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Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire
Death and Resurrection
Book 4
starts with murder. Tom Riddle, Sr. (Voldemort’s father) is dead. He
was murdered, along with his father and mother, 50 years ago in town
of Little Hangleton. The gardener, Frank Bryce, was suspected of being
the murderer, although there was never any evidence to convict him.
Voldemort is
hiding out in the old Riddle homestead along with his faithful servant
Wormtail and his snake Nagini. He needs to drink Nagini’s venom on a
regular basis to survive. Frank Bryce hears him talking to Wormtail
about how and why he killed Bertha Jorkins. (p. 10) Frank is
discovered by Nagini, and is then killed by Voldemort. (p. 15)
200 miles
away, Harry is startled out of his sleep by visions of this scene. Our
Harry has developed pretty strong powers of ESP. And his scar starts
hurting—a sure sign that Voldemort is near, or up to no good.
We find out,
by way of a letter to Sirius that this summer has been better for
Harry at the Dursleys. They are "terrified [Sirius Black—Harry’s
godfather, who is still presumed to be a dangerous murderer] might
turn up and turn them all into bats if I ask you to." (p. 25)
Harry is
invited to go to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys (Ron’s
family). He uses Sirius’s reputation to get permission from Uncle
Vernon to go (although Ron promises to come get him anyway, even if
Uncle Vernon says no (p. 36)—another example of disregard for
authority—especially Muggle authority).
The Weasleys
arrive to pick him up using Floo powder (p. 43). They come in through
the fireplace—much to the shock of the Dursleys—and leave the same
way.
We learn
that 100,000 wizards are expected to show up for the World Cup, and
there has been "a massive organizational problem" in setting
everything up: finding a place big enough, getting all the wizards
there without the Muggles catching on! (p. 69)
Harry and
the Weasleys will travel by way of Portkey: "They’re objects
that are used to transport wizards from one spot to another at a
prearranged time…. They can be anything…. Unobtrusive things,
obviously, so Muggles don’t go picking them up and playing with them…."
(p. 70) Other wizards will "apparate"—another form of
astral travel.
Of course,
if any Muggle does become suspicious or catch on, the wizards will
deal with it using the Memory Charm:
"Obliviate!"
he said sharply, pointing his wand at Mr. Roberts. Instantly, Mr.
Roberts’s eyes slid out of focus, his brows unknitted, and a look of
dreamy unconcern fell over his face. Harry recognized the symptoms of
one who had just had his memory modified. (pp. 77-78)
After the
World Cup match is over (Ireland beats Bulgaria by a score of
170-160), some of the wizards celebrate by playing with a family of
Muggles:
A
crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands
pointed straight upward, was marching slowly across the field…High
above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were
being contorted into grotesque shapes…. Two of the figures were very
small….
Harry
recognized one of them: Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other
three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the
marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand; her
nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to
cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with
glee.
"That’s
sick," Ron muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had
begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head
flopping limply from side to side. "That is really sick…."
(pp 119-120)
But no harm
done, of course; "We caught the Robertses before they hit the
ground, though. They’re having their memories modified right
now." (p. 142)
While that
is going on, someone conjures up the Dark Mark, the sign of Voldemort:
For
a split second, Harry thought it was another leprechaun formation.
Then he realized that it was a colossal skull, comprised of what
looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth
like a tongue. (p. 128)
What’s
worse, someone has used Harry’s wand (that he "usually kept…
with him at all times in the wizarding world…" p. 124) to cast
the spell.
Hermione and
Mr. Weasley explain what the Dark Mark is: "it’s You-Know-Who’s
symbol…." "You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark
Mark into the air whenever they killed,… The terror it inspired…you
have no idea…. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark
hovering over your house, and knowing what you’re about to find
inside…. Everyone’s worst fear… the very worst…." (pp.
141-142)
"Three
days ago—it felt like much longer, but it had only been three days—he
had awoken with his scar burning. And tonight, for the first time in
thirteen years, Lord Voldemort’s mark had appeared in the sky.
