Harry Potter - 3 - The Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Author:J.K. Rowling [J.K. Rowling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, General, Juvenile Fiction, Science Fiction; Fantasy; Magic, England, Magic, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Imaginary place), Schools
ISBN: 9780747574491
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
Published: 2004-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Pa­tronus

Har­ry knew that Hermione had meant well, but that didn’t stop him be­ing an­gry with her. He had been the own­er of the best broom in the world for a few short hours, and now, be­cause of her in­ter­fer­ence, he didn’t know whether he would ev­er see it again. He was pos­itive that there was noth­ing wrong with the Fire­bolt now, but what sort of state would it be in once it had been sub­ject­ed to all sorts of an­ti-​jinx tests?

Ron was fu­ri­ous with Hermione, too. As far as he was con­cerned, the strip­ping-​down of a brand-​new Fire­bolt was noth­ing less than crim­inal dam­age. Hermione, who re­mained con­vinced that she had act­ed for the best, start­ed avoid­ing the com­mon room. Har­ry and Ron sup­posed she had tak­en refuge in the li­brary, and didn’t try and per­suade her to come back. All in all, they were glad when the rest of the school re­turned short­ly af­ter New Year, and Gryffind­or Tow­er be­came crowd­ed and noisy again.

Wood sought Har­ry out on the night be­fore term start­ed.

‘Had a good Christ­mas?’ he said, and then, with­out wait­ing for an an­swer, he sat down, low­ered his voice and said, ‘I’ve been do­ing some think­ing over Christ­mas, Har­ry. Af­ter last match, you know. If the De­men­tors come to the next one … I mean … we can’t af­ford you to – well –’

Wood broke off, look­ing awk­ward.

‘I’m work­ing on it,’ said Har­ry quick­ly. ‘Pro­fes­sor Lupin said he’d train me to ward the De­men­tors off. We should be start­ing this week; he said he’d have time af­ter Christ­mas.’

‘Ah,’ said Wood, his ex­pres­sion clear­ing. ‘Well, in that case – I re­al­ly didn’t want to lose you as Seek­er, Har­ry. And have you or­dered a new broom yet?’

‘No,’ said Har­ry.

‘What! You’d bet­ter get a move on, you know – you can’t ride that Shoot­ing Star against Raven­claw!’

‘He got a Fire­bolt for Christ­mas,’ said Ron.

‘A Fire­bolt? No! Se­ri­ous­ly? A – a re­al Fire­bolt?’

‘Don’t get ex­cit­ed, Oliv­er,’ said Har­ry gloomi­ly. ‘I haven’t got it any more. It was con­fis­cat­ed.’ And he ex­plained all about how the Fire­bolt was now be­ing checked for jinx­es.

‘Jinxed? How could it be jinxed?’

‘Sir­ius Black,’ Har­ry said weari­ly. ‘He’s sup­posed to be af­ter me. So McG­ona­gall reck­ons he might have sent it.’

Wav­ing aside the in­for­ma­tion that a fa­mous mur­der­er was af­ter his Seek­er, Wood said, ‘But Black couldn’t have bought a Fire­bolt! He’s on the run! The whole coun­try’s on the look­out for him! How could he just walk in­to Qual­ity Quid­ditch Sup­plies and buy a broom­stick?’

‘I know,’ said Har­ry, ‘but McG­ona­gall still wants to strip it down –’

Wood went pale.

‘I’ll go and talk to her, Har­ry,’ he promised. ‘I’ll make her see rea­son … a Fire­bolt … a re­al Fire­bolt, on our team … she wants Gryffind­or to win as much as we do … I’ll make her see sense … a Fire­bolt …’

*

Lessons start­ed again next day. The last thing any­one felt like do­ing was spend­ing two

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