Suddenly, a thought flashed through Madame Maxime's mind: The Chinese delegation gives the impression that they were only willing to leave their country specifically for Vaughan Weasley-
That was ridiculous!
Madame Maxime found her sudden thought absurd.
Yet, for some reason, she vaguely felt that this instinctive notion might actually be right.
She had no idea how long she had spent lost in these thoughts when she suddenly heard Pheobe gasp softly. "Madame, look at the sea. There seems to be a sailing ship over there!"
Madame Maxime looked in the direction Pheobe was pointing.
Some of the thick clouds ahead had dispersed without her noticing, revealing the sea and land they had obscured. England's iconic white cliffs were visible in the distance.
Looking down from this height, she could make out the silhouette of a pitch-black sailing ship near the cliffs, utterly out of place in this day and age. It was sailing beneath the surface like a ghost!
"Hmph!"
At the sight of the great sailing ship moving underwater, Madame Maxime snorted. "It's Karkaroff and his band of barbarians from Durmstrang!" Despite the contempt in her voice,
Madame Maxime's gaze suddenly grew much more serious.
From what she had learned earlier, Karkaroff had only reluctantly agreed to attend the Potions exchange after Fudge persuaded him, and Durmstrang was far away in Northern Europe.
Under normal circumstances, he could not possibly have arrived ahead of her!
"Did that crafty fellow hear something that made him so eager?"
"Beauxbatons and Durmstrang have both reached England."
In Vaughn's laboratory in the Hogwarts dungeons, Phineas Nigellus Black appeared in a picture frame. After delivering his report with a fawning expression to Vaughn, whose back was turned, his expression immediately changed. He looked beside him, where several other portraits had squeezed into the