On the subject of the portkey/triwizard cup...

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 46373


> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amanda Geist" <editor at t...> wrote:
> > It has been theorized (by me, I know for certain, but I think a 
few 
> others,
> > too) that the Portkey spell has variables which the caster 
inserts. 
> I
> > believe that the spell allows the caster to set the "trigger" 
which 
> will
> > activate the Portkey function of the object in question. In the 
> case of the
> > Quidditch Cup portkeys, the trigger was a particular time, and 
it 
> was a
> > one-way spell. In the case of the Triwizard Cup, the trigger was 
> touch, and
> > it was set to be a two-way spell (round trip).

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "revanto" <revanto at y...> wrote: 
> OK But why would Moody/Crouch set the Portkey for a return trip? I 
> don't think he'd want Harry to return. That's why I think that the 
> combination of the ghosts and the power of the phoenix turned the 
cup 
> back into a portkey giving Harry a chance to escape. 

But the ghosts, IIRC, don't go near the portkey cup, and I don't 
think they have the power to change matter, per se, which is what 
altering the charm on the portkey would require. I mean, if they 
could do magic, then there are other things they could do, like 
Expelliarmus the Death Eaters or even take their masks away to 
reveal their faces, or obliviate a few memories. 

It's more likely to be as Amanda said, or a close alternative - some 
people, including myself, have argued over the years that Moody 
inserted a "break" into the portkey's directional trigger, so that 
when it was touched, it would send the Champion to the graveyard, 
but another touch would bring the one who touched it to the 
Quidditch field again, perhaps to attack, or perhaps to simply bring 
Harry's lifeless body back to the pitch, to terrify the spectators. 
It's possible that Voldemort wouldn't've even traveled back with 
Harry - that they just would've sent dead Harry back with no 
explanation for what happened, so Voldemort could build his power in 
secret and not have to deal immediately with a handful vs. crowd 
battle. 

The thing is, without knowing exactly how a portkey works, there's 
no way for us to come up with a definative answer as to exactly how 
Moody tampered with it, and what he expected it to do. However, I 
think the fact that he was still lurking around the pitch indicated 
that he was waiting for something to happen *at* the pitch. 
Otherwise, why not leave Hogwarts grounds and go to his master's 
side, if he was so confident of Voldemort's victory?

Heidi
http://www.hp2003.org 
Nimbus - 2003 :: the first international Harry Potter symposium