In the next few days, the entire Hogwarts seemed to be preparing for the arrival of the Final Four Tournament.
The castle is undergoing a thorough cleaning.
Because this ancient castle has a history of thousands of years, many places that are not usually noticed are actually covered with dust and stains.
In addition, the person in charge of cleaning these years was just a squib who did not have the convenience of cleaning magic, so the hygiene standards of the castle had actually declined again without anyone noticing.
Usually, professors and students are very accustomed to these dirty appearances, and they call it the preservation of the original flavor of the castle that has been deposited for thousands of years, making the castle look more heavy and ancient...
But when the castle needed to welcome guests, Professor McGonagall, the deputy headmaster, suddenly realized that Hogwarts could not entertain guests from other magic schools in such a gray appearance.
This would make it seem like they don't take such an event seriously enough and would also make Hogwarts lose face.
So, all the faculty and staff went out together and used magic to help Argus Filch, the castle key keeper, clean the castle inside and out.
Among them, Dracula's title deed came in very handy. This all-round "surveillance" successfully discovered many unattended dirt in corners. Dracula even personally activated the magic of the castle itself to spread the cleaning spell in all directions.
Filch had no more tasks to do, so he set his sights on the portrait hanging on the wall.
Some of the portraits were covered in dust or even stains, but since they were painted using magic, they were not suitable for direct cleaning with cleaning spells to prevent the original magic from being destroyed or interfered with.
The diligent janitor Filch finally found a job and used a rag to scrub several dirty portraits clean, making the faces of the characters in the paintings look whiter and tenderer.
The characters being scrubbed were very dissatisfied with this. They sat huddled in their frames, grumbling sullenly, and grimaced in pain every time they touched the newly exposed pink tender flesh on their faces.
The armor that was often placed on both sides of the corridor became shiny and no longer creaked when moving the body.
"How many times have I told you to clean the soles of your shoes before entering the castle!"
Filch's roar could often be heard at the castle gate.
His ferocious and violent appearance scared many first and second grade wizards so much that they no longer dared to take a walk by the Black Lake, for fear that the mud on the lakeside would get on their soles.
It's not just about hygiene, the professors seem particularly nervous in other aspects as well.
"Longbottom, please do me a favor and don't show your true colors in front of the people at Durmstrang and let them see that you don't even know a simple conversion spell!" Professor McGonagall shouted at the end of the class.
In that class, Professor McGonagall reviewed the Conversion Spell, which is a spell that converts the properties of two objects and is a branch of Transfiguration.
However, Neville was so nervous that he made a mistake in the target of the spell and accidentally grafted his ear onto a cactus. His ear turned into a green plant with thorns, which looked very weird.
Professor Flitwick was so anxious that he jumped up and down on the desk, because Harry and his fellow fourth-grade wizards couldn't even learn the very basic Summoning Charm. They often threw the cushions they used to cast spells at the faces of their classmates, which interfered with the spells of the people around them, triggering a series of chain reactions...
Dracula seems much more relaxed in comparison.
"Speaking of which, Durmstrang will teach students to use dark magic. Are you afraid?"
At the podium in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Dracula looked at the students below with a mocking look.
"Don't be afraid!" The students in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class answered loudly and confidently.
No matter how they perform in other subjects, no matter whether they study hard or complete their homework seriously... But at least one thing is certain, that is, all students at Hogwarts have gone through Dracula's devil training!
After such training, even if the students' written performance in Defense Against the Dark Arts is not excellent, at least their practical ability is definitely not inferior to that of their peers.
It is also because of this that the young wizards do not think that those Durmstrang students who have learned some basic knowledge of black magic can pose much threat to them.
After all, no one knew more about the Dark Arts than their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor!
"Very good. It seems that you have lived up to the special training I gave you." Dracula curled the corners of his mouth, and the expression in his eyes gradually became interested.
"But in order to be prepared for any eventuality, I think I need to give you some further training within the next two days. I will use black magic on you continuously, and you need to respond to various types of black magic in a timely manner!"
The young wizards' originally confident expressions suddenly froze, and their faces were instantly filled with helplessness.
In the previous devilish training, just a single curse from Professor Dracula was enough to torture them. Now that they have been replaced with black magic, wouldn’t they be tortured to death
…
Finally, it was October 30th, the day before Halloween.
That morning, when the young wizards came downstairs for breakfast, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight -
On the clean, white walls were hung huge silk banners, each representing a Hogwarts house: the red background with a golden lion was Gryffindor, the blue background with a bronze eagle was Ravenclaw, the yellow background with a black badger was Hufflepuff, and the green background with a silver python was Slytherin.
Behind the teacher's desk hung the largest banner with the Hogwarts coat of arms: a lion, eagle, badger, and snake surrounded by a huge letter "H".
On this day, it seemed as if the air was filled with a feeling of anticipation and joy.
In class, no one was in the mood to concentrate on the lesson... Perhaps except Hermione, most of the young wizards were thinking that people from Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Invermorny would be coming tonight.
Even Potions class seemed less unbearable to Harry than usual, since it ended half an hour early.
When the bell rang early, under Snape's gloomy face, Harry, Ron and Hermione ran out of the classroom and hurried to the Gryffindor Tower.
Following the instructions on the notice, they put down their school bags and textbooks, put on their school uniform cloaks, and then rushed down the stairs in two steps and came to the entrance courtyard in front of the auditorium.
The deans of each college stood at the front and ordered their students to line up in neat rows.
