Chapter Twelve: New Arrivals
(This Chapter is from the point of view of Draco Malfoy)
The next couple of months flew by, in a rush of work piled on work. Binns had us writing weekly essays on the freakishly boring Goblin wars, and Flitwick had assigned three extra books that we had to read about Summoning Charms. Snape had us working on Antidotes, and I was very thankful for how well Harry and I were both doing in potions, since Snape had threatened to poison one of us to see if our antidote worked.
"Hey, what do you think all that is?" Harry asked, and I looked up from the book I was trying to read while walking to see a large group of people crowded around in the entrance hall. I could see that there was a sign, but I was too short to read it. Harry made a frustrated noise and hopped a couple of times, trying to read it. Hermione made an attempt to worm her way into the crowd, without much success.
"Did something happen? Have they seen a Crumplehorned Snorkak?" Luna asked, appearing behind us.
"We don't know, but I doubt it," Hermione said with a sigh, her hands on her hips.
"Hey, Luna, you're pretty small. Come on, let's see if we can levitate her. Just a bit," Harry suggested, pulling out his wand. "It should be no problem for all three of us. Okay?" he asked Luna, who smiled and sort of nodded. Hermione and I took out our wands. "Ready, Luna?" he asked, and she nodded again. "On three. One, two, three," Harry counted. "Windgardium Leviosa," we incanted together, and Luna rose up easily until she was about two feet off the ground.
"What is it? Can you see?" Harry asked her.
"It's a sign," she said dreamily.
"Yes, but what does it say?" Hermione asked.
"Triwizard Tournament," Luna read. "Oh how exciting."
"Does it say anything else?" I asked, grinning in amusement.
"Yes," Luna replied.
"Well read it to us, Luna," Hermione said exasperatedly.
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at six o'clock on Friday the thirtieth of October. Lessons will end half an hour early," she read. I had potions last on Friday, and that meant that Snape wouldn't have time to poison one of us, but I knew better to interrupt Luna while she still had her train of thought. "Students will return their bags to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast," Luna finished, and we lowered her back to the ground.
"We'll get to miss half of potions," Harry said happily as we skirted around the group of people and entered the Great Hall.
"How do you think they'll be getting here?" I wondered aloud as we took our seats at the Gryffindor table and Luna wandered off to sit with the other Ravenclaws with a dreamy wave back at us. We spent most of lunch, as well as the next week until Friday, talking about the other schools and the tournament.
Despite all of the rumors and wild guesses about how the delegations from the other schools would be arriving at Hogwarts, everyone was surprised on Friday. For some reason, both schools brought single-sex delegations; the boys from Durmstrang arrived in a sailing ship that emerged from beneath the surface of the lake, and the girls from Beauxbatons came sweeping down out of the sky in a carriage pulled by massive white horses.
Once the guests had been escorted into the Great Hall, the Durmstrang students chose a place at the Slytherin table, and the students from Beauxbatons sat with the Ravenclaws. I was a little disappointed, curious about the other schools, but not nearly so much as Weasely, who spent most of Dumbledore's welcoming speech staring at the Beauxbatons girls, switching to Viktor Krum at odd intervals. Harry laughed at him, but Weasely was too enthralled to notice.
Apparently, Dumbledore had finished speaking, since the table was suddenly laden with food. There were all the usual things like steak and kidney pie and black pudding, but there were also several dishes that I realized at once were meant for the guests.
"Bouillabaisse," I said in surprised pleasure as I spooned some onto my dish. "It's French," I told Harry, who looked confused. "And I think this is goulash," I added, indicating a dish full of squarish pieces of beef and red peppers in thick gravy. I laughed when Harry poked at it experimentally with the serving utensil before abandoning it for roast chicken and a baked potato.
"That looks a little too interesting for me, mate," Harry said, and Hermione laughed from Harry's other side and a rolled her eyes at us as she served herself a bit of both odd dishes.
Then, a voice from behind us said, "Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?" I turned around and found myself blinking up at one of the Beauxbatons students. A long sheet of silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth. My eyes narrowed, recognizing at once that she wasn't normal. Not human, at least not completely.
