Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

me now… Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I
’
m not ashamed to admit it… I know 
nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they
’
re watching over me…
But Rita Skeeter had gone even further than transforming his “er’s” into long, sickly sentences: 
She had interviewed other people about him too. 
Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is 
rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl 
who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school. 

---

From the moment the article had appeared, Harry had had to endure people — Slytherins, mainly 
— quoting it at him as he passed and making sneering comments. 
“Want a hanky, Potter, in case you start crying in Transfiguration?” 
“Since when have you been one of the top students in the school, Potter? Or is this a school you 
and Longbottom have set up together?” 
“Hey - Harry!” 
“Yeah, that’s right!” Harry found himself shouting as he wheeled around in the corridor, having 
had just about enough. “I’ve just been crying my eyes out over my dead mum, and I’m just off to 
do a bit more…”
“No - it was just - you dropped your quill.” 
It was Cho. Harry felt the color rising in his face. 
“Oh - right - sorry,” he muttered, taking the quill back. 
“Er… good luck on Tuesday,” she said. “I really hope you do well.” 
Which left Harry feeling extremely stupid. 
Hermione had come in for her fair share of unpleasantness too, but she hadn’t yet started yelling 
at innocent bystanders; in fact, Harry was full of admiration for the way she was handling the 
situation. 
“Stunningly pretty? Her?” Pansy Parkinson had shrieked the first time she had come face-to-face 
with Hermione after Rita’s article had appeared. “What was she judging against - a chipmunk?” 
“Ignore it,” Hermione said in a dignified voice, holding her head in the air and stalking past the 
sniggering Slytherin girls as though she couldn’t hear them. “Just ignore it, Harry.” 
But Harry couldn’t ignore it. Ron hadn’t spoken to him at all since he had told him about 
Snape’s detentions. Harry had half hoped they would make things up during the two hours they 
were forced to pickle rats’ brains in Snape’s dungeon, but that had been the day Rita’s article had 
appeared, which seemed to have confirmed Ron’s belief that Harry was really enjoying all the 
attention. 
Hermione was furious with the pair of them; she went from one to the other, trying to force them 
to talk to each other, but Harry was adamant: He would talk to Ron again only if Ron admitted 
that Harry hadn’t put his name in the Goblet of Fire and apologized for calling him a liar. 
“I didn’t start this,” Harry said stubbornly. “It’s his problem.” 

---

“You miss him!” Hermione said impatiently. “And I know he misses you -” 
“Miss him?” said Harry. “I don’t miss him…” 
But this was a downright lie. Harry liked Hermione very much, but she just wasn’t the same as 
Ron. There was much less laughter and a lot more hanging around in the library when Hermione 
was your best friend. Harry still hadn’t mastered Summoning Charms, he seemed to have 
developed something of a block about them, and Hermione insisted that learning the theory 
would help. They consequently spent a lot of time poring over books during their lunchtimes. 
Viktor Krum was in the library an awful lot too, and Harry wondered what he was up to. Was he 
studying, or was he looking for things to help him through the first task? Hermione often 
complained about Krum being there - not that he ever bothered them - but because groups of 
giggling girls often turned up to spy on him from behind bookshelves, and Hermione found the 
noise distracting.
“He’s not even good-looking!” she muttered angrily, glaring at Krum’s sharp profile. “They only 
like him because he’s famous! They wouldn’t look twice at him if he couldn’t do that 
WonkyFaint thing -” 
“Wronski Feint,” said Harry, through gritted teeth. Quite apart from liking to get Quidditch terms 
correct, it caused him another pang to imagine Ron’s expression if he could have heard 
Hermione talking about Wonky-Faints. 
It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow 
down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up. The days until the first task seemed to slip 
by as though someone had fixed the clocks to work at double speed. Harry’s feeling of barely 
controlled panic was with him wherever he went, as everpresent as the snide comments about the 
Daily Prophet article. 
On the Saturday before the first task, all students in the third year and above were permitted to 
visit the village of Hogsmeade. Hermione told Harry that it would do him good to get away from 
the castle for a bit, and Harry didn’t need much persuasion. 
“What about Ron, though?” he said. “Don’t you want to go with him?” 
“Oh… well…” Hermione went slightly pink. “I thought we might meet up with him in the Three 
Broomsticks…” 
“No,” said Harry flatly. 
“Oh Harry, this is so stupid -” 
“I’ll come, but I’m not meeting Ron, and I’m wearing my Invisibility Cloak.” 

