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Bonded chapter 41
🕑 Added 2023-07-19 13:57:14 +0000 UTCChapter 41 -
"Hey, how'd you reckon the schools are going to get here?" Harry whispered to Ron.
"I dunno, actually," The redheaded boy frowned thoughtfully. "I don't reckon they'd use portkeys."
"Wouldn't work on Hogwarts grounds anyway," Hermione cut in.
"Maybe they can apparate in here," Ron continued. "Depends if the legal age is the same over there."
"You can't apparate into Hogwarts," Harry told him, narrowly beating Hermione.
"Maybe they're all going to fly here then," Ron guessed, feeling pretty confident with his answer.
"Honestly, Ronald, I doubt that." Hermione scoffed, rolling her eyes. "There are way too many things that could go wrong with so many students flying across such long distances, including but certainly not limited to the muggles seeing them."
"Invisibility boosters," Harry reminded her. "That's what Ron's dad did with his flying car, would've probably worked too if the charm wasn't faulty."
"Yeah," Ron quickly agreed. "I..."
"Look!" A first-year Gryffindor yelled, everyone soon started looking out of the windows to see what appeared to be perhaps a dozen gigantic horses that were the size of elephants, each equipped with their own pair of wings, flying through the air whilst pulling along a gigantic, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage that was seemingly the size of a large house. They flew closer and closer before suddenly landing outside of the school.
"Guess they did fly here after all," Ron said snidely to Hermione.
"You were talking about flying on brooms and you know it!" Hermione glared at him.
"Ladies and gentlemen of Hogwarts," Dumbledore's voice cut off any response that Ron might have had, saving Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors from listing to another argument between the two. "I would like you all to please join me in welcoming our visiting school from France, the lovely ladies and gentlemen of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and their esteemed headmistress, Madam Olympe Maxime." The doors opened to reveal several boys and girls dressed in light blue robes, walking in front of them was most definitely the largest woman that Harry had ever seen, taller than even Hagrid. She supported short black hair that ended around the middle of her neck, bright silver earrings and was covered with various different bits of shiny jewellery which seemed to match the sparkly dress that she was wearing, to top off the look she also had a large black fur coat that covered her upper body.
"Whoa," Ron breathed out. "They don't make them like that at Hogwarts," He said, staring at the Beauxbaton girls, not noticing the offended looks from the girls in hearing distance. "Whoa, check out that girl!" He hissed to Harry. "She's gotta be a veela!" He whispered in an awed voice.
"Huh?" Harry said intelligently before turning his attention to the girl that Ron had pointed to. Harry's first thought was that the blue-eyed, blonde girl was undoubtedly the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. Tonks's beauty was unique, whilst this girl's beauty appeared to be more along the lines of perfection, looking like she had stepped out of the dreams of every teenage boy. The second thought that Harry had was one of recognition, recognising the girl from the quidditch World Cup, mostly remembering Venom saving her from a bunch of death eaters.
'You're welcome,' Venom said as if it was no big deal.
"She's alright, I guess," Harry said, turning his attention away as the new arrivals began walking towards Dumbledore.
"Alright?!" Ron, Seamus and Dean repeated dumbly as if they couldn't believe what he had just said.
"She's beauty incarnate," Seamus said reverently.
"I've dreamt about girls that don't look as nice as her," Dean added unashamedly.
"I hope she likes redheads," Ron whispered hopefully as they walked past, the redhead took a moment to 'discreetly' stare at the backsides of the girls while patting down a few stray tufts of hair.
"Oh honestly," Hermione huffed, pulling everyone's attention to her. "That girl is not that good-looking." She said, looking quite annoyed with the attention that the male population of Hogwarts seemed intent on giving her.
"Hermione, she's a veela," Ron said with an air of authority. "She's got to be," He said, staring in her direction whilst licking his lips.
"She is very pretty," Neville quietly agreed, shifting slightly in his seat, feeling torn between wanting to look at her and wanting to look away.
"Harry didn't react to her," Ginny pointed out, sitting nearby with her friends.
"I have self-control, thank you very much," Harry replied before sending a lopsided grin to Ginny and her friends. "Besides, the girls at Hogwarts are more than good enough for me." He added with a wink, earning a giggle from the girls, their faces going red as they started whispering amongst each other. If Ron had not been so busy trying to stare at the French girls then he might have not appreciated Harry flirting with his sister, however, he was a bit too busy gaping at the girls to notice.
'Nice,' Venom said approvingly.
"Madam Maxime, it is good to see you again," Dumbledore said, greeting the French headmistress, she extended her hand and Dumbledore, tall as he was, leaned up to kiss her knuckles.
"It is good to see you too, Dumbley-door," Maxime smiled brightly at him, speaking in a heavy French accent.
"Please, have your students sit wherever they like, I'm sure they must be tired," Dumbledore said pleasantly.
"Of course," She replied, gesturing the students to go. "I'd like to ask about our transport, my abraxan horses will need a particularly strong hand to manage them."
"In that case, I'm happy to introduce you to Professor Hagrid," Dumbledore smiled brightly, gesturing to Hagrid who had a light blush on his face. "He will be more than capable of caring for them." He told Madam Maxime who looked somewhat doubtful about that.
Meanwhile, the Beauxbaton girls and boys had chosen to sit down at the Ravenclaw table, perhaps because they were the table with the blue house logo. Either way, Harry was glad that he had his back to them as he didn't fancy staring at the French girl from earlier. He didn't think the chances of her recognising him were high given that he had been all 'venom-ised' at the time, but he would still prefer to not stare at her, he'd probably look like a pervert, a bit like how Ron was looking at the moment.
"Lucky gits," Ron said jealously, staring over his shoulders.
