Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

he dashed forwards.
    He had to be close now, he had to be … his wand was telling him he was bang on course; as long as he didn’t meet anything too horrible, he might be in with a chance …
    He had a choice of paths up ahead. ‘Point me!’ he whispered again to his wand, and it spun around and pointed him to the right-hand one. He dashed up this one, and saw light ahead.
    The Triwizard Cup was gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. Harry had just broken into a run, when a dark figure hurtled out onto the path in front of him.
    Cedric was going to get there first. Cedric was sprinting as fast as he could towards the Cup, and Harry knew he would never catch up, Cedric was much taller, had much longer legs –
    Then Harry saw something immense over a hedge to his left, moving quickly along a path that intersected with his own; it was moving so fast Cedric was about to run into it, and Cedric, his eyes on the Cup, had not seen it –
    ‘Cedric!’ Harry bellowed. ‘On your left!’
    Cedric looked around just in time to hurl himself past the thing and avoid colliding with it but, in his haste, he tripped. Harry saw Cedric’s wand fly out of his hand, as a gigantic spider stepped into the path, and began to bear down upon Cedric.
    ‘Stupefy!’ Harry yelled again; the spell hit the spider’s gigantic, hairy black body but, for all the good it did, he might as well have thrown a stone at it; the spider jerked, scuttled around, and ran at Harry instead.
    ‘Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!’
    But it was no use – the spider was either so large, or so magical, that the spells were doing no more than aggravating it – Harry had one horrifying glimpse of eight shining black eyes, and razor-sharp pincers, before it was upon him.
    He was lifted into the air in its front legs; struggling madly, he tried to kick it; his leg connected with the pincers and next moment he was in excruciating pain – he could hear Cedric yelling ‘Stupefy!’ too, but his spell had no more effect than Harry’s – Harry raised his wand as the spider opened its pincers once more, and shouted, ‘Expelliarmus!’
    It worked – the Disarming spell made the spider drop him, but that meant that Harry fell twelve feet onto his already injured leg, which crumpled beneath him. Without pausing to think, he aimed high at the spider’s underbelly, as he had done with the Skrewt, and shouted ‘Stupefy!’ just as Cedric yelled the same thing.
    The two spells combined did what one alone had not – the spider keeled over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of hairy legs.
    ‘Harry!’ he heard Cedric shouting. ‘You all right? Did it fall on you?’
    ‘No,’ Harry called back, panting. He looked down at his leg. It was bleeding badly. He could see some sort of thick, gluey secretion from the spider’s pincers on his torn robes. He tried to get up, but his leg was shaking badly and did not want to support his weight. He leant against the hedge, gasping for breath, and looked around.
    Cedric was standing feet from the Triwizard Cup, which was gleaming behind him.
    ‘Take it, then,’ Harry panted to Cedric. ‘Go on, take it. You’re there.’
    But Cedric didn’t move. He merely stood there, looking at Harry. Then he turned to stare at the Cup. Harry saw the longing expression on his face in its golden light. Cedric looked around at Harry again, who was now holding onto the hedge to support himself.
    Cedric took a deep breath. ‘You take it. You should win. That’s twice you’ve saved my neck in here.’
    ‘That’s not how it’s supposed to work,’ Harry said. He felt angry; his leg was very painful, he was aching all over from trying to throw off the spider, and after all his efforts, Cedric had beaten him to it, just as he’d beaten Harry to ask Cho to the ball. ‘The one who reaches the Cup first gets the points. That’s you. I’m telling you, I’m not going to win any races on this leg.’
    Cedric took a few paces nearer to the Stunned spider, away from the Cup, shaking his head.
    ‘No,’ he said.
    ‘Stop being noble,’ said Harry irritably. ‘Just take it, then we can get out of here.’
    Cedric watched Harry steadying himself, holding tight to the hedge.
    ‘You told me about the dragons,’ Cedric said. ‘I would’ve gone down in the first task if you hadn’t told me what was coming.’
    ‘I had help on that, too,’ Harry snapped, trying to mop up his bloody leg with his