บท 141: Arrival Of Delegations

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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When the students came down for breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, they found that the Great Dining Hall had been decorated overnight. Huge silk banners hung on the walls, each representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver snake for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' Head Table was the most prominent banner of all, the Hogwarts banner; a lion, eagle, badger and snake joined together by a large letter H.

There was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air. Nobody (professors included) was very attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang that evening; even the students who had Potions found it more bearable than usual, as Snape was quieter than usual. The bell rang early, and the entire student body went to their dormitories, deposited their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back downstairs to the Great Hall.

Each Head of House was ordering their students to sit.

"Sit down, children!" shouted Flitwich with his squeaky voice. At that moment, it held a lot of power. "Remain in your seats and don't move around. You can do whatever you want after, but right now I want discipline...! Carmichael! Get down from the table and sit on the bench!"

The squeaky yell almost made Eddie fall from the table. He stumbled around as he rushed to sit back on the bench.

"Ms. Lovegood, please remove that dragon hat from your head," sighed Flitwick. "Yes, yes, I know you want to represent the school. Right now, you need to sit down like a good student. Yes, thank you... you know what? Please, give me that hat. I will return it to you after the feast."

He took the headwear that had the shape of a dragon from Luna, shrinking it down so he could pocket it.

"Mr. Belby... If I see your hands moving towards your mouth… If I see you chewing, swallowing, or eating anything in general, I'll deprive you of your sense of taste and smell for an entire week. Put that candy down and clean the table! Don't try your chances, it won't go well."

The threat caused the table to be cleaned faster than what any house-elf could ever accomplish. Within seconds, the candy pack disappeared, and the table was sparkling clean.

"Prefects!" called out the half-goblin half-human Professor. "Follow me, please. It's time."

"See you guys in a bit," said Quinn smiling to his friends, who all had been reprimanded by Flitwick.

The Prefects, the Head Boy and Girl, every Head of House, and Dumbledore came down the steps and lined up in front of the castle.

It was a cool, clear evening; twilight was peeking over the horizon, and a pale, translucent moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Quinn stood with the Ravenclaws prefects, and as prescribed, he took his place at the front with the fifth year prefects, just behind the Headmasters and the faculty.

They were watching excitingly the darkening grounds, but nothing was moving yet; everything was still, silent, and quiet as usual. The students started to feel cold. They wished the delegation would hurry up... Maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance… There was a tendency among the magical kind to show off when gathering in groups.

Quinn, too, wanted them to hurry up, he was comfortable in the cold, but he wasn't okay with boredom. Standing there doing nothing wasn't his style. He couldn't take out a book to read because Flitwick would yell at him, and he couldn't mess with magic because... Flitwick would yell at him.

Suddenly, Dumbledore called out from the back row where he was standing with the other teachers. "Aha! Unless I am mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

"Where are they?" asked a sixth-year Hufflepuff Prefect, looking eagerly in various directions.

"There!" said the Head Boy, pointing over the forest.

Something large, much larger than a broomstick— or, perhaps, a hundred broomsticks— was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger.

"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the Gryffindors.

"Don't be stupid... it's a flying house!" said a Slytherin.

The Slytherin's guess was closer... As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights that shone from the castle windows lit the shape up, they saw a massive, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them. The carriage was flying thanks to a dozen Abraxan winged horses, each the size of an elephant.

The Hogwarts professors drew backward, as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed. Then, with an almighty crash that made Flitwick jump back onto Snape's foot, the horses' hooves, wider than dinner plates, hit the ground. A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery-red eyes.

'Elephantine palomino Abraxan winged horses,' noted Quinn. He had just the time to see that the carriage door bore a coat of arms (two crossed, golden wands, each emitting three stars) before it opened.

A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage, bent forward, fumbled for a moment with something on the carriage floor, and unfolded a set of golden steps. He sprang back respectfully.

