Harry whipped around and charged down the stairs, as though afraid that if he moved even a little slower, he would change his mind. He felt as if his stomach and all his organs had turned into dry kindling thrown into a blaze, roaring as they burned, the heat making his head throb in sharp spasms.
Ron and Ginny chased anxiously after Harry as he rushed ahead. Ginny called worriedly, "Harry, wait... slow down, Harry."
But Harry, completely lost in his thoughts, barreled forward as if he had not heard her. He was walking too fast, and in a moment of carelessness, he crashed straight into someone coming toward him. It was a young man with black hair, a large hooked nose, and two thick black eyebrows.
The black-haired young man caught Harry by the shoulders and steadied him, keeping him from falling.
"Viktor Krum!" Ron blurted. Then his ears went instantly scarlet. Thinking of the scandal the media had once stirred up about the two of them, he edged awkwardly closer to Ginny. Then, realizing what he had done, as if trying to cover up his loss of composure, Ron deliberately asked in a rough, booming voice, "What are you doing here?"
"Came with our headmaster... ahem?" Krum got a clear look at Ron and immediately coughed too, his thick black brows knitting together. His former headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, had forcibly brought him along. Krum was actually somewhat helpless about it, but he also understood very well that Karkaroff, who got along well with his family and genuinely regarded him as his student, did not want him to keep clashing with the Harrises, who were now at the height of their power, and had therefore taken a small risk in doing this—after all, everyone knew that his relationship with