Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 
 
 
The Egg and the Eye 
Harry had no idea how long a bath he would need to work out the secret of the golden egg, he 
decided to do it at night, when he would be able to take as much time as he wanted. Reluctant 
though he was to accept more favors from Cedric, he also decided to use the prefects’ bathroom; 
far fewer people were allowed in there, so it was much less likely that he would be disturbed. 
Harry planned his excursion carefully, because he had been caught out of bed and out-of-bounds 
by Filch the caretaker in the middle of the night once before, and had no desire to repeat the 
experience. The Invisibility Cloak would, of course, be essential, and as an added precaution, 
Harry thought he would take the Marauders Map, which, next to the cloak, was the most useful 
aid to rule-breaking Harry owned. The map showed the whole of Hogwarts, including its many 
shortcuts and secret passageways and, most important of all, it revealed the people inside the 
castle as minuscule, labeled dots, moving around the corridors, so that Harry would be 
forewarned if somebody was approaching the bathroom. 
On Thursday night, Harry sneaked up to bed, put on the cloak, crept back downstairs, and, just as 
he had done on the night when Hagrid had shown him the dragons, waited for the portrait hole to 
open. This time it was Ron who waited outside to give the Fat Lady the password (“banana 
fritters”), “Good luck,” Ron muttered, climbing into the room as Harry crept out past him. 
It was awkward moving under the cloak tonight, because Harry had the heavy egg under one arm 
and the map held in front of his nose with the other. However, the moonlit corridors were empty 
and silent, and by checking the map at strategic intervals, Harry was able to ensure that he 
wouldn’t run into anyone he wanted to avoid. When he reached the statue of Boris the 
Bewildered, a lost-looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands, he located the right door, 
leaned close to it, and muttered the password, “Pine fresh,” just as Cedric had told him. 
The door creaked open. Harry slipped inside, bolted the door behind him, and pulled off the 
Invisibility Cloak, looking around. 
His immediate reaction was that it would be worth becoming a prefect just to be able to use this 
bathroom. It was softly lit by a splendid candle-filled chandelier, and everything was made of 
white marble, including what looked like an empty, rectangular swimming pool sunk into the 
middle of the floor. About a hundred golden taps stood all around the pools edges, each with a 
differently colored Jewel set into its handle. There was also a diving board. Long white linen 
curtains hung at the windows; a large pile of fluffy white towels sat in a corner, and there was a 
single golden-framed painting on the wall. It featured a blonde mermaid who was fast asleep on 
a rock, her long hair over her face. It fluttered every time she snored. 
Harry moved forward, looking around, his footsteps echoing off the walls. Magnificent though 
the bathroom was - and quite keen though he was to try out a few of those taps - now he was here 
he couldn’t quite suppress the feeling that Cedric might have been having him on. How on earth 

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was this supposed to help solve the mystery of the egg? Nevertheless, he put one of the Huffy 
towels, the cloak, the map, and the egg at the side of the swimming-pool-sized bath, then knelt 
down and turned on a few of the taps. 
He could tell at once that they carried different sorts of bubble bath mixed with the water, though 
it wasn’t bubble bath as Harry had ever experienced it. One tap gushed pink and blue bubbles the 
size of footballs; another poured ice-white foam so thick that Harry thought it would have 
supported his weight if he’d cared to test it; a third sent heavily perfumed purple clouds hovering 
over the surface of the water. Harry amused himself for awhile turning the taps on and off, 
particularly enjoying the effect of one whose jet bounced off the surface of the water in large 
arcs. Then, when the deep pool was full of hot water, foam, and bubbles, which took a very short 
time considering its size, Harry turned off all the taps, pulled off his pajamas, slippers, and 
dressing gown, and slid into the water.
It was so deep that his feet barely touched the bottom, and he actually did a couple of lengths 
before swimming back to the side and treading water, staring at the egg. Highly enjoyable 
though it was to swim in hot and foamy water with clouds of different-colored steam wafting all 
around him, no stroke of brilliance came to him, no sudden burst of understanding. Harry 
stretched out his arms, lifted the egg in his wet hands, and opened it. The wailing, screeching 
sound filled the bathroom, echoing and reverberating off the marble walls, but it sounded just as 
incomprehensible as ever, if not more so with all the echoes. He snapped it shut again, worried 
that the sound would attract Filch, wondering whether that hadn’t been Cedric’s plan - and then, 
making him jump so badly that he dropped the egg, which clattered away across the bathroom 
floor, someone spoke. 
“I’d try putting it in the water, if I were you.” 
Harry had swallowed a considerable amount of bubbles in shock. He stood up, sputtering, and 
saw the ghost of a very glum-looking girl sitting cross-legged on top of one of the taps. It was 
Moaning Myrtle, who was usually to be heard sobbing in the S-bend of a toilet three floors 
below. 
“Myrtle!” Harry said in outrage, “I’m - I’m not wearing anything!” 
The foam was so dense that this hardly mattered, but he had a nasty feeling that Myrtle had been 
spying on him from out of one of the taps ever since he had arrived. 
“I closed my eyes when you got in,” she said, blinking at him through her thick spectacles. “You 
haven’t been to see me for ages.” 
“Yeah… well…” said Harry, bending his knees slightly, just to make absolutely sure Myrtle 
couldn’t see anything but his head, “I’m not supposed to come into your bathroom, am I? It’s a 
girls’ one.” 
“You didn’t used to care,” said Myrtle miserably. “You used to be in there all the time.” 

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This was true, though only because Harry, Ron, and Hermione had found Myrtle’s out-of-order 
toilets a convenient place to brew Polyjuice Potion in secret – a forbidden potion that had turned 
him and Ron into living replicas of Crabbe and Goyle for an hour, so that they could sneak into 
the Slytherin common room. 
“I got told off for going in there.” said Harry, which was half-true; Percy had once caught him 
coming out of Myrtles bathroom. “I thought I’d better not come back after that.” 
“Oh… I see…” said Myrtle, picking at a spot on her chin in a morose sort of way. “Well… 
anyway… I’d try the egg in the water. That’s what Cedric Diggory did.” 
“Have you been spying on him too?” said Harry indignantly. “What d’you do, sneak up here in 
the evenings to watch the prefects take baths?” 
“Sometimes,” said Myrtle, rather slyly, “but I’ve never come out to speak to anyone before.” 
“I’m honored,” said Harry darkly. “You keep your eyes shut!” 
He made sure Myrtle had her glasses well covered before hoisting himself out of the bath, 
wrapping the towel firmly around his waist, and going to retrieve the egg. 
Once he was back in the water, Myrtle peered through her fingers and said, “Go on, then… open 
it under the water!” 
Harry lowered the egg beneath the foamy surface and opened it… and this time, it did not wail. 
A gurgling song was coming out of it, a song whose words he couldnt distinguish through the 
water. 
“You need to put your head under too,” said Myrtle, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying 
bossing him around. “Go on!” 
Harry took a great breath and slid under the surface - and now, sitting on the marble bottom of 
the bubble-filled bath, he heard a chorus of eerie voices singing to him from the open egg in his 
hands: 
“