Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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 – Snuffles is right – you’ve got to get in training for the third task, straight away. And you make sure you write back to Snuffles 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 practise. Harry was concentrating on the Stunning Spell, which he had never used before. The trouble was that practising it involved certain sacrifices on Ron and Hermione’s part.
    ‘Can’t we kidnap Mrs Norris?’ Ron suggested during Monday lunchtime, as he lay flat on his back in the middle of their Charms classroom, having just been Stunned and re-awoken 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 backwards!’
    ‘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 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 Jinx. 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 Flitwick’s cupboard, and slipped out of the classroom.
    ‘See you at dinner!’ said Hermione, and she set off for Arithmancy, while Harry and Ron headed towards North Tower, and Divination. Broad strips of dazzling gold sunlight fell across the corridor from the high windows. The sky outside was so brightly blue it looked as though it had been enamelled.
    ‘It’s going to be boiling in Trelawney’s room, she never puts out that fire,’ said Ron, as they started up the staircase towards 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. Harry’s 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 with 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 towards an old, ivy-covered house set high