After the two headmasters had a quick chat, Professor McGonagall led the Beauxbatons students and staff inside the castle.
A long time passed, and still, there was no sign of anything.
The students looked up at the sky, their eyes wide with anticipation. For a moment, it was completely silent, and there was nothing in the air.
As time went on, the temperature dropped, and many of the students were now shivering in the cold wind.
Suddenly, a curtain of light descended from the sky, bathing the students in its glow. They were surprised to find that it was now much warmer.
"Professor Dumbledore, I think the students should go inside to warm up," Dudley said.
"They'll get sick in this weather."
Dudley put his wand away and stepped out of the crowd, walking up to Dumbledore in just a couple of strides.
"Durmstrang is late, and very late at that. There's no need for the students to suffer out here. They were the ones who were rude first."
While he could keep the Warming Charm going, he didn't want to pay for Durmstrang's tardiness.
Being late was a big deal, no matter where you were.
Dumbledore thought for a moment and then agreed. "Pomona, would you mind taking the students inside first?"
'Mr. Dursley is as kind as ever.'
Dudley's actions had once again won him everyone's affection.
If there were a system for showing approval, his view would be flashing with a constant stream of "+1"s.
The students went inside the castle one by one, leaving only Dumbledore, Snape, Flitwick, and a few students led by Dudley on the lawn outside.
---
That's right... only the prefects and the Disciplinary Committee stayed behind.
A little while later, a strange sound drifted out of the darkness. It was a kind of suppressed rumble mixed with a sucking sound, a bit like a... vacuum cleaner?!
The sound wasn't coming from the sky, but from... the lake.
Durmstrang hadn't come by air; they had come by water.
The calm, black surface of the lake began to stir. The water in the center of the lake was churning, huge sprays of water flipping up, and waves crashing against the damp shore... a large whirlpool appeared right in the middle of the lake.
A black mast slowly rose from the bottom of the whirlpool.
"That entrance is a bit like the whirlpool in Heroes of Might and Magic III."
"The principles are probably different," Dudley thought as he watched the mast rise. The whirlpool in Heroes of Might and Magic III had a chance of losing members of the ship's crew.
It was a good thing the Giant Squid in the Black Lake had a good temperament; a bad-tempered one would have torn the ship to pieces.
The Black Lake at Hogwarts was home to a giant squid, and no one knew how long it had been alive. There were rumors that it was Godric Gryffindor in a different form.
Soon, a very magnificent ship slowly rose to the surface, glittering under the moonlight.
An anchor was thrown into the shallow water, and the huge cabin door slowly opened.
Large, brawny figures, dressed in special fur cloaks that could give Goyle and Crabbe a run for their money, stepped out one by one.
"Dumbledore!" The man at the front walked up the ramp and greeted Dumbledore with a warm shout. "My dear old friend, how are you?"
"I'm very well, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied, his voice completely calm.
Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang.
When Karkaroff saw that only Dumbledore and a few others were there to greet them, the smile on his face became strained. He immediately looked displeased, as if he had put on a different face. Luckily, out of respect for Dumbledore, he didn't cause a scene right then.
What? You said he was the one who was late?
Sorry, Karkaroff didn't care about that. His original plan was to be intentionally late to show Hogwarts who was in charge.
Even though his attitude towards Dumbledore had done a complete one-eighty, he didn't say anything more.
This left Dudley feeling a bit disappointed. He had been looking for an excuse to teach the man a lesson about the importance of being on time.
"It's been a long time since I've been here... Hogwarts is still as spectacular as ever. It's truly wonderful..." Karkaroff looked up at the castle. Although he was still smiling, there was no warmth in his eyes, only coldness and indifference.
"Viktor, come here, warm up... You don't mind, do you, Dumbledore? Viktor has a bit of a cold..."
Karkaroff motioned for a student behind him to come forward and brought him to Dumbledore.
With a short haircut, a prominent hooked nose, and thick, dark eyebrows, he was very easy to recognize—Viktor Krum, Durmstrang's star student and the Seeker for the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team.
Karkaroff's intention was obvious: he wanted to show off his brilliant student in front of Dumbledore.
Look, he was thinking, my student is the star Seeker of the Quidditch World Cup.
Dumbledore's smile didn't change at all.
For Dumbledore, no matter how talented Viktor Krum was, he was just a Quidditch player. Dumbledore had seen it all over the years. He'd even seen a pink, toad-like human.
Besides, the students at Hogwarts weren't much worse than Viktor.
"I know you. I've seen you play."
Before Karkaroff could keep bragging, Viktor spoke up on his own. He looked excited as he spoke to Harry, who was standing next to Dumbledore.
"You're the champion of this year's Wizarding Card World Championship, the famous Harry Potter. If I hadn't been busy with the Quidditch World Cup, I think I would have entered that competition, too."
The appeal of Wizarding Cards was that almost all young people loved them.
The other Durmstrang students also looked at Harry with admiration.
Many of them had participated in the competition, but unfortunately, they hadn't even made it past the preliminary rounds.
"Ahem."
A clearing of the throat made Viktor turn his attention. His eyes lit up again. "Oh, and the runner-up, Mr. Draco Malfoy."
Draco nodded with a smile, clearly pleased with the admiring looks from the Durmstrang students.
"Oh, and the semifinalist, Mr. Neville Longbottom, is here, too. I can't believe you're all students at Hogwarts. I thought one or two of you were from Beauxbatons."
As he said this, Viktor's gaze shifted again, landing on Ron. As the member of the Disciplinary Committee who loved Quidditch the most, Ron idolized Viktor and made him his goal.
Just as Ron was getting excited, ready to receive a compliment from his hero, Viktor's eyes moved past him without a second's pause. Then, he stopped, and his body tensed. He was even more excited than he had been when he saw Harry.
"Y-you... you're... the inventor of Wizarding Cards, Mr. Dursley!"