Flitwick wasn't kidding when he said all of our teachers are expecting us to use non-verbal spells, and by October that's all any of my friends are focusing on. That and the arrival of the two other schools.
"Have you two idiots figured out a way to get your names in the draw yet?" I ask George and Lee after our potions class Monday morning.
"Yes but that is very secret and confidential information. Only important people get to know." Lee says matter of factly.
"Oh, important people like George's long term girlfriend of nearly four years?" I say turning around and walking backwards out of the dungeons so I can see them both.
"We figured out an ageing potion that should work. All we have to do is age up a few months and we're laughing." George says. "We can brew enough for you to love if you've changed your mind."
"Absolutely not George Weasley. I'm still not the biggest fan of you cheating the system like this." I turn back around so I can actually see where I'm walking. There's a group of students huddled around a piece of parchment that's hung up on the wall.
George, Lee and I head over and a few of the younger students leave so we can actually see it.
Triwizard Tournament
The delegations from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early.
"Its happening!" I sing.
Harry and Ron push up to the front of the group so they can read it too. "Brilliant! It's potions last thing on Friday, Snape won't have time to poison us all!" Harry says.
"Only a week away! I wonder if Cedric knows, think I'll go and tell him..." Some little Hufflepuff kid exclaims.
I turn away from the parchment and go back over to George and Lee. George doesn't look very happy, "Pretty boy Diggory is competing?" George says.
"Seriously Weasley, you gotta get over this jealousy thing you got going on against Cedric. What has he ever done to you?" Lee says looking at his friend.
"Flirts with my girlfriend every chance he gets. And now he might be winning a thousand galleons for the hell of it." George grumbles.
I peck George on the cheek and he smiles a bit but he still doesn't look too pleased with the whole situation.
The next week flies past. Every spare hour that we have, my friends and I are in the library writing compositions till our hands cramp and then practicing charms and jinx's till we can't see straight. But the night of the thirtieth was one for the books.
We got out of Herbology a half hour early so we can go meet the students of Beauxbaton and Durmstrang at the front of the castle like we were told. We follow the swarm of students running through the corridors to see them.
"I wonder if they are anything like us?" Emma says.
"What do you mean anything like us? Course they're like us. We are all wizards after all." Fred says back to her. Recently Fred and Emma have been acting more flirty with each other but the rest of us don't think it would be wise to say anything about it.
"I just mean, maybe they do lessons differently, or speak differently."
George laughs at Emma and Fred bickering behind us. "Out of all the things Hogwarts has thrown at us over the past few years, this one takes the cake." George says to me.
"Yeah cause this one you have to volunteer to die, the other ones just killed whoever they wanted." I say back to him.
"You're not still pressed about me wanting to compete are you?"
We walk outside and stand around the castle entrance. George hugs me and we stand like that looking out watching for the other schools, "Course I'm still annoyed. I know that you're doing this because you need the money to start up your joke shop and I fully get and support that. But I dunno, a part of me feels like you'd rather win a crap ton of money than spend the rest of your life with me you know?"
I'm a few inches shorter than George which means my head can perfectly rest on his shoulder, I can feel him take a few big breaths before he speaks, "Don't think like that Violet. Once we are out of here, you'll come live with me and Fred at the flat we are going to build above the shop. Then in a few years we'll get married and have a bunch of kids. This is just going to be one of the stories we tell them."
I move so I can look George in the eye, "A bunch of kids?"
George chuckles to himself, "I always wanted a big family of my own, maybe not as big as mine but big enough."
"Blacks very rarely have more than three kids." I say to him. George looks at me and tilts his head to the side slightly, "But I wouldn't mind raising a gang of Weasleys with you." George smiles and kisses me.
"Did I just hear you two talking about kids?" Fred says appearing beside us out of nowhere, "Bill and Charlie aren't even married yet and you two are over here discussing baby names. Makes me ill just thinking about it."