---

“Oh all right then…” Hermione snapped, “but I hate talking to you in that cloak, I never know if 
I’m looking at you or not.” 
So Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak in the dormitory, went back downstairs, and together he 
and Hermione set off for Hogsmeade. 
Harry felt wonderfully free under the cloak; he watched other students walking past them as they 
entered the village, most of them sporting Support Cedric Diggory! badges, but no horrible 
remarks came his way for a change, and nobody was quoting that stupid article. 
“People keep looking at me now,” said Hermione grumpily as they came out of Honeydukes 
Sweetshop later, eating large cream-filled chocolates. “They think I’m talking to myself.” 
“Don’t move your lips so much then.” 
“Come on, please just take off your cloak for a bit, no one’s going to bother you here.” 
“Oh yeah?” said Harry. “Look behind you.” 
Rita Skeeter and her photographer friend had just emerged from the Three Broomsticks pub. 
Talking in low voices, they passed right by Hermione without hooking at her. Harry backed into 
the wall of Honeydukes to stop Rita Skeeter from hitting him with her crocodile-skin handbag. 
When they were gone, Harry said, “She’s staying in the village. I bet she’s coming to watch the 
first task.” 
As he said it, his stomach flooded with a wave of molten panic. He didn’t mention this; he and 
Hermione hadn’t discussed what was coming in the first task much; he had the feeling she didn’t 
want to think about it. 
“She’s gone,” said Hermione, looking right through Harry toward the end of the street. “Why 
don’t we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it’s a bit cold, isn’t it? You don’t 
have to talk to Ron!” she added irritably, correctly interpreting his silence. 
The Three Broomsticks was packed, mainly with Hogwarts students enjoying their free 
afternoon, but also with a variety of magical people Harry rarely saw anywhere else. Harry 
supposed that as Hogsmeade was the only all-wizard village in Britain, it was a bit of a haven for 
creatures like hags, who were not as adept as wizards at disguising themselves. 
It was very hard to move through crowds in the Invisibility Cloak, in case you accidentally trod 
on someone, which tended to lead to awkward questions. Harry edged slowly toward a spare 
table in the corner while Hermione went to buy drinks. On his way through the pub, Harry 
spotted Ron, who was sitting with Fred, George, and Lee Jordan. Resisting the urge to give Ron 
a good hard poke in the back of the head, he finally reached the table and sat down at it. 
Hermione joined him a moment later and slipped him a butterbeer under his cloak. 

---

“I look like such an idiot, sitting here on my own,” she muttered. “Lucky I brought something to 
do.” 
And she pulled out a notebook in which she had been keeping a record of S.P.E.W. members. 
Harry saw his and Ron’s names at the top of the very short list. 
It seemed a long time ago that they had sat making up those predictions together, and Hermione 
had turned up and appointed them secretary and treasurer. 
“You know, maybe I should try and get some of the villagers involved in S.P.E.W.,” Hermione 
said thoughtfully, looking around the pub. 
“Yeah, right,” said Harry. He took a swig of butterbeer under his cloak. “Hermione, when are 
you going to give up on this spew stuff?” 
“When house-elves have decent wages and working conditions!” she hissed back. “You know, 
I’m starting to think it’s time for more direct action. I wonder how you get into the school 
kitchens?” 
“No idea, ask Fred and George,” said Harry. 
Hermione lapsed into thoughtful silence, while Harry drank his butterbeer, watching the people 
in the pub. All of them looked cheerful and relaxed. Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot were 
swapping Chocolate Frog cards at a nearby table; both of them sporting Support Cedric Diggory! 
badges on their cloaks. 
Right over by the door he saw Cho and a large group of her Ravenclaw friends. She wasn’t 
wearing a Cedric badge though… This cheered up Harry very slightly. 
What wouldn’t he have given to be one of these people, sitting around laughing and talking, with 
nothing to worry about but homework? He imagined how it would have felt to be here if his 
name hadn’t come out of the Goblet of Fire. He wouldn’t be wearing the Invisibility Cloak, for 
one thing. Ron would be sitting with him. The three of them would probably be happily 
imagining what deadly dangerous task the school champions would be facing on Tuesday. He’d 
have been really hooking forward to it, watching them do whatever it was… cheering on 
Cedric with everyone else, safe in a seat at the back of the stands…
He wondered how the other champions were feeling. Every time he had seen Cedric lately, he 
had been surrounded by admirers and looking nervous but excited. Harry glimpsed Fleur 
Delacour from time to time in the corridors; she looked exactly as she always did, haughty and 
unruffled. And Krum just sat in the library, poring over books. 
Harry thought of Sirius, and the tight, tense knot in his chest seemed to ease slightly. He would 
be speaking to him in just over twelve hours, for tonight was the night they were meeting at the 
common room fire - assuming nothing went wrong, as everything else had done lately…

