chapter fourteen : Beauxbatons and Durmstrang

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"June, guess what?" Liam said, running up at her. She and her friends had been sitting down at the Gryffindor table eating lunch.

Juniper gazed at him in amusement. "What?"

"I got into the team!" Liam was bouncing with excitement. "I'm a Chaser! Just like you!"

June grinned. "That's great, Liam! I'm proud of you." She then ruffled his hair, as he watched her with bright eyes.

"Thank you!" He grinned. "I better tell Dennis, see you later, June!" And off he was.

"You know," Fred started, looking at Liam dashing away. "He starts growing on you."

"I know, right," June said, laughing. "I blame it on his enthusiasm."

An owl landed in front of her and Juniper saw it carried a letter from Sirius.

"Letter from Charlie?" Angelina asked, grinning.

"You get letters from Charlie?" George asked, looking at June.

"Er — yes," she replied, glaring at Angelina.

The twins stimultaniously leaned closer to her.

"Are you going to be our sister?" They asked at the same time.

"No, we just get along well . . . like friends."

"Do you?" Fred asked. "George?"

"Yes, Fred?"

"I think we need to write our dear brother a letter."

"Right you are."

"No —" June began, but they had already left the table. She sighed and turned to Angelina, who was looking interested at the bewitched ceiling of the Great Hall.

"You just had to tell them, didn't you?"

When Angelina didn't reply, June shook her head in irritation and opened the letter.

Dear June,

I think it'll be amazing if you'd participate in the Tournament! Merlin, I wish I could participate! Molly said it wasn't as dangerous as the last one (I heard someone died?) so I'm not worried anymore.

Just be careful and don't die — your parents would never forgive me if you did. I believe in you kid! And I'm convinced that you can actually win this thing!

Sirius

Juniper rolled her eyes at his words.

Ten minutes later, she, Angelina and Alicia left the Great Hall but found themselves unable to proceed through the Entrance Hall owing to the large crowd of students congregated there, all milling around a large sign which had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. The trio shuffled closer to the sign to read it.

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early —

"Brilliant!" Angelina said. "It's History of Magic last thing on Friday! He won't get to bore us to death!"

Students will return their bag and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

"Only a week away!" Ernie Macmillan said, emerging from the crowd, his eyes gleaming. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him . . ."

"Cedric?" Angelina repeated, looking at June. "I didn't know he wanted to enter."

Juniper shrugged. "Neither did I."

The appearance of the sign in the Entrance Hall had a marked effect upon the inhabitants of the castle. During the following week, there seemed to be only one topic of conversation, no matter where June went: the Triwizard Tournament. Rumors were flying from student to student like highly contagious germs: who was going to try for Hogwarts champion, what the Tournament would involve, how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang differed from themselves.

Juniper noticed, too, that the castle seemed to be undergoing an extra-thorough cleaning. Several grimy portraits had been scrubbed, much to the displeasure of their subject, who sat huddled in their frames muttering darkly and wincing as they felt their raw pink faces. The suits of armor were suddenly gleaming and moving without squeaking, and Filch was behaving so ferociously to any student who forgot to wipe their shoes that he terrified a pair of first-year girls into hysterics.

Other members of staff seemed oddly tense, too. Harry told her that Professor McGonagall had lost her patience with Neville.

When they went down to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts house — red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teacher's table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, Eagle, badger and snake united around a large letter 'H'.

"They really outdid themselves," Alicia said as they looked around in wonder.

Juniper hummed in agreement and the three of them sat down at the Gryffindor table and filled their plates.

"Today's going to be a nice day," Angelina said.

And she wasn't wrong. There was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air that day. Nobody was very attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival that evening of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang; even History of Magic was more bearable than usual, as it was half an hour shorter.

When the bell rang early, Juniper, Angelina, Alicia, Fred, George and Lee hurried up to Gryffindor Tower, deposited their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled into their cloaks and rushed back downstairs into the Entrance Hall.

The Heads of houses were ordering their students into lines.

"Weasley, straighten your hat," Professor McGonagall snapped at Ron. "Miss Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair."

Parvati scowled and removed a large ornamental butterfly from the end of her plait.

"Follow me, please," Professor McGonagall said, "first-years in front . . . no pushing . . ."

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.

Since June was a Prefect, she had gotten the order to make sure everyone stayed on their spot. When everyone stood where they were meant to stand, she stood next to her friends and awaited the arrival of the other schools.

"Nearly six," Lee said, checking his watch. "How d'you reckon they're coming?"

"A Portkey?" George suggested.

Juniper grinned. Timothée had told her how the students of Beauxbatons traveled and it was most certainly not with a Portkey.

"Aha!" I heard Dumbledore call out from where he was standing with the other teachers. "Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

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

"There!" Fred yelled, pointing over the Forest.

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

Juniper had to contain herself from jumping up and down. In a few seconds, she'd see Timothée again. 

"What is that?" Alicia asked.

"I have no idea," Angelina said. "It kind of looks like a flying house."

The gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest, and the light shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring towards us, 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 backwards as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed — then, with an almighty crash, 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.

June 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 forwards, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then June saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage — a shoe the siege of a child's sled — followed almost immediately, by the largest woman she had ever seen in my life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.

"That's one big woman," she could hear Fred mumble.

Juniper had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in her life, and that was Hagrid; she doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow — maybe simply because she was used to Hagrid — this woman (now at the door of the steps, and looking around at the waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more unnaturally large. 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 forwards towards 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-dorr," Madame Maxime said, in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

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

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

Because her attention had been focused completely upon Madame Maxime, June had only noticed now that around 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 of them had wrappped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what June could see of their faces (they were standing in Madame Maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.

Her hazel eyes dashed from one face to the other, trying to find Timothée's familiar green eyes. He stood in the front and he, too, had been looking for her. Their eyes met and he gave her a broad grin.

"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.

"He should be here any moment," Dumbledore said. "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," Madame Maxime said. "But ze 'orses —"

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

"My steeds require — er — forceful 'andling," Madame Maxime said, 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," Dumbledore said, smiling.

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

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

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

Timothée looked back at her and she gave him an encouraged smile.

"That was quite an arrival," George pointed out. "Will Durmstrang arrive with horses, too?"

Fred shrugged. "It could be anything, really."

"Can you hear something?" Alicia said suddenly.

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

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

From their position at the side 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 she saw the rigging . . .

"It's a mast!" Juniper said to the others.

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, musty 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 towards the bank.

People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them, June 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, she 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 June 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 forwards one of his students. As the boy passed, June caught a glimpse of a prominent, curved noise and thick back eyebrows. She didn't need to hear Fred's exclaim to recognize that profile.

"Bloody hell — it's Krum!"

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Published 05.12.2020

I hope you enjoyed it & tell me what you think of it!

Timothée has finally arrived!! Yes!! The Tournament can finally begin!! Which means Charlie will be coming back!!