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

𝘅𝗹𝗶 | 𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗮 𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗽

Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately. When Gwen and Hermione met Harry and Ron by the fire around midday, Gwen and Harry shared an immediate, shifty look, half expecting Ron and Hermione to blow up at each other once again.

  They didn't. There seemed to be some sort of unspoken agreement to not mention what had happened last night, however they were both being rather formal with each other, despite their friendly conversation.

  The first thing Ron and Harry did was tell Gwen and Hermione about a conversation they had heard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid; after the first argument, Harry and Ron had also gone on a walk in the grotto outside, where they had heard Madame Maxime and Hagrid engaged in a husky conversation. Hagrid had apparently very much upset Madame Maxime by assuming she was half giant, and had, in the process, admitted to his mother being a giantess.

  Harry and Ron had evidently expected Gwen and Hermione to be shocked by this news. The girls, however, just shrugged.

  'Of course he is,' Gwen said. 'I mean, I always assumed anyway. No human can naturally be Hagrid's size.'

  'And he can't be pure giant because they're over twenty feet tall usually,' Hermione added. 'But honestly, all this hysteria about giants. They can't all be horrible... It's the same sort of prejudice that people have against werewolves... It's just bigotry, isn't it?'

  Ron's face betrayed that he wanted to throw out some sort of scathing reply, but perhaps he didn't want another row, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly while Hermione wasn't looking.

  Now that Christmas was over, everyone was starting to work on their homework again. By the end of the holidays, Gwen had managed to get it all done to great difficulty; she had predicted her own death at least thirty times in her Divination charts, had managed to write a full essay on Antidotes (with lots of help from Theo), and had finally completed her Muggle Studies homework after Hermione had had to explain the concept of the Internet three times.

  It was on the last day of the holidays that Harry pulled Gwen aside.

  'I've been working on the egg,' he told her, 'and there's something I need help with.'

  He explained the hint Cedric had dropped him at the end of the Yule Ball.

  'In the bath?' Gwen asked when he had finished. 'Is he pulling your leg?'

  Harry huffed. 'I don't know.' He hesitated, then said, 'I think he said it to make me look like an idiot... in front of Cho.'

  Gwen rolled her eyes. 'No, Harry, I doubt that. He's not a bad person.' She thought for a moment. 'It can't hurt if you just do what he says. Is the egg still screeching every time you open it?'

  Harry nodded.

  Gwen wracked her mind. She couldn't see what connection the egg would have with a bath, but she didn't think that Cedric would actively lie to Harry, especially not over Cho. She could tell Harry disliked Cedric a bit, given that he, Cedric, and Cho were always walking the corridors holding hands, and Gwen did not miss the disgruntled look Harry always threw their way.