We are first introduced to Portkeys when Harry takes one to the Quidditch World Cup. I dont have the book on me at the moment, so I'm not sure what Mr. Weasley did with the boot when they arrived, whether he left it there or handed it in.

But later on we see Harry using the Triwizard trophy to escape from Voldemort.
I am assuming that Portkey's must be two way because it would incredibly stupid of Barty Crouch Jnr to make a Portkey which could potentially take Harry back to Hogwarts.

Any thoughts?

 

The port key they took to the Cup was on a timer and they handed it back in to the people on the other end who through it in a pile of other port keys. The one they took back was a different object.

I think there are several different types of portkeys. Timed ones that will travel at a certain time regardless of who is there. Ones that need to be activated my a tap of the wand or a word (Not sure if that is fanon or Canon) and ones that are travel on contact such as the tri wizard cup was.

I was always under the impression that a portkey was one way unless made to be returnable. You can make on time use ones or two way ones.

If that is the case why the hell did Moody/Barty jr make the tri wwizard cup two way. That just gives a possible means of escape to Harry when he arrives. It would have been smarter to make it one way and then make another one to send the body back if that is what they intended to do (But I think they would have kept the body, after all they didn't want anyone to know Voldemort was back) So it makes me think portkeys must only be two way or Moody/Barty jr would have made a one way one. Unless he only knew how to make one type which is far fetched. He had a whole year to learn how to make them.

 

That's something that occured to me before, and it was puzzling...such an obvious plothole, why didn't JKR see it?

So I devised my own system. Port-key. The 'key' is the enchanted object. The 'port' is a permanent hole of sorts that makes a permanent path between two points. Whenever the key is activated, it will take you to one of the two points that the path is created between.

So in Chimera, when Harry uses the head of the statue to return to Dumbledore's office, this is what is happening...as the two points are established and fixed by the creation of the 'key', using the key from anywhere on earth will beam you to one of the two positions. Then, if the 'key' is activated again, it will transport you to the other, and back and forth.

And I use the word 'hole' simply because of the sensation of falling through the air that is described in GoF.

 

It wasn't falling so much as pulling. The "Tug" behind the naval.

 

Yeah, but after the tug behind the navel, there was a sensation of falling through air, as far as I remember.

 

This is how I look at it. There are three stimuli that activate portkeys.

1. Timed. (World Cup)
2. By touch. (Triwizard)
3. Conscious consent of the caster. (DoM and when Mr. Weasley was attacked)

Unless somehow deactivated, whenever the stimulus is applied the portkey will go to the other location. So if left alone, once a day the timed portkey will return to the other location. The touch portkey will activate whenever its touched and the caster dependent portkey will activate when the caster wills it.

Crouch did not know when Harry would get his hands on the portkey so he couldn't have it timed and it appears that Crouch would have to be touching the portkey to activate it himself, so that left the touch portkey and insuring that only Harry would reach it.

 

Wasn't that why Portkeys were piece of rubbish? Because then unsuspecting fools wouldn't pick them up and be zapped to another location?

Or am I way out at centre ice?

 

I think more specifically so that the portkey will not be carried off by someone, but yes it activating on a muggle was a concern if that muggle was holding it at the appointed time.

 

I think Yarrgh's interpretation makes the most sense. Portkeys, once made, can be reused again, but have to be activated. If it is a touch-activated one like the cup, it transports the user with another touch until it is somehow deactivated or malfunctions (wears down).

Note that the portkey from the World Cup was not thrown away, but collected by the Ministry officials (as far as I remember), meaning that it could be reused or has to be disposed of.

 

I just had the coolest plot idea.

Let's pretend that port-keys are possibly one-way for a second. So then you're forced to conclude that Barty Crouch created a two-way portkey purposely. And why in the world would he do this?

The answer is that Voldemort wanted to attack the wizarding world right after his rebirth. Everybody important is gathered at the end of the Triwizard tournament together. So now that Harry has been killed, he gets all his followers to touch the portkey to Hogwarts.