What did these things mean? (p. 144)
That
transition takes us back to Hogwarts for Harry’s fourth year. This
year, though, he’s not going to be playing Quidditch. Instead, for
the first time in over a century Hogwarts will host the Triwizard
Tournament:
…a
friendly competition between the three largest European schools of
wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang…. It was generally
agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young
witches and wizards of different nationalities—until, that is, the
death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued. (p.
187)
Three
players are chosen by the Goblet of Fire, one for each school. These
three will compete in various challenges to determine the winner. Only
this year something unusual happens; a fourth competitor is chosen by
the Goblet—Harry Potter. Of course, we can’t go against the
Goblet: "And as his name’s come out of the goblet… I mean, I
don’t think there can be any ducking out at this state…. It’s
down in the rules, you’re obliged… Harry will just have to do the
best he—" (p. 275)
"The
first task is designed to test your daring,… so we are not going to
be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an
important quality in a wizard…very important….
"The
champions are not permitted to ask for or accept help of any kind from
their teachers to complete the tasks in the tournament." (p. 281)
On the other
hand, Professor Moody tells Harry, "Cheating’s a traditional
part of the Triwizard Tournament and always has been." (p. 343)
So, obviously, it’s quite all right if Harry, since he’s the
underdog, gets help from teachers. He finds out from Hagrid that he
will be facing a dragon, and Moody gives him broad hints regarding the
best spells to use to get what he needs.
He manages
to complete the task—snatching a golden egg from a nest underneath a
fire-breathing dragon. Now, he and the other players have to solve the
riddle contained in the egg to find out what the next task will be.
(p. 361)
Does Harry
get help? Of course he does. The task is to rescue Ron, who has been
taken into the lake and is being held there. Harry has to rescue him
before time is up, or he will (presumably) drown there. Dobby, the
ex-house elf, gives him some gillyweed. Harry eats it and, "quite
suddenly, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed
over his mouth and nose. He tried to draw breath, but it made his head
spin; his lungs were empty, and he suddenly felt a piercing pain on
either side of his neck—… He had gills." (p. 494)
Of course,
he manages to rescue Ron—and also brings back another of the
captives when one of the other competitors doesn’t get there in
time. After all, he couldn’t leave her there to drown! Harry is such
a hero!
The third
task is a maze. Harry has figured out that whoever put his name in the
Goblet intended for him to be killed during one of the tasks. He has
survived the first two, so this is the last chance. He will need every
bit of magical skill he possesses, every charm he has ever learned, to
get through the maze unharmed. He and Cedric reach the middle of the
maze at the same time. They decide to take hold of the Triwizard Cup
together, and be declared co-champions. But, no. There is another
surprise in store for Harry.
He
and Cedric both grasped the handle.
Instantly,
Harry felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel. His feet had left the
ground. He could not unclench the hand holding the Triwizard Cup; it
was pulling him onward in a howl of wind and swirling color, Cedric at
his side. (p. 635)
The
Triwizard Cup has been enchanted to make it a Portkey. It has
transported Harry and Cedric to a graveyard. We want to caution
parents that what follows is an extremely dark and disturbing
ceremony.
Harry hears
someone coming. It is Voldemort’s faithful servant, Wormtail. He is
carrying something that looks like a baby wrapped in a bundle of
robes.
"From
far away, above his head, he heard a high, cold voice say, "Kill
the spare." A swishing noise and a second voice, which
screeched the words to the night: "Avada Kedavra!"….
Cedric was lying spread-eagled on the ground beside him. He was dead.
(p. 638)
Harry is
then bound to a headstone bearing the name Tom Riddle. The bundle of
robes is nearby, and a gigantic snake slithers in the grass around
Harry and the headstone. Wormtail positions a large stone cauldron,
filled with what looks like water, at the foot of the grave. Then:
Wormtail
[Pettigrew] pulled open the robes on the ground, revealing what was
inside them, and Harry let out a yell that was strangled in the wad of
material blocking his mouth.
It
was as though Wormtail had flipped over a stone and revealed something
ugly, slimy, and blind—but worse, a hundred times worse. The thing
Wormtail had been carrying had the shape of a crouched human child,
except that Harry had never seen anything less like a child. It was
hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and
legs were thin and feeble, and its face—no child alive ever had a
face like that—flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes. (p. 640)
Wormtail
places this creature in the cauldron. Then he intones, "Bone
of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!" At
that the grave Harry is sitting on—Voldemort’s father’s grave—cracks
open, Wormtail removes a bit of bone and places it in the cauldron (p.
