Pink in the Night.

Chapter Eleven.

"TROY SCORES!" roared Bagman, and the stadium shuddered with a roar of applause and cheers. (Y/n) grimaced. "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 honour around the field. (Y/n) pulled away her 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.

(Y/n) 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. 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 green-clad supporters.
The match became still faster, 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.

"Fingers in your ears!" bellowed Arthur as the veela started to dance in celebration. (Y/n) simply covered her ears as she already had earplugs in. A few moments later, 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 centre of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from aeroplanes without parachutes. Harry followed their descent through the 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 spiralled 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 Arthur. "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..."

"Kiss cam?" Hermione asked suddenly. She was looking at the blackboard which now showed a young woman's face with a man's beneath it. "Is that what that is?" she asked, leaning forward and looking in Arthur's direction.

"Yes," Arthur said. "During time-outs, the screens are magically enchanted to show good matches," he explained. "Those Bludgers—" he motioned to the Bludgers still soaring through the air "—will hit the two on the screen if they don't get to one another in time."
Luckily for the pair on the screen, they had found each other in time. Harry gave a loud groan when Lily Potter's face popped up on screen. She was in a conversation with Remus before he nudged her and pointed at the screen. Her eyes widened before softening upon spotting that she was paired with none other than James Potter.
The crowd cheered as Lily made a show of pretending to look around for the same man on the screen. She feigned surprise when she met eyes with James. The two then leaned in for a kiss only for an all too familiar black dog to place his head between the two, making them both peck his head. Lily and James gave the dog a stink eye but it quickly morphed into soft smiles as the dog gave them puppy eyes. Finally, the couple shared a sweet kiss, resulting in loud cheering from the crowd.
(Y/n), growing rather sick of sick couples, draped her legs over the arm of her chair and leaned back against the other arm of her chair. Then she shot bubbles into the air, looking nothing short of bothered. She gave a loud yelp as Hermione roughly elbowed her, pointing at the screen.
Percy's red face had popped up. Beneath his was a fuming Oliver Wood. His expression almost instantly morphed into a smile upon realizing who Percy was paired with. The two were off in search of each other and (Y/n) and Hermione whooped for the two. They followed the pair with the Omnioculars, cheering loudly when they collided. When the faces changed to a new pair, (Y/n) grew distraught again. Around three more pairs were shown before Hermione once again roughly nudged (Y/n). As a result, a bubble got into (Y/n)'s eye, momentarily blinding her.