Chapter 5: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Introduction
While “Prisoner of Azkaban” began the shift to darker themes, “Goblet of Fire” completes that shift and marks the true start of the long-form, epic story Rowling has been slowly assembling since the beginning. It also develops and builds upon the themes of the first three books: the potency of love and friendship; bravery in the face of the unknown; and the destructive power of prejudice. “Goblet of Fire” also explores Harry’s quest to create his own family and the inability of adults to trust children.
Plot
Harry Potter awakes with his scar burning. He was dreaming of a giant snake and Peter Pettigrew—Wormtail, as he is known—speaking with an unseen Lord Voldemort … speaking about killing Harry. But it was just a dream, right? Still, he’s pretty sure he should tell someone his scar was hurting.
Harry settles with writing to Sirius, his godfather. But he leaves out the dream. He isn’t about to let a silly dream get in the way of what could be the best summer of his life. He has been invited to join the Weasley family at the Quidditch World Cup and gets to spend time with Ron, Hermione and all seven Weasley children. Even though he has to put up with the latest pranks from twins Fred and George, Harry feels at home. All too soon, the group meets with fellow Hogwarts student Cedric Diggory to hunt down a portkey, a magical object that will transport them all to the site of the World Cup.
The World Cup is tremendous fun—Ron especially loves seeing young phenom Viktor Krum in action—and celebrations go late into the night. But at one point, the revelry turns foul. A masked group of wizards are marching through the crowd. Their wands are raised, and above them is a terrified family of muggles being suspended high in the air. In the rush to escape the masked mob, Harry, Ron and Hermione run into Draco Malfoy, who is watching the terrorized muggles with glee. Harry is disgusted that the masked wizards are toying with the defenseless muggles. This illustrates the superiority some in the wizarding world feel toward non-wizards.
Revolted, they run into the surrounding forest, but Harry soon realizes he’s lost his wand. They think they’re alone in the wood, but they suddenly hear a disembodied voice utter a spell. A giant, emerald skull with a snake protruding from the mouth appears high above, and the forest erupts in screams. It is the Dark Mark, the vile symbol that Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters would raise above any home they attacked. Even worse, when authorities appear on the spot, they find Harry’s wand held by Ministry official Barty Crouch’s house elf—and the last spell the wand performed was what raised the Dark Mark. Harry only escapes trouble because of who he is, the Boy Who Lived.
Harry returns to Hogwarts, where a new school year means yet another new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, this time a retired auror, or dark wizard hunter. Mad-Eye Moody teaches his students about the Unforgiveable Curses, and one in particular: Avada Kedavra. It’s the killing curse, and there has only ever been one survivor: Harry Potter.
But there will be more than classes this year. Dumbledore announces a special treat for the school: Hogwarts will host the Tri-Wizard Tournament, a dangerous competition that sets one champion from the three participating schools against each in a race for gold and eternal glory. Of course Harry would love to enter—Who wouldn’t?—but prospective participants must be at least 17 years of age to enter their name into the magical Goblet of Fire that determines the school champions, and Harry is just 14. Students arrive from the schools of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, and Dumbledore announces the three champions chosen by the Goblet: Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons; quidditch star Viktor Krum of Durmstrang; and Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts. But then a fourth slip of paper flies out of the Goblet, and the Great Hall is absolutely silent as Dumbledore reads out the name: Harry Potter.
Students are furious that Harry somehow cheated his way into entering, and the professors—Snape especially—are angry. But the rules are clear: A name coming out of the Goblet is a binding contract. Harry has no choice but to compete. No one seems to believe that he didn’t enter himself, not even Ron. Envious and upset, Ron gets into a massive fight with Harry, and the two stop speaking. Alone and maligned by the entire school—except for Hermione, Hagrid and Harry’s loyal pet owl, Hedwig—Harry receives even worse news while secretly speaking with Sirius through a fire: It is no mistake that Harry was entered into the tournament—someone is trying to kill him. Sirius warns him to stay clear of Durmstrang professor Igor Karkaroff, a former Death Eater.
