Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students arrive

Selene looked taken aback as a Hogwarts student approached them. She didn't feel like she was over these students, but their clothing was so.... dull compared to the elegant blues of her school, she couldn't help but feel more.. refined then them. But this girl came up to them, and said something in English. Selene had to fix her way of thinking before responding in a heavy french accent. "Thank you, it iz a pleasure to be here." She said bowing her head before glancing at the bag nervously. What was that? A firework of some sort. She let it off and Selene took a startled step backwards, her eyes finding the words in the sky.

"That iz.. quite the welcome.. thank you." She said again, a bit more nervously. "Erm.." Selene looked first at Adam and then over at Peter. Wondering how she should respond to this short redhead. "I am... Selene Brun." She said softly, at that moment wishing her name sounded more french, like the other girl's she knew. It was an odd last name for Selene, seeing as she was blonde headed, and Brun was supposed to be for brunettes, but oh well. She smiled kindly at the girl. "Thiz ez Peter, and that ez Adam.. it iz... a... pleazure, to be at your school." She said with a small purr at the end of pleasure, and she smiled at the girl again, hoping her charm worked better here then it did in France.

Much as Lana might have wished that Anais had missed the girl's transfiguration of her uniform into jeans, Anais had missed nothing. She had been very clear about her directions about dress, mannerisms, attitude, everything. Lana had clearly chosen to disobey her. In Anais's mind, Lana did not have the proper attitude or behavior of a champion. She would be now facing consequences for those rather poor choices, but not now. Anais had all the time in the world to deal with Lana.

She rose, took a deep slow breath and let it out just as slowly. It helped her to focus on the task ahead. She alighted gracefully from the carriage onto the Hogwarts grounds and looke around for a moment. Hogwarts did not have the posh elegance of Beauxbatons, but there was a warm tradition she had always found here that she had found few other places in the wizarding world. She had a fondness for the more rustic environment of Hogwarts, and she was looking forward to their stay here. She was also looking forward to meeting collegues and perhaps some old friends.

She took poised strides towards the professors and staff who were gathering together.

Jack grinned when the girl thanked her and said, "Oh, it's not over." She turned her back on the firework and she heard a mighty roar exhibit from behind her.She knew the fireworks had multiplied and formed a dragon of blue and gold sparks. The blue began to pulsate between the House colors -blue, red, green, yellow- to give them a more Hoggy Warty welcome. She continued to grin at them as though nothing were happening behind her.

The girl introduced them and Jack grinned, reaching forward to grab the girl's hand and shake it vigorously. Yeah, it was probably terrible etiquette and she may be causing an international problem but when had Jack ever cared to think the little things all the way through or even filter her words and her actions. That would not be the Jack everyone knew and loved...

A Jack every knew and loved...Now that didn't exist either... She withdrew from her thoughts and turned back to the Frenchies, looking them all over. "Oh, and by the way, wicked awesome accents." She grinned at them, letting know she was not being rude or sarcastic, but genuine.

Hogwarts truly was a wonder and Mathias felt the ‘new’ feeling but the foreign land felt familiar to him and he was glad for it even if he couldn’t quite understand why. He continued to look around, desperate to take in every inch of the place. He was acting as if it was going to disappear. He wanted to preserve everything in his mind so he could relay the information back to his mother who could share in his enthusiasm for the castle. It was magical, like Beauxbatons, but Beauxbatons didn’t have that homey feel. Then again, Mathias could hardly find home anywhere. Home was where his mother was. Perhaps he was a little bit too devoted to the woman but she deserved loyalty from at least one man. His father couldn’t give her that so he would or die trying. Without his mother he wouldn’t have been alive, first because he wouldn’t have been conceived and secondly because some of the freezing winters would have ended him without her coaxing him back into health.

Mathias tore his eyes away from the castle and looked at the girl walking towards their small group. He stepped towards Selene in an effort to see the girl a little better and peered curiously at the redhead. She held some sort of device in her hand and Mathias wasn’t sure what it was until it flew from her hands. He gasped and felt Selene step back. His hand went to her arm and he watched her face for any signs of fear. When she gathered her countenance he took his hand away and stepped back. She didn’t say his name, he noted. But that didn’t bother him too much. Selene was unpredictable at the best of times and he could forgive her for it. Perhaps she just hadn’t seen him. “I am Mathias...” He said, figuring he might as well introduce himself. “Mathias Lefèvre.” He held out his hand to the redhead, as was customary with the British although not so much in France, and smiled.

He dropped his hand though, when the fireworks burst again and he looked around, his eyes wide with wonder. This place was so much better...so much more interesting. Mathias’ eyes fell on a girl and a boy stood together on the grass. She had red hair which wasn’t something one often saw at Beauxbatons and the other was wearing bright pink jeans. Mathias paused a little and looked quizzically at the couple. She seemed to be enamoured with him while he was...ever present and willing to run with anything she was willing to throw at him. Mathias smile slightly and looked back up at the fireworks before back at the other redheaded girl called Jack. This place is bizarre, Mathias decided, but I like it.

Jack turned to Mathias and reached out to shake his hand, noticing the way he looked around at everything. "It's a lot to take in," she said. She felt inwardly proud to knowing that she had been apart of making the place seem better with her little fireworks display. Otherwise, it would have all been terribly droll.

