Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 

Chapter 14: The Unforgiveable Curses

• Moody teaches a class of fourth-years curses that, as he admits, he is only supposed to teach sixth-years and older, claiming that Dumbledore supports him. I wonder how aware Dumbledore is what is going on in the classes however. Did Dumbledore really know about this? And if so, would he support it? Does he think his students need to be a prepared for a war he has yet no idea is about to start? In book 5 Dumbledore admits that him ignoring Harry was in order to protect him, to shelter him from what was to come, and it is only in book 6 that he actively prepares him. It is more likely Dumbledore doesn’t know what Moody teaches his students, showing that he is not all-knowing about everything that goes on in Hogwarts, especially as it is later revealed that a member of his staff (an old friend of his) had tricked him almost an entire year.

• The thing about the Unforgivable Curses is that apparently they are hard to detect. Moody uses all three (although not against humans, which would be the legal loophole) and gets away with it. The Ministry had a hard time proofing who acted under the Imperius Curse and who didn’t, because it is hard to tell and/or the curse left no traces. You can use a spell to show you the last spell a wand performed, but apparently that only works if someone is arrested immediately after using one of the curses. Magical law enforcement seems a lot harder than the Muggle counterpart, simply for the lack of evidence, which means that statistically a lot of crimes never get solved (and would result in the large number of Death Eaters who never went to prison, as seen at the World Cup).

• I wrote in my previous chapter notes that there is a certain kind of cruelty to Moody, and I say Moody not Barty Crouch Jun., because he impersonates him almost perfectly, so what we see of this performance had to be in character with the real Moody. Though Barty Crouch Jun. is obviously cruel in his own way, and Moody gives him a platform to act out this cruelty. Showing the Unforgivable Curses to the class is cruel. It is psychological terror. He knows that Neville’s parents went mad because of the Cruciatus Curse (especially since he has been the one to cast it), he knows that Harry lost his parents through the killing curse, and you can bet there are other students whose families suffered through the war, and who have family members that had been tortured and/or killed. He justifies that they need to see those curses in order to understand them, in order to be prepared. But that is not how you overcome a trauma. None of those students have a choice in what they see, or any kind of preparation and aftercare. And we see Neville and Harry handle this experience in very different ways.

• “There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air – instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakeably dead.” – This makes it sound like the curse has to travel through the air at some point, putting those students (especially those in the front row) at a large risk. Is there a magical version of a stray bullet? Can a killing curse stray? Can you accidently kill the wrong person? Are Aurors allowed to use the killing curse?

• “Avada Kedavra’s a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it – you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I’d get so much as a nose-bleed.” – Magic (not just curses) isn’t just about saying the right words and using your wand – it is in a lot of ways about intent. And most people wouldn’t have it in them to kill someone. Harry never did (though he used the Cruciatus Curse successfully in book 7). Molly however could do it. Which is probably one of the most fascinating character moments. But we get there in time.

• “That’s what you’re up against. That’s what I’ve got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practise constant, never-ceasing vigilance.” – Barty Crouch Jun. is teaching Harry the exact curses he knows Voldemort will very likely use against him. And he doesn’t do it to prepare him, or to help him, he does it so Harry will know exactly what is going to happen once he hears Voldemort using those curses. Talk about cruelty.

• “They were talking about the lesson, Harry thought, as though it had been some sort of spectacular show, but he hadn’t found it very entertaining […].” – Which reminds me of the Boggart class from last years, and how most of Harry’s classmates had almost childish fears out of some horror stories because none of them had experienced real horror yet. Only Harry, Ron and Neville saw something they actually had to face. And again we have Harry and Neville as outsiders, as the ones personally affected by those curses, making them equals even before we know about their special connection.

• So, we know that Moody comforts Neville and then gives him a book that is supposed to help Harry with the second task, all part of his big plan. But had there been a part of Barty Crouch Jun. that felt remorse for what he did to the Longbottoms? That looking after Neville in that moment was because of genuine regret of what he did to his parents? Or was it really just calculating?

• “Telling Neville what Professor Sprout had said, Harry thought, had been a very tactful way of cheering Neville up, for Neville very rarely heard that he was good at anything. It was the sort of thing Professor Lupin would have done.” – I love that Harry judges his teachers on his “what would Lupin do?” scale. And obviously Lupin would have done it because he is a genuine kind person, and maybe he saw a bit of Peter in Neville and knew the damage it could do if someone is constantly underrated. And maybe Moody/Crouch Jun. did it because it was something he would have needed to hear more often from his father.

• “‘Good one,’ said Ron, copying it down. ‘Because of … erm … Mercury. Why don’t you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?’” – I wouldn’t go so far to say Ron stabbed Harry in the back, but clearly Harry expected Ron to believe and support him after he became a champion, so that predication is somewhat half right.

• “‘Not spew,’ said Hermione impatiently. ‘It’s S – P – E – W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.’” – As far as acronyms go this isn’t the best one. Though the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women is spelled the same way. I also like to think that later in life Hermione did manage to fulfil her long-term-goals (changing the law about non-wand-use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures).

• But in general I think Hermione’s fight for House Elves is there to inform her character, to show us her need for social justice, but at the same time that you can’t overcome systematic century old exploitation through some idealistic ideas. Hermione means very well, but her attempts to change anything turn out to be rather harmful to her cause.

• “If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore – they’re saying he’s got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he’s reading the signs, even if no one else is.” – How much did Dumbledore knew or suspect if he thought it was necessary to hire an Auror as a teacher?