Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Template:HPBooks Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Published on July 8 2000, the release of this book was surrounded by more hype than any other book in recent times — outdone only by its successors, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The book attracted much additional attention because of a pre-publication warning from J.K. Rowling that one of the characters would be murdered in the book. This started a stream of rumour and speculation as to who the murdered character would be.[citation needed] The publication of Goblet of Fire caused unprecedented heights of Pottermania to be reached internationally.[citation needed]
The novel won a Hugo Award in 2001.
Plot overview
The fourth book begins with an old man, Frank Bryce, who tends the gardens of a house long since abandoned which was once owned by the 'Riddle family. When he sees lights on in the house he decides to investigate and, inside, overhears Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew plotting the death of Harry Potter. Frank is discovered by them and killed, and at the same moment Harry awakes, having seen what has happened in his dream.
Soon after, Harry departs to the Quidditch World Cup with his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. After the match, Lord Voldemort's supporters, Death Eaters are seen marching through the camp, destroying tents. The trio flee into the forest, where they see the Dark Mark, or Lord Voldemort's sign, shot into the sky. Barty Crouch, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, arrives and accuses the trio of doing it, but upon investigating, they find Crouch's house elf, Winky, clutching a wand. Crouch is furious and fires Winky immediately.
Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts soon commences. During the Welcoming Feast, Professor Dumbledore announces that the Triwizard Tournament has been revived and will be held at Hogwarts. The tournament is a hundreds-of-years-old inter-school competition that was eventually discontinued because it had become too dangerous. It is comprised of three difficult tasks, one in each school term.
One student from each of the three schools competing in the tournament are to be selected by the enchanted Goblet of Fire. Since the tournament is so dangerous, the students putting their names into the Goblet must be at least 17 years old. Cedric Diggory is chosen to represent Hogwarts, Fleur Delacour represents Beauxbatons Academy and the Durmstrang Institute is represented by Viktor Krum. However, the Goblet also selects Harry Potter, even though Harry has never entered his name and is under-age. Harry is helped in the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and a former Auror.
In the first task, Harry has to retrieve a golden egg from a dragon. Having been forewarned by Hagrid, Harry uses advice from Moody and Hermione and uses his broom to fly past the dragon and capture the egg, earning high marks.
The second task calls for the champions to retrieve a person of importance to them, who has been imprisoned in the Hogwart's lake. Dobby helps Harry achieve this, and Harry receives high marks again.
The champions are later informed that the third task will be to navigate through a large maze that is filled with dangerous obstacles. Harry and Victor Krum are speaking after having been informed of the task, and are startled to see a disheveled Mr. Crouch emerge from the forest. He is crazily speaking to trees, and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry goes to retrieve Dumbledore, but when he returns, they find Krum has been stunned and Crouch is no where to be seen.
Not long after, Harry looks into Dumbledore's pensieve, which enables him to see Dumbledore's memories, including several wizarding trials. Through these he learns that Crouch's son, Barty Crouch, Jr., was a Death Eater and was sent to Azkaban, as well that Severus Snape, the potions teacher, was also once a Death Eater.
At the third task, Harry successfully makes it through the maze, aided by Diggory, and they decide to grab the Cup simultaneously. Unknown to them, the Cup is actually a portkey that transports them to an old cemetery. Awaiting them is Peter Pettigrew, who is carrying what appears to be a deformed infant. The creature orders Pettigrew to kill Diggory. Harry is bound to a tombstone, and Pettigrew uses Harry's blood, Voldemort's fathers bone, and his own severed hand in a bizarre ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to his full body and power. Unfortunately, now that Voldemort carries Harry's blood within him, he is now unaffected by the magic protecting Harry.
