Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Attractive blonde Rita Skeeter, forty-three, who
’
s savage quill has punctured many inflated 
reputations – 
“Lovely,” said Rita Skeeter, yet again, and she ripped the top piece of parchment off, crumpled it 
up, and stuffed it into her handbag. Now she leaned toward Harry and said, “So, Harry… what 
made you decide to enter the Triwizard Tournament?” 
“Er -” said Harry again, but he was distracted by the quill. Even though he wasn’t speaking, it 
was dashing across the parchment, and in its wake he could make out a fresh sentence:
An ugly scar, souvenier of a tragic past, disfigures the otherwise charming face of Harry Potter, 
whose eyes – 
 
“Ignore the quill, Harry,” said Rita Skeeter firmly. Reluctantly Harry looked up at her instead. 
“Now — why did you decide to enter the tournament, Harry?” 
“I didn’t,” said Harry. “I don’t know how my name got into the Goblet of Fire. I didn’t put it in 
there.” 
Rita Skeeter raised one heavily penciled eyebrow. 
“Come now, Harry, there’s no need to be scared of getting into trouble. We all know you 
shouldn’t really have entered at all. But don’t worry about that. Our readers hove a rebel.” 

---

“But I didn’t enter,” Harry repeated. “I don’t know who -” 
“How do you feel about the tasks ahead?” said Rita Skeeter. “Excited? Nervous?” 
“I haven’t really thought… yeah, nervous, I suppose,” said Harry. His insides squirmed 
uncomfortably as he spoke. 
“Champions have died in the past, haven’t they?” said Rita Skeeter briskly. “Have you thought 
about that at all?” 
“Well… they say it’s going to be a lot safer this year,” said Harry. 
The quill whizzed across the parchment between them, back and forward as though it were 
skating. 
“Of course, you’ve looked death in the face before, haven’t you?” said Rita Skeeter, watching 
him closely. “How would you say that’s affected you?” 
“Er,” said Harry, yet again. 
“Do you think that the trauma in your past might have made you keen to prove yourself? To live 
up to your name? Do you think that perhaps you were tempted to enter the Triwizard 
Tournament because - “ 
“I didn’t enter,” said Harry, starting to feel irritated. 
“Can you remember your parents at all?” said Rita Skeeter, talking over him. 
“No,” said Harry. 
“How do you think they’d feel if they knew you were competing in the Triwizard Tournament? 
Proud? Worried? Angry?” 
Harry was feeling really annoyed now. How on earth was he to know how his parents would feel 
if they were alive? He could feel Rita Skeeter watching him very intently. Frowning, he avoided 
her gaze and hooked down at words the quill had just written: 
Tears fill those startlingly green eyes as our conversation turns to the parents he can barely 
remember. 
“I have NOT got tears in my eyes!” said Harry loudly. 
Before Rita Skeeter could say a word, the door of the broom cupboard was pulled open. Harry 
looked around, blinking in the bright light. Albus Dumbledore stood there, looking down at both 
of them, squashed into the cupboard. 

---

“Dumbledore!” cried Rita Skeeter, with every appearance of delight - but Harry noticed that her 
quill and the parchment had suddenly vanished from the box of Magical Mess Remover, and 
Rita’s clawed fingers were hastily snapping shut the clasp of her crocodile-skin bag. “How are 
you?” she said, standing up and holding out one of her large, mannish hands to Dumbledore. “I 
hope you saw my piece over the summer about the International Confederation of Wizards’ 
Conference?” 
“Enchantingly nasty,” said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. “I particularly enjoyed your 
description of me as an obsolete dingbat.” 
Rita Skeeter didn’t look remotely abashed. 
“I was just making the point that some of your ideas are a little old-fashioned, Dumbledore, and 
that many wizards in the street -” 
“I will be delighted to hear the reasoning behind the rudeness, Rita,” said Dumbledore, with a 
courteous bow and a smile, “but I’m afraid we will have to discuss the matter later. The 
Weighing of the Wands is about to start, and it cannot take place if one of our champions is 
hidden in a broom cupboard.”
Very glad to get away from Rita Skeeter, Harry hurried back into the room. The other champions 
were now sitting in chairs near the door, and he sat down quickly next to Cedric, hooking up at 
the velvet-covered table, where four of the five judges were now sitting - Professor Karkaroff, 
Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman. Rita Skeeter settled herself down in a corner; 
Harry saw her slip the parchment out of her bag again, spread it on her knee, suck the end of the 
Quick-Quotes Quill, and place it once more on the parchment. 
“May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?” said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges’ table and 
talking to the champions. “He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good 
condition before the tournament.” 
Harry hooked around, and with a jolt of surprise saw an old wizard with large, pale eyes standing 
quietly by the window. Harry had met Mr. Ollivander before - he was the wand-maker from 
whom Harry had bought his own wand over three years ago in Diagon Alley. 
“Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?” said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into 
the empty space in the middle of the room. 
Fleur Delacour swept over to Mr. Olhivander and handed him her wand. 
“Hmm…” he said. 
He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and 
gold sparks. Then he held it chose to his eyes and examined it carefully. 

