GOF Chapter 20: The First Task
I know Harry is nervous, but Rowling's description of the difficulties he has getting dressed is beyond silly.
When Harry is in trouble he seeks out Hermione. She is good for getting him out of tight spots, but not someone who can make him feel happy. Ginny is with her - does she secretly believe Harry? Or does she not care one way or the other? We'll never know. (At this point in the story Ginny can't make Harry happy either. Her presence has no significance for him whatsoever.) BTW Ginny is secretly popular. She has so many friends, but we only ever see her in Hermione's company. I guess whenever we don't see her she is out there, being popular.
Hermione tries to reverse-engineer Sirius' hint. She misses an important detail - if it's a simple spell, and such spells can't penetrate the dragon's hide, she needs to think of what parts of the dragon aren't protected by the hide.
When Harry tries to concentrate his brain is filled with blank buzzing. Brains are next to useless in this universe, so Rowling doesn't care how stupid she makes her hero.
Harry is noble enough to warn Cedric about the dragons, but wouldn't have done so for Severus or Draco. Despite the fact that in a previous chapter he admitted to himself the only person he knew who wanted him dead was Voldemort, not either of these two. (Of course he has long forgotten that Severus not only worked an entire year to save him from Quirrell but also followed him to the place where he nearly died once to save Harry from the same would-be killers.)
'Moody' praises Harry for sharing his forbidden knowledge with Cedric. Barty has an excellent understanding of the Gryffindor mind.
'Moody' had to disable the sneakoscope because it wouldn't stop whistling. (No, not because he is the untrustworthy one, it's all those cheating kids, of course!) I love the way Barty insists on giving himself away - yet nobody picks up on his hints. He isn't in trouble until the Foe-Glass shows him the whites of his enemies' eyes. (But when this happens, will he be looking?)
'Moody' will not help Harry cheat, no way! He will only hint. Heavily. Repeatedly. All Harry needs is a simple spell that will get him what he needs to do the one thing he is good at. Finally the anvil lands.
Now Harry knows what he needs Hermione for - to remind him to concentrate as he points and says 'Accio'. There's no point in practicing without that aspect, Harry admits. Why can't Rowling come up with ways to learn where the teacher's presence actually means something?
As she leads him to the tent near the dragon-enclosure Minerva assures Harry there will be wizards to keep him safe if he fails - she just expects him to try his best. Still nobody suggests he might be able to default, or try less than his best, for the sake of his safety.
Bagman gives the instructions but attempts to keep the suspense by not mentioning the dragons. I wonder if he knows they all know already?
Fleur gets the smallest and cutest dragon. Harry gets the scariest one, of course!
Ludo is willing to give Harry last moment hints - because his plan (whether it is winning bets or delivering Harry to Voldemort) requires Harry to succeed. I wonder if Ludo was going to offer the same advice Sirius was going to. Despite the rules only prohibiting help from a teacher (which is just what Harry got, twice already), it's Ludo's help Harry doesn't feel comfortable about.
The concentration and focus Harry shows when he summons the Firebolt is unlike anything we ever see Harry do in his confrontations with Voldemort. The only other comparison that comes to mind is the Patronus spell by the lake in POA. I'm wondering whether there should have been more such moments where Harry is clearly trying hard to stretch his ability.
The dragon was just an ugly opposing Quidditch team. Clearly Slytherin, despite the mismatching colors.
Well, it works and Harry is the fastest to complete the task.
Poppy - what are 'they' going to bring to the school next? A psycho toad-person, followed by an aspiring DE-initiate and his back-up team of psychos, followed by an entire army of them. The dragons are the best-contained of the bunch.
Harry ignores Hermione's praise. What matters is Ron's realization that being a champion was really dangerous, which of course proves Harry didn't volunteer for this. (How exactly? Isn't this the boy who risked dementors and a mass murderer for a Hogsmeade visit?) In a gallant move Harry stops Ron from actually apologizing. Which saves Harry the wonder if he should be apologizing too for some of the things he said to Ron (such as accusing him of wanting to be TBWL).
Ron is convinced Harry was the best, but from his description I'm not sure Cedric or Fleur weren't just as good. And it seems Fleur wasn't hurt as badly as him or Cedric.
Ludo's score for Harry is so obviously biased upwards even Harry notices, whereas Igor's score is obviously biased the other way. We are meant to think the score Albus and Crouch Sr give him is the one he deserves and Olympe was slightly biased against him, but knowing in retrospect that Crouch Sr is Imperiurized to promote Voldemort's plan and Albus has a history of pro-Harry bias (as well as working on a plan to eventually get Harry killed by Voldemort) I tend to think Olympe's score was the more accurate one, whereas Albus and Crouch were giving Harry the highest score they could get away with without being too obvious about it.
I'm surprised that Viktor is the champion Harry is tied with when he was the only contestant whose strategy caused damage to the dragon's own eggs. Based on Ron's commentary I's say Fleur did the best of the other three. While I understand Rowling's reasoning for having Fleur be the one to fail the second task (because her hostage was the only one who was a total stranger to Harry and thus the one most 'noble' for him to save), she should have made Fleur the best in the first task in compensation. But this is the Potterverse, where magic is not quite the gender equalizer you'd expect it to be from the way it is described. Especially in GOF, where women are sex objects and many with significance to the plot or backstory are nameless (Bellatrix Lestrange and Alice Longbottom were only named in OOTP, and there are Mrs Crouch and Mrs Diggory, invisible and nameless next to their men).
There's a clue for the next task in the egg. And 3 months to procrastinate about figuring it out.
