pauraque_bk | GoF 12

In Chapter 11 we had talk of Draco/Pansy and dissected the train scene a bit more.

GoF 12: The Triwizard Tournament

The Sorting of the new students into houses took place at the start of every school year, but by an unlucky combination of circumstances, Harry hadn't been present at one since his own. (154)

Circumstances including his author not wanting to make up that many songs, I imagine.

For Hufflepuff, hard workers were
Most worthy of admission (157)

Rather different from the OotP line about Helga taking "the rest" and treating them all equally, which I expect was more the Hat making a point about unity than anything else... But on the other hand, watch for the Fat Friar in a few pages.

Secret message to

aithopa: Salazar is "from fen". Someone fetch a gadfly!

On Snape's other side was an empty seat, which Harry guessed was Professor McGonagall's. Next to it, and in the very centre of the table, sat Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster, his sweeping silver hair and beard shining in the candlelight, his magnificent deep-green robes embroidered with many stars and moons. The tips of Dumbledore's long, thin fingers were together and he was resting his chin upon them, staring up at the ceiling through his half-moon spectacles as though lost in thought. Harry glanced up at the ceiling, too. It was enchanted to look like the sky outside, and he had never seen it look this stormy. Black and purple clouds were swirling across it, and as another thunderclap sounded outside, a fork of lightning flashed across it. (155-156)

What is Dumbledore thinking here? He's gazing at the Metaphorical Gathering Storm (a popular device since Shakespeare and probably before). He's dressed in green and sitting next to Snape. Suggests to me he's calculating, scheming if you like.

What do you guys think motivated him to reinstate the Tournament? I have to assume it was his idea, or it wouldn't have ended up at his school.

As an aside, now that Harry's tendency to notice people's long shiny hair has been pointed out to me, I can't stop seeing it!

[Nearly Headless Nick:] 'We held a ghosts' council -- the Fat Friar was all for giving him the chance -- but most wisely, in my opinion, the Bloody Baron put his foot down.'

The Bloody Baron was the Slytherin ghost, a gaunt and silent spectre covered in silver bloodstains. He was the only person at Hogwarts who could really control Peeves. (161)

Here the Fat Friar does seem to exemplify the "Hufflepuff treated them all the same" idea from OotP, wanting to give Peeves another chance.

The Bloody Baron controls Peeves -- Slytherin tactics/knowledge can control chaos?

'Treacle tart, Hermione!' said Ron, deliberately wafting its smell towards her. 'Spotted dick, look! Chocolate gateau!' (162)

Spotted dick is a sort of steamed pudding which is perpetually amusing to sophomoric Americans such as myself. Did they let it stand in the US edition?

Of course, she doesn't want dessert because it was made by house-elf slave labor. There'll be lots more opportunities to talk about this, but for now I'll just say that this is a good age for a teenaged girl to suddenly become obsessed with social justice; I remember my female friends doing the same thing at 14.

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder, and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black travelling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swivelled towards the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. (163)

Junior! I have to say, all through this book he seems to be having the time of his life. Like V, he loves high drama -- waits for a peal of thunder to make his theatrical entrance. Unlike some of the other DEs, he genuinely enjoys what he's doing. Only the real loonies do: Junior, Bellatrix, Fenrir. The relatively lucid ones (say Lucius, Snape, Peter, Karkaroff etc) don't.

I still don't know what a traveling cloak is. I bet you could find places I've used it in fic, though.

[Moody] stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering words Harry couldn't hear. He seemed to be making some enquiry of the stranger, who shook his head unsmilingly and replied in an undertone. Dumbledore nodded, and gestured the man to the empty seat on his right-hand side. (164)

I want to keep an eye on places where "Moody" and Dumbledore interact. The more they do, the less plausible it appears that Dumbledore wouldn't know it wasn't really him.

Are there any good theories postulating that Dumbledore did know but kept it to himself?

I'm going for it!' Fred Weasley hissed down the table, his face lit with enthusiasm at the prospect of such glory and riches. (166)

Fanon usually has it that Fred is the more outgoing of the twins, and that seems evident in this chapter. Fred has excited dialogue about wanting to enter the Tournament six times in this chapter; George just says it's not fair that they can't. Just notable as a point where they're not interchangeable.

Harry caught a glimpse of Cho, the Ravenclaw Seeker, cheering Stewart Ackerly as he sat down. For a fleeting second, Harry had a strange desire to join the Ravenclaw table too. (158)

Harry rolled over in bed, a series of dazzling new pictures forming in his mind's eye [...] he had just won the Triwizard Tournament [...] Cho's face stood out particularly clearly in the blurred crowd, her face glowing with admiration... (169-170)

Chapter 9 has Harry falling asleep to fantasies of flying like Krum, which is pretty similar to this last passage. His fantasy life seems much more focused on personal glory than it has previously -- in PS/SS, it's Ron whose mind runs along those lines. (It's also similar in the sense that both times he's fantasizing about Seekers, though in somewhat different capacities!)

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