Chapter 453: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang (Edited)

"Oh, Merlin's beards!"

Dumbledore, who kept a smile on his face, let out a cry of surprise and took three steps forward to help Madame Máxime up.

"Madame Máxime, are you hurt?" he asked with concern.

"I'm fine," Madame Máxime said, standing up and forcing a smile on her face, "Long time no see, Dumbledore, I really made you laugh."

At this, she reached out and lifted the boy she had pinned down and whispered in French, presumably apologetically, as the boy waved his hand in fright and backed reverently behind Madame Maxime.

After lifting the boy, Madame Maxime looked at the Abraxans, who were shaking their heads and snorting as if they didn't know what happened.

At that moment, the others also clearly saw Madame Maxime's appearance.

Unlike Hagrid's rugged appearance, Madame Máxime had a handsome face that belied her stature, large, dark, watery eyes, and a pointed nose. She wore her hair pulled back in a shiny bun at the nape of her neck, a black satin gown that covered her from head to toe, and opals glittering on her neck and thick fingers.

"Perhaps my steed has just arrived in a new place and is still a bit uncomfortable." Madame Maxime, who could not see why, could only speculate.

"Ahem..." Dumbledore, who had also guessed what it was, coughed dryly and nodded, "Well, don't worry, our Professor of Magical Creatures will be able to take care of them, he'll be back after a bit of a mess, it's his.... well...something else he has to take care of that's gone awry."

Dumbledore was actually referring to the Blast-Ended Skrewt, as things got bigger and bigger they became more and more violent, several students had been sent to the infirmary for their explosions, both the students and Madam Pomfrey had a problem with the "cute little things".

"My horses need... well... strong people to take care of them," Madame Maxime said, as if doubting that the Hogwarts Fantastic Animal Care teacher was up to the job, "They're very feisty..."

"I assure you Hagrid is perfectly capable of doing the job..." said Dumbledore with a smile.

"Very well," said Madame Máxime, with a slight bow, "Can you tell this Hagrid that these horses only drink single malt whisky?"

"I'll take care of that." said Dumbledore.

As the two spoke, twelve or thirteen more students, male and female, descended from the carriage and joined the first boy in an orderly and silent fashion, placing themselves behind Madame Maxime. They were dressed in silk robes and shivered in the night wind.

"These are my students." After exchanging pleasantries with Dumbledore, Madame Máxime patted his shoulder and asked, "Is Karkaroff here?"

"He'll be here any minute," Dumbledore looked at the group of students, then smiled and called back to Fish, who was still pretending to be a good boy, "Fish, come give me a hand."

He pointed to the group of Beauxbatons students.

"No problem nya!"

?(?≧?≦?)?

Fish knew he couldn't hide it from Professor McGonagall, so he couldn't wait to do something to make amends.

The white glow flickered again, encompassing both Madame Maxime and the Beauxbatons students.

Fish's spell again elicited a gasp, and Madame Máxime shot a curious glance at Fish, who wiggled his ears and returned a big smile.

"Veela?"

Madame Máxime's first thought was of her most prized pupil.

Dumbledore smiled and did not respond, but simply changed the subject, "Would you prefer to wait here for Karkaroff or would you rather go inside to rest?"

At Dumbledore's mention of Karkaroff, Madame Maxime did not look up as she replied indifferently, "We'd better go inside to rest and please take care of my horses."

"Of course." said Dumbledore as he bowed again.

Madame Maxime nodded, then turned to her students and beckoned to them, saying in a stately voice, "Let's go."

So the Hogwarts crowd stepped aside to allow her and her students to ascend the stone steps.

Madame Maxime gave Fish a deep look as she passed, and the Beauxbatons students focused largely on the cat, especially his twitching cat ears, which were so attention-grabbing.

Fish twitched his nose and whispered to Hermione, "He smells just like Hagrid."

"What?" Hermione didn't quite understand what the cat was referring to.

"Fish can't pinpoint it, their smells are obviously very different, but they give me a similar feeling... Maybe it's because she and Hagrid are both big nya?"

(?? ω??)

Fish cocked his head in confusion and guessed uncertainly.

But Fish was quick to put it aside and, like the others, was eagerly speculating about the mode of transportation that would be used when Durmstrang arrived.

"It would be great if they came with magical creatures Fish had never seen before."

?(??ω??)?

Fish said expectantly as he continued to wink at the Abraxan.

The group waited a little longer, before Fish's ears suddenly picked up a strange sound.

"There's movement in the lake nya!"

Fish shouted, pointing to the black lake, and everyone immediately looked that way.

They were standing on the grassy slope overlooking the land and could clearly see the still, dark water.

At first, the lake was calm, but soon the water began to ripple and a strange sound came from the direction of the black lake.

It was a dull, thudding noise, like a giant vacuum cleaner moving across the riverbed.....

As the strange sound grew louder, a huge splash of water rose over the black lake, waves crashed against the wet shore and in a few moments, right in the center of the lake, a large whirlpool appeared, as if a huge plug had suddenly been pulled out of the bottom....

A long black flagpole-shaped object slowly rose from the center of the eddy, with sails rigged to it....

"That's a mast!" shouted Harry excitedly.

In fact, there was no need for him to remember, they could all see a magnificent ship slowly rising out of the water.

It had the odd spooky, skeletal look, as if it were the remains of a wreck they had just salvaged, and its portholes glowed with a faint glow of mist that looked like the eyes of a ghost.

However, the dilapidated appearance did not detract from the grandeur of the ship, and everyone, especially the boys, were very interested in it.

As soon as the boat emerged completely from the water, it approached the shore of the lake. A few moments later, they heard an iron anchor being dropped into the shallow water, and then another snap, and a plank was placed on the shore.

The group, led by a tall, thin man, left the hut and headed for the castle entrance.

Fish looked at his fur cloaks and hesitated for a moment before giving up on the idea of giving the Durmstrang men a heat and cold resistant spell as well.

"Dumbledore!" the goateed man in the lead shouted enthusiastically as he walked up the slope, "My dear old friend, how are you?"

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

After the two exchanged pleasantries, Karkaroff called to one of the students behind him, "Victor, come here and warm up a bit.... Do you mind, Dumbledore? Victor is a bit cold..."

There was an uproar among the Hogwarts students, as most recognized the identity of the man, Victor Krum, the Seeker of the Bulgarian team that had caused a sensation in the Quidditch World Cup final.

Of course, Fish didn't remember much about him, the cat was too preoccupied with the fight between the Veelas and the Irish dwarves to care about the player.