In Chapter 19, things for Harry get worse as he gears up for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Let’s go!

Poor Harry. Things just aren’t getting better for him, although he is looking forward to talking to Sirius, however that’s going to happen. One thing that has made things worse for him is the Daily Prophet article. Rita Skeeter is a really terrible reporter and has decided to make the whole piece pretty much about Harry, giving very little attention to the two international champions and not mentioning Cedric at all. Seriously, Skeeter? What the heck! She also wrote drivel like this:

I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they’d be very proud of me if they could see me now . . . Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I’m not ashamed to admit it . . . I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they’re watching over me . . .

Ugh. Not only did Harry not say anything like that at all, but it’s just so over sentimental and melodramatic. One more time, UGH! As you can imagine, the other students who were already not to happy about this whole situation are giving Harry all kinds of crap about this. Except for one: Cho Chang. She actually acts quite nice and wishes Harry luck. This just makes Harry’s crush on her get even stronger and it’s really sweet.

Hermione has been getting a bit of flack since the article said she was Harry’s girlfriend, but she’s even more irritated because her two best friends won’t talk to each other. Neither one will admit that they are wrong, and she’s stuck in the middle.

The first Hogsmeade trip arrives and Harry won’t go unless he can wear the Invisibility Cloak to avoid people staring at him. While Hermione is still irritated because now it looks like she’s talking to herself and sitting alone at the Three Broomsticks, Harry imagines what it would have been like if he hadn’t been chosen, if he was looking forward to cheering Cedric on as a normal spectator like the rest of the students. But then, Harry has never been normal, has he. He also wonders if the other champions are as nervous as he is. They still know nothing about what the task actually is yet.

They also find out that Moody’s magical eye can see through the Invisibility Cloak. So that’s interesting. Also, Hagrid, who’s with Moody at the time, asks Harry to come see him at midnight that night. Harry is also meeting Sirius (somehow) in the Gryffindor common room at 1 AM, so it’s going to be a tight squeeze, but Harry also knows that Hagrid wouldn’t ask him to break the rules and leave the castle so late without a good reason.

When he goes to Hagrid’s hut that night, Hagrid leads him to the Beauxbatons carriage where Madame Maxime has been staying. It seems like they are . . . going on a date? And Hagrid asked Harry to come watch? That’s not weird or creepy or anything.

“Yeh’ll enjoy this,” said Hagrid gruffly, “worth seein’, trust me. On’y — don’ go tellin’ anyone I showed yeh, right? Yeh’re not s’posed ter know.”

They walk a long ways, Harry worried about missing his time to see Sirius, when they come around some trees and see a bunch of dragons. Yep, dragons. Four dragons, to be exact. They look wild and terrible and really, really angry. One of the keepers there is none other than Charlie Weasley, who questions Hagrid on his decision to bring one of the rival Headmasters out to see them, since this is supposed to be a secret. I’m on Charlie’s side on this one. What was Hagrid thinking?

The dragons are all nesting mothers and the champions are going to have to get past them somehow for some reason.

Five of Charlie’s fellow keepers staggered up to the Horntail at the moment, carrying a clutch of huge granite-gray eggs between them in a blanket. They placed them carefully at the Horntail’s side. Hagrid let out a moan of longing.

“I’ve got them counted, Hagrid,” said Charlie sternly.

Aw, Hagrid never really got over losing Norbert, did he?

Charlie also asks how Harry is doing and worries how he will be doing after facing a bunch of dragons. It’s a fair question. Each one of these things is being semi-controlled by seven or eight fully trained dragon wranglers. What is a 14 year old kid going to be able to do? Apparently Molly Weasley is also really, really worried. Harry, on the other hand, has decided that he’s seen enough and sneaks back to the castle, only to run right into Karkaroff. He still has his Invisibility Cloak on so Karkaroff doesn’t see him, but it’s funny that both of the rival Headmasters were keen on sniffing out the secrets of the tournament for their champions. I just can’t see Dumbledore ever doing that, you know?

Harry gets back to the common room just in time to meet Sirius, who appears in the fireplace. He tries to pretend like he’s fine, but everything just sort of spills out. How no one believes him. How the article made everything worse. How Ron has ditched him. And now he has to fight dragons. Sirius listens and is very sympathetic, but wants to warn Harry about something.

“Karkaroff,” said Sirius. “Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don’t you? . . . He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I’d bet everything that’s why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year — to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place.”