She pumped his hand and released it, turning and nodding to the others, aware that they had all seemed rather taken aback by her very abrasive greeting. Well, she really did not know any other way to go about these things. And now, now that she had thoroughly frightened her guests, and had made the sky explode with color... Now she was sort of at a loss for what to say. She said, "Your...erm, flight okay?" She looked over at the carriages. She would definitely have to sneak down and examine the colossal horses later.

Selene felt a hand on her arm and she turned to look at Mathias, she felt her heart skip a beat and she smiled at him. "I am sorry Mathias." she said bowing her head slightly. "I didn't see you zere." She said softly before turning back to the girl named Jack. Who was suddenly shaking Selene's hand. She felt her face go red and her eyes were staring at the dragon fireworks above their head. She could feel her emotions going wild at the moment. Mathias was hurt because Selene hadn't seen him, their headmistress had gone off to see her staff friends. And Selene could feel the need to follow after her, but she knew that she would be called upon with a bird note.

She also felt fear towards the giant dragon fireworks, and nervousness at being center of attention all of a sudden. "Yes.. Mathias as we call him.." She said pulling her hand out of Jack's grip carefully, and smiling, not letting her know how much it had shocked her that Jack had used such an.. odd way of saying hello. Of course it seemed Mathias knew their ways much better, because he held his hand out for the redhead's.. Oh Mathias.. she felt a warm smile cross her face, but she hid it carefully and turned to look at the crowd of students still watching them anxiously. "Do ze people of your school always... stare so much?" She asked lightly, looking back at Jack. "Though.. you do seem like a group of very... friendly people, and the fireworks are fantastic." She purred and flicked her hair over her shoulder gracefully.

"Yes, the flight was very well." She said smiling at Jack carefully. "It iz very cold here though, ez there a chance we may go inside to warm up? I am afraid I'm not sued to the chill in the air, and I would not like to catch cold." She said smiling at Jack with a winning smile. She had caught the attention of a gaggle of boys who were wearing badges such as Jacks, red with a lion in it. "What do your badges mean? And ze red? I"m afraid I haven't taken my time researching your school as Mathias has." She said moving a bit closer to him, not only for comfort, but to emphasize who she was talking about. She felt like a couple, and the people shooting them glances made her very happy indeed, even if she did not approve of relationships in school.

Annalise stepped out of the carriage and looked around and smiled. "Ce qui est beau !"said Annalise in french as her curly brown hair blew in the breeze. "Wow isn't this amazing Lana?'Annalise asked her in english. Annalise was getting pretty good at her english for she been praticing alot with it trying to get it down. As she walked around looking around the place she bumped into an english girl with red hair. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"said Annalise softly.

Emil walked over to Jack and a strange boy. He didn't know this kid, who was from Beauxbatons, but he'd like to meet everybody he could. Except that dog-eared girl that was standing near a tree with the little dark-skinned girl.

"Hello! It's me! Emil!" He said, excitedly. He pulled out his wand from his pocket and started tracing pictures in the air. Pictures of dragons and a castle. He smiled when he looked at the others. His eyes then trailed over tot the strange couple. They guy was kinda cute, but he mustn't think about that since he had Christy now.

Emil looked towards the Durmstrang boat, it was a huge vessel, looking like a pirate ship every time he stared at it. He was more impressed, however, with Hogwarts. It was a huge castle. He looked over to the strange couple again and waved to them.

Meanwhile, Brienne stayed where she was until she saw Emil. She stepped over to him, and he backed away slowly.

"Hey! You're that Durmstrang student I met at Diagon!"

"Uh, yeah. I think someone's calling for you over there!"

"No there isn't!"

"Just, go okay?"

"Fine" Brienne turned and walked toward Eli and Chase.

"Hi guys....One of the Durmstrang students is mad, I tells ya".

Meanwhile, Emil kept making a display of threads of magic. He made such beautiful drawings in the air. Of course, they faded after a minute or two.

Jack could definitely see that she had taken Selene aback. Ah...whatever. She really did not care who she frightened; if she did, she would be worrying about a lot of people. She laughed at her words and said, "Yeah, we are an awkward, terribly bored bunch and we don't get the chance to stare as often as we would like, so..."

She felt pride swell again when the girl commented on the fireworks and before she could stop herself she was saying, "They originally were just the dragon, with just red sparks, but I figured it needed some... Extra oomf." She grinned her wide, toothy grin. "So I added a bit."

Someone bumped into Jack and she jerked forward slightly, towards the boy who had been freaking out over the ship. She shot the person an irritated look and relized it was a foreign. "All this excitement and it's the little people who get pushed around," she said in a teasing voice before backing up again. She turned to Selene to answer her question. "We have houses here- Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. Each has colors, a mascot, and traits they covet. Hufflepuff is honesty and hardwork, Slytherin is cunning and resourcefulness, Ravenclaw is intelligence and levelheadedness and Gryffindor- " She swelled slightly with pride. "We covet bravery and chivalry... And rashness and obnoxiousness and all that follows..." She laughed heartily.

Suddenly a Durmstrang student rushed up to her and she looked at him. "Oh, hey Emil. Long time, no see. Good to see you." She clapped a hand on his back and then he rushed off. She turned back to the Beauxbatons troupe. "More connections than I thought," she said amusedly, shrugging. "Want to go inside? We can if that's what you want." She looked around. "Sike. We can't until our headmaster arrives and makes a boring speech."

[NOTE: they aren't exactly allowed to go inside yet. At least not until Doyle posts here.]