Chapter 189: New Friends

Early the next morning, Harry and Luo En met Zhang Qiu on the way to the dining car.

"The dining car is closed; he told us to go to the Beauxbatons Great Hall for breakfast," she said.

"That's not bad either," Harry nodded, and the three of them left the train and walked toward the palace. Along the way, they noticed many Beauxbatons students chattering about something, each with a high-spirited look, as if some great good thing was about to happen.

"Can you understand French?" Luo En asked in a low voice.

"Can't hear clearly, they speak too fast," Harry scratched his head somewhat awkwardly.

The three of them were confused and mixed into the boisterous crowd, and it wasn't until breakfast was almost finished that Harry vaguely caught some keywords.

"It seems they are saying, no classes today?" he said uncertainly.

"That's right," a Beauxbatons girl next to them said in English. "Today is Wan Shengjie, so we have a day off, and there will be a market on the lawn. Do you want to go and see?"

"That's great," Luo Si said. "Dumbledore should really learn from this; we never have a day off on Wan Shengjie."

"Not only do we not have a day off, but accidents always happen," Zhang Qiu nodded in agreement.

"Shall we go to the market and take a look?" Harry suggested.

"No rush, the market won't open until ten o'clock," the girl explained. "You can visit the campus first."

"Can you take us around?" Luo En asked in a low voice.

"Wait a moment, I have other things to do," the girl smiled, then picked up her books and left.

"Oh, by the way, I still have to submit my name," Harry looked around, and only when he saw that goblet did he remember that he still had something to do.

Perhaps, Madam Maxime's emphasis that only oneself could submit one's own name was to tell Harry that he still had room to repent. But Harry had already made a decision; he would definitely participate in this competition and stand in front of Voldemort to duel with him personally.

"Hey, Harry, I thought about it carefully," Luo En said hesitantly. "How about, I won't put my name in."

"What's wrong, Luo En?"

"I think you need someone who will help you wholeheartedly. Becoming a champion might not be easy, and I think you will need it," he said stumbling. "Getting food, taking notes, etc., when the project starts, I can also help you collect some information."

"I hope you won't think that I'm backing down," he added stuttering.

This wasn't like Luo En, Harry was a little puzzled. But he didn't persuade him, instead, he stepped forward and gave him a hug.

"Right, I'm not going either," Zhang Qiu shrugged. "The fated champion wasn't me anyway."

"Alright, I respect your decision," Harry sighed softly, took out a piece of parchment, and began to write his name.

When he crossed the wall of fire and walked step by step toward the Goblet of Fire, he suddenly realized: Luo En wanted to become his "personal assistant," so that he could have many common topics with Hermione, who was also a "personal assistant." However, Harry felt that this decision was not bad either, and he also knew that the possibility of Luo En being selected as the second champion was slim, so it was better to let him take this opportunity to get closer to Hermione.

As for Zhang Qiu, she had been using mystical divination as a code of conduct for more than a day or two, and Harry didn't intend to persuade her at all.

After submitting their names, the three of them left the Great Hall and walked around the campus a few times. Although the layout of Beauxbatons was different from Hogwarts, the content was actually much the same. Except for the main building complex shaped like a palace, as well as decorative gardening potted plants, and the ice sculpture exhibition as a school feature, they also had a large lawn for students to engage in extracurricular activities, a Quidditch pitch, a forest that was not allowed to be entered in principle, and a river flowing into the distance in the forest.

This river made a big turn near Beauxbatons, making Harry see it as a lake for the first time, and Durmstrang's ship was parked at this turn, looking like a reef in a pond from a distance.

"How do you think this compares to the Black Lake?" Harry asked.

"A lake in the forest always reminds me of Avalon," Luo En said with a hint of nostalgia.

"This is not a lake," a female voice sounded abruptly, startling them. Harry turned his head and found it was the girl who had talked to them at breakfast.

"Oh, are you free to take us to visit the school now?" Harry said. "By the way, I am Harry Potter, this is Luo En Weasley, and this is Zhang Qiu."

"Almost, I am Donna Noble," the girl nodded at him.

Only then did Harry start to look at this girl carefully. She had slightly curly red hair and a pair of emerald eyes. She couldn't be said to be very beautiful, but she exuded a very strong self-confidence. Her eyes were sharp, keen, and she looked cool.

