3rd Person's POV

"Follow me, please," said Professor McGonagall.

"First years in front... no pushing..."

Everyone files down the steps and lines up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Harry, standing between Ron and Hermione in the fourth row from the front, saw Dennis Creevey positively shivering with anticipation among the other first years. Karina had been one row in front of the golden trio along with Blaise and Draco. Everyone else had been a few rows back.

"Nearly six," said Ron, checking his watch and then staring down the drive that led to the front gates.

"How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?" "I doubt it," said Hermione.

"How, else then?" Draco sneers as Hermione rolls her eyes.

Karina pats Draco's shoulder with a smile. He turns around and starts to ignore the trio.

"Broomsticks?" Harry suggested, looking up at the starry sky.

"I don't think so... not from that far away..."

"A Portkey?" Ron suggested. "Or they could Apparate- maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen wherever they come from?"

"You can't Apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds, how often do I have to tell you?" said Hermione impatiently.

They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was moving; everything was still, silent, and quite as usual. Karina was starting to feel cold. She wished they'd hurry up. She shivers slightly while rubbing her arms. Draco glances over at her then takes off his sweater and hands it to her.

"Thanks Draco."

He just nods slightly then looks back up at the sky. Karina frowns wanting to say something. They hadn't talked to each other since she tried to kill herself. He would ask how she was and she would reply. Other than that the two really didn't speak.

Sure they may have had to physically touch each other once in a while but just to give the other person comfort seeing as they both now had separation anxiety. The only time they were apart was when going to the bathroom or sleeping.

Karina secretly glances at Draco out the side of her eye and can't help but be in awe of his good looks. The older he was getting the more attractive he was. She always saw girls staring at him but she never said anything. She was starting to worry with the Yule ball coming up. Of course ever since they were first years she had dreamed of going with Draco. But now she didn't know what was in store for them. 

Karina sighs lightly and opens her mouth to say something but gets interrupted.

"Ughh I'm so bored. When the heck are they getting here?"

Karina looks at Blaise and chuckles. He was so dramatic.

"Maybe the foreign students are preparing for a dramatic entrance."

Suddenly, Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers, "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.

"There!" yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.

Something large, much larger than a broomstick- or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks- was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.

"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years, losing her head completely.

"Don't be stupid... it's a flying house!" said Dennis Creevey.

"You idiot are you blind?" Karina slaps her hand against her head and continues to watch the object get closer to the school.

A gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powderblue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant. The front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed- then, with an almighty crash that made Neville jump backward onto a Slytherin fifth year's foot, the horses' hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground.

A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes. Harry just had time to see that the door of the carriage bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened. A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully.

Then everyone got silent as they saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage- a shoe the size of a child's sled followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman he had ever seen in his life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.

No one had ever seen one person as large as this woman in their life, well except for Hagrid. As she stepped into the light flooding from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face; large, black, liquid-looking eyes; and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.

Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman. Her face relaxed into a gracious smile and she walked forward toward Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dort," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore.

"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.

Karina, whose attention had been focused completely upon Madame Maxime, now noticed that about a dozen boys and girls, all, by the look of them, in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads.

"As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"

"Warm up, I think," said Madame Maxime. "But ze 'orses -"

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said Dumbledore, "the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other - er - charges."

"Skrewts," Ron muttered to Harry, grinning.

"My steeds require - er - forceful 'andling," said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. "Zey are very strong. . . ."

"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," said Dumbledore, smiling.

"Very well," said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?"

"It will be attended to," said Dumbledore, also bowing.

"Come," said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.

"How big d'you reckon Durmstrang's horses are going to be?" Seamus Finnigan said, leaning around Lavender and Parvati to address Harry and Ron.

Karina slightly spins around to shake her head, "If anything Durmstrang are more manly than some pretty horses."

Lavender and Parvati nod then start to blush as they think of the boys who will be there in just a moment.

Everyone continues to stand, shivering slightly now, waiting for the Durmstrang party to arrive. Most people were gazing hopefully up at the sky. For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by Madame Maxime's huge horses snorting and stamping.

"Can you hear something?" said Blaise suddenly.

Karina listened; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed.