"Weiss, put your hat on straight," Professor McGonagall said sternly to Ron and Harry, "Potter, fix your hair and get it out of a tangle."
Harry quickly pushed his hair down with his hands, but it had no effect at all.
"Everyone, follow me," Professor McGonagall did not bother to continue supervising the image management of the young wizards, and took the lead to walk towards the oak door on the side of the entrance courtyard, "First-year students are in front... Don't crowd..."
They filed through the oak doors, down the steps that everyone had walked down when reporting for the next grade, and stood in a line in front of the castle.
It was a cold, fresh evening. Night was slowly falling and a white, translucent moon was hanging over the forbidden forest.
"It's almost six," said Ron, glancing at his watch and looking towards the driveway leading to the front door. "How do you think they'll get here? Take the Hogwarts Express like us?"
"I've never heard of the Hogwarts Express going to other countries," said Hermione. "And the boat on the lake here obviously can't accommodate people from three schools. If they come from Hogsmeade Station, we should go to the north gate to greet them."
"How did he come? On a broomstick?" Harry guessed, looking up at the starry sky.
"I don't think so..." Hermione continued to refute, "Coming from such a long distance, they might all catch a cold and go home before they even get to Hogwarts."
"Maybe a Portkey? That's what we used to go to the Quidditch World Cup," Ron continued. "Or they can Apparate - maybe in their country, people under the age of seventeen are allowed to Apparate?"
"How many times do I have to tell you that you are not allowed to Apparate within the confines of Hogwarts?" Hermione said impatiently.
A few people guessed and guessed, but they had no idea how the teachers and students from other magic schools would come here as guests.
The next moment the moon appeared from behind the distant mountains, Dumbledore's voice rang out.
"Ah! If I'm not mistaken, the Beauxbatons representative is here!"
"Where is it?" many students asked anxiously, looking in different directions.
"Look, in the sky!" a student with good eyesight shouted loudly, pointing his finger above the Forbidden Forest.
A huge monster was rapidly flying across the deep blue sky, covered with starlight, flying towards Hogwarts Castle, gradually getting bigger and bigger.
…As the dark behemoth passed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and was illuminated by the lights from the castle windows, a huge powder blue carriage appeared before the young wizards’ eyes.
The chariot was as big as a house, and it was drawn through the air by twelve winged horses, all of which had silver manes and were each about the size of an elephant.
The carriage was getting closer and closer, and under the horrified gazes of the little wizards in the front row, it landed with an incredibly fast speed, almost hitting the heads of the students in the first three rows - with a loud earth-shaking noise, the horse hooves landed heavily on the ground, each one as big as a dinner plate.
In the blink of an eye, the carriage landed on the ground, its huge wheels shaking continuously. The golden Pegasus retracted their wings at the same time and raised their huge heads proudly.
Hagrid, who was standing among the Hogwarts faculty and staff, stared with his eyes wide open. He had never seen a Pegasus of such excellent quality, and this one was even big enough for a big guy like him to ride on it for a stroll.
Hagrid secretly made up his mind that he would have to establish a good relationship with the person in charge of Beauxbatons and see if he could get a horse back, or even better, a pair.
The door of the carriage opened, and the young wizards of Hogwarts had the opportunity to see that there was a coat of arms printed on the door of Beauxbatons' carriage. The coat of arms was a pattern of two golden crossed wands, with three stars above each wand.
A boy in a light blue robe jumped off the carriage first. Amid the puzzled looks of the crowd, he bent down and fumbled on the floor of the carriage for a while.
The next moment, a golden spiral staircase extended from the bottom of the door like flowing water, stretching all the way to the ground, giving the people in the carriage the opportunity to gracefully walk down from the door at the height of one floor.
Just as everyone at Hogwarts expected, the person who walked out of the carriage was indeed elegant enough, and a pair of shiny black high heels poked out of the carriage...
However, this shoe is as big as a small children's sled!
Following closely behind the high heels came a woman whose size was the largest that the young wizards and even professors present had ever seen in their lives. Perhaps only Hagrid in the entire wizarding world could compare with her in physique.
Of course, compared to Hagrid's unkempt appearance, bulging belly, messy hair and beard, when the big woman who got off the carriage at Beauxbatons approached, everyone discovered that she had a very pretty olive face under the lights of Hogwarts.
Her hair was pulled back in a shining knot at the base of her neck, and she was wrapped from head to foot in a black satin dress, with rich opals glittering about her neck and on her thick fingers.
It was clear that despite her size, she was still a very sophisticated lady.
Harry subconsciously looked at Hagrid, wanting to compare the two people, but found that Hagrid was staring at the big lady with a silly smile on his face, looking like a pervert.
Harry covered his face in embarrassment.
It was understandable that Hagrid would be attracted to this lady. After all, he had never seen anyone with a body shape that matched Hagrid's.
but…
Harry looked at Hagrid's dirty moleskin coat, and then at the lady of Beauxbatons dressed in jewels, and couldn't help but feel worried for Hagrid in his heart.
Dumbledore led the applause, interrupting Harry's thoughts.
He followed Dumbledore in clapping his hands in welcome, and the students around him also clapped their hands. Many people stood on tiptoe to get a better look at this strange woman.
Her expression relaxed into an elegant smile, and she extended a gleaming hand toward Dumbledore.
Dumbledore was a tall and thin man, but he barely bent down when he kissed the lady's hand.
"Dear Madame Maxime," said Dumbledore, "welcome to Hogwarts, you and the students of Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
…
…