Miss Quinn

92 ~ The Match

Clutching their purchases, Sam in the lead, they all hurried into the wood, following the lantern-lit trail. They could hear the sounds of thousands of people moving around them, shouts and laughter, snatches of singing. The atmosphere of feverish excitement was highly infectious; Emma couldn't stop grinning. They walked through the wood for twenty minutes, talking and joking loudly, until at last they emerged on the other side and found themselves in the shadow of a gigantic stadium. Though Emma could see only a fraction of the immense gold walls surrounding the field, she could tell that ten cathedrals would fit comfortably inside it.

"Seats a hundred thousand," said Sam, spotting the awestruck look on the girls' faces. "Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year. Muggle Repelling Charms on every inch of it. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again..." He lead the way toward the nearest entrance, which was already surrounded by a swarm of shouting witches and wizards.

"Prime seats!" said the Ministry witch at the entrance when she checked their tickets. "Top Box! Straight upstairs, and as high as you can go."

The stairs into the stadium were carpeted in rich purple. They clambered upward with the rest of the crowd, which slowly filtered away through doors into the stands to their left and right. The Quinns kept climbing, and at last they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box, set at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly halfway between the golden goal posts. About twenty purple-and-gilt chairs stood in two rows here, and Emma, filing into the second-row seats with her cousins, looked down upon a scene the likes of which she could never have imagined.

A hundred thousand witches and wizards were taking their places in the seats, which rose in levels around the long oval field. Everything was suffused with a mysterious golden light, which seemed to come from the stadium itself. The field looked smooth as velvet from their lofty position. At either end of the field stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high; right opposite them, almost at Emma's eye level, was a gigantic blackboard. Gold writing kept dashing across it as though an invisible giant's hand were scrawling upon the blackboard and then wiping it off again; watching it, Emma saw that it was flashing advertisements across the field.

The Bluebottle: A Broom for All the Family -- safe, reliable, and with Built-in Anti-Burgler Buzzer...Mrs. Shower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain!...Gladrags Wizardwear -- London, Paris, Hogsmeade...

Emma tore her eyes away from the sign and looked around to see who else was sharing the box with them. So far it was empty, except for a tiny creature sitting in the second from last seat at the end of the row the Quinns were sat in. The creature, whose legs were so short they stuck out in front of it on the chair, was wearing a tea towel draped like a toga, and it had its face hidden in its hands. A house-elf.

Emma turned back toward the entrance to the Top Box as a crowd of red-heads came through the door. It was the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione.

"Blimey," said Fred when he spotted Emma. "You didn't tell us you were sitting up here!"

"Sorry, Frediekins," Emma said. She introduced her family to the others, and they all introduced themselves back.

The Weasley party sat in front of the Quinns. Fred and George were directly in front of Emma and Josephine, and they kept turning around to talk to the two girls.

"Dobby?" said Harry incredulously from four seats down, catching Emma's attention.

The tiny house-elf looked up and stretched its fingers, revealing enormous brown eyes and a nose the exact size and shape of a large tomato.