Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Chapter 31)

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 Book

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

Harry shares the dream and his findings from the Pensieve with Ron and Hermione. He then reflects on how Voldemort is the source of so much suffering in the world.

While practicing spells to prepare for the Third Task, Harry and his friends witness Malfoy interviewing with Skeeter in beetle form (though, of course, they don’t realize it at the time and merely think it’s odd that Malfoy is acting like he’s using a walkie-talkie). This pays off the morning of the Third Task, when Skeeter publishes a new smear piece on Harry. While discussing how she could have gotten her information, Hermione had the epiphany that allows her to figure out Skeeter’s secret.

The Third Task itself begins. As Harry navigates the maze, he is unnerved by how relatively easy the going is. He also hears Fleur’s scream as Krum attacks her and then intervenes when Krum attacks Cedric. Though he and Cedric then part ways, they reunite at the Triwizard Cup, and after defeating a giant spider together, they agree to grasp the Cup at the same time. This activates the Portkey and sends them to Voldemort in the graveyard.

ANALYSIS

Establishment

We have reached Act Three of the story. Rowling has already laid all the groundwork to bring her mysteries and her main plot to fruition. The only new detail established here that will get a payoff later is that Mad-Eye is among the teachers patrolling outside the maze.

What Wasn’t Set Up

The film adaptation of Goblet of Fire features a line at the start of the Third Task establishing that Mad-Eye was the one who placed the Triwizard Cup inside the maze. However, this detail is absent from the book. We do not learn that Mad-Eye was the one who placed the Cup until Chapter 35.

I am of two minds here. I think that this is a case of withholding information from the audience that is fully justified within the narrative. Harry’s limited POV did not grant him access to this information. What’s more, the knowledge of who placed the Cup isn’t the type of information that really needs to be announced to the champions or the crowd. If anything, Dumbledore announcing it in the film adaptation was the writers showing their hand to force exposition. Still, the omission (and later reveal) does feel a bit clunky. It’s clear that the real reason Rowling didn’t tell us this information is that she didn’t want us to solve the Mad-Eye mystery before Harry did. Given that the Cup’s Portkey magic was activated by it being touched, Mad-Eye would have been the only person who could have created said Portkey, thereby exposing his true allegiance before Voldemort’s resurrection.

Mysteries

Voldemort’s plans

Even now, with the Third Task bearing down on Harry, Rowling does not let Voldemort slip out of focus. That opening scene of the chapter hammers in his pressing relevance, and by extension, that of the unanswered mystery of what he’s up to. However, she also gives the audience permission to focus on the immediate events of the Third Task, promising that Voldemort will be dealt with afterwards. This is handled via a letter from Sirius to Harry in the leadup to the task, one that is heavy with dramatic irony on a reread.

If Voldemort is really getting stronger again … my priority is to ensure your safety. He cannot hope to lay hands on you while you are under Dumbledore’s protection, but all the same, take no risks: Concentrate on getting through that maze safely, and then we can turn our attention to other matters.

Rita Skeeter

The scene where Harry and his friends see Malfoy talking to Skeeter is a rather interesting one. This is the dialogue that immediately follows them seeing the interview.

“He looks like he’s using a walkie-talkie,” said Harry curiously.

“He can’t be,” said Hermione, “I’ve told you, those sorts of things don’t work around Hogwarts. Come on, Harry,” she added briskly, turning away from the window and moving back into the middle of the room, “let’s try that Shield Charm again.”

The reason I find this so curious is that, at a first glance, it flies in the face of what I’ve argued to be a problem with the mysteries in The Empyrean. The character whose core identity trait is her intelligence is directly shutting down the possiblity that this scene could be linked to any deeper mysteries, right?

Except that isn't actually the case. What Hermione is shutting down here is the possiblity that Malfoy is using an electronic device. She is striking out a possible answer to the mini-mystery of what Malfoy is up to. In the process, she aligns this mini-mystery to the mystery of Skeeter.

More importantly, when Hermione cracks the mystery, it does not require a reversal of this statement. Rather, in a moment when all the pieces are laid out for her at the same time, she is able to put them together.

“How did she know your scar hurt in Divination?” Ron said. “There’s no way she was there, there’s no way she could’ve heard —”

“The window was open,” said Harry. “I opened it to breathe.”

“You were at the top of North Tower!” Hermione said. “Your voice couldn’t have carried.all the way down to the grounds!”

“Well, you’re the one who’s supposed to be researching magical methods of bugging!” said Harry. “You tell me how she did it!”

“I’ve been trying!” said Hermione. “But I . . . but . . .”

