"My name is Winky, sir - and you, sir -" Her dark brown eyes widened to the size of side plates as they rested upon Harry's scar. She was shielding her face, as though blinded by light, though the Top Box was not brightly lit. "But I knows Dobby too, sir!" squeaked the elf. "Sorry," Harry told the elf, "I just thought you were someone I knew.
Though they had heard a lot about Dobby from Harry, they had never actually met him. Ron and Hermione spun around in their seats to look. Its voice was higher even than Dobby's had been, a teeny, quivering squeak of a voice, and Harry suspected though it was very hard to tell with a house-elf - that this one might just be female. "Did sir just call me Dobby?" squeaked the elf curiously from between its fingers.
Harry had set Dobby free from his old owners, the Malfoy family. It wasn't Dobby - it was, however, unmistakably a house-elf, as Harry's friend Dobby had been. The tiny creature looked up and stretched its fingers, revealing enormous brown eyes and a nose the exact size and shape of a large tomato. Yet those long, batlike ears were oddly familiar. The creature, whose legs were so short they stuck out in front of it on the chair, was wearing a tea towel draped like a toga, and it had its face hidden in its hands.
So far it was empty, except for a tiny creature sitting in the second from last seat at the end of the row behind them. Harry tore his eyes away from the sign and looked over his shoulder to see who else was sharing the box with them. Gladrags Wizardwear - London, Paris, Hogsmeade. Shower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain!. The Bluebottle: A Broom for All the Family - safe, reliable, and with Built-in Anti-Burgler Buzzer. Gold writing kept dashing across it as though an invisible giant's hand were scrawling upon the blackboard and then wiping it off again watching it, Harry saw that it was flashing advertisements across the field. At either end of the field stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high right opposite them, almost at Harry's eye level, was a gigantic blackboard. The field looked smooth as velvet from their lofty position. Everything was suffused with a mysterious golden light, which seemed to come from the stadium itself. About twenty purple-and-gilt chairs stood in two rows here, and Harry, filing into the front seats with the Weasleys, looked down upon a scene the likes of which he could never have imagined.Ī hundred thousand witches and wizards were taking their places in the seats, which rose in levels around the long oval field. Weasley's party kept climbing, and at last they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box, set at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly halfway between the golden goal posts. They clambered upward with the rest of the crowd, which slowly filtered away through doors into the stands to their left and right.
The stairs into the stadium were carpeted in rich purple. "Top Box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, and as high as you can go. "Prime seats!" said the Ministry witch at the entrance when she checked their tickets. bless them," he added fondly, leading the way toward the nearest entrance, which was already surrounded by a swarm of shouting witches and wizards. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again. Muggle Repelling Charms on every inch of it. "Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year. Weasley, spotting the awestruck look on Harry's face. Though Harry could see only a fraction of the immense gold walls surrounding the field, he could tell that ten cathedrals would fit comfortably inside it. They walked through the wood for twenty minutes, talking and joking loudly, until at last they emerged on the other side and found themselves in the shadow of a gigantic stadium. The atmosphere of feverish excitement was highly infectious Harry couldn't stop grinning. They could hear the sounds of thousands of people moving around them, shouts and laughter, snatches of singing. Weasley in the lead, they all hurried into the wood, following the lantern-lit trail.