Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Chapter 8 Summary

Chapter Eight

The Quidditch World Cup

 

The entire group walks to the Quidditch World Cup stadium amid shouts of excitement from everyone. They climb the rich purple stairs to the very highest point of the stadium to a small box situated directly in between the two goals. As Harry tears his eyes away from a very drawing advertisement across the field, he notices a house elf similar to Dobby (the house elf that Harry once set free) sitting in the row behind him. She introduces herself as “Winky,” and says that because Dobby now wants pay for his house-elf services, he can no longer find work. Winky turns out to be Barty Crouch’s house elf who was assigned to save him a seat at the match.

Meanwhile, the group looks forward to the mascot display before the match as Cornelius Fudge,the Minister of Magic, arrives and greets Harry like an old friend (much to the chagrin of Percy).  Unfortunately, Lucius and Draco Malfoy, father and son enemies of Harry Potter, are sitting right behind the group during the match. Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley exchange forced pleasantries. Suddenly, Ludo Bagman (also seated in the box) begins the match with a spell that allows his voice to carry over the entire stadium.

The first team mascots introduced are the Bulgarians who had proudly brought many “Veela” to delight the spectators. The Veela are an extremely beautiful race of women with moon-bright skin who make men’s minds go “completely and blissfully blank” when they dance, calling to the men like sirens. The second team mascots were for the Irish, tiny Leprechauns who raced into the stadium like green comets. Next came the teams themselves, the Bulgarians  featuring their star player: Viktor Krum. 

The vivacity of the match was unparalleled in Harry’s eyes. Ireland makes the first few goals, and the match gets faster and more brutal. Bulgaria finally scores and the seekers make a fake play for the still non existent golden snitch. The game gets even more brutal and even the mascots begin fighting with each other, the Veela turning into fire-throwing birds with scaly wings.  Even though Harry and the gang were rooting for Ireland, both he and Ron were the most entranced by the Bulgarian, Viktor Krum.  Meanwhile, as the Irish seeker (Lynch) crashes into the ground again, Krum catches the snitch, but the points are stacked against Bulgaria, so Ireland wins. 

Because Cornelius Fudge happened to be sitting in the top box, all attention is directed there as the Quidditch Cup is awarded to the Irish team.