Tonks | Harry Potter | Ron Weasley

Chapter Four- The Match

"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" screamed Bagman. "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!"

Circe grinned, watching the match unfold. It wasn't like Hogwarts Quidditch. This was next level. It went at five times the speed of a school age match, and the ball bounced between player after player so fast that Circe–one of the Gryffindor team's best chasers–could barely keep up. It was so fast that Bagman only had the time to say their names.

In the corner of Circe's vision, she could see that Harry had his omnioculars to the slowest speed.

"TROY SCORES!" roared Bagman, and the stadium shuddered with a roar of applause and cheers. "Ten zero to Ireland!"

"What?" Harry yelled, looking wildly around through his Omnioculars. "But Levski's got the Quaffle!"

"Harry, if you're not going to watch at normal speed, you're going to miss things!" shouted Hermione, who was dancing up and down, waving her arms in the air while Troy did a lap of honor

around the field. Circe looked quickly over the top of his Omnioculars and saw that the leprechauns watching from the sidelines had all risen into the air again and formed the great, glittering shamrock. Across the field, the veela were watching them sulkily.

The Ireland chasers were incredible. Circe couldn't help but focus on them. It was her favorite part of the game. In ten minutes, they had scored another two times, making the score thirty–zero. But she knew what Bulgaria had up their sleeve. Ireland had the stronger chasers, but Bulgaria had the stronger seeker. All Ireland needed to do to win was score the quaffle enough times before Krum caught the snitch.

The match became faster still, but more brutal. Volkov and

Vulchanov, the Bulgarian Beaters, were whacking the Bludgers as fiercely as possible at the Irish Chasers, and were starting to prevent them from using some of their best moves; twice they were forced to scatter, and then, finally, Ivanova managed to break through their ranks; dodge the Keeper, Ryan; and score Bulgaria's first goal.

"Fingers in your ears!" Mr. Weasley warned the kids, whom all immediately obeyed, even Hermione, who wasn't affected by the veela.

"Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova — oh I say!" roared

Bagman.

One hundred thousand wizards gasped as the two Seekers,

Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from airplanes without parachutes. Circe knew that Harry beside her was following their descent through his Omnioculars, squinting to see where the Snitch was —

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

She was half right — at the very last second, Viktor Krum

pulled out of the dive and spiraled off. Lynch, however, hit the ground with a dull thud that could be heard throughout the stadium. A huge groan rose from the Irish seats.

"Fool!" moaned Mr. Weasley. "Krum was feinting!"

"It's time-out!" yelled Bagman's voice, "as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"

"He'll be okay, he only got ploughed!" Charlie said reassuringly to Ginny, who was hanging over the side of the box, looking horror-struck. "Which is what Krum was after, of course. . . ."

Circe watched as Krum flew around the field, hardly looking as though he was using a broomstick at all; he moved so easily through the air that he looked unsupported and weightless. He was now circling high above Lynch, who was being revived by mediwizards with cups of potion. Circe, focusing still more closely upon Krum's face, saw his dark eyes darting all over the ground a hundred feet below. He was using the time while Lynch was revived to look for the Snitch without interference. Circe grinned. He was a genius.