Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 12: The Quidditch World Cup (pt 5)

After the Final

The 1994 World Quidditch Cup ended after just over four hours with a win for Ireland—170 to 160 over Bulgaria. While the score was close, it was a devastating loss for the young Bulgarian Seeker. Viktor Krum caught the Snitch, but too late, ending the game barely a second after Ireland had scored what would be the game-winning goal. In the boy's defense, he'd taken a Bludger blow to the head less than a minute earlier, and in his disorientation, he had not realized that the Irish had pulled ahead to a Seeker-proof lead. Of course, the match's outcome had hardly been in doubt. The Bulgarian Chasers had fought valiantly but were clearly no match for Ireland playing on what was considered its home turf despite the decidedly anti-British crowd, and the Irish Keeper, in particular, played the best game of his career.

Ironically, Bulgaria's biggest problem might well have been with its mascots. The wild Veela were already agitated by the enormous crowd, and Ireland's Leprechaun mascots seemed to have a knack for provoking them. Consequently, nearly half of Ireland's final score resulted from penalty shots awarded for the Veelas' continual interference with the match, culminating in the bird-women storming the pitch en masse and shooting a barrage of fireballs at the Leprechauns and the Irish players alike, not to mention their earlier attempt to seduce the referee. In any case, had Krum not caught the Snitch, Lynch, the Irish Seeker, certainly would have, and the Finals would have ended with a humiliating 320-10 loss instead.

"At least Krum lost on his own terms," Harry reassured a disconsolate Draco.

Despite the Veela issues, the match had otherwise been relatively clean (at least compared to the various outrages from earlier in the tournament). Afterwards, the majority of the crowd was sullen but nevertheless respectful of the well-earned Irish victory. Viktor Krum was given a standing ovation, which he acknowledged with a thumbs-up gesture even as he was carried off the field in a stretcher for medical treatment, and the rest of the Bulgarians stoically shook the hands of the victorious Irish.

As the crowd exited the stadium, Harry and his friends, family, and peers had a brief rendezvous. Archie Goodwin and Dan Granger had apparently made several new friends from among the Australian fans despite their citizenship, and they both stated a desire to visit the Australian section of the campsite. Hermione regarded her father's announcement somewhat dubiously before insisting that she would be coming along. Her expression brooked no argument, so Sirius led the other children (Harry, Theo, Neville, and Amy) back to the BMW tent without her. Archie assured them all that he would look after the Muggleborn witch and her Muggle father.

Meanwhile, Draco informed Lucius that he wanted to visit the Bulgarian section to see his friend, Viktor Krum, and the elder Malfoy acquiesced. As it happened, Lucius was quite impressed with Krum's performance and had his own reason for meeting the young man who'd been so helpful to his son at Durmstrang. He'd been considering purchasing a Quidditch team at some point in the near future if only to shut up Antonius Warrington's preening about his precious Montrose Magpies, and he wondered how amenable Krum would be to moving to Britain.

As it happened, the Malfoys would not be the only ones visiting that part of the campsite. Just moments earlier, a silvery doe Patronus sent by Lily Potter had appeared to Arthur Weasley to both apologize and to inform him that she would be a bit late picking up the Boy-Who-Lived from the Weasley tent.

"Midnight," the doe had said. "Twelve-thirty at the latest."

Since he would have some extra time to kill, Jim immediately asked Arthur if he and Ron could make a quick run by the Bulgarian sector, ostensibly so that Ron could get Krum's autograph, which the boy had failed to do at the party the week before. Ron looked at Jim in surprise before going along with whatever his best mate was after. Arthur looked doubtful until Ginny stepped forward with wide eyes and expressed her own desire to meet Viktor Krum. After looking back and forth between his two youngest children, the Weasley patriarch finally gave in. To his surprise, none of his other four sons had any desire for anything other than bed, so he told Bill to lead Charlie and the Twins back to their tent and that he would bring the younger children back later.