Then they saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage —a shoe the size of a child's sled— followed, almost immediately, by the largest woman he had ever seen in his life. The enormous size of the carriage and the horses was immediately explained. A few people gasped.

Lots had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his life, and that was the gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures Hagrid; and they doubted whether there was an inch difference in their heights. Yet somehow —maybe simply because they were used to Hagrid— this woman (she was on the ground, now) seemed even more unnaturally large.

As she stepped into the light coming from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face, large, black, liquid-looking eyes, and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.

Quinn and Dumbledore started to clap; following their lead, the others broke into applause too, a few of them craning their necks to get a better look at this woman.

Her face relaxed into a gracious smile. She walked towards Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, and barely bent to kiss it.

"My dear Madame Maxime," said Dumbledore. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I hope you are well?"

"Excellent as always, thank you," he said.

"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.

Quinn, whose attention had been focused entirely upon Madame Maxime, now noticed there were about a dozen boys and girls in their late teens. They emerged from the carriage and were standing behind Madame Maxime. They were shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what Quinn could see (they were standing in Madame Maxime's enormous shadow), they were staring up at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"Has Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him, or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a bit?"

"Warm-up, I think," said Madame Maxime in accented English. "But the horses —"

"I believe our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said Dumbledore, "he'll take care of the horses when he finishes dealing with a situation he has with other —er— of his charges."

"Skrewts," supplied Sprout.

"My steeds require... forceful handling," said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted that any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. "They are very strong..."

"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," said Dumbledore, smiling.

"Very well," said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "Would you please inform Hagrid that the horses drink only single-malt whiskey?"

"I shall inform him," said Dumbledore, also bowing. "One of our students will escort you inside."

McGonagall turned towards the Ravenclaw group and spoke, "Mr. West, please escort the Beauxbatons delegation into the castle."

"Yes, Professor," said Quinn and stepped out of the group towards the French delegation.

"Bonsoir," said Quinn with a smile. He continued to speak in French. "Please follow me. I will lead you to the castle."

The sudden fluent French from a Hogwarts student surprised the Beauxbatons group, but they didn't have time to react, as Quinn turned and started to walk. They could only exchange looks and follow him.

"Thank you for traveling all this way. I'm sure it wasn't an easy journey," said Quinn as he took out his fake wand and pointed it up while casting magic. The Beauxbatons students suddenly felt the cold leave as warmth enveloped them.

"Your French is excellent," said Maxine, looking at Quinn with interest.

"Thank you for the compliment, ma'am," smiled Quinn as the group climbed up the stairs to the entrance hall. "My grandmother was French. I have been taught the language since I was young."

The group entered the hall, and the surroundings were illuminated by the light in the hall. As he was requested, Quinn stopped in the middle of the hall and turned towards the Beauxbatons group.

"We will enter the hall when the Durmstrang delegation arrives," informed Quinn. "Until then, please make yourselves comfortable, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me questions. I will try my best to answer all of your queries."

"What is your name, child?" asked Maxine; looking down from her towering height, there was a look in her eyes.

"Oh, my, how forgetful of me," he said and, with a smile, introduced himself. "My name is Quinn. I'm a fifth-year student here at Hogwarts."

Maxime continued to look at Quinn for a few seconds. "You are a West, aren't you?"

Quinn held the twitch in his eye and a click in his tongue. While he never hid his name from anyone in Hogwarts, he never had wanted anyone to know his real background. It was convenient that not a lot of people knew about the Wests. Besides, he only bothered to interact with people whom he got along with, such as the Greengrass sisters, the Potter twins, or the faculty. He didn't try to get close to others who he didn't like; for instance, Draco Malfoy.

To him, it would be tremendously annoying if people realised his family background. Bugs would start to wander around, trying to please him because of his family wealth. To his luck, his background had been able to remain mostly anonymous. He had, for a reason, not given his family name to Olympe Maxime.

"What gave it away?" asked Quinn.

