 his own, is an insult to
his memory."
466
Stunned and frightened, every face in the Hall was turned toward Dumbledore
now... or almost every face. Over at the Slytherin table. Harry saw Draco Malfoy
muttering something to Crabbe and Goyle. Harry felt a hot, sick swoop of anger in
his stomach. He forced himself to look back at Dumbledore.
"There is somebody else who must be mentioned in connection with Cedrics
death," Dumbledore went on. "I am talking, of course, about Harry Potter."
A kind of ripple crossed the Great Hall as a few heads turned in Harry's direction
before flicking back to face Dumbledore.
"Harry Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort," said Dumbledore. "He risked
his own life to return Cedric's body to Hogwarts. He showed, in every respect, the
sort of bravery that few wizards have ever shown in facing Lord Voldemort, and
for this, I honor him."
Dumbledore turned gravely to Harry and raised his goblet once more. Nearly
everyone in the Great Hall followed suit. They murmured his name, as they had
murmured Cedric's, and drank to him. But through a gap in the standing figures.
Harry saw that Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and many of the other Slytherins had
remained defiantly in their seats, their goblets untouched. Dumbledore, who after
all possessed no magical eye, did not see them.
When everyone had once again resumed their seats, Dumbledore continued, "The
Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In
the light of what has happened - of Lord Voldemorts return - such ties are more
important than ever before."
Dumbledore looked from Madame Maxime and Hagrid, to Fleur Delacour and her
fellow Beauxbatons students, to Viktor Krum and the Durmstrangs at the Slytherin
table. Krum, Harry saw, looked wary, almost frightened, as though he expected
Dumbledore to say something harsh.
"Every guest in this Hall," said Dumbledore, and his eyes lingered upon the
Durmstrang students, "will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish
to come. I say to you all, once again - in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we
are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemorts
gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by
showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and
language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.
"It is my belief- and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken - that we are all
facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered
directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn
asunder. A week ago, a student was taken from our midst.
"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a
choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy
who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord
467
Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
Harry's trunk was packed; Hedwig was back in her cage on top of it. He, Ron, and
Hermione were waiting in the crowded entrance hall with the rest of the fourth
years for the carriages that would take them back to Hogsmeade station. It was
another beautiful summer's day. He supposed that Privet Drive would be hot and
leafy, its flower beds a riot of color, when he arrived there that evening. The
thought gave him no pleasure at all.
"'Arry!"
He looked around. Fleur Delacour was hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
Beyond her, far across the grounds. Harry could see Hagrid helping Madame
Maxime to back two of the giant horses into their harness. The Beauxbatons
carriage was about to take off.
"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope," said Fleur as she reached him, holding out
her hand. "I am 'oping to get a job 'ere, to improve my Eenglish."
"It's very good already," said Ron in a strangled sort of voice. Fleur smiled at him;
Hermione scowled.
"Good-bye, 'Arry," said Fleur, turning to go. "It 'az been a pleasure meeting you!"
Harrys spirits couldn't help but lift slightly as he watched Fleur hurry back across
the lawns to Madame Maxime, her silvery hair rippling in the sunlight.
Wonder how the Durmstrang students are getting back," said Ron. "D' you reckon
they can steer that ship without Karkaroff?"
"Karkaroff did not steer," said a gruff voice. "He stayed in his cabin and let us do
the vork."
Krum had come to say good-bye to Hermione. "Could I have a vord?" he asked
her.
"Oh . . . yes ... all right," said Hermione, looking slightly flustered, and following
Krum through the crowd and out of sight.
"You'd better hurry up!" Ron called loudly after her. "The carriages'll be here in a
minute!"
He let Harry keep a watch for the carriages, however, and spent the next few
minutes craning his neck over the crowd to try and see what Krum and Hermione
might be up to. They returned quite soon. Ron stared at Hermione, but her face
was quite impassive.
