The Goblet of Fire Read online

  He had almost reached the door when he paused. He turned around, strode back down the dormitory, and stopped at Harry’s bed.

  ‘Your winnings,’ he said shortly, taking a large bag of gold out of his pocket, and dropping it onto Harry’s bedside table. ‘One thousand Galleons. There should have been a presentation ceremony, but in the circumstances …’

  He crammed his bowler hat onto his head, and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The moment he had disappeared, Dumbledore turned to look at the group around Harry’s bed.

  ‘There is work to be done,’ he said. ‘Molly … am I right in thinking that I can count on you and Arthur?’

  ‘Of course you can,’ said Mrs Weasley. She was white to the lips, but she looked resolute. ‘He knows what Fudge is. It’s Arthur’s fondness for Muggles that has held him back at the Ministry all these years. Fudge thinks he lacks proper wizarding pride.’

  ‘Then I need to send a message to him,’ said Dumbledore. ‘All those that we can persuade of the truth must be notified immediately, and Arthur is well placed to contact those at the Ministry who are not as short-sighted as Cornelius.’

  ‘I’ll go to Dad,’ said Bill, standing up. ‘I’ll go now.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Tell him what has happened. Tell him I will be in direct contact with him shortly. He will need to be discreet, however. If Fudge thinks I am interfering at the Ministry –’

  ‘Leave it to me,’ said Bill.

  He clapped a hand on Harry’s shoulder, kissed his mother on the cheek, pulled on his cloak, and strode quickly from the room.

  ‘Minerva,’ said Dumbledore, turning to Professor McGonagall, ‘I want to see Hagrid in my office as soon as possible. Also – if she will consent to come – Madame Maxime.’

  Professor McGonagall nodded, and left without a word.

  ‘Poppy,’ Dumbledore said to Madam Pomfrey, ‘would you be very kind, and go down to Professor Moody’s office, where I think you will find a house-elf called Winky in considerable distress? Do what you can for her, and take her back to the kitchens. I think Dobby will look after her for us.’

  ‘Very – very well,’ said Madam Pomfrey, looking startled, and she too left.

  Dumbledore made sure that the door was closed, and that Madam Pomfrey’s footsteps had died away, before he spoke again.

  ‘And now,’ he said, ‘it is time for two of our number to recognise each other for what they are. Sirius … if you could resume your usual form.’

  The great black dog looked up at Dumbledore, then, in an instant, turned back into a man.

  Mrs Weasley screamed and leapt back from the bed.

  ‘Sirius Black!’ she shrieked, pointing at him.

  ‘Mum, shut up!’ Ron yelled. ‘It’s OK!’

  Snape had not yelled or jumped backwards, but the look on his face was one of mingled fury and horror.

  ‘Him!’ he snarled, staring at Sirius, whose face showed equal dislike. ‘What is he doing here?’

  ‘He is here at my invitation,’ said Dumbledore, looking between them, ‘as are you, Severus. I trust you both. It is time for you to lay aside your old differences, and trust each other.’

  Harry thought Dumbledore was asking for a near miracle. Sirius and Snape were eyeing each other with the utmost loathing.

  ‘I will settle, in the short term,’ said Dumbledore, with a bite of impatience in his voice, ‘for a lack of open hostility. You will shake hands. You are on the same side now. Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, there is no hope for any of us.’

  Very slowly – but still glaring at each other as though each wished the other nothing but ill – Sirius and Snape moved towards each other, and shook hands. They let go extremely quickly.

  ‘That will do to be going on with,’ said Dumbledore, stepping between them once more. ‘Now I have work for each of you. Fudge’s attitude, though not unexpected, changes everything. Sirius, I need you to set off at once. You are to alert Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher– the old crowd. Lie low at Lupin’s for a while, I will contact you there.’

  ‘But –’ said Harry.

  He wanted Sirius to stay. He did not want to say goodbye again so quickly.

  ‘You’ll see me very soon, Harry,’ said Sirius, turning to him. ‘I promise you. But I must do what I can, you understand, don’t you?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Harry. ‘Yeah … of course I do.’

  Sirius grasped his hand briefly, nodded to Dumbledore, transformed again into the black dog, and ran the length of the room to the door, whose handle he turned with a paw. Then he was gone.

  ‘Severus,’ said Dumbledore, turning to Snape, ‘you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready … if you are prepared …’

  ‘I am,’ said Snape.

  He looked slightly paler than usual, and his cold, black eyes glittered strangely.

  ‘Then, good luck,’ said Dumbledore, and he watched, with a trace of apprehension on his face, as Snape swept wordlessly after Sirius.

  It was several minutes before Dumbledore spoke again.

  ‘I must go downstairs,’ he said finally. ‘I must see the Diggorys. Harry – take the rest of your potion. I will see all of you later.’

  Harry slumped back against his pillows as Dumbledore disappeared. Hermione, Ron and Mrs Weasley were all looking at him. None of them spoke for a very long time.

  ‘You’ve got to take the rest of your potion, Harry,’ Mrs Weasley said at last. Her hand nudged the sack of gold on his bedside cabinet as she reached for the bottle and the goblet. ‘You have a good long sleep. Try and think about something else for a while … think about what you’re going to buy with your winnings!’

