Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapters 31-32
Mark True statements with a “T” and False statements with an “F.” Write your answers to the discussion points in the com boxes below.
1._____ Harry prepares for the Third Task in empty classrooms by working with Ron and Hermione on Stunning Spells, the Impediment Curse, the Reductor Curse, the Shield Charm, and the Four-Point Spell. Harry feels he is ready.
2._____ Rita Skeeter gets in a last minute stab at Harry in the Daily Prophet by writing the article “Harry Potter: Disturbed and Dangerous” that appears the day of the Third Task. Harry bristles at her saying he might be a Dark Wizard.
3._____ Mrs. Weasley and Charley come to visit Harry during his family time on the day of the Third Task instead of the Dursleys. Harry helps Mrs. Weasley reconcile with Hermine and takes the two on a long tour of the Hogwarts grounds
4._____ Harry enters the Maze first with Cedric and encounters a boggart, an enchanted mist that turns his world upside-down, a Blast-Ended Skrewt, a Bulgarian using the Cruciatus Curse, and a Sphinx before the giant spider….
5._____ Harry distracts the spider attacking Cedric and it turns on him. He and Cedric manage to stun it but not before it sinks its pincers into Harry’s leg. Harry passes out from the pain but wakes up in time to see Cedric about to get the Cup.
6._____ Cedric, though, decides he cannot take the Cup. Harry saved him twice in the Maze and gave him the clue that helped him with the First Task. Cedric insists he take the Cup, Harry refuses, and then they agree to share the victory. Whoops.
7._____ The Triwizard Cup was a Portkey and it has dropped them into the Malfoy Estate’s back yard and their graveyard. Cedric tries to help Harry run for it, but….
8._____ Harry’s scar explodes with pain as a figure approaches carrying what looks like a baby or a bundle of robes. The figure obeys the baby in the bundle and “kills the spare.” Cedric drops spread eagled next to the retching Harry.
9._____ Wormtail ties Harry tightly to Tom Riddle’s headstone before bringing a stone cauldron big “enough for a full-grown man to sit in.” Peter puts the baby, daddy dust, his own right hand, a phoenix feather, and Harry hair in giant pot.
10._____ While Harry thinks, “Please let it be dead,” “a man, tall and skeletally thin” “whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils” appears. “Lord Voldemort had risen again.”
Discussion Points: How do the events in the Maze challenge the Champions? Why doesn’t Cedric take the Triwizard Cup? What does the Graveyard scene in ‘Flesh, Blood, and Bone’ remind you of, if anything? Why does Pettigrew cut off his right hand? Contrast the scene in the graveyard at the end of Chapter 32 to the scene in the Forbidden Forest near the end of Deathly Hallows—What things are similar, what things are different?
[By JAB]
1. T/F (Technically there is no mention of Stunning Spells at this point, and they are down to only one classroom; however the Stunning Spell is used in the task and presumably was practiced beforehand, and Harry had previously used an assortment of classrooms)
2. F (Harry does not bristle)
3. F (it was not Charley, it was Bill, incidentally, it is mentioned in passing that Fleur seems quite interested in Bill!)
4. T
5. F (Harry does not pass out)
6. T
7. F (It is the grounds of the Riddle Estate and the attached churchyard.)
8. T
9. F (There was no phoenix feather)
10 T.
As to the discussion items:
How do events in the Maze challenge the Champions? By requiring a balanced combination of physical, intellectual, psychological and social responses (It would appear, for instance, that the spider could only be defeated by a joint attack thereby challenging the champions to devise a means of cooperating even while they are competing against each other.)
Why doesn’t Cedric take the Triwizard Cup? Because he feels he is not worthy of doing so. In his estimation, Harry enabled his victory and was therefore the more worthy. In Cedric’s eyes a prize stolen is not a prize worth having. In essence, he refused because he was the ideal Hufflepuff.
What does the graveyard scene in ‘Flesh, Blood and Bone’ remind you of, if anything? Clear resemblances of the Witches Scene in ‘Macbeth’ of course, but what we also see is the Alchemical Process running in reverse. The water in the cauldron begins as sparkly diamonds, goes to an evil electric blue (Help John should this not have been gold?), then to a red, then to a white, and then a white adult Voldemort steps forth demanding to be clad in a black robe. Thus instead of changing moral lead into moral gold, we have achieved the opposite. This is really clarified later when in the closing Chapters of Deathly Hallows we see that a similar Volde-baby could, in fact, have aspired to full humanity and forgiveness through a process of remorse, this one has, before our eyes, been transformed into something palpably remorseless.
Why does Pettigrew cut off his right hand? Symbolism of being Voldemort’s right-hand-man aside, it was mostly a practical choice, it seems Pettigrew is left-handed since he cut off the pinky on his right hand to leave a clue in Godric’s Hollow in service of his own escape, and now cuts off the whole thing in service of his master.
Contrast the scene in the graveyard at the end of Chapter 32 to the scene in the Forbidden Forest near the end of Deathly Hallows–What things are similar, what things are different? Contrasting only that portion of GOF which has been revealed to us up to this point, We have Voldemort free to choose his path of action, and Harry restrained by ropes (GOF) whereas later Voldemort is restrained by his word that he would wait an hour before acting, whereas Harry is free to choose his path of action. In GOF, Voldemort is (at this point) alone except for an agonized and weakening Pettigrew, in DH Voldemort is surrounded by supporters. In GOF, Voldemort is still stretching and mastering the use of his restored body, in DH he is fully master of all his faculties. It would appear therefore that at this point, Harry and Voldemort are as close to equally matched as they ever will be, and yet as we will see in the next chapters, it is at this point that Voldemort comes as close to defeating Harry as he ever will!
By contrast, at this point in GOF, Harry is terrified of, and repulsed by Voldemort, whereas in DH Harry no longer feels either emotion. Most importantly however at this point in GOF, Harry has no idea how, or why he came to be where he is; in DH Harry knows exactly how and exactly why he came to be where was. And this knowledge makes all the difference!