Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Chapter 24 to Chapter 26)
STATS
Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Series: Harry Potter (Book 4)
Author(s): JK Rowling
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy (Urban)
First Printing: 2000
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
SPOILER WARNING
Heavy spoilers will be provided for the entire Harry Potter franchise. Heavy spoilers will also be provided for the entirety of both Fourth Wing and Iron Flame (but not Onyx Storm, which was released on January 21st). I will be confining the Fourth Wing and Iron Flame spoilers to the sections where I analyze the plot of Fourth Wing and compare it to Goblet of Fire. All spoilers shall otherwise be unmarked and can pop up at any time.
STORY
Upon returning to classes after the Christmas holidays, Harry and his friends discover Hagrid is in hiding following Rita Skeeter’s expose about his giant parentage. This continues through the next Hogsmeade visit. While in Hogsmeade, Harry and friends run into Skeeter, leading to Hermione blowing up at Skeeter for smearing Hagrid. The group then goes to Hagrid’s hut, leading to a scene with them, Dumbledore, and Hagrid where they console Hagrid and convince him to return to public life. It is at this time that Harry’s resolve to solve the golden egg is properly fired up after Hagrid expresses faith in him.
Harry takes Cedric’s advice to take a bath with the golden egg by visiting the prefect’s bathroom in the middle of the night. He is able to decipher the egg with help from Moaning Myrtle. However, while returning to Gryffindor Tower, Harry spots the name “Bartemius Crouch” on the Marauder’s Map and decides to investigate why Mr. Crouch is at the school when he is supposedly too ill to come to the Yule Ball. This leads to Harry nearly getting caught by Filch and Snape, only to be bailed out by Mad-Eye. Mad-Eye plants seeds of doubt about Mr. Crouch in Harry’s mind and then asks to borrow the Marauder’s Map.
Despite spending the next month in feverish research, Harry and his friends are unable to devise a means for him to breathe underwater for the Second Task. It is only the intervention of Dobby that provides Harry with gillyweed. He narrowly makes it to the task on time, observing that Mr. Crouch is once again absent, and ends up coming in second place in the Second Task itself.
ANALYSIS
Establishment
Mr. Crouch’s obsession with catching Dark Wizards is brought up in these chapters, though Mad-Eye obscures it somewhat by implying that Mr. Crouch is a former Death Eater. This is a small note, but it will be expounded upon in Chapter 27.
At the end of the Second Task, Harry receives the date for the Third Task, as well as information on when he’ll be told more about said task.
Payoff
I feel like the biggest payoff of these chapters is the Second Task itself. The mystery of what this task would be has idled in the background for three chapters. Now Harry finally engages with that mystery, solve it, experiences mounting dread (thereby raising tension for the audience) as he tries and fails to devise a solution, and then is provided a solution thanks to his connection to Dobby (and Mad-Eye’s intervention, though that obviously isn’t revealed just yet). All of this builds on the fact that the Second Task was one of the major plot milestones that Rowling told us to expect.
Mysteries
Bagman / Fred and George / Bertha Jorkins
During the Hogsmeade visit, Harry runs into Bagman at the Three Broomsticks, talking with some goblins (whom we’ll later learn are here regarding his gambling debt). Bagman brushes off Harry’s questions about said goblins in a manner that preserves his impending status as a red herring and then offers Harry help, which Harry feels uncomfortable about (even if it’s for reasons that are unrelated to Bagman’s actual motivations). During this discussion, Harry asks Bagman about Bertha, and Bagman ends up revealing a lot of information that even he seems to realize that he shouldn’t be telling to a teenager, probably because he’s happy to have a topic to distract Harry from the goblins. Bagman is then accosted by Fred and George as he leaves. After, Skeeter comes into the bar, talking loudly about how she’d smear Bagman and try to get him fired for her next big story. This is what provokes Hermione’s outburst, and it leads to Skeeter hinting at Bagman’s shady past.
A lot gets packed into this scene at the Three Broomsticks. It’s sort of a microcosm for the juggling of mysteries as a whole. In one scene and two conversations, Rowling reminds us that the existential threat of Voldemort is still very much on the table while also driving the character-based mysteries of Bagman, Fred & George, and Skeeter (more on her in a moment).
I also think that this conversation is another great example of how to preserve a mystery by misleading the audience. When Bagman brushes off Harry’s question about the goblins, he does so by claiming they’re looking for Mr. Crouch (more on that in a moment as well). This is a lie that is very credible and that Harry, who knows Mr. Crouch is missing official events, has no reason to challenge. What’s more, later information we’ll get in the book will completely justify why Bagman would be motivated to tell that lie. This isn’t a background character who supposedly told a lie for reasons that collapse under their own weight. Once we learn the critical piece of information that is Bagman’s gambling woes, it makes perfect sense that he wouldn’t want to advertise that information to other people.
