We walked into potions class, and sat down at the back of the room-our usual seats. All of a sudden, the door burst open, and Snape walked in briskly. When he got to the front of the room, he looked at our group and curled his lip in distaste.
"So here are our new students. How lovely." He said sarcastically. "Why are you not wearing our school uniforms?"
The exchange students exchanged a nervous look before Hermione came to the rescue. "Well, sir, the clothes they are wearing enhance their magical ability. At their old school, that's how it works."
"But, if they truly wish to learn at this school, would they not respect our establishment and at least try to fit in?" Snape replied, as if the others weren't even there.
"Please, sir." Lucy said pleadingly. "The headmaster knows and he's fine with it."
Snape narrowed his eyes. "Well, if the headmaster wishes it to be so, then so do I." He almost spat. "Now, to our lesson. Today we will be brewing a wit-sharpening potion. You will find the instructions on the board. You have one hour."
There was a great rustling, and everyone set to work. I concentrated on lighting a fire under my cauldron, but it wasn't working. I looked up, and Natsu already had a blazing one going. "How'd you do that?" I hissed.
He looked over and smirked. "I'm a little special."
"Can you start mine?" I asked.
He bit his lip before nodding. "Okay, but stand back." He ambled over, pointed his wand under the cauldron and whispered something. I could have sworn flames leapt from his hand instead of the wand, but I didn't say anything.
"Thanks." I said, as he went back to his cauldron.
"No problem." He replied. "Hey, which one of these is a ginger root?"
"The light brown knobbly one." Ron said, pointing at it.
"Thanks." Natsu said, nodding.
I looked at the board. It said Mix in ginger root until lime green. I sighed, and finally got to work.
When they had twenty minutes left in the lesson, everyone in our group was mixing armadillo bile as fast as they could, praying to reach the deep purple described in the potions book. Unfortunately for Natsu and Gray, Natsu had dropped his scarab beetles earlier, took some from Gray, which caused them to fight (again) but were split up by Erza simply glaring at them. Neither of them ended up with scarab beetles and Natsu was battling to stir a cement-like mixture meanwhile Gray was frantically thickening his far-too-runny potion.
I was doing my best to follow exact instructions, and 'add the bile one tablespoon at a time' but I was running out of time and therefore pouring it in freehand, stopping to stir every little bit.
"Got it!" Hermione exclaimed when she reached the intended shade, which earned her a glare from all of us. She tended the fire so it burned low, and decided to help the two struggling the most in our group-you guessed it, Natsu and Gray-while Snape wasn't looking.
"Natsu put in more armadillo bile." She whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "Gray, add these." She passed him a stoppered bottle.
Finally, the class was over, and Snape walked around inspecting the finished products. When he got to us, he stopped at Natsu, who hadn't managed to thin out his potion in time. "What is this supposed to be, Mr...?" He asked disdainfully.
"Dragneel, sir. And it's supposed to be a wit-sharpening potion." Natsu said, looking at his feet. As dumb as Natsu may have been, he knew to not mess with Snape.
"Can you read, Mr Dragneel?" Snape asked in a condescending tone.
"Yes, sir."
"Then please read step four for me, Mr Dragneel."
Natsu raised his head and looked at Snape. "I know what I did wrong, sir. I didn't put the Scarab beetles in, and I didn't add enough Armadillo bile to balance it out."
"Perhaps you do have potential after all." Snape sniffed. "Unless, of course, Miss Granger has been helping you." He looked pointedly at Hermione.
"Not at all, sir!" Natsu exclaimed.
Snape straightened up turned to Neville with disgust, while Natsu winked at Hermione and mouthed thank you.
"And what is that?" He spat.
"A w-wit sharpening potion, p-professor." Neville squeaked.
"Are you quite sure it's perfect, Longbottom?" Neville nodded mutely. "Well why don't we test it out? Give me your toad." He extended a hand. Neville slowly reached into his pocket a retrieved Trevor the toad. He looked at Snape for a moment before placing it in Snape's extended hand. The potions master pulled out a vial and filled it with whatever it was in Neville's cauldron. Snape was about to stick it in the poor creature's mouth when a small first year student knocked on the door.
