"It's Durmstrang!"
Harry heard Malfoy crowing smugly from the Slytherin ranks beside him. "I recognize the emblem on the sail! Their headmaster is good friends with my father!"
Hmph!
Show-off!
Harry had lost count of how many times he had heard that boastful tone from Malfoy. Although their relationship had improved somewhat after the incident with the Hogwarts Board of Governors, he still couldn't stand Malfoy's constant flaunting of his family background.
Really, hardly any young wizard their age could tolerate Malfoy's perpetual air of superiority.
So, apart from a few Slytherin sycophants, almost no one paid him any attention. Under McGonagall's stern gaze, everyone applauded politely, elegantly, and silently, watching the sailing ship that had surfaced from the lake drift slowly toward the shore.
Then a group dressed in heavy furs, looking distinctly Northern European, disembarked and walked over to Dumbledore and Li Nanyu.
While they were still exchanging greetings, someone in the crowd whispered, "Look up at the sky!"
Someone else called, "There's something over by the Forbidden Forest, too!"
The Chinese delegation's arrival seemed to have been a signal. As though they had arranged it beforehand, the delegations from the various magical schools arrived one after another. The Beauxbatons delegation flew over the castle in an enormous, luxurious carriage drawn by Abraxans.
The Uagadou delegation flew over from the far side of the Forbidden Forest on a magic carpet so vast it seemed to blot out the sky.
Foreign witches and wizards they had never seen before, from magical schools utterly different from Hogwarts, arrived outside the castle in their own distinctive ways.
Harry felt as though his palms were about to go numb from clapping.
But, like the students around him, he didn't feel the slightest impatience.
Even McGonagall's watchful gaze couldn't stop these excitement-loving students