Coulda' been two - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
I'm sensing a trend in the book title naming scheme...
734 pages? Longest so far. I think this one must have gotten a little out of hand... Or it was a 2 for the price of one kind of deal. (Okay... I get it... the first few chapters are full of a lot of information from the first 3 books. Reminding continuing readers of previous events and making it possible to read this book if you haven't read the others without being completely lost. The book could use a diet... make it a hundred or two pages shorter)
I'd completely forgotten the first chapter... some Tom Riddle background... but only if you know Voldemort was 'Tom Riddle' and grew up in an orphanage... and now I think we have the first true example of Harry getting a "Voldemort dream". His scar has bothered him in the past but those were just hints of what is to come...
Hmm... Mr. Weasley tends to take advantage of his being in the Ministry - examples - getting the Dursley's fireplace temporarily hooked up to the Floo network so they can get Harry. Getting tickets to the World Quidditch Cup...
Some people thoughts as we move to the Burrow for the rest of the summer -
- Harry thinks Bill Weasley is "cool", not at all what he expected from a former "Head Boy" (Very un-Percy like)
- Percy wears glasses. You would think that wizards could fix eyesight (Of course, Harry wears them also) but the only things they seem to be able to fix so far with magic are the major life-threatening things -- but not things related to genetics. (And yes, I know that idea won't hold up... completely.)
- Weasley sizes - Ginny is short; Bill, Percy, and Ron are 'long and lanky'; Charlie, Fred & George are shorter and stocky.
- Ginny seems to have outgrown her shyness around Harry at this point.
Why do I get the feeling that Harry has forgotten all about how Ron got his owl 'Pig' - in fact, I think he forgot all about the owl until he ended back at the Burrow. (Pigwidgeon was named by Ginny..)
Our (Harry) first real introduction to Portkeys and Apparating (Apparating came up in the previous story) and usage issues.
Four wizard families apparently live in the Ottery St.Catchpole area - but we don't meet them all. I believe this is the first mention of the Lovegood family (We didn't get to see the sorting ceremony for Ginny's year and Luna hasn't been mentioned yet that I remember.). Something I missed - that the Weasley's and Lovegoods are "neighbors". But they must not socialize. Wizards seem to have isolated homes.
The World Quidditch Cup (WQC)
They expected 100,000 fans to show up for the 422nd World Quidditch Cup Finals (A single game)
Another violent depiction of a game... but I think it is actually shorter than the Hogwarts games we've seen depicted in the previous books. And anti-climactic after someone tells Harry that the LAST WQC game lasted 5 days... this one lasted just a couple hours.
The team mascots (Ireland - leprechauns; Bulgaria - Veela (Almost like sirens who turn into bird-like creatures)) cause a lot of problems during the game. Fighting each other, distracting the fans and game officials.
Hermione and Ron meet their first house elf. And we can see the roots of Hermione's desire to "free" the house elves and promote elf-rights when she sees how this particular elf (Winky) is treated by everyone.
Other stuff so far...
The Weasley family clock is a different kind of contraption. It's not a timekeeper but wizards do use watches/clocks.
Harry wrote to Sirius that summer AFTER getting several letters from him... and only because he couldn't ask anyone else about his scar hurting... though no mention of the dream.
Dress robes? With frilly sleeves/collars - poor Ron!
Okay, Harry didn't want the Weasley's to know how much money he has (He's embarrassed by it all) but he has no problem with Mrs. Weasley taking money out of his vault to pay for his school supplies (While they are at the Quidditch Cup). Maybe it was just Ron he didn't want to embarrass? I'm sure they realize he has money by now...
And finally, 1/5 of the way into this installment, we get to the important stuff... the train to Hogwarts and the start of the school year.
Some tidbits looking back from my lofty middle of the book position...
Apparently siblings don't always end up in the same House - The Patil twins in Harry's year being a good example.. even if the Weasley's all ended up in the same House.
Finally... the infamous "bouncing ferret" episode. "Mad Eyed Moody" (M.E.M.) turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret when he tried to curse Harry behind his back after Draco and Harry exchanged a few "So's your mother" style insults (Actually, Draco was insulting Ron's mother and Harry came to his defense)
CONSTANT VIGILANCE
The three "Unforgivable Curses" M.E.M. shows Harry's D.D.A. class:
- Imperious Curse - "Imperio" (Mind Control) - Ron remembered his father talking about this.
- Cruciatus Curse - "Crucio" (Pain) - Neville is bothered by it. We find out later why.
- Killing Kurse - "Avada Kedarva" (Killing) - Harry hadn't really understood what it meant until now.