"Professor Dumbledore requests everyone to come to the Great Hall immediately!" She squeaked. "Beauxbatons is arriving soon!" And with that she ran down the corridor.
Snape looked down at the road and set it back on Neville's desk. He walked back to where Gray was and found that Gray's clothes were gone, walked back to his desk.
"You are dismissed. Longbottom, Dragneel and...?" He looked at Gray questioningly.
"Fullbuster, sir." He said.
"I want an essay about the properties of scarab beetles and armadillo bile by next class." And at that, we all burst into action, packing up our bags as fast as possible.
A few minutes later, we were standing in the Great Hall, divided by house, while our heads of house were walking up and down, inspecting us. I hear Professor Mcgonagall a few people in front of me. "Miss Patil please take that ridiculous thing out of your hair." She said to Parvati, who had a butterfly hair clip in her braid.
Five minutes passed. Ten minutes. People were starting to get restless, shifting around, until a second year shouted "There it is!" They all looked up to a giant something in the sky, coming slowly towards the castle.
Murmurs swept the crowd, full of speculations of what this thing could be, until one first year shouted "it's a dragon!"
To which one of her friends corrected her, and said "don't be stupid. It's a flying house." and as the thing got closer. It was evident that, skimming over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest, was, in fact, a huge, baby blue, horse-drawn carriage the size of a large house, pulled through the air by as dozen winged palominos, each the size of an elephant.
(A/N: Disclaimer! This next bit was taken directly from the book, except the POV is first not third person, and some of the dialogue)
The front three rows of students drew backwards as the carriage hurtled even lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed-then, with an almighty crash that made Neville jump backwards onto a Slytherin fifth-year's foot-the horses hooves, bigger than dinner plates, hit the ground. A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled their large, fiery red eyes.
I just had time to see that the door of the carriage bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened.
A pale boy in blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forwards, and fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then I saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage-a shoe the size of a child's sled-followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman I had ever seen in my life, The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.
I had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in my life, and that was Hagrid; I doubted whether there was an inch of difference in their heights. Yet somehow-maybe simply because I was used to Hagrid-this woman (now at the foot of the steps, and looking and looking around at the waiting, wide-eyed crowd) seemed even more unnaturally large. As she stepped into the light flooding from the Entrance Hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face, large, black, liquid-looking eyes and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her fingers.
Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.
Her face relaxed into a gracious smile, and she walked forwards towards Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, barely had to bend his knees to kiss it.
"My dear Madame Maxime," He said "Welcome to Hogwarts.
"Dumbly-dorr," Said Madame Maxime, in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"
"On excellent form, I thank you." Said Dumbledore.
"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.
"He should be here any moment." Said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"
"Warm up, I think." Said Madame Maxime "But ze 'orses-"
"Our care of magical creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them." Said Dumbledore "The moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation which has arisen with some-er-charges."
"My steeds require-er-forceful 'andling" Said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts would be up to the job. "Zey are very strong..."
"I assure you Hagrid will be well up to the job." Said Dumbledore, smiling.
"Very well" Said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly, "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?"
"It will be attended to." Said Dumbledore.
"Come," said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.
"How big do you think the other guy's horses will be?" Gray asked leaning around Lucy to talk to Ron and I.
"If they're any bigger than this lot, even Hagrid won't be able to handle them." I said.
We stood, shivering slightly now, waiting for the Durmstrang party to arrive. Most people were gazing hopefully at the sky. For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by Madame Maxime's huge horses snorting and stomping. But then-
"Can you hear something?" Ron asked suddenly.
"More like can you smell something?" Natsu asked, before smiling guiltily under the glares of his friends, and Erza elbowed him in the stomach.
I ignored that, and listened; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting towards them from out of the darkness; a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner was moving along a river bed...
"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"
From our position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, we had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water-except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the centre; great bubbles were forming on the centre; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks-and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor...
What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the whirlpool... and then I saw the rigging...
"It's a mast!" Exclaimed Hermione.
Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. I had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it was a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights with a great sloshing noise, the ship finally emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to slide towards the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.