"Did you want any more of it, Hermione?" Harry asked, and she shook her head. "We're done with it. Go ahead," he said, pulling it into her reach.
She nodded and picked up the dish, carrying it carefully back to the Ravenclaw table. I frowned at her back before turning back around. "Was there something off about her?" I asked Harry, who shrugged. She was something else, and I couldn't put my finger on it. And, even more strangely, something about me recognized something about her.
"A Veela!" Weasely was exclaiming from down the table a bit, and I realized all at once that he was right.
"How stupid can he be?" Hermione commented, and I shook my head.
"I think Weasely is right for once. Sort of, anyway. That girl definitely has veela blood, and recent, at that. I would guess it was a grandparent," I said, turning around to look at her again.
"How strange," Harry said with interest, turning to look at her as well. "Aren't Veelas supposed to drive guys crazy?" he asked curiously.
"Well look around," I said. Not a few heads had turned to watch the blonde girl return to her table. But I found Harry's remark odd; he didn't seem to think anything of her. I wasn't surprised that I hadn't, marking it to the apparent truth in the tale that my great grandmother had been a Veela. Uncle Silas had mentioned it once, talking about my mother in passing to another Death Eater. I could remember every single word I'd heard about my parents, and the ones that weren't full of scorn from the speaker stood out from the rest.
"If you two can stop worrying about that girl for a minute, you'll see who just arrived," Hermione said with an irritated sniff.
"That's Ludo Bagman, he's one of the people organizing it. So the other one must be Barty Crouch. They're probably here to see the start of the Tournament," Harry said. And sure enough, after the desserts, which had included a few odd dishes as well, had been cleared, Dumbledore stood up to speak on the beginning of the Tournament.
"The moment has come," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket, just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" – there was a smattering of polite applause – "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."
There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced.
"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."
I frowned, recognizing the name Karkaroff. Did they not know that Igor Karkaroff was a Death Eater? I glanced worriedly at Harry, who was listening to Dumbledore ramble on about the Tournament. By the end of the speech, my full stomach was churning with anxiety and I thought I might literally be on the verge of vomiting.
On the way back up to the dorms, Harry told Hermione and Neville to go ahead and pulled me into a side hallway. "Don't worry about Karkaroff," he said immediately. I opened my mouth, but couldn't decide if I wanted to deny being worried or ask how he'd known what it was that had worried me, so I just sighed. "Dumbledore knows what he is, and will be keeping a very close eye on him. It's part of the reason Moody is here, actually, although I think it would have been saner to have left him in retirement," Harry told me, rolling his eyes.
"Comforting," I said with a little laugh.
"I know. I'm just saying that Igor isn't going to have the chance to murder me in my sleep or anything," he said with a grin.
"He would only have about a one in three chance of finding you if he went looking in your bed in our dorm," I pointed out as we started toward Gryffindor tower.
"You don't have nightmares as often as you used to," Harry said with a smile. I nodded, remembering back in first year when I couldn't go a single night without having Harry wake me from a nightmare and curl up beside me. "Bubotuber," Harry said to the Fat Lady when we reached her portrait, and it swung open to let us into the common room. The twins were standing away from the other students, talking in hushed urgent voices
"Trying to figure out a way over that age lines, guys?" Harry asked them, and they jumped and wheeled around.
"Oh, hey Harry. And of course. You and Draco want to enter?" Fred, or possibly George, asked him with one of his usual frightening jack-o-lantern grins.
"We'll pass. I figure they'll do it again if no one dies. I'll enter when I'm a seventh year, so I'm on even footing with the people I'm competing with," Harry said with a laugh.
"I think you could handle it, mate," whichever twin hadn't spoken the first time said now. Even after four years, I still couldn't tell them apart for the life of me. "I mean, you threatened to kill Mad-Eye Moody just a few weeks ago," he recalled.
"Goodnight, guys," Harry said without commenting further, and we went up to our dormitory.
(AN: Sorry about the long wait. I completely lost my ability to write for a little while there. I doubt anyone cares, but my fiancé left me, and I'm not quite up to the way I want to write my Harry and Draco. My writing hasn't left me, I don't think. It'll get better, I'm sure, as I get over this. I'll figure it out. Sorry again for the wait.)