Harry is ridiculed daily by Hogwarts students, who have all thrown their support behind Cedric Diggory. Even worse, journalist Rita Skeeter has been publishing garish and exaggerated stories about him in the Daily Prophet. Through Hagrid, Harry learns he’ll confront dragons in the first task. That doesn’t help Harry’s confidence, but he shares the information with Cedric. Using only his wand against a fearsome Hungarian Horntail, Harry summons his broom and successfully faces the dragon. Even better, Ron and Harry finally make up, and Harry feels a spark of happiness for the first time in weeks.
Skeeter is still buzzing around for a story, though, and she’s found a big one. Skeeter releases a lurid exposé on Hagrid, revealing to the rest of the wizarding world that he’s half-giant and painting a terrible picture of him based on lies and exaggerations from Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin friends. To be a half-giant is to be half-human in the eyes of many in the wizarding community, but Harry, Ron and Hermione convince Hagrid he has no reason to be ashamed of who he is.
The second task arrives—and this time it’s Cedric who gives Harry a hint. The champions will venture deep into the school lake to rescue something precious to them. For Harry, that is Ron. With help from Dobby, the freed house elf who now works at Hogwarts, Harry rescues his best friend. But there is more going on than simply tournament challenges. Snape accuses Harry of stealing ingredients for Polyjuice Potion, the difficult potion Hermione once illegally brewed that allows a wizard to take on another’s form. The intrigue deepens when stern Ministry official Barty Crouch wanders onto the Hogwarts grounds, raving like a madman about a mistake that Dumbledore must know about. Harry runs for help, but Crouch has disappeared by the time he returns.
Harry dreams of Voldemort again, but this time the dark wizard is torturing Wormtail because of a mistake. Harry comes to with his scar searing in pain and goes directly to Dumbledore’s office. Inside, Harry notices a peculiar basin filled with a cloudy liquid, and curiosity gets the better of him. It is a pensieve, a store for Dumbledore’s thoughts and memories. Through the pensieve, Harry learns that Karkaroff was released from Azkaban for giving up the names of fellow Death Eaters—among them, Severus Snape. But Dumbledore vouches for the man, saying he turned spy on Voldemort before the dark wizard’s downfall. Then Karkaroff names Barty Crouch’s son, Barty Crouch Jr., as a Death Eater who tortured aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom into insanity. Dumbledore pulls Harry from the pensieve and asks him not to tell others what he’s learned about Neville’s parents. He also tells Harry his scar links him to Voldemort—that what he is seeing in his dreams is real. The reliability of dreams and Harry’s mental connection to Voldemort becomes an important topic explored in later books.
But there’s no more time to think about any of it, because the third task has arrived. The champions’ families are invited, but Harry highly doubts the Dursleys would show up. Still, apparently there’s someone waiting for him, and Harry is deeply moved to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ron’s oldest brother, Bill, there to spend the day with him. Harry may not have blood relations that love him, but he’s made a family all his own. After the day with family, Harry and the other champions set out into a vast maze. Finally, it’s just he and Cedric racing toward the Tri-Wizard Cup at the very center of the maze. The two Hogwarts champions grasp the cup together, but it is a portkey.
They land in a graveyard, and Harry’s scar explodes in pain as he hears someone shriek the killing curse. Cedric falls next to him, dead. Harry is horro
rstruck as Wormtail, Ron’s former pet rat, binds Harry to Tom Riddle Sr.’s headstone as the giant snake Harry saw in his dreams slithers nearby. Then Wormtail reveals a squirming creature he was holding—Voldemort in a crude approximation of a body. Wormtail drops the monstrous form into a cauldron and begins a horrific spell: “Bone of the father, unwillingly given, you will renew your son. Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master. Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe.” (“Goblet of Fire,” page 642)
And out of the cauldron, Voldemort rises again.
