An: Well, this is the last chapter for this year, but there will surely come more next year :3 Either way I hope you'll be having a great start into the new year, and that it will hold many great adventures for you. Thanks for reading my story int his year, and I hope you'll be reading it next year too. For now, just read, enjoy, comment and vote.

I still love you for reading, by the way :3

If Alice had thought the teachers were turning crazy before the announcement of the arrival of the other schools, it was clear to her now that they were utterly mental. Everything had to be done perfect and the whole school was to be cleaned thoroughly. To Alice it just seemed ridiculous, but even some of her classmates were turning crazy and tried everything to look good too. The only topic that was spoken about was the Triwizard Tournament, who would enter it and the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang academies. After all there were just a few days left until all of it began.

On the morning of the 30th October Alice, Amara and Cedric made their way downstairs to the great hall, which they found beautifully decorated. Large banners hung on the walls, showing the four houses. On the front of the hall, right over the teachers' tables hung a banner with a large H, surrounded by a lion, a serpent, an eagle and a badger, representing the four houses. Alice found the twins sitting at the Gryffindor table, whispering in low voices. She told her friends to go on without her and sat down next to them.

"What's going on?" she asked them. Fred looked at her and sighed.

"It's still Bagman. We're not sure that the letter will work, you know? We asked him during the summer holidays if he would meet us, so we could talk to him, but he declined, saying he had more important things to do..." said Fred.

"Can I see the letter you've written?" asked Alice, already trying to come up with an idea to persuade Bagman.

"Sure, go ahead," said George and gave her the piece of parchment.

Alice quickly read through it, concluding that this was as best as it could get. "I hope this will work. It is, after all, just a letter. He might answer though. I mean it sounds alright to me, you are nice to him, you ask nicely, you don't push him, but you keep saying that he still owes you money..."

"Yeah he does! I mean, we need that money! How should we pay Weasley's Wizard Wheezes otherwise? We already planned everything out with the money..." said Fred, frustration obvious in his voice.

"It's a bummer all right," said George gloomily. "but if he won't talk to us in person, we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand, he can't avoid us forever."

"Who's avoiding you?" said Ron suddenly, sitting down next to them.

Alice hadn't even noticed him, Harry and Hermione joining them at the table.

"Wish you would," said Fred, looking irritated at the interruption.

"What's a bummer?" Ron asked George.

"Having a nosy git like you for a brother," said George.

Alice giggled lightly and highfived George under the table.

"You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?" asked Harry. "Thought any more about trying to enter?"

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," said George bitterly. "She just told me to shut up and get on with Transfiguring my racoon."

Alice then busied herself with eating breakfast, as the conversation again ended on the Triwizard Tournament. She already knew that the heads of the participating schools were the judges, as Hermione had told her so in another lesson, together with kindly forcing her into buying a S.P.E.W badge, her Alliance for the house-elves. Hermione actually managed to slip S.P.E.W into their conversation, which made Alice groan internally. She really liked the girl, and it wasn't like she supported enslavement, but Alice had been at the kitchen with the twins on several occasions and had talked to the house-elves. They were happy the way they lived and they even told her that they did not want to live any other way. Hermione kept saying that they were enslaved because they had to work without earning any kind of payment. Alice could see Ron rolling his eyes and Fred snatching away her bacon, ignoring Hermione all the while. He and George had refused to buy a badge from her and kept ignoring her attempts to change their minds. To Alice it didn't matter if they bought one or not, she herself had only agreed to buy so the girl would stop talking about it that day. She pinched Fred in the arm, while he was happily chewing her bacon.

"That was mine, you git!"

"Well, and that hurt, you git," said Fred and grinned.

George, however, leaned towards Hermione. "Listen, have you ever been down in the kitchens, Hermione?"

"No, of course not," said Hermione curtly. "I hardly think students are supposed to –"

"Well, we have," said George, indicating Fred and Alice, "loads of times, to nick food. And we've met them, and they're happy. They think they've got the best job in the world –"

"That's because they're uneducated and brainwashed!" Hermione began hotly, but her next few words were drowned by the sudden whooshing noise from overhead which announced the arrival of the post owls.

Alice looked up and saw Cara landing in front of her, a letter in her beak. She took the letter and already recognised the handwriting of her mother. She had written her several letters now, the first one an apology for her not saying anything about what had happened at the Quidditch World Cup. Now she was telling her everything that happened at school, well nearly everything, as Alice still had to tell anyone about her spell explosions. Not only was Hermione currently the only one that knew about it, she had also lied to the girl, saying that she had talked to Dumbledore and that the headmaster had said that everything would go normal after she practised several times.

Alice sighed and started reading the letter. Her mother was, as always, wishing her luck for the test and asked her if she ate enough. It was just her way of worrying for her oldest daughter, even though she knew that Alice could perfectly care for herself. She smiled while reading it, knowing all too well how her mother must have been thinking about how she should write the letter and not sound like she was still her little girl. From the things her mother had written she could gather that they were frequently visiting the burrow to drink coffee with the Weasleys and vice versa. Alice gave Cara some of her toast and finished eating. It was time to go to class, even though it was clear that no one would be able to concentrate that day. Still, she, together with the twins, walked outside to get to Defense against the Dark Arts.

