FINITE | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [4]

𝘅𝘅𝗶𝘅 | 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿

When Gwen and Hermione went down for breakfast the next day, Ron was already there, looking stormy. He hardly spoke to them when they joined, and Harry was nowhere to be seen.

'Ron,' Gwen said, as she started her toast, 'are you OK?'

'Smashing,' he said, not looking up at her. He was eating his scrambled eggs like they were poisonous, forcing them into his mouth and chewing with an odd grimace on his face.

'Have you spoken to Harry yet?' Hermione asked tentatively.

Ron nodded, but did not elaborate.

'Is he OK?' Gwen asked, then immediately regretted her question.

'He's perfect, isn't he?' Ron snapped. 'Managed to get his name in and didn't even tell us. We're not stupid, he said he would've done it the night before. Probably used the Invisibility Cloak or something.'

There was no point arguing. He had made up his mind. Gwen and Hermione shared a look, but did not raise the matter further.

The three of them ate in silence. Gwen kept looking around nervously, hoping that Harry would appear, but he didn't. She finished her food, grabbed a napkin, a stack of toast, and a pot of jam, and with a quick goodbye to Ron and Hermione, headed back to the common room.

She had just reached the portrait of the Fat Lady when it swung open, and she found herself face to face with Harry.

'Hi,' she said, smiling at him. He looked as though he had hardly slept; his mouth was curved down miserably. 'Want to go for a walk?' she added, and he nodded gratefully.

They went downstairs and slipped out of the entrance hall, without so much as a glance into the Great Hall, and down the sloping lawns. It was a chilly morning; the Durmstrang ship was rocking on the lake in the breeze. They walked the banks of the lake to keep warm, munching on their toast and spooning jam onto the slices.

Harry filled Gwen in on what had happened the night before. Aside from Moody, McGonagall, and Dumbledore, it appeared nobody had believed that Harry had not put his own name forward. He told her what Moody had said, that perhaps someone had done it to try and kill him, and the clear dislike between him and Karkaroff. He told her of the instructions they had been given, how Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory, and Fleur Delacour had been less than impressed when they had been informed that he too was a champion, and how angry Madame Maxime and Professor Karkaroff had been.

Then he told Gwen of his argument with Ron when he had finally managed to get up to bed.

Harry seemed utterly relieved that Gwen believed him.

'Of course I believe you,' she said, slightly offended that he had doubted her. 'I mean, Hermione said it herself, your face when your name was pulled. I didn't say it to her, but I agree with Moody on this one... as dramatic as he is, acting like we're all going to be ambushed by Dark wizards at every turn, I think there's something more here. I don't think it's a sick joke or anything, I think someone's put your name in on purpose.'