[HPforGrownups] World Cup Seating

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 2365

cassandraclaire73 at yahoo.com wrote:

> I agree. It's Harry she yanks back into his chair during the World
> Quidditch cup when the veela induce him to try to jump out, not Ron.

I have now heard this particular incident mentioned enough that I looked
into it. Here's what I think, and it has nothing to do with preference and
everything to do with seating.

The party at the World Cup consisted of Arthur Weasley, his sons Ron, Percy,
Fred, George, and guests Harry and Hermione. They sat in the front row in
the Top Box, which contained two rows of about 20 chairs. Here's a seating
order I worked out (looking from above)

(row 1) Hm   Ha   Rn   AW   F/G  F/G   PW

(row 2) BC   Wi   M?   DM  M?  x   x   ....   LB  CF  officials

Hm--Hermione
Ha--Harry
Rn--Ron
AW--Arthur Weasley
F/G--Fred or George
PW--Percy Weasley
BC--Barty Crouch (invisible)
Wi--Winky
M?---a Malfoy parent
DM---Draco
x--a seat, who knows
LD--Ludo Bagman
CF--Cornelius Fudge

Okay. Here goes.

Start with Winky; her seat is stated. Winky was sitting in the second to
last seat at the end of the row behind them. I assume she's sitting next to
the invisible Barty Crouch, and I assume he's in the end seat, which just
makes more sense to me than having her in seat 2 and him in 3. The end of
the row, and Winky, "bracket" Barty so it's less likely someone will sit on
him by mistake, before Winky says she's saving the seat.

Ron and Hermione "spun around in their seats to get a better look," but
clearly the conversation is carried on from their seats. So she's pretty
close to them.

At the end of the book, when Barty's talking under the Veritaserum, he says
"I saw, in front of me, a wand sticking out of a boy's pocket." Remember
they're all dressed as Muggles, still; it was Harry's jacket pockets he
searched when he realized it was missing. Winky is tiny and has her eyes
covered up, anyway, since she's so scared; it would be easy for him to reach
over to a seat beside the one just in front of him.

The Malfoys sat in "three empty seats right behind Mr. Weasley," and Draco
sat in the middle. (however, as they "continued down the line to their
seats", they might be farther down).

After the veela dance, and Harry "wakes up", it says "Next to him, Ron was
frozen in an attitude...." , so Ron was next to Harry.

When Ron was absently shredding the shamrocks on his hat, again in the veela
aftermath, Mr. Weasley, "smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and tugged the
hat out of his hands." So I put Mr. Weasley on Ron's other side. There's
only two rows, and the exchange with the Malfoys clearly puts Mr.Weasley on
the front one, so he's not leaning over from the back.

If we have an order of   [Ha] [Rn] [AW], the only logical place for Hermione
is on Harry's other side, so that Harry is sitting between them. And she is
next to Harry, for when Krum pulls the Wronski defensive feint, we see "
'They're going to crash!' screamed Hermione next to Harry."

I also put her at the end because it makes more sense for Arthur Weasley to
sit amongst his sons. He's already next to Ron, so I put Fred and George on
his other side, with Percy on the other end. Aside from Percy probably
wanting to be on the end of the line to shmooze, having him there to act as
the other "bracket" to the irrepressible twins is a good idea. It felt right
for Arthur to yell "And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks
alone!", when he was, in fact, pretty much surrounded by his boys.

So here, now, is the actual point I wanted to make. "She reached up and
pulled Harry back into his seat." Hermione didn't rise to get Harry, she
pulled him back as she was sitting. He was next to her. Ron was on Harry's
other side. She couldn't *reach* him. It had nothing to do with whom she
liked better. She's practical, Harry needed re-seating, and whoever was on
the other side of Ron (probably Arthur) would get Ron.

But just for fun, I went ahead and tried to work out the rest. Lucky you.

An alternate back row is

BC   Wi   x   BM   CF   M?   DM   M?   LB

With x an anonymous foreign official and BM the Bulgarian Minister, since
the Malfoys do "continue down the row" to their seats and Harry hears the
"gloomy voice" of the Bulgarian Minister behind him. But anybody's going to
sound "behind him" if a row is only 10 seats long.

Ludo Bagman's in back, someplace, because Fred and George scramble over
their seats to stand in front of him and demand payment.

Now wasn't that fun? Loads better than folding the load of laundry that's
probably done by now....

--Amanda