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

𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗶 | 𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗼 𝗯𝗮𝗴𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝘀

Halfway through January there was a Hogsmeade trip. Hermione was very surprised that Harry said he was going too.

  'I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the common room being quiet,' she said. 'Really get to work on that egg.'

  'Oh I-- I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what it's about now,' Harry said.

  'Have you really?' said Hermione, looking impressed. 'Well done!'

  Gwen didn't fail to notice the guilty look on Harry's face, giving away that he had, in fact, no idea what the egg was about. She didn't know if he had taken a bath with it yet, which felt like a strange sentence to say, but she hoped that, for his own sake, he wasn't proud enough to ignore Cedric's advice.

  On Saturday, Gwen, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the castle together and set off across teh wet grounds to the gates. As they passed the Durmstrang ship in the lake, they saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but his swimming trunks. He was rather skinny for an athlete, but apparently much tougher than he looked, for he climbed up onto the side of the ship, stretched out his arms and dived right into the lake.

  'He's mad!' Harry said as they all stared at his dark head bobbing out into the middle of the lake. 'It must be freezing! It's January!'

  'It's a lot colder where he comes from,' said Hermione. 'I suppose it feels quite warm to him.'

  'Yeah, but there's still the giant squid,' said Ron. Gwen glanced at him; he didn't sound anxious at all, but rather hopeful. Hermione frowned at him.

  'He's really nice, you know,' she said. 'He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me.'

  Ron said nothing.

  Gwen kept her eyes peeled for any sign of Hagrid all the way down the slushy high street, and suggested a visit to the Three Broomsticks as he often frequented the pub. There was no sign of Hagrid in any of the shops, and when they entered the crowded pub, Gwen's heart sank when he was very clearly not there either. Gwen went up to the bar with Harry and ordered four butterbeers.

  'Doesn't he ever go into the office?' Hermione whispered suddenly when Gwen and Harry had joined her and Ron, searching for a spare table. 'Look!'

  She pointed into the mirror behind the bar, and Gwen spotted Ludo Bagman reflected there, sitting in a shadowy corner with a bunch of goblins. Bagman was talking very fast in a low voice, looking very anxious under the menacing stares of the goblins, who all had their arms crossed.

  It was a very odd sight. It was even stranger that Bagman was in Hogsmeade on the weekend, when there was no Triwizard event, and therefore no judging to be done. He looked just as strained as he had done the night of the Quidditch World Cup. Then, without warning, he looked up and spotted Harry.