So . . . that’s a whole lot of information to unload on a kid who’s already feeling overwhelmed. It does make sense though. If Karkaroff was a Voldemort supporter and Dumbledore knew he was coming back to Hogwarts for the tournament, who better to keep an eye on things that Mad-Eye Moody, the one who caught Karkaroff in the first place. It certainly explains Karkaroff’s reaction to Moody when he saw them. But does that mean that Karkaroff put Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire? Harry doesn’t think so because Karkaroff seemed pretty angry about the situation, but Sirius reminds him that he must be a pretty good actor to have gotten set free from the Ministry in the first place.

Sirius has been staying below the radar, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been paying attention. Death Eaters are becoming more active. They still haven’t found that missing witch, Bertha Jorkins. Even though Voldemort is supposedly powerless and wandering through the Albanian countryside, it feels like something is in the works, something is being planned. We just don’t know what.

Back to our immediate concerns: dragons. Sirius starts to try and tell Harry a simple spell that could help him, but Harry hears someone coming downstairs and tells Sirius to leave. Turns out that someone was Ron, who even though he is mad at Harry, was still worried when he woke up in the middle of the night and saw that Harry was missing. Harry, really upset that his talk with Sirius was interrupted right before Sirius could help him, completely goes off on Ron and yells at him, even throwing one of the badges at him before running back up to the dorm.

Ugh. These boys really need to get it together! Hug it out, man!

See you next time for Chapter 20!

In Chapter 18, we meet the infamous Rita Skeeter. Let’s go!

I spend a good portion of this book series just straight up feeling bad for Harry. This kid has so many issues he has to deal with, and this chapter is no exception. He has to face this terrifying situation of preparing for a tournament that he knows is way over his head, and he has to do it without one of his best friend’s support. Ron is being really stupid here, but I do see a bit how he is feeling as well. He is always overshadowed by Harry’s fame and I’m sure that’s difficult, but really Ron, you have to pull it together.

This does show, though, what an awesome friend Hermione is. She knows that Harry isn’t ready to face everyone, so she brings him breakfast and asks him to go for a walk around the lake. Everyone needs a friend like Hermione! For one thing, she immediately believes his version of the events.

“Well, of course I knew you hadn’t entered yourself,” she said when he’d finished telling her about the scene in the chamber off the Hall. “The look on your face when Dumbledore read out your name! But the question is, who did put it in? Because Moody’s right, Harry . . . I don’t think any student could have done it . . .”

Exactly. There are so many other factors here that people are not taking into account. Harry could not have entered. Hermione, being the awesome friend that she is, also tries to smooth things out about Ron, knowing how Ron must feel about all this. Hermione also suggests that Harry needs to write to Sirius immediately. Harry doesn’t want to do this because he is so worried about Sirius getting caught and doesn’t want to be the reason that Sirius came back to town. Even though he’s already on the way. Nothing will keep Sirius from looking after Harry!

The thing is though, Sirius is going to find out. The Triwizard Tournament was already a big deal that everyone was talking about, and having the Goblet give Hogwarts two champions is bad enough, but with one of them being Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived? It will be front page news everywhere.

Dear Sirius,

You told me to keep you posted on what’s happening at Hogwarts, so here goes — I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the Triwizard Tournament’s happening this year and on Saturday night I got picked as a fourth champion. I don’t know who put my name in the Goblet of Fire, because I didn’t. The other Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff.

Hope you’re okay, and Buckbeak —

Harry

I love that he asks after Buckbeak. That’s too cute!

So how is the rest of the school reacting to Harry? Not well. Hufflepuff students are furious that Harry is stealing their champion’s thunder, and honestly, I can’t blame them. Hufflepuff gets ridiculed a lot, so the fact that Cedric was going to bring glory to their House was a big deal. The Ravenclaws are taking the Hufflepuffs side on this, thinking that Harry just wants to be even more famous. The Slytherins, led by Malfoy of course, are taking bets on how long it will take for Harry to die in the tournament. Hagrid, of course, believes Harry and is worried about him.

“Ah, I don’ know, Harry,” Hagrid sighed suddenly, looking back down at him with a worried expression on his face. “School champion . . . everythin’ seems ter happen ter you, doesn’ it?”

Yes, it absolutely does. This kid needs a break.

