Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Chapter 23 Summary

Chapter Twenty-Three

The Yule Ball

 

The night of the Yule Ball lurks ever closer, and Ron is beside himself with trying to find out who Hermione is going with. Meanwhile, Harry finally gets a letter back from Sirius congratulating Harry on his success in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament with the Hungarian Horntail dragon. 

The night of the Yule Ball arrives and Ron is absolutely disgusted.  Of course, he is wearing the old and ugly dress robes that his mother bought for him secondhand in Diagon Alley.  To make things worse, Ron rips his already horrible dress robes in an effort to remove their revolting lace. The shocker of the night, however, is that Hermione has accepted an invitation to the Yule Ball from none other than Viktor Krum. Both Harry and Ron are awestruck.

For Harry and Ron, the evening is a complete bust.  Ron is incredibly angry with Hermione for going to the Yule Ball with Krum. Ron’s anger causes him to totally neglect his own date; therefore, poor Padma Patil finally snubs Ron in order to dance with someone else.  Both Ron and Harry are having such a horrible time that they go on a walk in order to escape the situation and find Hagrid and Madam Maxime entering a loving relationship (which Ron and Harry would rather not have witnessed). To top things off, Ron and Harry also discover an argument between Karkaroff and Snape who are also walking together in the gardens of the ground of Hogwarts.

In order to return the favor, Cedric Diggory gives a hint to Harry about the upcoming task.  Up until this point, Harry has been completely unable to figure out the message from his golden egg because every time he tries to open it, the egg makes a horrible screeching noise.  Cedric simply tells Harry to take the egg into the bath with him. Harry, of course, thinks that Cedric is pulling his leg and doesn’t take the tip very seriously.