Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Book Summary

The connection between Harry and Voldemort is now felt by Harry who dreams about Voldemort’s current activities. He does not understand why and asks Sirius, his godfather, who is now on the run from the Ministry.

While waiting for Sirius’ reply to his letter, the Weasleys invite him and Hermione to watch the Quidditch World Cup which will be held in Britain. Harry learns to use a portkey (any item which magically trasports a wizard/witch holding it to a predetermined place) for the first time. They watch and admire Victor Krum, Bulgaria’s sensational seeker, a position also held by Harry in the Gryffindor team, and one of the champions who will compete in the tri-wizard tournament.  After Ireland takes the cup, some Death Eaters (supporters of Voldemort who wear hooded masks) have some fun with the Muggles. Voldemort’s signature, the Dark Mark, shows up in the sky, which in the time which Voldemort terrorized the magical population meant that a killing just happened where the mark appeared, and scares everyone including the Death Eaters.  The trio are separated from the others and end up in the place where the mark came from. Ministry people catch Winky, Bartemius Crouch’s house-elf, with Harry’s wand, which was used to conjure the dark mark. Crouch, head of Department of International Magical Cooperation, punishes Winky by giving him clothes, thus setting her free. Winky was the one who took care of Couch’s son, a captured death eater, whom everybody thought died in prison, but was actually broken out of Azkaban by Crouch by substituting his dying wife with Bart Jr. Because of Winky’s banishment, Voldemort came to Crouch’s son, performs the imperius curse (an unforgivable curse which puts a wizard under the control of the one who performed the curse) on Crouch himself, and releases Bart Jr. from the imperius curse Crouch used on his son to prevent his son from going back to Voldemort. Voldemort then uses Bart Jr. for his own evil purpose.

After the World Cup, they return to Hogwarts, where another international tournament is going to be held, the Tri-Wizard Tournament.  This is a contest between three of Europe’s magical schools, Hogwarts, Beuxbaton and Durmstrang, where an impartial magical object called the Goblet of Fire, chooses the champion of each school who will compete and finish three tasks.  It is a binding magical contract that no champion can back out of.

Hogwart’s new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a former auror (dark wizard catcher), who is responsible for more than half of the population in Azkaban, called Mad-Eye Moody because of his unusual facial disfigurement.  Before coming to Hogwarts, he was captured and stunned by  Bart Jr., who now takes his place at Hogwarts by means of polyjuice potion, where he will put Voldemort’s plan in motion. He confounds the goblet of fire, making it believe that there are four schools instead of three, and submits Harry’s name under it, forcing Harry to take part in the tournament.  He makes sure that Harry performs well so that he will enter the maze, for the third task, first and hopefully get to the cup first, which he had transformed into a portkey to the graveyard where Voldemort’s father was buried. Cedric Diggory, Hogwart’s other champion, who arrived at the portkey with Harry, is killed by Voldemort when they come face-to-face with him. Voldemort needs blood from Harry so that he could have a body. He successfully performs the magic which gives him form and body and then summons the Death Eaters to his side by touching the dark mark branded on their arms. Most come and they witness Harry and Voldemort duel. However, Voldemort’s wand, which came from the same phoenix as Harry’s wand, connected with Harry’s wand, and protected Harry. He is able to get to the portkey and he takes Cedric’s body back with him.

When he returns to Hogwarts, Mad-Eye separates him from Dumbledore, which makes Dumbledore suspicious, and takes Harry to question him about what happened in the graveyard. Harry realizes that Mad-Eye is not on his side. Dumbledore bursts in and overpowers Mad-Eye. He opens the trunk and they find the real Mad-Eye inside where Bart Jr kept him for information and for the hair which needed to be added to the polyjuice potion. Dumbledore administers Veritaserum and learns what happened. He tells McGonagall to guard Crouch and Snape to fetch Fudge so that he could question Bart Jr. Dumbledore asks Harry what happened in the graveyard. After telling Dumbledore, he is sent to sleep but is awakened when Fudge barges into the hospital wing. Fudge refuses to believe that Voldemort is back and it is here where the parting of ways begin. When Fudge leaves, Dumbledore begins the process of preparing for tthe fight against Voldemort which will begin in the next book.