49 Fun Facts About Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Goblet of Fire is which book in the Harry Potter series?

Fourth. Rowling says it nearly gave her a nervous breakdown: well into the writing she found a big hole in the middle of the plot and had to go back and redo it.

Bloomsbury published Goblet of Fire in Britain; which publisher released it in the United States on the same day?

Scholastic. For the first time both countries got a Potter book on the same day, a Saturday, and no copies went to critics in advance, so reviewers had to buy it and speed-read.

Goblet of Fire is the only Harry Potter novel to win which major science fiction and fantasy award?

Hugo. Prisoner of Azkaban had been shortlisted the year before and lost; Goblet of Fire went one better in 2001, beating George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords.

Which creatures, Madame Maxime warns, drink only single-malt whisky?

Winged horses. They pull the giant Beauxbatons carriage through the sky to Hogwarts, where Dumbledore hands the enormous animals over to Hagrid to look after.

Into which animal does Professor Moody transfigure Draco Malfoy for attacking Harry from behind?

A ferret. Moody bounces the white ferret around the Entrance Hall until Professor McGonagall stops him, telling him that Hogwarts never transfigures students as a punishment.

Who is the Beauxbatons champion?

Fleur Delacour. Her wand holds a hair from her Veela grandmother, which is why a dazed Ron blurts out a Yule Ball invitation to her and gets no answer.

Which Durmstrang champion is also a professional Quidditch Seeker?

Viktor Krum. Ron idolises him and buys a model of him at the World Cup, until Krum takes Hermione to the Yule Ball; Harry later finds the little figure broken.

What do Fred and George sprout after trying to enter the Triwizard Tournament?

Beards. Dumbledore's Age Line, drawn to keep out anyone under seventeen, is not fooled by the twins' Ageing Potion: it hurls them back across the hall with long white ones.

Which curse does Professor Moody cast on his own students so they can practise resisting it?

The Imperius Curse. Only Harry manages to throw it off in class, and the practice pays off when Voldemort later tries the same curse on him and fails.

Which Daily Prophet reporter writes sensational articles about Harry during the Triwizard Tournament?

Rita Skeeter. Rowling first gave her snooping role to a Weasley cousin called Mafalda, then cut the girl because an eleven-year-old shut in at school could only find out so much.

What creature must each Triwizard champion get past in the first task?

A dragon. Each champion has to snatch a golden egg from one; Harry draws a Hungarian Horntail and beats it by summoning his broomstick and out-flying it.

Whom does Harry ask to the Yule Ball, only to learn she is already going with Cedric?

Cho Chang. Harry takes so long to work up the nerve that she has already said yes to Cedric, and in the second task she is the hostage Cedric must bring up from the lake.

Which Gryffindor classmate does Harry take to the Yule Ball as his partner?

Parvati Patil. She says yes at the last minute and offers her twin sister Padma for Ron, who then spends the ball glaring at Hermione and her date instead of dancing.

In the film Neville gives Harry the Gillyweed for the second task; who gives it to him in the book?

Dobby. He wakes Harry minutes before the task with Gillyweed taken from Snape's office, after the fake Moody made sure the house-elf overheard that it would work.

Which creatures guard the hostages on the lake bed in the Triwizard Tournament's second task?

Merpeople. Their chief reports that Harry reached the hostages first and stayed until every one was freed, so the judges mark him up although he surfaces last.

What is the third task Harry faces in Goblet of Fire?

Navigating a hedge maze to the Triwizard Cup. Harry and Cedric reach it together, each insists the other has earned it, and they agree to take hold at the same moment.

The Triwizard Cup turns out to be what kind of magical object?

A Portkey. The impostor on the Hogwarts staff bewitched it to carry the winner to a graveyard, and Harry later summons the same Cup to escape with Cedric's body.

On Voldemort's order to "kill the spare", who murders Cedric Diggory in the graveyard?

Peter Pettigrew. Wormtail kills Cedric the moment the two boys arrive, then ties Harry to a headstone and uses his blood in the rite that gives Voldemort a body again.

In which village is the graveyard where Voldemort regains a body beside his father's grave?

Little Hangleton. The rite that restores him needs a bone from his father's grave, and the Riddle House on the hill above the village is where the story opens.

Which rare effect links Harry's and Voldemort's wands and draws echoes of Voldemort's victims from his?

Priori Incantatem. Early printings had James's echo emerge before Lily's, the wrong order for a wand replaying its killings backwards, and later editions swapped them.

Who has been impersonating Mad-Eye Moody all year?

Barty Crouch Jr. He kept the real Moody alive in a trunk because he needed him to go on making Polyjuice Potion, which he drank from the hip flask Moody was known for.

Snape threatens to slip Harry three drops of which potion in Goblet of Fire?

Veritaserum. It would have Harry spilling his innermost secrets, Snape says; months later Dumbledore sends Snape for his strongest truth potion to question the fake Moody.

In the Goblet of Fire novel, what happens to the fake Moody after he confesses?

He receives the Dementor's Kiss. Fudge brings a Dementor into the castle and it sucks out his soul, so the one witness who could confirm Voldemort's return can never testify.

After Cedric's parents refuse the prize gold, what does Harry do with it?

Funds Fred and George's joke shop. Harry hands the twins the whole prize after the train ride home, on one condition: they must buy Ron new dress robes without saying who paid.

What does Ron pay Harry back for with leprechaun gold that later vanishes?

Omnioculars. Ron scoops up a fistful of the Irish mascots' gold at the Quidditch World Cup to pay Harry back, and is upset months later to learn from Hagrid that it never lasts.