Voldemort presses his finger to a brand on Wormtail’s arm that calls the Death Eaters back to him. But it’s Harry that interests him most. With his remaining Death Eaters appearing on all sides—including Mr. Malfoy—Voldemort challenges Harry to a duel to prove that his survival was nothing but a fluke. Voldemort tortures Harry until he runs in terror. Hiding behind a tombstone, Harry realizes he is about to die, but he isn’t going to die cowering. He stands, and his wand meets Voldemort’s.
The two brother wands share a phoenix feather core and connect with a beam of powerful energy. Voldemort is horrified as his wand starts spilling its last spells. The specters of the final people he killed appear until finally Harry’s own parents emerge. They tell him he’s brave, they tell him they love him, and they tell him to run. Harry breaks the connection, grabs Cedric’s dead hand, and takes the portkey back to Hogwarts. Harry’s courage to face the unknown has been demonstrated many times before, but here he faces his greatest challenge. It is a courage he’ll need to survive.
In the chaos, Mad-Eye Moody shepherds Harry back to the castle, but he’s acting strange. He keeps asking how the Dark Lord treated the Death Eaters. But he’s not Moody. He’s Barty Crouch Jr., and he’s been making Polyjuice Potion (which Snape had accused Harry of stealing) to get close to Harry and fulfill the commands of his master. He’s on the cusp of killing Harry when Dumbledore bursts in. Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge orders the dementors to perform the Dementor’s Kiss on Crouch, even though that robs Dumbledore of any chance to prove the truth. Numb with shock, Harry overhears Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall arguing with Fudge. Fudge won’t admit Voldemort has truly returned, insisting Harry is making it up. This again illustrates the common theme of adults refusing to believe children and being worse off because of it.
That leaves Dumbledore with only one choice, to begin the fight against the dark wizard himself. He gathers Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Sirius and Snape. Dumbledore gives them all tasks, and he gets to Snape last. Dumbledore asks if Snape is prepared, and Snape, though visibly shaken, agrees. There is a war coming, and Dumbledore will be prepared. But before any of that, there is Cedric. Dumbledore eulogizes the brave Hufflepuff on their last day at school and doesn’t lie about how he died.
“Remember Cedric Diggory. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.” (“Goblet of Fire,” page 724)
Character Spotlight: Ron Weasley
Ron Weasley has never been the star. He’s the youngest boy in an impoverished family of nine, growing up with accomplished brothers (plus younger sister, Ginny) and a whole lot of hand-me-downs. He’s never the first or best at anything in his family. Even his prankster brothers, twins Fred and George, are renowned for their antics. On top of that, he is best friends with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Hermione is quickly recognized for her brilliance, and Harry is, well, Harry Potter.
Ron battles his insecurity and doubts about his self-worth throughout the entire series. Readers see the consequences of this in “Goblet of Fire,” when he and Harry have their first major fight. Ron doesn’t necessarily want the spotlight that Harry lives in, but it is hard for him to always stand on the sidelines, to never be recognized for his own accomplishments. “Goblet of Fire” is also where readers see Ron begin to understand his feelings for Hermione, someone for whom he struggles to feel worthy.
As the series progresses, Ron slowly becomes more sure of himself. Consider this: In the second task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, it is Ron who is considered the most important person in Harry’s life. Likewise, he is the most important person in Hermione’s life, although neither will readily admit it at this point. Harry may be the brave one, and Hermione brilliant, but Ron is the beating heart of the trio. Without him, they’re lost.
Myth and Magic
“Goblet of Fire” introduces a number of magical elements that become integral to the larger story. The first are the Unforgivable Curses. Using any of the three curses earns a lifetime sentence to Azkaban, and all were heavily used by Lord Voldemort and his minions. The first is the Imperius Curse, which takes control of a person’s mind. It is hard to resist the Imperius Curse, but Harry is unusually good at fighting it. The second is the Cruciatus Curse, or the torture curse. And the third is Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. There is no repelling or fighting it, and Harry is the only person who has ever survived it.
