Sounds good. They'll be rested and fresh.

Helpful if the game goes on very long.

Quite.

Good night.

Good night.

They get there a bit before the rush the next day. Anathema's bouncing in her seat. Grim, hidden under the invisibility cloak at their feet, is trying very hard not to whine in excitement.

There's speeches, first, and assorted very very boring ceremony stuff, and some general grandstanding - and then the pre-show starts. Ireland won the coin toss for first, and sends out leprechauns throwing what Fay warns them is enchanted fake gold. Anathema watches the various acts, laughing.

Bulgaria sends out a team of Veelas. Very acrobatic Veelas, who proceed to run through an astonishingly complicated gymnastics and dance routine. Anathema is maybe staring a little. (Possibly a lot.)

They certainly are very... flexible, aren't they?

Wow. Yeah. Just. Wow.

Definitely very flexible, yeah.

Yep.

She got a very good recording, too! Maybe when they get back to school they should suggest an acrobatic dance sports club or something that has performances before Quidditch games.

Like American cheerleaders.

...What're cheerleaders?

Basically that but humans. They have them for American football in high school in the movies.

Oh, neat! Yeah they should definitely import cheerleaders.

Another for the list of improvements.

Everybody's going to be very grateful when they're done.

They'll have no idea how they managed to live life in the Before Times.

Future children will be shocked the past lacked such basic luxuries.

Hee.

She leans in, turning her attention back to the field as the match begins.

Time for the main event.

The game's fast paced and a bit chaotic. Krum pulls out an apparent love for feints - he manages to get Ireland's Seeker to crash into the ground, though the medics are prompt about getting him back in the air. Ireland's doing better on defense - but both teams have strong Keepers, and points take a while to rack up. Ireland gets an edge when a Bulgarian Chaser pulls a foul and they score the penalty shot. Bulgaria pulls back up... Ireland shoots forward... The Seekers both go after the Snitch - legitimately and feinting - several times, but the Beaters for both teams are very good at offense, less talented at defense.

The stadium's acoustics are good, so the crowd's cheers and boos at each turn of events aren't painful to hear. Still, Ireland seems to be pulling ahead as the game drags on - not nearly as much of a gap as many of the earlier games had, though, and when Krum catches the Snitch (thanks to a last minute save by Bulgaria's Beaters) the final tally jumps to Bulgaria at ten points behind, sending the game into a rather drawn-out and close overtime. Ireland still wins, though - the last shot takes the longest, the two teams tied for a while just under the overtime threshold.

Anathema's frequently on the edge of her seat, cheering and booing and hissing along with all the other Irish fans (though she accidentally laughs a bit at Krum's catch).

Ellie makes the same mistake. Krum is quite good, it's obvious why he's on the national team at his age.

It's kinda cool they went to overtime, means they got value out of the tickets. Lots of good Quidditch play.

Yeah. Both teams are really, really good. And the strategy is often so different from their school games - just the fact that you're not playing for House Cup points alone, removes some of the long game -

Yeah, yeah, exactly. This kind of elimination tournament is completely different. And then there's just the sophistication of some of the plays-

And of course you're all national teams with set memberships, probably just about anyone can look up recordings of your matches, or at least the bigger ones...

Yeah, so you can tailor to the opponent's weaknesses more finely.