The Portkey Cup (WAS: Apparation and Sirius' vault)

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 110474

> Amey:
> But as for the Cup,
> "I offered to carry the Triwizard Cup into the maze before dinner," 
> whispered Barty Crouch.  "Turned it into a Portkey.  My master's plan 
> worked.  He is returned to power and I will be honored by him beyond 
> the dreams of wizards." (GoF)
> So, I am not sure the Cup was already a portkey, it could be
 but 
> then what Crouch did was not add a stop, but change the destination 
> completely.

Excuse Steve - we've been through the discussion of the portkey!cup 
before, and he didn't go into detail - it is a very much accepted 
theory that, nonetheless, does have a few holes. But then, prior to it, 
the story had a whole many more holes.

Lets assume that the cup wasn't a portkey, and that Jr. turned it into 
one. What would've been the situation if he *hadn't* meddled? The 
winner of the TriWizard Tournament would've grabbed the cup, only to 
discover he had to once again find his way through the labyrinth, only 
this time trying to find the exit. With all those creatures still 
around, and two other competitors perfectly willing to do whatever it 
takes to win (remember, cheating has always been part of the TWT). That 
hardly seems fair, or logical, when you have a spell that can take you 
directly out of the maze, and to the entrance, where everyone can see 
the winner.

Also, there is that little problem of why would Crouch Jr. put *two* 
stops in the portkey, one to the graveyard and the other back to the 
school. Several hypothesis were discussed back in the day, like maybe a 
way to have Voldemort and the Death Eaters penetrate Hogwarts, in a 
surprise attack. Unfortunately, that would've been stupid since a huge 
amount of wizards would be waiting (although not for them, but still, 
many of them) at the other end. Voldemort might be powerul, but he's 
not *that* powerful. Another hypothesis is that they intended to send 
Harry's dead body back, but that wouldn't be too intelligent - it 
would've been a senseless proof of his return, which Voldemort was 
trying to keep quiet. I'm sure there must have been other theories, but 
none were particularly satisfactory (then again, maybe I'm bias).

On the other hand, we have the theory that the cup was a portkey, and 
Jr. only added another stop, which acted like a LIFO queue (aka pile): 
the last stop added is the first one used (as in wrappers - the last 
wrapper used is the first one opened). Of course, there is that quote 
where Jr. states that *he* turned the cup into a portkey, but that can 
be explained. While Jr, posing as Madeye, was in charge of Hogwarts 
security that year, he wasn't actually in charge of the Tournament - 
the MoM was. And we know that the MoM was deeply suspicious of Madeye 
(for the wrong reasons), so they wouldn't have told him about the cup's 
transformation into a Portkey (and when you think about it, it is a 
minor detail that he needn't be told - only Dumbledore, so he would 
authorise it/enchant it/whatever). The fact that Jr. states that he did 
it doesn't imply that no-one else had done it before, only that he 
didn't know about it.

And as stated before, it makes sense that it would've been turned into 
a portkey, to finish the tournament once it was found and not after the 
winner had fought his or her way back through the maze. It is 
particularly telling that the second jump took Harry to the *entrance* 
of the maze. And if Jr. had changed the destination completely, he 
would've deleted the original jump (to the entrance of the maze), 
instead of simply adding an extra one.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf