Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Audiobook by Stephen Fry

“i’ve now not obtained tears in my eyes!” said Harry loudly.

Earlier than Rita Skeeter could say a phrase, the door of the broom cupboard used to be pulled open. Harry seemed round, blinking within the shiny gentle. Albus Dumbledore stood there, watching down at each of them, squashed into the cabinet.

“Dumbledore!” cried Rita Skeeter, with every appearance of pleasure ­ but Harry seen that her quill and the parchment had instantly vanished from the field of Magical Mess Remover, and Rita’s clawed fingers were all of a sudden snapping shut the clasp of her crocodile­epidermis bag. “How are you?” she mentioned, standing up and keeping

out certainly one of her colossal, mannish fingers to Dumbledore. “i hope you saw my piece over the summer about the global Confederation of Wizards’ conference?”

“Enchantingly nasty,” stated Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. “I peculiarly enjoyed your description of me as an obsolete dingbat.”

Rita Skeeter failed to look remotely abashed.

“I used to be simply making the factor that a few of your recommendations are a little historic­long-established, Dumbhedore, and that many wizards within the road ­”

“I will probably be delighted to hear the reasoning behind the rudeness, Rita,” said Dumbledore, with a courteous bow and a smile, “however i’m afraid we will need to discuss the subject later. The Weighing of the Wands is ready to begin, and it cannot take place if one in every of our champions is hidden in a brush cupboard.”

Very joyful to get far from Rita Skeeter, Harry hurried back into the room. The opposite champions were now sitting in chairs close the door, and he sat down rapidly next to Cedric, hooking up at the velvet­included desk, where four of the five judges had been now sitting ­ Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman. Rita Skeeter settled herself down in a corner; Harry noticed her slip the parchment out of her bag again, spread it on her knee, suck the end of the speedy­fees Quill, and situation it once more on the parchment.

“could I introduce Mr. Ollivander?” said Dumbledore, taking his situation at the judges’ desk and speaking to the champions. “he will be checking your wands to be certain that they are in good before the tournament.”

Harry hooked around, and with a jolt of surprise noticed an historical wizard with large, light eyes standing quietly through the window. Harry had met Mr. Ollivander before ­ he was the wand­maker from whom Harry had purchased his own wand over three years in the past in Diagon Alley.

“Mademoiselle Delacour, would we have you first, please?” said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty area within the middle of the room.

Fleur Delacour swept over to Mr. Olhivander and exceeded him her wand.

“Hmm…” he mentioned.

He twirled the wand between his lengthy fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of red and gold sparks. Then he held it chose to his eyes and examined it carefully.

“yes,” he mentioned quietly, “nine and a half inches. . . Inflexible.. Rosewood.. . And containing. . . Pricey me. . .”

“An ‘air from ze ‘ead of a veela,” mentioned Fleur. “one among my grandmuzzer’s.”

So Fleur used to be section veela, thought Harry, making a mental notice to inform Ron. . . Then

he remembered that Ron wasn’t speakme to him.

“yes,” stated Mr. Ollivander, “sure, I’ve certainly not used veela hair myself, of path. I find it makes for instead temperamental wands…Nevertheless, to every his possess, and if this suits you..”

Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, it sounds as if checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, “Orchideous!” and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip.

“Very good, very good, it’s in exceptional working order,” mentioned Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the plant life and handing them to Fleur together with her wand. “Mr. Diggory, you next.”

Fleur glided again to her seat, smiling at Cedric as he passed her.

“Ah, now, that is one in every of mine, is not it?” mentioned Mr. Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm, as Cedric exceeded over his wand. “sure, I recall it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of a chiefly high-quality male unicorn. . . Must had been seventeen fingers; almost gored me together with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and 1 / 4 inches. . . Ash. . . Pleasantly springy. It’s in satisfactory …You deal with it almost always?”

“Polished it last night time,” mentioned Cedric, grinning.

Harry hooked down at his own wand. He could see finger marks in all places it. He gathered a fistful of gown from his knee and tried to rub it clean surreptitiously.

A couple of gold sparks shot out of the top of it. Fleur Delacour gave him an extraordinarily patronizing look, and he desisted.

Mr. Ollivander sent a circulate of silver smoke rings throughout the room from the tip of Cedric’s wand, suggested himself convinced, and then stated, “Mr. Krum, in the event you please.”

Viktor Krum received up and slouched, round­shouldered and duck­footed, toward Mr.

Ollivander. He thrust out his wand and stood scowling, together with his fingers within the pockets of his robes.

