,"
said Moody. "In the meantime .. . constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance."
He took another long draw from his hip flask, and his magical eye swiveled onto
the window. The topmost sail of the Durmstrang ship was visible through it.
"You two," counseled Moody, his normal eye on Ron and Hermione, "you stick
close to Potter, all right? I'm keeping an eye on things, but all the same . . . you can
never have too many eyes out."
Sirius sent their owl back the very next morning. It fluttered down beside Harry at
the same moment that a tawny owl landed in front of Hermione, clutching a copy
of the Daily Prophet in its beak. She took the newspaper, scanned the first few
pages, said, "Ha! She hasn't got wind of Crouch!" then joined Ron and Harry in
reading what Sirius had to say on the mysterious events of the night before last.
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!"
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"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
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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....
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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. . . .
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"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 hosp