Chapter 135 Guests Arrive
The notice in the foyer had a clear impact on those who lived in the castle.
For the next week, wherever Schelling went, people seemed to be talking about only one topic: the Triwizard Tournament.
Rumors spread quickly among the students, like highly contagious germs: who will compete to be the Champion of Hogwarts, what events will be included in the Tournament, what will the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students have to do with them different.
Schelling also noticed that the castle seemed to be undergoing a thorough cleaning. Several dirty portraits were scrubbed clean, and the scrubbed characters were dissatisfied. They sat huddled in the picture frame, muttering unhappily, and grimacing in pain every time they touched the newly exposed pink flesh on their faces. Those armors suddenly became shiny and no longer creaked when moving.
When Filch saw that a student had forgotten to clean his shoes, he flew into a violent rage that scared two first-year girls into hysteria.
Other faculty members also seemed extremely nervous.
"Goyle, Crabbe, please do your best. Don't reveal your secrets in front of the people in Durmstrang and let them see that you don't even know a simple transformation spell!" When class was about to end, Professor McGonagall snapped. That class didn't go very well. Both the young and old fools grafted their ears onto a cactus.
So the time came to October 30th.
That morning, when they went downstairs for breakfast, they found that the auditorium had been decorated overnight.
Huge silk banners hung on the walls, each one representing a house of Hogwarts: red with a golden lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, and yellow with a bronze eagle. The one with a black badger is Hufflepuff, and the green one with a silver boa constrictor is Slytherin. Behind the staff desk hung the largest banner, which bore the Hogwarts school emblem: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake joined together, surrounding a large letter H.
This day, the whole day, no one learned anything.
After finally making it to the afternoon, the students quickly changed into their robes and came to the foyer. Deans of various colleges are ordering their students to line up. While the other three houses were still in chaos, the little wizards of Slytherin had already lined up in an orderly manner.
The students filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle.
It was a cold, fresh evening, night was falling, and a white, translucent moon was already hanging over the Forbidden Forest. According to what was said before, students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive on time at six o'clock.
Just a minute before six o'clock, Dumbledore's voice sounded from directly behind the crowd, "If I'm not mistaken, the Beauxbatons representative has already arrived!"
A huge thing, much bigger than a broomstick - or a hundred broomsticks - was flying rapidly across the dark blue sky towards the castle, getting bigger and bigger.
As the dark behemoth passed through the treetops of the Forbidden Forest, illuminated by the lights from the castle windows, they saw a huge powder-blue carriage flying toward them. It was as big as a house, and it was pulled through the air by twelve winged horses, all of them silver-maned horses, each as big as an elephant.
The carriage flew lower and was landing at an extremely fast speed. The students standing in the first three rows hurriedly backed away - and then, there was an earth-shaking loud noise, and I saw those horse hooves falling to the ground with a thud. The size of a vegetable plate. In the blink of an eye, the carriage also landed on the ground, vibrating on the huge wheels. At the same time, the golden horses shook their huge heads and their big fiery red eyes turned.
On the door of the carriage, you can see the coat of arms of the Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: two golden crossed wands, with three stars emerging from each wand. A woman about the same height as Hagrid stepped out of the carriage—Ms. Olim Maxim, the principal of Beauxbatons Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Then twelve young male and female students got off the carriage and stood behind Ms. Maxim.
Judging from their appearance, they were all probably around eighteen or nineteen years old, and all of them were trembling slightly. This was not surprising, since their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. Several students had their heads wrapped in scarves or bandanas. They all looked up at Hogwarts with trepidation on their faces.
Xie Lin sighed slightly. Before going on a long trip, isn't it common sense to check the local climate and temperature? The IQ of these wizards is worrying!
Even if you deliberately choose a silk robe to show off your French clothing taste, you can also add a constant temperature function! Constant-temperature clothing is not high-end and expensive. As a representative of a school, every move and appearance represents the image and glory of the school. Shivering in the cold just to look good will not make people feel like this. Group representatives have questions?
Dumbledore and Maxim talked quietly for a while, and then directed the students of Hogwarts to make way for a passage so that the Beauxbatons delegation could enter the castle first.
After another half hour, even the students at Hogwarts began to tremble from the cold.
Shaylin, Daphne, and Astoria looked at the others trembling as if nothing had happened. The two sisters had already changed into the thermostatic robes that Shaylin bought for them. There were many functions attached to them. Although they were not as good as the Supreme Wizard robes, they were also unique and high-end goods. Of course, Murray, who was in the Ravenclaw team, also had a set, so she was also envied by others in Ravenclaw.
Draco took out his wand and quickly cast the "Anti-Cold Charm" on the people around him, which made them feel a little better.
Shaylin narrowed his eyes slightly. The "Anti-Cold Charm" was not difficult to learn, but it was a very unpopular spell. In the original book, even with Hermione's erudition, she did not learn it. She used the "Cold Fire Charm" to keep warm. The principle was to create a small blue flame, which could then be put into a small bottle and placed on the body to keep warm.
Draco's performance made Shaylin more and more confused.
