The title is self-explaining but to make certain no one posts horse porn, the basic element of this thread will be focused around parts you'd have changed in the story, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I start with Goblet of Fire because it's not so far back and it is after all, the pivotal book in the series (ala Act III in Shakespeare plays). Adding on to that, the book preceding it, Prisoner of Azkaban, saw a very strong Harry Potter pull off an OMGWTF-moment in taking down the dementors with what would become the equivalent of a fanon!golden patronus (I kid). Book III set you up with the feeling that Harry Potter was really going to get on it. A true prediction by Trelawney, the promise of Voldemort coming back.... it was the perfect setup.

And when the Goblet of Fire came, you were ready. The middle book - the rubber book that decides a lot of direction in the series was here and you'd read it in one sitting. You've got the triumphant look from Dumbledore making you wonder what's in store for our hero, the blossoming love between the trio that would divide a fandom and the introduction of whole new magical peoples, foreign and creature-based.

All good, right?

Personally... the Goblet of Fire was the harbinger of doom - it spelled out some pretty big things, for sure but to be honest, this was where the series started going down hill. That's a personal opinion and you don't need to share it to post in this thread but this is a big reason for me posting it in the first place. It felt like I was being jipped for some 500-odd pages.

So lets begin.

Portkeys.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: fuck Portkeys.

One of the biggest destroyers of "Suspension of Disbelief" in a story is a concept that could lead to retcon, which is basically the altering of a story's history (see Star Wars Episode IV- VI after the Prequel). Rowling introduces a powerful, super method of transportation that even circumvents Howarts castle's protection, removing the need for Hermione to ever speak again.

First of all: James and Lily should have had a Portkey. Second: why didn't Barty Crouch, Jr. just portkey a pillow that Harry would eventually fall asleep upon? Hell: why not portkey out of any situation that could be horrible (Fanfiction's got this one down pat)?

This all leads to retcon.

Next J.K. Rowling will have to explain and add new wards that prevent portkeys from being utilized if the Dark Lord throws some sort of shield of +5 Anti-Portkey Warp up while attacking.... Or you'll be wondering why the stupid fuck didn't just have a portkey.

It's not progressive. But lets face it: I doubt she (Rowling) cares enough.

Eitherway, fuck Portkeys. Remove them.

Next: Voldemort's Plot.

This was the story for readers to be captivated by Voldemort's cruelty, his cunning, his slyness and his Slytherin heritage. Basically, this is where we see his inherent ability to be evil, truly, for the first time since Philosopher's Stone and without the eleven-year old naive perspective. Right? Harry's almost a man by Wizarding standards and Voldemort is the most evil Dark Wizard in a century. Right?

So this book belongs to him as much as Harry. Right?

"Ah yes... we shall put all our hopes of coming back on the abilities of a fourteen year old that has a 1 in 4 chance of winning the tournament, if that."​

Most evil Dark Wizard in a century, my ass. I've seen Soap Operas with more creative plots than the vaginal discharge that is Voldemort's Rebirthing Plan.

You can tell me Crouch Jr. helped him but who cares? Seriously. Portkey the Championship Cup and hope - keyword being hope - Harry Potter defeats three other, near fully-fledged magicians and hope he himself doesn't get eaten by a Blast-Ended Skrewt at the last fucking moment?

Now of course the author isn't going to allow Harry to lose. Of course not. But she really failed in making me, the reader, feel like Harry was a shoe-in to win throughout the entire book.

And just how close did this plan come to failing?

What if Harry didn't answer the Sphinx's question correctly, something Crouch Jr. couldn't possibly help him with? Or better yet, what if Cedric was less of a Hufflepuff and more of a man, kicking Harry into the maze and charging to the finish line (Boy, that'd lead to a humorous tell-all with Voldemort when the portkey touches down)?

That 2 of the 4 Champions touched the cup should give you some insight on how delicate the situation was.

All of this bullshit instead of portkeying a pillow or date rape during the Yule Brawl Chapter?

Oh hell no.

