Professor Dumbledore led Harley all the way to Merlin Memorial Hall, where the award ceremony was being held.
People kept greeting Professor Dumbledore along the way, coming over to shake his hand or give him a hug.
Even with Harley in tow, Professor Dumbledore stopped several times, chatting for quite a while before managing to get away.
Professor Slughorn had spotted a few old friends along the way, so he had parted company with them some time ago.
Harley also ran into quite a few people she knew, many of them magical masters she had met at Nicolas's home.
Many others she didn't know went out of their way to greet her, hoping to make the acquaintance of the star of the award ceremony.
With only an hour to go before the ceremony, Harley finally arrived at Merlin Memorial Hall.
The inside of Merlin Memorial Hall was much larger than it looked from the outside, probably because of an Undetectable Extension Charm.
The hall was a semicircular auditorium modeled after an ancient Roman amphitheater, except it wasn't open to the sky.
The decorations on the walls, however, came in many different styles. Harley recognized at least a relief of the Flame Giant, the Hunter Pathway's Mythical Creature Form, and one of Quetzalcoatl, the Death Pathway's Mythical Creature Form.
According to Professor Dumbledore, the former was a figure from Norse mythology, while the latter came from the myths of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
These reliefs, along with the many other decorations, symbolized Britain's former glory as an empire on which the sun never set.
Decorations in a distinctly British style were actually the rarest. There were only thirteen statues close against the walls: twelve surrounding the seating area, and one behind the dais.
Each statue wore a different style