Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The book opens at the Riddle house, where caretaker Frank Bryce still lives even though the Riddle family has been dead for fifty years. One night Frank hears voices in the house and discovers Lord Voldemort and his servant Wormtail (the Animagus Peter Pettigrew, who has now rejoined his old master), plotting to get hold of a boy named Harry Potter. Voldemort kills Frank; miles away, Harry Potter himself wakes with his scar burning.
A chance to spend time with the Weasleys and go to the Quidditch World Cup makes Harry forget his worries about his scar. He, Hermione, and the Weasleys travel by Portkey to the tournament, where they meet many old friends and make several new acquaintances, including Bartemius Crouch Sr., the Head of the International Magical Cooperation office at the Ministry of Magic. That evening, Viktor Krum, the Seeker for the Bulgarian national team, ends the Quidditch World Cup game with a dramatic capture of the Snitch. That night, some followers of Lord Voldemort (known as Death Eaters) torture a group of Muggles, and someone illegally conjures Voldemort's Dark Mark in the woods. Strangely, all the evidence points to Winky, Mr. Crouch's house-elf, and Mr. Crouch dismisses her from his service.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrive at Hogwarts for their fourth year and learn that instead of the Inter-House Quidditch Cup, the school will host the Triwizard Tournament, a competition between three rival European schools of witchcraft and wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and Durmstrang Institute. But to many students' disappointment, the contest of champions will only be open to those at least seventeen years of age. Qualified students put their names in the magical Goblet of Fire, which will select the champions at the appropriate time.
Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, gets on Harry's good side when he briefly turns Draco Malfoy into a ferret for trying to attack Harry. Moody teaches the class about the three Unforgivable Curses, including Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse, which only one wizard is known to have survived: Harry. Meanwhile, Hermione, outraged at the treatment of house-elves, starts a campaign to earn them their freedom, unfortunately titling her organization "S.P.E.W." — the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.
Soon, the students from the other schools arrive. Viktor Krum, who attends Durmstrang, is the first chosen by the Goblet of Fire. The Goblet also names Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons, and Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts as their respective school champions. It seems the ceremony is over until the Goblet sparks again and produces Harry's name. Harry is three years under the required age, but since his name has come out of the Goblet, he's bound by magical contract to participate. Harry insists that he did not enter his name in the competition, but no one besides Dumbledore and Hermione believes him — not even Ron. Most of the school gives Harry the cold shoulder, and his isolation only gets worse after journalist Rita Skeeter publishes a sappy profile of Harry in The Daily Prophet.
The Triwizard Tournament consists of three difficult magical tasks each champion must complete. Not long before the first task, Hagrid reveals to Harry that the first challenge involves dragons. The next day, Harry lets Cedric know about the dragons, since it is likely Igor Karkaroff, head of Durmstrang, and Madame Olympe Maxime, head of Beauxbatons, have already told their champions the information. Moody overhears their conversation, commends Harry for fair play, and gives him advice on how to get past a dragon — by playing to his strengths and using his flying ability. Hermione helps Harry master a Summoning Charm so he can call his broomstick to him. It works perfectly, and Harry is able to get past his dragon to retrieve a golden egg, tying Viktor for first place. The egg is part of the next task, which will take place in three months. Harry and Ron reconcile.
Harry learns that as a champion, he is not only required to attend the Hogwarts Yule Ball with a date, but he must also dance. Harry finally works up the nerve to ask Cho Chang, his longtime crush, but she has already agreed to go with Cedric. Out of options, Ron and Harry end up taking the pretty Patil twins. Viktor's date turns out to be a dramatically transformed Hermione. During the ball, Harry and Ron wander into the gardens and overhear Hagrid telling Madame Maxime he is half giant. Later they run into Cedric, who tells Harry to take a bath with his golden egg. The next day, Rita Skeeter publishes an article revealing Hagrid's half-giant heritage and casting him as an awful brute.
