Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
knees on the wonderfully solid ground. He felt temporarily limp with shock. He took a deep, steadying breath, then got up again, and hurried forwards, looking back over his shoulder as he ran out of the golden mist, which twinkled innocently at him in the moonlight.
He paused at a junction of two paths and looked around for some sign of Fleur. He was sure it had been she who had screamed. What had she met? Was she all right? There was no sign of red sparks – did that mean she had got herself out of trouble, or was she in such trouble that she couldn’t reach her wand? Harry took the right fork with a feeling of increasing unease … but at the same time, he couldn’t help thinking, one champion down …
The Cup was somewhere close by, and it sounded as though Fleur was no longer in the running. He’d got this far, hadn’t he? What if he actually managed to win? Fleetingly, and for the first time since he’d found himself champion, he saw again that image of himself, raising the Triwizard Cup in front of the rest of the school …
He met nothing for ten minutes, except dead ends. Twice he took the same wrong turning. Finally he found a new route, and started to jog along it, his wand-light waving, making his shadow flicker and distort on the hedge walls. Then he rounded another corner, and found himself facing a Blast-Ended Skrewt.
Cedric was right – it was enormous. Ten feet long, it looked more like a giant scorpion than anything. Its long sting was curled over its back. Its thick armour glinted in the light from Harry’s wand, which he pointed at it.
‘Stupefy!’
The spell hit the Skrewt’s armour, and rebounded; Harry ducked just in time, but could smell burning hair; it had singed the top of his head. The Skrewt issued a blast of fire from its end, and flew forwards towards him.
‘Impedimenta!’ Harry yelled. The spell hit the Skrewt’s armour again and ricocheted off; Harry staggered back a few paces and fell over. ‘IMPEDIMENTA! ’
The Skrewt was inches from him when it froze – he had managed to hit it on its fleshy, shell-less underside. Panting, Harry pushed himself away from it and ran, hard, in the opposite direction – the Impediment Jinx was not permanent, the Skrewt would be regaining the use of its legs at any moment.
He took a left path, and hit a dead end, a right, and hit another: forcing himself to stop, heart hammering, he performed the Four-Point Spell again, backtracked, and chose a path that would take him north-west.
He had been hurrying along the new path for a few minutes, when he heard something in the path running parallel to his own which made him stop dead.
‘What are you doing?’ yelled Cedric’s voice. ‘What the hell d’you think you’re doing?’
And then Harry heard Krum’s voice.
‘Crucio!’
The air was suddenly full of Cedric’s yells. Horrified, Harry began sprinting up his path, trying to find a way into Cedric’s. When none appeared, he tried the Reductor curse again. It wasn’t very effective, but it burnt a small hole in the hedge, through which Harry forced his leg, kicking at the thick brambles and branches until they broke and made an opening; he struggled through it, tearing his robes and, looking to his right, saw Cedric jerking and twitching on the ground, Krum standing over him.
Harry pulled himself up and pointed his wand at Krum just as Krum looked up. Krum turned and began to run.
‘Stupefy!’ Harry yelled.
The spell hit Krum in the back; he stopped dead in his tracks, fell forwards and lay motionless, face down in the grass. Harry dashed over to Cedric, who had stopped twitching, and was lying there panting, his hands over his face.
‘Are you all right?’ Harry said roughly, grabbing Cedric’s arm.
‘Yeah,’ panted Cedric. ‘Yeah … I don’t believe it … he crept up behind me … I heard him, I turned round, and he had his wand on me …’
Cedric got up. He was still shaking. He and Harry looked down at Krum.
‘I can’t believe this … I thought he was all right,’ Harry said, staring at Krum.
‘So did I,’ said Cedric.
‘Did you hear Fleur scream earlier?’ said Harry.
‘Yeah,’ said Cedric. ‘You don’t think Krum got her, too?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Harry slowly.
‘Should we leave him here?’ Cedric muttered.
‘No,’ said Harry. ‘I reckon we should send up red sparks. Someone’ll come and collect him … otherwise he’ll probably be eaten by a Skrewt.’
‘He’d
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