This was easily one of the most disappointing parts in the entire series. After masterfully weaving a story of time-travel, saving a long-lost Godfather and the first look into Harry's parents' past into a wonderful story known as Prisoner of Azkaban, this was absolute hack-writing at its best.

Moving on:

Last one and I'll be short about it.

HEUR.

You heard it, DLPers. HEUR.

Harry Potter/Fleur Delacour.

It'd probably destroy the very fragile suspension of disbelief Rowling created for us to enjoy her world with but didn't she already do that with the Triwizard Tournament being absolutely, soul-crushingly boring? I mean - I dunno about you, but what if we were put in the perspective of Minerva McGonagall during the Second Task?

"Hm, the water looks awfully still. God, I need a savage fuck."​

Not good. And to think any warm-blooded Quidditch enthusiast would give up a year of actually doing something fun to watch a maze rustle every once in a while is believable.

Much less believable than HEUR, anyway.

So I say HEUR, once more.

Better than Cho Chang and it'd be kind of cool.

Harry can ignore Veela charms and having Fleur pine after Harry would be for the win.

So those are some changes I'd make.

Fire back or disagree - whatever; just post or it'll be date rape.

 

I agree with Bio on the the Heur, I mean c'mon, at least throw him the sister save fuck.

One of my problems is with the third task. Krum is hit with the imperious but the same person as Harry is and can't throw it off. He lives in Bulgaria, that is fucking cold, you have to posses some strength of will to get passed that cold. He should have been a larger opponent.

Pussy!Harry at the Ball. He's a 14 year old boy with a crush, not suffering major heart break. He should have still had a good time, no guy pines over a girl that they've never even gone out with that much. Have him at least dance with his date, and hopefully some other girls too, maybe even Daphne.

This book needed secondary plots. The total time JK described was probably less than 2 months. Two feast, a handful of classes, a bit of training, 3 tasks, one confrontation, and a fuckload of angst. Harry doesn't have end of the year exams, work the time in not studying to learn something interesting. Hell, he has an animagus he can write to, definately not have him finish the transformation, but maybe start on it.

I agree with the rest of both of your opinions as well, but nothing more needs to be said.

 

Meh .... I've only got a little to say on this, but I'll say it anyway.

Just about the only thing that really irked me in GoF was the Tournament. I mean, who sits for more than a hour watching a completely still lake and then shows up again to watch a dark and completely still hedge maze. It just really annoyed me - and distracted me from the story a little - when I first read it.

Pretty much everything else I was okay with. Well, not everything. The whole 'Harry is too retarded to figure out the tasks himself and has to get led by the nose' theme of the book pissed me off as well. But changing that would be changing the entire story so ....

Oh, and of course Harry clearly missed a major opportunity to turn into 'teh seckz god'. What better chance was there than being the famous champion, (of course I mean after the first task when everyone stopped hating him!).

 

I wouldn't change anything, 'cos if I did, then it wouldn't be Harry Potter anymore. Changing things is what fanfiction is for - leave canon as canon I'd say.

For example:

Portkeys - Yes, portkeys are slightly overpowered, and yes, Barty Crouch Junior could have just turned a door handle into one to kidnap Harry - but this isn't the real world or a real situation but a book, and it would be the most boring book ever (not to mention short) if the kidnapping of Harry had taken place on the first day at Hogwarts.

On the subjects of portkeys being overpowered, we can see from Fudge's reaction to Dumbeldore making one at the end of OotP that it is a restricted spell so not many people know it - Barty Jr. was probably only able to make one 'cos his father was a high-up in the Ministry.

Voldemort's Plot - again, yes it would be silly if it were the real world, but it's a book and therefore has to have a beginning, middle and a nice climax at the end. If the book had played out like reality would have, then it would just be a beginning and a lame climax. No build up, no gaining tension, no character development - just an introduction of the kidnap idea, and then the kidnapping occurring as soon as possible, The End.

Plus, for all we know, the ritual that Voldemort used may have needed to be done on a specific time of year, which might be why he waited.