Nobody was very attentive during lessons, being much more interested in the arrival that evening of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. When the bell rang early Alice, Cedric and Amara hurried up to the Hufflepuff dormitories, deposited their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks and rushed back downstairs into the Entrance Hall. The heads of the houses were ordering their students into lines, then they filed down the front steps and lined 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.

Alice was standing beside Cedric and Amara, the later excitedly jumping from one leg to another, trying to see anything.

"How d'you reckon they come?" asked the girl.

"Don't know...maybe horses?" suggested Cedric.

"Maybe a carriage?" tried Alice it.

"As if that many students would fit inside a carriage," said Amara.

"Maybe a very big carriage?" tried Alice it again. Amara sighed; rolling her eyes like Alice had said the most dumbest thing in the world.

"Well, I haven't seen you come up with any better ideas," said Alice hurt.

They were standing in the sixth row, not seeing much at all. 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 Alice and many other students too, all looking in different directions.

"There!" yelled Amara right into her ear, pointing over the Forest.

"Thank you for making me deaf, Amara," said Alice under her breath, but still looked to where she was pointing.

Something large was hurtling across the deep blue sky towards the castle, growing larger all the time.

"It's a carriage!" said Alice excitedly.

It was indeed a gigantic, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring towards them. It was pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.

"A large carriage, just like I said," said Alice and grinned at her friend.

"Yeah, led by demon horses," said Amara.

Alice found, that her friend wasn't wrong, as the large horses had fiery red eyes, and she decided that she did not want to come across them at night or alone, or both.

As the carriage came to a stop, a boy in pale blue robes jumped down from it, bent forwards, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerged from the inside of the carriage and Alice saw the largest woman she had ever seen emerge from the carriage.

"Well, that explains the size of it," mumbled Amara right next to her.

As the large woman 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 the lead, broke into applause too. Her face relaxed into a gracious smile, and she walked forwards towards Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely bend to kiss it.

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

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

Next to Alice, Amara had a hard time concealing her laughter. Alice had to agree that the way they were talking looked kind of funny, but the thick French accent of the headmaster of Beauxbatons made it ten times worse to keep calm. The way she said Professor Dumbledors name was just too funny. She gave her firend a little punch to make her concentrate again, just to witness around a dozen boys and girls emerge from the carriage, all dressed in rather thin attire. The Headmaster offered them to either stay outside and wait for the Durmstrang School, or enter the castle to warm up. Madam Maxime gladly agreed to the later one, just stopping to make sure that her horses were well fed for, but Professor Dumbledore assured her that Hagrid would take care of that.

"D'you think Durmstrang will have even bigger horses?" said a voice behind Alice.

The girl turned around, surpised to find the twins standing there. "You're not supposed to be here, you know that, right?" she said.

"Well, we do know. But t got quite boring just standing there, so we searched for you," said George.

"So now, what do you reckon their horses will be like?" said Fred.

"I don't know. Maybe they won't come by horse? It could very well be a ship," said Alice thoughtfully.

Just as she had said that, she could hear Lee yell from inbetween the Gryffindors. "The lake! Look at the lake!"

Some kind of whirlpool could be seen in the middle of it, then a pole appeared out of it. Alice gasped. It was a mast.

"Are you some kind of a seer?" asked George, perplexed that her idea had been right.

"Not really, just a really good guesser," said Alice and grinned.

Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it was 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 in the turbulent water, and began to glide towards the bank. A few moments later, Alice 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 the ship, walking towards the castle. A man with sleek, silver hair was leading them. He greeted Professor Dumbledore heartily, who replied to him just the same. The man was called Karkaroff and was apparently the Headmaster of Durmstrang. He was as tall and as thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short and his goatee did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. The Headmasters shook hands, all the while Karkaroff seemed to Alice rather cold, than friendly. He called out for one of his students, and it was the second time Alice gasped. She looked at the twins who were just as surprised as her. Walking into the light was none other than the Bulgarian Quidditch player Viktor Krum.

They were walking back inside to the Great Hall were the feast would be held. Alice could see and hear several girls talking about if Krum would sign their belongings with lipstick. She shook her head about that, it was just ridiculous. Sure he was a well known player but they were just over-reacting in her eyes. Alice looked at the twins, who grinned at her because they knew what she was thinking. Then they had to part ways, because everyone had to sit down at their house-table.

"D'you think they will sit at our table?" asked Amara excitedly. Her gaze was glued to a boy from the Beauxbatons school. Alice shrugged her shoulders.

"Don't know. Maybe. We'll see, I guess."

To her, or rather Amaras disappointment the Beauxbatons students sat down on the Ravenclaw tables and the Durmstrang sat with the Slytherins.

"Maybe next time," said Alice and smiled at her.

The dishes in front of them filled with food as usual. There was a greater variety of dishes in front of them though, including several that were definitely foreign. Amara squealed.

"Oh, I love the French cuisine!" she said. "I've been there several times and it's so delicious."

"I don't know about it, I'm not that much of a fan of fish," said Cedric.

"Yeah, me neither. I'll just stay with the usual," agreed Alice and the three began to eat.