  ‘I don’t want that gold,’ said Harry in an expressionless voice. ‘You have it. Anyone can have it. I shouldn’t have won it. It should’ve been Cedric’s.’

  The thing against which he had been fighting on and off ever since he had come out of the maze was threatening to overpower him. He could feel a burning, prickling feeling in the inner corners of his eyes. He blinked and stared up at the ceiling.

  ‘It wasn’t your fault, Harry,’ Mrs Weasley whispered.

  ‘I told him to take the Cup with me,’ said Harry.

  Now the burning feeling was in his throat, too. He wished Ron would look away.

  Mrs Weasley set the potion down on the bedside cabinet, bent down, and put her arms around Harry. He had no memory of ever being hugged like this, as though by a mother. The full weight of everything he had seen that night seemed to fall in upon him as Mrs Weasley held him to her. His mother’s face, his father’s voice, the sight of Cedric, dead on the ground, all started spinning in his head until he could hardly bear it, until he was screwing up his face against the howl of misery fighting to get out of him.

  There was a loud slamming noise, and Mrs Weasley and Harry broke apart. Hermione was standing by the window. She was holding something tight in her hand.

  ‘Sorry,’ she whispered.

  ‘Your potion, Harry,’ said Mrs Weasley quickly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

  Harry drank it in one. The effect was instantaneous. Heavy, irresistible waves of dreamless sleep broke over him, he fell back onto his pillows, and thought no more.

  — CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN —

  The Beginning

  When he looked back, even a month later, Harry found he had few memories of the following days. It was as though he had been through too much to take in any more. The recollections he did have were very painful. The worst, perhaps, was the meeting with the Diggorys that took place the following morning.

  They did not blame him for what had happened; on the contrary, both thanked him for returning Cedric’s body to them. Mr Diggory sobbed through most of the interview. Mrs Diggory’s grief seemed to be beyond tears.

  ‘He suffered very little, then,’ she said, when Harry had told her how Cedric had died. ‘And after all, Amos …
he died just when he’d won the Tournament. He must have been happy.’

  When they had got to their feet, she looked down at Harry and said, ‘You look after yourself, now.’

  Harry seized the sack of gold on the bedside table.

  ‘You take this,’ he muttered to her. ‘It should’ve been Cedric’s, he got there first, you take it –’

  But she backed away from him. ‘Oh, no, it’s yours, dear, we couldn’t … you keep it.’

  *

  Harry returned to Gryffindor Tower the following evening. From what Hermione and Ron told him, Dumbledore had spoken to the school that morning at breakfast. He had merely requested that they leave Harry alone, that nobody ask him questions or badger him to tell the story of what had happened in the maze. Most people, he noticed, were skirting him in the corridors, avoiding his eyes. Some whispered behind their hands as he passed. He guessed that many of them had believed Rita Skeeter’s article about how disturbed and possibly dangerous he was. Perhaps they were formulating their own theories about how Cedric had died. He found he didn’t care very much. He liked it best when he was with Ron and Hermione, and they were talking about other things, or else letting him sit in silence while they played chess. He felt as though all three of them had reached an understanding they didn’t need to put into words; that each was waiting for some sign, some word, of what was going on outside Hogwarts – and that it was useless to speculate about what might be coming until they knew anything for certain. The only time they touched upon the subject was when Ron told Harry about a meeting Mrs Weasley had had with Dumbledore before going home.

  ‘She went to ask him if you could come straight to us this summer,’ he said. ‘But he wants you to go back to the Dursleys, at least at first.’

  ‘Why?’ said Harry.

  ‘She said Dumbledore’s got his reasons,’ said Ron, shaking his head darkly. ‘I suppose we’ve got to trust him, haven’t we?’

  The only person apart from Ron and Hermione that Harry felt able to talk to was Hagrid. As there was no longer a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, they had those lessons free. They used the one on Thursday afternoon to go down and visit him in his cabin. It was a bright and sunny day; Fang bounded out of the open door as they approached, barking and wagging his tail madly.

  ‘Who’s that?’ called Hagrid, coming to the door. ‘Harry!’

  He strode out to meet them, pulled Harry into a one-armed hug, ruffled his hair and said, ‘Good ter see yeh, mate. Good ter see yeh.’

  They saw two bucket-sized cups and saucers on the wooden table in front of the fireplace when they entered Hagrid’s cabin.

  ‘Bin havin’ a cuppa with Olympe,’ Hagrid said, ‘she’s jus’ left.’

  ‘Who?’ said Ron, curiously.

  ‘Madame Maxime, o’ course!’ said Hagrid.

  ‘You two made it up, have you?’ said Ron.

  ‘Dunno what yeh’re talkin’ about,’ said Hagrid airily, fetching more cups from the dresser. When he had made tea, and offered round a plate of doughy biscuits, he leant back in his chair and surveyed Harry closely through his beetle-black eyes.

  ‘You all righ’?’ he said gruffly.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Harry.