The Slytherins have taken things a step further and made badges that read “Support Cedric Diggory – the REAL Hogwarts Champion,” but then switch to “Potter Stinks” when tapped. This leads to a bit of a duel in the hallway outside Potions class between Malfoy and Harry, but both of them miss, hitting Goyle with ugly boils and Hermione with a curse that makes her teeth grow abnormally large. This leads to one of the, I think, most hated interactions in the series involving one of my favorite characters, Snape.

He (Ron) forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth — she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape’s back.

Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, “I see no difference.”

Why??? Why did he say that??? We know that he was a kid who got picked on because of his appearance all the time when he was in school, so why does he do this to Hermione, a student who has given him absolutely no trouble whatsoever, other than just being a Gryffindor??

Class is terrible as usual, but Harry is summoned to have his photo taken with the other champions, which Snape absolutely hates but there’s nothing he can do about it. When Harry gets there, he meets someone who he had only heard of up until this point: Rita Skeeter, reporter for the Daily Prophet, the wizarding newspaper. She, of course, is fascinated with Harry and wants to speak to him beforehand. They hide in a closet (???) so they will have some privacy. She also pulls out a “Quick-Quotes Quill” that immediately starts writing bizarre prose about Harry.

An ugly scar, souvenir of a tragic past, disfigures the otherwise charming face of Harry Potter, whose eyes —

The interview goes as you might expect. Rita tries to get Harry to say a bunch of things about how he’s feeling about this, including bringing his dead parents into the mix, which is so over the line, I can’t even believe it. Luckily they are rescued by Dumbledore, who needs Harry for the wand weighing ceremony. Ollivander is there to inspect their wands and make sure they are all in good working order before the tournament begins. During this, we learn that Ron was partially right about Fleur, who reveals that her grandmother was in fact a veela, and one of her hairs is the core of Fleur’s wand. Harry wishes he could tell Ron about this, but of course, he can’t.

Ollivander inspects the other wands, pausing with Harry’s since it is so unusual in its connection to Voldemort. Then they take photos of the champions, the judges and the Headmasters, Rita pulling Harry front and center as much as she can, and then finally are dismissed to go down for dinner. Harry eats alone (Hermione still in the hospital wing), but runs into Ron up in their dorm. Ron is very short with Harry, but let’s him know that he had received a letter and that they have detentions with Snape the next night.

The letter is from Sirius. He wants to talk to Harry face-to-face on November 22nd at 1:00 AM in the Gryffindor common room. We don’t know how at this point, but somehow, someway, Sirius is coming back to Hogwarts.

See you next time for Chapter 19!

In Chapter 17, we deal with the fallout of having two Hogwarts champions, one of them being Harry Potter. Let’s go!

Oh boy. These things always seem to happen to poor Harry, don’t they. He’s stunned. Everyone else is stunned. Even Dumbledore doesn’t seem to know what to do or think, which is unusual because Dumbledore always seems to know everything. If he’s lost, you know we’re in trouble.

Harry didn’t enter. We know that. He may have fantasized about it a time or two, but he never actually did anything, or even attempted it, like Fred and George. Dumbledore asks him to come forward, which he hesitantly does. The difference between this and the other champions’ announcements is striking, that’s for sure. Once he enters the room with the other champions, they are confused. Fleur thinks he’s just a messenger, but Ludo Bagman rushes in and announces that no, Harry is actually the fourth champion.

Viktor Krum straightened up. His surly face darkened as he surveyed Harry. Cedric looked nonplussed. He looked from Bagman to Harry and back again as though sure he must have misheard what Bagman had said. Fleur Delacour, however, tossed her hair, smiling, and said, “Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Bagman.”

“Joke?” Bagman repeated, bewildered. “No, no, not at all! Harry’s name just came out of the Goblet of Fire!”

Yeah, no one knows what to do about this at all. The Goblet basically creates a magical contract, so now Harry has to compete. Fleur refers to Harry as a “little boy,” which is a bit much, Fleur. Honestly. The other Headmasters are also not too happy about Hogwarts having a second champion, a second chance to win the entire tournament. They also don’t like that the age restriction has been obstructed somehow, as they would have brought more students to compete if they had been allowed.

Dumbledore asks very calmly if Harry put his name in. Yes, I said VERY CALMLY. VERY. CALMLY. Did you hear that, Michael Gambon? CALMLY!!!

Ahem.

Harry says that he didn’t, and that he also didn’t ask an older student to do it for him (why didn’t the twins think of that??). Madame Maxime thinks Harry is lying or that Dumbledore made a mistake with the Age Line (not likely). Karkaroff appeals to Mr. Crouch as an impartial, objective judge. What are they to do about this?

