Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

dreamless sleep.’
    Harry took the goblet and drank a few mouthfuls. He felt himself becoming drowsy at once. Everything around him became hazy; the lamps around the hospital wing seemed to be winking at him in a friendly way through the screen around his bed; his body felt as though it was sinking deeper into the warmth of the feather mattress. Before he could finish the Potion, before he could say another word, his exhaustion had carried him off to sleep.
    *
    Harry woke up, so warm, so very sleepy, that he didn’t open his eyes, wanting to drop off again. The room was still dimly lit; he was sure it was still night-time, and had a feeling that he couldn’t have been asleep very long.
    Then he heard whispering around him.
    ‘They’ll wake him if they don’t shut up!’
    ‘What are they shouting about? Nothing else can have happened, can it?’
    Harry opened his eyes blearily. Someone had removed his glasses. He could see the fuzzy outlines of Mrs Weasley and Bill close by. Mrs Weasley was on her feet.
    ‘That’s Fudge’s voice,’ she whispered. ‘And that’s Minerva McGonagall’s, isn’t it? But what are they arguing about?’
    Now Harry could hear them, too: people shouting and running towards the hospital wing.
    ‘Regrettable, but all the same, Minerva –’ Cornelius Fudge was saying loudly.
    ‘You should never have brought it inside the castle!’ yelled Professor McGonagall. ‘When Dumbledore finds out –’
    Harry heard hospital doors burst open. Unnoticed by any of the people around his bed, all of whom were staring at the door as Bill pulled back the screens, Harry sat up, and put his glasses back on.
    Fudge came striding up the ward. Professors McGonagall and Snape were at his heels.
    ‘Where’s Dumbledore?’ Fudge demanded of Mrs Weasley.
    ‘He’s not here,’ said Mrs Weasley angrily. ‘This is a hospital wing, Minister, don’t you think you’d do better to –’
    But the door opened, and Dumbledore came sweeping up the ward.
    ‘What has happened?’ said Dumbledore sharply, looking from Fudge to Professor McGonagall. ‘Why are you disturbing these people? Minerva, I’m surprised at you – I asked you to stand guard over Barty Crouch –’
    ‘There is no need to stand guard over him any more, Dumbledore!’ she shrieked. ‘The Minister has seen to that!’
    Harry had never seen Professor McGonagall lose control like this. There were angry blotches of colour in her cheeks, her hands were balled into fists; she was trembling with fury.
    ‘When we told Mr Fudge that we had caught the Death Eater responsible for tonight’s events,’ said Snape, in a low voice, ‘he seemed to feel his personal safety was in question. He insisted on summoning a Dementor to accompany him into the castle. He brought it up to the office where Barty Crouch –’
    ‘I told him you would not agree, Dumbledore!’ stormed Professor McGonagall. ‘I told him you would never allow Dementors to set foot inside the castle, but –’
    ‘My dear woman!’ roared Fudge, who likewise looked angrier than Harry had ever seen him. ‘As Minister for Magic, it is my decision whether I wish to bring protection with me when interviewing a possibly dangerous –’
    But Professor McGonagall’s voice drowned Fudge’s.
    ‘The moment that – that thing entered the room,’ she screamed, pointing at Fudge, trembling all over, ‘it swooped down on Crouch and – and –’
    Harry felt a chill in his stomach, as Professor McGonagall struggled to find words to describe what had happened. He did not need her to finish her sentence. He knew what the Dementor must have done. It had administered its fatal kiss to Barty Crouch. It had sucked his soul out through his mouth. He was worse than dead.
    ‘By all accounts, he is no loss!’ blustered Fudge. ‘It seems he has been responsible for several deaths!’
    ‘But he cannot now give testimony, Cornelius,’ said Dumbledore. He was staring hard at Fudge, as though seeing him plainly for the first time. ‘He cannot give evidence about why he killed those people.’
    ‘Why he killed them? Well, that’s no mystery, is it?’ blustered Fudge. ‘He was a raving lunatic! From what Minerva and Severus have told me, he seems to have thought he was doing it all on You-Know-Who’s instructions!’
    ‘Lord Voldemort was giving him instructions, Cornelius,’ Dumbledore said. ‘Those people’s deaths were mere by-products of a plan to restore Voldemort to full