CHAPTER SIX
✧
-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH THE GAME
BEGINS

. . .

"WHAT'S WITH THE BODYGUARDS THEN?" Evie couldn't quite conceal her confusion for any longer, interrupting the short lapse in conversation and twisting around in her seat to see them, eyes passing the Malfoys and stopping on the two men dressed in black at the back of the box. "Are they there for any specific reason?" 

The boy scoffed - he was still yet to mention his name - as he followed her gaze to them before righting himself and facing forward. "Just stopping me from running off." He shook his head. "My parents sent them with me.. I managed to get them to leave for a bit when I was at the campsite.. but they chased after me."

His tone was light-hearted and almost dismissive of the situation, but in reality he hated the fact he had to have bodyguards more than anything. He wasn't even that important, but his family deemed otherwise.

"So you run off a lot?" Evie had managed to decipher through the tone but really wanted to keep it a bit more carefree. 

"I don't get the chance to at school." He sat back in his seat. "Durmstrang's in the middle of nowhere and I'm cooped up in there from September until June. Hogwarts is the same, I suppose, but don't you have a village nearby?"

"Yeah we do." The Potter girl nodded. "Hogsmeade. But we don't get to go a lot.. maybe every two months."

"Durmstrang is in the middle of nowhere. The grounds are nice but I'd freeze to death if I tried to get away. So when I'm not there, I try to have my fun. It's a shame they sent them here with me. It's usually when I'm in the city."

"Ladies and Gentlement!"

Ludo Bagman's magically amplified voice boomed out across the stadium and made the pair jump out of their skins, conversation interrupted. But that didn't seem to be something to stop Evie. She was still on her mission to find out this guy's name, for both her and Ron, who kept glancing over every few seconds. 

"I'm guessing that they thought it wouldn't be any safer at the World Cup Final?" Evie leaned a little closer, elbow balanced on the arm of his chair rather than her own. Their eyes met and she grinned. "In a crowd of hundred thousand I'm guessing its pretty easy to disappear."

"Welcome to the final ofthe four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

"Eh." The boy shrugged, adjusting his position. "My brother's here so I don't know why they think I'll be running off anywhere."

"Your brother's here?" Evie repeated, glancing around the box, just in case he was somewhere amongst the other Bulgarian . "Where is he?" 

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

"Oh.. somewhere down there." The boy waved his hand dismissively, sitting up and leaning forward to look over the side as roars of support for whatever these mascots were filled the stadium. He let out a laugh that caused Evie to followed his gaze, turning back to him with question in her eyes as she lowered the Omnioculars.

The Bulgarian National Mascots were these incredibly beautiful women, who didn't seem quite so human than they did at first glance. Their hair were long locks of silver, their skin gleamed like moonlight, twisting as they began to dance, movements almost hypnotising. 

"Of course they brought the veela." He peered over the side with a shake of his head. "What a way to start a match. I thought they might bring a tamed Griphorn - there's one in the Magizoo enclosure in Sofia." He told Evie. "But just you watch, everyone's going to go crazy in a minute." 

"What are veela?" Evie asked, feeling as if she would be better to ask Hermione. But it was easier to ask the boy sat beside her, even if she didn't know his name. She raised her Omnioculars again as he began to explain. 

"Have you heard of sirens?" He asked, watching as her head nodded. "Veela are sort of the land equivalent. Incredibly beautiful, they dance and hypnotise people into trying to impress them. Like your brother."

The Omnioculars dropped into her lap. "Pardon?" Evie asked. "You mean Harry?"

"Yes, he's very close to jumping off of the side. Your ginger friend as well." The boy replied and Evie twisted around. 

"Harry!" The Potter girl gasped as she reached forward, hand enclosing around the back of her brother's sweater and dragging him back into his seat, slapping a hand over his eyes. Hermione was doing the same two seats down. 

It was when Ron was pulled back into his chair and Evie turned around that she realised that the boy hadn't quite had the same reaction to the veela as the others. 

The music that the veela were dancing to suddenly stopped, and angry yells replaced the awed cheering as the veela retreated; they clearly didn't want the nymph-like creatures to go. "Honestly, it was a recipe for disaster." The boy shook his head, turning around in his seat and catching the eye of the Minister, saying something in Bulgarian with a grin. 