“We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament.”

Crouch doesn’t seem happy about it, unlike Bagman, who seems over the moon. Karkaroff and Maxime don’t think this is fair and want to redo the selection process so they too can have two champions, but the Goblet doesn’t work that way. The fire is out now and can’t be reignited until the next tournament begins. Karkaroff threatens to pull out of the competition and take his students home, but then Moody steps up. Yeah, Karkaroff and Moody don’t seem to get along too much, but Moody also makes a valid point. Why isn’t Harry complaining? Or saying anything at all about this? He is the one who will be risking his life competing in this tournament with older, more experienced students. Moody feels like a very powerful witch or wizard must be involved somewhere.

“Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object!” said Moody. “It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament . . . I’m guessing they submitted Potter’s name under a fourth school, to make sure he was the only one in his category . . .”

An interesting theory (which we now know is exactly how it was done, and why Moody knows hehe). Karkaroff tries to brush this off as another one of Moody’s paranoid delusions, but Moody is not having it.

“It’s my job to think the way Dark wizards do, Karkaroff — as you ought to remember . . .”

Yeah, they definitely have a history together. We also learn here that Moody’s real first name is Alastor. Not Mad-Eye.

They finally all have to admit that there is nothing they can do. Harry has to compete with the other champions, and that is that. So let’s move on to what they actually have to do, shall we? Unfortunately, for the first task, they aren’t given much to go on. All they are told is that it will test their “daring” and “courage in the face of the unknown.” They are not to accept any help from teachers, they will only have their wands, and they will learn about the second task after the first one is complete.  And . . . that’s all they tell them, really.

Dumbledore sends Harry and Cedric off to their respective common rooms and Cedric asks Harry how he did it. How did he enter? Harry tells Cedric that he was telling the truth back there — he didn’t put his name in and has no idea how this all happened. Cedric doesn’t seem to believe him, but doesn’t make a big deal about it. On his way up to Gryffindor Tower, Harry tries to make sense of everything. Who would possibly want to enter him into the tournament in the first place? Moody thought someone might wish harm on Harry, but Moody thinks that everyone around him is dangerous at all times. However . . .

Yes, someone wanted him dead, someone had wanted him dead ever since he had been a year old . . . Lord Voldemort. But how could Voldemort have ensured that Harry’s name got into the Goblet of Fire? Voldemort was supposed to be far away, in some distant country, in hiding, alone . . . feeble and powerless . . .

All of this reminds Harry of his dreams over the summer and his scar hurting. Could it all be connected somehow? Nothing seems impossible anymore.

He makes it into the common room and everyone is very excited. The twins, in particular, are very impressed. Everyone wants to celebrate and no one wants to listen to Harry maintain his innocence. He finally escapes up to his dorm room where he finds Ron, all by himself. Ron. His best friend. Ron doesn’t believe him. He swears that Harry must have found a way to enter and is hurt that Harry didn’t tell him about it so that he could enter too.

“I didn’t put my name in that goblet!” said Harry, starting to feel angry.

“Yeah, okay,” said Ron, in exactly the same skeptical tone as Cedric. “Only you said this morning you’d have done it last night, and no one would’ve seen you . . . I’m not stupid, you know.”

Okay, yeah, Harry said that. But he didn’t say it as though he had actually done it. It was speculation, nothing more. Ron’s not having it, though. He is used to always being overshadowed by Harry and this seems to be the last straw. Harry is left feeling more alone than ever, and wondering how the heck he got into this mess. Poor Harry!

See you next time for Chapter 18!

In Chapter 16, we find out exactly how the Triwizard Champions are chosen. Let’s go!

So Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Quidditch star, is not only a student at Durmstrang, he has arrived at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. Everyone is really excited about that, including a group of girls wondering if he would sign his autograph in lipstick. Hermione finds all of this a bit ridiculous, but what can you do. Everyone, especially Ron, is star struck. It makes it all the more disappointing when the Durmstrang contingent ends up sitting at the Slytherin table.

But at least the Durmstrang students seem impressed and appreciative of the spread. The Beauxbatons students, seated with the Ravenclaws, look particularly snooty. Snooty, but . . . one in particular is unbelievably beautiful. She laughed at Dumbledore’s welcome, but when she came to get a dish from the Gryffindor table, Ron had a pretty strong reaction to her.

