The second task is central to the whole series

[lunalovegoodrules]

> If anything, the only problem I see with cutting the second task is 
what then would happen to The Egg And The Eye. The prefects' bathroom 
scene I wouldn't mind missing 
> (although it would be nice to see Myrtle again), but the scene on 
the stairs is one of my favorites from GoF.
> 
> Manda

But the second task is about the meaning of Rowling, the meaning of 
the Harry Potter series itself, and is at the centre of the what 
makes the books even readable for me - what I have now called many 
times the ethical imperative. In terms of the theme, where HP is 
getting all this help and advice from various sources, his decision 
in the lake is ALL HIS OWN! How can we cut that? He works a 
compromise with Diggory at the goblet, but nowhere else in the books 
is the ethical imperative, the doing, outside of any thinking or 
philosophical support, the working of HP's spirit, before any advice, 
as it were, demonstrated more clearly, and in such a way that it 
~cannot~ be ignored or explained away. Cutting the second task is 
eviscerating, I suggest, the entire book.

I agree that the scene on the stairs is wonderfully filmable.

dan