Barty Crouch Sr.
As mentioned, during the conversation with Bagman, he lets slip that no one in the Ministry is certain where Mr. Crouch actually is at this point. This is treated as a baffling peculiarity in the moment, and it will evolve into a proper mystery when Harry sees Mad-Eye on the Marauder’s Map and feels compelled to investigate. It will also carry forward with Percy substituting for him at the Second Task.
The uncertainty about Mr. Crouch adds to the tension. What is he up to? His behavior flies in the face of his established character traits, making it seem like he’s up to something nefarious. It is a mystery that is fast approaching its conclusion, and Rowling is rapidly ramping us up to that pivotal moment.
Snape / Karkaroff / Mad-Eye Moody
During the late-night encounter where Mad-Eye saves Harry from Snape and Filch, Harry overhears another conversation where he only has partial information. Mad-Eye makes a very direct reference to the Dark Mark, producing a visceral reaction from Snape.
“’Course Dumbledore trusts you,” growled Moody. “He’s a trusting man, isn’t he? Believes in second chances. But me — I say there are spots that don’t come off, Snape. Spots that never come off, d’you know what I mean?”
Snape suddenly did something very strange. He seized his left forearm convulsively with his right hand, as though something on it had hurt him.
Harry obviously can’t make sense of this, yet it ties back into what Karkaroff was trying to show Snape at the Yule Ball, and it’s going to get further exploration in a little bit.
Rita Skeeter
The expose on Hagrid brings the question of how Skeeter gets her information into sharp focus. It’s obvious to Harry and the others that she’d have needed to have overheard the same conversation that Harry and Ron did, except they didn’t see her, and she’s been banned from the grounds in any case. Now that this question has been asked, the mystery can get rolling. At least, it will get going - Harry and the others don’t have enough information yet.
That said, the next expose, which will get the mystery rolling, is already set up. It’s made clear that, after Hermione tries to call Skeeter out in public, Skeeter is already devising a means to smear Hermione. She also pops up in her beetle form at the end of the Second Task, where she gets the exclusive information that she needs to properly spice up that expose.
“You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny,” said Krum. Harry had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, “You’re well outside the time limit, though, Harry. . . . Did it take you ages to find us?”
Based on context clues, this would have happened right after Krum confessed his feelings to Hermione and invited her to visit him over the holidays, which is the pivotal detail from the impending expose that has Hermione asking questions about Skeeter’s access to information.
COMPARISON TO FOURTH WING (Chapter 25)
Squad Battle
The Squad Battle is, in many ways, the Second Task of Fourth Wing, following the Threshing and preceding the War Games. Both the Squad Battle and the Second Task serve as milestones where the protagonist gets to demonstrate character strengths to accomplish a goal. And … well …
That’s it.
It honestly hurts me a little to make the comparison. In terms of narrative structure, yes, these two events fill the same role, but the Squad Battle is so horrifically amateurish next to the Second Task that I was honestly tempted to spend this section just sucking its bones dry of any marrow I’d missed during the Fourth Wing review. Just to list the main points:
The Second Task was established as a milestone for the story all the way back in Chapter 16. We were told when to expect it at the end of the Chapter 20. It was a looming threat that Harry tried to ignore for four chapters, building up tension in a gradual creep as the deadline approached. It was revealed by deciphering a riddle in Chapter 25. The first part of Chapter 26 is spent trying to find a solution before throwing Harry into the task itself. That is a massive amount of buildup and expectation that gets paid off by the end of Chapter 26. By contrast, Squad Battle was name-dropped a mere seven times between Chapters 20 and 24, and then it just gets dropped on the audience’s heads in Chapter 25.
The Second Task presents a meaningful challenge to Harry at every stage: deciphering the riddle, seeking a solution, and then diving into the lake to complete the task. He nearly dies as a result of his heroism. The Squad Battle is a weightless action scene that allows Violet to show off her supposed “intelligence.” She is never in any real danger.
The Second Task, by virtue of being part of the Triwizard Tournament, is an integral part of the narrative that can’t be removed. By virtue of the points Harry gains, it affects his placement in the overall ranking, which at least theoretical affects his situation going into the Third Task. The Squad Battle could be deleted outright without any impact on the story. The prize for completing it, a trip to the front to observe combat operations, could easily have just been a reward for Violet’s squad being the Iron Squad (something that was at least established much earlier, back in Chapter 17). Said prize also barely impacts the narrative, so even that could easily be cut by relocating just one or two minor elements to different scenes.
I could easily do a blow-by-blow analysis of the Squad Battle in the same vein as the heist scene from Iron Flame, but I feel that would be beating a dead horse. Instead, since I’m made such a big deal about building audience expectation, here is every time that the Squad Battle is mentioned prior to us entering it in medias res in Chapter 25.