Heur - I'm not too much a fan of shipping in canon, as long as Harry doesn't get it on with Hermione I'm fine with it. Plus, and again this is with the whole "it's a book!" idea, the book is read by adults and young children alike - do you really think that Rowling will ever put a sex scene in it? And after seeing how she handles romance in HBP, would you really want her to?

But yeah, if I were to write a fanfiction rewrite of GOF, I would keep most of it the same, just take out the Cho stuff (either replace her with a more worthy girl or just make the book devoid of romance), and make Harry more intelligent and motivated. But then, that's how I would make Harry in any fanfiction, so no biggie.

Edit: A rather nice idea I just thought of would be if Harry found the Half-Blood Prince's potion book in GOF instead of HBP - it could serve several purposes:

1. Get Harry more interested in magic in general, seeing how a person made up spells.

2. Introduce Harry to non-verbal magic long before the rest of the year does it.

3. There are some pretty useful spells in there - it wouldn't be a long shot to say that there could be a potion to survive underwater or something like that either, so it could help him get through the tasks under his own steam.

4. Introduces him to some Dark Arts.

 

As most have pointed out, this is the book when Harry's character really starts to go down hill. He should have entered that tournament, not been placed in it. He should have done much better than he did, even without all that help Crouch was giving him (Everyone in his school knew that bubble head charm in the very next book). He should have gone for the win, instead of been a fucking pussy the whole time.

I also agree that it would have been the perfect time to introduce Luna, but I doubt that Rowling had even thought her up at the time (we all know that she is making this shit up as she goes).

Edit: Rowling was aiming for both children and adults, but that is another thing I would change. I don't care if the ten-year-olds like it or not.

 

I have to agree with taure about changing it. While most of the points are valid think how crappy the book would be if they just had crouch portkey harry out the first time they were alone (minds out of the gutters).

The only thing i would really change is after the first task with the dragon Harry should realize that he almost died and decide to take the tournament more seriously and learn more. Portkeys do seem like a cheep idea, and honestly i suspect they were, J.K. needed some way to get them around quickly and didn't want to spend the time working on a better way. As a side note the hbp potions book is a good idea and would make a nice fanfic, but do you honestly believe J.K. had thought it up at that point.

 

I think that JKR had thought of the HBP potions book at the time GOF was written, 'cos she has said that originally it had been in COS, but she moved it out to put it into the 6th book instead.

 

Priori Incantatem - Makes for a nice visual effect, but screw it. Make Harry and Voldemort have a real duel, not some retarded "bring back my body, person who I wasn't exactly friends with", "lol, death order mixed up because it's more touching if mommy comes last", and "you fight the bad wizard boy, kick his keister... then get off my lawn!" scene. I should hope that Harry's not so retarded as to need help with the whole "dodge this curse or you're dead, foo!"

Marill, Surry, and deathtehfluffybunny all've got it right too. As nice a pairing as Harry/Fleur is, remember Dumbledore's alcove?

Putting Harry/Fleur out of the question right off the bat.

No actually good looking girls for Harry, he's gotta be with the retarded stalker bint.

 

Thinking up the title and perhaps the drive towards Half-Blood Prince doesn't necessarily mean the Potions Book was apart of that version at the time.

What it does mean is that she, at one point, thought shedding light on Severus Snape's past should come in much earlier, which also sheds light on just how pointless HBP was to the overall good versus evil plot. If it doesn't matter when its introduced, then it's probably a throw-away plot and neither takes away or gives to the overall climax of the ongoing struggle.

Getting back to Goblet of Fire, lets clear the air here - just because a certain device exists, doesn't mean it couldn't be better. Lets throw the entire idea of portkeys away. Lets put ourselves into the position of J.K. Rowling and regard this like a recipe. What we want is a showdown between Harry and Voldemort after a rebirth.

How do we get there?

She opted for the portkeys; I'd opt for Voldemort being more tangible throughout the entire story. Lets face it: we knew Voldemort was coming back, one way or another, thanks to the prophecy. One thing Rowling excelled at prior to Order of the Phoenix was masterful plot-weaving. She knew what you knew and played it to her advantage and the plot-twist was actually worth it. You might have known something was up with Dolores Umbridge or Ron's pet Scabbers but she also used your lack of knowledge on the matter till the end.

