An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Eleven

The entire stadium erupted with noise at Bagman's words. I jumped out of my seat with the rest of my friends, all of us yelling and screaming at the top of our lungs.

"They're going to bring out Bulgaria's mascots!" yelled Fred, jumping up and down excitedly next to me.

"Bloody hell! They're veela!" George cried from Fred's other side.

"What are veela?" I asked, leaning forward to get a better look. A bunch of beautiful, almost-human looking women had come out to the middle of the field. "They're the mascots?"

I was confused, and that confusion only doubled when I didn't get a response from any of my friends. I looked over to the twins, but they were staring slack-jawed at the field like nothing else existed.

"Hey," I said, waving a hand in front of their faces. Nothing changed.

I looked around the rest of the booth to see every single other male in the room doing the same thing. Ginny, Hermione, and Mrs. Malfoy appeared to be the only other people near me that weren't laser-focused on the field.

Ginny and Hermione were both a ways away from me, and they likely didn't have answers anyway. I spun around in my seat to talk to Mrs. Malfoy.

"What the hell is happening right now?" I asked her. As if on cue, all the boys started doing the weirdest things imaginable, standing up on their seats or starting the beginnings of a clumsy dance.

"It's the power of the Veela," Mrs. Malfoy answered. "They completely entrance all those attracted to them, so they can think of nothing other than impressing and pleasing the veela."

"Yikes."

"Yikes indeed."

Mrs. Malfoy straightened back up as they led the veela off the field and all the guys started coming to. I turned to face the field again and rounded on Fred and George with a mocking grin as the stadium booed the departure of the veela.

"What just happened?" asked Fred absentmindedly, still clearly not all the way back.

"I'll catch you up in full, humiliating detail later, but basically you can never give me shit about Cedric again."

The twins gave me a confused look, but before they could ask any questions, it was time for Ireland to send out their national mascots.

A bright green and gold comet shot through the stadium, doing a few laps before forming into a shamrock shape. If I weren't sitting among a bunch of wizards, I would've assumed they were drones, like from the PyeongChang Olympics.

The shamrock shape roared around the stadium, literally dropping pieces of gold over the crowd as it went.

"Leprechauns!" I heard Mr. Weasley yell from a few seats down our row.

I started clapping and cheering along with everyone else. The beautiful, shining glow made a smile spread across my face. I had to say, I much preferred the leprechauns to the veela.

As the mascots settled in on either side of the field, Bagman spoke up again, his voice still bellowing across the pitch.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome—the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team!"

The stadium erupted in applause as Bagman started announcing names. One by one, the Bulgarian team flew onto the pitch and did a few laps around to the cheering of the crowd. The last person out was Viktor, and the already-deafening stadium noise somehow doubled in volume.

"And now, please greet—the Irish National Quidditch Team!"

The Irish team got the same roaring welcome and applause, and once both teams had been announced, they lined up to start the match.