“Hmm,” said Mr. Olhivander, “it is a Gregorovitch construction, unless i’m so much flawed? A first-rate wand­maker, although the styling is never relatively what I. . .

However. .”

He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it time and again earlier than his eyes.

“sure.. . Hornbeam and dragon heartstring?” he shot at Krum, who nodded. “as an alternative thicker than one probably sees. . . Quite inflexible. . . Ten and 1 / 4 inches. . . Avis!”

The hornbeam wand let off a blast hike a gun, and a quantity of small, twittering birds flew out of the top and through the open window into the watery sunlight.

“excellent,” said Mr. Ollivander, handing Krum again his wand. “Which leaves. . . Mr.

Potter.”

Harry received to his toes and walked earlier Krum to Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand.

“Aaaah, sure,” said Mr. Ohlivander, his faded eyes suddenly gleaming. “yes, sure, sure. How good I do not forget.”

Harry would don’t forget too. He might don’t forget it as though it had occurred the previous day….

Four summers in the past, on his eleventh birthday, he had entered Mr. Ollivander’s shop with Hagrid to buy a wand. Mr. Ollivander had taken his measurements and then started handing him wands to try. Harry had waved what felt like each wand within the store, unless at final he had located the one that desirable him ­ this one, which was once manufactured from holly, eleven inches lengthy, and contained a single feather from the tail of a phoenix. Mr. Ollivander had been very amazed that Harry had been so suitable with this wand. “Curious,” he had said, “curious,” and not except Harry requested what used to be curious had Mr. Olhivander explained that the phoenix feather in Harry’s wand had come from the same fowl that had supplied the core of Lord Voldemort’s.

Harry had on no account shared this piece of understanding with someone. He was very fond of his wand, and so far as he was involved its relation to Voldemort’s wand used to be something it couldn’t help ­ as an alternative as he could not support being concerning Aunt Petunia. However, he quite hoped that Mr. Ollivander wasn’t about to inform the room about it. He had a humorous feeling Rita Skeeter’s speedy­charges Quill might just explode with excitement if he did.

Mr. Ollivander spent for much longer analyzing Harry’s wand than someone else’s.

Finally, nevertheless, he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and surpassed it again to Harry, announcing that it was still in best condition.

“thanks all,” mentioned Dumbledore, standing up at the judges’ table. “you can also return to your classes now ­ or maybe it could be faster just to move all the way down to dinner, as they are about to finish ­”

Feeling that at last something had gone proper today, Harry bought up to leave, but the man with the black camera jumped up and cleared his throat.

“graphics, Dumbledore, pictures!” cried Bagman excitedly. “the entire judges and champions, what do you believe, Rita?”

“Er ­ yes, let’s do these first,” mentioned Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Harry again. “after which perhaps some person pictures.”

The images took a long time. Madame Maxime solid every body else into shadow anywhere she stood, and the photographer couldn’t stand a ways adequate again

to get her into the frame; eventually she had to sit whilst everybody else stood round her. Karkaroff stored twirling his goatee around his finger to present it an additional curl; Krum, whom Harry would have concept would had been used to this kind of factor, skulked, half of­hidden, in the back of the workforce. The photographer gave the impression keenest to get Fleur on the front, but Rita Skeeter stored hurrying forward and dragging Harry into higher prominence. Then she insisted on separate shots of all of the champions. At last, they have been free to move.

Harry went all the way down to dinner. Hermione wasn’t there ­ he supposed she used to be still in the health facility wing having her tooth fixed. He ate on my own on the finish of the table, then back to Gryffindor Tower, pondering of the entire additional work on Summoning Charms that he had to do. Up within the dormitory, he came across Ron.

“you have got had an owl,” said Ron brusquely the moment he walked in. He used to be pointing at Harry’s pillow. The university barn owl was ready for him there.

“Oh ­ proper,” stated Harry.

“And now we have acquired to do our detentions day after today night time, Snape’s dungeon,” mentioned Ron.

He then walked straight out of the room, not looking at Harry. For a moment, Harry considered going after him ­ he wasn’t certain whether or not he wanted to talk to him or hit him, each gave the impression quite attractive ­ however the lure of Sirius’s reply was once too powerful. Harry strode over to the barn owl, took the letter off its leg, and unrolled it.

Harry ­ I can not say the whole thing I want to in a letter, it can be too dicy in case the owl is intercepted ­ we have got to talk face­to­face. Are you able to make sure that you are alone by using the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o’clock in the morning on the twenty second ofNovember!