The girl picked up the dish and carried it carefully off to the Ravenclaw table. Ron was still goggling at the girl as though he had never seen one before. Harry started to laugh. The sound seemed to jog Ron back to his senses.

“She’s a veela!” he said hoarsely to Harry.

“Of course she isn’t!” said Hermione tartly. “I don’t see anyone else gaping at her like an idiot!”

Not entirely true, but Hermione has her own reasons for being irritated by Ron’s behavior.

Dumbledore introduces two more guests seated at the Head table: Ludo Bagman and Bartemius Crouch. As the Ministry organizers of the event, they are there to help kick things off. They will also be judges of the competition, in addition to the Headmasters of the schools participating. There will be three tasks that the champions must complete, each testing the champion in various ways. And how are those champions chosen? Why, the answer is in the book title, of course! When a large chest is brought to the front of the Great Hall, everyone else gets to see what they are dealing with.

Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames.

Behold the Goblet of Fire! Any student who wants to enter only has to write their name on a piece of paper and throw it in. The Cup will select the champions in 24 hours. To enforce the age restriction, Dumbledore will be drawing a line around the Cup that will keep out any underage students from approaching it. Fred and George, still keen on entering, are sure they can figure out a way to trick the line into letting them through.

There is a weird moment between Harry and Karkaroff, the Headmaster of Durmstrang. They run into each other as they are leaving the hall and Karkaroff just gives Harry a weird look. Professor Moody breaks it up though and glares at everyone else. Because it’s Moody.

The next day, we find out that the entire Durmstrang group got up early and put their names in the Goblet of Fire. No one has seen anyone from Hogwarts put their name in yet, but Harry speculates that maybe they did late the night before so that no one would see. Fred and George are excited though – they took an Aging Potion to try and confuse Dumbledore’s Age Line to get to the Goblet. Fred steps up and . . . steps over the line.

For a split second Harry thought it had worked — George certainly thought so, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred — but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter. They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.

You can’t say that Dumbledore doesn’t have a sense of humor. He is rather amused by the twins’ attempt, although their idea wasn’t original: there are a few other students in the hospital wing, also sprouting lovely white beards. Oh well. So much for that idea.

The twins are out, but who will be the Hogwarts champion? There is talk of Cedric Diggory entering, and we find out that Angelina Johnson from the Gryffindor Quidditch team has also entered. The Beauxbatons students all file in and place their names into the Goblet of Fire as well, including the girl who Ron swears is a veela. I can’t help but wonder who else from Hogwarts entered. We know about Cedric and Angelina, and they also mention a Slytherin named Warrington who entered, but no one else. I’m sure others have, I just wonder who.

Harry, Ron and Hermione run down to visit Hagrid. Hermione is especially excited to tell him about S.P.E.W. But Hagrid is acting very strange. He’s wearing a very odd looking suit, his hair is slicked back, and he has a LOT of cologne on. Hmmm. Wonder why he’s trying to look so spiffy? It’s not to impress the skrewts – they’ve started killing each other. Might have something to do with a certain tall lady from Beauxbatons, whose winged horses happen to be in Hagrid’s care at the moment. Uh huh. Just maybe.

Hagrid has a crush and it’s so cute, y’all!

Oh, and he’s also not interested in S.P.E.W. at all.

“It’d be doin’ ’em an unkindness, Hermione,” he said gravely, threading a massive bone needle with thick yellow yarn. “It’s in their nature ter look after humans, that’s what they like, see? Yeh’d be makin’ ’em unhappy ter take away their work, an’ insultin’ ’em if yeh tried to pay ’em.”

Hermione isn’t too happy about that.

Back up to the castle for the evening feast and the announcement of the champions! The Gryffindors are all rooting for Angelina, but everyone is staring in anticipation at the Goblet. Finally, the flames turn red and it shoots out a piece of parchment. The Durmstrang champion is . . .Viktor Krum. As Ron says, “No surprises there.” We were all pretty sure that was who would get it. The Beauxbatons champion is Fleur Delacour, the veela girl that Ron was so enamored with. The time has come for the Hogwarts champion to be revealed and . . . it’s Cedric Diggory.

Everyone is very excited, especially the Hufflepuff students. As Dumbledore is wrapping everything up, the Goblet starts acting odd. It turns red again and starts sparking, shooting out one more piece of paper.

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out —

“Harry Potter.”

Yeah, you didn’t think Harry was going to be able to sit on the sidelines, did you? Of course not!

See you next time for Chapter 17!