[HPforGrownups] Triwizard Tournament --- a mystery to me

[Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 27122


--- "Mindy C.L." <mindyatime at juno.com> wrote:
> Rereading the two chapters "Beauxbatons and
> Durmstrang" and "The Goblet
> of Fire" today, I suddenly became very perturbed by
> the very idea of the
> Triwizard Tournament. I was filled with some
> troubling questions. Perhaps
> some of you can shed some light on these?
> 
> 1) If the headmasters of the two other schools spent
> most of the year at
> Hogwarts, did someone else take their place? Can you
> imagine Dumbledore
> missing for 8 months from Hogwarts, spending it in
> France or Scandinavia?
> Or did Madame Maxime and Professor Karkaroff return
> to their schools
> between tasks?

     Providing there were no disasters, (as there
always seem to be at Hogwarts) I imagine Durmstrang
and Beauxbatons equivalents of Minerva MacGonagall
managed perfectly well - and after all the
Headmaster/mistress could apparate home in an instant
if needed.  

> 2) What on earth did the visiting students do during
> those 8 months?
> Didn't they miss an awful lot of schoolwork? We
> hardly see them mentioned
> at all, save for the times they perform the tasks.
> Did they spend all
> their time cooped up in the carriage and ship? Why
> did the others, who
> were not chosen as champions, stay on? To support
> their champions?

     I would guess they took classes along with their
Hogwarts guest Houses, (Ravenclaw and Slytherin) we
never see them in class because they are of course
sixth and seventh year students.

> 3) Isn't it odd that so few pupils came from both
> schools? There were
> 'barely twenty additional people' at the welcoming
> feast. Why would so
> few pupils choose to enter the competition? Were the
> only kids who came,
> the ones who entered their names in the tournament?
> Why didn't the entire
> last years of both schools come, to at least show
> their support for their
> school? Or are those schools so small that they
> didn't have more than 12
> pupils in the oldest year?

    If I recall correctly Dumbledore said the
Durmstrang and Beauxbatons contigents would consist of
the Headmaster/mistress and their 'short list' of
prospective champions, obviously some sort of
winnowing process has taken place back at the
respective schools. Also I would guess students from
the two schools came to witness the tests then went
back home during the months in between, it was only
the 'short list' who stayed the whole eight months
continuously.
 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1