Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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| Harry Potter books Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
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| Author | J. K. Rowling |
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| Illustrators | Giles Greenfield (UK) Mary GrandPré (US) |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publishers | Bloomsbury (UK) Scholastic (US) Raincoast (Canada) |
| Released | 8 July 2000 |
| Book no. | Four |
| Sales | ~ 66 million (worldwide) |
| Story timeline | 1942 1994–1995 |
| Chapters | 37 |
| Pages | 636 (UK) 734 (US) |
| Preceded by | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
| Followed by | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. Published on 8 July 2000, the release of this book was surrounded by more hype than any other book in recent times[citation needed]—outdone only by its successors, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book attracted additional attention because of a pre-publication warning from J. K. Rowling that one of the characters would be murdered in the book.
The novel won a Hugo Award in 2000. The book was made into a film, which was released worldwide on 18 November 2005.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Quidditch World Cup
The fourth book opens as Frank Bryce, the Riddle manor's elderly caretaker who had been questioned by local police for murder of the Riddles over fifty years ago, sees lights inside an abandoned house. Investigating, he overhears Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail) plotting the death of Harry Potter. Frank is discovered and slain by an unknown person or thing. Having seen the killing in a dream, Harry awakens with his scar in agony.
Soon after, Harry, Hermione Granger, the Weasley family (with the exception of Molly) and several wizarding acquaintances depart for the Quidditch World Cup. After the match, a flight of Death Eaters (Lord Voldemort's servants) storm the camp, creating panic and destruction. Harry notices he has lost his wand and becomes worried. Harry, Hermione and Ron flee into the forest whence they see the Dark Mark, the sign of Lord Voldemort, beamed into the night sky. The head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation, Barty Crouch Sr., arrives and accuses the trio of conjuring the Mark. But soon they find Winky, the house elf of Crouch himself, clutching Harry's stolen wand. A furious Crouch sacks Winky on the spot, infuriating Hermione and starting her near-obession with elf rights.
[edit] Triwizard Tournament
Professor Dumbledore announces during the Welcoming Feast that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament. The centuries-old inter-school competition was discontinued because it became too dangerous, but has been recently revived. The tournament includes three difficult tasks, one held during each school term. Meanwhile, Hermione begins the Society For the Protection of Elfish Welfare (S.P.E.W).
The Goblet of Fire chooses one student from each competing school. Students must be at least 17 years old to enter this contest, as it is dangerous. Cedric Diggory is Hogwarts' champion, Fleur Delacour is Beauxbatons' and Viktor Krum represents Durmstrang. The Goblet unexpectedly selects a fourth champion, Harry Potter, even though Harry never entered and is underage. This leads to a falling out with Ron, who thinks Harry cheated to enter and is finally overcome with jealousy of Harry's ever-growing fame and attention.
Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and a former Auror. In the first task, the champions must retrieve a golden egg from a dragon. With advice from Hagrid, Moody, and Hermione, Harry uses his Firebolt (his flying broomstick) to fly past the dragon and capture the egg, earning high marks. Ron realises Harry would not have cheated when he sees how dangerous the first task is, and they reconcile.
The champions are required to attend the Yule Ball, a tradition associated with the Triwizard Tournament. Harry wants to invite Cho Chang, but when he learns she is attending with Cedric Diggory, he agrees to take Parvati Patil, while her twin sister, Padma, goes with Ron. Hermione attends with Viktor Krum—sparking Ron's jealousy, made worse by Hermione's unexpectedly beautiful appearance at the Ball.
The second task requires retrieving something important to each champion that is hidden in Hogwarts' lake; the chief impediment here being that they must stay submerged for the time they are underwater without the aid of Muggle scuba gear. As the event is about to begin, Dobby gives Harry gillyweed so he can breathe underwater, and he successfully finds the four "important objects": Ron, Hermione, Cho and Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle. Harry stays on the spot to ensure that everyone is rescued, but Fleur never comes; he rescues Gabrielle in addition to Ron, which causes him to lose time but gain points for 'moral fiber'. (Diggory and Krum have rescued Cho and Hermione, respectively.)
Harry and Krum are startled when a disheveled Mr. Crouch emerges from the forest, mumbling incoherently and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs for help, but when he returns with Dumbledore, they find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing. While waiting in Dumbledore's office the headmaster's return, Harry discovers a Pensieve, a method of storing memories one does not wish to be continually remembering, and enters it. It contains one of Dumbledore's own memories: that of the trial in which Barty Crouch, Jr., a Death Eater, was sentenced to Azkaban by his own father for torturing Frank and Alice Longbottom (Neville's parents) into insanity.
[edit] Graveyard Confrontation
The third task involves navigating a humongous maze located on the Quidditch Pitch and filled with magical obstacles. Harry and Cedric successfully navigate the maze, helping each other on the way. They reach the center together, and agree to grasp the prize simultaneously as the only honorable solution to a tie. Unknown to them, the Cup is actually a portkey that transports them to an old cemetery in Little Hangleton. Peter Pettigrew awaits them, carrying a deformed Lord Voldemort, who orders Pettigrew to "kill the spare" (Cedric). Pettigrew kills Diggory with the Avada Kedavra curse, and gags Harry with a rough kind of material and ties him from head to toe to the Riddle tombstone. He then uses a bone from Voldemort's father's grave, some of Harry's blood, and his own severed hand in a magical ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to his former powers and a new body.
