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Bloomsbury edition (children) Bloomsbury edition (adult) Scholastics edition
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Published in 2000, the release of this book was surrounded by more hype than any other children's book in recent times - outdone only by its successors, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. At 636 pages (hardback British edition) it was fairly large for a children's book. The book attracted a lot of hype, because J. K. Rowling warned that one of the characters would be murdered in the book, raising pre-publishing rumours as to who the murdered character would be. This was also the first Harry Potter book to be published after Pottermania had comprehensively gripped the world.
This novel won a Hugo Award in 2001.
Plot of the book
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In this book, Harry Potter spends the end of his summer with the Weasleys in anticipation of the Quidditch World Cup. During the World Cup, a group of Death Eaters attack a number of Muggle bystanders, but flee when the Dark Mark - Voldemort's sign - mysteriously appears above them. The sign is found to have been made by a wand found with Winky, the House-Elf of Barty Crouch, a respected official at the Ministry of Magic. Winky is fired by her master at once. Crouch's treatment of Winky prompts Hermione to start campaigning for elves' rights.
When Harry arrives at Hogwarts, he finds that the Triwizard Tournament - which had been banned since many participants died during it - was to be restarted, and to be held at Hogwarts. The names of all intending participants would be put into a goblet - known as the Goblet of Fire - which would shoot out one name from each of the three competing wizarding schools (Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang). After choosing Viktor Krum from Durmstrang, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, and Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts, the Goblet spits out Harry's name - although he was too young to have added his name to the Goblet. Harry is forced to participate, to the outrage of many.
With help from his friends and teachers, Harry manages to make it through the first two parts of the Triwizard Tournament. During this time, his relationship with his best friend, Ron Weasley, is temporarily strained by Harry's sudden explosion of fame. This fame soon backfires, as Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter begins to dig deep to find anything which will tarnish Harry's reputation. Harry's friendship with Ron is saved once Ron realises just how perilous the Tournament will be for Harry.
In the last part of the Tournament - in which the four competitors have to run through a maze populated by many dangerous creatures - Harry and Cedric arrive at the trophy (placed in the centre of the maze) first and decide, because of the help they provided to each other, to grab the trophy at the same time, since it will be a Hogwarts victory anyway.
Confrontation in the Graveyard
The trophy turns out to be a Portkey, a magical object which transports them to a graveyard - where they find Peter Pettigrew (also known as Wormtail) and Lord Voldemort. Peter kills Cedric using the unstoppable Avada Kedavra curse, then uses Harry's blood as part of a macabre ritual which results in Voldemort being reborn, more powerful than before, and immune to the charm which had prevented him from harming Harry twice before. Voldemort then summons the Death Eaters and attempts to kill Harry, to prove that "the boy who lived" will not be his undoing again. However, because Harry's and Voldemort's wands are formed from the same core - a feather from Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes - a freak phenomenon known as Priori Incantatem occurs, in which Voldemort's wand begins to produce ghostly echoes of its past victims - including Harry's parents. The echoes hold off Voldemort while Harry manages to escape to the trophy which transports him and Cedric's body back to Hogwarts.
On reaching Hogwarts again, Harry lands in the centre of the confusion caused by his disappearance. He is led up to the castle by his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Auror (Dark-wizard-catcher), Professor Moody. Moody reveals himself as a Death Eater, saying that it was he who put Harry's name into the Goblet, and who ensured that Harry made it through the three rounds of the tournament so that he would be delivered to Voldemort. As Moody is about to attack Harry, Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall barge into the room, and stop Moody. After Dumbledore's interrogation of "Prof. Moody", it is revealed that "Moody" was Barty Crouch's son in disguise. The real Professor Moody had been kept imprisoned in a magical trunk for the entire year.
Having learned that Voldemort had risen again, Dumbledore began proceedings to restart the Order of the Phoenix. Snape and the Durmstrang Headmaster are revealed as ex-Death Eaters. Barty Crouch Jr. has his soul sucked out by a Dementor before he can repeat his story to The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. The Minister refuses to believe that Voldemort has risen again on the word of Dumbledore and Harry, which results in Dumbledore being removed from several important posts within the wizard community, and the reputation of Harry Potter being trampled judiciously in the next book.
The first chapter of this book is similar to that of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone) in that both contain the only chapters not seen from Harry's point of view. In case of the former, though, this is modified by the fact that Harry is in fact aware of a part of the events narrated in the course of this chapter (such as Frank Bryce's murder) as it happens, as he sees it in the form of a dream. Later when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published, the first two chapters of the book were also told in a point of view which does not include Harry Potter.
In this book, Harry's world expands both physically and figuratively. He goes to places he has never been before (the moor where the World Cup is held, the graveyard), and meets a vast number of people of various nationalities and all types. He learns some profound lessons about good and evil, and the difficulty in distinguishing between the two. This is particularly exemplified in the fake Moody, but other characters like Bagman, Crouch and Karkaroff are all examples of various degrees of evil, or evil and good mixed in strange and unpredictable ways.
In many ways, this book can be seen as the turning point of Harry's transition into adulthood (which is in fact the topic of this whole series). Harry has certainly left childhood behind – he "discovers" girls in this book. But he also encounters far more unpleasant aspects of adulthood, from unwanted and malicious publicity to the death of a classmate (Cedric Diggory).
The magical world takes on an international aspect in this book, with the introduction of the World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament. The crisis caused by Voldemort's return in the end also, in a way, helps to bring the world together.
Book Chapters
Chapter 01: The Riddle House
Chapter 02: The Scar
Chapter 03: The Invitation
Chapter 04: Back to the Burrow
Chapter 05: Weasley's Wizard Wheezes
Chapter 06: The Portkey
Chapter 07: Bagman and Crouch
Chapter 08: The Quidditch World Cup
Chapter 09: The Dark Mark
Chapter 10: Mayhem at the Ministry
Chapter 11: Aboard the Hogwarts Express
Chapter 12: The Triwizard Tournament
Chapter 13: Mad-Eye Moody
Chapter 14: The Unforgivable Curses
Chapter 15: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang
Chapter 16: The Goblet of Fire
Chapter 17: The Four Champions
Chapter 18: The Weighing of the Wands
Chapter 19: The Hungarian Horntail
Chapter 20: The First Task
Chapter 21: The House-Elf Liberation Front
Chapter 22: The Unexpected Task
Chapter 23: The Yule Ball
Chapter 24: Rita Skeeter's Scoop
Chapter 25: The Egg and the Eye
Chapter 26: The Second Task
Chapter 27: Padfoot Returns
Chapter 28: The Madness of Mr. Crouch
Chapter 29: The Dream
Chapter 30: The Pensieve
Chapter 31: The Third Task
Chapter 32: Flesh, Blood, and Bone
Chapter 33: The Death Eaters
Chapter 34: Priori Incantatem
Chapter 35: Veritaserum
Chapter 36: The Parting of the Ways
Chapter 37: The Beginning
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