Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.
    ‘It was ze Grindylows … zey attacked me … oh, Gabrielle, I thought … I thought …’
    ‘Come here, you,’ said Madam Pomfrey’s voice; she seized Harry and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he was in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears.
    ‘Harry, well done!’ Hermione cried. ‘You did it, you found out how, all by yourself!’
    ‘Well –’ said Harry. He would have told her about Dobby, but he had just noticed Karkaroff watching him. He was the only judge who had not left the table; the only judge not showing signs of pleasure and relief that Harry, Ron and Fleur’s sister had got back safely. ‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Harry, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.
    ‘You haff a water-beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny,’ said Krum.
    Harry had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed the beetle away impatiently and said, ‘You’re well outside the time limit, though, Harry … Did it take you ages to find us?’
    ‘No … I found you OK …’
    Harry’s feeling of stupidity was growing. Now he was out of the water, it seemed perfectly clear that Dumbledore’s safety precautions wouldn’t have permitted the death of a hostage just because their champion hadn’t turned up. Why hadn’t he just grabbed Ron and gone? He would have been first back … Cedric and Krum hadn’t wasted time worrying about anyone else; they hadn’t taken the mer-song seriously …
    Dumbledore was crouching at the water’s edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild- and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges and said, ‘A conference before we give the marks, I think.’
    The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy’s clutches; she led him over to Harry and the others, gave him a blanket and some Pepper-Up Potion, then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms, and her robes were torn, but she didn’t seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.
    ‘Look after Gabrielle,’ she told her, and then she turned to Harry. ‘You saved ’er,’ she said breathlessly. ‘Even though she was not your ’ostage.’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Harry, who was now heartily wishing he’d left all three girls tied to the statue.
    Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek (he felt his face burn and wouldn’t have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears again), then said to Ron, ‘And you, too – you ’elped –’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, ‘yeah, a bit –’
    Fleur swooped down on him, too, and kissed him. Hermione looked simply furious, but just then, Ludo Bagman’s magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.
    ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Mer-chieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows …
    ‘Miss Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by Grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points.’
    Applause from the stands.
    ‘I deserved zero,’ said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.
    ‘Mr Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour.’ Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Harry saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look. ‘We therefore award him forty-seven points.’
    Harry’s heart sank. If Cedric had been outside the time limit, he most certainly had been.
    ‘Mr Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points.’
    Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking