whistle was protruding from under the mustache, and he was
carrying a large wooden crate under one arm, his broomstick under the other.
Harry spun the speed dial on his Omnioculars back to normal, watching closely as
Mostafa mounted his broomstick and kicked the crate open - four balls burst into
the air: the scarlet Quaffle, the two black Bludgers, and (Harry saw it for the
briefest moment, before it sped out of sight) the minuscule, winged Golden Snitch.
With a sharp blast on his whistle, Mostafa shot into the air after the balls.
69
"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" screamed Bagman. "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran!
Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!"
It was Quidditch as Harry had never seen it played before. He was pressing his
Omnioculars so hard to his glasses that they were cutting into the bridge of his
nose. The speed of the players was incredible - the Chasers were throwing the
Quaffle to one another so fast that Bagman only had time to say their names.
Harry spun the slow dial on the right of his Omnioculars again, pressed the playby-
play button on the top, and he was immediately watching in slow motion, while
glittering purple lettering flashed across the lenses and the noise of the crowd
pounded against his eardrums.
HAWKSHEAD ATTACKING FORMATION, he read as he watched the three
Irish Chasers zoom closely together, Troy in the center, slightly ahead of Mullet
and Moran, bearing down upon the Bulgarians. PORSKOFF PLOY flashed up
next, as Troy made as though to dart upward with the Quaffle, drawing away the
Bulgarian Chaser Ivanova and dropping the Quaffle to Moran. One of the
Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov, swung hard at a passing Bludger with his small club,
knocking it into Moran's path; Moran ducked to avoid the Bludger and dropped
the Quaffle; and Levski, soaring beneath, caught it - "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. Harry 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.
Furious with himself, Harry spun his speed dial back to normal as play resumed.
Harry knew enough about Quidditch to see that the Irish Chasers were superb.
They worked as a seamless team, their movements so well coordinated that they
appeared to be reading one another's minds as they positioned themselves, and the
rosette on Harry's chest kept squeaking their names: "Troy - Mullet - Mo ran!"
And within ten minutes, Ireland had scored twice more, bringing their lead to
thirty-zero and causing a thunderous tide of roars and applause from the greenclad
supporters.
The match became still faster, 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.
70
"Fingers in your ears!" bellowed Mr. Weasley as the veela started to dance in
celebration. Harry screwed up his eyes too; he wanted to keep his mind on the
game. After a few seconds, he chanced a glance at the field. The veela had stopped
dancing, and Bulgaria was again in possession of the Quaffle.
"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. Harry followed their descent
through his Omnioculars, squinting to see where the Snitch was -
"They're going to crash!" screamed Hermione next to Harry.
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... ."
Harry hastily pressed the replay and play-by-play buttons on his Omnioculars,
twiddled the speed dial, and put them back up to his eyes.
He watched as Krum and Lynch dived again in slow motion. WRONSKI
DEFENSIVE FEINT - DANGEROUS SEEKER DIVERSION read the shining
purple lettering across his lenses. He saw Krum's face contorted with
concentration as he pulled out of the dive just in time, while Lynch was flattened,
and he understood - Krum hadn't seen the Snitch at all, he was just making Lynch
copy him. Harry had never seen anyone fly like that; Krum hardly looked as
though he was using a broomstick at all; he moved so easily through the air that he
looked unsupported and weightless. Harry turned his Omnioculars back to normal
and focused them on Krum. He was now circling high above Lynch, who was
being revived by mediwizards with cups of potion. Harry, 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.
Lynch got to his feet at last, to loud cheers from the green-clad supporters,
mounted his Firebolt, and kicked back off into the air. His revival seemed to give
Ireland new heart. When Mostafa blew his whistle again, the Chasers moved into
action with a skill unrivaled by anything Harry had seen so far.
71
After fifteen more fast and furious minutes, Ireland had pulled ahead by ten more
goals. They were now leading by one hundred and thirty points to ten, and the
game was starting to get dirtier.
As Mullet shot toward the goal posts yet again, clutching the Quaffle tightly under
her arm, the Bulgarian Keeper, Zograf, flew out to meet her. Whatever happened
was over so quickly Harry didn't catch it, but a scream of rage from the Irish
crowd, and Mostafa's long, shrill whistle blast, told him it had been a foul.
"And Mostafa takes the Bulgarian Keeper to task for cobbing -- excessive use of
elbows!" Bagman informed the roaring spectators. "And - yes, it's a penalty to
Ireland!"
The leprechauns, who had risen angrily into the air like a swarm of glittering
hornets when Mullet had been fouled, now darted together to form the words "HA,
HA, HA!" The veela on the other side of the field leapt to their feet, tossed their
hair angrily, and started to dance again.
As one, the Weasley boys and Harry stuffed their fingers into their ears, but
Hermione, who hadn't bothered, was soon tugging on Harry's arm. He turned to
look at her, and she pulled his fingers impatiently out of his ears.
"Look at the referee!" she said, giggling.
Harry looked down at the field. Hassan Mostafa had landed right in front of the
dancing veela, and was acting very oddly indeed. He was flexing his muscles and
smoothing his mustache excitedly.
"Now, we can't have that!" said Ludo Bagman, though he sounded highly amused.
"Somebody slap the referee!"
A mediwizard came tearing across the field, his fingers stuffed into his own ears,
and kicked Mostafa hard in the shins. Mostafa seemed to come to himself; Harry,
watching through the Omnioculars again, saw that he looked exceptionally
embarrassed and had started shouting at the veela, who had stopped dancing and
were looking mutinous.
"And unless I'm much mistaken, Mostafa is actually attempting to send off the
Bulgarian team mascots!" said Bagman's voice. "Now there's something we
haven't seen before. . . . Oh this could turn nasty. . .
It did: The Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov and Vulchanov, landed on either side of
Mostafa and began arguing furiously with him, gesticulating toward the
leprechauns, who had now gleefully formed the words "HEE, HEE, HEE."
Mostafa was not impressed by the Bulgarians' arguments, however; he was
jabbing his finger into the air, clearly telling them to get flying again, and when
they refused, he gave two short blasts on his whistle.
"Two penalties for Ireland!" shouted Bagman, and the Bulgarian crowd howled
72
with anger. "And Volkov and Vulchanov had better get back on those brooms. . .
yes. . . there they go. . . and Troy takes the Quaffle. .
Play now reached a level of ferocity beyond anything they had yet seen. The
Beaters on both sides were acting without mercy: Volkov and Vulchanov in
particular seemed not to care whether their clubs made contact with Bludger or
human as they swung them violently through the air. Dimitrov shot straight at
Moran, who had the Quaffle, nearly knocking her off her broom.
"Foul!" roared the Irish supporters as one, all standing up in a great wave of green.
"Foul!" echoed Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice. "Dimitrov skins
Moran - deliberately flying to collide there - and it's got to be another penalty -
yes, there's the whistle!"
The leprechauns had risen into the air again, and this time, they formed a giant
hand, which was making a very rude sign indeed at the veela across the field. At
this, the veela lost control. Instead of dancing, they launched themselves across the
field and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns.
Watching through his Omniocula