Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

comfortable and enjoyable.’
    One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakeably a derisive laugh.
    ‘No one’s making you stay!’ Hermione whispered, bristling at her.
    ‘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 Harry saw Karkaroff lean forward at once and engage him in conversation.
    The dishes in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.
    ‘What’s that ?’ said Ron, pointing at a large dish of some sort of shellfish stew that stood beside a large steak-and-kidney pudding.
    ‘Bouillabaisse,’ said Hermione.
    ‘Bless you,’ said Ron.
    ‘It’s French ,’ said Hermione. ‘I had it on holiday, summer before last, it’s very nice.’
    ‘I’ll take your word for it,’ said Ron, helping himself to black pudding.
    The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely twenty additional students there; perhaps it was because their differently coloured uniforms stood out so clearly against the black of the Hogwarts robes. Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep, blood red.
    Hagrid sidled into the Hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. He slid into his seat at the end and waved at Harry, Ron and Hermione with a very heavily bandaged hand.
    ‘Skrewts doing all right, Hagrid?’ Harry called.
    ‘Thrivin’,’ Hagrid called back happily.
    ‘Yeah, I’ll just bet they are,’ said Ron quietly. ‘Looks like they’ve finally found a food they like, doesn’t it? Hagrid’s fingers.’
    At that moment, a voice said, ‘Excuse me, are you wanting ze bouillabaisse?’
    It was the girl from Beauxbatons who had laughed during Dumbledore’s speech. She had finally removed her muffler. A long sheet of silvery blonde hair fell almost to her waist. She had large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth.
    Ron went purple. He stared up at her, opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out except a faint gurgling noise.
    ‘Yeah, have it,’ said Harry, pushing the dish towards the girl.
    ‘You ’ave finished wiz it?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Ron said breathlessly. ‘Yeah, it was excellent.’
    The girl picked up the dish and carried it carefully off to the Ravenclaw table. Ron was still goggling at the girl as though he had never seen one before. Harry started to laugh. The sound seemed to jog Ron back to his senses.
    ‘She’s a Veela !’ he said hoarsely to Harry.
    ‘Of course she isn’t!’ said Hermione tartly. ‘I don’t see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!’
    But she wasn’t entirely right about that. As the girl crossed the Hall, many boys’ heads turned, and some of them seemed to have become temporarily speechless, just like Ron.
    ‘I’m telling you, that’s not a normal girl!’ said Ron, leaning sideways so he could keep a clear view of her. ‘They don’t make them like that at Hogwarts!’
    ‘They make them OK at Hogwarts,’ said Harry, without thinking. Cho Chang happened to be sitting only a few places away from the girl with the silvery hair.
    ‘When you’ve both put your eyes back in,’ said Hermione briskly, ‘you’ll be able to see who’s just arrived.’
    She was pointing up at the staff table. The two remaining empty seats had just been filled. Ludo Bagman was now sitting on Professor Karkaroff’s other side, while Mr Crouch, Percy’s boss, was next to Madame Maxime.
    ‘What are they doing here?’ said Harry in surprise.
    ‘They organised the Triwizard Tournament, didn’t they?’ said Hermione. ‘I suppose they wanted to be here to see it start.’
    When the second course arrived they noticed a number of unfamiliar puddings, too. Ron examined an odd sort of pale blancmange closely, then moved it carefully a few inches to his right, so that it would be clearly visible from the Ravenclaw table. The girl who looked like a Veela appeared to have eaten enough, however, and did not come over to get it.
    Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. Harry felt a