Enter S.P.E.W. - "Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare" - Hermione starts to learn that helping people (house elves) when they don't want it can be difficult but she doesn't give up.
House symbols:
Gryffindor - Lion
Ravenclaw - Eagle
Hufflepuff - Badger
Slytherin - Snake
The Tri-Wizard Tournament
(Guess what the rest of the book is about...)
No Quidditch Cup this year. Good thing Oliver Wood had already finished Hogwarts... he would have died. Harry, Fred and George certainly aren't happy.
A few people tried to fool the "Age Line" that Dumbledore put around the Goblet of Fire (It's made out of wood) up to keep anyone under 17 out of the tournament.
Gryffindor - Fred and George
Ravenclaw - (Miss) Fawcett
Hufflepuff - (Mr.) Summers
Curious that no Slytherin tried to get past it. (Or wasn't caught) I think one of them would have succeeded Do they know something?
The 'champions'
Hogwarts
Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory
Beauxbatons[ French Wizarding School]
Fleur Delacour
Durmstrang [ Northern European school that teaches Dark arts]
Victor Krum
(Ron hero worships him because of his Quidditch skills (He played for Bulgaria in the World Quidditch Cup))
Yet another "Let's have Harry be disliked/persecuted by his classmates" term when Harry's name somehow gets into the Goblet and he gets chosen along with Cedric (Only supposed to be one per school). (Speculation by someone (M.E.M.) that someone tricked the Goblet into thinking there was a fourth School and entered Harry's name under that fictitious school name)
The First Task Announcement (The task was on November 24th)
Wands weighed and tested by Ollivander (with light color commentary) :
Victor - hornbeam with a dragonheart core
Fleur - rosewood with a veela hair core (from her grandmother)
Cedric - Ash with a unicorn tail hair core
Harry - hasn't changed.
Lots of cheating to find out what the task is before it happens. Harry told Cedric because he didn't think it was fair that everyone else knew what the task was.
The dragons for the 1st task:
- Sweedish Short Snout (Cedric)
- Common Welsh Green (Fleur)
- Chinese Fireball (Victor)
- Hungarian Horntail (Harry)
Of course Harry got the toughest one. It should be interesting how they do this whole scene in the next HP movie.
The golden dragon eggs have clues in them for the second task on Feb. 24th,at 9:30AM.
The Second Task - But first the Yule Ball, a traditional part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Harry and Ron's attempts to get partners for the Ball... kind of amusing. Harry's first choice was Cho but she was already going with Cedric Diggory. And Ron, after being turned down by Fleur Delacour, notices that Hermione is a "girl" and not just their best friend after she already had a date.
And Neville... he asked Ginny (who said yes because she was too young to go otherwise and she would never have another chance since the Tournament is every 5 years... so the next time it occurs will be after she's left Hogwarts)
So he asks Pavarti Patil in desperation... and she said yes... but what about Ron - will her sister agree to go with him? We'll see...
Ahh... of course, for Ron and Harry it isn't the most fun they've ever had... they basically ignore their dates after a couple dances... and Ron sulks because hermione sems to be having fun with Victor Krum.
But at least Harry finds out how to understand the strange sounds from his golden egg. Cedric tells him. But it takes a few weeks before he tries his suggestion because he was jealous/upset that Cho went to the Ball with Cedric.
I don't think it was a good idea for Harry to let M.E.M. keep his map. (As we find out at the end when we find out that it wasn't really Mad Eye Moody.)
The third task, the maze, seemed kind of lame. And finding out it was fixed so that Harry would win...
The scene with Voldemort... did Voldemort know Snape was a spy? Barty Crouch/M.E.M. knew (I think) but he never had a chance to tell anyone...
So... we know why none of the Death Eaters interfered with the short almost-duel between Harry and Voldemort... there was some sort of shield around them...
Cornelius Fudge once more does his best to quickly get rid of a Voldemort supporter - Barty Crouch - before anyone can really question him and prove Voldemort is back. I wonder why. Was Fudge a Death Eater? Or under the Imperius Curse. Or just a bit too interested in self preservation... though bringing a dementor into Hogwarts without asking Dumbledore seems a bit risky.
Will I find out in Book 6?
And who does Rite Skeeter really work for? Did she intentionally start the smear campaign against Harry Potter at this point so no one would believe him or was it a coincidence? And did Hermione really let her go when they got back to London?
Need to take a break from the Potter fest...
(Note: The T, who finished it on Thursday, felt Book 6 left her with more questions
than answers and wondered how the last book was going to even be possible. )
9:12:19 AM 
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