Also, Harry gets rid of Rita Skeeter, for a while.
When Harry is in trouble he seeks out Hermione. She is good for getting him out of tight spots, but not someone who can make him feel happy. Ginny is with her - does she secretly believe Harry? Or does she not care one way or the other? We'll never know. (At this point in the story Ginny can't make Harry happy either. Her presence has no significance for him whatsoever.) BTW Ginny is secretly popular. She has so many friends, but we only ever see her in Hermione's company. I guess whenever we don't see her she is out there, being popular.
Hermione tries to reverse-engineer Sirius' hint. She misses an important detail - if it's a simple spell, and such spells can't penetrate the dragon's hide, she needs to think of what parts of the dragon aren't protected by the hide.
When Harry tries to concentrate his brain is filled with blank buzzing. Brains are next to useless in this universe, so Rowling doesn't care how stupid she makes her hero.
Harry is noble enough to warn Cedric about the dragons, but wouldn't have done so for Severus or Draco. Despite the fact that in a previous chapter he admitted to himself the only person he knew who wanted him dead was Voldemort, not either of these two. (Of course he has long forgotten that Severus not only worked an entire year to save him from Quirrell but also followed him to the place where he nearly died once to save Harry from the same would-be killers.)
'Moody' praises Harry for sharing his forbidden knowledge with Cedric. Barty has an excellent understanding of the Gryffindor mind.
'Moody' had to disable the sneakoscope because it wouldn't stop whistling. (No, not because he is the untrustworthy one, it's all those cheating kids, of course!) I love the way Barty insists on giving himself away - yet nobody picks up on his hints. He isn't in trouble until the Foe-Glass shows him the whites of his enemies' eyes. (But when this happens, will he be looking?)
'Moody' will not help Harry cheat, no way! He will only hint. Heavily. Repeatedly. All Harry needs is a simple spell that will get him what he needs to do the one thing he is good at. Finally the anvil lands.
Now Harry knows what he needs Hermione for - to remind him to concentrate as he points and says 'Accio'. There's no point in practicing without that aspect, Harry admits. Why can't Rowling come up with ways to learn where the teacher's presence actually means something?
As she leads him to the tent near the dragon-enclosure Minerva assures Harry there will be wizards to keep him safe if he fails - she just expects him to try his best. Still nobody suggests he might be able to default, or try less than his best, for the sake of his safety.
Bagman gives the instructions but attempts to keep the suspense by not mentioning the dragons. I wonder if he knows they all know already?
Fleur gets the smallest and cutest dragon. Harry gets the scariest one, of course!
Ludo is willing to give Harry last moment hints - because his plan (whether it is winning bets or delivering Harry to Voldemort) requires Harry to succeed. I wonder if Ludo was going to offer the same advice Sirius was going to. Despite the rules only prohibiting help from a teacher (which is just what Harry got, twice already), it's Ludo's help Harry doesn't feel comfortable about.
The concentration and focus Harry shows when he summons the Firebolt is unlike anything we ever see Harry do in his confrontations with Voldemort. The only other comparison that comes to mind is the Patronus spell by the lake in POA. I'm wondering whether there should have been more such moments where Harry is clearly trying hard to stretch his ability.
The dragon was just an ugly opposing Quidditch team. Clearly Slytherin, despite the mismatching colors.
Well, it works and Harry is the fastest to complete the task.
Poppy - what are 'they' going to bring to the school next? A psycho toad-person, followed by an aspiring DE-initiate and his back-up team of psychos, followed by an entire army of them. The dragons are the best-contained of the bunch.
Harry ignores Hermione's praise. What matters is Ron's realization that being a champion was really dangerous, which of course proves Harry didn't volunteer for this. (How exactly? Isn't this the boy who risked dementors and a mass murderer for a Hogsmeade visit?) In a gallant move Harry stops Ron from actually apologizing. Which saves Harry the wonder if he should be apologizing too for some of the things he said to Ron (such as accusing him of wanting to be TBWL).
Ron is convinced Harry was the best, but from his description I'm not sure Cedric or Fleur weren't just as good. And it seems Fleur wasn't hurt as badly as him or Cedric.
Ludo's score for Harry is so obviously biased upwards even Harry notices, whereas Igor's score is obviously biased the other way. We are meant to think the score Albus and Crouch Sr give him is the one he deserves and Olympe was slightly biased against him, but knowing in retrospect that Crouch Sr is Imperiurized to promote Voldemort's plan and Albus has a history of pro-Harry bias (as well as working on a plan to eventually get Harry killed by Voldemort) I tend to think Olympe's score was the more accurate one, whereas Albus and Crouch were giving Harry the highest score they could get away with without being too obvious about it.
I'm surprised that Viktor is the champion Harry is tied with when he was the only contestant whose strategy caused damage to the dragon's own eggs. Based on Ron's commentary I's say Fleur did the best of the other three. While I understand Rowling's reasoning for having Fleur be the one to fail the second task (because her hostage was the only one who was a total stranger to Harry and thus the one most 'noble' for him to save), she should have made Fleur the best in the first task in compensation. But this is the Potterverse, where magic is not quite the gender equalizer you'd expect it to be from the way it is described. Especially in GOF, where women are sex objects and many with significance to the plot or backstory are nameless (Bellatrix Lestrange and Alice Longbottom were only named in OOTP, and there are Mrs Crouch and Mrs Diggory, invisible and nameless next to their men).
There's a clue for the next task in the egg. And 3 months to procrastinate about figuring it out.
Also, Harry gets rid of Rita Skeeter, for a while.