---

“Look, it’s Hagrid!” said Hermione. 
The back of Hagrid’s enormous shaggy head - he had mercifully abandoned his bunches - 
emerged over the crowd. Harry wondered why he hadn’t spotted him at once, as Hagrid was so 
large, but standing up carefully, he saw that Hagrid had been leaning low, talking to Professor 
Moody. Hagrid had his usual enormous tankard in front of him, but Moody was drinking from 
his hip flask. Madam Rosmerta, the pretty landlady, didn’t seem to think much of this; she was 
looking askance at Moody as she collected glasses from tables around them. Perhaps she thought 
it was an insult to her mulled mead, but Harry knew better. Moody had told them all during their 
last Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson that he preferred to prepare his own food and drink at 
all times, as it was so easy for Dark wizards to poison an unattended cup. 
As Harry watched, he saw Hagrid and Moody get up to leave. He waved, then remembered that 
Hagrid couldn’t see him. Moody, however, paused, his magical eye on the corner where Harry 
was standing. He tapped Hagrid in the small of the back (being unable to reach his shoulder), 
muttered something to him, and then the pair of them made their way back across the pub toward 
Harry and Hermione’s table. 
“All right, Hermione?” said Hagrid loudly. 
“Hello,” said Hermione, smiling back. 
Moody limped around the table and bent down; Harry thought he was reading the S.P.E.W. 
notebook, until he muttered, “Nice cloak, Potter.” 
Harry stared at him in amazement. The large chunk missing from Moody’s nose was particularly 
obvious at a few inches’ distance. Moody grinned. 
“Can your eye - I mean, can you -?” 
“Yeah, it can see through Invisibility Cloaks,” Moody said quietly. “And it’s come in useful at 
times, I can tell you.” 
Hagrid was beaming down at Harry too. Harry knew Hagrid couldn’t see him, but Moody had 
obviously told Hagrid he was there. Hagrid now bent down on the pretext of reading the 
S.P.E.W. notebook as well, and said in a whisper so low that only Harry could hear it, “Harry, 
meet me tonight at midnight at me cabin. Wear that cloak.”
Straightening up, Hagrid said loudly, “Nice ter see yeh, Hermione,” winked, and departed. 
Moody followed him. 
“Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?” Harry said, very surprised. 
“Does he?” said Hermione, looking startled. “I wonder what he’s up to? I don’t know whether 
you should go, Harry…” She looked nervously around and hissed, “It might make you late for 
Sirius.” 

