Although Dumbledore had said they were free to do as they pleased, and although he had also stressed that the feast would not begin until half past six.
The young wizards of Hogwarts still all ran to the Great Hall as soon as they were dismissed. Their idea was to wait for the students from the other schools to arrive, then take the initiative to greet them.
Of course, they had a very specific target in mind for those greetings.
Apart from a handful of boys thinking about the pretty French girls from Beauxbatons, the vast majority of Hogwarts students had Krum on their minds.
"Merlin above, it really is Krum! So he's a Durmstrang student!"
"I'm going to ask him for an autograph later. A photo together would be even better!"
"Creevey? Creevey? Colin Creevey! Oh, there you are. Did you bring your camera? Brilliant! We're counting on you later!"
"Do you think Krum would agree if I asked him to sign my clothes with lipstick? I don't want to go back to my dormitory to get anything. What if I can't get a place in the queue by the time I get back?"
"That's very possible."
Almost everyone was discussing Krum.
There was no helping it. Since the Quidditch World Cup, the buzz surrounding Krum had remained intense. More than twenty top teams from the major leagues had extended offers to him.
But so far, not a single league team had announced that it had secured a contract with Krum.
As it turned out, he was still in school!
"For heaven's sake," Hermione said, looking helplessly at Ron, who was eagerly hoping to get Krum's autograph. "Isn't he just a Quidditch player? Do you all really need to act like this?"
"A player? Just?" Ron looked at Hermione