Voldemort summons his Death Eaters by touching Pettigrew's dark mark, and reveals that his servant at Hogwarts ensured that Harry would participate in the tournament, win it, and thus be brought to the graveyard. Voldemort challenges Harry to a duel, and punishes Harry with the Cruciatus Curse. Harry tries to disarm Voldemort with the Expelliarmus spell, at exactly the same time as Voldemort uses the Avada Kedavra curse. The two curses meet and interlock, causing an effect called Priori Incantatem to take place. This bond between the wands causes the spirits of Voldemort's murdered victims, including Cedric Diggory, Bertha Jorkins, James and Lily Potter, and even the Muggle Frank Bryce, to spill out from his wand. The spirit victims provide protection to Harry, allowing him to escape with Diggory's body and leaving Voldemort in a raging anger.
[edit] Aftermath
After Harry returns to the school grounds through the portkey, Harry is in a terrible state and he refuses to leave Cedric's body. Moody takes Harry to his office immediately. He reveals that he has been helping Harry throughout the tournament so that Harry would reach the portkey, thereby going to the cemetery so Voldemort could be restored. Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall arrive just at this point; Dumbledore had realized that something was wrong when he saw Moody whisk Harry away from the maze so quickly, and followed them. Dumbledore feeds Moody three drops of Veritaserum, and they discover that "Moody" is actually Barty Crouch, Jr. He has escaped Azkaban and used a Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the real Alastor Moody, who is trapped in a magical trunk. Crouch Jr. murdered his father, transfigured him into a bone and entered Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, covertly ensuring that Harry completed each difficult task by supplying help one way or another. Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, arrives at Hogwarts accompanied by a Dementor. Fudge denies Dumbledore's claim that Voldemort has returned and before Crouch can repeat his confession, his soul is sucked out when the Dementor performs the Dementor's Kiss on him (on Fudge's orders).
Harry is taken to Dumbledore's office where he reunites with Sirius and he relives his story of his night. He is taken to the hospital wing and is crowned Triwizard Champion and awarded with 1000 galleons. Dumbledore then makes an announcement at the feast telling everybody about Voldemort and saying to forget would be 'an insult to his (Cedric's) memory.' Harry gives his winnings to Fred and George to start a joke shop with and Harry sets off for another summer at the Dursley's.
[edit] Subplot: Rita Skeeter
Rita Skeeter, a writer for the Daily Prophet, has been writing lies about Harry (about the time his scar hurt after a strange dream in Divination), Hagrid (about the time he told them about his mother), and Hermione (in love with Viktor Krum). Skeeter has been having secret interviews with the Slytherins about these issues in the articles. First, Harry suspects that she has an Invisibility Cloak, but Hermione knows that Mad Eye Moody would have noticed her by seeing through the cloak. Then Harry thinks that she may have had those areas wired (bugged). However, Hermione tells them that electronic devices do not work in Hogwarts because of the magic in the air. Near the end of the book, it was finally revealed how she was doing this. Hermione figured out that Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus and can turn into a beetle. Harry and Ron realise that there was a beetle on the statue near Hagrid's hut, and later in Hermione's hair after the second task, and on the window of Divination class when Harry's scar hurt, and that the Slytherins knew about it all along. Hermione had Rita trapped in a jar at the end and did not let her out until she got back to London.
[edit] Foreshadowing
- Ron's jealousy comes to the fore when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire. He thinks Harry is lying about putting his name in for the contest, and abandons his friend. Ron later returns when he sees how dangerous the competition is. Also, Ron's feelings towards Hermione, which were more subtle prior to Goblet of Fire, now become obvious, with their relationship blossoming in Half-Blood Prince and finally being consummated with their first kiss in Deathly Hallows. Both of these are faced in the seventh book when Ron, angered by Harry's lack of a concrete plan and the lack of the usual comforts of home, leaves Hermione and Harry (though regrets this instantly).
- Fleur looks interested in Bill Weasley, whom she later dates (Order of the Phoenix), is engaged to (Half-Blood Prince) and marries (Deathly Hallows).
- At the end of Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore asks Sirius to round up "the old crowd". This includes Arabella Figg, who is mentioned as early in the series as the second chapter of the first book. However, she is introduced as a crazy old Muggle who lives a street or two over from Privet Drive. In Order of the Phoenix, it is revealed that she is a Squib who has been assigned to keep an eye on Harry. The only reason she never let him have fun while at her house was because she (and Dumbledore) feared that if the Dursleys believed Harry enjoyed himself there, they would find a different babysitter.
[edit] Release history
Until the official title's announcement on 27 June 2000, the fourth book was called by its working title, Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament.[1] 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.[2] | ” |
Rowling also admitted that the fourth book was the most difficult to write at the time, because she noticed a giant plot hole halfway through writing.[3] In particular, Rowling had trouble with the ninth chapter, which she rewrote 13 times.[4]
[edit] U.S./U.K. Release
Goblet of Fire was the first book in the Harry Potter series to be released simultaneously in the United States and the United Kingdom, on 8 July 2000. The three previous books had been released in the United Kingdom several months before the U.S. edition.
[edit] Editions
- Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada etc.)
- ISBN 0-7475-4624-X Hardcover
- ISBN 0-7475-5099-9 Paperback
- ISBN 0-7475-7450-2 Hardcover (adult edition)
- ISBN 0-7475-7450-2 Paperback (adult edition)
- Scholastic (United States etc.)
- ISBN 0-439-13959-7 Hardcover
- ISBN 0-439-13960-0 Paperback
[edit] References
- ^ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Pre-release
- ^ 2000: Accio Quote!, the largest archive of J.K. Rowling interviews on the web
- ^ J.K. Rowling explains why ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' was the hardest to write | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Book News | Books | Entertainment Weekly
- ^ 2001: Accio Quote!, the largest archive of J.K. Rowling interviews on the web
[edit] External links
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire extended information
- Book Summary: Goblet of Fire
- Errors & Mistakes: Goblet of Fire
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