---

It was true that going down to Hagrid’s at midnight would mean cutting his meeting with Sirius 
very fine indeed; Hermione suggested sending Hedwig down to Hagrid’s to tell him he couldn’t 
go - always assuming she would consent to take the note, of course - Harry, however, thought it 
better just to be quick at whatever Hagrid wanted him for. He was very curious to know what 
this might be; Hagrid had never asked Harry to visit him so late at night. 
At half past eleven that evening, Harry, who had pretended to go up to bed early, pulled the 
Invisibility Cloak back over himself and crept back downstairs through the common room. Quite 
a few people were still in there. The Creevey brothers had managed to get hold of a stack of 
Support Cedric Diggory! badges and were trying to bewitch them to make them say Support 
Harry Potter! instead. So far, however, all they had managed to do was get the badges stuck on 
POTTER STINKS. Harry crept past them to the portrait hole and waited for a minute or so, 
keeping an eye on his watch. Then Hermione opened the Fat Lady for him from outside as they 
had planned. He slipped past her with a whispered “Thanks!” and set off through the castle. 
The grounds were very dark. Harry walked down the lawn toward the lights shining in Hagrid’s 
cabin. The inside of the enormous Beauxbatons carriage was also lit up; Harry could hear 
Madame Maxime talking inside it as he knocked on Hagrid’s front door. 
“You there, Harry?” Hagrid whispered, opening the door and looking around. 
“Yeah,” said Harry, slipping inside the cabin and pulling the cloak down off his head. “What’s 
up?” 
“Got summat ter show yeh,” said Hagrid. 
There was an air of enormous excitement about Hagrid. He was wearing a flower that resembled 
an oversized artichoke in his buttonhole. It looked as though he had abandoned the use of axle 
grease, but he had certainly attempted to comb his hair - Harry could see the comb’s broken teeth 
tangled in it. 
“What’re you showing me?” Harry said warily, wondering if the skrewts had laid eggs, or 
Hagrid had managed to buy another giant three-headed dog off a stranger in a pub. 
“Come with me, keep quiet, an’ keep yerself covered with that cloak,” said Hagrid. “We won’ 
take Fang, he won’ like it…
“Listen, Hagrid, I can’t stay long… I’ve got to be back up at the castle by one o’clock -” 
But Hagrid wasn’t listening; he was opening the cabin door and striding off into the night. Harry 
hurried to follow and found, to his great surprise, that Hagrid was leading him to the 
Beauxbatons carriage. 
“Hagrid, what -?” 
“Shhh!” said Hagrid, and he knocked three times on the door bearing the crossed golden wands. 

---

Madame Maxime opened it. She was wearing a silk shawl wrapped around her massive 
shoulders. She smiled when she saw Hagrid. 
“Ah, ‘Agrid… it is time?” 
“Bong-sewer,” said Hagrid, beaming at her, and holding out a hand to help her down the golden 
steps. 
Madame Maxime closed the door behind her, Hagrid offered her his arm, and they set off around 
the edge of the paddock containing Madame Maxime’s giant winged horses, with Harry, totally 
bewildered, running to keep up with them. Had Hagrid wanted to show him Madame Maxime? 
He could see her any old time he wanted… she wasn’t exactly hard to miss… But it seemed that 
Madame Maxime was in for the same treat as Harry, because after a while she said playfully, 
“Wair is it you are taking me, ‘Agrid?”
“Yeh’ll enjoy this,” said Hagrid gruffly, “worth seein’, trust me. On’y - don’ go tellin’ anyone I 
showed yeh, right? Yeh’re not s’posed ter know.”
“Of course not,” said Madame Maxime, fluttering her long black eyelashes.
And still they walked, Harry getting more and more irritated as he jogged along in their wake, 
checking his watch every now and then. Hagrid had some harebrained scheme in hand, which 
might make him miss Sirius. If they didn’t get there soon, he was going to turn around, go 
straight back to the castle, and leave Hagrid to enjoy his moonlit stroll with Madame Maxime. 
But then - when they had walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the 
lake were out of sight - Harry heard something. Men were shouting up ahead… then came a 
deafening, earsplitting roar… Hagrid led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and came to 
a halt. Harry hurried up alongside them - for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires, 
and men darting around them - and then his mouth fell open.
Dragons. Four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs 
inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snorting - torrents of fire were 
shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground on their 
outstretched necks. There was a silvery-blue one with long, pointed horns, snapping and snarling 
at the wizards on the ground; a smooth-scaled green one, which was writhing and stamping with 
all its might; a red one with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face, which was shooting 
mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air; and a gigantic black one, more lizardhike than the 
others, which was nearest to them. 
At least thirty wizards, seven or eight to each dragon, were attempting to control them, pulling 
on the chains connected to heavy leather straps around their necks and legs. Mesmerized, Harry 
looked up, high above him, and saw the eyes of the black dragon, with vertical pupils like a cat’s, 
bulging with either fear or rage, he couldn’t tell which… It was making a horrible noise, a 
yowling, screeching scream. 