  ‘No, yeh’re not,’ said Hagrid. ‘’Course yeh’re not. But yeh will be.’

  Harry said nothing.

  ‘Knew he was goin’ ter come back,’ said Hagrid, and Harry, Ron and Hermione looked up at him, shocked. ‘Known it fer years, Harry. Knew he was out there, bidin’ his time. It had ter happen. Well, now it has, an’ we’ll jus’ have ter get on with it. We’ll fight. Migh’ be able ter stop him before he gets a good hold. That’s Dumbledore’s plan, anyway. Great man, Dumbledore. S’long as we’ve got him, I’m not too worried.’

  Hagrid raised his bushy eyebrows at the disbelieving expressions on their faces.

  ‘No good sittin’ worryin’ abou’ it,’ he said. ‘What’s comin’ will come, an’ we’ll meet it when it does. Dumbledore told me wha’ you did, Harry.’

  Hagrid’s chest swelled as he looked at Harry. ‘Yeh did as much as yer father would’ve done, an’ I can’ give yeh no higher praise than that.’

  Harry smiled back at him. It was the first time he’d smiled in days.

  ‘What’s Dumbledore asked you to do, Hagrid?’ he asked. ‘He sent Professor McGonagall to ask you and Madame Maxime to meet him … that night.’

  ‘Got a little job fer me over the summer,’ said Hagrid. ‘Secret, though. I’m not s’posed ter talk abou’ it, not even ter you lot. Olympe – Madame Maxime ter you – might be comin’ with me. I think she will. Think I got her persuaded.’

  ‘Is it to do with Voldemort?’

  Hagrid flinched at the sound of the name.

  ‘Migh’ be,’ he said evasively. ‘Now … who’d like ter come an’ visit the las’ Skrewt with me? I was jokin’ – jokin’!’ he added hastily, seeing the looks on their faces.

  *

  It was with a heavy heart that Harry packed his trunk up in the dormitory, on the night before his return to Privet Drive. He was dreading the Leaving Feast, which was usually a cause for celebration, when the winner of the Inter-House Championship would be announced. He had avoided being in the Great Hall when it was full ever since he had left the hospital wing, preferring to eat when it was nearly empty, to avoid the stares of his fellow students.

  When he, Ron and Hermione entered the Hall, they saw at once that the usual decorations were missing. The Great Hall was normally decorated with the winning house’s colours for the Leaving Feast. Tonight, however, there were black drapes on the wall behind the teachers’ table. Harry knew instantly that they were there as a mark of respect for Cedric.

  The real Mad-Eye Moody was at the staff table, his wooden leg and his magical eye back in place. He was extremely twitchy, jumping every time someone spoke to him. Harry couldn’t blame him; Moody’s fear of attack was bound to have been increased by his ten-month imprisonment in his own trunk. Professor Karkaroff’s chair was empty. Harry wondered, as he sat down with the other Gryffindors, where Karkaroff was now; whether Voldemort had caught up with him.

  Madame Maxime was still there. She was sitting next to Hagrid. They were talking quietly together. Further along the table, sitting next to Professor McGonagall, was Snape. His eyes lingered on Harry for a moment as Harry looked at him. His expression was difficult to read. He looked as sour and unpleasant as ever. Harry continued to watch him, long after Snape had looked away.

  What was it that Snape had done on Dumbledore’s orders, the night that Voldemort had returned? And why … why … was Dumbledore so convinced that Snape was truly on their side? He had been their spy, Dumbledore had said so in the Pensieve. Snape had turned spy against Voldemort, ‘at great personal risk’. Was that the job he had taken up again? Had he made contact with the Death Eaters, perhaps? Pretended that he had never really gone over to Dumbledore, that he had been, like Voldemort himself, biding his time?

  Harry’s musings were ended by Professor Dumbledore, who stood up at the staff table. The Great Hall, which in any case had been less noisy than it usually was at the Leaving Feast, became very quiet.

  ‘The end,’ said Dumbledore, looking around at them all, ‘of another year.’

  He paused, and his eyes fell upon the Hufflepuff table. Theirs had been the most subdued table before he had got to his feet, and theirs were still the saddest and palest faces in the Hall.

  ‘There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight,’ said Dumbledore, ‘but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here’ – he gestured towards the Hufflepuffs – ‘enjoying our Feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory.’

  They did it, all of them; the benches scraped as everyone in the Hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed, in one loud, low, rumbling voice, ‘Cedric Diggory.’

  Harry caught a glimpse of Cho through the crowd. T
here were tears pouring silently down her face. He looked down at the table as they all sat down again.

  ‘Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities which distinguish Hufflepuff house,’ Dumbledore continued. ‘He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. I think that you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how it came about.’

  Harry raised his head, and stared at Dumbledore.

  ‘Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort.’

  A panicked whisper swept the Great Hall. People were staring at Dumbledore in disbelief, in horror. He looked perfectly calm as he watched them mutter themselves into silence.

  ‘The Ministry of Magic,’ Dumbledore continued, ‘does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so – either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to his memory.’

  Stunned and frightened, every face in the Hall was turned towards 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 Cedric’s 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 honour him.’