People were disembarking; they could see silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them, Harry noticed. Seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle.... But then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the Entrance Hall, he saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.
"Dumbledore!" He called heartily, as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"
"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff." Dumbledore replied.
Karkaroff had a fruity, unctuous voice; when he stepped into the light pouring from the front doors of the castle. They saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short and his goatee (finishing in a small curl) did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both his own.
"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and I noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd. "How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor, come along, into the warmth... You downy mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..."
Karkaroff beckoned forwards one of his students, as the boy passed, I caught a glimpse of a prominent, curved nose and thick black eyebrows. I didn't need the punch on the arm Ron gave me, or the hiss in the ear, to recognize that profile.
"Harry-it's Krum! I don't-"
"What the hell is crumb?" Gray asked, leaning forwards.
"Not what! Who!" Ron continued to hiss. "He's the best seeker in the world!"
"What is a seeker?" Lucy asked.
"You guys have never heard of quidditch before?!" Ron asked, disbelieving, and earned six shakes of the head. Ron began to explain the rules of quidditch when Dumbledore spoke again.
"Students! May I have your attention?" He called. "The students and Headmasters of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons academy will rest tonight, and tomorrow night we will explain the rules of the Triwizard Tournament, and nominations for the champions will be opened."
We all started moving towards the castle, except Hermione-she pulled Ron and I over and whispered "Do you notice anything weird about the new kids?" We shook our heads. "Of course, you're just as thick as ever. Like how Natsu can start fires really easily, and could supposedly smell the ship?" No reaction. "What about how they haven't heard of most wizarding things? Or maybe that they're so violent? How do you suggest Natsu got into the girl's dormitories the other day?" We shrugged our shoulders. Harmione let us go, but I could tell she wasn't going to give this up.
A few minutes later, we were sitting in the Great Hall, digging into dinner, when the Weasley twins and their friend, Lee Jordan, arrived.
"That was the best DADA lesson ever!" Fred exclaimed.
"Why? What happened?" Juvia asked. "Juvia is extremely curious."
"It's just because of Moody, ya know?" Lee said.
"What does that mean?" Natsu asked.
"He knows, man, like-" George said, before being cut off by his twin.
"He's really seen it, lived it!" Immediately Ron seized his timetable.
"We don't have him till Thursday! Two days is too long!" He moaned.
Just then Fred coughed awkwardly. "Um, Gray. What happened?"
Gray looked down to see his clothes were missing. "What the HELL? I swear Natsu! Give them back or I'll-" he threatened Natsu, who was trying his best not to laugh, but was silenced by Erza. That girl really knew how to threaten people with just a look.
~~~~~LINE BREAK~~~~~~~~ MUHAHAHA
The next morning, just as the post was arriving, the door opened, and a girl with long white hair that has a small ponytail to keep the hair out of her face and a pinkish red dress that went past her knees walked in. Immediately, Erza jumped up and ran to hug her.
"Mira, it's been too long!" She exclaimed in a very un-Erza-like manner.
Dumbledore, taking notice of the new arrival, stood up and announced "I assume this must be the last exchange student, Mirajane Strauss" Mirajane nodded. "I suppose we will have to sort you, won't we, Miss Strauss?"
Erza smiled. "I doubt we'll have to. There's no doubt she's a Hufflepuff!" Natsu and Gray nodded vigorously.
Dumbledore smiled benignly. "You never know what someone is hiding within them." He turned to Professor Mcgonagall. "Will you please fetch the sorting hat for me?" She nodded, stood up and exited the Great Hall. A few minutes later, she re entered and placed it on Mirajane's head.
A minute later, it announced "RAVENCLAW!" And a very confused Erza showed the newest Ravenclaw student to her house table and returned to the Gryffindor one.
"How was she not in Hufflepuff?" Natsu wondered.
"Beats me." Gray agreed, perhaps for the first time.
"I'm sure she'll be fine. Mira never fails to make friends." Lucy reasoned.
"Let's hope so." Erza muttered darkly.
A/N: Yah, yah, it's not the exact order of things that happened in the book, whatever!
Vote, Comment, Subscribe, you know the drill
-Lindsay