Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry - what do you think you are playing at, walking off into the forest with Viktor Krum? I 
want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking with anyone else at night. 
There is somebody highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It is clear to me that they wanted to stop 
Crouch from seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You 
could have been killed. 
 
Your name didn
’
t get into the Goblet of Fire by accident. If someone
’
s trying to attack you, 
they
’
re on their last chance. Stay close to Ron and Hermione, do not leave Gryffindor Tower 
after hours, and arm yourself for the third task. Practice Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes 

---

wouldn
’
t go amiss either. There
’
s nothing you can do about Crouch. Keep your head down and 
look after yourself. I
’
m waiting for your letter giving me your word you won
’
t stray out-of-
bounds again. 
 
Sirius 
“Who’s he, to lecture me about being out-of-bounds?” said Harry in mild indignation as he 
folded up Sirius’s letter and put it inside his robes. “After all the stuff he did at school!” 
“He’s worried about you!” said Hermione sharply. “Just like Moody and Hagrid! So listen to 
them!” 
“No one’s tried to attack me all year,” said Harry. “No one’s done anything to me at 
all-” 
“Except put your name in the Goblet of Fire,” said Hermione. “And they must’ve done that for a 
reason Harry. Snuffles is right. Maybe they’ve been biding their time. Maybe this is the task 
they’re going to get you.” 
“Look,” said Harry impatiently, “let’s say Sirius is right, and someone Stunned Krum to kidnap 
Crouch. Well, they would’ve been in the trees near us, wouldn’t they? But they waited till I was 
out of the way until they acted, didn’t they? So it doesn’t look like I’m their target, does it?” 
“They couldn’t have made it look like an accident if they’d murdered you in the forest!” said 
Hermione. “But if you die during a task-” 
“They didn’t care about attacking Krum, did they?” said Harry. “Why didn’t they just polish me 
off at the same time? They could’ve made it look like Krum and I had a duel or something.” 
“Harry, I don’t understand it either,” said Hermione desperately. “I just know there are a lot of 
odd things going on, and I don’t like it… Moody’s right - Sirius is right - you’ve got to get in 
training for the third task, straight away. And you make sure you write back to Sirius and 
promise him you’re not going to go sneaking off alone again.” 
The Hogwarts grounds never looked more inviting than when Harry had to stay indoors. For the 
next few days he spent all of his free time either in the library with Hermione and Ron, looking 
up hexes, or else in empty classrooms, which they sneaked into to practice. Harry was 
concentrating on the Stunning Spell, which he had never used before. The trouble was that 
practicing it involved certain sacrifices on Ron’s and Hermione’s part. 
“Can’t we kidnap Mrs. Norris?” Ron suggested on Monday lunchtime as he lay flat on his back 
in the middle of their Charms classroom, having just been Stunned and reawoken by Harry for 
the fifth time in a row. “Let’s Stun her for a bit. Or you could use Dobby, Harry, I bet he’d do 
anything to help you. I’m not complaining or anything” - he got gingerly to his feet, rubbing his 
backside - “but I’m aching all over…” 