First, from Chapter 20:
He ignores me, facing Dain. “Liam is statistically the strongest first-year in the quadrant. He has the fastest time up the Gauntlet, hasn’t lost a single challenge, and is bonded to an exceptionally strong Red Daggertail. Any squad would be lucky to have him, and he’s all yours, Aetos. You can thank me when you win the Squad Battle in the spring.”
No explanation of what the Squad Battle actually is. It’s implied to be important, and “spring” gives us a timeframe, but there’s nothing about what it is. The scene also pivots to Amber’s trial, thereby denying us any opportunity to learn more.
Then, in Chapter 21, Squad Battle is brought up once (and named twice) in the scene where Violet makes a big deal over Markham making a prioritization decision as a professor and discussing history rather than a recent battle.
First announcement,” Devera says, stepping forward. “We’ve decided that not only will the winners of this year’s Squad Battle receive bragging rights—” She grins like we’re in for a treat. “But they’ll also be given a trip to the front lines to shadow an active wing.”
Cheers break out all around us.
“So if we win, we get a chance to die sooner?” Rhiannon whispers.
“Maybe they’re trying a reverse psychology thing.” I glance at the others around us who are clearly overjoyed and worry about their sanity. Then again, most everyone in this room can stay on their dragon.
There’s some banter between Violet and Tairn, followed by:
“I know the Squad Battle doesn’t commence until spring,” Devera continues, “but I figured that news would give you all the proper motivation to apply yourselves inevery area leading up to the challenges.”
Okay. The timeframe is repeated, and now we understand that this is some sort of competition with challenges and a prize, albeit a prize that seems to have only been instituted this year. So, are we going to learn what those challenges are, or is there going to be an air of mystery surrounding them that heightens the tension as the story progresses.
Neither of the above. The scene forgets about this as soon as Markham starts talking about a historical battle instead of the battle Violet saw on the scroll, and Violet never questions this further.
We then arrive in Chapter 22.
A repetitive smacking sound draws my attention to the right, where Ridoc is tapping out with zeal. Imogen drops him, leaving him gasping for breath on the mat, and an unwanted and absolutely illogical flash of ugly, twisted jealousy stabs me straight in the chest at the pure yearning she can’t hide in her expression as she watches Xaden and Garrick.
“If you guys are this easily distracted, we’re fucked for the Squad Battle,” Dain barks. “You can kiss any thought of visiting the front lines goodbye.”
We all snap out of it, and I shake my head like that might clear the dizzying need that demands I do more than look at Xaden, which is just…ridiculous. He only tolerates my existence because our dragons are mated, and here I am salivating over his half-naked body.
It’s a really nice half-naked body, though.
No new information is provided, and the whole concept is swept under the rug so that we can focus on Violet wanting to have sex with Xaden.
The rest of the setup all comes in Chapter 24. First, we get it mentioned when cadets are comparing about needing to go to class.
“No skipping class,” Dain admonishes, pinning us with a stare. “We’re weeks away from the Squad Battle and we need every single one of you at your best to win.”
The fact that we now have a looming deadline is a step in the right direction, but we’re still lacking in pivotal information, and frankly, it’s far too late for this to properly ramp up tension. What little tension that might have been built up gets sucked away when Xaden pulls Violet out of class for extra flight training.
“Third-years have flight field this afternoon. Kaori and the other professors are just taking it easy on you guys, since the Squad Battle is coming up and they know you need the practice in wielding.” He pushes open the gate, and I hurry after him.
“But I don’t need the practice?” My voice echoes in the tunnel.
“Winning the Squad Battle is nothing in the scheme of keeping you alive. You’ll beon the front lines before the rest of them come next year.” The mage lights play off the harsh angles of his face, casting sinister shadows as we pass each one.
So … this event that Yarros spends no time explaining or building up anticipation for … doesn’t even matter to the wider narrative.
This is pathetic. If Yarros wasn’t going to go into detail about the Squad Battle before Chapter 25, at the very least she could have ramp up the tension for it. The Second Task might not have dominated the narrative until one chapter prior to the task itself, but at least it weighed on Harry’s mind. He was painfully aware of his deadline at all times. What’s more, thanks to the First Task, the audience had a baseline for the sort of difficulty and danger Harry might be facing. There was this looming expectation of something even more threatening that a dragon on the horizon.
I think that this is another case of second-draft foreshadowing. Yarros must have realized that she couldn’t simply slam us into Squad Battle, so she sprinkled in references to establish that it existed with as little impact as possible to the scenes she’d already written. She must have also realize that this wasn’t good enough, since she uses the epigraph of Chapter 25 to try to make Squad Battle seem like a big deal.
