Ugh, Lockhart.

She laughs.

Yeah, it'd be very rude to inflict Lockhart on the poor muggles.

Still though. Might be better than the current solution.

...Yeah. It probably would be.

They're still here for the World Cup, though. That's exciting.

One thing at least!

The tickets come with a reserved spot on the field - the spots are all pretty tightly crammed together, but there's definitely enough space for their tent. There's a lot of wizards here, more than they've ever seen in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. Mostly European, but some from all over.

Magic tents are pretty easy to pitch, so they're left with some time to wander around before bed - the games start pretty early tomorrow, so now's probably the best time to get oriented to where everything is...

Good idea.

She spends a little bit of time memorizing the signs around their spot - then off!

This area is mostly fancy rich people who could afford the tickets through something other than a lottery - there's actually a few of their classmates, though the only ones who're kind of interesting are Serpens and her little sister... Wandering out farther gets them to a lot of international visitors - people seem to be grouping by home country. 

Their tent spot is pretty close to the stadium - which no one's being allowed into. There's some only kind of discreet betting going on, a lot of pickup Quidditch and other broom games especially among kids their age... They'll have to turn around to get their brooms from the tent, but Anathema bets she can negotiate them into one of the loose teams. 

That sounds like fun.

(Ellie almost summons her broom before remembering that they're in public and even if she does it wandlessly, there might be Questions.)

Giggle. (Yeah Anathema has that problem too...)

Anyways: game! Arguing Quidditch rulings when you have half of a shared language with someone is actually kind of fun... Most of the games aren't really formal, and they mostly use a non-standard set of rules to make the game go faster and happen on a smaller field. 

Anathema and Ellie aren't the best kids there at all, though they seem to be in the upper brackets for skill. It's fun.

(A couple of adults stop to watch. Some of them seem to actually be recruiters - one stops to talk to one of the older teens who'd been doing pretty well.)

Anathema manages to tire herself out a bit after getting into some trick flying competitions, and makes a friend who promises to show her more tricks after the games tomorrow. 

Typical Anathema.

Ellie had fun too. This was a nice way to kill some time.

Yeah.

She's really looking forward to the games...

Same.

The stadium for the play offs is less crowded than the final match will likely be. Their tickets stretch for the whole week long session. Anathema sets up some omnioculars to record, but watches the live games with her own eyes, fascinated. Two clear contenders emerge pretty quickly - Bulgaria, whose Seeker Victor Krum is remarkable and actually still a student at Drumstrang, and Ireland, who're the only Isles team to do anything resembling decently. 

The population of people out on the fields swells dramatically before the semi-finals, and the place feels like it's overflowing by the day of the final match - Bulgaria versus Ireland.

(Anathema's honestly pretty torn about which to support. Bulgaria's team's doing a bit inconsistently, she feels, but they have pretty good Beaters and of course the best Seeker, but Ireland's got a better Chaser team going on...)

It's gotta be Ireland. Can't let the Continentals get too full of themselves, even if England's performance was just... shameful.

She snickers. "Closest we're gonna get to a worthy home team, really."

"Pretty sure you were a better Beater second year than what's-his-face, Woolmersey."

"Nah, I was better first year."

Giggle. "Did you see the captain's face when he whiffed that swing after the fifth goal-"

She laughs. "I got it recorded!"

"Thought he was going to fall off his broom!"

She breaks into helpless giggles. "How do these people even get onto professional teams..."

"Good question."

"I guess if there's not much competition..."

"Maybe we should go for '98."