Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 

Chapter 8: The Quidditch World Cup

• “[They] found themselves in the shadow of a gigantic stadium. Though Harry could see only a fraction of the immense gold walls surrounding the pitch, he could tell that ten cathedrals would fit comfortably inside it.” – I think Harry might be exaggerating a bit here, because I can’t imagine a stadium that big. Just compare it with the average size of a football stadium, that would fit maybe one cathedral. It would be impossible to even watch the match properly in a stadium that huge.

• Let’s talk a bit about privilege. Because Harry of course is very privileged. In the way that he is the standard white, straight dude, but also through his wealth and fame, and that he is special and has been often treated that way, especially when it comes to rules that were bended for him. And we see it here again at the World Cup, to which Harry is invented, so he doesn’t pay for the tickets (even though he could) and he and the Weasleys have prime seats thanks to Mr Weasley’s connections. He owns a racing broom, he has the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder’s map, two incredible rare powerful magic objects. He becomes a Triwizard Champion, even though he is too young for it. And of course none of this is his fault – he is famous because he survived a curse that killed his parents, he became a Champion so that he could be killed etc. And yet Harry takes a lot of his privileges for granted, because that is how privileges usually work – we don’t realize we have them until they are taken away from us. And we see this especially in book 5, where Harry loses some of his privileges: he doesn’t become a prefect (even though he kind of expected it to be), he is banned from Quidditch, and he is publically branded as a liar, who just seeks attention. And I think as an audience we see both, the special treatment Harry gets, how he at times is very full of himself, and takes things for granted (but then most children do), but we also see his suffering, see everything he has lost and has to endure and the sacrifices he makes.

• Something I noticed is that Winky, unlike Dobby, speaks in a very specific way. Dobby usually talks in third person, whereas Winky never conjugates verbs the right way (“‘But I knows Dobby too, sir!’”; “‘[A]h, sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favour, sir, when you is setting him free.’”). The way they talk, along with their small stature, make them appear almost child-like and like they are of less intelligence. They get constantly underestimated because of it, despite the fact that they are very powerful magical creatures, who can even have access to magic in places wizards don’t. And again I think their enslavement is on purpose, because they could be a threat to wizardkind if they wanted to.

• Also, even House-Elves think of themselves as above Goblins, and the social standing of Goblins in the wizarding world will play a big role in Deathly Hallows.

• The Bulgarian Prime Minister does know who Harry is, implying that Voldemort’s terror wasn’t limited to Britain alone.

• I love how the Malfoys couldn’t be bothered to buy tickets like normal people, no, they contribute money to St. Mungos, so that the Minister of Magic invites them personally. How very extra.

• There are several signs that book 4 marks the beginning of Harry’s (and Ron and Hermione’s) sexual awakening: Hermione giggles over Archie’s privates, Cho Chang is mentioned, and of course the Veelas (and later Fleur). None of these things would have been as important a couple of years ago, but all of sudden Harry, Ron and Hermione are teenagers, and thus we enter the world of awkward teenager romance and seeing bodies as something sexual (and of course my favourite moment, when Ron realizes that Hermione is a girl).

• Veelas are in a way the Potter version of siren: beautiful women who enchant men to ultimately kill them. We don’t know if Veela are actually want to kill, however men in their proximity are willing to take great risks to impress them (like Harry almost jumping from the box into the stadium), which can obviously result in their deaths or at least getting seriously hurt.

• “‘And that, boys,’ yelled Mr Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below, ‘is why you should never go for looks alone!’” – Not that Ron in particular seemed to listen to his father, as we later see when they try to get dates for the Yule Ball. And it isn’t until Hermione has her transformation into a beautiful swan that he actually notices her.