The Squad Battle is more important than the wingleaders will let on. They like to joke that it’s a game, that it’s just bragging rights for the squad leaders and the winning squad, but it’s not. They’re all watching. The commandant, the professors, the commanding officers—they’re watching to see who will rise to the top. They’re salivating to see who will fall.
—Page seventy-seven, the Book of Brennan
Wow! I didn’t know the Squad Battle was more important that the state of vague importance (and explicit non-importance) told to us by the wingleaders! I guess that means I’m totally invested now!
This is terrible as setup. It’s too little, too late. I could somewhat understand using a last-minute epigraph to establish some small nugget of information that Violet will use to prevail in the challenges. It would be better than, say, introducing a Codex rule in the middle of a scene to explain why Violet is not a cheater in a scenario where she should absolutely be disqualified regardless. What an epigraph can’t do is substitute for chapters worth of buildup, especially if the previous chapter outright told the audience that the Squad Battle is pointless anyway.
This epigraph doesn’t even make sense in the context of the narrative. Why would all these officers be “salivating” to see who will fall? If a cadet dies in the Squad Battle, that means that their dragon no longer has a cadet (and may also die). This is an event that keeps dragons off the battlefield. Why are these military officers so excited to deny themselves crucial assets? At least when the Death Korps of Krieg actively tries to kill its trainees in live-ammunition training exercises and eagerly charges into battle with massive disadvantages, it can all be traced back to how the Cult of Sacrifice permeates their entire culture, not to mention that their entire population of able-bodied men is available as meat for the grinder. What does Navarre gain out of hamstringing themselves against Poromiel and the venin?
What makes this all the more frustrating is that, by using the epigraph in this way, Yarros acknowledged a potential tool by which she could have build up audience anticipation for the Squad Battle: the epigraphs. And she did it for something that she didn’t even pay off.
The epigraphs of Chapters 21 through 23 all have to do with the manifestation of Signets. They exist to push the idea that Violet might explode due to pent-up magic because she has no Signet yet. This is something that never becomes a serious threat. It’s just something Violet dithers over for a few moments here and there.
Yarros could have repurposed all of these epigraphs (plus the one in Chapter 24, since that hammers on Violet’s no-kill policy for another conflict that goes nowhere) to tell us about the Squad Battle. She could have give us the basics on the challenges, statistics on the death toll, what “bragging rights” actually mean for cadets of the Riders Quadrant, and so many other details that helped to flesh out this challenge and build anticipation for it. Chapter 25’s epigraph then wouldn’t need to force tension. It could just add a little bit of extra lore to help make the Squad Battle itself feel more significant.
Still No Mysteries
While rifling through her mother’s office, Violet comes across a venin-killing dagger (which is mentioned in passing and then forgotten about) as well as two letters that are meant to imply that Markham is lying about how dire the situation is at the border. Both us these are limp as setups.
The dagger is set dressing that gets no engagement in the moment and is promptly forgotten about until it needs to be used later to pretend that the venin twist was foreshadowed. With the added context of Iron Flame, it also makes no sense that General Sorrengail would have this in her office, let alone on her desk. She does not need a special magic knife to kill venin in a place while in a secure military facility which is about as far as one can get from a place where the venin can use their powers. She also knows that alloy is being stolen. What possible motivation could she have for leaving this out in a place where someone could easily steal it?
Much like the implication that Markham was withholding information back in the Chapter 21 Battle Brief, the letters fail due to context. All of the riders who are actually guarding the borders would be fully aware of how dire the situation actually is. This isn’t a case of lying to Navarre - it’s a matter of prioritizing what information to tell to cadets in order to propel their education forward. Battle Brief doesn’t exist to share absolutely all available intelligence about events on the border; it’s designed to hone tactical and strategic thinking. Markham is clearly just making a judgement call about what information is best suited to accomplish that educational goal.
Much like the passing mentions of Squad Battle, these elements don’t give the audience anything to chew on. They are mentioned in passing in a manner that doesn’t impact the wider scene and are then forgotten.
SHEER MADNESS
We’ll by diving in Chapters 27 through 30 of Goblet of Fire. This is when the mysteries reach a fever pitch, with the appearance and then disappearance of a maddened Mr. Crouch on the Hogwarts grounds, Harry dreaming of Voldemort, and a dive into the Pensieve. Rowling is dialing the tension up the maximum and leaving us with potent questions going into the Third Task.
As for Fourth Wing, we’ll be covering Chapters 26 and 27. This comparison will be very brief. In terms of narrative structure, this part of Fourth Wing does align with those four chapters of Goblet of Fire. The failure to properly build up to War Games with worth discussing in passing. However, Yarros isn’t making any serious effort to build up the big twists of the book during these chapters. There are elements that feed into those twists, to be sure, but this section is about character drama. There’s simply fewer comparisons that can be drawn in this part of the book relative to others.
It’s coming on February 7th. I hope to see you all then. Have a good week.