"You're on speaking terms with the Bulgarian Minister of Magic?" The Potter girl met his eyes. 

"You're on speaking terms with Fudge, are you not?" The boy recounted and Evie nodded slowly. "Though I suppose that's because of who you are. I know Oblansk because of my family." 

"And now," Ludo Bagman's voice roared over the upset left behind by the veelas' ecit. "kindly put your wands in the air... for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

Whilst the veelas' entrance was nothing in comparison to their actual show - really, they just walked onto the pitch - the Irish could easily outdo them, as proven in the next moment. 

Above their heads, what seemed to be a green  comet came zooming into the stadium, doing a full circuit before splitting into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced across the field, connecting the two balls of light, then rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands.

"Leprechauns!" Mr Weasley shouted as the display passed by them again, and the tiny men that made it up could be seen if you squinted hard enough. As it passed, great gold coins showered down over them. 

"Excellent!" Ron exclaimed as he looked around at the mass of gold gathering on the floor around him.

"How common!" Draco Malfoy's voice just about managed to be louder than the cheering crowd and Evie, just about having had enough of him ducked down and seized a coin, more than ready to use her practised Chaser accuracy to hit him square in the forehead. 

But a hand appeared on her wrist and beside her the boy was turning around. A yelp could be heard and Evie glanced back to see Draco glaring at his attacker whilst his mother muttered something to him.

"Many apologies." The boy beside her smiled. "I seemed to have lost some of my... skill. I was aiming for Dobromir." He pointed in the direction of one of his bodyguards, who did nothing more than grunt. 

"Why did you do that?" Evie mumbled as he turned back around. 

"Because he's a... how did you so eloquently put it? Ah yes, a slimy git." He replied. "Like I told you, I have been asked to befriend him for many years, but someone like him is not at all to my taste."

Evie was enjoying the company of the strange boy more and more.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome - the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you - Dimitrov!" Bagman shouted, as  a scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters."Ivanova!" A second scarlet-robed player zoomed out."Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand - Krum!" 

Following Ron's many praises of the Bulgarian Seeker, Evie trained the Omnioculars on the young player.

"That's him, that's him!" Ron's yell came as she fiddled with several buttons and knobs to zoom in on his. "Still think he looks grumpy, Evie?" He called. 

"I won't answer that Ron." She replied, seeing as she most definitely did think he looked particularly crabby, but he was just as handsome and well-built up as he appeared on the poster. But perhaps this time the grumpiness could be put down to the fact he was in the middle of a stadium of a hundred thousand. 

A chuckle could be heard beside her but Evie didn't bother to move the Omnioculars away, letting it follow the player alongside the rapidd applause from the Bulgarian supporters. She seemed to have forgotten that the pin in her hair and the badge attached to the collar of her blouse were shamrocks. 

"And now, please greet - the Irish National Quidditch Team!" It was the Irish's turn to cheer, trying to outdo the Bulgarians. "Presenting - Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand - Lynch!"

Even though majority of Evie's attention had been taking up with the conversation with the Bulgarian boy beside her, there was absolutely no feeling like being there at the match. Especially considering what she had talked about with Oliver Wood earlier that day. 

It could be her future, her head tilting upwards and practically on the edge of her seat as seven green blurs swept onto the field. Thanks to the Omnioculars, she could slow down the view and catch the silver 'Firebolt' engraved on the handle - just like the brooms that her and Harry had. 

"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chair-wizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!" A small and skinny wizard wearing robes of pure gold to match the stadium strode out onto the field. A silver whistle was protruding from under the impressive mustache above his lips, and he was carrying a large wooden crateunder one arm, his broomstick under the other. 

The group of friends simultaneously turned their Omnioculars down to what Mostafa was, 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 the minuscule, winged Golden Snitch. With a sharp blast on his whistle, Mostafa shot into the air after the balls.

"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" Bagman screamed, voice louder than the cheers in the stands. "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!" 

Evie had never seen so excited to watch a Quidditch match.

✧

a/n
this is a little
shorter but this
is the best place
to end! <3