An odd, dreamy expression suddenly came over Hermione’s face. She slowly raised ahand and ran her fingers through her hair.

“Are you all right?” said Ron, frowning at her.

“Yes,” said Hermione breathlessly. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and then held her hand up to her mouth, as though speaking into an invisible walkie-talkie. Harry and Ron stared at each other.

“I’ve had an idea,” Hermione said, gazing into space. “I think I know . . . because then no one would be able to see . . . even Moody . . . and she’d have been able toget onto the window ledge . . . but she’s not allowed . . . she’s definitely not allowed . . . I think we’ve got her! Just give me two seconds in the library — just to make sure!”

With that, Hermione seized her school bag and dashed out of the Great Hall.

With the combination of Harry repeating the idea of “bugging” with the Divination eavesdropping, Hermione is able to make the connections to Malfoy and to the beetle Krum pointed out in her hair at the Second Task. This is how one properly executes the addition of new context to previous scenes.

COMPARISON TO FOURTH WING (Chapters 28 through 34)

What I find most infuriating about these chapters is not that Yarros spun the plot’s wheels to drag out the ending of the romance subplot whilst simultaneously neglecting the setup the big twist of the main plot. It’s that she clearly only cared about dragging out the romance subplot. You can tell this was all she cared about because she slapped in obvious second-drafting shadowing, only to turn around and invalidate most of it by telling the audience not to care about it.

The Rebel Children

In Chapter 31, Violet tries to build an emotional connection with Xaden by asking him to “tell [her] something real.” Rather than ask any questions to build an emotional connection, Yarros chooses to have Violet grasp for foreshadowing.

“Like what?” he asks, just like he did before when we were flying, when he left me sitting on that mountain when I had the nerve to ask about his scars.

“Like…” My mind races, looking for something to ask. “Like where you went the night I found you in the courtyard.”

His brow furrows. “You’re going to have to be more specific than that. Third-years get sent away all the time.”

“You had Bodhi with you. It was right before the Gauntlet.” I nervously run my tongue over my lower lip.

This is so forced. Why would Violet ask for this, for all things? It has no obvious emotional significance. Thus, it is very clearly being done to drive the narrative.

Don’t worry, though. Yarros makes sure to sabotage herself by erasing any mystery.

“Oh.” He picks up another book and sets it on the desk, clearly stalling while he decides whether or not he’ll open up to me.

“I would never tell anyone anything you tell me,” I promise. “I hope you know that.”

“I know. You never told a soul about what you saw under the tree last fall.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Athebyne. You can’t know why or ask anything else, but that’s where we were.”

“Oh.” That definitely wasn’t what I expected, but not out of the ordinary for cadets to run something to an outpost. “Thank you for telling me.”

The Mary Sue has spoken. This trip to Athebyne is not out of the ordinary. These aren't the droids you’re looking for. Move along.

Honestly, it would have been better if Yarros did nothing here. If she’d neglected the loose end of what Xaden had been up to, at least the reveal would wrap it up. Instead, she went out if her way to burn the loose end off.

What I find particularly funny about this moment is the parallel to Violet asking about Xaden’s mother in Iron Flame. That was another moment where Violet was asking something that came out of nowhere, thereby exposing the artificiality of the narrative and the impending importance of Xaden’s mother. (I am writing this section on December 16th, well before reading Onyx Storm, but I’m fairly confident that I’m right, given how had Yarros is with foreshadowing.) The thing is, if Violet had asked about Xaden’s mother here, it would have made sense. She is trying to build an emotional connection with a man she doesn't know well. She knows about his father, but not his mother, so she has to reason to delve into this topic.

As it is, the only purpose asking about Athebyne serves is to lay blame for the impending climax on Dain.

Which reminds me. The absurdity of blaming Dain is even worse than what I previously covered.

Dain

We’ve covered the absolute disaster that is Yarros’s demonization on Dain in great detail in the Fourth Wing and Iron Flame reviews. In particular, we’ve explored how the effort to blame him for the climax of Fourth Wing is nonsensical. The only time he was established to have used his powers to steal memories from Violet prior to the climax was also the time he has stated to be accidental.

Upon reading these chapters for this review, meticulously sifting through for anything that might constitute foreshadowing … the situation is even more terribly written than I’d previously realized.

Per Chapter 21 of Iron Flame, this the information Dain acquired during that singular, accidental reading.

Two lines appear between his brows. “I told my father what I saw when I touched you—”

“When you stole my memory,” I correct him.

