GoF Chapter Nineteen

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• The prospect of talking to Sirius is the only thing that sustains Harry through an entire fortnight, the one pinprick of light in a sea of darkness. How did we not see Emo!Harry coming?



• Harry felt nerves before playing Slytherin last year? Lucky thing he had that much better broom, then, making his victory inevitable. Btw, who won that game? Just kidding!



• Dropping my suspended disbelief for a moment, how ridiculous is this? Harry is wandering around literally thinking he's going to die soon and his fear isn't unreasonable. But this is fine with Dumbledore and the school. Hogwarts: the school where fairly certain death is part of the curriculum!



• So it's Colin Creevey who introduces Hermione Granger to the equation, not Draco. Btw, heh on the comments about that article. The Slytherins aren't totally wrong in saying Harry is the top student at the "private school" he and Neville have started. Barty Crouch actually did start a private school just so that Harry could be its Champion.



• Cho, a Ravenclaw, doesn't seem so happy to wish Harry well. I cling to my belief that Ravenclaw really don't care. After all, Harry didn't say they were against him, merely that they thought he put his name in the Goblet.



• Of course, Cho's loyalty to Harry, while above and beyond what might be reasonably expected, will still not go far enough. This is why Ginny is Harry's ideal girl. I'm surprised we don't hear how Ginny believes in Harry, actually. I think it would just tip the author's hand way too early and show how obvious it was she was going to be his girlfriend and that's the sum of her character. But we now all know that Ginny was hexing people right and left this whole time for believing Harry put his own name in the Goblet, right?



• Cho does seem to genuinely like Harry here, at least. Her going after him the next year isn't out of the blue. Don't ask me why she likes him, but she's nice enough to wish him good luck when she doesn't have to.



• Hermione is able to ignore people laughing about her looks, knowing that she will be able to be stunningly pretty when the need arises.



• Snape's making Ron and Harry pickle rats brains even though Ron had a rat OMG! Where are all the long explanations of how this is psychological abuse that Ron will never overcome?



• Harry has a block against summoning charms, just in time to make it all the more amazing when he Accio's his broom in the contest.



• Okay, why is Viktor hanging around the library? Is he just mooning over Hermione? Or is he being told to study and falling in love with Hermione while watching her study there too? Are we just not supposed to notice that the fantasy becomes even more fantastic whenever Hermione's involved? She's like Lana Turner at the library soda fountain here.



• Btw, Hermione criticizes girls for liking Krum because "he's not even good-looking," just famous, and they wouldn't care about him if he couldn't do the Wonky Feint. Um, Hermione? Exactly what's wrong with being attracted to someone for their abilities rather than their looks? Would you not have liked Lockhart if he were ugly? Is Ron right that you only like good-looking guys? Maybe the girls just have monsters in their chests, Hermione. They can't help it.



• Apparently time has speeded up for Harry as he nears his first task. Ironic, since this section drags terribly for me. Relativity in action!



• Why does Harry suppose Hogsmeade is the only all-wizard village in Britain? Shouldn't they have plenty of them? Amazingly cocky types, wizards, for people who can only produce one village without Muggles.



• What wouldn't Harry give to be one of those people sitting, talking and laughing, worried only about homework? Get used to that refrain, folks. You'll be hearing it A LOT in OotP.



• Hagrid is beaming down at Harry. Harry knows Hagrid can't see him, but Harry also knows Moody has told Hagrid he was there. We all know this, Harry. You don't have to explain it. At this point in the book we're about three steps ahead of you.



• Hagrid continues to behave totally inappropriately for a teacher. Meet you at midnight at his cottage? Sure!



• The Creeveys can't change Draco's badges. Very advanced magic, I'm telling you. It was a clue all along that Malfoy is Slytherin's Hermione. Sure it seems like nothing he does ever works, but that's because we don't see the stuff that does work. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



• The dragons are pretty cool.



• Okay, so I guess it's good Hagrid's showing Harry the dragons if it will actually help him not die and all, but stepping outside of Harry it's pretty dumb for him to show Madame Maxime to give her school an advantage just to get her into bed. I'd hope she was just leading him on but she and Viktor both seem to have been roped into love stories as payment for being in the book.



• Is it really necessary for Hagrid to impress Madame Maxime with dragons? Does he not realize that the size of his penis pretty much assures he's in like Flynn with Madame Maxime?



