Mark Reads ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’: Chapter 18

In the eighteenth chapter of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry’s fight with Ron only gets worse and worse. Despite Hermione’s best attempts to be a reasonable human being, our two male heroes get more catty and more unbearable. To make matters worse, the rest of the school also seems to hate Harry, fueling an unstoppable train of teen angst. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Harry Potter.

CHAPTER 18: THE WEIGHING OF THE WANDS

Dear diary,

I didn’t expect to be writing again. It’s been a weird time for me, and I just haven’t been able to write in so long. But I woke up this morning and my stomach hurt and I couldn’t remember why. It didn’t take long after I saw that Ron had already gone downstairs to breakfast.

I’ve been mad at Ron before, diary, but not to this extent. I don’t know why why he won’t believe me. Well…Hermione has an idea. She brought me toast so we could go walk around outside. I knew she was going to talk to me about what was happening between Ron and I. I’m just happy she believed me that I didn’t submit my name to the Goblet of Fire.

Diary, do you think she’s right? That Ron’s upset at me because he’s never in the spotlight? It’s just not fair. I didn’t choose to be in the spotlight. I didn’t choose to be in the Triwizard Tournament. Why is Ron taking this out on me? It’s just not fair, diary.

Hermione told me to write to Sirius. And I know that I am sad about getting him involved, but I guess that she’s right. Why is she always right? Why can’t I be as certain as her? Life sucks sometimes, diary.

I wrote Sirius and had to use a new owl to find him. Hedwig was so offended that I wasn’t using her that she dug her talons into my shoulder and refused to look at me. Even my owl hates me, diary. This isn’t my fault.

Harry

Dear Diary,

I wish I could say that things are getting better. They’re not. Remember when everyone thought I was turning students to stone? It’s like that. But worse.

The Hufflepuffs hate me. I guess I understand it, diary. Cedric is their champion and now I’ve come into this whole mess and ruined the Hufflepuff’s chance at being the winner at something. Ernie and Justin stopped talking to me. It really sucks.

I’m glad Hermione is still my friend, but Ron won’t talk to me. It’s ok, because I won’t talk back to him either. If he’s going to be an immature dolt, I’ll do it right back to him. Whatever.

Hagrid’s class wasn’t much better. Of course this is all fodder for Malfoy and his Slytherin buddies. I’m happy Hagrid believes me, but he brought up a good point that didn’t really make me feel better.

Why does everything happen to me? Why can’t bad things happen to other people? It’s just not fair, diary. I just want to have a normal life without thinking about Voldemort and dementors and ruining Sirius’s life. Ron and Hermione don’t have to worry about these things. The worst things they have to worry about are family competitions or getting good grades.

I’d gladly trade.

Harry

Dear diary,

It’s only getting worse. I feel like the universe is conspiring against me. Why does everything only happen to me?

The Ravenclaws hate me, too. Think I’m just doing this for the attention. They couldn’t be more wrong, diary. I want the opposite. I don’t want ANY attention.

Hedwig won’t talk to me. Professor Trelawney is making sure to publicly predict my death in every class. Sometimes I wish she was right so I could just get over this. Then I wouldn’t have to do all the extra homework Professor Flitwick assigned me. I’m distracted! It’s hard to pay attention.

Outside of Snape’s dungeon, all the Slytherins were wearing pins supporting Cedric as the “real” Howgarts champion. Awesome. Even worse, when you pressed the pin, it displayed another message: “Potter stinks.”

If someone put my name into the Goblet of Fire to ruin my life, they’re winning.

I tried to resist Malfoy’s taunts, but then he told Hermione he wouldn’t touch her because she’s a Mudblood. I hate it when he says that, so we both drew our wands, but they ricocheted off each other and hit Goyle and Hermione.

Snape, of course, sided with Malfoy and, in the process, insulted Hermione. Even when I try to defend people, I can’t do things right. I’m hurting my friends, if they’re even that anymore, and nobody likes me.

I also had to meet Rita Skeeter today. She’s that journalist gal who always makes Ron’s dad look bad. Now I know why he hates her. She kept making up lies about me, saying I was crying during her stupid interview. Why do people keep talking to me and making this worse? Can’t they see I hate all of this?

The only good thing that happened was getting a letter from Sirius. He wants to meet up with me again. I know it’s dangerous and selfish to want this but…I just want one thing to go right in my life. And seeing Sirius again would make everything all right, I think.

Ok, it’s time to go. I have a lot of Summoning Charms to write. And I have detention with Snape tomorrow. Next time I write, I imagine things will be a lot worse. A lot worse.

Harry