The Cup as Portkey Question

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24961

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Trina" <lj2d30 at g...> wrote:
> Or, By George I've Got It!
> 
> Having recently done a GoF re-read, the last terrifying and 
emotional 
> chapters have been on my mind a lot.  This morning, while briefly 
> considering the What Might Have Been if Cedric had been the only 
one 
> to grasp the cup--a thoroughly frightning idea which is a post of 
its 
> own, I returned to the Eternal Question--
> 
> Why make the Cup a portkey when Harry's toothbrush would work just 
as 
> well?
> 
> Like the Grinch, we have all puzzled on this till our puzzlers were 
> sore, but today an answer hit me with the force of a well-placed 
> Impedimenta charm.  It was so simple. The answer lie in the portkey 
> itself.
> 
> Picture it Little Hangleton, June.  Voldy and Wormtail await the 
bane 
> of their existences--young Harry Potter.  Once he arrives, 
> disoriented and properly frightened, he is tied to Daddy Riddle's 
> tombstone, and forced to provide Voldy with a blood sample.  Voldy 
> reincorporates into the Big Bad of yesteryear, at which point he 
> calls in his Death Eaters, chastises them for a bit, and then 
> disposes of Harry, after an invigorating game of cat and mouse.
> 
> (With me so far?  Okay. Because here's where it gets good.)
> 
> At this point Voldy and his lowly minions *Touch The Portkey And 
> Return To Hogwarts* to begin the new Reign of Terror. *This* is why 
> the portkey was rigged to return to Hogwarts.
> 
> They arrive outside of the maze, with Harry's lifeless body (after 
> all a good gloat is needed) and begin decimating the future 
wizarding 
> population.  They're merely students (and not just Hogwarts 
students 
> either, but Beauxbatons and Durmstrang as well), easy prey.  Also 
in 
> the arena is Karakoff the coward, Snape the spy, Bagman, the MoM 
> Fudge, Dumbledore, and, of course, Crouch as Moody.  Crouch didn't 
> just "forget" to take his Polyjuice Potion.  It wasn't needed.  He 
> could begin hurling hexes as Moody (in all the chaos who could tell 
> for which side he was playing?) and after the potion wore off, he 
> could fight clearly as himself, alongside his Dark Lord.  
> 
> After the battle, Voldemort would be in absolute power and all 
would 
> be right in his world.
> 
> It was so brilliant. It was so simple.  It should have worked.
> 
> Fortunately for us, Harry had an ace up his sleeve, or rather, a 
> pheonix feather in his wand and managed to foil Voldy's plan once 
> again.
> 
> Respectfully submitted for your approval...
> 
> Trina
> Now 86% obssessed.
-------
Trina,

That's very interesting.  But I had approached the question of why 
Moody doesn't turn some ordinary object into a portkey and get on 
with it a little differently.  I don't think there's any evidence 
that portkeys work at Hogwarts.  There are lots of instances in which 
people could use portkeys to get to or around the castle, but don't.  
(Floo powder, on the other hand, does work at Hogwarts, as we saw 
Lupin come out of Snape's fireplace).  Harry and Ron stole a car 
rather than use a portkey in Book 2.  Lupin and the students ride the 
train instead of using portkeys.  

So I'm thinking that Bertha Jorkins tells Crouch/Voldemort/Wormtail 
that the Cup is a portkey that transports the winner to the entrance 
of the maze, specially permitted by Dumbledore just for the 
Tournament.  They realize that their only chance of transporting 
Harry to Voldemort for rebirthing is to use the only portkey that 
will work:  the Cup.  A toothbrush won't work.  Then, as others have 
stated, it is Moody's job to change the settings on the Cup to go to 
Voldemort instead.  As for the Cup taking Harry to the opening of the 
maze, Moody/Voldemort didn't know whether Moody was inserting the 
graveyard as a pit stop or changing the original destination entirely.

Anyway, it's a theory.

Cindy

--------
"Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a third-year class who 
wouldn't even recognize a werewolf when they saw one."  PoA, Ch. 9.