Hello / Portkey

[Eddie]

No: HPFGUIDX 160080

> Alick:
> I have a query related to GoF (It's the last one I read and vols 5&6
> have been lent to others). I imagine this has been debated at length
> but I searched for portkey and couldn't find any reference to it. 
> 
> The portkey in GoF that took Harry and Cedric to LV also took Harry
> back: how did it work? If young Crouch set it up he surely wouldn't
> arrange a return journey; and I thought portkeys were time-specific,
> you couldn't just touch one and be off. 
> 
> The portkeys at the world cup appear to be time-specific and one-way
> use, so how did this one example work as a return and at any time?

Eddie:
You're brave to cruise this forum without having read Books 5 & 6. 
There is a lot of spoiler information discussed here and usually
without much warning.

-- MILD SPOILER AHEAD --

Read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Objects_in_Harry_Potter#Portkeys
for some speculation.

In essence, we see some more use and mention of Portkeys in books 5 &
6.  One is created by Dumbledore on the spot, but the Minister of
Magic is really flabbergasted that Dumbledore has created "an
unauthorized Portkey."  So the Portkeys are seemingly something that
the MoM regulates.  Maybe their use is magically detectable.

As to why it returned Harry, the Wikipedia article speculates that
this may have been Voldemort's plan all along: to send the dead Harry
Potter back to Hogwarts (and outside of the maze).

Eddie