𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐃 ; d.malfoy

19

When nearing the entrance, my friend group and I were stopped by an unusual sort of commotion coming from the entrance of the hall.

Suddenly, from high above, Peeves, armed with a stash of water balloons, cackled gleefully to himself as he dropped the water balloons with precision, splashing Draco with cold water. His laughter turned to surprise, and they looked up, only to see Peeves darting away, leaving behind a trail of snickers.

'Ugh, that bloody poltergeist!' Draco exclaimed, trying to wipe the water off his robes.

Quinn, his eyes wide with amusement, couldn't help but giggle, 'you look rather dashing like this, y'know, all wet... you're like a fe--'

But, Quinn's words were drowned out by Peeves dropping another stash of water balloons onto him. I narrowly dodged by jumping out of Peeves' attack range merely moments before the water hit us.

'Now who's laughing, Todd?' snarled Draco, who had now taken off his robe but the water had managed to penetrate through it as well so his school uniform was entirely soaked.

'Here you go,' I said as I thrusted my (dry) school robe towards the blonde. He looked puzzled at first but once he got the gesture of what I meant, he quickly took the robes from my hand and draped himself with it. He mumbled a quick "thanks" before we continued our journey towards the castle.

'You forgot that I'm also wet, 'Esque,' mumbled Quinn.
'Oh, shut up,' I mumbled.

Then, when arriving at the great hall, we all carried ourselves to the Slytherin table. Not even bothering to look at the Sorting Hat, who was now playing another tune. There were a bunch of new frightened faces that were anticipating their sorting--I didn't care much for any of them but there were 3 new additions to Slytherin.

Then, an unusual name being called by Mcgonagall made me look at the front of the hall where the sorting was happening:

'Andre Pierre Lavigne.'

His name was rather unusual--nothing you'd heard of while being at Hogwarts. The stranger who was named Lavigne looked rather odd too. He was characteristically tall, huge even with captivating bright eyes that reminded me of a siren.

'A bit too old for sorting, isn't he?' commented Draco.
'He's a transfer, I believe,' replied Daph, 'and judging by his name, he's probably from Beuxbatons.'

Beuxbatons, huh...? Cases of exchange students were rare indeed and to have a Beuxbatons willingly come to Hogwarts was unusual. I mean, Beauxbatons had a reputation for being one of the best schools for magic, even better than Hogwarts. I didn't have time to ponder over this charming stranger as Dumbledore had begun his speech:

'--It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-HouseQuidditch Cup will not take place this year...' was the thing that caught my ears the most as after those words left Dumbledore's mouth, Quinn had jumped at and was shouting profanities and all sorts of insults to Dumbledore. But, it wasn't just Quinn who was shouting, so were the students from Gryffindor and also, Crabbe & Goyle.

The amplitude of the headmaster's voice increased as he continued to speak: 'this is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking upmuch of the teachers' time and energy--but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that thisyear at Hogwarts--'

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunderand the doors of the Great Hall banged open.A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff,shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by afork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered hishood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then began to walk up toward the teachers' table.