Bulgaria's mascots were the absolute best!
Before the match had even started, Harry was already certain of that.
Just a few minutes earlier, all the spectators had finally entered the stadium, and only then had preparations for the proceedings begun. This was necessary: tickets came in several tiers, and the lower the tier, the more tickets there were.
There were only eight top-tier boxes. Even if each held twenty people-which they actually did not-that would still only amount to a hundred-odd people. The lowest, third-tier tickets, on the other hand, numbered in the tens of thousands.
If those tens of thousands of people missed the opening ceremony or some other part of the proceedings, there was no telling how much trouble they would cause.
Wizards had never been good-tempered or rule-abiding sorts. During this year's Quidditch World Cup, riots had nearly broken out who knew how many times already, leaving both the United Kingdom's Ministry of Magic and the relevant departments of the International Confederation of Wizards overwhelmed.
They absolutely did not want any more nonsense causing unnecessary trouble.
While waiting for the match to start, Harry and the others idly swept their binoculars around.
Harry had actually been the first to start looking around through his binoculars. He said he was just having a look, but his real reason was not something he could share with others: he was looking for pretty girls.
Well, he was not just looking at pretty girls at random. He wanted to see if he could find Cho Chang.
But finding one person among tens of thousands was obviously impossible. Harry was merely trying his luck. And, while he was at it-really, only while he was at it-seeing whether he could spot any other pretty girls.
Ron had started doing almost exactly the same