Chapter 186 – The Summit (3)
This time around, the two schools arrived at the same time, traveling side by side, coming not with a ship or with a carriage drawn by dragons but by using a portkey. It was much more straightforward, less flashy, and without any display of power that would be easily mistaken as an attempt to overwhelm anybody with their entrance. It was their way of showing that they were taking this seriously as an opportunity and not as a challenge.
Of course, the real talks wouldn’t start until the second day. The first one was all about arriving, meeting, sweet-talking, and having dinner in the Great Hall of the school. Only a few students were accompanying their Headmasters from both schools for this event, which was logical; to be honest, I was surprised that there was even one who was brought over. But it made sense very quickly.
At the dinner, where many others were also invited to meet and greet the guests, I saw Hermione welcome some of the Beauxbatons, probably old friends from school. At least, it told me that Hermione valued friendships over public perception because I was sure that Dumbledore’s journalists would use it to support the rumors that she was being paid by them behind the scenes.
However, she wasn’t the only one who had met with familiar faces as we also watched students from Durmstrang emerge behind their leader. Few of them were the same who worked against us when we masqueraded as siblings, and of course, there was Dimitris. Because it was only he who knew our actual appearance, it was only him who looked towards us, barely able to hold back his smiles. Yet, he matured a lot because he didn’t betray anything and kept walking beside the new Headmaster of Durmstrang, Zevron.
I knew not much about him, nor did I really care. If they chose him, there had to be a reason, and I trusted that they wouldn’t screw it up, not after everything that happened there. Plus... I think Dimitris would have already contacted us if they had made the wrong decision and put another dark wizard at the helm of their school.
The dinner itself was just as enjoyable as most feasts despite the boring part happening from start to finish. What I mean by it is the speeches from the Headmasters. I thought it would be interesting, but both Zevron and Flamel spoke about the past decade’s horrors and Voldemort’s dark shadow, drawing parallels between his reign and Grindelwald and then speaking about a much brighter future. About cooperation, peace, and sunshine. The usual, so they very quickly lost my interest. So, instead of staying for dessert and listening to Dumbledore standing up and giving a similar sermon filled with twisted truths and half-lies, we stood up and left.
It didn’t take long for a third person to catch up with us, finding me and my wife sitting on a stone bench, facing the sparkling silver lake thanks to the full moon’s light.
"Conrad! Quincy!" He shouted, making us smile and stand back up, hugging Dimitris, who almost jumped on us like an overexcited puppy. "It is so good to see you again!"
"Same, same! How are things? You look much better! Wait, you grew a few inches, didn’t you?"
"Maybe!" He grinned, sitting back down with us, "Many things happened, and right now, I am the First Student in the school leading the Student Council!"
"Wait, the what?" Quincy giggled, listening to him curiously.