This took a long time.
It really shouldn't have. But it did.
{Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, SORRY! *starts crying*}
Ignore her!
Sorry about her. She is having a fit of PRSD (Post Reading Stress Disorder, a disease that we have come up with). She's been having it a lot lately. That's one of the reason that this took so long.
{HEY! Don't blame me! I'm emotionally distressed here! THEY CAN'T DO THAT! *goes back to reading and crying over fanfictions and actualy books*}
She's funny when she acts like this!
Heh, I'm the mature one this time! And, I kept my promise! I did!
WAIT! We have almost 300 followers... SERIOUSLY!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Chapter 12
The Schools Arrive
The next few days were seemed somehow better to Ed than the rest of his time here. He accounted it to being because of Neville. The boy was just too much like his brother that Ed couldn't help but smile when he was around him. One of the things he noticed was how loyal the boy was. He never pressed him for information about where he came from or his personal life. It really was a mystery as to why he hadn't been placed in Hufflepuff, but that reason soon became very obvious. The boy was just too brave. He dealt with bullies and snide comments from students and even a few teachers to not be considered brave. The boy never stood up for himself, but Ed had witnessed one time when his friend had been taking a verbal beating perfectly fine until his own name had been mentioned. Neville had defended him as much as he could after just one snide comment. He didn't care about himself, but he did care for his friends.
In return for this newfound friendship, Edward had taken to tutoring the boy. He also always made sure to sit with him in potions. With Ed's undeniable skill in the subject, Neville hadn't had anything explode since Ed had joined him.
The golden trio would be lying if they said that they were not a little jealous of Neville's friendship with Ed. They all liked Ed and didn't really see why he already trusted Neville more than them. After all, they hadn't hadn't done anything to abuse his trust, at least not that he knew about. He didn't know about it, right? Of course not, there was no reason for him to know.
On the day that the competitors were due to arrive anticipation was ripe in the air. Almost no one was paying attention in classes, and most teachers had long since given up on retaining the student's attention.
When the bell rang early, the students ran up to their dormitories, deposited their books and bags, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed down to the entrance hall. The heads of houses were putting students in line and making sure that they were all acceptable looking. McGonagall was yelling at students to straighten their hats or take things out of their hair, which Parvati did with a large ornamental butterfly clip with a scowl. The biggest show, though, was that of trying to put a certain Edward Elric into the correct uniform. It had taken quite a bit of time, but eventually, Ed was wearing the school cloak over the rest of his mismatched uniform. One fight that the teacher did not win was that of the hat. There was no way that anyone could possibly make Edward Elric such a ridiculous pointed hat. He didn't care if he would get a weeks worth of detention or if fifty points would be taken away from his house. Mcgonagall didn't actually go through with her threats, but Snape did take ten points when he passed the blonde.
"First years in the front," Mcgonagall said, trying to maintain order. "Follow me, please… no pushing…"
As they walked down the steps and lined up in front of the castle in an orderly fashion, Ed couldn't help but notice how beautiful the evening was. It was almost dusk, and a person could just make out the outline of the moon over the Forbidden Forest. The forest looked ominous with it's long shadows lurking just inside the trunks of the last trees before the open grass. The light that was still left simmered on the grass, making it seem as a battle was happening between the shadows and light.
Ed was pulled out of his thoughts by Ron's voice.
"Nearly six. How'd you reckon they're coming? The train?"
I doubt it," said Ed who, as always when he was in a city that had a train, had memorized the train schedule.
"How then? Broomsticks?" Harry suggested as he turned his eyes to the sky. Ed rolled his eyes as he imagined students lugging trunks with them as they flew on the small brooms.
"I don't think so… not from so far away," said Hermione, always the voice of logic. Except when it came to actual science.
"Besides, the height they would have to fly at to not be seen by people would leave them as literal popsicles without enough air." The voice of science would always be Ed.
"A Portkey?" Ron continued with his suggestions. "Or maybe they could apparate. They might be able to do under the age of seventeen wherever they come from."
"You can't apparate inside Hogwarts, Ronald. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
The students stared out over the grounds. Some wished that the foreigners would just hurry up already. After all, they weren't exactly close to the equator. It was starting to get cold.
"Aha! I believe that I would not be mistaken when I say that the delegation from Beauxbatons is approaching," Dumbledore said as he stood with the teachers in the back row.
"Where?" asked many of the students as they looked around.
"I don't see it!"
"Can you see it?"
"Where are they?"
"I think I can see something!"
"Where? Where?"
"There"
A large mass of something was visible on the horizon. It was too large to be a broomstick or even multiple. It was decreasing the space between them at a quick pace, which was evident as it slowly got larger.
"It's a dragon!" a startled first year yelled.
"A dragon?!"
"B-but it's illegal to own one!"
"But is it's not a dragon then what is it?"
"Underdog?" asked a shy muggleborn.
"No, don't be stupid. It's a flying horse," Dennis Creevey said. As the shape skimmed over the forest and came into the light emanating from the castle. It was a giant blue carriage that was pulled by a dozen flying horses the size of elephants.
