Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

interest. ‘I’ve never heard of them before … where do they come from?’
    Harry noticed a dull red flush rising up out of Hagrid’s wild black beard, and his heart sank. Where had Hagrid got the Skrewts from?
    Hermione, who seemed to be thinking along the same lines, said quickly, ‘They’re very interesting, aren’t they? Aren’t they, Harry?’
    ‘What? Oh, yeah … ouch … interesting,’ said Harry, as she stepped on his foot.
    ‘Ah, you’re here, Harry!’ said Rita Skeeter as she looked around. ‘So you like Care of Magical Creatures, do you? One of your favourite lessons?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Harry stoutly. Hagrid beamed at him.
    ‘Lovely,’ said Rita. ‘Really lovely. Been teaching long?’ she added to Hagrid.
    Harry noticed her eyes travel over Dean (who had a nasty cut across one cheek), Lavender (whose robes were badly singed), Seamus (who was nursing several burnt fingers), and then to the cabin windows, where most of the class stood, their noses pressed against the glass, waiting to see if the coast was clear.
    ‘This is on’y me second year,’ said Hagrid.
    ‘Lovely … I don’t suppose you’d like to give an interview, would you? Share some of your experience of magical creatures? The Prophet does a zoological column every Wednesday, as I’m sure you know. We could feature these – er – Bang-Ended Scoots.’
    ‘Blast-Ended Skrewts,’ Hagrid said eagerly. ‘Er – yeah, why not?’
    Harry had a very bad feeling about this, but there was no way of communicating it to Hagrid without Rita Skeeter seeing, so he had to stand and watch in silence as Hagrid and Rita Skeeter made arrangements to meet in the Three Broomsticks for a good long interview later that week. Then the bell rang up at the castle, signalling the end of the lesson.
    ‘Well, goodbye, Harry!’ Rita Skeeter called merrily to him, as he set off with Ron and Hermione. ‘Until Friday night, then, Hagrid!’
    ‘She’ll twist everything he says,’ Harry said under his breath.
    ‘Just as long as he didn’t import those Skrewts illegally or anything,’ said Hermione desperately. They looked at each other – it was exactly the sort of thing Hagrid might do.
    ‘Hagrid’s been in loads of trouble before, and Dumbledore’s never sacked him,’ said Ron consolingly. ‘Worst that can happen is Hagrid’ll have to get rid of the Skrewts. Sorry … did I say worst? I meant best.’
    Harry and Hermione laughed, and, feeling slightly more cheerful, went off to lunch.
    Harry thoroughly enjoyed double Divination that afternoon; they were still doing star charts and predictions, but now that he and Ron were friends once more, the whole thing seemed very funny again. Professor Trelawney, who had been so pleased with the pair of them when they had been predicting their own horrific deaths, quickly became irritated as they sniggered through her explanation of the various ways in which Pluto could disrupt everyday life.
    ‘I would think ,’ she said, in a mystical whisper that did not conceal her obvious annoyance, ‘that some of us’ – she stared very meaningfully at Harry – ‘might be a little less frivolous had they seen what I have seen, during my crystal-gazing last night. As I sat here, absorbed in my needlework, the urge to consult the orb overpowered me. I arose, I settled myself before it, and I gazed into its crystalline depths … and what do you think I saw gazing back at me?’
    ‘An ugly old bat in outsize specs?’ Ron muttered under his breath.
    Harry fought hard to keep his face straight.
    ‘ Death , my dears.’
    Parvati and Lavender both put their hands over their mouths, looking horrified.
    ‘Yes,’ said Professor Trelawney, nodding impressively, ‘it comes, ever closer, it circles overhead like a vulture, ever lower … ever lower over the castle …’
    She stared pointedly at Harry, who yawned very widely and obviously.
    ‘It’d be a bit more impressive if she hadn’t done it about eighty times before,’ Harry said, as they finally regained the fresh air of the staircase beneath Professor Trelawney’s room. ‘But if I’d dropped dead every time she’s told me I’m going to, I’d be a medical miracle.’
    ‘You’d be a sort of extra-concentrated ghost,’ said Ron, chortling, as they passed the Bloody Baron going in the opposite direction, his wide eyes staring sinisterly. ‘At least we didn’t get homework. I hope Hermione got loads off Professor Vector, I love not