s terrible accent and didn’t notice a thing about it.
“Thank God, Barty, at last you’re here, I need you to translate for me–”
“I dragged Barty over here forcefully,” said Ludo Bagman cheerfully, “I told him that he deserves the most credit and should be on top …”
“Sorry.” Crouch’s face filled with disgust and his lips quivered as if he was resisting the urge to slap Fudge in the face, “I have no time for such trivial matters–”
” Trivial matters?” Fudge took a deep breath and looked at him incredulously, what was going on, he was just about to say something, only to see Crouch’s lips open noiselessly, although no sound came out, but Fudge was too close to him and could clearly distinguish the mouth pattern, Crouch was said, “Stupid.”
” Barty Crouch!” Fudge, whose mood at the moment is mixed with anger and dread, shouted loudly at Crouch, with spittle flying, “Have you finally stopped hiding and decided to plot to take my place!”
There is silence in the box, no one expected this to happen, even the Bulgarian Minister opened his mouth wide as he said in perfect English, “What’s happening?”
Ludo Bagman, the host of the opening ceremony, froze in place, his round face continued to sweat, and he subconsciously took a few steps back, “Ouch!” Hermione cried out, it turned out that he stepped on Hermione’s foot.
” Sorry, I’m sorry, Lit..tle girl.” Ludo Bagman stammered.
Sirius said dismissively, “See, both of them are no good, Crouch looked at me exactly like that this afternoon, and I think he’s finally gone mad.”
Felix, sitting in the second row, pinched his chin, were we going to see a good cat fight today, the Department of International Magical Co-operation versus the current Minister of Magic?
What a pity that there were no reporters-
Mr. Weasley stood up and tried to ease the awkward atmosphere as he hesitantly said, “Mr. Crouch …”
Barty Crouch seemed to have finally regained his senses, he opened his mouth but said nothing, hurriedly threw a few apologies, and turned to leave. The scene only left with red-eyed Fudge who panting like a pig.
When Crouch passed by, Harry suddenly felt a sharp pain in his forehead, as if he had been branded with an iron seal on the skin.
He covered his forehead and forced himself not to make a sound, only Sirius and Ron, who were sitting on both sides of him, noticed the abnormality, and Sirius asked in a low voice: “What’s wrong, Harry? Does your scar hurt again?”
But that was when the Quidditch World Cup finals officially began, and the loud cheers drowned out his concern.
Ludo Bagman enchanted himself with a Sonorus spell, and then the words he uttered rang out like thunder throughout the stadium.
“Ladies and gentlemen … Welcome! Welcome to the final of the 422nd Quidditch World Cup!”
———-
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