Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

then.’
    ‘But under his own steam?’ said Hermione eagerly. ‘Or because someone made him?’
    ‘Yeah, someone could’ve – could’ve pulled him onto a broom and flown off with him, couldn’t they?’ said Ron quickly, looking hopefully at Moody, as if he, too, wanted to be told he had the makings of an Auror.
    ‘We can’t rule out kidnap,’ growled Moody.
    ‘So,’ said Ron, ‘d’you reckon he’s somewhere in Hogsmeade?’
    ‘Could be anywhere,’ said Moody, shaking his head. ‘Only thing we know for sure is that he’s not here.’
    He yawned widely, so that his scars stretched, and his lopsided mouth revealed a number of missing teeth.
    Then he said, ‘Now, Dumbledore’s told me you three fancy yourselves as investigators, but there’s nothing you can do for Crouch. The Ministry’ll be looking for him now, Dumbledore’s notified them. Potter, you just keep your mind on the third task.’
    ‘What?’ said Harry. ‘Oh, yeah …’
    He hadn’t given the maze a single thought since he’d left it with Krum the previous night.
    ‘Should be right up your street, this one,’ said Moody, looking up at Harry and scratching his scarred and stubbly chin. ‘From what Dumbledore’s said, you’ve managed to get through stuff like this plenty of times. Broke your way through a series of obstacles guarding the Philosopher’s Stone in your first year, didn’t you?’
    ‘We helped,’ Ron said quickly. ‘Me and Hermione helped.’
    Moody grinned. ‘Well, help him practise for this one, and I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t win,’ he said. ‘In the meantime … constant vigilance, Potter. Constant vigilance.’ He took another long draught from his hip-flask, and his magical eye swivelled onto the window. The topmost sail of the Durmstrang ship was visible through it.
    ‘You two’ – his normal eye was 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 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. Practise 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’ 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!’
    ‘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 Snuffles 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 ’til 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,