Chapter 5 - ...During the Cup...

Vincent couldn't help but gape at the sheer size of the stadium. It's size could easily fit several basketball stadiums and still have room for more.

"Stadium easily seats a hundred thousand," Mr. Weasley explained. "Five hundred Ministry Wizards have been working on it all year long. Even has Muggle repelling charms on it to prevent them from getting close, makes them remember something important to do at the last second."

Vincent nodded as he continued to try and shrug off the compelling feeling of forgetting something. If he wasn't warned of it beforehand there was no way he could have easily ignore the feeling.

The thing with most spells that affect the mind, is that they can easily lose effect or be brushed off as soon as someone is aware of what exactly is affecting them. However, for Vincent, it still wasn't easy walking forward while remembering several small things he may have forgotten. Even if it wasn't true.

"I forgot to water my cat—I don't have a damned cat!" Vincent sighed with frustration over the absurd thoughts going through his mind.

Thankfully, the impulses stopped once he passed the entrance, making him sigh in relief. He didn't want to suffer with uncontrollable thoughts while watching the match.

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

Going up the stairs alone took a lot longer than what most would find convenient. When they finally entered the top of the staircase, everyone found themselves looking down on an incredible scene of thousands upon thousands of witches and wizards taking their seats around the large, smooth, oval field. Like a normal Quidditch field, it had three goal hoops, fifty feet high, on each side and directly opposite them was a large blackboard that had gold writing flash across it constantly with different advertisements.

"Dobby?" Harry's voice reached Vincent, making him turn suddenly. Dobby was a house-elf that Harry had freed in second year, and one of Vincent's friends that he had made during his time at Hogwarts. It would be strange if he was here.

It turned out that it wasn't Dobby, but a another house-elf that seemed to be female. It had it's face hidden in it's hands as it trembled in front of an empty set of seats.

"Did sir just call me Dobby?" squeaked the elf curiously as it peaked from it's fingers.

"Sorry," Harry told the elf, "I just thought you were someone I knew."

"But I knows Dobby too, sir!" squeaked the elf. She was shielding her face, as though blinded by light, though the Top Box was not brightly lit. "My name is Winky, sir - and you, sir -" Her dark brown eyes widened to the size of side plates as they rested upon Harry's scar. "You is surely Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, I am," said Harry.

"But Dobby talks of you all the time, sir!" she said, lowering her hands very slightly and looking awestruck.

"How is he?" said Harry. "How's freedom suiting him?"

"Ah, sir," said Winky, shaking her head, "ah sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favor, sir, when you is setting him free."

Vincent watched from the side-lines as Harry conversed with Winky. From what he's hearing so far, Dobby's freedom seems to arouse some disagreement among other house-elves. Seeing as house-elves have been working for wizard kind for centuries, it makes sense that Dobby's freedom can look odd or even downright insulting to their kind.

"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter," said Winky firmly, from behind her hands. "House-elves does what they is told. I is not liking heights at all, Harry Potter" - she glanced toward the edge of the box and gulped - "but my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, sir."

"Why's he sent you up here, if he knows you don't like heights?" said Harry, frowning.

"Master - master wants me to save him a seat, Harry Potter. He is very busy," said Winky, tilting her head toward the empty space beside her. "Winky is wishing she is back in master's tent, Harry Potter, but Winky does what she is told. Winky is a good house-elf."

Noticing the stutter Vincent glanced at the empty seat beside Winky and frowned at her words.

Once Winky went back to hiding her eyes again, Harry went back with the others...

"?"

It was quick...something that Vincent could barely see moved at the corner of his eye, just as he was turning away from Winky. His head snapped back quickly, eyes scanning the area for anything strange.

"What was...what was that?" Vincent thought with a frown as he continued looking around to no avail.

His concentration was soon interrupted by the next lot of wizards that came up the stairs, making sigh in frustration.

"Vincent, what's wrong?" Ginny asked, beside him.

