Portkey mystery? - incomplete lexicon information

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 59090

Steve wrote:
My conclusion is that it is a two 
stage process. The first stage is
taking an object and making it capable 
of being a Portkey. This involves 
complex spells and potions, and a 
significant amount of time.

The second stage is actually in two parts. The first part is
programming the Portkey-ready object with it's destination(s). The
second part is the activation of the Portkey, which as I pointed out
can be time-of-day, time delay, or immediate.

Programming would probably somewhat complex, but not as complex and
time consuming as the first stage. 

I, Tom, ask:
Does this mean that your take on the Third Task is that the 
Triwizard Cup had been involved with some kind of preparatory stage 
prior to Crouch!Moody's transport of it to the maze? 

He admits, under Veritaserum, that he 'turned it into a Portkey' on 
the way from the Great Hall to the Third Task. So, if your theory is 
the case, the Cup had undergone some procedural charms in order to 
make it receptive to the directions Crouch!Moody would be giving it; 
because it doesn't seem like a long trek from the castle to the 
Quidditch Pitch. 

In other words, he'd have to be privy to a) the workings of the team 
planning the event, and b) the workings of Portkey magic.

In that case, the directions-bit wouldn't take that much time, or be 
that complicated, if he could perform the spells en-route. So, what 
you're suggesting is a complicated preparatory step, followed by a 
simpler direction-giving spell which ordinary wizards can perform.

To contrast with you a tad, I'd think that the fact that Crouch!
Moody could perform this spell would indicate that the spell is 
accessible to a diverse population - after all, BCJ got out of 
Azkaban barely a year in advance of the moment when he'd have to 
perform the charm on the Cup. So, if he didn't know how to do this 
already, he'd have to have some kind of access to this information.

 I.e., it wouldn't appear to be as restrictive or controlled as, 
say, access to the Floo Network.

So, based on his seeming ease with the procedure, I'd think that 
it's not too difficult to create a Portkey - maybe it's just that 
they're less convenient than we think they are, due to their time-
specific properties.

-Tom