The Pride of an Irishman
Don’t get Seamus wrong, the way the Quidditch World Cup ended was horrible and just thinking about it made his skin crawl. There was a lot of bad that day, and he couldn’t ignore it; especially since Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept gossiping about it all the time.
What if this? What if that? It’s terrible, end of discussion.
But you know what’s not the end of the discussion? Who won the championship.
Ireland.
Ireland won against Bulgaria and its was the greatest day of Seamus’ life. The screams of the crowd, the excitement pulsing in the air, the astonishment of it all. They had won and it was glorious.
All thanks to Krum catching the snitch at the right time, what a fucking move —
“— mus? Seamus? SEAMUS!”
“Wha-what?”
Seamus shook his head, pulled out of his daydreaming by Dean’s concerned hand on his shoulder.
“You okay? Kind of spaced out there a little.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” Seamus waved off his boyfriend’s concern. “Just thinking about the Quidditch World Cup.”
“Oh? With the, the uh…”
“Not that! Just who won. Us. Fuckin’ us! I can still see it; the banners, the fans, the crowd.”
“Definitely.”
“The gold, the glory, the everything.”
“Yeah, it was amazing.”
“It was amazing —!”
“Attention students!”
Dean and Seamus stopped talking, shifting in their seats to look at Dumbledore excitedly. It’d been a couple of days since the announcement that the Triwizard Tournament would be held, and tonight was the night that the other schools would be introduced. It was a show, really, to see them arriving and it would most certainly be a show to watch them saunter in. There were bets being held across the Houses on which school would be the most entertaining. It was fun to watch the arguments spread across the Hufflepuff Common Room, people waving their papers in fists as they screamed about why their pick would win.
Personally, Seamus knew that Hogwarts wasn’t going to win any prize anytime soon, so he’d just threw his money in on Durmstrang because he liked the name well enough.
(When he saw who exactly stepped off that ship belonging to Durmstrang he’d cursed his past self for being a traitor. But well, it was too late now).
“Attention students,” Dumbledore reiterated. “Please give a big welcome to our friends, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang!”
Seamus swiveled towards the front doors and the rest of the night was a colorful blur. It wasn’t until two days later, when out walking with Dean, Harry, Ron, and Neville, that he saw the Durmstrang students again.
More precisely, Victor Krum.
Overcome with a bought of pride, and stupidity, as Dean would later call it, Seamus swaggered up to Krum with a confidence that oozed off of him. The only thing Seamus was thinking about was the game, was Ireland’s win, that he really didn’t give much thought into how the Durmstrang students would react.
The rest of the Gryffindor boys obviously did, as Dean and Neville were quick to lunge at him. Harry looked on with a smirk, with Ron only standing stock still with a look of horror on his face as Seamus planted himself right in front of Krum, looked him dead in the eye, and yelled, “wOooO what’s up motherfucker!” Seamus couldn’t contain his cackle. “Thank you for getting your ass beat by Ireland!! Damn man, that win was fucking gold! Gold!”
“Fuck —!”
Dean snatched Seamus by the back of his cloak, hurriedly pulling him back as Neville apologized profusely to Krum.
“I’m so sorry he didn’t —“
“I meant every word I said!” Seamus interrupted. “Every. Single. Goddamn. Word! Tried to beat back the Irish?! WE’RE THE FUCKING IRISH!! You couldn’t beat us even if you tried because what the fuck was that last play? Grabbed the snitch way too fucking early!”
Seamus could hear Harry and Neville’s gasps of shock and Ron’s screech of embarrassment. As Dean picked up the pace in dragging him away he only laughed louder.
“Ireland flattened Bulgaria!” was Seamus’ last call before Dean got him back into the castle and away from the rest of the students.
“What the hell is wrong with you!?” Dean hissed.
“Absolutely fucking nothing! I’m perfect! That was totally justified —“
“Not it was not!”
“Oh yes it was.”
“I can’t believe you did that,” Ron huffed as the rest of the group caught up to the two, “I can’t believe you did that!”
“Live life Ron!” Seamus grabbed Ron’s face and pulled it near his. “It was amazing.”
“That was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever been apart of,” Neville mumbled.
“It’s called the pride of an Irishman!”
“Or the idiocy of a moron,” Dean said.
“Pride!”
“Idiocy!”
“Pride!”
“You —“
What the group didn’t know was that after they left the Durmstrang students broke out into laughter, and Krum’s grim look was a little bit lighter.
After all, it wasn’t every day Krum had someone brag about beating him. It was a little refreshing, but you didn’t hear it from him.