Goblet of Fire: The Yule Ball & Rita Skeeter’s Scoop (Chapters 23-24)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapters 23-24

Mark True statements with a “T” and False statements with an “F.” Write out your contributions to the Discussion Points at the end of the quiz in the comment boxes below. Spelling counts (on the true and false portion).

1. _____ Dobby wakes up Harry Christmas morning to give him a pair of perfectly matching socks with Dragons and brooms that Dobby knot himself. The rest of the day is spent with presents, eating, a snowball fight, and Yule Ball preparations

2. _____ Ron’s robes look “more like a dress than anything else” but he makes them look “more manly” using a “Severing Charm” to remove the lace from the neck and cuffs.

3. _____ Professors Karkaroff and Snape are overheard discussing something that has been becoming “clearer and clearer for months.” Igor urges Severus to flee.

4. _____ Madame Maxime has a giantess-sized fit when Hagrid asks her if she is a half-giant. She stomps away after telling him, “I ‘ave big bones!”

5. _____ Ron tries in vain to find out who Hermione’s date is – and is furious when he learns it is “Vicky” Krum. He accuses her of “fraternizing with the enemy.” She tells him, if he doesn’t like it, he can ask her out next time before others do.

6. _____ Cedric tells Harry to “take a bath” in order to figure out his clue; Harry thinks this is not the equivalent of his dragon help and suspects Cedric is trying to embarrass him in front of Cho.

7. _____ Ludo Bagman, strained in the company of Goblins, chats Harry up in Hogsmeade. He offers Harry a helping hand with the Second Task but Harry refuses. Hermione reminds Ron and Harry that goblins are not house-elves.

8. _____ Rita Skeeter enters the Three Broomsticks and Ron gets right in her face about the Harry-and-Hagrid-hate pieces she’s written in the Daily Prophet. Hermione drags Harry and Ron to Hagrid’s hut to tell him what happened.

9. _____ Unlike Ron, Hermione thinks anti-giant feeling among magical people “is just bigotry, isn’t it?” Together with Dumbledore, the three friends snap Hagrid out of his funk. He remembers his dad telling him, “Never be ashamed.”

10. _____ Hagrid and Hermione want Harry to win because “It’s show ‘em all… yeh don’ have ter be pureblood to do it. Yeh don’ have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It’d show ‘em” that half-breeds “can do magic.”

Discussion Points: Ron is jealous again. How do the same insecurities that made him break with Harry when Harry is selected as the fourth champion cause him to attack Hermione for her date with Krum? How is Harry’s response to Cedric’s help a lot like his response to Ron’s in previous chapters? Is Hermione’s reaction to Hagrid’s situation an echo of S.P.E.W. work?

Comments

  1. 1.F 2.T 3.F 4.T 5.T
    6.T 7.T 8.F 9.T 10.F

    How do the same insecurities that made him break with Harry when Harry is selected as the fourth champion cause him to attack Hermione for her date with Krum?

    Oh, yeah. He cannot compete with Harry and is crushed by Harry’s being selected as Champion, so much so that he acts like a first rate jerk and is unable to acknowledge his great love for his best friend. Now Hermione is Krum’s date? Poor Ronnykins. Being Harry’s shadow and support crew was endurable as long as he had another ‘nobody’ for company. He simply isn’t able to handle Hermione’s being star-quality, too. It’s an act of betrayal, not to Harry, but to him. His true feelings for Hermione shine through almost as clearly as his insecurities.

    How is Harry’s response to Cedric’s help a lot like his response to Ron’s in previous chapters?

    Harry’s pride as faux-Moody points out at book’s end almost ruins him (like the rest of us, no?). He refuses to reach out to Ron because Ron is simply wrong in thinking he entered the contest and Judas doesn’t get a break. Cedric, though, hasn’t betrayed Harry except in beating him to the girl of the moment. Harry is just the pig-headed adolescent here. No?

    Is Hermione’s reaction to Hagrid’s situation an echo of S.P.E.W. work?

    I think so. She’s positively enraged that a person at Hogwarts of questionable ancestry is not being heroic when publicly outed. She wants Hagrid to be a Mudblood champion or at least a role-model for the excluded, I think, a role he almost immediately pins on Harry (“Win for the down-trodden, ‘Arry…”). Hermione’s passion comes from her feelings of vulnerability about her own background, as with the house-elves. Her Skeeter-hating-thing is really about all prejudice and intolerance, Right?

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