Krishna
We have reviewed the entire series so far. Please see Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azakban for the last two books reviewed.
Wormtail and Voldemort are residing in the house of Riddle which is falling to ruins. Voldemort is drinking the milk of Nagini to gain strength and Wormtail is helping him. To achieve their aim WVoldemort says he will wait until Quidditch World Cup is over and use Harry Potter to achieve his aim. It appears that Wormtail, in addition to tending to a weakened Voldemort, brought him Bertha Jorkins who gave information before being killed that helped Voldemort form his latest plan for his comeback.
Meanwhile Harry dreams of the conversation and wakes up with his scar in pain. Meanwhile the Dudleys are scandalized when the Weasleys come into the house through flue powder, breaking the walled up oven! Fred (or George) accidentally drop a candy in front of the Dudley kid and he instantly grabs and eats it, not knowing that it will make his tongue large and swell up! Harry is transported before he watches the full agony. Arthur Weasley painfully sets everything right.
Meanwhile they go to the Quidditch World Cup finals, Ireland vs Hungary with magical creatures from both sides cheering on. However, it is marred when the Mask of Voldemort appears in the sky.
Rita Skeeter a nosy and evil journalist is having a field day accusing the Ministry of Magic of incompetence in the face of rising threats.
Finally they reach Hogwarts and a Tri Wizard tournament is announced. However, even Fred and George are not qualified to play as it is restricted to the fifth year students only because many years ago a death happened during the tourney. Fred and George are outraged to be excluded and plan to use ageing potion to qualify.
Mad Eye Moody is the new Defence Against Dark Arts teacher this year. He has a swivelling magical eye that can see everywhere. When Malfoy tries to attack Harry when the latter’s back is turned, Moody catches him and turns him into a lemming and makes him dance.
He also teaches them the curse called Imperius (/) which makes the person cursed do anything the curser wishes. Harry successfully fights it, but is the only one who does.
Meanwhile no amount of trickery by George and Fred Weasley fools the Goblet of Fire, which is the cup that chooses the students. It chooses three students – one from each school – and then unexpectedly throws up a fourth name, Harry Potter. The whole place is stunned and the other schools are scandalized that Hogwarts should sneakily get two students from it alone. However, Mad Eye Moody surmises that some powerful wizard has put the name of Potter into the Goblet so that, if he is chosen, he can be conveniently murdered.
The first task is getting past a dragon and Harry is taken secretly, wearing an invisible cloak, to see them. He also learns that of the four champions, only one was not aware of it, and tells him secretly. Mad Eye Moody gives him a hint to ‘use the strength he has’ and then he asks Hermione to teach him the summoning charm, bypassing the dragon and getting the egg, thereby winning the first task. All others were also through, though many were bruised and battered. The second task involved an egg, which, if he learnt to open it, will give him a clue. Here the person he helped in the first round gives him a tip – to put it in warm water.
Meanwhile Ron and Harry are astonished to learn that Hagrid is the child of a human and a giantess. Since giants were cruel beyond belief, Hagrid had kept this a secret from all.
Meanwhile the second task is found out that he needs to stay inside the lake for a length of time and rescue a hostage guarded by Merpeople. He is totally clueless until Dobby gives him gillweed that will help him breath under water. He goes in and rescues Ron but finds Hermione, Cho and also Fleir Delacourt’s sister. After rescuing Ron with a sharp stone (barely avoiding zzz who were trying to catch him and drag him back) he tries to rescue others but merpeople stop him. However he sees Krum come as a half man half shark and rescue Hermione and zzz rescue Cho. He however fights to rescue xxx’s sister and when he returns he is the last but one. And had blown the time. However, since he was gallant to rescue others he wins bonus points and ties for the first place with Viktor Krum.
Meanwhile they learn that the third task for the champions is a magically grown hedge. Krum tries to figure out if there is any truth in Rita Skeeter’s allegations that he, Krum, is trying to ‘steal away Harry’s girlfriend’ and is relieved when Harry categorically denies that there is anything romantic between him and Hermione. Just then they come across Crouch, the minister of magic, who is acting very weird. Harry asks Krum to guard him while he rushes back to get Dumbledore. But by the time he returned, Krum is unconscious and Crouch is nowhere to be seen.
Sirius is worried that Harry is putting himself in harm’s way by wandering off with Krum to the edge of the forest when so many folks are trying to kill Harry.
Meanwhile, the third task is set. It is a maze that they need to navigate. Seems easy enough at first glance.
In the maze they find multiple threats and then overcome them. Meanwhile, Harry and Cedric find themselves exactly at the same moment in front of the cup. Harry insists that Cedric should take it and that boy will not. They compromise and touch it at the same time but then find that it is a portal, taking Harry and Cedric to what turns out to be the grave of Voldemort’s father. Woldemort is waiting for them. Wormtail binds him after killing Cedric instantly. Voldemort rewards his loyalty by replacing his hand (‘flesh of a loyal servant’) and some blood of Harry (‘part of an enemy’)
Now Voldemort emerges stronger and cripples Harry with the Excrucio curse. He is looking forward to killing Harry finally – and without delay.
Nagini is waiting to have a meal of Harry. Voldemort wants a duel and Harry, knowing that he will die but unwilling to die cowering behind a tombstone, stands up. A fabulous duel happens and out of Voldemort’s wand out comes his earlier victims – including Voldemort’s parents themselves, Harry’s parents and some others including Cedric.
They give Harry just a few seconds to escape and ask him to run to the Portal – while they crowd around Voldemart and give him the precious few seconds he needs.
He takes Cedric’s body with him. Then they find Dumbledore and Mad Eye Moody there. Mad Eye takes him in and when Harry protests that he has to see Dumbledore immediately because he has learnt that there is a Death Eater in disguise in Hogwarts, Mad Eye tells him that he knows who that is and reveals it to him. This is a great twist, worthy of Rowling but I will not spoil it for you. What is even more fantastic is that it is a double twist and the details there are breathtaking.
How she ties it to the madness and absence of Crouch and even finding the house elf of Crouch, Winkie in the place reserved for the Minister of Magic is all fabulously told.
We understand with what great cunning and planning Voldemort was able to meticulously plan Harry’s arrival at the end of Triwizard tournament is fabulously told. By the now unmasked Death Eater himself! The master plotter (Rowling) is at work, with various strands of the story coming together so well and unexpected explanations of the evidence before (for example why Harry thought that Crouch, the minister of magic, was wandering around Snape’s offices in the night)
And the explanations and final, satisfying ending is pure Rowling. The series, you see, is already turning darker. And no less electrifying.
Absolutely brilliant work.
10/10
— Krishna