How It All Goes Down
The Goblet of Fire
- Ron is super-duper excited that Viktor Krum is going to be staying at Hogwarts.
- The Durmstrang students look impressed by Hogwarts, but the Beauxbatons kids are all shuddering and shivering in their robes.
- One of the Beauxbatons students takes off her scarf and asks Ron to pass the bouillabaisse (fish stew).
- She's lovely: "a long sheet of silvery-blond hair [falls] almost to her waist. She [has] large, deep blue eyes, and very white, even teeth" (16.41).
- Ron is instantly enchanted (and we use that word deliberately, because the girl looks like a veela).
- The trio is surprised to see Ludo Bagman and Mr. Crouch eating with Dumbledore and the professors.
- Dumbledore stands up and announces that the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin.
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- There will be a panel of five judges: Ludo Bagman, Mr. Crouch, Madame Maxine, Professor Karkaroff, and Professor Dumbledore himself.
- Argus Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker, brings out an ancient-looking case.
- Inside the case is "an impartial selector" (16.68) for each school's champion: the Goblet of Fire.
- It's exactly what it sounds like: a golden cup with a spout of flame coming out the top.
- People who want to be considered for school champion have 24 hours to put their names on a slip of paper and throw it into the Goblet.
- Dumbledore reminds those who want to nominate themselves for champion that there's a strict age minimum of seventeen years.
- Fred and George Weasley plan to take an Aging Potion to try and trick the Goblet of Fire into accepting their names.
- As Karkaroff hustles his students out of the Hall and back to their boat, he catches sight of Harry.
- He stops and stares.
- A voice from behind Harry growls, "Yeah, that's Harry Potter" (16.87).
- Karkaroff goes pale at the sight of Mad-Eye Moody.
- Karkaroff rushes out the door with his students in tow.
- The next morning, all the Durmstrang kids put their names into the Goblet of Fire.
- Fred, George, and Lee Jordan arrive at the Age Line.
- They each take a drop of Aging Potion.
- Fred and George go across the Age Line first.
- But before they even make it to the Goblet of Fire, "there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle" (16.108).
- Both of them sprout "identical long white beards" (16.108). Nice contrast to their bright red hair!
- Everyone burst out laughing at the sight of Fred and George with their beards.
- The rumor around the breakfast table is that Cedric Diggory has submitted his name.
- A Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Angelina Johnson, has also submitted her name.
- All the Beauxbatons students walk in, form a line, and put their names into the Goblet of Fire.
- Harry, Ron, and Hermione go off to visit Hagrid at his gamekeeper's cottage for the first time this term.
- Hagrid looks horrible: he's dressed up in "his best (and very horrible) hairy brown suit, plus a checked yellow-and-orange tie" (16.146).
- Why he's dressed up, the trio decide not to ask.
- But he's in a good mood: the skrewts are growing: "On' y trouble is, they've started killing each other" (16.147).
- Hermione tries to get Hagrid to join S.P.E.W., but he refuses: "It'd be doin' em an unkindness, Hermione" (16.157).
- They all troop up to the Hall for the Halloween Feast.
- That's where Harry figures out why Hagrid has been dressing up: Hagrid talks to "Madame Maxine with a rapt, misty-eyed expression Harry had only ever seen him wear once before – when he had been looking at the baby dragon, Norbert" (16.171).
- (Norbert appears in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.)
- Hagrid's got a crush! (Seriously, love is in the air in this book.)
- At last, the Goblet of Fire is ready to announce the champion of each of the three schools.
- First up is Durmstrang: it's Viktor Krum. (What a guy!)
- Second, Beauxbatons: it's Fleur Delacour, that beautiful blonde Ron has already fallen for.
- And third, Hogwarts: it's Cedric Diggory.
- As Dumbledore starts making a little speech about supporting the champions, the Goblet of Fire sends up one more unexpected tongue of flame.
- There's a fourth piece of parchment with a fourth name.
- Professor Dumbledore reads out the name of the next champion: Harry Potter.