"I liked Diggory," said Krum abruptly to Harry. "He vos alvays polite to me.
Alvays. Even though I vos from Durmstrang - with Karkaroff," he added,
scowling.
468
"Have you got a new headmaster yet?" said Harry
Krum shrugged. He held out his hand as Fleur had done, shook Harry's hand, and
then Ron's. Ron looked as though he was suffering some sort of painful internal
struggle. Krum had already started walking away when Ron burst out, "Can I have
your autograph?"
Hermione turned away, smiling at the horseless carriages that were now trundling
toward them up the drive, as Krum, looking surprised but gratified, signed a
fragment of parchment for Ron.
The weather could not have been more different on the journey back to King's
Cross than it had been on their way to Hogwarts the previous September. There
wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had managed to get a
compartment to themselves. Pigwidgeon was once again hidden under Rons dress
robes to stop him from hooting continually; Hedwig was dozing, her head under
her wing, and Crookshanks was curled up in a spare seat like a large, furry ginger
cushion. Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked more fully and freely than they had all
week as the train sped them southward. Harry felt as though Dumbledore's speech
at the Leaving Feast had unblocked him, somehow. It was less painful to discuss
what had happened now. They broke off their conversation about what action
Dumbledore might be taking, even now, to stop Voldemort only when the lunch
trolley arrived.
When Hermione returned from the trolley and put her money back into her
schoolbag, she dislodged a copy of the Daily Prophet that she had been carrying in
there. Harry looked at it, unsure whether he really wanted to know what it might
say, but Hermione, seeing him looking at it, said calmly, "There's nothing in there.
You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day.
Just a small piece the day after the third task saying you won the tournament. They
didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me. Fudge is
forcing them to keep quiet."
"He'll never keep Rita quiet," said Harry. "Not on a story like this."
"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task," said Hermione in an
oddly constrained voice. "As a matter of fact," she added, her voice now trembling
slightly, "Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not
unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."
"What are you talking about?" said Ron.
"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't
supposed to be coming onto the grounds," said Hermione in a rush.
Harry had the impression that Hermione had been dying to tell them this for days,
but that she had restrained herself in light of everything else that had happened.
"How was she doing it?" said Harry at once.
469
"How did you find out?" said Ron, staring at her.
"Well, it was you, really, who gave me the idea. Harry," she said.
"Did I?" said Harry, perplexed. "How?"
"Bugging," said Hermione happily.
"But you said they didn't work -"
"Oh not electronic bugs," said Hermione. "No, you see ... Rita Skeeter" -
Hermiones voice trembled with quiet triumph - "is an unregistered Animagus. She
can turn -"
Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out other bag.
"- into a beetle."
"You're kidding," said Ron. "You haven't.. . she's not..."
"Oh yes she is," said Hermione happily, brandishing the jar at them.
Inside were a few twigs and leaves and one large, fat beetle.
"That's never - you're kidding -" Ron whispered, lifting the jar to his eyes.
"No, I'm not," said Hermione, beaming. "I caught her on the windowsill in the
hospital wing. Look very closely, and you'll notice the markings around her
antennae are exactly like those foul glasses she wears."
Harry looked and saw that she was quite right. He also remembered something.
"There was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame
Maxime about his mum!"
"Exactly," said Hermione. "And Viktor pulled a beetle out of my hair after we'd
had our conversation by the lake. And unless I'm very much mistaken, Rita was
perched on the windowsill of the Divination class the day your scar hurt. She's
been buzzing around for stories all year."
"When we saw Malfoy under that tree ..." said Ron slowly.
"He was talking to her, in his hand," said Hermione. "He knew, of course. That's
how she's been getting all those nice little interviews with the Slytherins. They
wouldn't care that she was doing something illegal, as long as they were giving her
horrible stuff about us and Hagrid."
Hermione took the glass jar back from Ron and smiled at the beetle, which buzzed
angrily against the glass.
"I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London," said Hermione. "I've
put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't tra