Classes were getting more and more demanding, so Delilah didn't have as much time as she would have liked to experiment. Moody's class in particular had become very difficult.
To everyone's surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.
"But — but you said it's illegal, Professor," said Daphne uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said — to use it against another human was —"
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Daphne and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way — when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely — fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."
He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door. Daphne went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. She wouldn't miss such an important class for anything.
Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Delilah watched as, one by one, her classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Crabbe hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Goyle imitated a squirrel. Pansy performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics she would certainly not have been capable of in her normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.
When Draco went up for his turn, Moody made him pick Delilah up and swing her around. When Moody lifted the curse, Draco went pink and refused to speak to her.
She was perfectly fine with this, as she was such a deep shade of red it looked like she was on fire.
"Potter, you next."
Delilah walked up to the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Delilah, and said, "Imperio!"
It was the best feeling, as if she was flying away without a care in the world. She stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only vaguely aware of everyone watching her.
And then she heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of her brain: Jump onto the desk... jump onto the desk....
Delilah almost bent her knees, but why would she?
Jump onto the desk... the voice repeated.
No, Delilah thought, I don't think I will.
A blast of pain came, but Delilah pushed it away.
And then the strange feeling was gone, along with the pain. Delilah stared at Moody, who didn't say anything, and a plan formed.
She walked over to Draco, and kissed his cheek. Then she pulled away and walked back to the middle of the room, stood for a moment like everyone else had, and then sat down, letting her face blush. Draco's face was the exact same color.
Moody's face was impassive, but Delilah thought she saw a glimpse of amusement in his eye. He continued the lesson as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. As the class was packing up, he told them that for homework they would read up on resisting the Imperius Curse.
"Honestly, the way he talks," Delilah told Daphne, "you'd think we were going to get attacked any second."
"Agreed, but he has a point. We do need to learn how to defend ourselves," Daphne declared.
"True, but it'll be hard to fit all our homework in, we already have quite a bit and I bet Binns and McGonagall will give us loads."
Professor McGonagall did, in fact, give them plenty, and explained why, when the class gave a particularly loud groan at the amount.
"You are now entering a most important phase of your magical education!" she told them, her eyes glinting dangerously behind her square spectacles. "Your Ordinary Wizarding Levels are drawing closer —"
"We don't take O.W.L.s till fifth year!" said Blaise Zabini indignantly.
"Maybe not, Zabini, but believe me, you need all the preparation you can get! Miss Potter remains the only person in this class who has managed to turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion. I might remind you that your pincushion, Zabini, still has spikes!"
As well as this, Binns had them writing weekly essays on the goblin rebellions of the eighteenth century. Professor Snape was forcing them to research antidotes. They took this one seriously, as he had hinted that he might be poisoning one of them before Christmas to see if their antidote worked. Professor Flitwick had asked them to read three extra books in preparation for their lesson on Summoning Charms.
Even Hagrid was adding to their workload. The Blast-Ended Skrewts were growing at a remarkable pace given that nobody had yet discovered what they ate. Hagrid was delighted, and as part of their "project," suggested that they come down to his hut on alternate evenings to observe the skrewts and make notes on their extraordinary behavior.
Delilah would not risk her limbs more than necessary, no matter how much she liked Hagrid; she already was during classes.
"I will not," said Draco flatly when Hagrid proposed this with the air of Father Christmas pulling an extra-large toy out of his sack. "I see enough of these foul things during lessons, thanks."
Hagrid's smile faded off his face.
"Yeh'll do wha' yer told," he growled, "or I'll be takin' a leaf outta Professor Moody's book.... I hear yeh made a good ferret, Malfoy."
The Gryffindors roared with laughter, even Delilah smiled, though she did agree with Draco. He flushed with anger, but apparently the memory of Moody's punishment was still sufficiently painful to stop him from retorting.
The class finally finished with a flourish of bites, burns, and stings.
"Hagrid will be disappointed when nobody comes," Delilah commented as she and Draco walked through the entrance hall.
"Let him, what are all those people standing by?"
They walked over and saw a notice pinned to the board.
TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early —
So Snape wouldn't have time to poison all of them after all. Bummer.
Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.
"Only a week away!" Lyra exclaimed. "It will be so cool to see all the magic, right Delilah?"
"Yeah, it will. Who do you think will enter?"
"I know Cedric Diggory and Angelina Jones are, and I heard Kim Boot is, she's Terry's older sister."
"Marcus Flint is too," Draco commented.
Lyra flinched, she obviously hadn't noticed him.
"It will be fun to see who gets chosen from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton," Delilah stated.
"Definitely, I should go eat... bye! See you later Delilah," Lyra said before hurrying off.
Delilah raised an eyebrow.
"You know, I think you scare her."
Draco turned, blinking.
"Really? Why?"
Delilah laughed but didn't answer. She started walking with him towards their table.
"I hope we don't get a Gryffindor champion," Draco declared.
"Angelina wouldn't be too bad, but if it is some daft idiot like Kenneth Towler... there will be a long line of murderers waiting to get their chance at him."
Draco didn't respond. He just nodded, his face stuffed with two sandwiches.
The appearance of the sign in the entrance hall had a marked effect upon the inhabitants of the castle. During the following week, there seemed to be only one topic of conversation, no matter where Delilah went: the Triwizard Tournament. Rumors were flying from student to student like highly contagious germs: who was going to try for Hogwarts champion, what the tournament would involve, how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang differed from themselves.