Ed warily stepped back when he processed the trajectory and wildly swings of the carriage as it descended. Apparently those in the front row felt the same way as they stumbled back. When it landed, Neville jumped backwards and would have landed on a Slytherin fifth year's foot if Ed hadn't grabbed onto his robes and pulled him forward by a bit. The door with the crest on it, two crossed golden wands emitting three stars, opened a boy in pale blue robes jumped out. The boy unfolded a set of golden steps from the bottom of the carriage and stood back respectively.
The size of the horses and carriage were quickly explained by the large woman who stepped out. Her foot was the size of a child's sled, Ed and many other people who were able to overcome the thought, 'BIG!.' The woman had olive colored skin, liquid-like, large, black eyes, a beaky looking nose, and hair drawn into a bun at the base of her neck. Her dress consisted of expensive looking black satin that covered her from head to foot. Her face relaxed into a gracious grin as the students started clapping after some prompt from the headmaster.
She walked forward with her hand outstretched to Dumbledore, and, as tradition, he lightly kissed it.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, my dear Madame Maxime."
"Dumbly-dorr," said Madame Maxime in a surprisingly deep voice. "I hope I find you well?"
"In excellent form, thank you."
"My pupils," said the large woman as she waved one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her. Looking back at the carriage, about a dozen boys and girls in their late teens emerged dressed in robes of fine, blue silk and shivering from the chilly air.
"`As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Maxime asked.
"He should be here soon. Would you like to wait for him with us or would you prefer to wait inside and warm up a bit?"
"Inside, I think." The representatives from Beauxbatons walked into the warmer castle to the jealous looks of some students.
"How big do you think that Durmstrang's horses are going to be?" asked Seamus Finnigan, leaning around Lavender and Parvati to address Harry, Ron, and Ed.
"If there are any more animals than this and Hagrid will have a hard time looking after all of them," said Harry.
"I agree. Did you hear that lady when she was giving Dumbledore instructions about the horses? They're just horses. You don't have to be so picky!" added Ron. "Hey! Maybe if Hagrid's busy with the horses the skrewts will escape. We won't have to deal with them anymore!"
"Don't say that," said Ed.
"Why? Do you actually like those creatures?" asked Harry.
"No. I hate those things. But just think, if those things were loose on the grounds!" The others, realizing what he meant, shuddered. They went back to watching the sky for any sign of the last arriving school.
"Hey, do guys hear that?" asked Edward.
"Hear what?" asked Ron, now straining to hear what the smaller blonde had.
"That."
"I hear it!" said harry as a muffled rumbling and sucking sound came to his ears.
"The lake!" said Hermione as she placed where the sound could be coming from. All eyes, of those whom had been within hearing distance, went to the black surface that was no longer smooth but was bubbling and had waves emitting from a certain point on it's surface. A whirlpool formed, and from that whirlpool came a pole that was slowly rising. Following the pole came rigging.
"It's a mast," realized Harry.
"A ship. Durmstrang came on a ship, I guess," Hermione finished Harry's growing thought. The ship, which was still emerging from the water, had a skeletal look to it and, there was lights shimmering through the portholes like the eyes of ghosts. All together, it was a creepy ship. With the splash on an anchor and the thud of a plank, silhouettes came disembarking from the ship. All of their builds seemed to be bulky, similar to two certain Slytherins who followed a certain Slytherin git. As they came closer, into the light from the castle it was seen that the bulk was due to the cloaks of matted fur that they all were wearing. The new cloak that stood out from the rest was the one made of sleek silver fur that led the rest.
"Dumbledore!" said the man wearing the different cloak. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"
"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," the headmaster of Hogwarts replied. Stepping fully into the light, Karkaroff was similar to Dumbledore as he was tall and thin, but his white hair was much shorter, and his short goatee didn't fully succeed in hiding his weak chin.
"Dear old Hogwarts," he said with a shrewd and cold smile that showed yellowed teeth and didn't come close to his eyes as he gazed up at the school. "How good is it to be here, how good… Viktor has a slight head cold…" Karkaroff gestured one of his students forward. Seeing the profile as he walked by, Harry didn't need the punch in the arm courtesy of Ron to recognize it.
"Harry- it's Krum!" the redhead said excitedly.
"Who?"
There you go!
Review time!
Alright, let's do this!
No.
What?
No. I'm doing the reviews. You can just leave.
Fine. Before I go though, the last line in this story is actually a joke about our sister, and since she's not here this time I can make fun of her! So you see, if it isn't books or anime or manga, or drawing, or school work then she is compleatly oblivious. So she doesn't know things about sports, or music, or a lot of other things like Starwars. So a lot of the time we will be talking about stuff and she'll just say, "Who?" or, "What?" It's actually really funny sometimes. Okay. I'll leave now.
YAY!
BulletWitch1985 (Guest)- Yay! We did something right! We'll keep that in mind.
M (Guest)- I remembe that fact! But we made it Febuary because that's when Ed was born, we think.
See Ya'll next time!