Sometimes, Sherin felt that Draco was like a different person, whether it was the scheming or the strength he showed, he had this illusion. But sometimes, Draco would turn back to the childish, showy, loud, trouble-making, and normal-strength him.
Just then, a loud and strange sound floated towards them from the darkness - a suppressed rumble and sucking sound, like a huge submarine moving along the shore.
The students were standing on the lawn slope overlooking the field, and they could clearly see the calm black surface of the Black Lake - ripples began to appear on the surface of the water, and then suddenly there was a commotion, and huge waves were rolling up, and the waves hit the wet shore.
In the center of the lake, a large whirlpool appeared, as if a huge plug was suddenly pulled out from the bottom of the lake.
A long black pole-like thing slowly rose from the whirlpool, followed by the sail rigging...
Slowly, a magnificent ship rose out of the water, shining in the moonlight. It looked very strange, like a skeleton, as if it was the remains of a sunken ship that had just been salvaged. The portholes flickered with dim, misty light, looking like the eyes of a ghost. Finally, with a splash of water, the big ship completely emerged, bumping on the turbulent water surface, and began to sail towards the lakeshore.
This is the legendary ghost ship!
The ghost ship, a famous legendary alchemical item, is as famous as the three artifacts of the god of death, the philosopher's stone, and the Mirror of Erised.
Schelling's eyes were shining as he observed the ship. As far as he knew, the ghost ship was a very high-end alchemical product. There were only two such ghost ships in the global wizarding world. In addition to the Durmstrang, the other was the "Flying Dutchman" that roamed around the Caribbean Sea and made a prominent reputation.
This is not just an ordinary means of transportation. It has extremely strong and comprehensive combat capabilities. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a mobile fortress.
Schelling had heard that in the early 19th century, the "Flying Dutchman" was favored by a high-ranking member of the American Magical Congress. He led a group of Aurors with superior combat power to ambush at sea, but he didn't even see the real owner. He was scared away by a shot fired by the opponent's magic cannon.
And Schelling has always suspected that the ghost ship actually has the ability to take off and fly, otherwise why is it named "Flying Dutchman"?
Even if Schelling's guess is wrong and the ghost ship cannot take off, it is still an amazing masterpiece.
Taking the ghost ship of Durmstrang as an example, it can at least use the water surface as a medium to teleport over long distances. With Schelling's attainments in space magic, he can see that the principle is probably similar to the Floo Network, except that the medium is changed from fire to water.
This alone is actually very complicated. Most of the ground in this world is covered by water. Being able to teleport on any water surface means that there are more places to go, and larger objects can be transported through large water surfaces like freshwater lakes. In contrast, the Floo Network doesn't even know if it can teleport Hagrid!
Well, this seems to be a good research topic, Schelling suddenly thought - the original book seems to only mention Hagrid riding a flying motorcycle and a knight bus, could it be that Hagrid can't use the Floo Network at all?
Putting aside the advantage of convenience, the "Flying Dutchman" can be lawless on the sea for so long, and obviously has a way of moving that the Ministry of Magic cannot monitor. In this way, the ghost ship's shapeshifting technology is completely separated from the Floo Network - so in addition to convenience, it must also have the advantage of concealment.
This is why, even today, the magical regimes of various countries still have no way to deal with the "Flying Dutchman", and even the identity of its owner is still a mystery.
In contrast, Karkaroff is too stupid, sitting on a treasure mountain but not using it well. If he can develop loyal followers among his students, relying on this ship alone, and only wanting to escape, I'm afraid Voldemort, who can track the Dark Mark, will not be so easy to kill him.
He usually doesn't know how to command his subordinates. It's a rare opportunity for him to take the top students abroad to exchange with other magic schools. This is a great opportunity to build teacher-student relationships, but he chose to enjoy it alone in the cabin and let the students do the hard work of steering the boat. No wonder no student felt sorry for him after he got into trouble.
Well, it can be said that the only problem with the ghost ship is the operation problem. This is obviously not an alchemical item that can be operated by one person. Judging from the situation of Durmstrang, at least twelve people are needed to operate it freely.
After the ghost ship dropped anchor and stopped, thirteen Durmstrang representatives wearing thick fur cloaks slowly walked down from the hold. Among them, an old man with white hair and goatee in the front shook hands with Dumbledore enthusiastically - it seems that he is the principal Igor Karkaroff.
As the Durmstrang students approached, it caused a small sensation among the crowd at Hogwarts. Obviously, someone recognized that the Durmstrang student behind Karkaroff was Viktor Krum, a famous chaser in the Bulgarian national team.
After Dumbledore and Karkaroff finished their greetings, the little wizards who were already half-frozen could finally return to the warm hall.
Extracurricular knowledge: The Flying Dutchman is the origin of the legend of the ghost ship, which often appeared in literary works from the 17th to the 18th century. Every sailor believed that seeing a ghost ship meant disaster and death. In the Disney movie "Pirates of the Caribbean", the Flying Dutchman was set as the ship of the villain Davy Jones.
——Thanks to Pudding Zhai for rewarding 500 Qidian coins, Xuning for rewarding 1500 Qidian coins, and others who rewarded, voted for recommendations and voted for monthly tickets. I am so moved! Thank you so much!