---

“Keep back there, Hagrid!” yelled a wizard near the fence, straining on the chain he was holding. 
“They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I’ve seen this Horntail do forty!” 
“Is’n’ it beautiful?” said Hagrid softly. 
“It’s no good!” yelled another wizard. “Stunning Spells, on the count of three!” 
Harry saw each of the dragon keepers pull out his wand. 
“Stupefy!” they shouted in unison, and the Stunning Spells shot into the darkness like fiery 
rockets, bursting in showers of stars on the dragons’ scaly hides - Harry watched the dragon 
nearest to them teeter dangerously on its back legs; its jaws stretched wide in a silent howl; its 
nostrils were suddenly devoid of flame, though still smoking - then, very slowly, it fell. Several 
tons of sinewy, scalyblack dragon hit the ground with a thud that Harry could have sworn made 
the trees behind him quake. 
The dragon keepers lowered their wands and walked forward to their fallen charges, each of 
which was the size of a small hill. They hurried to tighten the chains and fasten them securely to 
iron pegs, which they forced deep into the ground with their wands. 
“Wan’ a closer look?” Hagrid asked Madame Maxime excitedly. The pair of them moved right 
up to the fence, and Harry followed. The wizard who had warned Hagrid not to come any closer 
turned, and Harry realized who it was: Charlie Weasley. 
“All right, Hagrid?” he panted, coming over to talk. “They should be okay now - we put them 
out with a Sleeping Draft on the way here, thought it might be better for them to wake up in the 
dark and the quiet - but, like you saw, they weren’t happy, not happy at all -” 
“What breeds you got here, Charlie?” said Hagrid, gazing at the closest dragon, the black one, 
with something chose to reverence. Its eyes were still just open. Harry could see a strip of 
gleaming yellow beneath its wrinkled black eyelid.
“This is a Hungarian Horntail,” said Charlie. “There’s a Common Welsh Green over there, the 
smaller one — a Swedish Short-Snout, that blue-gray — and a Chinese Fireball, that’s the red.” 
Charlie looked around; Madame Maxime was strolling away around the edge of the enclosure, 
gazing at the stunned dragons. 
“I didn’t know you were bringing her, Hagrid,” Charlie said, frowning. “The champions aren’t 
supposed to know what’s coming - she’s bound to tell her student, isn’t she?” 
“Jus’ thought she’d like ter see ‘em,” shrugged Hagrid, still gazing, enraptured, at the dragons. 
“Really romantic date, Hagrid,” said Charlie, shaking his head. 
“Four…” said Hagrid, “so it’s one fer each o’ the champions, is it? What’ve they gotta do - fight 
‘em?” 

---

“Just get past them, I think,” said Charlie. “We’ll be on hand if it gets nasty, Extinguishing 
Spells at the ready. They wanted nesting mothers, I don’t know why… but I tell you this, I don’t 
envy the one who gets the Horntail. Vicious thing. Its back end’s as dangerous as its front, look.” 
Charlie pointed toward the Horntail’s tail, and Harry saw long, bronze-colored spikes protruding 
along it every few inches. 
Five of Charlie’s fellow keepers staggered up to the Horntail at that moment, carrying a clutch of 
huge granite-gray eggs between them in a blanket. They placed them carefully at the Horntail’s 
side. Hagrid let out a moan of longing.
“I’ve got them counted, Hagrid,” said Charlie sternly. Then he said, “How’s Harry?” 
“Fine,” said Hagrid. He was still gazing at the eggs. 
“Just hope he’s still fine after he’s faced this lot,” said Charlie grimly, looking out over the 
dragons’ enclosure. “I didn’t dare tell Mum what he’s got to do for the first task; she’s already 
having kittens about him…” Charlie imitated his mother’s anxious voice. “How could they let 
him enter that tournament, he’s much too young! I thought they were all safe, I thought there was 
going to be an age limit! She was in floods after that Daily Prophet article about him. ‘He still 
cries about his parents! Oh bless him, I never knew!’” 
Harry had had enough. Trusting to the fact that Hagrid wouldn’t miss him, with the attractions of 
four dragons and Madame Maxime to occupy him, he turned silently and began to walk away, 
back to the castle. 
He didn’t know whether he was glad he’d seen what was coming or not. Perhaps this way was 
better. The first shock was over now. Maybe if he’d seen the dragons for the first time on 
Tuesday, he would have passed out cold in front of the whole school… but maybe he would 
anyway… He was going to be armed with his wand - which, just now, felt like nothing more 
than a narrow strip of wood — against a fifty-foot-high, scaly, spike-ridden, fire-breathing 
dragon. And he had to get past it. With everyone watching. How? 
Harry sped up, skirting the edge of the forest; he had just under fifteen minutes to get back to the 
fireside and talk to Sirius, and he couldn’t remember, ever, wanting to talk to someone more than 
he did right now — when, without warning, he ran into something very solid. 
Harry fell backward, his glasses askew, clutching the cloak around him. A voice nearby said, 
“Ouch! Who’s there?” 
Harry hastily checked that the cloak was covering him and hay very still, staring up at the dark 
outline of the wizard he had hit. He recognized the goatee… it was Karkaroff. 
“Who’s there?” said Karkaroff again, very suspiciously, looking around in the darkness. Harry 
remained still and silent. After a minute or so, Karkaroff seemed to decide that he had hit some 
sort of animal; he was looking around at waist height, as though expecting to see a dog. Then he 

