Emma Potter

97: Goblet of Fire

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of thefeast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, andmake yourselves at home!" 

He sat down, and I saw Karkaroff lean forward at once andengage him in conversation.The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; therewas a greater variety of dishes in front of them than I had everseen, including several that were definitely foreign. 

"What's that?" said Draco, pointing at a large dish of some sort ofshellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding. 

"Bouillabaisse,"Zoe said. 

"Bless you," said Nicholas.

 "It's French," said Zoe, "I had it on holiday summer before I came here. It's very nice." 

"I'll take your word for it," said Draco, helping himself to blackpudding.

 The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded thanusual, even though there were barely twenty additional studentsthere; perhaps it was because their differently colored uniformsstood out so clearly against the black of the Hogwarts' robes. Nowthat they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep bloodred. 

Hagrid sidled into the Hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. He slid into his seat atthe end and waved at Me,Harry, Ron, and Hermione with a very heavily bandaged hand. 

"Skrewts doing all right, Hagrid?" Harry called from the Gryffindor table. 

"Thrivin'," Hagrid called back happily. 

"Yeah, I'll just bet they are," said Zoe quietly. "Looks like they'vefinally found a food they like, doesn't it? Hagrid's fingers."

 At that moment, a voice said, "Excuse me, are you wanting zebouillabaisse?"It was the girl from Beauxbatons who had laughed during Dumbledore's speech. She had finally removed her muffler. A long sheetof silvery-blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deepblue eyes, and very white, even teeth. Draco and Nicholas went purple. They stared up at her, opened their mouths to reply, but nothing came out except a faint gurgling noise.

 "Yeah, have it," said Zoe, pushing the dish toward the girl."You 'ave finished wiz it?"

 "Yeah," Nicholas said breathlessly. "Yeah, it was excellent."

 The girl picked up the dish and carried it carefully off to theRavenclaw table. Draco and Nicholas was still goggling at the girl as though they hadnever seen one before. I started to laugh. The sound seemedto jog Draco and Nicholas back to their senses. 

"She's a veela!" Nicholas said hoarsely to Me and Zoe.

 "Of course she isn't!" said Zoe tartly. "I don't see anyoneelse gaping at her like an idiot!" 

But she wasn't entirely right about that. As the girl crossed theHall, many boys' heads turned, and some of them seemed to havebecome temporarily speechless, just like the idiots I'm friends with. 

"I'm telling you, that's not a normal girl!" said Nicholas, leaning sideways so he could keep a clear view of her. "They don't makethem like that at Hogwarts!" 

"They make them okay at Hogwarts," said Draco without thinking, I raised an eyebrow. 

"When you've both put your eyes back in," I said briskly, "you'll be able to see who's just arrived." 

I was pointing up at the staff table. The two remaining emptyseats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff's other side, while Mr. Crouch, Percy's boss, was nextto Madame Maxime.