Magical Creatures turned out to be much like Care of Magical Creatures, except of course for the care part. We mostly went over the first chapter of our book as well as what we would be learning throughout the year. It was strange being in a class full of red clad Bulgarian boys. They eyed me almost hungrily and as I made my way to the café hall for lunch I was grateful to have escaped with my virginity intact. I looked at my map again, realizing I was lost. As I turned another corner, I ran into a broad red chest.
"Lily Potter, I have been searching for you every'vhere." Said Professor Krum merrily, too close to my ear drum.
"Um… sorry Professor Krum, I was a bit lost actually." I said eyeing my map angrily.
"'Vell lucky for me, I have the other champions in my office now, and I 'vould like for you to meet them. Come this 'vay"
He turned me in the direction of his office and we began chatting lightly as we walked.
"I 'ave spoken with your father, he is very 'vorried about you," he said solemnly.
My mouth suddenly felt very dry and my eyes felt moist as I tried not to think about my father's parting words. So, instead of addressing the issue, I tried to discreetly change the subject.
"How did you guys become friends anyway?" I said, trying to sound genuinely interested.
He looked at me surprised but continued on anyway,"Oddly enough, 've met at the last Tri-'vizard Tournament; 'Ve 'vere both contenders and both very famous at the time. Like me, your father didn't enjoy this fame and 'vhile 've didn't become friends 'vight a'vay, 've had an understanding of each other from the beginning."
I admit I was surprised. While I knew they had met during the Tri-Wizard tournament, I had never heard it explained this way. Although they are vastly different individuals, I could see how this one thing could connect them. Straying the conversation further away from my father and I, I asked more questions.
"You were a great quidditch player; why did you give it up to be the headmaster of Durmstrang." I asked looking over at him as we continued to walk.
He smiled looking over at me, "You ask many questions."
I laughed lightly, "Just curious is all."
He paused for a moment looking serious, "I have al'vays had a strong connection to my heritage and 'vhere I come from. My father's father attended this school, as 'vell as my father, as 'vell as me; it is a part of who I am. During the reign of Gillert Grindelwald, Durmstrang became known as a school for dark magic. I wanted to restore the honor to this great school once again. 'Vhile I love quidditch this meant something deeper to me."
I nodded my head in understanding. "So I guess it is very important to you then, that one of your students is proclaimed winner of the tournament."
His face remained serious as he replied, "there are much more important things than winning Ms. Potter."
What could possibly be more important than winning, I thought to myself. Before I realized it he was opening the large door to his office. It looked as though we had interrupted their conversation and five pair of eyes proceeded to stare at me as I tried to inconspicuously step behind the headmaster.
"Ahhh very glad to see you are all getting along. Please everyone let me introduce the final Hogwarts champion Lily Potter," Professor Krum stated to the room.
"Er…hello everyone," I waved lamely.
At first no one spoke. As they continued to stare at me, I felt very self conscious of the mud on my shoes from having trekked outside. Just as the headmaster looked like he was going to introduce everyone himself, a confident looking Bulgarian boy stepped up with his hand outstretched.
"Hello Lily Potter, I am Desislav(DES eh slav) Svetkova, but you can call me Des. "
I shook his hand and looked him over. He was the biggest human I have ever met. He looked to be about 6'8' with a huge muscular body. His dark hair was buzz cut and his dark brown eyes looked almost black. He had a wide nose and slim lips that curved into an arrogant smile. It was obvious he though highly of himself.
"Hello Des, it is nice to meet you," I smiled politely before turning to the next person who had stepped forward to introduce themselves.
"Ello Leely! My name ez Jacquѐs Bellamy, I am seveenteen and I love long broom rides in ze spring," he said clapping his hands together.
I laughed loudly at his mock enthusiasm and the way he pronounced my name in his heavy French accent. He was dressed in light blue silk, had very small feminine features and dirty blonde hair. His dark blue eyes were framed with long thick lashes reminding me, with a pang of sadness, of Frank. He had wide shoulders and a somewhat thin frame. He looked to be about 5'9' and all of his movements were over the top.
"I love your red 'air! Eet ez natural, no?" he cocked his head to the side.
I nodded my head smiling, "Unfortunately it is."
He shook his head at me laughing, "Mon ami people would die for 'zis 'air. You should be proud."
"'Vould someone please move this pederast along, 've haven't got all day!" Des stated loudly looking annoyed.