"...It's nothing," Vincent shrugged the thought off for the time being as Mr. Weasley started greeting several important wizards.

As the box they were in filled with people, with Mr. Weasley shaking hands with a majority of them, Ron started playing with his Omnioculars, testing out it's features.

"Wild!" he said, twiddling the replay knob on the side. I can make that old bloke down there pick his nose again...and again...and again..."

Vincent's gaze turned to his own Omnioculars, bringing it up to his own eyes. Looking through the lens, he could indeed rewind time back by several minutes and play it back in slow motion.

"Interesting," Vincent muttered as he turned it back to the point when Harry was talking with Winky, clicking his tongue at the angle of the image's. "Had to hold it sideways didn't I? Now let's see..."

Vincent paused and frowned as he paused at the very moment he thought he saw something. Because of the angle of the Omnioculars, Harry ended up hiding what Vincent thought he saw.

He sighed. "Guess it wasn't going to be that easy. Think I'll pause it here for later viewing."

He was suddenly patted on the shoulder, making him turn to see the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, smiling.

"Well now, good to see you Vincent," Fudge grinned as he shook the boys hand before doing the same to Harry, causing Percy to glare in jealousy. Fudge knew the two boys from the previous year which is why he decided to personally greet them.

A Bulgarian Wizard that accompanied Fudge started pointing excitedly at Harry's scar, no doubt recognising The Boy who Lived.

Vincent took the time to observe the different types of wizards around Fudge. He took interest in the fact that there were wizards from all kinds of nations and was curious to know about their culture.

"Ah...and here's Lucius!"

Vincent turned to see Lucius Malfoy, his son Draco, and a woman that he presumed was the wife. Lucius and Draco caught glimpse of him and threw a rather quick disgusted look at him, due to their hatred of Muggle-born's in general. Vincent only waved back at them, not taking any offence to their actions making their faces contort slightly in either annoyance or frustration.

Lucius' eyes flickered to Mr. Weasley as his expression regained it's usual prideful look. "So, Weasley, what did you have to sell to get up here? Surely your house isn't worth that much, no?"

Mr. Fudge, who wasn't listening, said, "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest."

"How - how nice," said Mr. Weasley, with a very strained smile.

After a quick glaring contest between Draco and the rest of the Weasley's, plus Harry and Hermione, the Malfoy's made their way down the line of seats before finally settling into one.

"Slimy git," Ron muttered.

They all turned back to the field, just as Ludo Bagman appeared into the box with a large smile.

"Minister, are we ready to go!" Ludo asked excitedly.

"Ready when you are, Ludo," Fudge said as he got comfortable in his seat.

Bagman's smile grew wider than what Vincent thought was possible as he pulled out his wand, saying "Sonorus!", making his voice echo over the sound of the stadium.

"Ladies and gentlemen...welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message, showing the scores.

BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.

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

The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.

"I wonder what they've brought," said Mr. Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"

Vincent looked questionably at Mr. Weasley who started acting weirdly before glancing at the field. About a hundred of beautiful woman entered the field, however, they didn't seem himan. Vincent didn't know if it was their skin which looked as if it shone or their white-golden hair that seemed to flow out behind them.

When they started dancing, Vincent's mind went blank for a moment, filling with thoughts of wanting to do something, anything to impress them....

...And that feeling, coupled with a small chill, frustrated him a great deal.

"Something's messing with my mind again," he thought. He soon found his eyes practically glued to the Veela and grimaced. "It's the Veela that's doing it. Is it on purpose?"

He struggled to tear his eyes away, and succeeded. His eyes then landed on Harry and Ron who both looked as if they were going to jump off the railing.

Vincent positioned himself behind them in case he needed to catch them.

Soon enough, the Veela went away, making Harry and Ron snap out of it, looking somewhat dazed. Vincent pulled both of them back as the crowd started yelling angrily, wanting the Veela to come back.

"Yeah, no thanks," Vincent muttered as Harry and Ron finally got it together. Although, Ron still had his eyes glued to the Veela who lined up against one side of the field.