George and I look at him, he's standing very straight with his hands in his pockets looking out waiting for something to happen. "What's with you recently? I mean your being ruder than usual, and you've been flirting non stop with Emma." George says calling his brother out on his bullshit.
Fred rocks back and forth in his spot, "Oh that? That means nothing. Just a little banter between friends."
"There!" Sixth year Gryffindor Winifred shouts. She jabs her finger above the forest. Something large, extremely large, was hurtling itself through the air towards the castle.
"It's a dragon!" Someone screams.
"Don't be stupid, it's a flying house!" Another one shouts.
It was neither. When the flying object gets closer to the lights from the castle we can see it's a hideously blue, size of a small house, horse drawn carriage. The horses are winged, obviously, and about the size of elephants.
"Bloody hell." Emma says coming up beside me. A few of the students up ahead duck for cover as the carriage lowers itself and lands on the field to our right. The golden horses stamp their feet and roll their massive heads like they are stretching.
"That's a big woman." Walter says from behind us. Sure enough a little boy in a pale blue outfit dashes out of the way of an enormous woman. She steps down from her carriage and Dumbledore starts to clap, all of us follow his lead.
"My dear Madame Maxime!" He says loudly so we can all hear him, "Welcome to Hogwarts!"
The woman steps up to Dumbledore, "Dumbly-dorr." She says, her voice is very deep and she has a very thick French accent.
"Look behind her." Lee whispers. Sure enough about a dozen or so students have emerged from the carriage behind Madame Maxime. They're wearing powder blue silk robes, the same colour as their carriage. Each of them shivering in the cold October air.
"Violet! Violet oh my god!" Emma grabs onto my arm and pulls it in excitement.
"What?" I say to her smiling.
Emma points at a boy in the far back of the group. He's very tall, very muscular, and what I can tell, very handsome. "That's him! That's my French beau! Oh my god I can't believe he's here and I look like this!" She wails.
Madame Maxine pushes past us and goes into the castle, her students follow. Emma hides her face in my shoulder when her French lover boy passes by so he doesn't notice her. Fred however, notices everything and I can tell that there's a twinge of jealousy on his face. The perks of dating an identical twin? They tend to use the same expressions, and right now Fred looks just like George does when Cedric is around. Just banter between friends my ass.
"Can you hear something?" Ron says suddenly. Everyone starts looking around, most of them staring at the sky expecting the same entrance from the Durmstrang students.
"The Lake!" Lee shouts, "Look at the Lake!"
Everyone does as he says and turns to the lake. Bubbles start coming up to the surface in the middle of the lake, waves start to splash violently against the shore, "Did they swim here?" Walter asks.
A whirlpool appears in the middle of the lake, and a long thin wooden rod comes out the center of it.
"It's a mast!" Harry shouts. Sure enough, a great big ship rises slowly to the surface. It looks as if it has been on the bottom of the lake for centuries but it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my entire life.
Big, bulky figures are seen disembarking from the ship, "Merlin's beard, they came prepared." I look at Fred and George, they're both rather fit but they are also very scrawny boys, "You sure you still want to compete with the likes of them?" I say, pressing their buttons.
As they got closer we notice that most of the bulk are just big, heavy, fur cloaks. Their headmaster comes up and shakes Dumbledore's hand, "How are you, my dear fellow?" He says.
"Blooming, thank you Professor Karkaroff." Dumbledore says to him clapping both of his hands around Professor Karkaroff's one.
"How good it is to be here, how good... Viktor come along, into the warmth. You don't mind do you Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold..."
A student comes up from behind Professor Karkaroff and everyone stops talking, "Holy shit..." Walter whispers.
"You're fucking joking." George mumbles.
"Still sure about wanting to compete there boys?" I say to the twins and Lee.
None other than Viktor Krum steps into the light and looks around at us all. He looks at me and smiles politely and Emma nearly faints.
"Viktor fucking Krum!" Lee whispers.