“But it was a flash of a memory. Riorson told you he’d gone to Athebyne with his cousin.” He searches my eyes. “Second-years don’t get leave for that kind of flight, so I told my father. I know you were attacked on the way there, but I had no way of knowing—”

It was specifically the memory of Xaden telling her he’s gone to Athebyne. At the time I was writing the previous two reviews, I’d missed the fact that Violet did not learn where Xaden had gone upon Chapter 31 of Fourth Wing. She knew he and other rebel children had left Basgiath, but she had no idea where until she directly asked him. This means that the only time he could have stolen her memory and played any role in the climax was after Chapter 31.

Guess how many times Dain touches Violet’s face after this reveal?

Once. Later in Chapter 31. During the Reunification Day ball, perhaps 12 hours before the trap is set into motion.

Dain smiles as the king takes his leave, then glances over his shoulder, meeting my gaze and heading our way.

He grins, and it’s all too easy to remember how many events just like this we’ve attended together over the years. His touch is gentle when he cups my cheek. “You look beautiful tonight, Vi.“

“Thank you.” I smile. “You look fabulous yourself.”

His hand falls away as he turns to Liam.

He does not touch her face again after this point. Therefore, per the information Yarros has established, Dain is wholly blameless. He stole Violet’s memories once, by accident, and shared that information with his father without any knowledge of potential consequences. Violet, the “rational woman” chosen for her “intelligence”, should be able to figure this out.

Actually, it’s even worse than that. Colonel Aetos was able to set up this trap in less than 12 hours?

Logistics and Competence

I’m willing to buy the fact that the War Games were always split like this, and thus Colonel Aetos had an existing military exercise that he could repurpose for this trap, but he would still need to either personally complete or order the completion of the following tasks between the moment Dain extracted the memory (in the evening, during the ball) and the moment he deployed the riders (in the early morning after the ball). All of these would either need to be executed by him personally or by whatever parties he sent orders to.

• Conceive this plan

• Send orders to the Athebyne fort, which need to be worded in such a way as to convince the extremely independent-minded riders to abandon territory they have fought long and hard to hold on to (per earlier information in this book about escalating violence around Athebyne)

• Write the letter for Xaden (which will be sent to the Athebyne fort with the orders)

• Requisition / commission the creation of the venin lures

• Have the venin lures planted inside a Poromish village without any alarm being raised by Poromiel or any retaliation from gryphon fliers

• Evacuate all personnel from the Athebyne fort, without the Poromish noticing the mass evacuation and without the dragons crossing paths with Xaden and Xaden’s chosen party for the exercise

  Do all of this without General Sorrengail’s knowledge or support

• Do all of this without any ability to receive feedback on the ground or to adjust to such feedback, since the riders he dispatched with his orders would not even reach Athebyne before Xaden leaves Basgiath

This isn’t like a government official making some phone calls to requisition materials he may not have permission to use. This is a massive logistical undertaking to execute while dealing with hand-delivered messages across vast distances. If Colonel Aetos could accomplish this, then he should have had no trouble with disposing of the rebel children in Chapter 4 of Iron Flame or arranging for competent assassinations in the chapters after that.

The more reasonable explanation is that this plan was already in the works - that the rider leadership already knew of Xaden’s activities and arranged all of this is advance - but if that is the case, then Dain served absolutely no role in the plan, so the effort to demonize him is even more absurd and sickening.

The Bit That Almost Worked

As Colonel Aetos sets his trap into motion, announcing the War Games exercise and giving instructions, we get a moment of foreshadowing that genuinely came close to working.

He turns to each wingleader, giving out orders, but glances in our direction—no doubtlooking for Dain—before he turns toward Xaden. Something about the way his smile slipsfor a heartbeat makes the hair rise on the back of my neck.

This is natural. Colonel Aetos’s mask slips when he looks at the man whom his trap is intended for. Violet doesn’t know why this happened, but her intuition tells her something bad is happening. There are no answers, only a question that raises the tension.

There are, unfortunately, two issues that prevent this moment from being effective as setup for the twist.

• This isn’t actual setup for the twist. It only raises tension. It needs to be tagged into something that has proper buildup to be effective. In other words, we are being warned a twist is coming, but the twist itself is not being build up.

• Colonel Aetos has been a non-character in this book. He only appeared in one previous scene, back in Chapter 24, where he was present but contributed next to nothing. For this moment to really work, it needed to be someone Violet had an established relationship with on the page, like Markham.

The Bit That Makes Xaden Look Incompetent

As part of her efforts to ratchet up the tension, Yarros also makes the decision that makes Xaden even more guilty than what I’ve previously covered.

You see, Xaden - as well as Imogen, and possibly other rebel children - knows that something is off about this exercise.

First, we get this when the assignments are handed out to the wingleaders.

