Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapter 19 Summary.
The Hungarian Horntail
Chapter 19 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, titled ‘The Hungarian Horntail’ deals with an article by Rita Skeeter, and divulges information about the First Task.
The Article By Rita Skeeter
Over the next fortnight, talking to Sirius is the only thing Harry can look forward to. Things at school are worse than ever, specially since the article by Rita got published.
Her coverage of the Triwizard Tournament is more like a take on Harry’s personal life. The other champions are mentioned at the end with their names misspelled, while Cedric is not mentioned at all. Rita has written things in her article that Harry has never said in his life, and has apparently interviewed other people about him too. According to her, Harry cries at night thinking about his parents, and is in love with Hermione.
The Slytherins poke fun at him by quoting the article. Hermione asks him to ignore it, but it is hard for him. It did not help that Ron was still not talking to him, even after they did a two hour detention in Snape’s office together.
Without Ron around, Harry finds himself spending a lot of time with Hermione in the library. He cannot get the summoning charm down, and Hermione insists he learns the theory behind it. Viktor is in the library as well, which makes Harry wonder what he is studying.
A Visit to Hogsmeade
On the Saturday before the first task, students are allowed to visit Hogsmeade. Harry asks if Hermione doesn’t want to go with Ron, and she admits that she thought the three of us could meet up in the three broomsticks. He flatly refuses the idea, and says he would come only with his invisibility cloak on.
Harry feels incredibly free under his cloak. People around him are wearing the ‘Support Cedric’ badges, but at least nobody is throwing insults at him. Instead, people are now looking at Hermione, who seems to be talking to herself thanks to Harry being invisible.
Hermione suggests going to the Three Broomsticks. It is packed with people, and Harry has to make sure not to run into anyone. She gets two butterbeers, and slips one to Harry under his cloak. To not look like she is alone, she pulls out a S.P.E.W related notebook and gets working.
Harry looks around at the other students and longingly wishes he wasn’t a champion. He thinks of Sirius, whom he would be talking to in less than 12 hours.
A few moments later, Hagrid and Moody enter the bar. Hagrid greets Hermione, and asks her if she is alone. Moody on the other hand inches close to Harry, and tells him he has a nice cloak. Harry gazes him in amazement, and Moody explains that his eye can see through invisibility cloaks.
Hagrid beams at Harry too, and he assumes that Moody had told Hagrid about him being there. He tells Harry to come to his cabin at midnight with the cloak, and heads out without elaborating.
Meeting Hagrid
Harry wonders what Hagrid might want to talk about. Hermione suggests canceling on him, since he has a meeting with Sirius at one. Harry, however, decides to pay Hagrid a visit anyway since he has never called him so late in the night.
At half past eleven, Harry puts on his cloak and heads down. He enters Hagrid’s cabin, and asks him what it is about, and Hagrid simply announces he needs to show him something. He then instructs Harry to put the cloak on and follow him.
Harry tries to tell Hagrid that he cannot stay for long, but Hagrid is already exiting his cabin. He leads Harry to the Beauxbatons carriage and knocks three times. The door is answered by Madam Maxime. Hagrid offers her his arm, and they set off around the paddock.
She doesn’t know where Hagrid is taking her as well, and decides to ask him. Hagrid simply says it is something she would enjoy, and requests her to keep it a secret.
Dragons
After walking with them for a while, Harry considers going back. However, a few moments later he hears a deafening roar. In front of him are four fully grown, vicious looking Dragons, shooting fire into the sky. Nearly thirty trained wizards try to control the large creatures.
The dragon keepers ask Hagrid to stay back, since the dragons can shoot fire up to forty feet. They then subdue the dragons using stunning spells, and hurry to secure them to the ground.
Harry realizes the dragon keeper who asked Hagrid to stay back was Charlie Weasley. Hagrid and Madam Maxime approach him, and Charlie explains the different breeds they have brought; a Common Welsh Green, a Hungarian Horntail, a Swedish Short Snout and a Chinese Fireball. He then frowns and reprimands Hagrid, since Madam Maxime was not supposed to see the dragons.
Hagrid asks what the champions are to do with the Dragons, but Charlie doesn’t know. His best guess is that they need to get past the creatures, and announces that they wanted nesting mothers for the tournament. Around five eggs lay securely near a Hungarian Horntail, and Hagrid lets out a longing moan at their sight. Charlie warns that he has the eggs counted. He also tells Hagrid about how worried Molly was for Harry, and had completely believed Rita’s article.
Back to the Castle
Having heard enough, Harry decides to turn back and head towards the castle. He wonders how he would fight a dragon with the entire school watching.
Harry speeds up his pace to get back to the castle, still lost in thoughts. Not seeing where is is going, he runs straight into something solid and falls back. It is Karkaroff. The headmaster suspiciously looks around for what could have hit him, but does not find anything. He straightens up, and heads in the direction of the dragons. Harry realizes that all the champions would get to know about the first task before Tuesday, except for Cedric.
He runs back to the castle, and slips into the common room with barely any time to spare. The common room is empty and semi-dark, with the fire being the only source of light. He spots Sirius’s head in the fire, and greets him. Sirius is looking better than he did right after escaping Azkaban; his face is fuller and his hair is groomed. Harry tells him about the first task, but Sirius is not worried about that.
A Conversation with the Godfather.
He informs Harry that he hasn’t got long, since he had to break into a wizarding house to use their fire. As Harry recovers from this shock, Sirius drops another bomb at him; Karkaroff was a Death Eater, and was put in Azkaban by Moody.
He was let out of the prison after he made a deal with the Ministry and named a bunch of other Death Eaters. Since then, he has been teaching the Dark Arts to all his students. Harry tells Sirius that Karkaroff could not have put his name in the Goblet, since he was furious about it. Sirius simply says that Karkaroff is a good actor, good enough to have fooled the Ministry anyway.
Moreover, somebody had tried to attack Moody right before he got to Hogwarts. It had been called a false alarm, sure, but it could also mean there is someone who did not want Moody at the school.
He also notes that it would align with the other things that have been happening with the Death Eaters; the attack at the World Cup, the Dark Mark and the disappearance of Bertha Jorkins.
Sirius then begins to tell him how to deal with a Dragon, but Harry suddenly hears footsteps behind him. He hisses at Sirius to leave, and turns back to see who interrupted them. It is Ron.
Ron asks who Harry was talking to, and Harry snaps at him. Ron apologizes and says he should let Harry practice for his next interview in peace.
The chapter ends as Harry throws a ‘Support Cedric’ badge lying nearby at Ron. He then storms up the dormitory and lies awake for a long time, but doesn’t hear Ron come in.
