Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 22: The Unexpected Task

• This is the single most awkward chapter of the entire series, and it fills me both with glee and second-hand-embarrassment. Hormonal teenagers at their best.

• “A week ago, Harry would have said finding a partner for a dance would be a cinch compared to taking on a Hungarian Horntail. But now that he had done the latter, and was facing the prospect of asking a girl to the ball, he thought he’d rather have another round with the Horntail.” – This sums up adolescence pretty nicely.

• “Hermione’s words about Krum kept coming back to him. ‘They only like him because he’s famous!’ Harry doubted very much if any of the girls who had asked to be his partner so far would have wanted to go to the ball with him if he hadn’t been school champion. Then he wondered if this would bother him if Cho asked him.” – Dating is already hard enough and in Harry’s case it gets even more complicated because he always has to wonder if someone wants to be with him because he is the famous Harry Potter or because they actually like him. We see this gain in book 6, when he is again in the center of attention because he is the Chosen One. And it is interesting when we look at his relationship with Ginny over the years, because Ginny once was one of those star-struck girls, unable to even look or talk to Harry, fascinated with an idea of Harry. But once she let go of that she becomes her own person, and that is when Harry notices her, but also she is able to see Harry in a different way, to see him for who he is, and she isn’t afraid to tell him off when necessary. Harry doesn’t have to question her intentions because by the time they get together they are already friends and comfortable around each other (unlike how things went with Cho).

• “Exactly who or what the Weird Sisters were Harry didn’t know, never having had access to a wizard’s wireless, but he deduced from the wild excitement of those who had grown up listening to the WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) that they were a very famous musical group.” – There is a weird lack of culture in the Wizarding World, though it might just be because Harry never pays any attention to it. We know this band exists (though Harry never listens to any kind of music) and the singer Mrs. Weasley loves. But there is never any mention of fictional books or theatre or anything like that. What exactly do wizards in their free time? They can not all play Quidditch.

• So Fred went to the Yule Ball with Angelina Johnson, but according to Pottermore after the war (and Fred’s death) Angelina ends up marrying George which is… weird. Or maybe it isn’t because Fred and Angelina never were dating and only went to the Yule Ball together. I dunno. Let’s say it is an interesting fact.

• Hermione and Ron start to fight because Ron openly admits he rather asks a good looking girl to the ball, even if she is horrible, than a nice one. This obviously hits a nerve for Hermione. Perhaps because she doesn’t think of herself as beautiful and/or because she wants people to like her for her personality rather than how she looks. Hermione doesn’t really care about her appearance (unlike Lavender and Parvati), but that doesn’t mean she isn’t good looking. Krum is interested in her (and in Deathly Hallows he complains that all the good looking girls are always taken) and so is that Quidditch guy in book 6 that she uses to make Ron jealous. And we can be sure that Ron’s interest in her means her nose is in the middle of her face. Though Ron of course knows her best (next to Harry), and he falls for her because of her personality and not her looks (the irony). Both Harry and Hermione want someone who loves them for who they are, and they both end up with a Weasley. Both Ginny and Ron first express superficial ideas about love (Ginny only sees the fame, Ron is only interested in looks), and they both end up with their respective partners once they let go of these ideas and see the other person (Harry, Hermione) for who they are. And in an earlier chapter Mr. Weasley already tells his children to never go for looks alone.

• I really don’t like how Ron makes fun of Neville, and the fact that Ron had a horrible Yule Ball is Karma’s way of getting it back to him.

• I really think Ron has never really noticed Hermione is a girl – as in a potential romantic partner – and only saw her as one of her mates until he asks her out for the Yule Ball. And even then he probably wouldn’t have considered it to be romantic, at least not until he saw Hermione in her dress robes. He doesn’t believe Hermione already has date (thinking it was only an excuse to get rid of Neville) because up to that moment he doesn’t think of her as someone desirable. But once he knows it entirely changes the way he looks at her. But it doesn’t for Harry, and that is where the Harry-Hermione-relationship and the Ron-Hermione-relationship start to shift.

• I also love that Ginny did know who Hermione’s Yule Ball date is, but didn’t tell the boys. Because Hermione and Ginny have a relationship of their own, and Hermione feels comfortable telling Ginny things she can’t talk to with Harry and Ron. I love the Ron-Harry-Hermione-relationship, but it is also important for Hermione to have a female friend (because Lavender and Parvati surely aren’t her friends), and that these characters have lives outside of Harry’s perspective.

• The irony is that in the end Ron goes with one of the best looking girls to the Yule Ball but he couldn’t care less about it.