---

“Well, you keep missing the cushions, don’t you!” said Hermione impatiently, rearranging the 
pile of cushions they had used for the Banishing Spell, which Flitwick had left in a cabinet. “Just 
try and fall backward!” 
“Once you’re Stunned, you can’t aim too well, Hermione!” said Ron angrily. “Why don’t you 
take a turn?” 
“Well, I think Harry’s got it now, anyway,” said Hermione hastily. “And we don’t have to worry 
about Disarming, because he’s been able to do that for ages… I think we ought to start on some 
of these hexes this evening.”
She looked down the list they had made in the library. 
“I like the look of this one,” she said, “this Impediment Curse. Should slow down anything that’s 
trying to attack you Harry. We’ll start with that one.” 
The bell rang. They hastily shoved the cushions back into Flitwicks cupboard and slipped out of 
the classroom. 
“See you at dinner!” said Hermione, and she set off for Arithmancy, while Harry and Ron 
headed toward North Tower, and Divination. Broad strips of dazzling gold sunlight tell across 
the corridor from the high windows. The sky outside was so brightly blue it looked as though it 
had been enameled. 
“It’s going to be boiling in Trelawney’s room, she never puts out that fire,” said Ron as they 
started up the staircase toward the silver ladder and the trapdoor. 
He was quite right. The dimly lit room was swelteringly hot. The fumes from the perfumed fire 
were heavier than ever. Harrys head swam as he made his way over to one of the curtained 
windows. While Professor Trelawney was looking the other way, disentangling her shawl from a 
lamp, he opened it an inch or so and settled back in his chintz armchair, so that a soft breeze 
played across his face. It was extremely comfortable. 
“My dears,” said Professor Trelawney, sitting down in her winged armchair in front of the class 
and peering around at them all with her strangely enlarged eyes, “we have almost finished our 
work on planetary divination. Today, however, will be an excellent opportunity to examine the 
effects of Mars, for he is placed most interestingly at the present time. If you will all look this 
way, I will dim the lights…” 
She waved her wand and the lamps went out. The fire was the only source of light now. 
Professor Trelawney bent down and lifted, from under her chair, a miniature model of the solar 
system, contained within a glass dome. It was a beautiful thing; each of the moons glimmered in 
place around the nine planets and the fiery sun, all of them hanging in thin air beneath the glass. 
Harry watched lazily as Professor Trelawney began to point out the fascinating angle Mars was 
making to Neptune. 

---

The heavily perfumed fumes washed over him, and the breeze from the window played across 
his face. He could hear an insect humming gently somewhere behind the curtain. His eyelids 
began to droop…
He was riding on the back of an eagle owl, soaring through the clear blue sky toward an old, ivy-
covered house set high on a hillside. Lower and lower they flew, the wind blowing pleasantly in 
Harry’s face, until they reached a dark and broken window in the upper story of the house and 
entered. Now they were flying along a gloomy passageway, to a room at the very end… through 
the door they went, into a dark room whose windows were boarded up…
Harry had left the owl’s back… he was watching, now, as it fluttered across the room, into a 
chair with its back to him… There were two dark shapes on the floor beside the chair… both of 
them were stirring…
One was a huge snake… the other was a man… a short, balding man, a man with watery eyes 
and a pointed nose… he was wheezing and sobbing on the hearth rug…
“You are in luck, Wormtail,” said a cold, high-pitched voice from the depths of the chair in 
which the owl had landed. “You are very fortunate indeed. Your blunder has not ruined 
everything. He is dead.” 
“My Lord!” gasped the man on the floor. “My Lord, I am… I am so pleased… and so sorry…” 
“Nagini,” said the cold voice, “you are out of luck. I will not be feeding Wormtail to you, after 
all… but never mind, never mind… there is still Harry Potter…” 
The snake hissed. Harry could see its tongue fluttering. 
“Now, Wormtail,” said the cold voice, “perhaps one more little reminder why I will not tolerate 
another blunder from you…” 
“My Lord… no… I beg you…” 
The tip of a wand emerged from around the back of the chair. It was pointing at Wormtail. 
“Crucio!” said the cold voice. 
Wormtail screamed, screamed as though every nerve in his body were on fire, the screaming 
filled Harry’s ears as the scar on his forehead seared with pain; he was yelling too… Voldemort 
would hear him, would know he was there…
“Harry! Harry!” 
Harry opened his eyes. He was lying on the floor of Professor Trelawney’s room with his hands 
over his face. His scar was still burning so badly that his eyes were watering. The pain had been 