Nobody would be ready for the attack. Moreover, he has two traitors inside Hogwarts: Snape and Crouch would wreak havoc. Imagine how devastating that would be to the wizarding world: the headlines would go Boy-Who-Lives Dead, X (which could be Dumbledore or Fudge) Killed in Hogwarts Attack, Voldemort Reborn. It would be an absolutely smashing comeback: even in his old rise Hogwarts hadn't been penetrated.

Crouch's portkey would be needed because, presumably, normal portkeys don't work at Hogwarts. A staff member has to make them to enable to pass the wards.

Now we know that Dumbledore said that Voldemort wanted his rebirth to stay hidden away. But Dumbledore isn't God, and there's no evidence otherwise against my theory.

 

Cool idea especially if the DE came storming in from the gates.

but I doubt Voldemort would take that bigger risk that soon.

To many Wiards there to fight.

 

The only plausible reason I can come up with is that Voldemort instructed Barty to make it two way so he could either attack as already discussed or send Harry's mutilated corpse back to Hogwarts.

My thought is the second is more plausible. Voldy had now idea how many of his faithful death eaters would show up. So I don't know if an immediate assault would be on tap.

Jim

 

We are trying to fix JKR's mistakes for her. She fucked up.

There is no logic to portkeys. (unlike the logic behind Dementor's)

 

I agree that there wasn't much, if any, thought behind portkeys by JKR. That isn't such a bad thing as it allows for interpretation... but it does cause those little loopholes that we all like to bash. Same goes for anything that doesn't appear to have any set rules. That aside, I liked Yarrgh's explanation best because it makes the most sense .

Also... the whole cup being a two way portkey isn't a plothole in my opinion. Jbern pretty much nailed my thoughts exactly.

 

Portkeys were one of the things I struggled with when considering what to do in my story. I've never liked the idea that just anybody could create a portkey in or out of Hogwarts, since that opens up a giant hole in GOF (i.e. why wait until the 3rd task to kidnap Harry when Crouch could just make a portkey and grab him).

I could be wrong, but I don't remember witnessing somebody actually create a portkey into or out of Hogwarts other than Dumbledore in OOTP. Actually I really hope I'm not wrong, since what I decided to do was to explicity state that only the headmaster of Hogwarts can create portkeys that function within the wards. That way, at the end of GOF, Dumbledore creates a portkey to take whoever the champion is from the center of the maze back out to the victory podium. He gives it to Crouch to place in the center of the maze, and since the portkey has already been created, Crouch is able to add an extra destination, namely the graveyard. He can't completely change the original portkey, so it still has to end up back at the victory podium, which is why it is still active for Harry to escape with.

-the Jack

 

Following this system, it is still possible that Hogwarts has anti-portkey wards. Just, rather than preventing the use of portkeys, they prevent an 'anchor point' from being formed on Hogwarts grounds. So Crouch could have created the portkey off the grounds, and then brought it to Hogwarts in the guise of the Tri-Wizard cup. Neither of the 'anchors' would be on Hogwarts grounds, so the key would work.

 

This seems like a plausible idea, but how would they get out? There were quite a few people at the third task. I don't think Voldemort and his men would be able to battle their way out of that.

I have question about portkeys: if it is so restricted to make portkeys, then why do people turn quidditch referee's brooms into portkeys that send them to a desert?

 

Did the book actually say they were portkeys? Could be a vanishing spells.

 

I think Yarrgh and JackofDiamond's ideas make most sense, if we're trying to rationalise JKR's mistake, but the portkey in GoF always seemed to me to be a nice, easy way for her to rescue Harry without having to do much thinking about a better way to get him out . If portkeys were two way transportation devices, then surely Voldemort would know that and destroy it as soon as he could, right?

 

I'm pretty sure that the ref's brooms were turned into portkeys, but I can't find GoF to verify it. I'll edit this later if I can find my copy of the book.