Plot
Before school
The fourth book opens as Frank Bryce, the Riddle manor's elderly caretaker, sees lights inside the abandoned house. Investigating, he overhears Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail) plotting Harry Potter's death. Frank is discovered and killed; at that same moment, Harry awakes with his scar hurting and having seen the murder in his dream.
Soon after, Harry departs for the Quidditch World Cup with Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, the Weasley family and Amos and Cedric Diggory. Following the match, Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort's servants, storm the camp, creating panic and mayhem. The trio flee into the forest where they see the Dark Mark, Lord Voldemort's sign, shot into the night sky. Barty Crouch, the head of the Department Of International Magical Co-operation, arrives and accuses the trio of conjuring it, but upon investigating, Crouch's house elf, Winky, is found clutching Harry's stolen wand. Crouch is furious and fires Winky.
Triwizard Tournament
When it was Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore announces that the Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts during the Welcoming Feast. The centuries old inter-school competition was discontinued because it became too dangerous, but has been recently revived. The tournament includes three difficult tasks, one held during each school term.
The Goblet of Fire chooses one student from each competing school. Because the tournament is so dangerous, students must be at least 17 years old to enter. Cedric Diggory is chosen as Hogwarts' champion, Fleur Delacour is selected for Beauxbatons Academy and Durmstrang Institute is represented by Viktor Krum. The Goblet unexpectedly selects a fourth champion — Harry Potter — even though Harry never entered and is underage. This leads to a falling out with Ron, who thinks Harry cheated to enter.
Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and a former Auror. In the first task, the champions must retrieve a golden egg from a dragon. With advice from Hagrid, Moody, and Hermione, Harry uses his broom to fly past the dragon and capture the egg, earning high marks. Seeing how dangerous the task was, Ron realizes Harry would not have cheated, and they reconcile. Meanwhile, Hermione begins S.P.E.W., the Society For the Protection of Elfish Welfare.
The champions are required to attend the Yule Ball, a tradition associated with the Triwizard Tournament. Harry wants to invite Cho Chang, but when he learns she is attending with Cedric Diggory, he agrees to take Parvati Patil, while her twin sister, Padma, goes with Ron. Hermione Granger attends with Viktor Krum — sparking Ron's jealousy, made worse by Hermione's unexpectedly beautiful appearance at the Ball.
The second task requires retrieving something important to each champion that is hidden in Hogwarts' lake. Harry has delayed in finding a way to stay submerged for an hour. As the event is about to begin, Dobby, the Malfoys' former house-elf, gives Harry gillyweed so he can breathe underwater. Harry rescues Ron, but when the other champions do not appear, he releases the other "prisoners", losing time and leaving him tied for first place with Cedric.
For the third task, the champions must navigate a large maze filled with dangerous obstacles. Shortly before the event, Harry and Viktor Krum are startled when a dishevelled Mr. Crouch emerges from the forest, mumbling incoherently and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs for help, but when he returns with Dumbledore, they find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing. While waiting in Dumbledore's office, Harry peers inside a pensieve containing the professor's memories. In one, Harry sees a wizarding trial in which Barty Crouch, Jr., a Death Eater, is sentenced to Azkaban by his father, Crouch Sr. Harry also hears testimony that Severus Snape was once a Death Eater.
Little Hangleton graveyard
During the third task, Harry and Diggory successfully navigate the maze. Because they helped each other, they agree to grab the Cup simultaneously. Unknown to them, it is actually a portkey that transports them to an old cemetery in Little Hangleton. Awaiting is Peter Pettigrew, who is carrying what appears to be a deformed infant, who is actually Lord Voldemort. Voldemort orders Pettigrew to kill Diggory, which he does. Harry is then tied from head to toe to a tombstone, and Pettigrew uses Harry's blood, a bone from Voldemort's long-dead father, and his own severed hand in a bizarre ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to his full body and power. Voldemort now carries Harry's blood within him and is no longer affected by the magic that has protected the boy since infancy.
Voldemort reveals that his servant at Hogwarts ensured Harry would win the tournament and be brought to the graveyard. After summoning his Death Eaters, Voldemort challenges Harry to a duel. Unknown to Voldemort, his and Harry's wands are "twins", each containing the same magical core (a tail feather from Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes). As the wands' streams interlock, a Priori Incantatem effect occurs, causing the spirit echoes of Voldemort's victims, including Cedric Diggory, Bertha Jorkins, James and Lily Potter, and even Muggle Frank Bryce, to spill out from his wand. The echoes momentarily protect Harry by distracting Voldemort, allowing him to grab the portkey and escape to Hogwarts with Diggory's body.
Aftermath
After Harry returns to the school grounds through the portkey, Moody takes Harry to his office immediately. He reveals that he has been helping Harry throughout all the tournament's events, including giving the gillyweed to Dobby, and helping Harry pass some obstacles in the maze from the exterior. He tells Harry that he did this, so that Harry would reach the portkey, and thus send him to the cemetery, giving Voldemort his chance to revive. After the explanation, the Imposter-Mad-Eye tries to attack Harry. However, he is saved by Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall. Dumbledore states that when he saw Moody take Harry out of sight after returning from the maze, he knew instantly that something was not right, and thus he followed. When Snape feeds Moody a bottle of Veritaserum, a truth potion, Moody is exposed as Barty Crouch, Jr. who escaped Azkaban and used a Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the real Alastor Moody, who is trapped in a magical trunk in his office. Crouch Jr. murdered his father and entered Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, covertly ensuring that Harry completed each difficult task. Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, arrives at Hogwarts accompanied by a Dementor. Fudge denies Dumbledore's claim that Voldemort has returned and before Crouch can repeat his confession, the Dementor performs the Dementor's Kiss on him.
Dumbledore swiftly and urgently revives the Order of the Phoenix, in the wake of Voldemort's rising. He tells the Weasley family and Professor McGonagall to alert friends and allies of old, at a meeting in the hospital wing where Harry is staying. At Cedric's memorial, Dumbledore, against the Ministry's orders, tells students the truth about Cedric's death and that Voldemort has returned, stating "It would be an insult to his memory" to claim otherwise.
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