A whistle had blown somewhere.

“Good lord, I’ve got to run!” said Bagman in alarm, and he hurried off.

Harry walked back to the tent and saw Cedric emerging from it, greener than ever. Harry tried to wish him luck as he walked past, but all that came out of his mouth was a sort of hoarse grunt.

Harry went back inside to Fleur and Krum. Seconds hater, they heard the roar of the crowd, which meant Cedric had entered the enclosure and was now face to face with the living counterpart of his model.

It was worse than Harry could ever have imagined, sitting there and listening. The crowd screamed… yelled… gasped like a single many headed entity, as Cedric did whatever he was doing to get past the Swedish Short Snout. Krum was still staring at the ground. Fleur had now taken to retracing Cedric’s steps, around and around the tent. And Bagman’s commentary made everything much, much worse… Horrible pictures formed in Harry’s mind as he heard: “Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow”… “He’s taking risks, this one!”… “Clever move—pity it didn’t work!”

And then, after about fifteen minutes, Harry heard the deafening roar that could mean only one thing: Cedric had gotten past his dragon and captured the golden egg.

“Very good indeed!” Bagman was shouting. “And now the marks from the judges!”

But he didn’t shout out the marks; Harry supposed the judges were holding them up and showing them to the crowd.

“One down, three to go!” Bagman yelled as the whistle blew again. “Miss Delacour, if you please!”

Fleur was trembling from head to foot; Harry felt more warmly toward her than he had done so far as she heft the tent with her head held high and her hand clutching her wand. He and Krum were left alone, at opposite sides of the tent, avoiding each other’s gaze.

The same process started again… “Oh I’m not sure that was wise!” they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully. “Oh… nearly! Careful now… good lord, I thought she’d had it then!”

Ten minutes later, Harry heard the crowd erupt into applause once more… Fleur must have been successful too. A pause, while Fleur’s marks were being shown… more clapping… then, for the third time, the whistle.

“And here comes Mr. Krum!” cried Bagman, and Krum slouched out, leaving Harry quite alone.

He felt much more aware of his body than usual; very aware of the way his heart was pumping fast, and his fingers tingling with fear… yet at the same time, he seemed to be outside himself, seeing the walls of the tent, and hearing the crowd, as though from far away.

“Very daring!” Bagman was yelling, and Harry heard the Chinese Fireball emit a horrible, roaring shriek, while the crowd drew its collective breath. “That’s some nerve he’s showing—and—yes, he’s got the egg!”

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
She left him at the entrance of the tent. Harry went inside.	\|	Applause shattered the wintery air like breaking glass; Krum had finished—it would be Harry’s turn any moment.

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