• The funny thing is that all this makes Hagrid perfect for the groundskeeper character. It's just as a teacher he's off. Groundskeeper characters are supposed to be creepy. It's tradition. Hagrid and Groundskeeper Willy are practically related. And Janitor Joe from Richard Scarry's Great Big Schoolhouse: "In October the leaves begin to fall. Joe raked them up and carried them in his wheelbarrow to a big pile. He burned them in an open place so nothing else would catch fire. JOE! You left the wheelbarrow too close to the fire!



• Nice of Hagrid to bring two people along to something Charlie said was a secret. But then, who would trust Hagrid with this secret?



• The Horntail's the worst. The other dragons are nothing compared to him. Which dragon do you think Harry will get?



• And yes, Hagrid would totally steal ANOTHER freakin' dragon egg if he could. Because he's a moron. And then it would be up to someone else to cover up for his mess again.



• The only champion facing the unknown is Cedric. Honestly, Hagrid, that was pretty unfair just telling Harry--and Fleur just so you could get some. I've given up on the idea that it would occur to anyone to tip off a student not in their own school, but Cedric's at Hogwarts.



• I think Draco fixed the badges specifically so that anyone who tried to "improve" them like the Creeveys did would make them insult Harry more (though he assumed it would be Hermione). The boy is handy!



• Not that his handiness will ever truly be appreciated. Nobody cares about inventions that don't involve snot.



• So Karkakoff was a DE and now he teaches kids--just like Snape. You know your society is in trouble when schoolmaster is the standard career of ex-terrorists.



• We know Karkakoff is a good actor for convincing the MoM to set him free. You know, I don't think that would take a good actor. The Ministry is pretty dim. Hopefully Snape's story doesn't rest on the same kind of gullibility.



• I give Sirius credit here. He's the one person smart enough to think twice about the disturbance at Moody's house. His theory is wrong, but not illogical.



• But now for what's really important to Harry: Sirius' hair is now short and clean. Harry vows to survive the Tournament just to get a chance to see it long and luxurious, bouncin' and behavin' once again. Mmmm. Bad boys.



• So...Sirius says the DEs have been more active lately by showing themselves at the QWC and setting off the Dark Mark. But it was Barty who set off the Mark. So were the DEs really being "active" that night? Or were they just drunk or something? Were they intentionally acting as DEs when they tormented the Muggles? If so, why? They were freaked out by the Mark, weren't they? So they didn't know Voldemort was back. And did they make new outfits or did the Ministry let them keep the old ones for fancy dress and such?



• Note that what Bertha was like at school totally applies to her as an adult. No growing up for wizards, ever.



• Very nosy, but no brains. Why does that seem to apply to any number of people in these books?



• *snerk* Yeah, Sirius is about to tell Harry the one simple spell to use on the dragon, but then he has to stop and can't even say the word instead of "Go!" That's not pure drama.



• Gee, do you think Ron was worried about Harry even though he's angry at him? That's how you can tell Ron's not the hero. He can't be half the asshole Harry can be. No grudge-power, that boy.



• Harry's throwing the badge and his comment about Ron getting a scar (I hope he thanks Hermione for that insight to use against him) is pretty low. I'm so glad I know eventually Ron will apologize and accept that comment as his own fault. In future he will keep his problems out of Harry's sight. I wish I were Harry's best friend!



• I like that Harry is annoyed by Ron's too-short pajamas. Does he have to be so poor all the time, too? Poor people are so irritating, especially to Harry, who doesn't care about money at all--and he's got piles of it!



• Btw, even Ron's pajamas are maroon? What is Molly's problem? Is she still that angry Ron wasn't a girl or something?

Day-for-Night

Well, it will be, won't it?

Designated Hero
The one throwing things at his friend, yes.

IITS
Molly is the only adult complaining about Harry having to be in the Tournament. The other adults have pretty much accepted it and moved on. Even Sirius sees the dragon as something he just has to handle on the way to the more serious problem of wondering if Karkakoff is trying to kill him.

Idiot World
"So, whatever happened to that kid who was supposed to save us from the Dark Wizard thingie?"
"Oh, he got gored to death and burnt up by a dragon in a contest his school forced him to enter when he was a kid."
"Too bad. Oh well, back to work. Hail the Dark Lord!"

McGuffin
Even the characters admit the dragon is just filler for the main plot.

Final score: 5