Which group does Hermione found in Goblet of Fire to campaign for house-elves?

S.P.E.W. Hermione's first choice of name was a slogan too long to fit on the badges, and she drafts a reluctant Harry and Ron as the society's officers.

Hermione works out that the Daily Prophet's reporter has been eavesdropping at Hogwarts in the form of which creature?

A beetle. Hermione catches the unregistered Animagus on a hospital-wing window, seals her in a jar and frees her only on a promise to write nothing for a year.

Which creatures from Hagrid's lessons do Harry and Cedric meet again in the Triwizard Tournament's final task?

Blast-Ended Skrewts. Hagrid's class has to look after the stinging, fire-blasting creatures all year, and one leaves Cedric smoking on his way to the Cup.

Which working title of Goblet of Fire leaked out before Rowling renamed the book?

The Doomspell Tournament. Its American publisher still listed that name in its catalogue in spring 2000, and the real title was kept back until under two weeks before publication.

Which sign appears in the sky over the Quidditch World Cup campsite and sends the crowd into panic?

The Dark Mark. Ministry wizards rush in firing Stunning Spells and find a house-elf holding the wand that conjured it, which turns out to be Harry's own lost wand.

J.K. Rowling launched Goblet of Fire aboard a steam train that set off from which London station?

King's Cross. Billed as the Hogwarts Express, the train carried Rowling and copies to sign north for four days, calling at York and Edinburgh before ending at Perth in Scotland.

Which bestselling novelist reviewed Goblet of Fire for The New York Times?

Stephen King. He praised its humour and its mystery plotting but grumbled about "a moderately tiresome amount of adolescent squabbling", adding, "it's a teenage thing".

Who directed the 2005 film of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?

Mike Newell. The Four Weddings and a Funeral director had been in the running for the very first Potter film; with this one he became the series' first British director.

Which actor plays Cedric Diggory in the Goblet of Fire film?

Robert Pattinson. Henry Cavill missed out on the same part, and Twilight's author later wanted Cavill as Edward Cullen too, the role that made Pattinson a star.

Which actor made his first appearance as Lord Voldemort in the Goblet of Fire film?

Ralph Fiennes. He had not read the books or seen the films and resisted the part until his sister Martha told him he had to do it; her son later played the schoolboy Tom Riddle.

Which future Doctor Who star plays the Death Eater who impersonates Moody in the Goblet of Fire film?

David Tennant. Unlike the book, the film puts his character in Harry's opening nightmare, so viewers see the impostor's real face long before he is unmasked.

Which actor plays Mad-Eye Moody in the Goblet of Fire film?

Brendan Gleeson. He called Moody "a gunslinger with a wand", and the costume fits: the coat was modelled on spaghetti Westerns, and a team spent a week ageing it.

Which actress plays the Daily Prophet's reporter in the Goblet of Fire film?

Miranda Richardson. Her character keeps a secret on screen that the book exposes: the film drops the closing train scene in which Hermione reveals how the reporter gets her scoops.

Members of which two British bands play the Weird Sisters at the Yule Ball in the Goblet of Fire film?

Radiohead and Pulp. Jarvis Cocker sings with Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway behind him, but a Canadian folk group called the Wyrd Sisters sued, so the film never speaks the band's name.

Which composer scored the earlier Harry Potter films before leaving ahead of Goblet of Fire?

John Williams. Patrick Doyle, who had scored two of the new director's earlier films, took over, and of the old music only "Hedwig's Theme" survives in his score.

Goblet of Fire was the first Potter film to receive which BBFC rating in the UK?

12A. The BBFC cited moderate fantasy violence, threat and horror but asked for no cuts, and under-12s could still see it as long as an adult sat with them.

Goblet of Fire topped 2005's worldwide box office, but which film won North America?

Revenge of the Sith. The Star Wars finale took about $90 million more in North America, but Harry earned two-thirds of his total abroad and finished first worldwide.

A "dry for wet" test for the Goblet of Fire lake scenes hung actors in the air; which detail failed to convince?

Their hair. It would not drift as it does in water, so the crew spent three months building a tank 20 feet deep, and Daniel Radcliffe learned to scuba dive to film in it.

Every Harry Potter film before Goblet of Fire opens at which location?

Privet Drive. This time the Dursleys never appear: the film opens on the Riddle House nightmare, and Harry wakes at the Burrow on the morning of the Quidditch World Cup.

What does the Daily Prophet's reporter use to twist Harry's words in their broom-cupboard interview?

A Quick-Quotes Quill. It scribbles by itself as she talks, and Harry can see it writing down things he never said before Dumbledore interrupts.

Which two characters from the Goblet of Fire novel were cut from the film entirely?

Ludo Bagman and Winky. The gambling Ministry sports chief and the sacked house-elf went with most of the subplots, as the film kept only what bore directly on Harry's story.

Which actor plays Ollivander, the wandmaker who is in the Goblet of Fire novel but missing from the film?

John Hurt. He sells Harry his wand in the first film, but the film of Goblet of Fire leaves out the weighing of the champions' wands, and Ollivander is not seen again until Deathly Hallows.

Which company published the Goblet of Fire tie-in video game in November 2005?

Electronic Arts. Its game went on sale ten days before the film opened, so players could attempt all three Triwizard tasks before cinema audiences had seen them.

Where does Cedric tell Harry to take his golden egg to hear its clue?

The prefects' bathroom. Cedric is repaying Harry's tip-off before the first task, and it takes Moaning Myrtle to suggest opening the egg under the water, where its screech turns to song.