Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 285: Beautiful and Frozen Ladies
The notice that appeared in the Great Hall had a clear impact on everyone living in Hogwarts Castle.

Over the next week, no matter where Mike went, people would always talk about the same thing: the Triwizard Tournament.

As for the news of Moody's return, which was posted on the bulletin board along with the Triple Finals, it was ignored by everyone except Franklin.

In addition to the curiosity about the students of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons Academy, people are most concerned about the selection of the Hogwarts Warrior.

And on this topic, the two names mentioned most often are Mike and Cedric.

The students of Ravenclaw College naturally all support Mike. After all, he is a well-known figure in their college. If they do not support their own people at this moment but support outsiders instead, they will be isolated if they are discovered.

But apart from the students of Ravenclaw College, more people think that Cedric has a better chance of becoming a champion of Hogwarts.

After all, Cedric is a duel champion just like Mike, and Cedric is much older than Mike and is already an adult!

The growth of wizards' magical power often enters a period of rapid improvement with the arrival of puberty, and becomes extremely slow after they become adults at the age of 17.

Studies have shown that, except for a few talented people, the magic power of most people at the age of 40 is almost the same as that at the age of 17. In other words, if wizards spend their days eating and waiting to die, the automatic growth rate of their magic power after adulthood is infinitely close to 0!

Mike is only 14 years old now, and it can be said that he has just entered the period of rapid growth of magic power. On the other hand, Cedric is already an adult, so it is not surprising that his magic power is several times more than Mike's.

In this case, it's no wonder that others think Cedric has greater hope.

But the students of Ravenclaw College don't think so. As the group of people closest to Mike, they know very well that Mike's power is now abnormal.

Thus, the conflict began.

Mike's supporters, led by Ravenclaw students, and Cedric's supporters, led by Hufflepuff students, started an almost endless verbal battle.

In this confrontation, the Hufflepuffs, who had always been known as the bullied good guys, showed their fierce side, and the Ravenclaw students were scolded to the point of becoming autistic almost every day.

Mike was not surprised by this situation.

After so many years in the wizarding world, his preconceived impression of Hufflepuff has been completely overturned.

If you ask Mike now which of the four major colleges has the strongest overall strength, he will tell you without hesitation that it is Hufflepuff.

Hufflepuffs are definitely not good-for-nothings or losers as students from other colleges say.

On the contrary, there are many brilliant people in Hufflepuff, such as Newt Scamander who wrote "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", and Cedric now. Which one of them is not a genius?

At the same time, Hufflepuff has another powerful advantage, which is their large population.

Don't underestimate this advantage. In the sparsely populated wizarding society, it is true that there is strength in numbers.

The founders of the four major colleges had some strict requirements for students when recruiting, such as Slytherin requires bloodline, Ravenclaw requires wisdom, and Gryffindor requires courage.

Only Hufflepuff, although she also set the standards of hard work and loyalty, in fact she accepts everyone!

Ms. Hufflepuff is definitely a kind person.

Imagine if you were an 11-year-old Muggle child and received your acceptance letter to Hogwarts on your birthday.

A whole new world opens up to you.

Everything in this world is so new and beautiful.

But when you came to Hogwarts and underwent the sorting ceremony, you were told that you were not admitted to any college. The next step was to cast a forgetfulness spell and then drop out.

How lost you will be.

It seems that good people are rewarded. At least the good deeds of Ms. Hufflepuff in the past have made Hufflepuff House strong in the wizarding society today.

In addition to the students' unusual movements, the faculty and staff of Hogwarts also went crazy.

Filch, the poor old Squib, now only sleeps four hours a day, and the rest of his time, except for eating, is spent cleaning Hogwarts Castle.

In addition to the routine cleaning of the floor and ceiling, Filch also polished the armor that looked shabby and creaked when moved, and lubricated all the joints, so they now moved silently.

He was even so crazy as to clean the magical portraits. Now, the portraits in the castle will run away when they see Filch, even Sir Cadogan, who has mental problems and loves to challenge people to duels, is no exception.

Because once you are found by Filch, you will be greeted with rags and brushes, which will destroy the paint on your surface, making your surface uneven and discolored.

To a magical portrait this was like digging their flesh out and peeling their skin off.

Professor McGonagall, who cares most about the reputation of Hogwarts, has been extremely busy recently.

Mike had seen Professor McGonagall several times with a livid face, screaming and blaming Zhou Hong and Colin's brother in an almost desperate voice.

Mike could swear that this was the first time he saw a professor being so harsh in deducting points from his own school, always deducting 50 points at a time.

In Ron's words, his two brothers have retired, and now the title of Hogwarts Prankster has been won by the new combination of Zhou Hong and his brother Colin.

And what they did was much more excessive and cruel than the Weasley brothers.

Have you ever seen a dung bomb detonated in the lounge of your own college?
The Gryffindor students saw it recently, and more than once!
The tension in Hogwarts finally reached its peak on the night of October 30th.

That night, when Mike and others gathered in front of the castle as previously arranged, they were surprised to find that the entire Hogwarts had changed drastically.

Not to mention the floor being so smooth that it could be used as a mirror, flags with the Hogwarts emblem painted on them were hung throughout the castle, and rows of flags of the four major colleges were hung in the auditorium.

"Isn't this a bit too exaggerated?" Franklin muttered softly while shivering in the cold wind.

There were many little wizards who were whispering like him. Professor McGonagall asked them to come here half an hour in advance to wait. Not everyone knew how to cast the warming spell, and some of them couldn't stand it in such a cold environment.

"How do you think they'll get here? By Portkey or Apparation?"

