A few weeks past by, Ells noticed Harry seemed worried about something. She had tried asking him about it but he would always tell her to not worry about it. Their lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before, particularly Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts.
To their 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.
"Isn't that illegal?" Ella questioned
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody "If you'd rather learn the hard way - when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely - fine by me"
Ella smirked "Alright, but remember to save the best for last"
Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it. Draco wasn't even able to break it.
"Alright, Potter" Moody said, turning to her "your turn"
Ella moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Ella, and said, "Imperio!"
At first Ella felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in her head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness, she heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: Jump onto the desk. . . jump onto the desk. . .
Why, though? Another voice had awoken in the back of her brain. Sounds like a stupid thing to do, really, said the voice.
Ella's eyes glowed green before she felt herself come to.
"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice, and suddenly, Ella felt the empty, echoing feeling in her head disappear.
"Look at that, you lot. . . Potter fought! She fought it, and she damn beat it! Very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!" Moody shouted happily "Your brother took about 4 more tries, looks like the female twin got more fight in her"
"He talks like we were all going to be attacked any second" Ella said as her and Draco left class
"How did you fight it off?" Draco questioned "the curse"
"I don't know, I'm just not the type of girl to let people control me" Ella said questionably, before smiling stupidly and walking ahead
"this girl is too incompetent to even know how amazing she is" Draco muttered to himself before catching up to her
In all their classes their teachers were now giving them a bunch of work. 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.
"I will not," said Draco Malfoy flatly when Hagrid had proposed this "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. Malfoy flushed with anger, but apparently the memory of Moody's punishment was still sufficiently painful to stop him from retorting.
"You shut your damn mouths!" Ella shouted which shut everyone up
Hagrid sighed "Ella language please"
"Sorry" Ella smiled
After class Harry pulled Ella away from Draco and up the hill more to create some distance for them to talk.
"What was that?" Harry questioned angrily "Why were you defending Draco?"
"Because he's my friend" Ella said pulling her arm away from him "Whether you like it or not"
Ella quickly ran back to Draco, Harry glared at him and Draco glared back. When they arrived in the entrance hall, they found themselves unable to proceed owing to the large crowd of students congregated there, all milling around a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. They read the flier that was up.
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, STUDENTS WILL RETURN THEIR BAGS AND BOOKS TO THEIR DORMITORIES AND ASSEMBLE IN FRONT OF THE CASTLE TO GREET OUR GUESTS BEFORETHE WELCOMING FEAST.
"I'll do anything to skip class" Ella said
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: 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.
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.
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.
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 Gryffiindor, 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.
Draco and Ella sat at their table, Draco looked across to the Gryffindor table then turned to Ella "What's up with your brother lately?"
"He just doesn't like you" Ella shrugged
"Well I don't like him either" Draco said
Ella started eating her breakfast. Draco saw out of the corner of his eye that Harry was watching them. Draco smirked, he looked at Ella who had a little piece of toast in her mouth. Draco leaned over and took a bite of it, his lips brushing hers.
Draco sat back normally "Good toast"
Poor Ella was blushing a deep shade of red. Draco glanced at Harry to see him looking pissed. Draco smirked in amusment and looked at Ella.
"Is something wrong love" Draco asked smugly
Ella stared at him "you- you-"
"What?" Draco asked holding back a laugh
"You pervert!" Ella shouted hitting him over and over
Draco laughed "sorry sorry, let's get to class"
Draco picked up both their bags and started leaving the great hall with Ella following after him. They heard running after them, they turned around to see Ron and Herminone grab Harry before he punched Draco.
Ella looked confused and angry "Harry what are you doing?!"
"I'm gonna kill this damn prick" Harry said angrily
"Ella you and Draco hurry up and go" Hermione said
"I'm not scared of Potter, bring it on" Draco said stepping up but Ella grabbed him
"thanks Hermione, Ron. Come on Draco" Ella pulled Draco down to class
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. After they deposited their bags and books in their dormitory's as they had been instructed, they pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back downstairs into the entrance hall.
The Heads of Houses were ordering their students into lines. 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.
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 Dennis Creevey.
Dennis'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, powderblue, 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 Neville 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.
Ella 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 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 they had ever seen in their life. The size of the carriage, and of the horses, was immediately explained. A few people gasped.
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 to bend to kiss it.
"My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts. "
"Dumbly-dort," 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.
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. 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. "
"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.
They stood, shivering slightly 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 Ron suddenly.
Harry 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 Harry saw the rigging. . . .
"It's a mast!" he said to Ron and Hermione.
Slowly, 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, 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 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 Harry 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 don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold. . . "
Karkaroff beckoned forward one of his students. As the boy passed, Harry caught a glimpse of a prominent curved nose and thick black eyebrows. He didn't need the punch on the arm Ron gave him, or the hiss in his ear, to recognize that profile.
"Harry - it's Krum!"
Draco rolled his eyes and put an arm around Ella "Are you cold love?"
"Yeah it's freezing out here" Ella said leaning against Draco "I didn't want to be here"
"I know" Draco smiled "Just a bit longer princess"