"Your eyes, little one," answered Maxine. "Your sister has the same eyes as you. And child... you remind me too much of George West. You know, I was disappointed when I got your rejection letter. I wish you had attended Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts."

"I'm sure I would've loved it," spoke Quinn.

The conversation ended there. Quinn looked over towards the students and saw them looking towards him.

He smiled and initiated a conversation, "Hello, how are you all? Are you excited about your being in Hogwarts?"

One of the Beauxbatons boys nodded with a friendly smile, "Yes, it will be a unique experience, I'm sure."

"Are all of you going to enter your names for the tournament?"

"Yes, we went through a selection process; the fifteen of us have been selected as champion candidates," said the late-teen proud of himself. The rest, too, held some level of proud expressions.

"Well, congratulations for being the best," said Quinn. "As I said, if you have any questions, I'll always be there. If you have any problems that you need to solve, feel free to contact me."

After saying that, Quinn took out a thin stack of French A.I.D. cards and handed them one card each.

"These cards have a map that will lead you to my office," he said, and the Beauxbatons students saw a small square with an arrow pointing towards a direction. "If you follow the arrow, you'll arrive somewhere where you'll have solutions to all of your problems."

Quinn got to the last student. He looked at the girl in front of him.

'Beautiful,' was the first thing Quinn thought.

She was tall and willowy, with an air of grace that made her seem like she was a princess in an ivory palace. Her very presence seemed to emanate a faint, silvery glow. She had long, silvery-blonde hair that fell almost to her waist. She had shining, deep blue eyes, fair skin, and very white, even teeth. All about the girl in front of him was breathtakingly beautiful.

Quinn immediately knew who she was, but as he handed her the card, he asked, "May I know your name?"

The question brought smiles to a few Beauxbatons students, while others didn't look so happy. They knew what was happening, and to some it was amusing, but to others, it wasn't, because they didn't want to be in Quinn's place when everything ended.

The girl grasped the card with her dainty gloved hand, and with a smile that screamed pride, self-confidence, haughtiness... and a sense of superiority. She introduced herself.

"Fleur Delacour."

Quinn nodded, and with the card out of his hand, he walked away without any further words. The sudden leave stunned Fleur, and her eyes followed Quinn with a surprised expression. Beauxbatons students were also rendered stunned as they were expecting a completely opposite reaction. Maxime, too, looked at Quinn with interest in her eyes, although her expression betrayed nothing.

'So that's how it feels, huh,' thought Quinn as he walked. 'Veelas and their allure can be dangerous... uh-huh, yes they are.'

The second he laid his eyes on her, he realised what an absolute beauty Fleur Delacour was. She was at the level that she would be able to turn a hundred out of a hundred heads when passing by, but when he stood face-to-face, the French Veela transcended all levels of beauty that Quinn had ever witnessed.

Quinn had felt his heart quicken just a notch. His pupils dilated, as if he couldn't take his eyes off her. The allure washed over him, doing what it did best, enhancing her natural beauty to an enchanting level. But, then, his magic kicked in; it felt the foreign magic, recognized the effects, and finally, the will be had honed through cold, pain, suffering, and turbulent waters took care of it. Even without her Veela allure, Fleur was an absolute beauty; nevertheless, not on a level that Quinn would turn into a blubbering fool.

"It seems the Durmstrang delegation is here," said Quinn, turning the Beauxbatons delegation's eyes away from him towards the hall's entrance. They saw Dumbledore walk in with a tall and thin, white haired man with a goatee (that finished in a slight curl). Behind them were the Head of Houses, Hogwarts students, and around a dozen Durmstrang students dressed in some shaggy, matted fur cloaks.

"Madame Maxime. It has been a long time since our last meeting," smiled the man who led the Durmstrang students, but his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd.

"Karkaroff," nodded Maxime. She didn't return the smile. She didn't like the Durmstrang headmaster and had no desire to hide that behind a fake, polite smile.

"We should hurry and move inside. I'm sure all students are starving and would like to enjoy a hot meal," said Dumbledore, but from the looks of it, he was only speaking to the Hogwarts group.

