Chapter 26

When we 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 Gryffiindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger, and snake united around a large letter H.

"This is so cool" says noah.

"Gorgeous"says chloe.

We walk to the slytherin table and started eating, then rose came up to draco and gave him a letter.

"Hey draco sorry I didn't write a letter back last summer here" she said smiling. And draco got the letter and look at us then rose smiled and left. Pansy and chloe looked at me and they looked shocked.

"I can explain-" draco got cut off.

"We saw enough draco" says pansy. "Lets go back to the common room lyn,chloe"

We stand up and pansy and Chloe drag me out of the greathall and went to the common room to my room locking the door.

"What do you think the letter is about?" Pansy asked.

"How are we gonna know if you pull lyn out in the middle of draco's speech?" Says chloe.

"Then what if they fight there all eyes are gonna be with them lyn is gonna give out a hurtful words so as draco there's just gonna be a fight then" says pansy.

"You two shush" i said. "I'll let draco explain-" i got cut off when there's a knock on the door. Pansy stand up and opened the door.

"Let me talk to lia" says draco. Pansy went to the side to let draco in.

"Lia its not like that we're just friends nothing more i swear, its just a friendly thing" he said.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Then why is she flirty earlier?" Chloe asked.

"Whats the letter about?" Pansy asked.

"Read it infront of us" i said.

"Fine" draco says and opened the letter.

Dear Draco,

My summer is fine see you around school draco, you are so nice and I enjoyed the icecream at diagon alley with you.

Love, 

Rose Maple.

"So you went to diagon alley and had icecream with her?" I asked. "You can't event visit at the manor" i said.

"She's the one invited me!" He said.

"Ok we're leaving lets go pansy" chloe said dragging pansy outside and closing the door.

"You could've just tell her you have a girlfriend!" I shouted.

"You know what I can't deal with this right now" he said.

"And you think i can?!" I said.

"Let's take a break" we both said at the same time.

"Lets break up we're both stress on everything" he said.

"I agree but just so you know draco you'll always have place her in my heart" i told him and look down.

"Me too kaitlyn" says draco walking up to me and hugged me. "Im always here if you need me.

"What about your parents my grandma?" I asked.

"Im pretty sure they'll understand" he said and i nodded.

After that we heard professor snape outside we both walk out and he told us to line up to greet the visitors the boys line up and so as the girls.

"What happen to the talk?" Pansy asked.

"We broke up" i said.

Chloe and pansh look shocked

"What why?" They both asked at the same time.

"We said its not working we both wanted it to took a break but we still have each others back" i said. "Its going to be fine right?" I asked them.

"Hope so" they said and we all walk out of the common room to the entrance hall We stands up beside the gryffindor students. 

They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was moving; everything was still, silent, and quite as usual. We were starting to feel cold. I wished they'd hurry up....Maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance.

And then 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.

Dennis's guess was closer....As the 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.

We 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. We sprang back respectfully. Then We 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.

I had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in my life, and that was Hagrid; i doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow - maybe simply because i was used to Hagrid - this woman (now at the foot 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 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.

I, 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. From what I could see of them (they were standing in Madame Maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"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."

"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?" I heard Seamus Finnigan said, leaning around Lavender and Parvati to address Harry and Ron.

"Well, if they're any bigger than this lot, even Hagrid won't be able to handle them," said Harry. "That's if he hasn't been attacked by his skrewts. Wonder what's up with them?"

"Maybe they've escaped," said Ron hopefully.

"Oh don't say that," said Hermione with a shudder. "Imagine that lot loose on the grounds...."

We stood, 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. But then -

"Can you hear something?" said Ron suddenly.

We 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 We saw the rigging....

"It's a mast!" he said to Ron and Hermione.

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, pansy, chloe and i 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, we 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.

"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 I 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!" Says ron and i laughed. 

"You and malfoy what happen earlier?" Hermonie asked.

"Oh that..we broke up" i said.

"Im sorry." Says Hermonie, ron and harry.

"No its fine its better for us we still have each other's back anyway" i said. "We better go inside my friends are waiting" i walks away As we recrossed the entrance hall with the rest of the Hogwarts students heading for the Great Hall, pansy, chloe and i walk over the slytherin table then I remember im gonna seat with malfoy i walk to my usual seat and sits Chloe and pansy sat infront of me.

"Im not interested in this triwizard tournament anymore" says chloe.

"Same we can't even play" i said putting my chin and arm at the table.

"You wanna die already" draco asked.

"Yes malfoy" I said.

"Rude" he said standing up.

"Excuse me?!" I said.

He walks up to krum and talks with him. When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. When their headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed. The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed, however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore's left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh.

"No one is making you stay" I whispered looking at the girl, pansy and chloe laughed.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

We started eating and talks about on what about to happen i saw professor snape looking at me then draco, minutes later someone tapped my back.

"Miss Simmons follow me" a cold voice says.