CHAPTER 3: The Schools Arrive

The next day was Elinor's birthday. She was 16. At midnight, the girls all woke up and had a quiet party in their dorm. Amy's sister Toni and her two friends Cho and Beth came from their dorm, as well as a friend of Elinor's from Slytherin, Rochelle; and Amy organized the house elves to make a cake and prepare some food. For the first time in her life, Jessica met a House Elf (well actually, about fifteen of them). She thought they were cute but annoying, especially the one called Dobby.

Elinor got mainly books on Divination from her friends, but Dom gave her one on Quidditch teams of the world (more for her own benefit then Elinor's) and the three fifth years gave her a big box of sweets, including Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Liquorice Wands and Cauldron Cakes. The box was finished by 12:30am.

During the day, other presents were given, including another cake from the whole of Ravenclaw House, (this was a tradition with all Ravenclaw birthdays), as well as little things from the Sixth Year Ravenclaw boys, including 'Hogwarts: A History - the Revised and Updated Edition' from David.

'I thought you might like it, seeing as you love History of Magic so much,' he said eagerly, smiling at her.

'Uh, thanks David. It's just what I've always wanted,' said Elinor, grimacing at Alison as she almost toppled over with the heaviness of the book. Amy and Dom were laughing their heads off in a corner of the Charms classroom, having trouble floating keys they were laughing so hard. Dom tried floating her key but instead it flew across the room and hit David in the back of the head.

The teachers also gave Elinor 'presents'. Professor McGonagall said that she could keep the safety pin that she had transfigured into a bracelet, and Professor Flitwick charmed a candle for her so that when it was lit, the flame would change colour. The only teacher who was mean to her that day was (and no surprises here) Professor Snape, who was handing back a test that day in class.

'Just because it's your birthday, Miss Martin, doesn't mean you can have a day off work,' he snapped at her. 'On the contrary, I would think being a year older would make you a year smarter, but judging from this test that doesn't seem to be the case. Still, no surprises there.'

* * *

That night, Elinor had The Dream (like the capital letters? Can't you just hear the dramatic music like in Josie and the Pussycats? Love that film!) again, but this time it was slightly different.

In it were four people. Two of them Elinor knew quite well - Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory, who was the Hogwarts head boy this year. For some bazaar reason, Cedric was a ghost. Of the other two, one was a girl with long blonde hair and the other was a boy who Elinor vaguely recognised from her Quidditch Teams of the World book. She couldn't pick his name, though.

The four people seemed to be telling her something, but she couldn't figure out what. Then, they morphed into the shapes from her other dreams - Harry into the Grim, Cedric into the rat, the girl into the eye and the boy into the snake. Then, the four shapes morphed into a goblet glowing as if there was a fire in it. The goblet became brighter and brighter until Elinor woke up, sweating and shaking.

She looked around the dark room at the three bodies lying asleep in their beds. Wait a minute - three? Then she remembered that Dom was probably off with Justin gallivanting around the Forbidden Forest.

Quietly, Elinor picked up her wand, whispered 'Lumos' and got out of bed. She picked up her 'History of Magic' book, which was lying half way under the bed and tiptoes out of the room into the common room. Hopefully a few minutes of reading that book would put her back to sleep. Writing it sure would have.

* * *

The next day there was a buzz in Hogwarts. Everyone was so excited by the evening arrivals that all classes (except Snape's) were a waste of time. Pretty much all the teachers except Snape, McGonagall and Binns (who didn't seen to realise that the Triwizard Tournament had been reinstated) allowed their students to study or talk and so the day was quite relaxing.

Finally, it was time to go and get ready for the arrivals.

Professor Binns had been surprised when the bell rang half an hour early, but before he could open his mouth to dismiss the Sixth Years, the classroom was deserted.

'Thank God for that,' said Dom as they hurried to the Ravenclaw common room. 'I thought I was going to die of boredom, listening to him rave on about the Henry Mendelssohn trial of 1786.'

'Then you'd turn into a ghost too and be stuck in that class room forever!' said Amy.

The girls quickly rushed to their dorm, put their bags down and cloaks on before hurrying back to the entrance hall.

The teachers and prefects were organising the students into their houses. Amy, being a prefect herself, had to line up all the Ravenclaw First Years, who were hyperactive with all the excited. (Mind you, the first years were always hyperactive. Too much pumpkin juice.)

The school marched out onto the front lawn of the castle, the sixth years in the sixth row.

Elinor, Alison, Dom and Jess stood peering at the night sky for any sign of prospective Beauxbatons or Durmstrang students that might be flying through the air.

'They'd better hurry up,' said Dom. 'It's frikking cold out here.' Her nose was turning a most unusual shade of purpley-blue.

Suddenly, Professor Dumbledore said that he could see the Beauxbatons.

'Where?' asked everyone, looking all over the place.

'There!' shouted Dom, pointing at the Forbidden Forest.

Something that looked like an oversized flying pumpkin was coming towards the castle.

'Oh great. The Beauxbatons are coming in Cinderella's carriage,' whispered Elinor to Jess.

'Could Cinderella's carriage fly?' whispered Jess back.

'It's a dragon!' cried a first year, bursting into tears. Amy quickly shushed him.

Another said it was a flying house.

By now, the flying pumpkin was much clearer, and the girls could see that Elinor had been right. It was a massive blue carriage, being pulled along by twelve winged horses.

'Cool,' whispered Dom. 'I want one of those!'

With an enormous crash, the carriage landed, almost crushing some first years who stepped back very quickly.

The carriage door opened and out stepped the largest lady the girls had ever seen.

'She's a giant!' whispered Jessica.

'No, she can't be,' whispered Alison back, clapping with everyone else as she stepped down from the carriage.

The lady, who was called Madame Maxime, proceeded to have a conversation with Professor Dumbledore, but the girls were more interested in the Beauxbatons students, who were stepping down from the carriage.

'Their robes are nice,' whispered Jess.

'Yeah, nicer then ours,' said Dom tugging at her tie. 'Why can't we have silk? I tell you, Dumbledore may be a good headmaster, but he has no idea when it comes to fashion.'

'They seem cold,' said Alison.

Suddenly the girls could hear a sucking sound coming from the lake. Lee Jordan from Gryffindor cried out 'the lake, look at the lake!' and everyone did.

A whirlpool had appeared out of nowhere and a mast had appeared.

'Let me guess, a ship?' said Dom.

'Looks like it,' said Elinor.

'Wonder what the giant squid thinks of it,' said Alison.

'Probably hoping it's his next meal,' snickered Dom.

'Roasted Durmstrang, how nice,' said Elinor seriously. The others turned to look at her. 'I'll shut up now.'

The ship had lifted itself out of the water and was now moored on the side of the lake. People were disembarking.

'Here come the House-Elf eaters,' whispered Jess.

'And potential squid food,' said Elinor.

'Stop with the squid!' said Alison.

A man was walking up to the castle. He called out to Dumbledore, who answered. He then stopped and looked at the building, commenting on it.

Then he said, 'Viktor, come along, into the warmth.'

And he brought into the light a tall, thin boy of about 18 with thick eyebrows and a large nose.

'Oh, my God!' whispered Dom. 'It's Viktor Krum!'

It was the guy from Elinor's dream.