641).
Then
Wormtail pulls out a dagger, says, "Flesh—of the servant—w-willingly
given—you will—revive—your master." Harry realizes what
is about to happen, and closes his eyes as Wormtail cuts off his own
right arm and places that in the cauldron (p. 641-642).
Wormtail
next comes to where Harry is tied, uses the dagger to nick Harry’s
arm and collects some of his blood, while saying, "B-blood
of the enemy…forcibly taken…you will…resurrect your foe."
He
staggered back to the cauldron with Harry’s blood. He poured it
inside. The liquid within turned, instantly, a blinding white.
Wormtail, his job done, dropped to his knees beside the cauldron, then
slumped sideways and lay on the ground, cradling the bleeding stump of
his arm, gasping and sobbing. (p. 642)
Harry
watches as the cauldron simmers and emits sparks and steam.
But
then, through the mist in front of him, he saw, with an icy surge of
terror, the dark outline of a man, tall and skeletally thin, rising
slowly from inside the cauldron….
The
thin man stepped out of the cauldron, staring at Harry…and Harry
stared back into the face that had haunted his nightmares for three
years. Whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose
that was flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils…
Lord
Voldemort had risen again. (p. 643)
Now that
Voldemort has regained his body, he begins to call his followers,
called Death Eaters back to him. They arrive at the graveyard and form
a circle around Voldemort and Harry.
The circle,
by the way, is a very important part of Witchcraft/Wiccan ceremonies.
Raven Grimassi’s Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft says
this about the circle:
Properly
cast, it becomes a place between the physical and spiritual worlds.
Wiccans/Witches often refer to the ritual/magickal circle as…sacred
space….
Traditionally,
beings known as the Watchers are evoked to each of the four quarters
of the circle to magicakally guard the sacred area against the
intrusion of any forces not in harmony with the ritual itself.
…the
ritual circle serves to accumulate energy. The participants within its
sphere are immersed in the energies being drawn to, or raised within,
the sacred sphere. (pp. 74-75)
It is within
this circle that Voldemort explains to Harry how he has survived all
these years without a body:
Only
one power remained to me. I could possess the bodies of others. (p.
653)
I
sometimes inhabited animals—snakes, of course, being my preference—but
I was little better off inside them than as pure spirit, for their
bodies were ill adapted to perform magic…and my possession of them
shortened their lives; none of them lasted long…. (p. 654)
[Regarding
Quirrell, the Dark Arts teacher he had possessed in Book 1] The
servant died when I left his body, and I was left as weak as ever I
had been…. Yes, that was perhaps my darkest hour…I could not hope
that I would be sent another wizard to possess…. (p. 654)
Voldemort
performs the Cruciatus curse on Harry, one that causes excruciating
pain. (Interestingly, cruciatus is the Latin word for "to
crucify." Is Rowling deliberately mocking the crucifixion of
Christ here?) Now he plans to kill Harry. But to make it a
"fair" fight, he has Harry untied and gives him back his
wand.
Just as
Voldemort casts the killing curse, Avada Kedavra, Harry
counters with the Expelliarmus curse. The two curses "meet
in the middle" and the wands and wizards are caught up in an
intense struggle.
An odd thing
happens, Voldemort’s wand is forced to regurgitate all the spells he
has cast. All the people he has killed—including Harry’s mother
and father—come squeezing out the tip of his wand. They surround the
two wizards, and distract Voldemort and the circle of Death Eaters
long enough for Harry to break free, grab Cedric’s body and the
Triwizard Cup, and be astrally transported out of harms way.
Voldemort is
back. He has a body, and he is out to get Harry. His Death Eaters have
come back together. What even darker and more disturbing images can we
expect from the next three books?
In this book
we find Harry: practicing divination/sorcery (p. 583); interpreting
omens (p. 577); engaging in witchcraft (p. 494); casting spells (p.
347), acting as a medium (pp. 15-16); and consulting the dead (p.
461). All of these are practices God has condemned. Please see our
companion article, God’s Warning about Witchcraft: Definition of
Terms from Deuteronomy 18.
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