Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 286 The beginning
The uniforms worn by the girls at Beauxbatons were very clever, showing off the women's sexy figures without a doubt, but at the same time not being too revealing or coquettish, instead giving people a feeling of being dignified and virtuous.

Originally, the two teams were quite far apart, but the boys from Hogwarts didn't notice anything.

But when the Beauxbatons team passed through the middle of the Hogwarts team, the Hogwarts boys realized that the quality of the Beauxbatons girls was so high!
Franklin, who was sitting next to Mike, was drooling at the sight, while Hillary, who was not far away, was so angry that she kicked Franklin's calf in hatred.

However, Franklin, who was already immersed in Fleur's innate ability, did not react at all. Like a pervert, his eyes followed the movement of the Beauxbatons team.

Mike looked at Hillary with interest, and the latter immediately blushed and hid behind a girl nearby.

The Beauxbatons team was not long and soon disappeared into the castle gate.

It was not until this time that the boys of Hogwarts came to their senses and sighed with regret.

But before anyone could feel sorry for long, a loud and strange voice floated out from the darkness outside the castle.

The voice was very depressing. Everyone looked into the darkness and saw huge splashes of water on the originally calm surface of the Black Lake under the moonlight.

Then, a huge whirlpool appeared in the center of the lake. The whirlpool expanded, and gradually a long black pole-like object rose slowly from the center of the whirlpool.

"That's a mast!" a Hufflepuff student in the crowd said with certainty, "It can't be wrong, my father is a sailor!"

His guess was absolutely correct. Slowly, a magnificent ship rose out of the water and anchored in the center of the Black Lake, shining in the moonlight.

It looked very strange, with a large amount of moss covering its surface, as if it was a sunken ship that had just been salvaged, or a legendary ghost ship that appeared and disappeared on the sea.

A sound that sounded like an elephant roaring came from the ship, and then the ship started moving towards the people at Hogwarts.

There was a loud splash as an anchor was dropped into the shallow water, and finally, with a snap, a plank of wood was placed on the shore.

The people on the boat were going ashore. Through the light on the boat, Mike could clearly see that the person walking in front was an old man.

He has long, smooth hair, the same silvery white color as his fur coat.

Behind him, a pair of burly men followed in an orderly manner. These men all had short hair and were wearing fur cloaks like the old man at the front of the line. However, compared to the old man's fur cloak, their fur cloaks looked particularly old, and the fur on them was already tangled.

"Dumbledore!" the silver-haired man called out enthusiastically as he approached, "My dear old friend, how are you?"

"Excellent, thank you, Karkaroff."

Dumbledore seemed a little perfunctory, but Karkaroff didn't care. He continued walking forward, looking up at Hogwarts Castle, and said in his mellow and sweet voice:
"Dear old fellow Hogwarts! Hello to you too!"

It was not until this moment that everyone could see the white-haired man clearly through the light shining from the castle.

He was tall and thin, with a similar build to Dumbledore, and had a goatee with curls at the ends.

After shaking hands with Dumbledore, he seemed to suddenly think of something, turned his head and said to the person behind him:

"Victor, come here and warm yourself up... Do you mind, Dumbledore? Victor has a bit of a cold."

Dumbledore said he didn't mind, and then a boy walked out of the darkness behind Karkaroff and came into the light.

"Oh my god! It's Krum!"

There were immediate bursts of low exclamations from the crowd at Hogwarts. The person who came was none other than Krum, the Seeker who had shown his prowess in the Quidditch World Cup final!

"I can't believe it, it's Krum!"

Franklin excitedly covered his face with his trembling hands, and there were many people around him who had the same reaction as him.

"Calm down, he's just a Quidditch player." Mike said calmly.

To someone like Mike who is not very interested in Quidditch but is in a high position with a lot of money and power, Krum is really just a Quidditch player, at best a player with some fame, nothing big.

But others didn't think so. Several girls rushed forward with feather pens in their hands to ask for autographs, but they didn't have autograph books in their hands. Mike guessed that they wanted Krum to sign on them.

Franklin, who was next to Mike, finally reacted. He took out his magic wand, conjured up a pen and was about to rush forward, but was stopped firmly by Mike.

"I can't afford to lose this person!"

Mike said this, and Franklin gave up the idea of ​​asking for an autograph, but his expression still showed some regret.

Dumbledore led everyone into the hall. The seats for Hogwarts students had been reserved long ago, so Mike and others quickly found their seats and sat down.

The alumni of Beauxbatons sat next to Ravenclaw, whose house emblem was similar in color to their uniforms.

But they all had gloomy expressions on their faces, and three of the students still had their heads tightly wrapped with scarves and headscarves.

Only the Durmstrang alumni had not yet chosen their seats.

Franklin, who was sitting next to Mac, was whispering to himself, as if praying that someone from Durmstrang would sit next to him.

Unfortunately, Malfoy had already invited the Durmstrang students and successfully got them to sit at his table.

Many people from other colleges clenched their fists because they saw that Malfoy was talking to Krum, and his eyes occasionally drifted over people from other colleges, as if he was showing off.

The Durmstrang students took off their heavy cloaks and looked up at the dark, starlit ceiling with interest.

Two of the students even picked up the golden plates and goblets and examined them carefully, appearing to be very interested.

"Damn Malfoy..."

Franklin complained angrily, but was interrupted by a pleasant voice halfway through his words.

"Can I sit here, please?"

Franklin looked over when he heard the voice, his pupils straightened instantly, his mouth opened slightly, and then he did a backflip and left his seat directly. "Of course! Miss Furong!"