"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"

From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water- except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks- and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor. What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool. . . and then Karina saw the rigging....

"It's a mast!" Blaise squeals was Draco rolls his eyes.

"Big deal."

Karina smiles as she judges Draco's shoulder, "I don't know dray. I think it's kind of cool."

Draco mumbles while crossing his arms as Karina laughs at his pouting face.

Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank. People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them,

Harry noticed, seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle... but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, he saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.

"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied.

Karkaroff had a fruity, unctuous voice; when he stepped into the light pouring from the front doors of the castle they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short, and his goatee (finishing in a small curl) did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both of his own.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and Karina noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd.

"How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth... you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..." Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students.

As the boy passed, Harry caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows. He didn't need the punch on the arm Ron gave him, or the hiss in his ear, to recognize that profile.

"Harry- it's Krum!"

Viktor then freezes and taps his professor on the shoulder saying he would be inside in a moment. Everyone makes a space for him as he walks through the crowd.

Ron froze in fear that Viktor had heard him but let's out a breath of relief as he passes by.

Karina feels a tap on her should and spins around to see Viktor Krum. She smiles instantly and pulls him into a hug.

"Karina Grey."

"Viktor Krum. How have you been?"

As the two speak, everyone around stares in awe, except Draco that was staring in anger. Ron looks over at Harry with his mouth wide open in shock.

"What the heck? When did they become best friends?"

Harry just shrugs and glances over at Hermione who seemed to have a sad look on her face.

"What's wrong Hermione?"

Hermione shakes her head then smiles quickly but Harry knows that it's fake.

"Nothing I'm just starving."

Harry nods then looks back at Viktor and Karina.

"You must be freezing Karina. Here allow me share with you my coat."

Karina holds up her hands as she shakes her head frantically while glancing over seeing Draco glaring at Krum.

"Oh no that's not necessary. I have this sweater I promise you."

Viktor bursts out laughing making all the girls sigh, "This small thing? No no you shall make me feel one hundred percent better if you were to wear this."

He takes off his fur coat and places it on Karina's shoulders. Karina slightly blushes as she tries to hide her face from everyone. She bites her lip and nods.

"Thank you. I'll give it back when I see you in the dining hall."

Viktor nods stiffly then leans forward and kisses Karina on the cheek. Everyone either gasps or stares in silent shock as they watch. Draco's face had turned so red that he looked like he was about to burst.

Karina watches as Viktor walks away, then she turns to look at Draco.

"Um..."

"Don't."

Draco makes his way out the crowd and into the building. Blaise looks at Karina and shrugs.

"He'll be fine. You guys aren't dating anymore."

Karina slowly nods finally understanding, "Yeah right."

As much as Karina loved Draco and he loved her, they had still not talked about dating or even being together again. Never had a relationship or their future come up in a conversation. It seemed as if the only time when they really truly cared for one another and made that known to the other person was when one was going through something.

Karina thinks back to what Cedric said about Draco and she can't help but be slightly angry. If he had loved her so much as much as she loved him, if he wanted to be there for her, if he wanted things back to normal... why didn't he tell her that. Why hadn't they talked about it? Why did she have to have an episode or he have to be turned into a ferret for them to talk about how much they care for one another?

I'm sorry for ruining your relationship with Malfoy.

...

You don't have to stay with me Malfoy. I'm a big girl.

I know. Believe me I know. It just will make me feel better.

Why?

Because I still care about you.

I... care about you too.

...

You cannot continue to push him away. You know he would do anything for you.

I'm not pushing him away...

He's here. He didn't run away. He didn't disappear. He's right around the corner. He's always there. You know he is. You two may have had your problems before but the two of you are magnets. You always find your way back to one another.

...

He'll be fine. You guys aren't dating anymore.

She frowns as she comes out of her daydream. She looks down and stares at the empty space that Draco had left and thinks back to easier and happier times- when they were.

𝐻𝑒𝑦 𝑦'𝑎𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟!! 𝑆𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡. 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠. 𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛!! 𝐻𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑦'𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑑!! 💛

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚'𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑲𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑽𝒊𝒌𝒕𝒐𝒓 𝑲𝒓𝒖𝒎?

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒆?

𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚'𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑲𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒐 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕?

𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒑 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝑲𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎?