Sunday, December 13, 2015

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling


Elizabeth from Book YAbber and I have finally reached the midpoint of the series for Pottermas! Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the turning point in the series. It's probably my second favorite book in the entire Harry Potter series and for good reason. This is the first book where Harry doesn't spend a lot of time at the Dursleys and spends a lot of time at the Burrow and at the Quidditch World Cup instead. It takes over 100 hundred pages before Harry goes back to Hogwarts. By introducing the Quidditch World Cup, it sets the tone of the book for magical foreign relations.

WARNING 
For those who haven't read the Harry Potter series, all book discussions WILL HAVE spoilers. If you do not want to read spoilers, please do not read ahead.

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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will join forces with Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute for the Triwizard Tournament. Beauxbatons means "beautiful wands" in French. Although good looking, the students at Beauxbatons are smart. Of course the students would sit at the Ravenclaw table. Durmstrang Institute is known for teaching the Dark Arts. There is no surprise why the Durmstrang students sit at the Slytherin table. Slytherins have produced the most dark wizards than any of the other houses and have a stereotype that they are evil and dark. It is interesting how the film portrays Beauxbatons as an all female school and Durmstrang as an all male school because in fact both schools are co-ed.

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Ron and Harry often made up things for their Divination homework but it's interesting how they predicted three things unintentionally. One made up predication is how Harry is in "danger of some burns" which they thought is a brilliant idea because they have Care for Magical Creatures and have to deal with Blast-Ended Skrewts. In fact, the duo is predicting the burns from the dragons from the first Triwizard task. Later, Harry is suppose to "lose a treasured possession" which predict the Merpeople taking what Harry sorely will miss. Ron was taken underwater for the second task. Ron then suggest to Harry, "Why don’t you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?” Doesn't this ring a bell? Professor Moody becomes good friends with Harry and we find out he isn't Professor Moody at all. 

Remember the whirring Sneakoscope in Moody's office? Yes, the object that looks like a glass spinning top. This dark detector often lights up, spins, and whistles when someone is doing something untrustworthy nearby. Obviously Moody claims he needs to deactivate it because of the students lying about stuff at Hogwarts. However, he probably deactivated because Barty Crouch Jr. is in fact impersonating as Professor Moody.

It is interesting how Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Professor Moody, makes sure that Harry has the advantage during the whole year. He makes sure to tip Harry off about all the Triwizard tasks and even goes as far as turning Draco Malfoy into a bouncing white ferret. Barty Crouch Jr. is fattening up the pig before it gets slaughtered. However, Harry avoids death. Although Harry avoids death once again, Barty Crouch Jr. starts to become obsessed with what happened.

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Harry comes back to Hogwarts with Cedric. Of course from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Firenze mentions something about how the innocent ends up dying first when he talks to Harry when he found the unicorn. In GoF, readers find out Cedric's wand has a unicorn hair core. Harry warns everyone that Voldemort is back! However, very few people believe Harry. The Little Hangleton duel is the start of the Second Wizarding War.

What's your favorite part of GoF? Do you have a favorite Triwizard task? What did you think about Barty Crouch Jr. impersonating as Professor Moody?

Favorite quotes from GoF:
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Check the blog back on Tuesday, December 15th for discussion about how I rank the Harry Potter books and film adaptations. If you are new to Pottermas 2015, make sure to check out this post. Also, you can follow Pottermas 2015 on social media with the hashtag #Pottermas15.

2 comments:

  1. Your second bullet with Ron and Harry's predictions just blew my mind! Like completely blew it to pieces. Wow!

    Hard to pick a favorite task. I'm a dragon lover, so that makes me want to say one. But I also love aquatic exploration and merpeople, so very difficult. If it were something that I had to do, I would definitely choose the second. Love dragons, but I wouldn't want to face them. LOL.

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    1. Yeah, if I had to do a task, I would choose Task #2. Facing a dragon is intense.

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