Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

Harry stubbornly refuses to take Cedric’s advice about the egg because he is annoyed that Cedric and Cho are now dating. Rita Skeeter publishes a shocking exposé about Hagrid, revealing Hagrid’s status as a half-giant and accusing him of irresponsible teaching and a track record of violence. Harry cannot understand how Rita Skeeter discovered Hagrid’s secret, and when Harry, Ron, and Hermione attempt to visit Hagrid, he shuts them out. A week passes, and Harry still keeps putting off working on the egg. During a visit to Hogsmeade, Harry runs into Ludo Bagman, who says that Barty Crouch has been missing for weeks. Rita Skeeter arrives at the Three Broomsticks, and when she tries to prod Harry to talk about Hagrid, Hermione yells at Rita and calls her a “horrible woman” who will do “anything for a story” (182). Harry, Ron, and Hermione once again go to visit Hagrid, and when they bang on his door, they are surprised to find that Professor Dumbledore is already there, giving Hagrid a pep-talk. Hagrid is a mess, but Dumbledore refuses to accept his resignation, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione remind Hagrid that they like him the way he is, regardless of his parentage. Hagrid tells Harry that he has to win the Triwizard Tournament to show the world that you don’t have to be a pureblood wizard to do great things, and with “the incomprehensible egg weigh[ing] more heavily than ever on Harry’s conscience” (184), Harry agrees and decides to take Cedric’s advice.

Harry sneaks out of bed and goes to the prefects’ bathroom, where he draws a bath and sits in the tub with the egg. Moaning Myrtle—the ghost from the girls’ bathroom Harry met during his second year—appears and suggests that he put the egg underwater. When the egg is opened underwater, Harry hears a strange song. The singers promise to “[take] what [he’ll] sorely miss,” and if Harry doesn’t retrieve it in time, “it won’t come back” (186). Harry realizes the riddle is about the merpeople living in the lake at Hogwarts. He will have one hour to dive in and retrieve something valuable they have taken from him. Harry realizes that he will have to figure out how to breathe underwater for one hour. As Harry sneaks back to Gryffindor Tower, he uses the Marauder’s Map he was given the previous year and his Invisibility Cloak. According to the Marauder’s Map, Barty Crouch is in Snape’s office in the middle of the night. Suddenly, Harry drops the egg, which opens and starts wailing. Mr. Filch, Professor Snape, and Professor Moody all come running, and Snape says that someone was stealing things from his office. As they all stand and argue for a bit, Harry realizes that Moody can see through his Invisibility Cloak. Moody comments that even though Dumbledore appears to trust Snape, “there are spots that don’t come off” (190). Eventually, Snape and Filch leave, and Moody notices the Marauder’s Map on the floor. He asks if Harry saw who broke into Snape’s office, and Harry says it was Mr. Crouch. Moody asks to borrow the Marauder's Map; Harry agrees and returns to Gryffindor Tower.

Harry tells Ron and Hermione about the strange interaction between Moody and Snape, implying that Snape might be a follower of Voldemort. They scramble to figure out how Harry can breathe underwater for an hour, but time is running out as the second task approaches. Time is running out, and the night before the second task, Professor McGonagall asks to see Ron and Hermione, and Harry is left alone. Harry falls asleep, and the next morning, Dobby wakes him up and presents him with gillyweed: a magical plant that will help Harry breathe underwater. Dobby explains that Ron has been taken to the bottom of the lake, and Harry thinks he will lose Ron forever if he fails the task. Harry barely makes it to the lake in time, and when he eats the “unpleasantly slimy and rubbery” gillyweed, he feels “a piercing pain on either side of his neck” (199) and grows gills and webbed hands and feet. Harry dives into the lake’s deepest depths and finds Ron, Hermione, Cho, and Fleur’s sister unconscious and surrounded by merpeople. Krum retrieves Hermione by transfiguring himself into a shark, and Cedric rescues Cho using a Bubble-Head Charm. Fleur, however, never comes for her sister, and Harry grabs her and Ron and brings them to the surface, barely in time. Fleur was attacked by water demons called grindylows, and she is enormously grateful to Harry for rescuing her little sister. The judges are impressed that Harry chose to rescue more than one hostage, and they “feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks” (205). Harry is now tied for first place with Cedric.