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It was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on |
to his broom. |
"Neville, you can look!" Ron said. Neville had been sobbing into |
Hagrid's jacket for the last five minutes. |
Harry was speeding toward the ground when the crowd saw him clap his |
hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick -- he hit the field |
on all fours -- coughed -- and something gold fell into his hand. |
"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head, and the |
game ended in complete confusion. |
"He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Flint was still howling |
twenty minutes later, but it made no difference -- Harry hadn't broken |
any rules and Lee Jordan was still happily shouting the results -- |
Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to sixty. Harry |
heard none of this, though. He was being made a cup of strong tea back |
in Hagrid's hut, with Ron and Hermione. |
"It was Snape," Ron was explaining, "Hermione and I saw him. He was |
cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you." |
"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next |
to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?" |
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell |
him. Harry decided on the truth. |
"I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past |
that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying |
to steal whatever it's guarding." |
Hagrid dropped the teapot. |
"How do you know about Fluffy?" he said. |
"Fluffy?" |
"Yeah -- he's mine -- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub |
las' year -- I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the |
"Yes?" said Harry eagerly. |
"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, |
that is." |
"But Snape's trying to steal it." |
"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do |
nothin' of the sort." |
"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione. |
The afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about |
Snape. |
I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! |
You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw |
him!" |
"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why |
Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! |
Now, listen to me, all three of yeh -- yer meddlin' in things that don' |
concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what |
it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel |
--" |
"Aha!" said Harry, "so there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, |
is there?" |
Hagrid looked furious with himself. |
CHAPTER TWELVE |
THE MIRROR OF ERISED |
Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find |
itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the |
Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that |
they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. The |
few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to |
deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could |
fly off again. |
No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Gryffindor common |
room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had |
become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. |
Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where |
their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as |
possible to their hot cauldrons. |
"I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, "for all |
those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're |
not wanted at home." |
He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. |
Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them. |
Malfoy had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch |
match. Disgusted that the Slytherins had lost, he had tried to get |
everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing |
Harry as Seeker next. Then he'd realized that nobody found this funny, |
because they were all so impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay |
on his bucking broomstick. So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back |
to taunting Harry about having no proper family. |
It was true that Harry wasn't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. |
Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of |
students who would be staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up |
at once. He didn't feel sorry for himself at all; this would probably be |
the best Christmas he'd ever had. Ron and his brothers were staying, |
too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit |
Charlie. |
When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large |
fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at |
the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it. |
"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the |
branches. |
"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron." |
"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoys cold drawl from |
behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping |
to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose -- that hut |
of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used |
to." |
Ron dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs. |
"WEASLEY!" |
Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes. |
"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy |
face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family." |
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