[HPforGrownups] Re: The Triwizard Portkey and the Maze

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 40932

DaveH47 at mindspring.com writes:


> Friday, July 5, 2002, 3:42:22 PM, ssk7882  [Elkins] wrote:
> 
> s> He does seem rather undismayed by the fact that Harry *escaped,* 
> s> though, doesn't he?
> 
> I find it very tempting to speculate that Crouch *wanted* Harry to
> survive, so that *he* could be the one to finish him off... Then the
> DE's would say, "Hey, Crouch did what our Lord and Master couldn't --
> he finally ridded us of that Potter kid...!  Maybe *he's* the most
> powerful one and we should be bowing to *him* instead of old
> 

Yes, I've always found this a bit curious. It really *does* sound like he 
wants to be the one to finish off Harry (he obviously intends to) and yet he 
brags about how pleased Voldemort will be with him. Wouldn't Voldemort be 
absolutely *furious* with him? Doesn't he realise this? How could he possibly 
think he could get away with upstaging him?

Which makes me wonder what exactly Voldemort's power over his supporters is? 
Would they, as Dave suggests, consider changing allegiance to Crouch? *Could* 
they do it? 

Elkins quotes Debbie:

> >Except for one problem: If the Cup was originally set to carry the 
> >first person to touch it back to the edge of the maze, why did 
> >Crouch Jr. tell Dumbledore later that when he carried the Cup into 
> >the maze, he "Turned it into a Portkey." Voldemort uses almost 
> >exactly the same phrase ("the cup which my Death Eater had turned 
> >into a Portkey") (GoF, pp. 657, 691). If it had been a portkey all 
> >along, Crouch would have had to say that he'd fixed the Portkey to 
> >go to the graveyard first, right?

>Aw, Debbie!

>Did you *have* to?

><sigh>

>Yeah, you're right.  That does make it all seem rather unlikely.  But 
>if we don't imagine that the Triwizard Cup was always a Portkey, then 
>we're left with that old question of how the contestants were 
>supposed to get back out of the maze in the first place.  And of how 
>the judges would know for sure which contestant really touched it 
>first.  And of...of...well, and besides, it's ever so much more 
>*interesting* this way, don't you think?

Well, I can imagine a number of ways, I think. I would imagine that the Cup 
was (or was supposed to be) enchanted so that, for instance, it shot sparks 
into the air, or the winner's name. And wouldn't the officials be able to 
dispose of the maze with a flick of the wand or two? Granted, rampaging 
Skrewts might be a bit of a problem.
And, of course, getting out of the maze was a potential problem not only for 
the winner but for the three other competitors. If the winner was transported 
out, what happened to the others?

OTOH, although Crouch tells us he transfigured the cup into a Portkey, he 
doesn't say that he wasn't supposed to, does he? Could this be another of the 
occasions where Crouch is combining an innocent and a devious intent (and 
telling us about it)?
If the Triwizard Cup *was* intended to be a Portkey to transport the winner 
out of the maze, it cannot have been time sensitive. If it was enchanted so 
that the next person who touched it was transported to the edge of the maze, 
then the person who tried to take it to the centre of the maze couldn't have 
got there!

It is logical that it would be enchanted after being carried to the centre 
and 'Moody' was the obvious candidate to do that. The only other way that I 
can see would be to send it there by means of a banishing spell.

So perhaps Crouch/Moody *was* supposed to turn it into a portkey.
Just not that kind.

Three more thoughts.
First, I have always liked to suppose that the wizard who designed the maze 
was Dedalus Diggle (in mythology, Daedalus designed the Minotaur's Labyrinth).

Secondly, I get really bothered by the 'Four Points' spell. How can it help 
if the wand always points north, unless Harry can keep a complete mental map 
of where he's been (including distances) in his head? Knowing the direction 
from the entrance to the maze to the centre does not tell him the relative 
direction from wherever he is within the maze at the time and the hedges are 
too tall for him to have any external points from which to take bearings. A 
spell that always pointed towards the centre would be *really* useful.

Thirdly, we see Harry blasting his way through a hedge to get to Cedric. What 
was to stop all the competitors simply doing this to get to the centre? 
Apart from honour, that is. ;-).

Eloise.
Who has a very poor sense of direction and *always* gets lost in mazes.


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