With this whole Voldemort plot, we knew he was coming back - I mean, the first chapter discusses the fact. Why not make him even more tangible? You're not going to be fooling anyone that he isn't involved, just how he's involved.

So... instead of perhaps surprising us with Voldemort actually being in the maze during the third task or being more of a force to reckon with than some cunt with a pension for long-winded speeches or even in the school ala Philosopher's Stone, we get portkeys.

Sorry, but just because portkeys make the plot work, doesn't mean it has to be apart of the story. Nor does a competition that's not, in the least, exciting because it's so poorly organized (4th Champion? Rofl). The overall plot point isn't his involvement in the tournament, his pining over Cho Chang or even the realization that he's a mediocre wizard at best.

It's the rebirth of Voldemort. That was the endgame. Voldemort being back in his body. It doesn't matter how you get there but if it's going to be a tale, it better be good. And my judgement is, that it wasn't. And Rowling really set the wrong pace for the rest of the series.

I'll also agree with the guy who basically said, "Let Harry be the guy who decides his destiny," meaning, he himself entering the tournament. Maybe it'd humble him; maybe we wouldn't have had our opinions of Ron so severely tarnished over something that was an offence greater than anything Severus had done to Harry in school - not believing in your friend who's been through more shit than you ever will, all over petty jealousy.

Eitherway - that's the point of this discussion. Harry did go downhill after Book 4 because it seemed like he wasn't really there. It was just everyone around Harry leading him by the hand and the author introducing deus ex machina-esque characters to rescue him. There wasn't the blossoming into the hero and its perhaps why fanfiction is so amazingly satisfying. Suddenly, there he is - he has feelings, he has emotions and, god damnit, he cares.

If you combined the emotion expressed in Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince into just one book - perhaps the fourth - and got this 'uncertainty' on his part done and overwith, the series would be better for it. And to be honest, the middle-book is the book for major facts.

We should've learned about the prophecy in that office, after he was distraught. We should have learned about Lily and James like she promised and has continued to promise for each successive book. We should have learned something interesting about Voldemort that would clue us into the cluster-fuck that would be Horcruxes two, count'em two books later.

So now we're at the end of the journey and each book is stand-alone and the story arc that keeps all seven together sucks. Voldemort isn't interesting; he in fact, fails as a villain, failing to come close to any of the greats in literature - Professor Moriarity, Emperor Palpatine, Sauron, etc.. Harry's only emotion is a metaphor for an erection (monster in his chest?) and growls to boot.

C'mon, it's a children's story but that doesn't excuse it from lacking plausibility. The distinction between non-fiction and fiction is that one genre has "non" in front of it, and otherwise, when the reader enters the world, he's there and reality does play apart in making you enjoy it. When your suspension of disbelief is shattered and you have to wonder, "What on earth?," that's not a good sign.

Playing on the discussion of emotions, I'd take two 300 page books and a 700 page barn-burner 4th book involving Lord Voldemort's rebirthing over the shit that was Goblet of Fire, Half-Blood Prince and the Order of the Phoenix.

 

Priori Incantatem I agree with, I'll post something more substantial later on.

Firstly: Why the hell did she give two entirely different magical phenomenons/processes the same name? The spell used to see the last spell cast by a wand is called 'Priori Incantatem'. And the phenomenon of two brother wands forced to fight each other is also called 'Priori Incantatem'.

That was just a stupid move, I'm sure she could have used her vapid brain to come up with a different name for two entirely different things.

I agree entirely with the Portkey thing...the idea itself is nice, but with the utter lack of magical theory involved (as usual), it just makes a nice big plot hole for the reader to have to jump across.

If she had just explained that an anti-portkey ward had been erected over Hogwarts and Godric's Hollow (the latter by Voldemort before the attack), and that an anti-portkey ward also prevents other kinds of magical transportation like apparating or the floo, perhaps (through some leap of logic) even brooms, and an exception is fused in with the Hogwarts wards...then we wouldn't be left wondering why Barty Crouch, and/or Voldemort were such idiots.

