The Plane Merchant of Hogwarts

The carriage flew lower and was landing at an extremely fast speed. The students standing in the first three rows hurriedly backed away.

Then, all the little wizards made an earth-shaking loud noise, which made many people tremble. Poor Neville even stepped on the foot of a fifth-year Slytherin classmate.

I saw those horse hooves hitting the ground with a thud, each one as big as a vegetable plate, and they seemed to step on the hearts of the little wizards.

In the blink of an eye, the carriage also landed on the ground, vibrating on the huge wheels. At the same time, the golden horses shook their huge heads and their big fiery red eyes turned.

There was a coat of arms printed on the car door, which consisted of two golden crossed wands, with three stars emerging from each. Just as Rolf was looking at the badge, the car door opened.

A boy in a light blue robe jumped out of the carriage, bent down, groped for something on the floor of the carriage, and then opened a golden spiral staircase.

He jumped back respectfully and saw a shiny black high-heeled shoe sticking out of the carriage.

The shoe alone was as big as a child's sled, and a woman appeared right behind him. She was so big that they had never seen her in their lives.

In this way, it was self-evident why the carriage and those silver-maned horses were so big, and everyone seemed to gasp in shock.

They had only seen one person in their lives who could compare in size to this woman, and that was Hagrid. Many people suspected that there was almost no difference in height between the two of them.

When she walked into the light that spilled from the foyer, everyone found that she had a very handsome olive face, a pair of black and large watery eyes, and a very pointed nose.

Her hair was combed back and tied into a shiny bun at the base of her neck. She was wrapped in a black wrought dress from head to toe, with many luxurious opals shining on her neck and on her thick fingers.

Professor Dumbledore began to applaud, and the classmates also clapped. Many of them stood on tiptoes, trying to get a better look at this woman.

Her face relaxed, she opened an elegant smile, stretched out a gleaming hand, and walked towards Dumbledore.

Although Dumbledore usually seemed tall, he hardly bent down when kissing this hand, and even had to stand on tiptoes a little.

"Dear Madam Maxime," he said, "welcome to Hogwarts."

"Professor Dumbledore," Mrs. Maxim said in a low voice, seemingly mixed with a hint of surprise: "I hope everything is well with you. It seems that you are in good condition. It seems that the rumors that you have regained your youth are true.

Yes? Maybe we can communicate in private?!"

"Very good, thank you, but it was just a potion accident, and I don't have much experience." Professor Dumbledore said apologetically.

"My student." Mrs. Maxim didn't seem to care very much. She nodded and said, waving behind her casually with a huge hand.

The little wizards seemed to be just staring at Madame Maxime, but then they noticed that about twelve or three male and female students had gotten off the carriage and were standing behind Madame Maxime.

Judging from their appearance, they were all around eighteen or nineteen years old, and all of them were trembling slightly.

This was not surprising, since their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them wore cloaks.

Several students had their heads wrapped with scarves or turbans. They all looked up at Hogwarts with a wary look on their faces.

"Is Karkaroff here?" Madame Maxime asked.

"He will be here at any time," Dumbledore said. "Would you rather wait here to greet him, or would you rather go in and warm yourself first?"

"It's better to get warmer," Madame Maxime said, "but those horses..."

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be happy to look after them," said Dumbledore. "He's coming back from a little mess that was caused by something else that was...well...that he was looking after."

"It's probably a squid." Justin next to him said to Rolf with a soft smile.

"My horses require a strong person to take care of them," Mrs. Maxim said, seeming to doubt whether the Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts was up to the job, "and they have very fierce tempers..."

"I assure you, Hagrid is fully capable of doing this job." Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Very well," Madame Maxime said, bowing slightly, "could you tell this Hagrid that these horses only drink single malt whisky?"

"I'll take care of it," Dumbledore said, bowing as well.

"Come on," Madame Maxime said majestically to her students. Then the crowd at Hogwarts moved out of the way, allowing her and her students to walk up the stone steps.

The rest continued to stand there, waiting for the arrival of the Durmstrang delegation. Some of them were already shivering slightly from the cold.

Most people looked up at the sky eagerly. For a while, everything was silent, except for the snorting and stamping of Madame Maxime's giant horse.

at this time……

"Did you hear anything?" Ernie asked suddenly.

With Rolf's hearing, he had naturally heard a very loud and strange voice coming towards them from the darkness:

It was a suppressed rumbling and sucking sound, like a giant vacuum cleaner moving along the riverbed...

"In the lake!" Lee Jordan shouted from Gryffindor, pointing to the lake, "Look at that lake!"

Standing on the slope of the lawn overlooking the field, they could clearly see the calm, dark water.

However, the water surface suddenly became no longer calm. There was a commotion under the water in the middle of the lake. Huge splashes rose on the water surface, and waves crashed against the wet lake shore.

Then, right in the center of the lake, a large whirlpool appeared, as if a huge plug was suddenly pulled out from the bottom of the lake...

A long black pole-like thing slowly rose from the whirlpool... Then the little wizards saw the sail rigging...

Slowly and magnificently, the big ship rose out of the water, shining brightly in the moonlight.

It had a strange, skeletal appearance, as if it were the remains of a sunken ship that had just been raised, and the portholes shone with a dim, misty light that looked like ghostly eyes.

Finally, with a faint splashing sound, the big boat emerged completely, bumped on the undulating water, and began to sail towards the lake shore.

A moment later, they heard a thump as an anchor was thrown into the shallow water, and then another thud as a plank was set up on the shore of the lake.

The people on the ship were disembarking, and the little wizards could see the silhouettes of people passing through the porthole lights.

Their students all seem to be very tall, similar to Crabbe and Goyle...

However, when they came closer and walked along the lawn into the light cast by the foyer, Rolf discovered that the reason why they looked so big was because they were all wearing a kind of fur cloak with shaggy and tangled fur.

Luo couldn't help but think: No wonder wearing mink has become a fashion.

But the man who led them towards the castle was wearing a different kind of fur: silver-white, soft and smooth, much like his hair.

"Dumbledore!" the man called enthusiastically as he walked up the ramp. "How are you, my dear old fellow?"

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

Karloff's voice was mellow and sweet, and when he walked into the light from the castle's main entrance, they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore.

But his white hair was very short, and the ends of his goatee were curled, which did not completely cover his thin chin. He walked up to Dumbledore and shook hands with Dumbledore.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he looked up at the castle and said with a smile, "it's so good to be here, so good... Viktor, come here and warm yourself up... don't you mind?

,Dumbledore? Viktor has a little cold..."

Karkaroff motioned to one of his students to come forward. When the boy walked by, there were bursts of exclamations all around.