Chapter 286 Kicks Off

The uniforms worn by the Beauxbatons girls are very clever. They definitely reveal the women's sexy figures, but at the same time they are not too revealing or coquettish. Instead, they give people a dignified and virtuous feeling.

The distance between the two teams was originally quite far, so the boys at Hogwarts didn't think anything of it.

But when the Beauxbatons team passed by the Hogwarts square, the boys at Hogwarts discovered that the quality of the Beauxbatons girls was actually so high!

Franklin next to Mike was drooling as he watched, while Hillary, who was not far away, was so angry that she kicked Franklin's calf angrily.

However, Franklin, who was already immersed in Fleur's talent, didn't react at all. Like an idiot, his eyes followed the movement of Beauxbatons' team.

Mike glanced at Hillary with interest, and the latter immediately blushed and hid behind a girl next to him.

Beauxbatons' queue was not long and quickly disappeared through the gate of the castle.

It was only then that the boys at Hogwarts came to their senses and sighed with regret.

But before everyone could feel sorry for long, a loud and strange voice floated from the darkness outside the castle.

The voice was very suppressed. When everyone heard the sound and looked into the darkness, they saw that under the moonlight, huge splashes of water were stirring on the originally calm black lake.

Then, a huge whirlpool appeared in the center of the lake. The whirlpool expanded, and gradually a long black rod-like thing slowly rose from the center of the whirlpool.

"That's a mast!" A Hufflepuff student in the crowd said firmly, "It can't be wrong, my father is a sailor!"

His guess was correct. Slowly, an extraordinary large ship rose out of the water and anchored in the center of the black lake, shining brightly in the moonlight.

It looks very weird. The surface of the ship is covered with a lot of moss, as if it is a sunken ship that has just been salvaged, or it is a legendary ghost ship that disappears and appears on the sea.

A sound that sounded like the roar of an elephant came from the ship, and then the ship moved in the direction of the people at Hogwarts.

With a splashing sound, an iron anchor was thrown into the shallow water, and finally, with another snap, a wooden plank was placed on the shore of the lake.

The people on the boat were disembarking. Through the lights on the boat, Mike could clearly see that the person walking in front was an old man.

He has long, silky hair, the same color as the fur cloak on his body, which is silver-white.

Behind him, neatly followed a pair of burly men. These men all had short hair and were wearing the same fur cloaks as the old man at the head of the row. However, compared to the old man's, the fur cloaks they wore were smaller. It looked extremely old, and the fur on it was all knotted.

"Dumbledore!" the silver-haired man shouted enthusiastically as he approached, "my dear old man, how are you?"

"Great, thank you, Karkaroff."

Dumbledore seemed a little perfunctory, but Karkaroff didn't care. He continued to walk forward, looking up at Hogwarts Castle, and said in that mellow and sweet voice:

"Dear old Hogwarts! How about you too!"

It was only then that everyone could clearly see the appearance of the white-haired man through the light from the castle.

He is tall and thin, similar in build to Dumbledore, and has a goatee on his face with curls at the end.

After shaking hands with Dumbledore, he seemed to suddenly think of something, turned his head and said behind him:

"Victor, come here and warm yourself up... Do you mind, Dumbledore? Victor has a cold."

Dumbledore said he didn't mind, and then a boy walked out of the darkness behind Karkaroff and came into the light.

"Oh my God! It's Krum!"

Waves of low-pitched exclamations immediately came from the Hogwarts crowd. The person who came was the Seeker who showed off his prowess in the Quidditch World Cup finals, Krum!

"I can't believe it, it's Krum!"

Franklin covered his face with trembling hands in excitement. There were many people around who had the same reaction as him.

"Calm down, he's just a Quidditch player." Mike said calmly.

For someone like Mike who is not very interested in Quidditch, and who is in a high position and holds a lot of money and power, Krum is really just a Quidditch player, and at the end of the day he is just a somewhat famous person. It's just a player, no big deal.

But others didn't think so. Several girls had already rushed up to ask for signatures with quills in their hands, but they didn't have signature books in their hands. Mike guessed that they wanted Klum to sign on them. .

Franklin, who was next to Mike, finally reacted. He took out his wand and made a pen, and was about to rush forward, but was stopped by Mike.

"I can't afford to throw this guy away!"

As Mike said this, Franklin gave up the idea of ​​going up to ask for an autograph when he saw this, but his expression was still a little regretful.

Dumbledore led everyone into the auditorium. The seats of the Hogwarts students had been reserved long ago, so Mike and others quickly found their seats and sat down.

The Beauxbatons alumni sat next to Ravenclaw, whose emblem was similar to their uniforms.

But they all had gloomy expressions on their faces, and three of them still had their heads tightly wrapped in scarves and headscarves.

Only the Durmstrang alumni still had not chosen their seats.

Franklin, who was sitting next to Mike, was whispering, seemingly praying for Durmstrang's people to sit next to him.

Unfortunately, Malfoy had already invited the Durmstrang students in advance and successfully got them to sit at his side of the table.

Many people from other colleges clenched their fists because they saw that Malfoy was talking to Krum, and his eyes occasionally drifted from other colleges, as if to show off.

Durmstrang's students took off their heavy cloaks and looked up at the dark, starlit ceiling with interest.

Two of the students also picked up the golden plates and goblets and looked at them carefully, looking very interested.

"Damn Malfoy..."

Franklin complained angrily, but was interrupted by a pleasant voice midway through his words.

"Can I sit here please?"

When Franklin heard the news, his pupils straightened instantly, his mouth opened slightly, and then he did a backflip and left his seat.