That's great, perhaps my mother was about the same when she was at school, Harry thought secretly.

"Speaking of which, you said this is not a lake?" Luo En seemed to have not turned back from the concept of a lake.

"No matter how wide this section is, even wide enough to park a ship, it's still a river," Donna said. "The only water source in the forest is the river."

"Is there such a saying?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do," Zhang Qiu shrugged. "If you say it's a river, then it's a river. By the way, what is this river called?"

"Melody, or if you say it in English, it's the Singing River," Donna also glanced at Zhang Qiu. "In Chinese, it's the Song River."

"Believe it or not, Song Jiang is a famous bandit leader," Zhang Qiu said helplessly.

For a whole morning, the three Harrys were basically with Donna. This girl was proficient in English and French, and also knew a considerable amount of Chinese. It could be said that she was very erudite, which made Harry feel very incredible and also quite admired her.

Donna took them to visit the ice sculpture exhibition and introduced some famous alumni of Beauxbatons, including the alchemist Nicolas Flamel, which made Harry feel very close; then she showed them the Quidditch pitch and some other venues. Student couples could be seen from time to time in various gardens, and there were even two boys kissing in a rainbow-colored flower cluster; finally, Donna took them to a huge lawn, and the market had already started.

"Oh, I have to go see the marble, marble from Rome, it's great," Donna said and walked toward a stall where large pieces of stone were piled up, which made Harry feel very difficult to understand. "You guys go around by yourselves, we'll meet again if fate allows."

"Then what shall we go see?" Harry glanced, and most of them were adult vendors, said to be from "Beaux-Cart Village" near the school, but there were also many students, mostly seventh-year students who were about to graduate, selling second-hand textbooks or other learning utensils.

"How about a butterbeer first?" Luo En pointed to a tent not far away with a "Winking Ferret" sign hanging on it.

When they sat down in the warm tent, Harry couldn't help but exclaim: "You actually recognized that this is a bar at a glance, and he really has butterbeer for sale."

"Having butterbeer is not strange, after all, they knew early on that Hogwarts students would come, so they were just waiting to make money," Zhang Qiu said.

"Speaking of which, what do the children here drink?" Luo En looked around. "Strawberry yogurt?"

"Let's try it later. By the way, I also noticed that there is a stall selling prank items," Harry said. "We can go take a look and buy a few pieces; perhaps it will be an inspiration for Fred and George."

"That would be great, I dream of one day using props they don't recognize to tease them severely," Luo En said happily. "We must take a look, and see if there is a Honeydukes here, I mean, a place similar to Honeydukes."

They spent the whole afternoon at the market, and the three of them had just returned to the Great Hall before the banquet started. Harry was wearing a pair of wolf ears, Zhang Qiu was wearing vampire fangs, and Luo Si even put a whole pumpkin lantern on his head. They did this because other Beauxbatons students played even more excessively; some were wearing large bed sheets to pretend to be ghosts, some had dragon scales growing all over their bodies, some were dressed as zombies, or were directly dressed as witches, but the slits of the robes were opened to the roots of their thighs.

"Now, children, the banquet is about to begin," Madam Maxime said. "Take off the costumes on your bodies. If they are still there in a quarter of an hour, I will treat you as real monsters."

The students giggled and tidied up their appearance. Harry noticed that a skeleton at the staff table was casting a spell on itself, and now it had just grown a face belonging to Donald Fontroy.

"I said the management at Hogwarts is too strict," Luo En saw Hermione with a pale complexion at the long table, and she was helping the Ilvermorny student remove makeup. "We have never played like this."

"Isn't your headmaster also dressed as a crazy wizard? Look at his fancy robe," Donna came over at some point.

"Oh, he wears it like this every day," Luo En said with a hint of disappointment.

"Alright, but this is not the most embarrassing thing," Donna shrugged. "Karkaroff dresses as a normal person every day."

Harry couldn't help but laugh. Karkaroff, who was a Death Eater, was wearing a white coat at this time, pretending to be very interested in Wan Shengjie.

"Look at Krum," Zhang Qiu pointed to the tall and strong boy with electrodes inserted in his forehead not far away. "He is really interesting like this."

After the banquet started, Harry's attention shifted to the new, endless dishes. He had no interest in the champion of the Goblet of Fire, perhaps the only thing that could arouse his interest was who the Hogwarts champion would be. ===== CHAPTER 190 =====