Chapter 70 - Beauxbatons and Durmstrang (1/2)

All the students were surprised to see a horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, pulled by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, each is a size of an elephant. The horses landed with tremendous speed but stable making a few students jump back.

Then, a boy in pale blue robes, who was acting as a charioteer jumped down on the ground. He went towards the carriage and opened the door.

Neal saw a woman who was even taller than Hagrid but gracefully looking. Dumbledore stepped forward to greet her, As tall as 6ft as he was, Dumbledore bȧrėly bent to kiss her hand while greeting, ”Welcome to Hogwarts, Madame Maxime”.

Then, more than a dozen girls and three boys stepped down from the carriage and stood behind her shivering a little bit as their robes were made of fine silk and none of them were wearing cloaks, a few of them had wrapped shawls and scarves around their necks, after all, the climate at the Hogwarts is a little bit colder than at Beauxbatons academy.

Madame Maxime then asked, ”is Karkaroff here, yet?”. Dumbledore replied, ”anytime, soon”. And then he asked, ”Would you like to wait here or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?”. She replied, ”Warm-up I think. But the horses...”

Dumbledore said, ”Our Care for Magical Creatures Professor will be delighted to care of them”. As Maxime and the students went inside, the students continued to wait for Durmstrang delegations while discussing what type of Horses they will use.

While everyone gazing at the sky, a loud and oddly noise was drifting toward them out of the darkness, a muffled rumbling and suċkɨnġ sound like a vacuum cleaner was moving along a riverbed.

As great bubbles started to appear on the surface of the lake, everyone turned towards it in curiosity. While some thought it was Durmstrang while a few others thought it might the Giant squid living inside the lake.

Just then, a whirlpool seemed to appear in the middle of the lake and a Mast rose from it first, followed by a large ship that appeared to have wrecked and got repaired. A moment later, after the anchor is being thrown and the ship reached the shore, they saw more than a dozen people who looked at a bit built with all cloaks made of some kind of fur.

The tall man who was leading them greeted Dumbledore first with a big smile on his face despite the fact it looked a bit creepy and shrewd. As he looked at the castle, he said, ”Dear old Hogwarts. How good it is to be here. Victor, let's go”. As a boy stood beside him and the rest of the others behind walking into the entrance hall, several students whispered excitedly, ”it's Krum”. Seeing the sixth year students especially girls being frantic, Malfoy snorted, ”hmpf, only a loser”.

When Neal reached the Great Hall to sit down, he saw Beauxbatons sat down at the Ravenclaw table and Durmstrang chose to sit down at the Slytherin table while they were surrounded by several students. Especially, Krum and a few girls from Beauxbatons academy.

While he's making his way towards the table, suddenly, a shriek with excitement came from Ravenclaw's table, ”Neal”. As he turned around, Neal was taken aback in a surprise when he saw the girl who called him just now. ”Celia?”.

She hastened her steps and walked towards him with an excited expression while attracting the attention of others. As she reached him, she kissed his cheek as an informal greeting, ”it's been a while, Neal”.