---

“Yes,” he said quietly, “nine and a half inches… inflexible… rosewood… and containing… dear 
me…” 
“An ‘air from ze ‘ead of a veela,” said Fleur. “One of my grandmuzzer’s.” 
So Fleur was part veela, thought Harry, making a mental note to tell Ron… then he remembered 
that Ron wasn’t speaking to him. 
“Yes,” said Mr. Ollivander, “yes, I’ve never used veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for 
rather temperamental wands… however, to each his own, and if this suits you…” 
Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then 
he muttered, “Orchideous!” and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip. 
“Very well, very well, it’s in fine working order,” said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers 
and handing them to Fleur with her wand. “Mr. Diggory, you next.” Fleur glided back to her 
seat, smiling at Cedric as he passed her. 
“Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn’t it?” said Mr. Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm, as 
Cedric handed over his wand. “Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of 
a particularly fine male unicorn… must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his 
horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches… ash… pleasantly springy. It’s in fine 
condition… You treat it regularly?” 
“Polished it last night,” said Cedric, grinning. 
Harry hooked down at his own wand. He could see finger marks all over it. He gathered a fistful 
of robe from his knee and tried to rub it clean surreptitiously. Several gold sparks shot out of the 
end of it. Fleur Delacour gave him a very patronizing look, and he desisted. 
Mr. Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Cedric’s 
wand, pronounced himself satisfied, and then said, “Mr. Krum, if you please.” 
Viktor Krum got up and slouched, round-shouldered and duck-footed, toward Mr. Ollivander. He 
thrust out his wand and stood scowling, with his hands in the pockets of his robes. 
“Hmm,” said Mr. Olhivander, “this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I’m much mistaken? A 
fine wand-maker, though the styling is never quite what I… however…” 
He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it over and over before his eyes. 
“Yes… hornbeam and dragon heartstring?” he shot at Krum, who nodded. “Rather thicker than 
one usually sees… quite rigid… ten and a quarter inches… Avis!”
The hornbeam wand let off a blast hike a gun, and a number of small, twittering birds flew out of 
the end and through the open window into the watery sunlight. 

---

“Good,” said Mr. Ollivander, handing Krum back his wand. “Which leaves… Mr. Potter.” 
Harry got to his feet and walked past Krum to Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand. 
“Aaaah, yes,” said Mr. Ohlivander, his pale eyes suddenly gleaming. “Yes, yes, yes. How well I 
remember.” 
Harry could remember too. He could remember it as though it had happened yesterday…
Four summers ago, on his eleventh birthday, he had entered Mr. Ollivander’s shop with Hagrid 
to buy a wand. Mr. Ollivander had taken his measurements and then started handing him wands 
to try. Harry had waved what felt like every wand in the shop, until at last he had found the one 
that suited him - this one, which was made of holly, eleven inches long, and contained a single 
feather from the tail of a phoenix. Mr. Ollivander had been very surprised that Harry had been so 
compatible with this wand. “Curious,” he had said, “curious,” and not until Harry asked what 
was curious had Mr. Olhivander explained that the phoenix feather in Harry’s wand had come 
from the same bird that had supplied the core of Lord Voldemort’s. 
Harry had never shared this piece of information with anybody. He was very fond of his wand, 
and as far as he was concerned its relation to Voldemort’s wand was something it couldn’t help - 
rather as he couldn’t help being related to Aunt Petunia. However, he really hoped that Mr. 
Ollivander wasn’t about to tell the room about it. He had a funny feeling Rita Skeeter’s Quick-
Quotes Quill might just explode with excitement if he did. 
Mr. Ollivander spent much longer examining Harry’s wand than anyone else’s. Eventually, 
however, he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and handed it back to Harry, announcing 
that it was still in perfect condition. 
“Thank you all,” said Dumbledore, standing up at the judges’ table. “You may go back to your 
lessons now - or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end-” 
Feeling that at last something had gone right today, Harry got up to leave, but the man with the 
black camera jumped up and cleared his throat. 
“Photos, Dumbledore, photos!” cried Bagman excitedly. “All the judges and champions, what do 
you think, Rita?” 
“Er - yes, let’s do those first,” said Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Harry again. “And then 
perhaps some individual shots.” 
The photographs took a long time. Madame Maxime cast everyone else into shadow wherever 
she stood, and the photographer couldn’t stand far enough back to get her into the frame; 
eventually she had to sit while everyone else stood around her. Karkaroff kept twirling his goatee 
around his finger to give it an extra curl; Krum, whom Harry would have thought would have 
been used to this sort of thing, skulked, half-hidden, at the back of the group. The photographer 
seemed keenest to get Fleur at the front, but Rita Skeeter kept hurrying forward and dragging 

---

Harry into greater prominence. Then she insisted on separate shots of all the champions. At last, 
they were free to go. Harry went down to dinner. Hermione wasn’t there - he supposed she was 
still in the hospital wing having her teeth fixed. He ate alone at the end of the table, then returned 
to Gryffindor Tower, thinking of all the extra work on Summoning Charms that he had to do. Up 
in the dormitory, he came across Ron. 
“You’ve had an owl,” said Ron brusquely the moment he walked in. He was pointing at Harry’s 
pillow. The school barn owl was waiting for him there. 
“Oh - right,” said Harry. 
“And we’ve got to do our detentions tomorrow night, Snape’s dungeon,” said Ron. He then 
walked straight out of the room, not looking at Harry. For a moment, Harry considered going 
after him - he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to talk to him or hit him, both seemed quite 
appealing - but the lure of Sirius’s answer was too strong. Harry strode over to the barn owl, took 
the letter off its leg, and unrolled it.