Even a tiny, simple explanation would have been sufficient...like 'the ritual to ressurect the Dark Lord would only be effective during the month of May/June, whatever, or on a specific date, one that was conveniently the same date that the Triwizard Tournament's Final Task was set on (perhaps even for the same reason).

 

The Portkey (the easy cop out):

The cup being a portkey as the culmination of a diabolical plan's unfolding over the entirety of a school year was beyond ridiculous. Now, if making portkeys was a particularly difficult sort of magic then I would be more appeased, but as it stands, no.

What I would have liked to see, if we were to keep the TriWizard tournament in, is that each challenge somehow prepared/weakened Harry Potter to become a useful ingredient for the rebirthing ritual. If say some integral part of him was lost at each challenge and stolen by Voldemort, then yes the entire exercise would make sense. But if the end game of the tourney was to whisk him away, well we could have had that in the beginning of the book.

Cho Chang's presence was perhaps needed to emotionally develop the main character, but seeing as how that particular aspect of character development has gone I doubt that very much.

I do not think Ron's reaction was that bad, at some point being the sidekick had to hurt him enough to give in to the lesser side of himself. The reason I can not forgive it is, of course, because his best friend had saved his sister, his father and stood up for him when he hardly knew him.

The prophecy being revealed at the end of OotP, right after Sirius's death was very abrupt. Was it to drive the point home that Dumbledore could not keep the konwledge anymore and had to tell him? Or was it because Rowling realized she'd left it too late. I do not know, but since I quite enjoy disliking Dumbledore it works for me.

I really, really would show more Voldemort in Book 4 and begin to establish him as a Dark Lord that is one because of the malevolence of his plans and actions. I come away from most of this thinking he is evil because he has snake like eyes.

I think that, sadly, only in fanon can Voldemort hope to belong in the ranks of evil lords from other fiction verses.

 

I agree with most of Bio's points.

The whole portkey idea sucks ass, if for nothing else, then because it leaves too many plot-holes open. Of course, the question is how else could she arranged Harry's 'duel' with Voldemort without portkey getting into picture?

The only way I see it would be for the final task to be placed inside the Hogwarts dungeons, eventually leading Harry to Chamber of Secrets where Voldemort had arrived by means of the Chamber's Outside Entrance (TM). But honestly, that wouldn't have been much more believable either.

So yeah, I can kind of sympathize with JKR on the point of portkeys. If she only explained them a bit better...

As for the quality of tasks, I agree they were kind of lame. Still, that doesn't matter as much as the other problems. After all, tasks had come and gone, but things like portkeys and Harry's skills have staid to ruin the further books of the series.

As for how would I improve GOF? Well...

- Have a honest romance with one of the foreign girls. He's a fucking Triwizard Champion and BWL on top of it. I can honestly see some older girl getting a hold of him and leading him through the paces (can't help but think that of flute player from American Pie). Besides, unlike Cho, foreign girl would be easy to get rid off (at the end of the year).

- Build up on the split with Ron and have Harry extend his circle of friends to other people. Ron's been hanging out with Dean and Seamus. Why couldn't Harry find a new, temporary crowd, instead of sulk around with dick in his hands? She did that with DA in book 5, but I still think this was a better place (she could have brought in some Slytherins in OOTP).

- Have Harry actually show some progress from all the cramming he's been doing. If you remember, he spent weeks and weeks in the library, studying for the tournament, but in the end, he only had like 3-4 new spells to show.

This was the perfect place to slowly start dissapating the picture of PoorLostBoy!Harry and start building up CompetentWizard!Harry. But instead, she yet again had him get through the Tournament and the duel thanks to a series of poorly conceived Deus-Ex machinas.

And so, the opportunity to make a decisive turnaround was lost. Even now, when he's entering his final year, we don't get the feeling Harry is truly a wizard. He's still a poor confused boy who had learned a few tricks, but still needs Hermione to explain everything to him.

And yes, that's why HP fanfiction is so satisfying. It's so easy to fix up JKR's screwups that it's almost unbelievable she doesn't do it herself.