McGonagall walked towards Quinn. She took him a step away from everyone else. "Mr. West, please coordinate the delegation's entrance. Allow them entry only when you hear the headmaster introduce them."

"Yes, Professor, I will make sure that everything will be seamless."

The Hogwarts Professor and the Hogwarts students moved to the Great Hall from a side entrance, leaving behind the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegation alone in a tense silence. Maxime and Karkaroff ignored each other and talked to their students about how they had to enter.

"If I may get everybody's attention," called out Quinn clear and loud, breaking their talks and bringing all pairs of eyes on him.

He retrieved what looked like a black earbud from his pocket and plugged it in his right ear. "Inside, Headmaster Dumbledore will be introducing your entry to the students. The moment he'll utter your name will be the moment you will have to enter-" he pointed at the massive gate. "-that massive gate to the Great Hall."

"I will be coordinating the operation, so when I give you the signal, please move in immediately and showcase the show of magic you have prepared," said Quinn. Both delegations wanted to make a strong impression on the Hogwarts students. Besides, magicals loved to show off, so they had prepared coordinated magic performances to accomplish that.

"Beauxbatons will enter first, followed by Durmstrang," notified Quinn and then looked at Beauxbatons. He told them to get ready.

After giving them instructions, Quinn tapped an earbud in his ear. Inside the Great Hall, Dumbledore was standing behind a podium as he addressed the students. If one looked closely on that podium's front side, one would see a small, square metallic chip that was stuck to the podium's front. After Quinn tapped his earbud, the chip shone in a short blue glow. Outside, the earbuds came to life, and the sound of Dumbledore's voice filled Quinn's ears.

He had been inspired by the Weasley's Extendable Ears to create his own listening device. The difference between his and Weasley's creation was that his design had been based on non-magical earbuds. His were wireless, meaning they weren't inhibited by the length of a string, and thus had a greater range.

Quinn had designed a transmission system that could transfer MagiFax documents across the globe, so creating a wireless sound receiver that could transfer voice across the Great Hall wasn't that much of a challenge. His only limit was the size, as it didn't allow him to etch many runes on a square chip and an earbud. The range was barely passable by Quinn's high standards.

"Excuse me."

Quinn turned while keeping an ear on what Dumbledore was speaking.

"Yes, Ms. Delacour, how may I help you?"

"Why does the headmistress know you?" she asked, and while she was interested in her question, actually, she wanted to have another go against Quinn.

'Ah, she's amped it up, huh.' Quinn could feel a wave of magic rush around him, but affected him as much as one did when pushing a mountain with their hands. That is, nothing at all.

"My sister studied at Beauxbatons, and she is also one of Beauxbatons' most prominent alumni recruiters. That's the reason why headmistress Maxime knows of me. You might know of her; she gives an annual talk at your school. Her name is Lia West," he answered with a polite smile.

Fleur, of course, recalled Lia West. All final year students who wanted to work or pursue an apprenticeship would have to know Lia West, as she was the most prominent recruiter/sponsor at Beauxbatons. Nonetheless, she wasn't satisfied after she noticed Quinn didn't show any reaction to her shooting allure.

"Why-" she began, but Quinn cut her off.

"Ms. Delacour, I would be happy to talk more, but I'm afraid it will be after the introductions. Our headmaster is about to introduce Beauxbatons; please join your group."

Fleur wanted to speak something, but Maxime called her back to the group.

Quinn walked to the door as the Beauxbatons group moved closer. He looked at them and then counted down from ten before opening the door. It was time for the Beauxbatons delegation to meet the rest of the school.

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Quinn West - MC - Busy performing his Prefect duties.

Filius Flitwick - Professor - Stressed like other Professors.

Olympe Maxime - Half-giantess - Knows of the West family.

Fleur Delacour - Veela - Interested in the boy.

Editor - AlanL - Shipping Fleur X Quinn hard. (^ω^)

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