---

real. The whole class was standing around him, and Ron was kneeling next to him, looking 
terrified. 
“You all right?” he said. 
“Of course he isn’t!” said Professor Trelawney, looking thoroughly excited. Her great eyes 
loomed over Harry, gazing at him. “What was it Potter? A premonition? An apparition? What 
did you see?” 
“Nothing,” Harry lied. He sat up. He could feel himself shaking. He couldn’t stop himself from 
looking around, into the shadows behind him; Voldemorts voice had sounded so close…
“You were clutching your scar!” said Professor Trelawney. “You were rolling on the floor, 
clutching your scar! Come now Potter, I have experience in these matters!” 
Harry looked up at her. 
“I need to go to the hospital wing, I think,” he said. “Bad headache.” 
“My dear, you were undoubtedly stimulated by the extraordinary clairvoyant vibrations of my 
room!” said Professor Trelawney. “If you leave now, you may lose the opportunity to see further 
than you have ever -” 
“I don’t want to see anything except a headache cure,” said Harry. 
He stood up. The class backed away. They all looked unnerved. 
“See you later,” Harry muttered to Ron, and he picked up his bag and headed for the trapdoor, 
ignoring Professor Trelawney, who was wearing an expression of great frustration, as though she 
had just been denied a real treat. 
When Harry reached the bottom of her stepladder, however, he did not set off for the hospital 
wing. He had no intention whatsoever of going there. Sirius had told him what to do if his scar 
hurt him again, and Harry was going to follow his advice: He was going straight to 
Dumbledore’s office. He marched down the corridors, thinking about what he had seen in the 
dream… it had been as vivid as the one that had awoken him on Privet Drive… He ran over the 
details in his mind, trying to make sure he could remember them… He had heard Voldemort 
accusing Wormtail of making a blunder… but the owl had brought good news, the blunder had 
been repaired, somebody was dead… so Wormtail was not going to be fed to the snake… he, 
Harry, was going to be fed to it instead…
Harry had walked right past the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledores office 
without noticing. He blinked, looked around, realized what he had done, and retraced his steps, 
stopping in front of it. Then he remembered that he didn’t know the password. 
“Sherbet lemon?” he tried tentatively. 

---

The gargoyle did not move. 
“Okay,” said Harry, staring at it, “Pear Drop. Er - Licorice Wand. Fizzing Whizbee. Drooble’s 
Best Blowing Gum. Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans… oh no, he doesn’t like them, does he?… 
oh just open, can’t you?” he said angrily. “I really need to see him, its urgent!” 
The gargoyle remained immovable. 
Harry kicked it, achieving nothing but an excruciating pain in his big toe. 
“Chocolate Frog!” he yelled angrily, standing on one leg. “Sugar Quill! Cockroach Cluster!” 
The gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside. Harry blinked. 
“Cockroach Cluster?” he said, amazed. “I was only joking…” 
He hurried through the gap in the walls and stepped onto the foot of a spiral stone staircase, 
which moved slowly upward as the doors closed behind him, taking him up to a polished oak 
door with a brass door knocker. 
He could hear voices from inside the office. He stepped off the moving staircase and hesitated, 
listening. 
“Dumbledore, I’m afraid I don’t see the connection, don’t see it at all!” It was the voice of the 
Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. “Ludo says Berthas perfectly capable of getting herself lost. 
I agree we would have expected to have found her by now, but all the same, we’ve no evidence 
of foul play, Dumbledore, none at all. As for her disappearance being linked with Barty 
Crouch’s!” 
“And what do you thinks happened to Barty Crouch, Minister?” said Moody’s growling voice. 
“I see two possibilities, Alastor,” said Fudge. “Either Crouch has finally cracked - more than 
likely, I’m sure you’ll agree, given his personal history - lost his mind, and gone wandering off 
somewhere -” 
“He wandered extremely quickly, if that is the case, Cornelius,” said Dumbledore calmly. 
“Or else - well…” Fudge sounded embarrassed. “Well, I’ll reserve judgment until after I’ve seen 
the place where he was found, but you say it was just past the Beauxbatons carriage? 
Dumbledore, you know what that woman is?” 
“I consider her to be a very able headmistress - and an excellent dancer,” said Dumbledore 
quietly. 

---

“Dumbledore, come!” said Fudge angrily. “Don’t you think you might be prejudiced in her favor 
because of Hagrid? They don’t all turn out harmless - if, indeed, you can call Hagrid harmless, 
with that monster fixation he’s got -” 
“I no more suspect Madame Maxime than Hagrid,” said Dumbledore, just as calmly. “I think it 
possible that it is you who are prejudiced, Cornelius.”
“Can we wrap up this discussion?” growled Moody. 
“Yes, yes, let’s go down to the grounds, then,” said Fudge impatiently. 
“No, it’s not that,” said Moody, “it’s just that Potter wants a word with you, Dumbledore. He’s 
just outside the door.”