"Don't be silly. Dumbledore will not allow anyone to make a key that can directly enter Hogwarts. Apparition doesn't work in Hogwarts." Mike answered Franklin's stupid question softly. "Besides, according to convention, they will show up in a more dignified way."

"What do you mean by more impressive..."

Franklin had only said half of his words when the crowd in front of the castle began to stir.

Hearing the sound, Mike and others looked up and saw a huge object comparable to an airship rapidly flying across the deep blue sky, flying towards the castle, and gradually getting bigger and bigger.

"They actually came here by plane! Hahahaha!"

Franklin was joking, but he couldn't help laughing at the end. The huge unknown flying object was getting closer and closer to everyone. When it entered the lighting range of Hogwarts, everyone finally saw its true face.

It turned out to be a carriage!
A flying chariot as big as a house, pale blue in color, pulled by twelve winged, silver-maned flying horses!
The people in front of the castle didn't even have time to react before the carriage landed in the open space in front of the castle at an extremely fast speed.

"Oh!"

"Oh my God!"

"Merlin's beard! Are you trying to kill me?"

The students standing in the front row exclaimed and quickly backed away.

The students standing behind them were also pushed back, and for a moment the crowd became chaotic.

Professor McGonagall was so angry that her face turned green. The neat formation she had rehearsed for almost an entire afternoon was disrupted.

Before the chaos in the Hogwarts team had subsided, the door of the carriage with a badge printed on it (two golden crossed wands, each with three stars emerging from it) was opened.

A boy in a light blue robe jumped off the carriage swiftly, bent down and skillfully pressed the mechanism on the carriage floor. Then a golden spiral staircase extended from the door.

After doing all this, the boy stood aside respectfully.

A pair of shiny black high-heeled shoes as big as a small washbasin stretched out from the carriage, followed by a big woman nearly four meters tall who walked down.

Even Mike was slightly surprised when this person appeared.

It's just that the image of this woman is too weird.

Although he was as big as Hagrid, the temperament he exuded in his every move, coupled with his handsome olive face, a pair of eyes that seemed to be able to speak, a black satin dress and various luxurious jewels on his body, gave people a sense of nobility and elegance.

All the students present were stunned, until Dumbledore started clapping, and then they instinctively followed suit.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!" said Dumbledore. "Dear Madam Maxime."

"Dumbledore, I hope everything is well." Ms. Maxime's voice was unexpectedly low, but it still had the charm of a mature woman. "My student."

As she spoke, Ms. Maxime waved her huge arm casually.

Then, a dozen girls got off the carriage.

Judging from their appearance, these girls were around eighteen or nineteen years old, and each of them was trembling slightly at the moment.

This is not surprising. Their school uniforms are very delicate, but they are made of light blue silk. Although they wear gloves and hats on their hands and heads, they are only decorative tulle gloves and hats and have no warmth-keeping effect at all.

"Is Beauxbatons an all-girls school?"

A Gryffindor boy asked a question, and a girl next to him immediately nudged him with her elbow and replied:
"Are you stupid? Didn't you see that the student who helped them with the stairs at the beginning was a boy?"

The boy rubbed his aching chest, looked at the Beauxbatons boy at the end of the line who was groveling like a servant, swallowed hard, and said with a strange expression:

"Oh, then women's rights must be very prosperous there."

Mike didn't whisper like everyone else, and he even ignored Franklin when he spoke to him.

Because he actually found an acquaintance among the Beauxbatons team.

Hibiscus!

Fleur on the other side was obviously also looking for him. After looking around for a while, she finally found Mike standing at the front of the Ravenclaw team, and then smiled sweetly at Mike.

"She smiled at me!"

"Bullshit! She was clearly smiling at me!"

"What did you say? Say it again if you dare?"

"Just say it!"

"Stop arguing, you all misunderstood. She was clearly smiling at me."

Franklin muttered to himself like an idiot, but his words immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of the people around him, and soon the relatively neat team of Ravenclaw became chaotic.

Seeing this, the girls in the Beauxbatons team all covered their mouths and laughed, while Professor McGonagall covered her face.

She has lost face.

The commotion in her own team attracted the attention of Ms. Maxime. She looked back and saw that the girls immediately stopped smiling and their expressions became as serious as the soldiers standing guard in front of the British Palace, except that their bodies were still trembling slightly.

Professor McGonagall had the urge to run away. Look at how organized and disciplined they were. Why were these brats of hers so disappointing?
In comparison, Dumbledore's performance was much more natural. He glanced at the beautiful and freezing Beauxbatons girls, and then said to Madam Maxime:

"Karkaroff hasn't arrived yet. Would you like to wait here to greet him, or would you like to go inside and warm up first?"

"Let's go in and warm up first," said Madame Maxime, "but these horses..."

"Don't worry, our Care of Magical Creatures professor will take good care of them."

Maxime was obviously hesitant in the face of Dumbledore's proposal. She paused for a moment before saying awkwardly:

"My horses need... um... someone with great strength to take care of them. They have very fierce tempers..."

"I assure you, Hagrid is more than qualified for the job."

"Well... well." Maxim bowed slightly and said, "Could you please tell Hagrid that these horses only drink single malt whiskey."

"I'll take care of it." Dumbledore also returned the greeting.

Hearing this, Maxim nodded, and said coldly to his students, "Come on", and then, led by Dumbledore, he walked into the castle first.

Those beautiful and freezing girls all breathed a sigh of relief. They had originally prepared to freeze here for more than half an hour, but now it would be best if they could go into the castle to warm up in advance.

So, under the watchful eyes of all the male students of Hogwarts, the Beauxbatons team stepped onto the stone steps and entered the Hogwarts Castle.

(End of this chapter)