Harry Potter Read-Along/Discussion [15]

RECAP - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Chapters 22 - 28
As if having to fly past a Hungarian Horntail wasn't bad enough added to all of the other drama in Harry's life, now there is to be a Yule Ball where Harry and friends must wear dress robes, find a date and dance. After Ron asks Hermione as a last resort and she says no, Harry and Ron end up going with the Patil sisters and have an awful time because they're being party poopers (especially Ron who is particularly vexed about Hermione showing up as Viktor Krum's date)!

Cedric gives Harry a clue on how to figure out the egg-clue for the task and Harry figures out that he's going to have to retrieve something from the Black Lake from the mermaids that live in it. Harry didn't think he'd have to save his friends, though! Thank goodness for Dobby who gives Harry some gillyweed to help him breathe under water, and Harry finds Ron, Hermione, Cho and Fleur's sister chained underwater. He fights off the merpeople in order to save more than just Ron, who is the only person Harry is supposed to save. Harry comes in after the time limit because he was trying to save the others, but he gets second place for his "moral fiber"!

After a few months of almost peace (except for Rita Skeeter making everyone's lives miserable), Harry finds out that the last task is a maze. While chit-chatting with Viktor Krum about Hermione and the tasks, Barty crouch comes staggering out of the Forbidden Forest mumbling about a mistake he made, Voldemort getting stronger and begging for Dumbledore. Harry goes to retrieve the Headmaster and when they return, Viktor Krum has been knocked out and Mr. Crouch is no where to be found. So much for that so called "peace"... there's definitely something fishy going on...

DISCUSSION

First of all, I'm super disappointed that Harry and Ron were such downers at the Yule Ball. Ron totally had a reason, though he didn't know at that point that he had it bad for Hermione, but I can excuse him. Harry was just annoying though. Fourteen years old or not, I love a good party and was sad that they couldn't have a good time for once. Shoot, when I was fourteen, me and the little boyfriend I had at the time, we had an awesome time! Well, I suppose we also didn't have to worry about someone trying to kill us by entering us into a deadly tournament. Either way, I kind of wish their experience at a once in a life time party where the Weird Sisters were the entertainment was a little different. Happier, perhaps? It does go to show the teen angst setting in which really takes full effect in book 5.

Anyone feel like there's a lack of things to discuss here? Well okay... maybe not a lack of things, but surely not as many things are happening as you would expect in reading so many chapters. I read somewhere that when you're publishing your first (or second...or third... whatever) novel, you should write based on the lenght of a typical book in that genre. Middle grade and young adult books are typically shorter because of the age group intended... etc. I feel like Rowling really took "artistic license" to a whole new level. I wouldnt call it wasting time, necessarily, but she really goes the extra mile to add in the tiny little details we love so much while moving the plot along at a slightly slower pace. And the pace doesn't necessarily suffer from it either, because I absolutely loved this book 100x more than I did the last time I read it and I hardly even noticed except for the fact that I've been taking notes while I read these books and realized after that with each chapter, hardly anything actually happened.

Well, all the action happens in the last chapters coming up, now don't they? I'm excited to talk about the end of the book, you know, where sh*t really hits the fan. Lets just say, after all this time and after how many times I've read it, it still makes me cry like a baby every time. I'll talk to you all soon! Thanks for stopping by :)

A.