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Fred were now working on developing something else. Harry made a mental note never to accept so much as a crisp from Fred and George in future.
castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid’s cabin, while the Durmstrang ship’s portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost.
but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Malfoy’s shoulder, ‘Hello, Professor Moody!’ Malfoy went pale and jumped backwards, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew. ‘Twitchy little ferret, aren’t you, Malfoy?’ said Hermione scathingly,
‘Oh, look at the weeny owl! Isn’t he cute?’ ‘Stupid little feathery git!’ Ron hissed, hurrying up the stairs and snatching Pigwidgeon up. ‘You bring letters straight to the addressee! You don’t hang around showing off!’
checkmate of Ron’s, involving a couple of recklessly brave pawns and a very violent bishop.
Mrs Weasley’s usual package, including a new jumper (green, with a picture of a dragon on it – Harry supposed Charlie had told her all about the Horntail) and a large quantity of home-made mince pies.
The Fat Lady was sitting in her frame with her friend Violet from downstairs, both of them extremely tipsy, empty boxes of chocolate liqueurs littering the bottom of her picture. ‘Lairy fights, that’s the one!’ she giggled when they gave the password, and she swung forwards to let them inside.
‘I still can’t work out how you two got the best-looking girls in the year,’ muttered Dean. ‘Animal magnetism,’ said Ron gloomily, pulling stray threads out of his cuffs.
Crabbe and Goyle were both wearing green; they resembled moss-coloured boulders, and neither of them, Harry was pleased to see, had managed to find a partner.
Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by a pretty girl in blue robes Harry didn’t know.
His eyes fell instead on the girl next to Krum. His jaw dropped. It was Hermione.
‘I’ve been promoted,’ Percy said, before Harry could even ask, and from his tone, he might have been announcing his election as Supreme Ruler of the Universe.
‘Why didn’t he come?’ Harry asked. He wasn’t looking forward to being lectured on cauldron bottoms all through dinner.
and Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime. He was so dwarfed by her that the top of his pointed hat barely tickled her chin; however, she moved very gracefully for a woman so large.
‘How’s it going?’ Harry asked Ron, sitting down and opening a bottle of Butterbeer. Ron didn’t answer. He was glaring at Hermione and Krum, who were dancing nearby.
‘Are you going to ask me to dance at all?’ Padma asked him. ‘No,’ said Ron, still glaring after Hermione. ‘Fine,’ snapped Padma, and she got up and went to join Parvati and the Beauxbatons boy, who conjured up one of his friends to join them so fast that Harry could have sworn he had zoomed him there by a Summoning Charm.
‘I don’t know who Maxime thinks she’s kidding,’ Harry said, watching Madame Maxime sitting alone at the judges’ table, looking very sombre. ‘If Hagrid’s half-giant, she definitely is. Big bones … the only thing that’s got bigger bones than her is a dinosaur.’
‘Next time there’s a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!’
Harry didn’t say anything. He liked being back on speaking terms with Ron too much to speak his mind right now – but he somehow thought that Hermione had got the point much better than Ron had.
Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn’t see out of them in Herbology.
‘My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank,’
‘It’s a lot colder where he comes from,’ said Hermione. ‘I suppose it feels quite warm to him.’ ‘Yeah, but there’s still the giant squid,’ said Ron. He didn’t sound anxious – if anything, he sounded hopeful.
Ron said nothing. He hadn’t mentioned Viktor Krum since the ball, but Harry had found a miniature arm under his bed on Boxing Day, which had looked very much as though it had been snapped off a small model figure wearing Bulgaria Quidditch robes.
This lot keep gabbling in Gobbledegook …
‘Harry!’ she said, beaming. ‘How lovely! Why don’t you come and join –?’ ‘I wouldn’t come near you with a ten-foot broomstick,’
‘Hermione, Harry and Ron still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door.’
‘You don’t think anything that Skeeter cow – sorry, Professor,’ he added quickly, looking at Dumbledore. ‘I have gone temporarily deaf and haven’t any idea what you said, Harry,’ said Dumbledore, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.
‘Hagrid, look what I’ve got for relatives!’ Harry said furiously. ‘Look at the Dursleys!’ ‘An excellent point,’ said Professor Dumbledore.
His immediate reaction was that it would be worth becoming a Prefect just to be able to use this bathroom.
‘Have you been spying on him, too?’ said Harry indignantly. ‘What d’you do, sneak up here in the evenings to watch the Prefects take baths?’ ‘Sometimes,’ said Myrtle, rather slyly, ‘but I’ve never come out to speak to anyone before.’ ‘I’m honoured,’ said Harry darkly. ‘You keep your eyes shut!’ He made sure Myrtle had her glasses well covered
‘Myrtle, there aren’t merpeople in there, are there?’ ‘Oooh, very good,’ she said, her thick glasses twinkling. ‘It took Diggory much longer than that! And that was with her awake, too
Dumbledore’ll have you out of here for this, you filthy pilfering poltergeist
‘There’s a way of doing it!’ Hermione said crossly. ‘There just has to be!’ She seemed to be taking the library’s lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before.
Gillyweed!’ ‘What’s it do?’ said Harry, staring at the Gillyweed. ‘It will make Harry Potter breathe underwater, sir!’
‘Dobby,’ said Harry frantically, ‘listen – are you sure about this?’ He couldn’t quite forget that the last time Dobby had tried to ‘help’ him, he had ended up with no bones in his right arm.
saw a Grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weeds, its long fingers clutched tightly around Harry’s leg, its pointed fangs bared
‘Come here, you,’ said Madam Pomfrey’s voice; she seized Harry and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he was in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears.
Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy’s clutches;
Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek (he felt his face burn and wouldn’t have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears again), then said to Ron, ‘And you, too – you ’elped –’
Next time he was in Hogsmeade, he decided, as he walked back up the stone steps into the castle, he was going to buy Dobby a pair of socks for every day of the year.
There were delays in the post because the owls kept being blown off course.
The brown owl that Harry had sent to Sirius with the dates of the Hogsmeade weekend turned up at breakfast on Friday morning with half its feathers sticking up the wrong way;
‘It is Veritaserum – a Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for this entire class to hear,’
‘Fulfilling my duty as godfather,’ said Sirius, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very dog-like way.
If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.’
If he’s ever taken a day off work because of illness before this, I’ll eat Buckbeak.’
And don’t forget, if you’re talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, OK?’
‘Poor old Snuffles,’ said Ron, breathing deeply. ‘He must really like you, Harry … imagine having to live off rats.’
‘Winky is getting through six bottles a day now,’
fluffy black creatures with long snouts. Their front paws were curiously flat, like spades, and they were blinking up at the class, looking politely puzzled at all the attention. ‘These’re Nifflers,’ said Hagrid,
