The Years of Blue [2]

Chapter 32: Quidditch World Cup

** Fair warning: This one's a long chapter. But it had to be done.**

"Ladies and Gentlemen... Welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!" boomed Ludo Bagman, his wand to his neck, broadcasting his voice across the massive stadium. His voice was met with crowds of people cheering on in excitement, other's raising their banners in pride for their teams.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce... the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

"Mascots?" I said to myself as I joined the group looking down onto the field. A hundred women whose skin shone silver like the moon and hair, white-gold, fanned out behind them like a constant breeze as they ran to the center of the grass.

They glided as they moved, something too strange to be human. There was also a sort of unnatural edge to them.

"Aah!" Mr. Weasley sputtered as he took off his glasses hurriedly and started to wipe them on his robes. "Veela."

Veela. I heard of those creatures before from Grand'mère. She said half of France had Veela blood, though how that's possible I had no idea. Who would mate with a creature even as captivating as Veela?

As the music started, I saw around me the adults shift in their seats, with my mother hitting my father in the arm to cover his ears, and Mr. Malfoy turning away from the dancing with his pale hands also tightly blocking the music out. Mrs. Malfoy tried to get her hands around Draco but he wasn't having any of that from his mother as he was standing up now to get a better look at the creatures. And he wasn't the only one.

The Veela had begun to dance and ever so slowly, more of the boys in the box started to act strangely, some standing and going stalk still, others moving toward the edge, like in a trance.

The Veela started to dance faster and suddenly Ed was standing up and making a move to climb onto his chair.

"Ed! What are you doing?" I questioned, tugging at his arm.

Across the box I saw Harry moving toward the edge as if to jump off and Ron hoisted himself up on the ledge of his chair, freaking his sister next to him.

"I'm the strongest wizard alive!" Theo called out confidently from his chair, causing my mother to whip around her seat and slap Theo silly, taking him out of his daze.

Thankfully I didn't have to go that far with Ed as he seemed to be blinking back to reality, confusion appearing on his face as began questioning why he was standing on a chair.

"What was that?" Ed questioned weakly, turning to Damion who had not reacted strangely at all. Nor did Charlie and Bill next to him.

"They're Veela," Damion said with no help.

"They're what?" Ed repeated. A loud commotion was heard throughout the stadium as people were booing the workers ushering the Veela to the side. Bagman was having trouble quieting the crowd as Fudge looked on unhappily.

"Veela! Land sirens of a sort. Don't watch them when they dance or they'll get you," Charlie warned as Ludo Bagman introduced the Irish mascots.

A green and gold comet came zooming into the stadium, flying past the rows of seats before splitting off into two comet size balls of green and gold. A large rainbow arched between the two and galleons started to rain from the sky.

"Oh I know what these creatures are!" Theo exclaimed as he reached out to grasp the galleons landing in our laps.

"Leprechauns!" Tremendous applause filled the stadium as others around us were fighting for the gold left on the floor.