The train stopped again several miles away from East Sussex. The students filed off the train with their trunks, stretching out cramps and yawning. The night was still very dark since morning was several hours away. This train platform was a wizarding one, and invisible to Muggles. The group ambled through the station, out the entrance gates and into a small seaside town. They were led along several streets to a dock at the edge of the foggy water. Peeves gazed at it uncertainly.
"That's the English Channel," a Gryffindor muttered behind him. "My grandmum lives close to here." The headmistress's heels clicked across the dock as she strode up to a man standing in front of an elegant boat harbored in the water. She shook hands with the man and said, "Captain Navige, these are my pupils." She extended her arm towards the students and beckoned them to come closer. "Students, Captain Navige will take us across the channel and into France. He has been instituted by the Beauxbatons headmaster and is, from what I've heard, very reliable and good." The students nodded and stood awkwardly, staring at the short, stocky man. His weathered face split into a smile as he waved his hand and a bridge formed between the boat and dock. He motioned them to follow him onto the sleek craft. Peeves heard Sean emit a moan.
"Boats. I hate boats," he whimpered. Peeves grinned. It looked like someone was going to need more barf bags.
The boat's cabin was also painted gold, but was furnished with comfortable sofas and chairs and, to Peeves' delight, a food counter. The students dropped their trunks and rushed over to the counter. After everyone had been served and was seated on the soft, blue sofas, the vessel's engine began to purr. The steady rhythm of the motor and a full stomach caused Peeves' vision to blur. Within minutes, all of the Hogwarts students were sound a sleep.
âª
Peeves opened his eyes to a blinding light. He yelped and sat straight up, shaking the spots from his eyes. When they had cleared he peered around him and found the source of the light. Day had arrived and the sun was streaming through the many windows in the boat's cabin.
"Bright, isn't it?" Sherman said cheerfully. Peeves moaned, his muscles ached from lying uncomfortably on a sofa all night.
"Where are we?" he asked thickly.
"Almost an hour away from France," was the reply. The occupants of the cabin were slowly sitting up, awakened by Peeves' cry. Headmistress Sourdine pressed a roll into his hand. "Most of you have been asleep for about five hours. There isn't much longer to wait." The professor's strict voice seemed to fully wake the rest of the students who were also handed food. Peeves ran a hand through his hair and bit into the pastry. He looked out the window at the clear day. Standing up slowly he whispered for Sherman to follow him. Another wicked idea was formulating in his mind. He and Sherman walked casually out the cabin door and onto the boat's deck. The water smelled fresh in the morning heat. Peeves drew the clean salty air into his lungs and sighed happily.
âª
Professor Sourdine finally sat down with a steaming cup of tea in her hand. She sighed and was about to take a sip when Peeves burst back into the cabin.
"Professor! Oh, Professor! Help! Sherman...Sherman...! There's a man over board!" The headmistress leaped onto her feet. "Where?" she cried. Peeves pointed out the door and fell over in a "dead faint" (he just had a really good knack for it). Sourdine sprinted out of the room shouting louder than she had ever in her life.
"CAPTAIN NAVIGE! ONE OF MY STUDENTS IS OVERBOARD!" Peeves chuckled silently in his feint faint. It was all too hilarious to see his old headmistress running and screaming like so. The ship's captain leaped out of the navigation room and onto the deck. "Ou?" he bellowed. The headmistress shook her head. "I DON'T KNOW!" she wailed.
"Find quick! Currents sweep miles away!" the captain hollered. The other students streamed onto the deck. "Spread out! Look!" the captain commanded.
Sourdine looked very worried. Her face was contorted into a wrinkled mass of skin, all a dreadful white. While everyone searched the water desperately from the boat, the headmistress fainted—into the water. That did it. Peeves could not contain his laughter as everyone forgot about Sherman and dashed to the spot the headmistress had disappeared from. Several students looked at Peeves, who was writhing on the ground in mirth, and glared at him in hatred. Sherman fell laughing from a broom closet; snorting and making both dissolve into tears. No one else was laughing.
Captain Navige succeeded in pulling the headmistress out of the water. She stormed across the deck and drew herself to her full height, obviously fully conscious again.
"PEEVES AND SHERMAN!" she screamed, her face so full of anger and revulsion the two drew back from her in fear. Peeves thought he had heard her shout louder earlier, but nothing compared to this. That woman has got some lungs, he thought with terror. "I'M GOING TO EXPEL YOU! THAT WAS THE LAST STRAW! OH! I COULD KILL YOU BOTH!" The headmistress had visibly lost control.
"Erm, Madame?" the captain said, tapping her on the shoulder. The professor whirled around, her eyes looking like bits of burning coal. When she realized whom it was she took a deep breath, pulled a bit of seaweed from her sopping hair, and lifted her chin as a sign of composure.
"Yes, Captain?" she said, her voice low and softer than usual.
"Madame, it impossible to send back now," he said bravely. "I wish could," he glared coldly at the two. "But transportation not be ready for days." The headmistress nodded.
"I understand," she said, having regained her voice. "I do wish I had some Floo powder at the moment..." She clenched her fists and tried not to dive at the two boys and strangle them. "I will make it my personal duty to make certain you two do not enter the tournament," she snarled. Peeves and Sherman nodded sadly. Professor Sourdine rushed back into the cabin, muttering something about dry clothes when the Ravenclaw pointed out in the water ahead.
"Land ho!" she cried.