 

Well I personally think that the entire series was fucked from the minute JK put Harry in Gryffindor, so I would start changing things from there. But if I didn’t, I would definitely change GOF.

First, I would change the fact that Harry is a pussy. The entire story had him pinning after Cho, relaxing like a moron instead of training, putting Quidditch before power gaining…you get my drift.

Second, I would have him get with a foreign girl. Preferably Fleur.

Third, I would have told Ron to take his ’friendship’ and shove it up his arse.

I could keep going but I’m hungry, so I’ll see you later.

 

Personally, I liked GoF a lot. To me, it's the second-best book out there. So I'm defending the book, I guess.

The Plot - I think that GoF had the best plot of all the books out there. I mean, if you look at all of Rowling's earlier books, you find that they all use deus ex machina endings. Isn't it handy Harry's mother's power and Fawkes came in at the right moments? But Rowling does improve on this aspect of the books.

And I personally think that this deus ex machina was much better than the previous ones. It was planned from day one, when Harry got a new wand. I mean, you had to know that brother wands were going to serve some useful purpose other than angst for Harry, right?

But the most important thing to me is that the plot seemed important. If you look at a lot of JKR's previous works, you find that often the plot has nothing to do with the story. I mean, Harry cares more about his popularity than the fact that a giant snake's in the school in CoS. Or look at OotP. It spends the whole time talking about O.W.L.s and the DA and Umbridge. And let's check PoA. More time is devoted to Quidditch than the fact that a murderous killer is after Harry.

But in GoF, from the first chapter the suspense builds up. You know that Voldemort has a plan to get Harry. Throughout the whole story Harry's trying to beat Voldemort's plan - presumably to kill him in the Triwizard Tournament. Moreover, the twist that comes in the end of the story is much better than the others in the book. How many of you guessed that Moody was a traitor?

Portkeys suck. But I can't think of another way for JKR to do it.

Romance - JKR gave very little romance in this book, and that's fine with me. In fact, she should've taken it all out to begin with. Let's face it, JKR is a horrible romance writer. Do you really want Harry Potter to have a "monster" in his chest for Fleur? If she wrote a HP/FD, then we'd all be hating it instead of H/G.

Harry's Power - In this book you can seriously think that Harry is a flourishing wizard. He's learned a group of powerful spells that few other people know (until the next book comes out and everybody uses them). There's no Legilimency, silent casting, or Horcruxes. Harry has a chance to beat Voldemort. He's trained for a year for the Tournament. He can effectively compete with 7th years.

Voldemort - I think that Voldemort's reign was characterized effectively as terrible here, if not he himself. When Sirius Black says, "You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing...the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere...panic...confusion...that's how it used to be," it gives a great picture of it.

The history of Crouch is brilliant here. So are the trials of the Death Eaters and Karkaroff.

Edit: Improvements

Give one or two sentences of explanations of portkey wards or specifics for Voldemort's ritual.

Make Voldemort more evil: torture a Muggle for example.

Get rid of the unnecessary filler: Rita Skeeter goes, ditch the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, shorten the World Cup to only mention the Dark Mark and the game, and take out S.P.E.W.

 

I think some of the reasons you gave are reasons not to like it. It is good like you said, the reasons you gave give it a chance for the book to be great; a chance to really turn-around the series. But in the end, what happens? The same old thing, just like you said, OotP spends more time talking about other things. YOu think she would have learned.

GoF has the potential to be the best book of the series, but in the end, it fails to deliver. To me, PoA is the best.

 

For the most part I liked GoF......but there are things that I would change would be,(WARNING--will not be in order....so don't bitch about it alright.)


For one I would have Harry tell Ron to take his friendship and shove it up his arse.

No matter what people say I think that Harry should have gotten some attention from Fleur for being able to resist her charms ..unlike Ron who could only drool.

Pussy harry, I mean really the least he could do was ask a good looking girl(anyone but Ginny) to go to the Yule ball,not to mention learn how to dance.