His sudden action startled Fleur, but she recovered quickly, whispered a thank you to Franklin, and then sat down in Franklin's original seat, which was the seat to Mike's left.

Sitting on Mike's right was Penelope.

In just a moment, Mike was surrounded by countless burning gazes.

The two gazes coming from his left and right were the hottest, as if they wanted to melt him directly.

"Long time no see, Mike." Furong said with a smile, "This is..."

Fleur's eyes passed Mike and fell on Penelope.

Before Mike could introduce himself, Penelope rushed to say:

"I'm Penelope Clearwater, Mike's girlfriend, nice to meet you..."

Sparks flew between Penelope and Fleur's eyes in mid-air. Although both of them had smiles on their faces, anyone could see that the relationship between them was not good.

On the other side, Franklin recovered and stared blankly at the full Ravenclaw table in front of him. In the end, he could only sit in the seat that originally belonged to Fleur in the Beauxbatons team.

Among a group of fair and tender girls, a big black man who looked a little anxious appeared, which made many boys who were feasting their eyes on her very dissatisfied.

On the contrary, the girls were quite friendly and greeted Franklin with a smile.

This made Franklin, the rookie, blush instantly, and he lowered his head and remained silent.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Dumbledore's voice suddenly came, "It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Hogwarts. I hope and believe that you will feel comfortable and happy here."

When Mike heard the voice, he looked and saw that all the faculty and staff were sitting upright in the seats at the front of the auditorium, even Filch, who usually never sat at the table.

But today Filch had obviously dressed up specially. Not only did he wear his moldy tuxedo, he even had his hair done.

In addition to them, Mike also found two more people in the faculty seats.

They were all acquaintances, one was Ludo Bagman from the Sports Executive Department, and the other was an old acquaintance Barty Crouch.

"The tournament will officially begin after the banquet." Dumbledore said, "I now invite everyone to eat and drink as much as you can, just like at home!"

After that, the plates in front of everyone were filled with food as usual.

The food for the dinner was very rich, ranging from traditional British 'food' to French and other exotic dishes.

It was obvious that the house-elves had put a lot of effort into today's dinner. It was a pity that the girls from Beauxbatons didn't seem to be very interested in the food at Hogwarts. Only when a famous French dish, cream of mushroom soup, appeared did their eyes light up a little.

Although Franklin kept his head down to eat, his ears were still paying attention to the movements around him.

His hearing was not very good, but he still heard some interesting words, such as: Furong, Biaozi, Saohuo...

Franklin pretended not to hear and continued eating with his head down.

The dinner went smoothly, but when everyone felt that they had eaten enough, Dumbledore stepped forward again.

"The moment has finally arrived. The Triwizard Tournament is about to begin, and I want to explain a few things. Bring in the box."

Filch stood up from his seat in an instant, hunched over, and quickly disappeared into the hall.

"I want to explain our program of activities this year, but first please allow me to introduce two guests, as some people may not know them." Dumbledore pointed to Bagman and Crouch, "This is Mr. Barty Crouch, Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Magic, and this is Ludo Bagman, Director of the Department of Magical Sports and Physical Education of the Ministry of Magic."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was loud applause from the audience, but Mike did not applaud. He just looked at Crouch on the stage meaningfully.

He really didn't expect that after Crouch retired from the Legal Department, he would go to the International Cooperation Department as director.

"Okay everyone, please stop for a moment." Dumbledore said, "They will form a panel of judges with me, Professor Karkaroff and Madam Maxime to judge the warriors."

The word "warrior" once again excited the students in the audience, and at this time Filch returned to the auditorium with a large wooden box inlaid with jewels in his hands.

"Thank you, Filch." Dumbledore took the wooden box and thanked Filch. "We have carefully reviewed the specific events of the warriors' competition this year. There are three events in total, which will be held at different times throughout the school year. They will test the warriors from many different aspects, such as magical talent, courage, wisdom and so on.

Then, as I'm sure you all know, there will be three champions, each representing one school. They will be scored based on how well they complete each event, and the champion with the highest score at the end of the three events will win the Triwizard Cup. And the champions will be chosen by an impartial selector, the Goblet of Fire!"

Having said that, Dumbledore placed the wooden box on the table in front of him, pulled out his wand and knocked on the lid of the box three times.

The lid of the box creaked open and Dumbledore reached in and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden goblet.

There was nothing strange about the cup itself, but it was filled with dancing blue and white flames.

"Every student who wants to run for the Champion must write his name and school name on a piece of parchment and throw it into the Goblet of Fire," said Dumbledore. "The registration period is 24 hours, and tomorrow night, Halloween Eve, the Goblet of Fire will select the names of the three students who it thinks best represent the three schools. Tonight, the Goblet will be placed in the Great Hall and all students who wish to run will be able to touch it.

Of course, in order to prevent students who are not old enough from being tempted, I will draw an age line around it, and anyone under the age of fourteen cannot cross this line. "

"Finally, I want to remind everyone that this competition is not a joke. Don't participate rashly. Because once you are selected by the Goblet of Fire, you must persist in the competition to the end.

Whoever casts his or her name into the cup actually forms a contract that must be observed, and the price of violating this contract is something no one is willing to pay. "

Dumbledore's final discovery undoubtedly poured a bucket of cold water on those who were so excited that they could hardly control themselves. However, Dumbledore did not care about the reactions of the audience, but continued:

"Well, I think it's time for everyone to go to bed. Good night everyone."

(End of this chapter)