Voldemort reveals that he has a servant at Hogwarts who has ensured that Harry would win the tournament and be brought to the graveyard. After summoning his Death Eaters, Voldemort challenges Harry to a duel. However, his wand and Harry's are "brothers." As the wands' streams interlock, a Priori Incantatem effect occurs, causing the spirit echoes of Voldemort's victims, including Harry's parents, to spill out from his wand. The echoes momentarily protect Harry, allowing him to grab the portkey and escape to Hogwarts with Diggory's body.
After Voldemort's plan fails, Moody attempts to kill Harry. However, Harry is saved by Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall. Moody is exposed as Barty Crouch, Jr. who used a Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the real Alastor Moody. It is revealed that Barty Crouch Jr. has killed his father, and was responsible for entering Harry’s name into the Goblet of Fire, and has covertly made sure that Harry has passed through the difficult tasks. Before Crouch can repeat his confession to the authorities, however, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, who refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned, arrives at Hogwarts, along with a Dementor which sucks out Crouch's soul. Dumbledore quickly reinstates the the Order of the Phoenix, and a memorial feast for Cedric is held, where Dumbledore tells the school what has happened in the graveyard.
Prior to release
For a short while, the fourth book was titled Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament by numerous bookstores. J.K. Rowling expressed her indecision about the title in an Entertainment Weekly interview. "I changed my mind twice on what [the title] was. The working title had got out — 'Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament.' Then I changed 'Doomspell' to 'Triwizard Tournament.' Then I was teetering between 'Goblet of Fire' and 'Triwizard Tournament.' In the end, I preferred 'Goblet of Fire' because it's got that kind of 'cup of destiny' feel about it, which is the theme of the book."
Points of Interest
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- The book presents the second instance in which the opening narrative is not delivered through a point of view close to Harry: Chapter 1 - "The Riddle House". The first instance is Chapter 1 of Philosopher's Stone - "The Boy Who Lived" which is told from the perspective of Vernon Dursley.
- Presents a greater international aspect to the wizarding community - World Cup, the Triwizard Tournament, two European schools of Magic (Beauxbatons and Durmstrang), and possibly two other international schools (The Salem Witches Institute and an unnamed school in Brazil).
- Mentions the name of a real person - Natalie McDonald, who was a terminally ill child. A friend wrote to Rowling, asking her to divulge the plot of "Goblet of Fire" as a favour to Natalie. With the exception of people of ancient times, such as Nicolas Flamel, this is the only Harry Potter book to so honour an individual.
- On page 697, US hardcover edition (Scholastic), Dumbledore states, "If, however, the owners of the wands force the wands to do battle... a very rare effect will take place. One of the wands will force the other to regurgitate spells it has performed - in reverse. The most recent first. . . and then those which preceded it. . . .". The series has maintained that James Potter was murdered before Lily. Therefore, logically, Lily, the more recently killed of the two, should emerge from Voldemort's wand before James during the Priori Incantatem scene. However, in the original edition of the book, James Potter comes out first, and says, "Hold on, your mother is coming and wants to see you." Rowling had originally written that Lily emerged from the wand first, however, her American editor, in the rush to edit the book, incorrectly pointed this out as an error, and Rowling "changed it without thinking."[1] Subsequent editions of the book corrected the mistake, and Rowling's original order (Lily appearing before James) stands as canon.
- Mad-Eye Moody says there is no known way of blocking the Avada Kedavra curse. However, Harry blocks it with his own spell in the battle against Voldemort, creating the Priori Incantatem effect. Dumbledore also blocks the spell with physical objects in the following book.
Editions
- Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada etc.)
- ISBN 0-7475-4624-X Hardcover
- ISBN 0-7475-5099-9 Paperback
- ISBN 0-7475-6940-1 Hardcover (adult edition)
- ISBN 0-7475-7073-6 Paperback (adult edition)
- Scholastic (United States etc.)
- ISBN 0-439-13959-7 Hardcover
- ISBN 0-439-13960-0 Paperback
Translations
References
External links
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire extended information
- Book Summary: Goblet of Fire
- Errors & Mistakes: Goblet of Fire
