GoF Ch 19

[Simon J. Branford]

No: HPFGUIDX 5844

This is not as good as I wished it was, but decided it was better to get it
posted reasonably quickly to allow the discussions to start.

Chapter 19: The Hungarian Horntail

Harry starts this chapter nervous, with few friends and extremely fearful
for the future.

He has received the message from Sirius, arranging to meet him by the
Gryffindor Common Room fire, but is not sure if Sirius will be able to help
him in any way.

Rita Skeeter's article has been published and it turns out she had written a
highly coloured life history of Harry, instead of the expected piece on the
Triwizard Tournament. Around school students, and especially those from
Slytherin, have been quoting bits of the report at him and Hermione.

Hermione is managing to stay relatively calm but Harry is deeply upset. He
then goes and embarrasses himself in front of Cho. She tries to help him,
when he has dropped his quill, but Harry, expecting another attack on him,
shouts at her. The pressure is also affecting his schoolwork. He is unable
to master summoning charms. I wonder where these will come in useful!

Time then does it usual trick of speeding up and before Harry knows where he
is it is the weekend before the first task. This weekend is one in which the
students are allowed out to visit Hogsmeade (at least those in or above 3rd
year who have returned their signed permission form). After much convincing,
from Hermione, Harry agrees to go, but only under the invisibility cloak.

Harry is envious of the other students and their carefree Hogsmeade visit.
Hermione works on her SPEW stuff, again! They see Ron with the twins and Lee
enjoying themselves and Harry only just fights the urge to punch him. He
spots Cho, and is given some encouragement, as she is not wearing a 'Potter
Stinks' badge.

We then learn some more about Moody. His magical eye can see through Harry's
cloak. Moody tells Hagrid that Harry is in The Three Broomsticks, leading
Hagrid to arrange to meet Harry at midnight, shortly before his meeting with
Sirius.

The meeting with Hagrid happens. We see more evidence of the feelings he has
for Madame Maxime as they go on a midnight stroll. The endpoint of this
stroll is to show Harry and Madame Maxime the dragons which will be used in
the First Task. At this stage we do not learn where Hagrid learnt this
information.

We meet Charlie again, realising how much he knows about dragons and Hagrid.
We are told a little about each of the four dragons and especially learn of
the dangers of the Hungarian Horntail. I wonder which Harry will have to
face?

Harry realises he has little time left, and does not want to be around
Madame Maxime and Hagrid for much longer and so leaves. On the way back he
bumps into Karkaroff, who has been attracted to the noise of the dragons and
is investigating. Harry realises that three of the champions will now know
about the third task and we see his conscience start to act - will he tell
Cedric? The cloak proves invaluable and Harry rushes off for his meeting
with Sirius.

Sirius starts with the "how are you question" and Harry is about to answer
"I'm fine" when he instead breaks into a long talk about all his problems
(no one believes he did not enter the Tournament of his own free will, Rita
Skeeter's article, walking down corridors and being sneered at and Ron).

Sirius tells us some interesting things about Karkaroff and Moody. He says
that Karkaroff was a Death Eater and that he suspects that Dumbledore
invited the Auror Moody to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He believes that
the attack on Moody was real and gives us some clues about what has been
going on. More clues about Moody but still Harry, and the rest of us,
suspect nothing.

He is just about to tell something useful to Harry about how to fight the
dragons when they hear someone coming, so Sirius vanishes. It is Ron that
has come to investigate what is going on and they end up having another
verbal battle. They narrowly avoid an actual fight and Harry storms off to
bed.


Questions / Comments:
We still do not suspect Moody.
Do we have enough information yet to work out that there is something dodgy
about him?

Why will Harry not forgive Ron?
Why will Ron not forgive Harry?
Harry is more at fault for keeping this fight going. Discuss.

Sirius is not telling Harry everything he knows. I got the impression that
he was being extremely careful as to what he said.

Harry, even though he is having a very hard time, feels he must even up the
knowledge of the Champions by telling Cedric about the dragons. Discuss



Simon (I think that is all)