I shook my head confused, "What in the bloody hell is a pederast and why are your referring to me as one?"
Jacquѐs laughed loudly throwing an arm around me, "No no darling. You, have a certain… je ne sais quois. 'E was not referring to you, 'Ee was talking about me. Pederast is a Bulgarian word. I zink 'et would translate to ze word faggot, no?" He said looking at Des.
Professor Krum looked very upset as he yelled at his student, "You 'vill not use that kind of language!"
"I have better things to do, I'm going to lunch!" Des said with a red face as he stormed out.
Jacquѐs shrugged, turning back to me, "Hm, wonder what's got 'ez wand in ze knot."
I looked at him horrified, "Jacquѐs, I cannot believe he would say such a horrible thing to you."
He smiled a charming smile and shrugged his shoulders, "First of all please don't call me Jacquѐs, only my Grand-maman calls me 'zat, call me Jack. Second of all I 'ave no qualms being called "faggot", zeeing as technically I am one."
I shook my head and clicked my tongue at him, "Don't say such things about yourself."
"No no mademoiselle I do not mean to insult myself, I simply mean 'zat I am en fact attracted to men."
"That doesn't give him the right to call you such a dirty word," I said still feeling upset by the whole situation.
"Ah Leely, you are young and 'ave much to learn. 'Et ez just a word; no more, no less. Words only 'ave 'ze power 'zat you geev to 'zem." He said smiling at me.
Professor Krum coughed lightly ending our conversation. "Vell I hate to break up your bonding time, but 've really must get going. So seeing as the last two champions don't look like they are going to join us I 'vill introduce them myself."
"This is Nikolai (nee kah LYE) Kodjoe. He is seventeen and one of my best students here," Professor Krum said proudly.
A tall black boy nodded his head slighty in my direction, which I guess was his way of greeting me. He was tall, maybe around 6'5' with a firm muscular body. His deep brown skin was accented beautifully with his doe like brown eyes and pouty almost feminine lips. He wasn't the smiling type I could tell, however he did look friendly; perhaps just shy.
"Okay, now last but not least so we can hurry to lunch, let me introduce you to Ms. Amѐliѐ (pronounced ah meh lee) LaRoux. She is also seventeen and is the second champion from Beauxbaton." He said pointing to a girl who sat pointedly in a plush red chair who had been watching the whole scene carefully.
She didn't speak, she just watched me with her dark slanted eyes. She looked to be of Asian decent with her pale skin and black hair cut into an asymmetrical bob. Her light blue school uniform was pressed to perfection, and yet I could tell she wasn't the girly type as I didn't detect a trace of makeup, nail polish, or even any kind of jewelry. She was watching me and it felt as though she was judging me as I watched her look down at my muddy shoes and then smirk. My face flushed in shame as I tried desperately to think of something to say.
"It is very nice to meet you Ms….Potter," she sneered in perfect English. The way she said my name made it sound like something dirty and wrong. I was at a loss for words so I merely nodded my head in acknowledgement.
"Alright, now 've all know eachother. I expect everyone to be polite. Please hurry to lunch so you can grab something before your next class," Professor Krum said dismissing us.
Amѐliѐ stood, taller than I originally suspected at about 5'6, and walked over to Jack. They linked arms and proceeded to walk out the door.
"À bientôt Leely," Jack called over his shoulder as I stood there trying to figure out what he had said.
Warm breath fanned the side of my face close to my ear as someone whispered, "He said see you later."
I turned abruptly to see Malfoy smirking at me, and I tried my hardest not to blush, though I'm not sure I succeeded.
"I know knew that Malfoy," I said smarmily.
He rolled his eyes at me, "Sure you did. Would you like to walk to lunch together?"
I paused for a moment thinking it over. In truth I figured it would be nice to have someone to talk to. I missed my friends and family terribly. I wasn't used to be alone this much. At the same time I didn't want him getting too comfortable. He is a Malfoy after all.
"Come on Potter, I can give you the scoop on the other champions," He half sang the last part of his sentence.
I tried to hold back my smile as I conceded, "Oh alright, let's go."
He smiled a beautiful smile and held open the door for me, "Well let's hurry I'm absolutely starved."
We talked lightly as we walked to the café hall. Malfoy was quite funny and charming when he wasn't being a smug git.