---

crept back under the cover of the trees and started to edge forward toward the place where the 
dragons were. 
Very slowly and very carefully, Harry got to his feet and set off again as fast as he could without 
making too much noise, hurrying through the darkness back toward Hogwarts. 
He had no doubt whatsoever what Karkaroff was up to. He had sneaked off his ship to try and 
find out what the first task was going to be. He might even have spotted Hagrid and Madame 
Maxime heading off around the forest together – they were hardly difficult to spot at a 
distance… and now all Karkaroff had to do was follow the sound of voices, and he, like Madame 
Maxime, would know what was in store for the champions. 
By the looks of it, the only champion who would be facing the unknown on Tuesday was Cedric. 
Harry reached the castle, slipped in through the front doors, and began to climb the marble stairs; 
he was very out of breath, but he didn’t dare slow down… He had less than five minutes to get 
up to the fire. 
“Balderdash!” he gasped at the Fat Lady, who was snoozing in her frame in front of the portrait 
hole. 
“If you say so,” she muttered sleepily, without opening her eyes, and the picture swung forward 
to admit him. Harry climbed inside. The common room was deserted, and, judging by the fact 
that it smelled quite normal, Hermione had not needed to set off any Dungbombs to ensure that 
he and Sirius got privacy. Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak and threw himself into an 
armchair in front of the fire. The room was in semidarkness; the flames were the only source of 
light. Nearby, on a table, the Support Cedric Diggory! badges the Creeveys had been trying to 
improve were glinting in the firelight. They now read POTTER REALLY STINKS. Harry 
looked back into the flames, and jumped. Sirius’s head was sitting in the fire. If Harry hadn’t 
seen Mr. Diggory do exactly this back in the Weasleys’ kitchen, it would have scared him out of 
his wits. 
Instead, his face breaking into the first smile he had worn for days, he scrambled out of his chair, 
crouched down by the hearth, and said, “Sirius - how’re you doing?” 
Sirius looked different from Harry’s memory of him. When they had said goodbye, Sirius’s face 
had been gaunt and sunken, surrounded by a quantity of long, black, matted hair - but the hair 
was short and clean now, Sirius’s face was fuller, and he looked younger, much more like the 
only photograph Harry had of him, which had been taken at the Potters’ wedding. 
“Never mind me, how are you?” said Sirius seriously. 
“I’m -” For a second, Harry tried to say “fine” - but he couldn’t do it. Before he could stop 
himself, he was talking more than he’d talked in days - about how no one believed he hadn’t 
entered the tournament of his own free will, how Rita Skeeter had lied about him in the Daily 
Prophet, how he couldn’t walk down a corridor without being sneered at - and about Ron, Ron 
not believing him, Ron’s jealousy…

---

“… and now Hagrid’s just shown me what’s coming in the first task, and it’s dragons, Sirius, and 
I’m a goner,” he finished desperately. 
Sirius looked at him, eyes full of concern, eyes that had not yet lost the look that Azkaban had 
given them - that deadened, haunted look He had let Harry talk himself into silence without 
interruption, but now he said, “Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we’ll get to that in a minute 
- I haven’t got long here… I’ve broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be 
back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about.” 
“What?” said Harry, feeling his spirits slip a further few notches… Surely there could be nothing 
worse than dragons coming? 
“Karkaroff,” said Sirius. “Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don’t 
you?” 
“Yes - he - what?” 
“He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I’d bet everything that’s why 
Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year – to keep an eye on him. Moody caught 
Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place.” 
“Karkaroff got released?” Harry said slowly - his brain seemed to be struggling to absorb yet 
another piece of shocking information. “Why did they release him?” 
“He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic,” said Sirius bitterly. “He said he’d seen the error of 
his ways, and then he named names… he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place… 
He’s not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he’s 
been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out 
for the Durmstrang champion as well.” 
“Okay,” said Harry slowly. “But… are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet? 
Because if he did, he’s a really good actor. He seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop me 
from competing.” 
“We know he’s a good actor,” said Sirius, “because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set 
him free, didn’t he? Now, I’ve been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet, Harry…” 
“- you and the rest of the world,” said Harry bitterly. 
“- and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman’s article last month, Moody was attacked 
the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm,” Sirius 
said hastily, seeing Harry about to speak, “but I don’t think so, somehow. I think someone tried 
to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more 
difficult with him around. And no one’s going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye’s heard 
intruders a bit too often. But that doesn’t mean he can’t still spot the real thing. Moody was the 
best Auror the Ministry ever had.”

