Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter books Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Author	J. K. Rowling
Illustrators	Giles Greenfield (UK) Mary GrandPré (US)
Genre	Fantasy
Publishers	Bloomsbury (UK) Arthur A. Levine/ Scholastic (US) Raincoast (Canada)
Released	8 July 2000
Book no.	Four
Sales	~ 66 million (worldwide)
Story timeline	1942 4 August 1994–June 25, 1995
Chapters	37
Pages	636 (UK) 734 (US)
ISBN	074754624X
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 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 2001;^[1] it was the only Harry Potter novel to do so. The book was made into a film, which was released worldwide on 18 November 2005.

Synopsis

Plot introduction

Throughout the three previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties that come with growing up and the added challenge of being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after unsuccessfully trying to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his muggle, or non-magical, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, who have a son named Dudley Dursley.

Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of 11, enrolling in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power. In Harry's first year he has to protect the Sorcerer's Stone from Voldemort and one of his faithful followers in Hogwarts. After returning to the school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling, and Harry learns that Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. He also learned that it was Wormtail that actually killed his parents.

Plot summary

The book opens with Harry Potter having a dream about Frank Bryce, the ex-caretaker at the Riddle family mansion, who is caught eavesdropping on a deformed Lord Voldemort and his servant, Peter Pettigrew. In Harry's dream, Bryce is killed by Voldemort. Later in the summer, Harry, Hermione Granger, and the Weasley family take a trip to the Quidditch World Cup. While there, Death Eaters, Voldemort's servants, storm the grounds, harass some muggles, and run away when they see the Dark Mark in the sky.

Albus Dumbledore announces during the welcoming feast that the school will host the Triwizard Tournament, an inter-school competition. One student from each of three magical schools will be chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete. The other two magical institutions, Beauxbatons Academy, and Durmstrang Institute, arrive at Hogwarts two months into the school term. The champions chosen by the goblet were Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, Viktor Krum of Durmstrang, and Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts. Mysteriously, Harry is also chosen, even though he did not submit his name. Ron Weasley is instantly infuriated, thinking Harry submitted himself, and their friendship suffers.

The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, a former Auror and Dumbledore's friend. In class, he illegally talks about and demonstrates the three Unforgivable Curses: the Imperius Curse, which forces the victim to do the caster's bidding; the Cruciatus Curse, a spell that tortures its victim; and the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. Harry learns he is the only known person to have survived the Killing Curse, cast against him by Voldemort when he was a baby.

In the first of the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, the champions are to collect a golden egg guarded by a dragon. Harry completes the task with hints from Rubeus Hagrid and Moody. Following the first task, Ron and Harry mend their broken friendship. The second task requires retrieving something important that was taken from each champion and hidden in the Hogwarts lake. Ten minutes before the task, Harry is given gillyweed by Dobby the house elf so he can breathe underwater. Harry finds the four "important objects" of the tournament's contestants: Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Fleur’s little sister, Gabrielle Delacour. He is forced to rescue Gabrielle along with Ron when Fleur does not come, so he loses the challenge but gains points for 'moral fibre.'

One night, Harry and Krum are startled when a dishevelled Barty Crouch, Sr. emerges from the forest, mumbling nonsense and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs for help, but when he returns with Dumbledore, they find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing. Harry learns more about the Crouches when he sees one of Dumbledore's memories in the Pensieve, a memory-storing tool. The memory shows Barty Crouch, Jr., a Death Eater, sentenced to Azkaban by his father for helping Bellatrix Lestrange torture Frank and Alice Longbottom, Neville's parents, into insanity.

The third and final tournament task involves navigating a labyrinth filled with magical obstacles. Harry and Cedric successfully help each other navigate the maze. They reach the Triwizard cup and agree to take hold of it simultaneously, making both of them winners. The Cup turns out to be a portkey that transports them to an old graveyard in Little Hangleton, where they see Pettigrew and a deformed Lord Voldemort. Pettigrew kills Cedric and ties Harry to the Riddle tombstone. He then uses a bone from Voldemort's father's grave, some of Harry's blood, and his own cut-off hand in a magical ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to a new body.

