Annabeth Chase the Triwizard Champion

Chapter Eleven

The Professors had them all line up according to house and age, which meant that Annabeth and her friends were smack in the middle of a crowd of excited teenagers.

    They found Freddie in the middle of a crowd of tall seventh years, rescued her, and went to the end of the Slytherin fourth-year line so Vera could stand next to Daisy.

    "Hey!" Daisy said at the edge of the hufflepuff line. She kissed Vera on the cheek and tucked a daisy behind her girlfriend's ear. Vera made a face, but she didn't say anything and took Daisy's hand. "How do you think they're getting here?"

    "The carriages?" Vera said.

    Annabeth hadn't realized she had snorted until everyone looked at her.

    "Are you kidding?" she said. "If these people are anything like the people here, then there's no way they're going to be coming by carriage. They're going to find a way to show off what they have and make themselves look powerful."

    "Like what?" said a third year in the row in front of Annabeth, turning around along with a bunch of other Slytherin youngsters to look at her.

    "Like... something to flaunt their resources, to show that they have better things than we do," Annabeth said, surprised at the sudden attention.

    "Like broomsticks?" asked a second year, leaning forward with wide eyes.

    "No, we have broomsticks here," Annabeth said. "They'll use something we don't have, like... pegasi, or maybe a flying ship."

    "Flying ships are real?" asked an excited first year.

    "Sure they are," Annabeth said, "if you have the right engineer and materials."

    "Have you ever seen one?" the first year asked.

    "I've been on one," Annabeth replied. "I helped design one."

    The younger kids all gasped and began bombarding Annabeth with questions— 'what was it like?' 'how big was it?' 'how high did it fly?' 'Do you have any pictures?' 'Did you have dangerous enchantments on it?'

    "We had a nice amount of enchantments— yes, i have a few pictures—"

    "Wow! Can we see them?"

    Annabeth was trying to figure out how best to say no, since she appeared three years older in those pictures, when she was saved by Dumbledore's exclamation.

    "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approached!"

    "Where?" a bunch of students called out, looking around all over the place.

    "There!" a Gryffindor sixth year yelled, pointing at the sky.

    Something huge was coming towards them from the sky, flying over the forest.

    "It's a dragon!" someone shrieked.

    "It's a flying ship!" a Slytherin third year gasped, grabbing Annabeth's arm. "Annabeth, you were right!"

    But it didn't look like a flying ship, and as it drew nearer, Annabeth knew that it wasn't. It was too blocky, too square, and something was pulling it onward. As it got closer, Annabeth saw that it was being pulled by four huge pegasi. It was a powder blue carriage, the size of a house, sinking lower and lower in the sky.

    A few of the students surged back as it touched down fifteen feet away, the huge pegasi coming to a stop and tossing their manes proudly. The carriage hadn't been still for a few seconds before the door was flung open and a boy in pale blue robes hopped down the four feet to the ground. He unfolded a set of golden steps from inside the carriage and set the bottom on the ground.