Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapter 27 Summary.
Padfoot Returns
Chapter 27 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, titled ‘Padfoot Returns’ deals with an article by Rita Skeeter, a worried Karkaroff and a meeting with Sirius.
Hermione’s Love Story
The week following the second task, Ron gets to share Harry’s limelight as people ask him his version of what happened in the lake. At first his story aligns with Hermione’s, that Dumbledore put all the hostages in a bewitched sleep after assuring them of their safety. By the end, his story distorts into how he heroically fought off 50 merpeople before they subdued him.
As March arrives, the weather gets drier and the winds get stronger. On Friday morning, Harry’s brown owl returns with Sirius’s reply. Sirius is coming to Hogsmeade, and has asked the trio to bring as much food as possible. Hermione is anxious about him coming, but Harry really looks forward to seeing him. This makes him feel cheerful, even though the next lesson is double potions with Slytherin.
As the trio approaches the dungeons, they come across Malfoy and his gang. The Slytherins point at them and giggle, and Pansy throws a magazine at Hermione as explanation. They head inside and she opens the magazine. Rita Skeeter has written another article about Harry, and has involved Hermione this time.
Snape Reads the Article
The article talks about how Harry’s girlfriend Hermione has been toying with both his and Viktor Krum’s attention at the same time; so much so that Krum invited her to Bulgaria for the summer, citing that no one else has ever made him feel this way. Moreover, according to Pansy Parkinson Hermione is ‘really ugly’, and has probably been whipping up love potions to get the boys’ attention.
Hermione doesn’t seem too bothered by the article, but wonders how Rita got to know about what Krum told her. Right then, Snape catches them in their discussion and deducts points from Gryffindor. He then spots the magazine, and deducts another ten points before reading the article out loud and using it as an excuse to separate them.
Snape orders Harry to occupy the table in front of his desk. Once there, Snape tells Harry that no matter how many articles get written about him, to Snape he will always be a nasty little boy. He then warns Harry against breaking into his office, which Harry denies ever doing.
In response, Snape pulls out a vial of Veritaserum, a truth potion that could make Harry spill out all his secrets. The ministry controls the usage of this potions strictly, but Snape threatens that he might spill some in Harry’s pumpkin juice on accident someday. This shuts him up.
Karkaroff and Sirius
A few seconds later, there is a knock on the door. It is Karkaroff, and he seems worried about something. Snape says he will talk to him after the lesson, but Karkaroff wants to talk now, while Snape cannot slip off.
Karkaroff hangs around till the end of the class, and Harry pretends to clean his table in order to get a closer look on their conversation. Snape asks him what this is about, and Karkaroff pulls up his sleeve to show Snape something on his inner forearm. Harry can’t see what it is, but Snape snarls at him to put it away. He shoos Harry away, and Harry runs to tell Hermione and Ron.
The next day at noon, the trio heads to Hogsmeade to meet Sirius. They bring him a dozen chicken legs, a loaf of bread and a flask of pumpkin juice. Sirius greets them in his dog form near the edge of the village, and leads them to the foot of a nearby mountain. They climb up, with much difficulty and finally end up in a dimly lit cave.
Inside, the trio sees Buckbeak and rushes to stroke him. Meanwhile, Sirius turns back into his human form and asks Harry for food. Harry gives him everything they had brought, which brightens up Sirius. Since stealing a lot of food from Hogsmeade would draw unnecessary attention towards him, he had been living mostly off of rats.
Sirius then explains that he has been hiding here for a while, trying to fulfill his duties as a godfather. A lot of fishy things have been going on, and he is not the only one who thinks so.
Discussions with Sirius
Sirius nods towards the stack of newspapers he has collected. They have numerous articles about the disappearance of both Barty and Bertha Jorkins. The running theory is that Barty is extremely ill. The trio and Sirius discuss this possibility, but they cant explain why he showed up to Hogwarts in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.
Sirius seems to think that whoever stole Harry’s wand during the World Cup was present in the Top Box along with them. Ron is sure it was the Malfoys, but Hermione brings up Ludo Bagman. Ludo was present in the forest when the Dark Mark was conjured, and also keeps offering Harry help.
Sirius however, goes back to Barty. It seems suspicious that he went through the trouble of saving himself a seat and doesn’t turn up to watch. Then, he puts in all that effort to make the Triwizard Tournament happen but doesn’t show up to it either. All of this, for a man who has perhaps never taken a sick day from work before this.
Harry asks if Sirius knows Crouch, and a dark look covers Sirius’s face. He knows a thing or two about the man.
The Intense Life of Bartemius Crouch
Sirius reveals that Crouch used to be the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and was in line to be the next Minister of Magic. He was the one who sentenced Sirius to Azkaban without a trial, and that wasn’t even the worst thing he did.
Barty was always very outspoken against the Dark Arts, and fought violence with violence. After Voldemort’s disappearance, he was almost made the Minister of Magic, until something terrible happened. His own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who were trying to restore Voldemort to power.
His son was put on trial, but that was simply an excuse to show how much he hated the boy. He was sent straight to Azkaban, where he died a year later. His wife couldn’t take the grief, and she died shortly afterwards as well. This ignited a wave of sympathy for the little boy, and the running conclusion was that he went bad because his father never cared for him. With this, he was shunned away into the Department for International Cooperation, and Cornelius Fudge was crowned Minister.
He is still obsessed with catching Death Eaters, almost as if he thinks that catching them might restore his popularity. However, that still doesn’t explain why he would be searching Snape’s office in the middle of the night, when he is too busy to come as a judge.
Looking for Answers
The group wonders if Snape really is guilty, but cannot come to a conclusion since Dumbledore trusts him. Sirius recounts that Snape knew more curses when he arrived in Hogwarts than half the students in their seventh year. Moreover, the gang of Slytherins he was a part of nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters.
Harry tells him about the incident with Karkaroff, but Sirius cannot make much out of it. He asks Ron to inquire about Crouch from Percy, and also see if he can get any information on Bertha. Sirius recounts that while she was always a dim girl, he never knew her to be forgetful.
They check the time, and it is half past three; time to head back to school. Sirius instructs the trio not to sneak out of the school to visit him, and to refer to him as Snuffles when talking about him.
With this, he turns into his dog form and sees them off. They take turns giving him a pat, before he sets off into a run towards the village.
The chapter ends as the trio walks back to the school, discussing Crouch and his past. Ron tells Harry that Sirius must really like him, since he is living off of rats for his godson.