The followers of Voldemort are called Death Eaters. When Voldemort was at his height, the Death Eaters were feared, brutal monsters who killed muggles, creatures and witches and wizards for sport. They infiltrated all levels of magical government, although after Voldemort’s downfall many insisted they were under the Imperius Curse. Former Death Eaters like Mr. Malfoy are despised by the faithful who chose to be sent to Azkaban rather than deny their allegiance.
Finally, “Goblet of Fire” explores different modes of wizard transport. Floo powder was used in “Chamber of Secrets” and is a way to travel through fireplaces that are on the Floo Network. Fireplaces are also used as a means of communication. A portkey is a normal object that has been bewitched to take a person or group to a specific location at a specific time (or when it is touched). Apparation is the most difficult way to travel and requires an exam. It is the act of disappearing in one spot and reappearing in another. A danger of apparating is to get “splinched,” which basically means a wizard hasn’t successfully apparated his whole body and has left part behind.
Chapter 6: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Introduction
Fate versus free will takes center stage in the fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, “Order of the Phoenix.” “Phoenix” clocks in at 870 pages—making it the lengthiest of the series—and was also the book fans had to wait for the longest.
Harry is 15 in this book, which presents both characters and plots that are more brooding and melancholy. It continues building on the established themes, namely the murky nature of prophesy, the incompetency of adults and the destructive power of gossip. It also explores the ways in which government can become just as vile as the evil it is meant to protect against. In this book in particular, Harry’s reluctance to include his friends in dangerous plots and his stubborn unwillingness to “burden” others with details he finds inconsequential leads to trouble for everyone.
Plot
Harry is back with the Dursleys for the summer, and he’s not at all happy about it. Cedric just died in front of him, Voldemort has returned, yet Harry is stuck helping his Aunt Petunia trim the hedges. He feels cut off from the wizarding world—even Ron and Hermione are being cagey in their letters.
But the wizarding world comes to him. Harry and his cousin, Dudley, are attacked by dementors. Although Harry was defending himself and his cousin, the Ministry charges him with multiple offenses and tries to expel him from Hogwarts before Dumbledore steps in and gets him a trial. That’s quite different than how the Ministry reacted when he accidentally inflated Marge just two years ago.
Harry is rescued from the Dursleys by members of the Order of the Phoenix, a reassembled group of witches and wizards that fought Voldemort and once included his and Neville Longbottom’s parents. With Dumbledore at the helm, the Order includes the Weasleys, Hagrid, Sirius, Remus
Lupin, the real Mad-Eye Moody and even Snape. The Order operates in secret at No. 12 Grimmauld Place, a dreary house where the severed heads of house elves line the walls like trophies. This disturbing place is where Sirius grew up, and his memories there are not happy. He is from a prominent, ancient wizarding family, but is one of the only members who aren’t manic about blood purity or in league with Voldemort. Exploring the theme of family that is common in the series, Sirius, like Harry, had to make his family elsewhere with best friends James Potter and Lupin.
But while Harry is relieved to see his godfather again and be back amongst friends, he can’t control the anger that seems to be plaguing him as much as the ongoing nightmares of Voldemort. It was he who fought Voldemort, and he who watched Cedric die, yet he feels cut out of the decision-making. Harry is even annoyed that Dumbledore appointed Ron, and not him, a Gryffindor prefect. He is cold and snappish with Ron and Hermione, something his two best friends try to take in stride.
Harry truly has reasons to be upset. He faces a full court at the Ministry of Magic and is forced to defend himself against adults who believe him to be nothing more than a disturbed boy desperate for attention. It doesn’t help that the Daily Prophet is painting him as a spotlight-craving liar in increasingly sensational articles. It is only when Dumbledore arrives at the court to defend Harry—and once more tries to make Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge admit that Voldemort has indeed returned—that Harry is vindicated. Yet the entire time Dumbledore is defending him, he refuses to look at or speak to Harry.
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