Athebyne? That’s beyond the wards…that’s where Xaden flew his secretive mission. My gaze seeks out his, but he’s focused on the colonel.

Remember, Xaden is an inntinnsic. His powers works via line of sight. He should absolutely pick up on Colonel Aetos’s intent, especially at the moment when Colonel Aetos looked right at him. Unless Yarros wants to retract her previous assertion that, “The whole series is plotted out and arced and all of that,” and admit that she made up Xaden being an inntinnsic while writing Iron Flame, Xaden should know immediately that there is danger here.

Even if he was not an inntinnsic, a baseline of common sense should tell him that something was up when Colonel Aetos glanced at Dain and let that smile slip before assigning Xaden to a place where he’d been smuggling weapons, at a time when he had a scheduled weapons drop. When the gryphon fliers show up at the end of Chapter 34, Xaden’s reaction is to accuse them if being early. That implies that he was planning to make a delivery at Atheyne on that same day. Did this character who successfully smuggled weapons for three years not stop to think how incredibly convenient it was that the rider leadership was ordering him to go to the place he was already planning to go, and at the time he was planning to go, for illicit activities?

Then, we get this from Imogen.

“Five whole days? This is going to be so much fun,” Heaton exclaims with terrifying glee, running their hand over the purple flames dyed into their hair. “We’re going to pretend war.”

“Yeah,” Imogen adds quietly. “I think we are.”

Imogen clearly realizes something is off here. Why else would she say this? If she’s linked to the smuggling operation, she has an established reason not to say such things.

Then we get this while Violet is packing for the flight.

“Wear every single dagger you own,” Xaden demands, startling me.

“I’m already wearing twelve.” I continue throwing items into my overnight pack.

“Good.”

What reason does Xaden have to insist on this unless he knows they will be going into actual combat? Why would he assume there would be actual combat during a War Games exercise unless he knows it's a trap?

This is followed by two momentz with Liam on the flight field. One is while Violet is walking out:

“We’ll see.” He’s unusually tense as we keep walking.

The other is when Xaden announces that he is taking Violet and Liam with him, rather than leaving them with Dain.

I look over my shoulder, and sure enough, Liam stands with his chin raised in front of Deigh. It’s almost as if he expected this.

Why did Liam expect that Xaden would do something as idiotic as violating the Codex to assemble a squad of primarily rebel children … unless he knows they’ve been found out and is going to help Xaden?

I do have a reason I am going down this rabbit hole. This is character-based foreshadowing that could work. It could have succeeded where the Colonel Aetos moment failed. The problem is that it requires all of the characters involved to be idiots. Either this is an obvious trap, in which case Xaden should not have taken the bait, or it is not, in which case Xaden has no reason to flagrantly violate the Codex by pulling so many rebel children into his squad (and thus, all those rebel children should not have expected him to do something to blantantly stupid).

Venin Conspiracy

In Chapter 28, Yarros tries to slip in a line about how the rider leadership is still concealing information from Battle Brief. However, it doesn’t work. As shown in the excerpt below, not only is this statement based on absolutely nothing (as Violet has no alternative sources of information to tell her that Battle Brief is not explaining everything), it is also buried amidst so much noise that it ends up feeling irrelevant.

The afternoon skies above Basgiath are crystal clear in the middle of May for thefirst battle of the War Games that signify the approach of graduation. As much as I want to feel excitement that I’m so close to actually surviving my first year inthe Riders Quadrant, my stomach is tight with anxiety.

Battle Briefs are getting more redacted. Professor Carr is getting more anxious thatI haven’t manifested a signet like almost the entire first-year cadets. Dain is acting weird as fuck—friendly one minute and indifferent the next. Xaden is getting more secretive—if that were even possible—canceling some of our training for unexplained reasons. Even Tairn feels like there’s something he’s not telling me.

Note that there’s also reference to the rebel children’s smuggling activities here, and it is likewise lost in the noise. Throwaway lines simply aren’t adequate for this sort of setup. Yarros needed to focus on this information and keep that focus there long enough to make it relevant to the story being told.

During the destructive sex scene, Violet and Xaden split the binding of her lore book (which, now that I think about it, is a magnificent analogy for this entire series). This leads to them finding the letter from Violet’s father in Chapter 31.

My Violet,

By the time you find this, you’ll most likely be in the Scribe Quadrant. Rememberthat folklore is passed from one generation to the next to teach us about our past. If we lose it, we lose the links to our past. It only takes one desperate generation to change history—even erase it.

I know you’ll make the right choice when the time comes. You have always been the best of both your mother and me.

Love,

Dad

This is followed by more than half a page of exposition dump to rush lore on the venin, followed by this:

“What do you think he was trying to tell you?” Xaden asks.

