Spot, quite alone, eyes closed and waving her arms.

“She’s great isn’t she?” said Ron admiringly. “Always good value.”

But the smile vanished from his face at once: Viktor Krum had dropped into

Luna’s vacant seat. Hermione looked pleasurably flustered but this time Krum had not

come to compliment her. With a scowl on his face he said, “Who is that man in the

yellow?”

“That’s Xenophilius Lovegood, he’s the father of a friend of ours,” said Ron. His

Pugnacious tone indicated that they were not about to laugh at Xenophilius, despite the

clear provocation. “Come and dance,” he added abruptly to Hermione.

She looked taken aback, but pleased too, and got up. They vanished together into

The growing throng on the dance floor.

“Ah, they are together now?” asked Krum, momentarily distracted.

“Er – sort of,” said Harry.

“Who are you?” Krum asked.

“Barny Weasley.”

They shook hands.

“You, Barny – you know this man Lovegood well?”

“No, I only met him today. Why?”

Krum glowered over the top of his drink, watching Xenophilius, who was chatting

To several warlocks on the other side of the dance floor.

“Because,” said Krum, “If he vus not a guest of Fleur’s I vould dud him, here and

now, for veering that filthy sign upon his chest.”

“Sign?” said Harry, looking over at Xenophilius too. The strange triangular eye

was gleaming on his chest. “Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“Grindelvald. That is Grindelvald’s sign.”

“Grindelwald… the Dark wizard Dumbledore defeated?”

“Exactly.”

Krum’s jaw muscles worked as if he were chewing, then he said, “Grindelvald

Killed many people, my grandfather, for instance. Of course, he vos never powerful in

this country, they said he feared Dumbledore – and rightly, seeing how he vos finished.

But this” – he pointed a finger at Xenophilius – “this is his symbol, I recognized it at

vunce: Grindelvald carved it into a vall at Durmstrang ver he vos a pupil there. Some

Idiots copied it onto their books and clothes thinking to shock, make themselves

impressive – until those of us who had lost family members to Grindelvald taught them

better.”

Krum cracked his knuckles menacingly and glowered at Xenophilius. Harry felt

perplexed. It seemed incredibly unlikely that Luna’s father was a supporter of the Dark

Arts, and nobody else in the tent seemed to have recognized the triangular, finlike shape.

“Are you – er – quite sure it’s Grindelwald’s -?”

“I am not mistaken,” said Krum coldly. “I walked past that sign for several years,

I know it vell.”

“Well, there’s a chance,” said Harry, “that Xenophilius doesn’t actually know

what the symbol means, the Lovegoods are quite… unusual. He could have easily picked

it up somewhere and think it’s a cross section of the head of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack

or something.”

“The cross section of a vot?”

“Well, I don’t know what they are, but apparently he and his daughter go on

holiday looking for them….”

Harry felt he was doing a bad job explaining Luna and her father.

“That’s her,” he said, pointing at Luna, who was still dancing alone, waving her

Arms around her head like someone attempting to beat off midges.

“Vy is she doing that?” asked Krum.

“Probably trying to get rid of a Wrackspurt,” said Harry, who recognized the

Symptoms.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 697