After failing to figure out the egg on his own, Harry takes a bath with it as Cedric advised and learns that the next task involves reclaiming something from the Hogwarts lake. The night before the task, he still hasn't figured out what that thing might be, nor how he'll breathe underwater for an hour. Luckily, Dobby gives him some gillyweed, which allows Harry to develop gills. He dives beneath the lake to find Ron, Hermione, Cho, and Fleur's sister tied up. Krum rescues Hermione, and Diggory takes Cho, but when Fleur doesn't appear, Harry drags both her sister and Ron to the surface. Since he waited so long for Fleur, Harry was outside the time limit, but thanks to his good intentions, he remains tied for first. The final task is scheduled for the end of term, several months away.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione secretly meet with Sirius (who is hiding in dog form) and learn that Crouch was the one who committed Sirius to Azkaban, and that Crouch's own son was a Death Eater — a circumstance that ultimately resulted in Fudge becoming Minister of Magic instead of Crouch. They all wonder where Crouch has been lately; he didn't show up to judge the second task of the tournament, even though Harry saw him in Professor Snape's office on the Marauder's Map a few weeks earlier.
Harry and Viktor encounter a tattered Mr. Crouch, raving about imminent danger. By the time Harry returns with Dumbledore, it appears Crouch has stunned Viktor and fled. Not long afterward Harry falls asleep in class and dreams he sees Voldemort in a room with Wormtail and a snake, then wakes with his scar burning. Following instructions from Sirius, he goes directly to Dumbledore's office to report this disturbing event. There he looks in Dumbledore's Pensieve (a magical vessel for holding one's thoughts), which shows him the trials of several Death Eaters fifteen years earlier. He finds out that Snape turned spy for the good wizards long before Voldemort's downfall, and he sees the trial of Crouch's son.
Finally, it is time for the third task, a hedge-maze obstacle course with the Triwizard Cup at its center: The first person to reach the Cup wins. During the challenge, Harry hears Viktor Krum torturing Cedric. He Stuns Krum, and Cedric and Harry continue through the maze, reaching the Cup at the same time. They decide to take it together, but the Cup turns out to be a Portkey that transports them right to Voldemort and Wormtail. Wormtail kills Cedric, then performs a terrible ritual to restore Voldemort to physical human form. The Death Eaters, including Lucius Malfoy, gather around Voldemort and pay him homage.Voldemort says his most faithful servant is still at Hogwarts. He challenges Harry to a duel, but because their wands both have cores with feathers from the same phoenix, their spells don't work against each other. Instead Voldemort's wand begins to generate ghosts of his victims, including Harry's parents, who encourage him in his fight against the Dark Lord. Harry uses the Triwizard Cup Portkey to return to Hogwarts taking Cedric's body with him.
Back at Hogwarts, Harry finds out that Mad-Eye Moody is the faithful Death Eater Voldemort mentioned — or at least it seems to be Mad-Eye Moody. When Dumbledore arrives, he reveals that Moody is really Barty Crouch, Bartemius Crouch Sr.'s son, who has been using Polyjuice Potion to make his appearance match the real Moody's. Crouch explains how he escaped from Azkaban, used an Invisibility Cloak and Harry's stolen wand to conjure the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup, and came to Hogwarts, where he plotted to deliver Harry to Lord Voldemort. As part of this plan, he put Harry's name in the Goblet and killed his father Bartemius Crouch Sr. Harry gives Dumbledore his own account of the evening's events, explaining that Voldemort used his (Harry's) blood to revive himself and that Voldemort said the blood would give him the protection that Harry's mother left in Harry.
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned. Under his orders, Barty Crouch receives the Dementor's Kiss. Dumbledore challenges Fudge's cowardly stance, then lays out his own plans for fighting Voldemort without help from Fudge or the Ministry of Magic. He informs the students of Voldemort's return at the farewell banquet. On the train home, Hermione shows Ron and Harry that she's caught Rita Skeeter, who is an unregistered Animagus, in a jar in her beetle form. Harry gives his Triwizard Cup prize money to the Weasley twins to start their own joke shop, and returns to the Dursleys braced for his next battle with Voldemort.