"Of course! Miss Fleur!"

His sudden movement startled Fleur, but she recovered quickly, thanked Franklin softly, and then sat down in Franklin's original seat, which was on Mike's left.

Sitting on Mike's right side was Penelo.

In just a moment, Mike was shrouded in countless scorching gazes.

Among them, the two gazes from his left and right were the hottest, as if they wanted to roast him directly.

"Long time no see, Mike." Fleur said with a smile, "This is..."

Fleur looked past Mike to Penello.

Before Mike could introduce him, Penello rushed to say:

"I'm Penelo Crevat, Mike's girlfriend, nice to meet you..."

Penello and Fleur's eyes sparkled in the air. Although both of them were smiling, anyone could tell that the relationship between them was not good.

On the other side, Franklin recovered and stared blankly at the long Ravenclaw table in front of him that was already full. In the end, he could only sit in the seat that originally belonged to Fleur in the Beauxbatons team.

Among a group of fair and tender girls, a somewhat anxious-looking old man appeared, which made many of the boys who were feasting their eyes very dissatisfied.

On the contrary, the girls had a relatively good attitude and greeted Franklin with a smile.

This made Franklin, the junior brother, blush instantly and lowered his head in silence.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Dumbledore's voice suddenly came, "It is with great joy that I welcome you to Hogwarts. I hope and believe that you will feel comfortable and happy here."

When Mike heard the news, he saw all the faculty and staff sitting upright in the seats at the front of the auditorium, even Filch, who usually didn't know how to serve at the table.

But Filch today had obviously dressed up specially. Not only did he put on his moldy tuxedo, he even had his hair done.

In addition to them, Mike also discovered that there were two more people on the faculty bench.

They are all acquaintances, one is Ludo Bagman from the Sports Executive Department, and the other is an old acquaintance, Barty Crouch.

"The competition will officially begin after the banquet." Dumbledore said, "I now invite everyone to eat and drink as much as you would at home!"

After saying that, the plates in front of everyone were filled with food as usual.

The food at the dinner was very sumptuous, ranging from traditional British cuisine to exotic dishes such as French cuisine.

It can be seen that the house elves have put a lot of effort into today's dinner. Unfortunately, the Beauxbatons girls don't seem to be very interested in Hogwarts delicacies. Only when a famous French dish, cream of mushroom soup, appeared Their eyes lit up a little.

Although Franklin kept his head down while eating, his ears were still paying attention to the movements around him.

His hearing is not very good, but he still heard some interesting words, such as: Furong, Biaozi, saohuo...

Franklin pretended not to hear and continued to eat with his head down.

The dinner went smoothly, but after everyone felt that they had almost eaten, Dumbledore stood up again.

"The moment has finally arrived. The Triwizard Tournament is about to begin. I want to explain a few words. Bring in the box."

Filch stood up from his seat in a flash, hunched over and quickly disappeared into the auditorium.

"I want to explain the program of our activities this year, but first please allow me to introduce the two guests, because there are still people who don't know them." Dumbledore pointed to Bagman and Crouch, "This is Bagman and Crouch. Mr. Tick Crouch, Director of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Magic, and this is Ludo Bagman, Director of the Sports Department of the Ministry of Magic."

As soon as the words were spoken, there was loud applause from the audience, but Mike did not applaud, but looked meaningfully at Crouch on the stage.

He really didn't expect that after Crouch retired from the Legal Department, he would become the Director of the International Cooperation Department.

"Okay everyone, please stop for a moment." Dumbledore said, "They will form a judging panel together with me, Professor Karkaroff and Ms. Maxim to judge the warriors."

The word warrior once again excited the students in the audience, and at this time Filch also returned to the auditorium, holding a large wooden box inlaid with jewelry in his hand.

"Thank you, Filch." Dumbledore took the wooden box and thanked Filch, "We have carefully reviewed the specific events for the warriors' competition this year. There are three events in total, respectively. Taking place at different times throughout the school year, they will test the warriors in many different aspects, such as magical talent, courage, wisdom, and more.

Then, as I'm sure you already know, there will be three warriors representing one school each. We will rate them based on the quality of their completion of each event, and the warrior with the highest score at the end of the three events will win the Triwizard Cup. The person responsible for selecting the warriors is a fair selector, it is the Goblet of Fire! "

Having said this, Dumbledore placed the wooden box on the table in front of him, pulled out his wand and tapped the lid of the box three times.

The lid of the box creaked open, and Dumbledore reached in and took out a large, roughly carved wooden goblet.

The cup itself was nothing strange, but it was filled with dancing blue-white flames.

"Every student who wants to run for the Warriors must write his name and school name on a piece of parchment and throw it into the Goblet of Fire." Dumbledore said, "The registration period is twenty-four hours, tomorrow night, too. It's Halloween, and the Goblet of Fire will choose the names of the three students it thinks best represent the three schools. Tonight, the goblet will be placed in the auditorium, and all students willing to participate in the election will have access to it.

Of course, in order to prevent students who are not old enough to withstand the temptation. I would draw an age line around it that no one under fourteen could cross. "

"Finally, I want to remind everyone. This competition is not a child's play. Don't participate rashly. Because once you are selected by the Goblet of Fire, you must persist in the competition to the end.

Whoever puts his or her name into the cup actually forms a contract that must be abided by, and the price of violating this contract is something no one is willing to pay. "

Dumbledore's final discovery undoubtedly poured cold water on the heads of those who were so excited that they could hardly control themselves. However, Dumbledore did not pay attention to the reactions of everyone in the audience, but continued:

"Okay, I think it's time for everyone to go to bed. Good night everyone."