---

“So… what are you saying?” said Harry slowly. “Karkaroff’s trying to kill me? But - why?” 
Sirius hesitated. 
“I’ve been hearing some very strange things,” he said slowly. “The Death Eaters seem to be a bit 
more active than usual lately. They showed themselves at the Quidditch World Cup, didn’t they? 
Someone set off the Dark Mark… and then - did you hear about that Ministry of Magic witch 
who’s gone missing?” 
“Bertha Jorkins?” said Harry. 
“Exactly… she disappeared in Albania, and that’s definitely where Voldemort was rumored to be 
last… and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn’t she?” 
“Yeah, but… it’s not very likely she’d have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?” said Harry. 
“Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins,” said Sirius grimly. “She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few 
years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It’s not 
a good combination, Harry. I’d say she’d be very easy to lure into a trap.” 
“So… so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament?” said Harry. “Is that what you 
mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?” 
“I don’t know,” said Sirius slowly, “I just don’t know… Karkaroff doesn’t strike me as the type 
who’d go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him. 
But whoever put your name in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can’t help thinking the 
tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it hook like an accident.” 
“Looks hike a really good plan from where I’m standing,” said Harry grinning bleaky. “They’ll 
just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff.” 
“Right - these dragons,” said Sirius, speaking very quickly now. “There’s a way, Harry. Don’t be 
tempted to try a Stunning Spell - dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked 
out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon -” 
“Yeah, I know, I just saw,” said Harry. 
“But you can do it alone,” said Sirius. “There is away, and a simple spell’s all you need. Just -” 
But Harry held up a hand to silence him, his heart suddenly pounding as though it would burst. 
He could hear footsteps coming down the spiral staircase behind him. 
“Go!” he hissed at Sirius. “Go! There’s someone coming!” 
Harry scrambled to his feet, hiding the fire - if someone saw Sirius’s face within the walls of 
Hogwarts, they would raise an almighty uproar - the Ministry would get dragged in - he, Harry, 

---

would be questioned about Sirius’s whereabouts - Harry heard a tiny pop! in the fire behind him 
and knew Sirius had gone. He watched the bottom of the spiral staircase. Who had decided to go 
for a stroll at one o’clock in the morning, and stopped Sirius from telling him how to get past a 
dragon? It was Ron. Dressed in his maroon paisley pajamas, Ron stopped dead facing 
Harry across the room, and looked around. 
“Who were you talking to?” he said. 
“What’s that got to do with you?” Harry snarled. “What are you doing down here at this time of 
night?” 
“I just wondered where you -” Ron broke off, shrugging. “Nothing. I’m going back to bed.” 
“Just thought you’d come nosing around, did you?” Harry shouted. He knew that Ron had no 
idea what he’d walked in on, knew he hadn’t done it on purpose, but he didn’t care - at this 
moment he hated everything about Ron, right down to the several inches of bare ankle showing 
beneath his pajama trousers. 
“Sorry about that,” said Ron, his face reddening with anger. “Should’ve realized you didn’t want 
to be disturbed. I’ll let you get on with practicing for your next interview in peace.” 
Harry seized one of the POTTER REALLY STINKS badges off the table and chucked it, as hard 
as he could, across the room. It hit Ron on the forehead and bounced off. 
“There you go,” Harry said. “Something for you to wear on Tuesday. You might even have a 
scar now, if you’re lucky… That’s what you want, isn’t it?” 
He strode across the room toward the stairs; he half expected Ron to stop him, he would even 
have liked Ron to throw a punch at him, but Ron just stood there in his too-small pajamas, and 
Harry, having stormed upstairs, lay awake in bed fuming for a long time afterward and didn’t 
hear him come up to bed.