Delilah also noticed that the castle seemed to be undergoing an extra-thorough cleaning. Several grimy portraits had been scrubbed, much to the displeasure of their subjects, who sat huddled in their frames muttering darkly and wincing as they felt their raw pink faces. The suits of armor were suddenly gleaming and moving without squeaking, and Argus Filch, the caretaker, was behaving so ferociously to any students who forgot to wipe their shoes that he terrified a pair of first-year girls into hysterics.
Other members of the staff seemed oddly tense too.
"Crabbe, Goyle, please do not reveal in front of anyone from Durmstrang that you can't even do a simple switching spell!" McGonagall barked at the end of one particularly difficult lesson, during which Crabbe had accidentally transplanted his own nose onto a cactus and Goyle gave the cactus his hair.
When they went down to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger, and snake united around a large letter H.
Oddly enough Draco and Blaise seemed to be sitting by themselves, talking about the tournament. Delilah led the way over to them.
"I bet Krum will be the Durmstrang champion, he's famous afterall," Blaise was saying.
"Krum is still in school? I knew he was young, but not that young!" Daphne exclaimed, sitting next to Blaise while Delilah sat beside Draco.
As she sat down, their arms brushed, making her heart miss a few beats. But... why? She had known the dork for a good few years.
"He's in his last year. Do either of you know how the champions are being chosen?" Draco inquired.
Delilah shook her head.
"No, I tried to ask Snape but he said no then muttered something about being murdered if he told," Daphne answered.
"What do you think the tasks will be?" Delilah asked.
"Something dangerous definitely, maybe with magical creatures. I think there also will be judges, but who?" Blaise questioned.
"Probably the heads of the schools and then two or three impartial judges," Delilah replied.
"That would make sense," Draco agreed.
There was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air that day. Nobody was very attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival that evening of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang; even Potions was more entertaining than usual, but as it was half an hour shorter, barely everyone got poisoned. When the bell rang early, Delilah, Daphne, and Draco hurried down to the Slytherin Dungeon, deposited their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back upstairs into the entrance hall.
The Heads of Houses were ordering their students into lines.
"Crabbe, straighten your hat," Professor Snape snapped at Crabbe. "Miss Parkinson, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair."
Pansy scowled and removed a large ornamental knife from the end of her plait.
"Follow me, please," drawled Professor Snape. "First years in front. No pushing."
They filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Delilah, standing between Draco and Daphne in the fourth row from the front, saw Malcolm Baddock shivering with anticipation among the other first years, though that may have been from cold.
"Nearly six," said Daphne, checking her watch and then staring down the drive that led to the front gates. "How do you think they're coming? The train?"
"I doubt it," said Delilah.
"How, then? Broomsticks?" Draco suggested, looking up at the starry sky.
"I don't think so... not from that far away...," Delilah thoughtfully replied.
"A Portkey?" Daphne suggested. "Or they could Apparate — maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen wherever they come from?"
"You can't Apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds," said Delilah immediately. "A Portkey is a good guess though, if they could fit everyone around it, but they could just use multiple."
They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was moving; everything was still, silent, and quite as usual. Delilah was starting to feel cold. She wished they'd hurry up.... Maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance....
Delilah shivered and pulled her arms closer around her. If only she had brought a jacket.
Then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers —
"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"
"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.
"There!" yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.
Something large, much larger than a broomstick — or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks — was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.
"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years, losing her head completely.
"Don't be stupid, it's a flying house!" said Malcolm Baddock.
Baddock's guess was closer. As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.
The front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed — then, with an almighty crash that made the Gryffindor Longbottom jump backward onto a Slytherin fifth year's foot, the horses' hooves, larger 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 large, fiery red eyes.
Delilah 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 boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully. Then Delilah 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 she had ever seen in her life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.
Delilah had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in her life, and that was Hagrid; she doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow — maybe simply because she was used to Hagrid — this woman (now at the foot of the steps, 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 thick 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 forward toward Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely bent 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?"
"In excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore.
"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.
Delilah, whose attention had been focused completely upon Madame Maxime, now noticed that about a dozen boys and girls, all, by the look of them, in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what Delilah could see of them (they were standing in Madame Maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.
" '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 that has arisen with some of his other — er — charges."
"Skrewts," Draco muttered in Delilah's ear, grinning. She nodded, strangely aware of how close he was.
"My steeds require — er — forceful 'andling," said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. "Zey are very strong...."
"I assure you that 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, also bowing.
"Come," said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.
"How big d'you reckon Durmstrang's horses are going to be?" Pansy said, leaning around Crabbe and Goyle to address Delilah, Daphne, and Draco.
"Well, if they're any bigger than this lot, even Hagrid won't be able to handle them," said Daphne.
"That's if he hasn't been attacked by the skrewts. Wonder what's up with them?"
"Maybe they've escaped," said Draco hopefully.
"Let's hope not," Delilah said with a shudder. "Imagine that lot loose on the grounds...."
They stood, shivering more severely now, waiting for the Durmstrang party to arrive. Most people were gazing hopefully up at the sky. For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by Madame Maxime's huge horses snorting and stamping. But then —
"Can you hear something?" said Draco suddenly.
Delilah listened; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed....
"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"
From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they 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 center; 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 heart of the whirlpool... and then Delilah saw the rigging....
"It's a mast!" she said in unison with Draco. They grinned at each other.
Delilah focused on how slowly, and magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward 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 their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them, Delilah 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, she saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of some kind 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 of his own.
"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow, and Delilah noticed how 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 don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold...."
Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. As the boy passed, Delilah caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows. She didn't need the nudge Draco gave her, or the excited whisper in her ear, to recognize that profile.
"Delilah, it's Krum!"