"And now, let us please welcome our friends from the north," Dumbledore spoke once more. "Let us please give a warm Hogwarts welcome to Headmaster Karkaroff and the Durmstrang Insititute!" The doors to the hall opened once more to allow in a man that was apparently the visiting school's headmaster, the man was tall and thin just like Dumbledore. He had an unctuously cheerful demeanour which included a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, which were blue and remained cold and unmoving. His weak chin was not completely covered by his goatee, which ended with a small curl. His teeth were yellow and he was dressed in sleek, silver furs. Following behind him were several students dressed in fur cloaks, fur hats, and blood-red robes.
"Merlin's stubby testicles!" Ron blurted out in a voice filled with shock and awe, looking even more excited than when he had seen the Beauxbaton girls. "Guys! Look! Look! It's Victor Krum!" He whispered - it was a very large shout, actually, - to the other Gryffindors. Harry followed his gaze and spotted Krum, a burly boy with a small goatee, Harry recognised him as the seeker from the Bulgarian team at the Quidditch World Cup, the boy was arguably the best seeker in the world.
'Poor guy,' Harry thought to himself as the boy looked quite uncomfortable with all the attention he was getting, especially after Ron's 'quiet' outburst. As the Durmstrang students walked forwards, Harry couldn't help but notice that Krum had managed to put a few students in between him and the Gryffindor table.
"Dumbledore!" The Durmstrang headmaster said cheerfully as he greeted Dumbledore with an enthusiastic hug.
"Igor," Dumbledore smiled back, returning the brief hug. "It's good to see you," He said pleasantly. "Please, take a seat wherever you wish."
"Sit here! Sit here!" Ron yelled happily but was ignored when all of the Durmstrang students headed over to the Slytherin table. "What?" Ron asked in a quiet voice as he watched them sit down, his expression shifted into one of disbelief when he spotted Krum sitting next to Malfoy. Ron quickly looked away, not wanting to risk seeing Malfoy's gloating face.
"I'm not going to lie, this kind of feels like the start of a bad romance story," Harry commented, gesturing between Ron and Krum, earning a few laughs from nearby Gryffindors.
"Oi!" Ron protested. "It's not like that."
"You brought a poster and like two figures of him at the World Cup," Harry pointed out.
"It was a two-for-one offer, asshole!"
"Language, Ron," Hermione said, automatically.
"And now that we are all here, we should probably begin with a few announcements." Dumbledore declared. "I, however, would much rather prefer if we eat first. Enjoy everyone." He clapped his hands and suddenly the tables were all filled with food, prompting the students to begin eating.
"Hmm, hey, what's all this?" Ron blinked as he stared at a few dishes that were definitely not your normal English dishes.
"I recognise a few of these, they're French dishes," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"Dumbledore probably mixed in these dishes for the other students," Harry guessed. "Maybe also so that we could try it."
"No thank you," Ron sniffed, putting a few chicken wings onto his plate. "I'm happy with nice and traditional British food."
"With how happy you are, I'm surprised that you're not the same size as Crabbe and Goyle," Harry replied in an amused manner.
"I've got a few years before my food catches up with me, thank you very much," Ron said, sending him the finger before they all started eating. Harry was at least willing to try the foreign dishes, some he liked, others he didn't, and some were okay. Venom cared very little for anything that wasn't brains or chocolate.
About ten minutes into eating, Harry felt slightly odd all of a sudden like there was something tingling at the back of his head, he looked up and noticed that the Gryffindor boys had gone glassy-eyed and were each suffering from various degrees of dropped jaws. The girls, on the other hand, were supporting either neutral or downright hostile looks.
'We got company,' Venom told him a few seconds before Harry felt a tap on his shoulder. The young wizard turned around in his seat and found himself staring straight into a pair of bright blue eyes, the girl from before was standing in front of him, the one that Ron was sure was a veela, the one that he had rescued from the world cup. He gave her a questioning look, she stared at him for a moment before she opened her mouth to speak.
"Are you done with the bouillabaisse?" She asked, in an accented voice that sent pleasurable shivers into the bodies of the nearby boys. Harry could admit to himself that it didn't really matter if the girl was veela or not, she was ridiculously attractive. Still, he refused to allow himself to act like the other boys.
"Yeah!" Ron said quickly. "It was brilliant!"
"You never tried any of it," Hermione muttered.
"Would that be this one?" Harry asked, pointing to one of the dishes.
"Non, that one," She gestured to what appeared to be a soup of some kind.
"You can have it," Harry said, picking it up and holding it out for her.
"Merci beaucoup," She nodded to him as she took it from her, her fingers brushing against his as she took it. "Have we met before?" She asked suddenly.
"I don't believe so, Miss..." Harry trailed off, giving her a questioning look.
"Delacour," She answered. "Je m'appelle Fleur Delacour."
"Pleasure to meet you," Harry said, having learnt at least enough French from school to understand that she was introducing herself.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Gem Apples," Ron said with an overly friendly smile, causing her to stare at him, her face scrunching up slightly before she turned back to Harry.
"Au revoir," She said to him before she turned and walked away with enviable grace, Harry quickly turned away, not wanting to be accused of trying to stare at her back, not that the other boys had the same problem, looking like the imperius curse itself was compelling them to look.
"She seemed alright, I guess," Harry shrugged before going back to his food.
Comments
SSs34TheElf
Ngl, I was expecting Venom to make a quip on Fleur’s ass or something. It would have been very Venom-like lol. But good job Harry, you trying to be low key and in control probs just got you to the top of Fleur’s priorities to investigate lmao. Can’t wait to see the next chapter! :D Really loved this one!
Christian Jeffress
Thanks for another very fun and entertaining chapter