“I don’t know. Every fable in this book is about how too much power corrupts, so maybe he felt someone in leadership was corrupt.” I glance up at Xaden and joke, “I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if General Melgren ripped a mask off one day and revealed hewas a terrifying venin. That man has always given me the creeps.”

Then the story pivots right into Violet demanding a relationship from Xaden with lines that sound like they were written for Jacob Black in Eclipse.

This botched foreshadowing successfully fails on two fronts. Violet shuts down further inquiry into her father's letter by jumping to a very safe conclusion. Yarros then buried the moment by dragging the focus to romantic drama, which consumes the remainder of Chapters 31 and 32.

Rational Women

There is an important distinction to be made here between what Violet did here and what Hermione did with Malfoy and the walkie-talkie mystery.

Hermione did not provide an answer to the mystery of what Malfoy was up to - she merely dismissed a possible answer. The mystery was very much left open. What’s more, not only do the Harry Potter books acknowledge that Hermione is fallible, but her fallibility is acknowledged in the very next scene. Her deciphering the mystery of how Skeeter gets information includes her realizing the truth of what Malfoy was doing, which implies that she was wrong before. A question is left open, and the character pursuing the answer eventually uncovers it once she has all the information.

Violet, by contrast, draws and conclusion and dismisses the mystery. She acts like she has all the information. When the truth is revealed to her, she will blame Xaden for lying to her, rather than admitting to her previous ignorance. All questions were answered, and then Yarros decides to change the answers.

Brennan is Alive

During the ball, we get this interaction between Violet and Liam.

“I highly doubt you enjoy celebrating the anniversary of your brother’s death, either.” Liam holds himself with a dignity I could never imagine.

“Brennan would hate all of this.” I gesture to the crowd. “He was more about getting the work done than celebrating its completion.”

“Yeah, sounds like—” His words die, and I squeeze his arm tighter as I note the separating crowd before us.

King Tauri walks at my mother’s side, and from the direction of his wide, toothy smile, he’s headed this way. A purple sash crosses his doublet, pinned to his chest by a dozen medals he’s never won from a hundred battlefields he’s never stepped foot on.

Again, this comes so close to being functional. It’s a natural slip for a person to make. Unfortunately, it is immediately buried as the scene changes focus. This is yet another moment that feels like it was slapped in on a second draft to make an unplanned twist feel earned while making as few changes as possible to the scenes Yarros has already written.

War Games

To cap this off, let's briefly talk about the War Games.

Much like with the Squad Battle, the epigraph of the chapter in which the War Games take place (Chapter 28) is used to force a tone. We do get an explanation of what the War Games challenge will entail, but only as the event itself is starting. The first scene of Chapter 29 is then used for the aftermath of the event.

At that point, War Games are over, right?

One would think so, but then we get this is Chapter 31, right before the Reunification Day ball.

“That’s a logical choice,” Devera says. “And that’s all we have for today. Don’t forget that you should be preparing for the last exercise of War Games before graduation. Also we expect each and every one of you in the courtyard in front of Basgiath tonight at nine for fireworks to celebrate Reunification Day. Dress uniforms only.” She lifts her brows at Ridoc.

At this point, it has been a month and a half since the previous War Games event. Why is there this huge gap? Why was this not established earlier?

It honestly reads like War Games, much like the Squad Battle, was originally going to he this blip of an action scene that Yarros made up on the spot, only for her to realize that she couldn't think of a good pretense for Colonel Aetos to use to cover up the trap, so she altered the War Games schedule so things would conveniently line up.

Ultimately, War Games is as poorly set up as the Squad Battle. The only improvement is that, at the very least, it cannot be cut from the narrative entirely. This is the scenario in which Violet’s Signet manifests, and the aftermath drives the romance subplot forward.

BEHOLD MY MASTER STROKE

Next time, twists execute and mysteries are explained. We’ll be diving into Chapters 32 through 35 of Goblet of Fire and Chapters 35 - 38 of Fourth Wing.

It is incredible how much of a difference proper setup makes. Both stories dump a heap of twists on the audience at the point, radically redefining the trajectory of their respective series. In the case of Goblet of Fire, this manifests as a cascade of payoffs. Rowling took the time and effort to establish questions and an expectation that those questions would be answered. For Fourth Wing, it feels tacked on. Yarros actively undermined her setups and told her audience not to expect anything more. The result feels unearned.

We enter the home stretch on March 7th. I hope to see you all then. Please subscribe if you’d like to be added to the weekly newsletter with all the latest post links. Whether you subscribe or not, I hope you have a great week.