Why not Actually Re-Write? Just for fun.

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180481

aussie wrote:
><snip>
> 
> Europeans connected to Beaubatons and Drumstrang could have been 
better represented than just by Fleur in the last book. <snip>

Carol responds:

One of the things I liked about GoF was DD's attempt to bring the
young Wizards of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang together,
exposing them to cultures almost as foreign to them as the Muggle
world. I liked seeing the boys and girls of Durmstrang admiring the
gold dishes and *not* practicing Dark magic (the worst we see of them
is that one of them dribbles food down his front) and the boys and
girls of Beauxbatons to honor their headmistress and not sitting down
until she did. I also liked seeing the students from different schools
dancing together at the Yule Ball and all the students and staff from
all the schools standing to honor Cedric Diggory. Harry's interactions
with Viktor Krum showed that he was "all right" and that Hagrid's
warning not to go wandering off with "bloody Krum" was just prejudice.
And Hermione was still writing to Krum in OoP.

What came of all that? Only a marriage between Bill and Fleur (I did
enjoy the conciliation scene between Molly and Fleur in HBP) and a
cameo by Viktor (complete with an allusion to Film!Viktor's funny
little beard) serving only to show that Krum is still an international
Quidditch star, Krum sees that Hermione is "taken," and Krum
associates what we later learn is the DH symbol with Grindelwald. No
sign of any other Durmstrang students or Beauxbatons students (only a
few Veela relatives for the Weasley Twins, or rather, Fred, to flirt
with), and no indication that Viktor stayed around to join the fight
against Voldemort for all his smoldering hatred of that other
long-since imprisoned Dark Wizard, Grindelwald. My impression is that,
since Voldemort has not yet endangered Romania, Bulgaria, or whatever
country Durmstrang is in, he's not a threat to anything Viktor values
(even Quidditch!) and, consequently, this isn't his fight.

Part of the problem, for me, is that *$%#@*!!!! Elder Wand, which not
only makes victory too easy for Harry without his ever having touched
it (and results, altogether unfairly, in the death of my favorite
character, Severus Snape) but also distracts Voldemort from expanding
his quest for power into Continental Europe. What's the point of
"international magical cooperation" if the rest of Europe sits back
and lets Voldemort take over Britain, not raising a finger because
they have not yet been threatened themselves? (They don't have time to
investigate the murders of Grindelwald, whom few would mourn, anyway,
or that of the by-now ancient wandmaker, Gregorovitch. By the time
those murders could have been traced to LV, he's dead. As for the
unnamed mother and children, perhaps they're Muggles whose deaths are
ignored by the European WW.) It seems like a repeat of Grindelwald's
(much worse) takeover of the European WW in the 1930s and 40s--Britain
stayed out of the struggle until it found itself threatened and
appealed to Dumbledore for help. Now the reverse appears to be
happening. Not a soul from continental Europe (Charlie Weasley doesn't
count--he works in Romania but is himself English) other than Fleur,
the transplanted Frenchwoman, shows up to defend Hogwarts, the last
bastion of resistance to Voldemort. Of course, they're not really
needed, but, still, it's disappointing to me as a reader that those
schools and their students were introduced, raising the hope of
"international magical cooperation," only to amount to nothing in the
end except for Viktor Krum's commentary on "Grindelwald's symbol."

Carol, wondering why Madame Maxime didn't show up at Fleur's wedding
and thinking the reason must be the attention that the horses and
house-sized carriage would attract