Ludo Bagman's voice once again echoed the field, "Now, kindly put your wands in the air...for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

A blur of green and gold entered the stadium, doing a full loop of it before splitting into two smaller comets that shot to both sides of the field. A rainbow suddenly emerged, connecting the two ends before fading into balls of lights that merged into a large, shimmering shamrock which started raining gold coins all over the stadium.

As Vincent caught one of the coins, he looked back up, looking closer at the shamrock to see little bearded men with red vests carrying lamps of green and gold.

"Leprechauns!" said Mr. Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.

"These can't be real right?" Vincent asked Mr. Weasley as he held up a gold coin.

Unfortunately, Mr. Weasley couldn't hear anything over the thunderous applause. Vincent decided to grab a couple to observe later.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome - the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you - Dimitrov!"

A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, 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!"

"That's him, that's him!" yelled Ron, making Vincent look over puzzled.

"Who?" Vincent looked at his Omnioculars which was still paused at a different scene and decided not to use them.

While Vincent's eyesight wasn't as absurd as Arnya's, whom can see a fly from a kilometre away, it was at least good enough to follow each player zipping around on their broomsticks.

Although a bit hard to see, Krum looked to be a thin sallow young man with dark hair. That was about all Vincent could gain through eyesight alone as Krum zoomed around.

"He's a bit grumpy looking isn't he?" Hermione said from beside him.

He chuckled as Ron looked to be somewhat offended at the comment.

After a quick introduction for the Irish National Quidditch Team and the referee, all the players were positioned and ready to play.

The referee, making sure that everyone was in place kicked a crate open, containing the Quaffle, Bludgers, and a small winged snitch which shot out of view. With a sharp blast on his whistle, the game was started and the players were off as the balls were shot into the air.

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

...

"Did you see him! He flew like a bird!" Ron said excitedly as he flopped on his bed. "Shame they didn't win though, even though he caught the snitch like that..."

"Which side were you even cheering for," Fred chuckled. "Well, it doesn't matter, we got our money!"

"Now we're happy!" George ended as they held a large bag of gold coins.

Vincent was on his bed, reviewing through his Omioculars as everyone argued excitedly about the match. While exciting as the match was, something on his mind was still bugging him.

"Am I even looking for anything?" Vincent sighed as he reviewed the scene for about the fourth time, finding nothing. "Maybe all that magic affecting my head made me paranoid."

It was getting late, and everyone had gone to bed. Vincent lost count on how much times he reviewed it and was about to give up after slowing it down by a hundred times speed when he finally found something.

"Is that...A finger?" Vincent frowned as he sat up in his bed.

Vincent paused the lopsided image, one where Harry's bottom half was shown as he was talking to Winky. The image wasn't the best as Vincent was moving about slightly at the time, but just behind Harry's waist, was something blurry that resembled half a fingernail.

The only reason Vincent missed it so much was that it disappeared as soon he pressed play on it, only appearing in that one instant.

"Now this, is rather freaky," Vincent mumbled, wishing he hadn't moved so much or that his Omioculars on the scene directly.

Unsure whether or not to wake anyone up about this information, Vincent moved to tuck the Omioculars and paused.

It was faint, but he thought he heard something from outside. Putting on his shoes and wristbands, he tiptoed to the entrance.

"Where are you headed?"

Vincent paused and turned to Arnya whom was sitting there in the dark, reading her book.

"I thought I heard something, just checking it out," Arnya nodded before turning back to her book.

The moment he left the tent, Vincent took a deep breath and looked over the sea of tents before him. People were still up, running about as the excitement still haven't left them.

"Wait," Vincent thought, frowning as he observed the people running. "That's not...what's going on?"

People were screaming and running away from something, bumping into several tents and others as they struggled to make it into the woods.

"This can't be good," Vincent poked his head back into the tent. "Arnya, wake everyone up, something bad is happening. I'm going to have a look."

"Stay safe," Vincent nodded as he made his way towards the chaos.