Chasing Shadows || Draco Malfoy x OC

Year 4- Ch. 42

Céline visibly relaxed and sighed in relief once the silk robes students and their headmistress entered the building.

"You alright?" Daphne asked, rubbing her back. She tried reading Celine's face, which wasn't difficult at all. "She was there?" She hesitated.

Céline didn't trust her voice to be steady so she just nodded.

"Was it just her?" Daphne asked gently.

She took a deep breath, "no... I saw a couple of others that had joined her back then..." she finally said in a whisper.

Before anyone could say anything, 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!" Someone yelled, "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 . . .

"It's a mast!" Daphne said.

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 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. Céline tried peering through the darkness, but was only able to see their silhouettes that seemed stalky, but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, she 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 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, though to Céline, the smile didn't reach his cold eyes. "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. . . ."

One of his students stepped forward, Draco and Céline's eyebrows both rose at the familiar hooked nose and thick black eyebrows.

"It's Krum..." Céline whispered in awe.

After a bit more exchange between the two headmasters the delegation of Durmstrang entered the castle, with all the students of Hogwarts following afterwards.

They all entered the Great Hall, Céline saw many sixth year girls frantically looking for a quill to try and get Viktor Krum's autograph.

"Aren't you wanting one too?" Draco whispered near her ear. She looked up at him and he was wearing a cocky look on his face. "You tried so hard to get a good look at him during the Quidditch World Cups, I only figure now that he's right there."

Céline rolled her eyes, "currently not one of my priorities, Malfoy. But I won't stop you if you want to fangirl over him." She smirked.

They go to sit down at their table with their friends. Céline looked around and saw Beauxbatons sitting two tables away with the Ravenclaw students. They were looking around the Great Hall, looking glum. She quickly looked away so her back was turned to them, in case they looked over.

"Durmstrang students are coming to sit with us." Draco said smugly. Céline looked up and saw them heading over to their table. As Krum passed he looked down to her and gave her a slight nod. Which she gave a smile in return.

Krum and the other Durmstrang students sat down at the empty seats next to Theo. Draco then leaned over and greeted Krum.

Once the students settled into their seats, Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime, soon walked down the middle towards the teachers' table. As they passed the students from Beauxbatons all stood up. Celine's body also twitched, wanting to stand up out of respect for her old headmistress, because that was taught for the first two years at her old school.

A few Hogwarts students laughed, which made the Beauxbaton students a bit embarrassed, but they remained standing, until their headmistress sat down, only then did they sit down as well. Dumbledore stayed standing and quickly the Great Hall fell silent.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and — most particularly — guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" He sat down and everyone eagerly waited for the food to magically appear.