The appearance of this notice in the foyer had a noticeable effect on the people who lived in the castle. For the next week, everywhere Phoenix went, people seemed to talk about only one topic: Triwizard Tournament. Rumors spread quickly among the students, like highly contagious germs: who would be the Champions of Hogwarts, what the Championship would be, and how the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students would be different from them.

The castle seems to be being thoroughly cleaned. Several sordid portraits were scrubbed clean, and the scrubbed figures were very unhappy about it. They sat hunched in the frame, muttering sullenly, grinning in pain each time they touched the tender pink flesh of their faces. That caused the armor to suddenly become shiny and shiny, and it no longer creaked when it moved. When the janitor, Argus Filch, saw that a student had forgotten to clean his shoes, and he was furious, causing two first-year girls to go into hysteria.

On the morning of October 30, when they went to breakfast, they found that the auditorium had been renovated overnight. Huge silk banners hung on the walls, each representing one of Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor with a golden lion on a red background, Ravenclaw with a bronze eagle on a blue background, Hufflepuff with a black badger on a yellow background, and Slytherin with a silver python on a green background. Behind the teacher's desk, hung the largest banner with the coat of arms of Hogwarts: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake linked together with a large letter H around it.

That day, there was a sense of anticipatory joy in the air. In class, no one was paying attention, and everyone thought that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were coming tonight. They put on their cloaks and arrived in the foyer where the deans were ordering their students to line up.

They walked down the steps and stood in front of the castle in a line. It was a cold, airy evening, and night was falling, and a white, translucent moon was already hanging over the Forbidden Forest. Phoenix stood between Melinda and Brayce, in the fourth row of the positive number.

"How do you think they're coming?" Melinda looked around, nothing out of the ordinary. Turning his head and saying, "By train?"

"I don't think so. Bress said.

"Beauxbatons I don't know, but" Phoenix lowered his voice to keep it from being heard. "Durmstrang came by boat, and my cousin came too. ”

"Wow, wait. Brace was startled at first, and then took a closer look at the black lake, "This is an inner lake." ”

At that moment, Dumbledore, who was standing in the back row with the other teachers, shouted. "Ah, if I'm not mistaken, Beauxbatons' representatives have arrived!"

"Where?" asked the students eagerly, looking in different directions.

"There!" a sixth-grader shouted, pointing over the Forbidden Forest.

A behemoth, much larger than a broomstick—or a hundred—was speeding across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger and larger.

As the black behemoth skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest, illuminated by the lights of the castle window, they saw a great powder-blue carriage flying towards them. It was the size of a house, and twelve winged horses flew through it, all of them silver-maned horses, each about the size of an elephant.

The carriage flew even lower and was descending at an incredibly rapid pace, and the students in the first three rows hurried back - and then, with an earth-shattering bang, Neville jumped backwards and stepped on the foot of a Slytherin fifth-grader - only to see the horses' hooves slam to the ground, all the size of a vegetable plate. In the blink of an eye, the carriage also landed on the ground, vibrating on the huge wheels, and the golden horses shook their huge heads, their big fiery red eyes dripping.

Phoenix saw a coat of arms on the door. Two golden wands with a cross of gold, each with three stars emerging from it.

A boy in a light blue robe jumped out of the carriage, bent down, groped for something on the floor of the carriage, and opened a golden spiral staircase. He jumped back respectfully, and Phoenix saw a shiny black heel come out of the carriage—the shoe the size of a child's sleigh—followed by a woman the size of a child he had never seen in his life.

"Good fellow, just like that stupid big guy. Draco whispered to the man next to him.

When she stepped into the light that spilled from the foyer, they found that she had a very handsome olive face, dark, watery eyes, and a very pointed nose. Her hair was combed back and tied in a shiny bun at the base of her neck. She was wrapped from head to toe in a black forged garment, and many precious opals shone around her neck and on her thick fingers.

Dumbledore began to applaud, and his classmates clapped their hands, many on tiptoe, trying to see the woman more clearly. Her face relaxed, an elegant smile bloomed, and a glittering hand reached out toward Dumbledore. Dumbledore, though also tall, barely bent over when he kissed the hand.

"Dear Lady Maxim," he said, "welcome to Hogwarts. ”

"Dumbledore," Lady Maxim said in a deep voice, "I wish you all the best. ”

"Very good, thank you. Dumbledore said.

"My students. Madame Maxim said, waving a huge hand nonchalantly behind her.

About twelve or thirteen schoolboys and girls had disembarked from the carriage and were now standing behind Madame Maxim. Judging from their appearance, they are all about seventeen or eighteen years old, and they are all trembling slightly. This is not surprising, since the robes on their bodies seem to be made of fine silk, and none of them wore cloaks. Several students had their heads wrapped in scarves or headscarves. They all looked up at Hogwarts with wary expressions on their faces.

"Is Karkaroff here?" asked Madame Maxim.

"He'll come anytime. Dumbledore said, "Would you rather wait here to meet him, or would you rather go in and get warm?"

"Let's warm up. "But the horses—" said Madame Maxime.

"Our Conservation Magical Creatures Teacher will be happy to take care of them," Dumbledore said, "and he'll come back after dealing with a little mess, it's his- well- something else he's going to take care of." ”

"I don't know what kind of mess?" said Brace, sarcastically.

"Personally, I sincerely hope that those fried snails are gone. "I can't make up any more about their day-to-day behavior." ”

They stood there, shivering from the cold, waiting for the arrival of the Durmstrang delegation. Most people are staring up at the sky. There was silence for a moment, except for the sound of Madame Maxim's giant horse snorting and stomping its hooves. That's when --

"Did you hear anything?" Melinda asked suddenly.

Standing on the slope of the lawn overlooking the site, they could clearly see the calm, black water, but it suddenly became no longer calm. There was a commotion in the middle of the lake, with a huge splash on the surface of the water, and waves crashing against the damp shore - and then, in the middle of the lake, a great whirlpool appeared, as if a great plug had suddenly been pulled out of the bottom of the lake.

A long, black rod-like thing slowly rose from the whirlpool, and slowly, in extraordinary magnificence, the great ship rose out of the water, shining in the moonlight. It looked eerie, like a skeleton, as if it were the remains of a freshly salvaged shipwreck, and the portholes shimmered with a dim, foggy glimmer that looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a faint splashing of water, the big boat came out completely, tossed on the undulating water, and began to sail towards the shore. A moment later they heard a thud, an iron anchor thrown into the shallow water, and then another snap, and a plank was placed on the shore of the lake.

The men on the boat were coming ashore, and the man who led them to the castle was dressed in a silvery-white fur that was soft and smooth, much like his hair.

"Dumbledore!" cried the man enthusiastically as he walked up the slope, "how are you, my dear old fellow?"

"Great, thank you, Professor Karkaroff. Dumbledore replied.

Karloff's voice was mellow and sweet. When he walked into the light coming from the main entrance of the castle, they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short, and his goatee did not completely cover his thin chin. He walked up to Dumbledore and shook Dumbledore's hand with both hands.

"My dear old fellow, Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling—his teeth were yellow, "it's good to be here, it's good to be here—Victor, come here, warm up—don't you mind, Dumbledore?

Karkaroff motioned for one of his students to step forward. As the boy walked by, the crowd exploded

"It's Victor Krum!"