Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

By JK Rowling

Readers who have progressed thus far in the series know that Harry Potter is a wizard. When he isn’t attending Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, he lives with his unpleasant aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, and their bullying spoiled son Dudley. Having seen his parents murdered by the evil Lord Voldemort when he was an infant, Harry is now fourteen. He is about to begin his fourth school year, a year which will see Hogwarts compete in the Triwizarding Tournament. It seems there are rules about who can compete and Harry does not qualify, being too young.

However, someone (unknown until the end of the story) puts Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire. And once it is drawn out, he cannot refuse to compete, and along with Cedric Diggory, the official Gryffindor champion, Victor Krum, the Bulgarian international quidditch player, and Fleur Delacour, representing Beauxbatons School in France, must face the three dangerous challenges.

For the first, Harry has to battle a fire-breathing dragon and steal its egg. The egg itself, or rather its contents, provide the clue for the next task – surviving long enough underwater in the deadly Black Lagoon to rescue one of his friends. The final challenge will bring him once again face to face with Voldermort, when anything can happen.

This volume of the series also features the Yule Ball, where Harry and his friend Ron show themselves to be a couple of rather petty, misogynistic schoolchildren.

Full of adult themes, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the darkest of the Hogwarts series so far.

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