Voldemort summons the Death Eaters and reveals that a servant of his at Hogwarts ensured that Harry would participate in the tournament, win it, and thus be brought to the graveyard. Harry tries to disarm Voldemort with the Expelliarmus spell at exactly the same time that Voldemort uses the Killing Curse. Since the wands are twins, the two spells meet and interlock, causing a bond between the wands that displays the "echoes" of Voldemort's most recent victims, including Cedric, James Potter, and Lily Potter. The echoes provide protection to Harry, allowing him to escape with Cedric's body and leave Voldemort behind in a rage.

Harry, carrying Cedric's body, returns to the school grounds. Moody rushes Harry to his office, where he reveals that he was Voldemort's servant and attempts to kill Harry himself. Moody is stopped by Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall. Dumbledore feeds Moody Veritaserum, and they discover that "Moody" is actually Barty Crouch, Jr., who was smuggled out of Azkaban and was using a Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the real Alastor Moody. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, arrives at Hogwarts but refuses to believe Dumbledore's and Harry's word that Voldemort is back.

Harry is crowned Triwizard Champion and awarded with 1,000 galleons. Days later, Dumbledore makes an announcement at the gloomy Leaving Feast, telling everybody about Voldemort. While leaving the Hogwarts Express on King's Cross Station, Harry gives his winnings to Fred and George so they can start a joke shop.

Rita Skeeter subplot

Rita Skeeter, a writer for the Daily Prophet, spends much of the story writing lies about Harry (about the time his scar hurt after a strange dream in Divination), Hagrid (about the time he told Madame Maxime about his mother), and Hermione (in love with Viktor Krum). Skeeter carries out secret interviews with Slytherin students to get the fodder for some of her stories, but the sources for others are inexplicable. Initially, Harry suspects that she has an Invisibility Cloak, but Hermione knows that "Mad-Eye" Moody would have been able to see through the cloak with his magical eye. Next, Harry thinks that she may have had areas of the school 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, Hermione finally realizes how Skeeter was doing this: she is an unregistered Animagus and can turn into a beetle. Harry and Ron realize 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 eventually traps Skeeter, in beetle form, in a jar and does not release her until the train reaches London.

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), marries (Deathly Hallows) and has children with (Nineteen Years Later).
• During the Yule Ball, Dumbledore mentions that he was wandering through the corridors in search of a bathroom when a room full of chamber pots suddenly appeared in a place he had not previously known existed. In Order of the Phoenix we learn that this is the Room of Requirement.
• 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 that she (and Dumbledore) feared that if the Dursleys believed Harry enjoyed himself there, they would find a different babysitter.
• Towards the end of the 4th book, Harry tells his tale of his night in the graveyard to Dumbledore and Sirius. He mentions his arm, sliced by Pettigrew, and there is 'a gleam of triumph' in Dumbledore's eye. This is because Dumbledore knows that using Harry's blood to bring Voldemort back will keep Harry alive should Voldemort try to kill him.

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.^[2] J. K. Rowling expressed her indecision about the title in an Entertainment Weekly interview.

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.^[4] In particular, Rowling had trouble with the ninth chapter, "The Dark Mark", which she rewrote 13 times.^[5]

U.K./U.S. Release

Goblet of Fire was the first book in the Harry Potter series to be released in the United States on the same date as 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.

See also

References

External links

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki

The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling Philosopher's Stone Film Soundtrack Game Chamber of Secrets Film Soundtrack Game Prisoner of Azkaban Film Soundtrack Game Goblet of Fire Film Soundtrack Game Order of the Phoenix Film Soundtrack Game Half-Blood Prince Film Soundtrack Game Deathly Hallows Film Soundtrack Game Characters Harry Potter · Ron Weasley · Hermione Granger · Lord Voldemort · Albus Dumbledore · Severus Snape · Rubeus Hagrid · Draco Malfoy · Hogwarts staff · Order of the Phoenix · Dumbledore's Army · Death Eaters · Supporting characters Universe Magic · Places · Hogwarts · Ministry of Magic · Quidditch · Magical creatures · Muggle · Spells · Magical objects · Horcrux Related Film series (Cast members · Critical Response) · Fandom · Influences and analogues · Legal disputes · Parodies · Politics · Religious debates · Translation Spin-off canon Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them · Quidditch Through the Ages · The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter  · The Tales of Beedle the Bard · Prequel Other games Quidditch World Cup · Lego · Lego Creator · Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4  · Action figures · Trading Card Game Attractions The Wizarding World of Harry Potter · Dragon Challenge · Flight of the Hippogriff · Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey · Harry Potter Movie Magic Experience Book · Category · Portal