“Let’s see,” he said, in his silkiest voice. “Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley. Now get inside, or it’ll be a week’s worth of detentions.”
Harry’s ears were ringing. The injustice of it made him want to curse Snape into a thousand slimy pieces. He passed Snape, walked with Ron to the back of the dungeon, and slammed his bag down onto the table. Ron was shaking with anger too—for a moment, it felt as though everything was back to normal between them, but then Ron turned and sat down with Dean and Seamus instead, leaving Harry alone at his table. On the other side of the dungeon, Malfoy turned his back on Snape and pressed his badge, smirking. POTTER STINKS flashed once more across the room.
Harry sat there staring at Snape as the lesson began, picturing horrific things happening to him… If only he knew how to do the Cruciatus Curse… he’d have Snape flat on his back like that spider, jerking and twitching…
“Antidotes!” said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. “You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one…”
Snape’s eyes met Harry’s, and Harry knew what was coming. Snape was going to poison him. Harry imagined picking up his cauldron, and sprinting to the front of the class, and bringing it down on Snape’s greasy head—And then a knock on the dungeon door burst in on Harry’s thoughts.
It was Colin Creevey; he edged into the room, beaming at Harry, and walked up to Snape’s desk at the front of the room.
“Yes?” said Snape curtly.
“Please, sir, I’m supposed to take Harry Potter upstairs.”
Snape stared down his hooked nose at Colin, whose smile faded from his eager face.
“Potter has another hour of Potions to complete,” said Snape coldly. “He will come upstairs when this class is finished.”
Colin went pink.
“Sir—sir, Mr. Bagman wants him,” he said nervously. “All the champions have got to go, I think they want to take photographs…”
Harry would have given anything he owned to have stopped Colin saying those last few words. He chanced half a glance at Ron, but Ron was staring determinedly at the ceiling.
“Very well, very well,” Snape snapped. “Potter, leave your things here, I want you back down here later to test your antidote.”
“Please, sir—he’s got to take his things with him,” squeaked Colin. “All the champions…”
“Very well!” said Snape. “Potter—take your bag and get out of my sight!”
Harry swung his bag over his shoulder, got up, and headed for the door. As he walked through the Slytherin desks, POTTER STINKS flashed at him from every direction.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it, Harry?” said Colin, starting to speak the moment Harry had closed the dungeon door behind him. “Isn’t it, though? You being champion?”
“Yeah, really amazing,” said Harry heavily as they set off toward the steps into the entrance hall. “What do they want photos for, Colin?”
“The Daily Prophet, I think!”
“Great,” said Harry dully. “Exactly what I need. More publicity.”
“Good luck!” said Colin when they had reached the right room. Harry knocked on the door and entered.
He was in a fairly small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end to end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet. Five chairs had been set behind the velvet covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch Harry had never seen before, who was wearing magenta robes.
Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Cedric and Fleur were in conversation. Fleur looked a good deal happier than Harry had seen her so far; she kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.
Bagman suddenly spotted Harry, got up quickly, and bounded forward.
“Ah, here he is! Champion number four! In you come, Harry, in you come… nothing to worry about, it’s just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment—”
“Wand weighing?” Harry repeated nervously.
“We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they’re your most important tools in the tasks ahead,” said Bagman. “The expert’s upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there’s going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter,” he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. “She’s doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet…”
“Maybe not that small, Ludo,” said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry.
Her hair was set in elaborate and curiously rigid curls that contrasted oddly with her heavy jawed face. She wore jeweled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile skin handbag ended in two inch nails, painted crimson.
“I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?” she said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at Harry. “The youngest champion, you know… to add a bit of color?”
“Certainly!” cried Bagman. “That is—if Harry has no objection?”
“Er—” said Harry.
“Lovely,” said Rita Skeeter, and in a second, her scarlet taloned fingers had Harry’s upper arm in a surprisingly strong grip, and she was steering him out of the room again and opening a nearby door.
“We don’t want to be in there with all that noise,” she said. “Let’s see… ah, yes, this is nice and cozy.”
It was a broom cupboard. Harry stared at her.
“Come along, dear—that’s right—lovely,” said Rita Skeeter again, perching herself precariously upon an upturned bucket, pushing Harry down onto a cardboard box, and closing the door, throwing them into darkness. “Let’s see now…”
She unsnapped her crocodile skin handbag and pulled out a handful of candles, which she lit with a wave of her wand and magicked into midair, so that they could see what they were doing.
“You won’t mind, Harry, if I use a Quick-Quotes Quill? It leaves me free to talk to you normally…”
“A what?” said Harry.
Rita Skeeter’s smile widened. Harry counted three gold teeth. She reached again into her crocodile bag and drew out a long acid green quill and a roll of parchment, which she stretched out between them on a crate of Mrs. Skower’s All Purpose Magical Mess Remover. She put the tip of the green quill into her mouth, sucked it for a moment with apparent relish, then placed it upright on the parchment, where it stood balanced on its point, quivering slightly.
“Testing… my name is Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter.”
Harry hooked down quickly at the quill. The moment Rita Skeeter had spoken, the green quill had started to scribble, skidding across the parchment:
Attractive blonde Rita Skeeter, forty three, who’s savage quill has punctured many inflated reputations—
“Lovely,” said Rita Skeeter, yet again, and she ripped the top piece of parchment off, crumpled it up, and stuffed it into her handbag. Now she leaned toward Harry and said, “So, Harry… what made you decide to enter the Triwizard Tournament?”
“Er—” said Harry again, but he was distracted by the quill. Even though he wasn’t speaking, it was dashing across the parchment, and in its wake he could make out a fresh sentence:
An ugly scar, souvenier of a tragic past, disfigures the otherwise charming face of Harry Potter, whose eyes—
“Ignore the quill, Harry,” said Rita Skeeter firmly.
Reluctantly Harry looked up at her instead.
“Now—why did you decide to enter the tournament, Harry?”
“I didn’t,” said Harry. “I don’t know how my name got into the Goblet of Fire. I didn’t put it in there.”