Grab a butterbeer and fantasize about the only cup you’re not supposed to drink out of: Join Ev, Irvin, Taavi, and our special guest Natalie Candido as they discuss Chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – “The Triwizard Tournament”!
In this episode:
- Why do we have a Sorting in Goblet of Fire?
- McGonagall hazes first years worse than Peeves
- Violence against geese!
- All aboard the vomit comet!
- Dennis’s dreams are coming true!
- What’s the point of Dennis Creevey?
- The woes of losing your favorite ruff
- We figure out what Dean Thomas’s career will be
- You can’t cancel Quidditch!
Voldemort: The Definitive Study of Tom Riddle-the Man Who Would Become “He Who Must Not Be Named” by Grace Candido-Beecher (available in all* bookstores)
Pub’s Jukebox:
I woud love to see the offspring of a trans-house couple (e.g. Neville and Hannah Abbott’s child) being sorted. I assume each parent would be hoping that the kid would share their own house. Perhaps the Patil twins had parents where one was a Gryffindor and one a Ravenclaw?
As for Dennis, I think that he could have been the one who was earmarked to die in DH. It would have made more sense for him to be “tiny in death” than Colin, who was at least 16, and had a decent chance of being 17, and therefore of age, by the time of the battle. It would make sense, if the the two muggle-born brothers were on the run, that they would have returned to Hogwarts together when they got the DA summons. But, by the time the later books were written, Colin had already been dropped from the movies and Dennis never introduced. According to the HP Wiki, the Nigel character was supposed to die in DH, but the actor had, like the original Colin, grown too tall to for the role.
PS. The Headless Huntsmen were apparently allowed to take their horses with them— were the poor animals shot and put in the tomb with their riders?
For my own peace of mind, I’d rather believe that those were horses that died independently, and the members of the Hunt tamed them and started riding them in the afterlife!
As David Martin said on the Potterversity ghosts epsiode, how does a horse choose to become a ghost?
If it’s afraid of death! You think only people can fear death?
I imagine that’s exactly how it is in wizarding households with multiple Houses!
Now I’m thinking of Teddy, and how invested people must have been in his house! His father and godfather Gryffindors, his mother a Hufflepuff, the grandmother who raised him a Slytherin… it’s a lot going on! Maybe he should’ve just said to heck with all of it, and become a Ravvenclaw!
And re: your Dennis theory, I suppose that seems plausible, but still seems redundant with the older Creevey brother in my opinion.
Or, Padma may have just been a stronger student overall. She was made a prefect when Parvati was not. That had to sting.
Loved hearing about all of those fantastic feasts and where to try them! Absolutely riotous food discussion and I learned so much.
On the Dennis question, I like it when a character makes an intriguing entrance and then you don’t know if they’ll become big news or window dressing. It’s good anti-cliché energy, and simply more realistic, and you can enjoy the moments for what they are rather than what they’re “supposed” to set up. Other characters in this category include Hooch, Binns, Blaise Zabini, Zacharias Smith, Charlie Weasley, Gabrielle Delacour, and (dare I say) Norbert, and Fang. I think all of them have wonderful plot potential, but for Dennis, I think my vote would be to have him sneak into Harry’s private lessons with Dumbledore and eavesdrop for months through some ingenious method… then be found out… then share something about his personal backstory that helps us understand why he’s had to be resourceful and adventurous… then try to join the trio on the Horcrux hunt but eventually be convinced to stay at Hogwarts as their liaison who communicates with them throughout the year and eventually helps them find Ravenclaw’s diadem. Or something. Could have been fun!
Okay, interesting prompt. My point about Dennis was less about the fact that he didn’t have a huge role to play, and more about the fact that he didn’t have ANY role to play that wasn’t redundant to Colin, especially given how much fanfare he’s introduced with. Of the characters you mention, the only one who gets such a thorough introduction is Norbert – who is as close as HP ever comes to a “monster of the week” and serves the dual role of establishing Hagrid’s lunacy when it comes to beasts, and of further establishing the magical world the story is set in.
As for the rest…
Hooch and Binns are part of the fabric of Hogwarts. You need someone to referee Quidditch, you need a boring class people sleep through. May as well have colorful characters there.
Zabini and Smith serve complementary purposes of fleshing out the other Houses. Up to that point, Slytherins have consisted of Draco and various trolls who barely string a sentence together. We need an antagonistic Slytherin for the Slug Club – it can’t be Draco (plot reasons), and none of the others are plausible candidates for the Slug Club. Zabini is also a very good example of a standard Slytherin – he dislikes Harry, but doesn’t spend every waking moment tormenting him.
Smith, on the other hand, is a very welcome development from the days of “all of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw cheered on Slytherin’s downfall.” We can’t have Harry beloved and admired by everyone not in Slytherin. Here we see that Puffs, too, can have an attitude and be that guy you just don’t like in school.
Gabrielle, I would argue doesn’t get very much of an intro – she’s really more of a prop for Fleur to rescue. She doesn’t even have any dialogue.
Fang is there for ambiance.
Charlie is the closest, IMO – he was incredibly underutilized. I think Jo initially had designs on making Voldemort more of an international threat, and Charlie would be the face of international magical cooperation – hence his prominence in GoF, and expected significance in DH per ring theory. As we discussed on the “missing from Battle of Hogwarts” episode, Jo kind of dropped this entire thread after working a lot to set it up in GoF. So yes, Charlie is similar to Dennis in not living up to the promise of his intro… but at least it’s clear to me what the intention for him was, even if it changed. Whereas with Dennis, I’m still drawing a blank.