We entered the hall, clearly in the middle of lunch and found an empty table in the corner of the hall, next to a large window that looked over large mountains. The view was breathtakingly beautiful. We sat down across from each other; my back was facing the wall, and his back facing the front of the hall with the window next to both of us. As we got situated two menus appeared in front of us.
"What the bloody hell is this," I said looking at the menu feeling extreme annoyance.
Malfoy laughed loudly, "Wow Potter, you have got quite the mouth on you."
I rolled my eyes and laughed, "Shut it Malfoy I'm starving, and I'm not nice when I'm hungry."
"Well there are instructions you know," he said still laughing.
I looked at the inside flap of the tri-folded gold menu and sure enough there was a list of instructions that read:
Step one: Find the item/items on the menu that you would like to order.
Step two: Point to the item/items with your wand .
Step three: while still pointing at the item with your wand, picture the food in your mind.
Step four: recite the words "ordine cibum".
Step five: Food should appear shortly. Enjoy!
"This is so strange," I said still looking at the menu in shock.
"And ingenious," Malfoy said scoffing down beef and Yorkshire pudding casserole.
Watching him eat made me that much more hungry, so I quickly scanned the menu for things I might want to eat. I realized with a stomach pang that most of the dishes were Bulgarian, but there were a few things I recognized. I pointed my wand at the picture of the roast beef sandwich on onion bread with mustard and pickles, pictured it in my mind, and said "ordine cibum". When I opened my eyes my sandwich was sitting in front of me; I yelped gleefully. As I began eating, I wondered where the food came from. According to Gamp's Law and its five exceptions, it's impossible to make food out of nothing. You can summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, and you can increase the quantity if you've already got some, but it has to come from somewhere. I was thinking this over when I realized Malfoy was staring at me.
"What are you gawking at Malfoy," I asked still eating my food.
He seemed momentarily embarrassed at being caught before continuing in his cool way, "Nothing, just wondering what you were thinking about."
I looked at him surprised he had really given me an answer to my snarky comment, "Well I was thinking about this menu. It's really different from Hogwarts."
"Everything here is different from Hogwarts. I actually like the menu though. I always hated how the food at Hogwarts just popped up anywhere on the tables. For some reason the good stuff always seemed to be at the other end no matter where I sat." He said shaking his head looking frustrated.
I laughed so hard tears started to well up in my eyes. He looked at me like I was the strangest person he had ever met. I wiped my tears replying, "I'm sorry, but that is sooo true and completely the worst. It's like you can never get what you actually want."
"Exactly," He said shaking his head and smiling.
Coming down from my laughter I remembered what we were originally supposed to be talking about, "So Malfoy, What's the scoop on the other champions?" I asked.
He looked for a moment as though he was thinking, "Well, Des is a right fool. It's clear he thinks he has got this whole thing in the bag, but he is really just a big muscle head from what I can tell. Although he is the oldest in the group so he might have a few tricks up his sleeve."
I nodded my head in agreement wanting more info.
"Jack is alright. He's not as flamboyant as he puts on. It seems like more of a defense mechanism. I think he just enjoys people reactions to it. Then again, he is one of only three boys attending Beauxbaton so who knows," He shrugged in a nonchalant way as I giggled uncharacteristically.
"Niko is a pretty cool guy. We talked for a minute. He's actually really nice, just really reserved. He's not really into all the attention. Also, I think he's feeling a little pressure from being the first black champion in history."
I was surprised at this. I had never thought about color in that way, but now that he mentioned it, I don't remember there being any champions of color in the past.
"Wow, I could see how that would be a lot of pressure. I would be terrified," I said honestly.
"Yeah well it's also a lot to be proud of even if he doesn't win," Malfoy commented.
"What about that Amѐliѐ girl," I asked, trying to adopt his nonchalant manner.
"Well," he paused, "She seemed like a really friendly girl at first. Her mother is French and attended Beauxbaton, her father is Asian American and a muggle. Her native language is English but apparently she is quite fluent in French. She was being really polite to everyone until you walked in the room. I think she's got it out for you Red." He said with a grimace.
I was too stuck in my thoughts to comment on his annoying new nickname for me. At first I thought her coldness towards me was just in my head, but apparently Malfoy noticed it too. I wonder what I could have done to this girl for her to dislike me already. I swallowed hard as I packed up my stuff for my next class. I have enough going on in my life at the moment, the last thing I need is an enemy.