CHAPTER DISCUSSION PS/SS 10, THE HALLOWEEN LONG

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 188402

Pippin wrote:
> > It is made very clear that Cedric was chosen by the Goblet as the Hogwarts champion  over all the other Hogwarts students who submitted  their names. Harry is only picked because Barty Jr. confunded the Goblet so it thought that he represented a fourth wizarding school. 
> 
> 
Alla responded:
> 
> Yes, I am aware of circumstances leading to it. I was trying to say that symbolically to me Harry is shown to be true Champion of Hogwarts, taking center stage,etc, IMO of course.
>
Carol notes:

We don't know what would have happened if the rule against underage competitors had not been instituted and Harry had submitted his own name instead of being chosen as the only candidate from a fourth (and possibly fictitious) school. Would the Goblet have chosen Harry, or would it have chosen the older, more experienced Cedric? I think it would have chosen Cedric given how little Harry actually knew at that point. He had help from Crouch!Moody in every task, he had to learn Summoning Charms, Impedimenta, Stupefy, and a number of other spells with Hermione's help, he got through the first task only because he could fly (Krum could have done the same thing but didn't have Crouch!Moody to suggest it), and he survived the second task only because Dobby overheard Crouch!Moody's staged conversation with McGonagall and stole it for him. Unlike the other three, he couldn't perform a Bubblehead Charm, much less transfigure himself into half a shark. He won that task (or rather, came in second to Cedric) not because of his magical ability but because of his "moral fiber" in rescuing hostages who didn't need to be rescued. He and Cedric were pretty much even in the Third Task even though the Imperiused Krum had Crucio'd Cedric.

Before the First Task, almost the whole school regarded Cedric as the *real* Hogwarts champion, as indeed he was since Harry was the "champion" of some other school. Harry's flying ability and the dangers he was facing earned him sympathy and admiration but didn't lessen support for Cedric. Most Hogwarts students (other than the Slytherins and perhaps the Hufflepuffs) apparently felt at that point that they had two champions to cheer for.

But suppose that Harry had not had Hagrid to make sure that he saw the dragons and Barty Jr. to suggest that he play to his strengths (flying)? I doubt that he would have survived the First Task. (Poor Cedric wouldn't have known about them, either, but he did know how to Transfigure a stone into a dog and would probably have done that if he survived the shock.) And Harry could not have charmed or Transfigured himself to so much as enter the water in the Second Task. He had to rely on gillyweed, which he didn't even acquire for himself, to enter the water. True, he did know how to deal with the grindylows, but so did Cedric and Krum, and, true, he did get to his hostage before either of them (only slightly before Cedric), but he had help solving the riddle and could not come up with a way of surviving underwater by himself, nor was the solution that Crouch!Moody provided any reflection on his magical abilities.

Carol, who doubts that any of the champions would have survived without cheating adults helping them but thinks that Harry would have had the least chance of all given how little he knew at that point