Also Harry and Hermione could have been alot closer to each other relationship wise after all he might die in the tournament and who wants to die a virgin.and beside doesn't Harry deserve some shagging for all the shit he's dealt with?.

Also I agree that Fleur could have at least gave him a sister save fuck.

And that's all I can think of right now.
Later

 

Forsaken, most of your complaints seem to be that harry doesnt get any sexual attention, but these books are written for all ages therefor while many may agree with you (or not) its just not plausible.

Heres a possible way to take out portkeys, maybe. What if for the final task of the tournament the anti apperation (sp?) wards were lowered so that teachers could apperate into the maze and save a competitor if need be. That way the fake moody could apperate in and apperate harry to voldemort. For the World Cup they could just take the Knight Bus or maybe have other magical trains and such.

Just an idea I had and im sure i missed something so feel free to point it out.

 

I completely disagree. The reason why Harry was told to use this bathroom is precisely because it's a prefect bathroom, therefore he had a much lesser chance to be discovered, since fewer people are allowed to use it. Especially in the middle of the night. In a regular bathroom, people would have banged on the door and whined for him to hurry up. (*remembers her situation in a house with 22 people in it*)

Harry's dragon never got free. That's the movie, not the book. I don't even think that the dragons were tied up in the books. I assume the stands were magically protected (unlike those in the movie). And the wizards watching the whole thing were probably instructed to wait until the situation got really out of hand... Tournament Tradition, I guess, there must be some danger left...

I agree here.

He says it himself. He doesn't really know why he turns it down. And there's also the fact that he's very proud--so proud Crouch had to resort to a plan B so he could get his Gillyweed. For the entire series, save perhaps HBP, he's been keen on proving himself, with perhaps his closest friends' help, but that's it. GoF is no exception.

To that, I'd say that I would have been really interested in having an insight into Beauxbâtons and Durmstrang; but the HP books mainly take place in Hogwarts. That's THE location. It's now part of a kind of tradition (which makes me think it'll be weird to leave it for the Horcruxes hunt).

Harry is a quite normal teenager. As normal as he possibly can be. It's one of the most important parts of his canon characterisation... He is exceptional in many ways, but he can be reckless, stupid and lazy like any other teen. A lot of people, me included, would have been so exhilarated to have passed the first task that they would have rested upon their victory. It's stupid, but it's typical.

I'll be honest, I laughed very hard at that (we don't say 'Sacré bleu' btw, and I'm sure JKR knows that ). But unfortunately, it's realistic. A seventeen years old is likely to look down upon a fourteen-year-old boy. Especially if she's beautiful and adulated like Fleur is. And the accent is quite well written. My accent is terrible, yet I have been told I don't sound too retarded .

I can understand if one is more attracted to Slytherin than to Gryffindor, but as things are, you're despising Harry's character since the very beginning--his personality has a lot to do with him being a Gryffindor, after all. Not to mentions that it means that you couldn't stand the books from PS's tenth or so chapter...

Harry, again, is a teen! A fourteen year old boy, who isn't a Super Hero or an astoundingly powerful magician. Making Harry a super hero would have destroyed the spirit of the series. He's a teen. And he acts like most teens do. That is, until Voldemort's return, which sort of pulls him out of his relative feeling of safety. Until OotP, you can't blame him for wanting to live like any other teen does.

What the hell. Please think with the head that's on your shoulders. Harry is a tad busy in GoF to think about shagging every girl in Hogwarts, don't you think? If Harry was all, OMG I'M GONNA DIE A VIRGIN I MUST BONE HERMIONE NOW!, I would've been pretty disappointed. The HP series would have quickly turned into another one of these cheap series for horny teens.

Not for me. Thanks.

I realise I spent all my post defending canon. Well, there are a few things I'd like to change (the Portkeys being one, of course) but right now I'm too tired to list them all. Not to mention my post's already pretty long.

 

I dunno, mate. Personally, I feel that Harry being in anything but Gryffindor would have made the books far too different, and it would even have made them unappealing.

Putting him in Ravenclaw would have made him studious, his friends would be docile characters more interested in studying than gallivanting off to take part in the action.

Hufflepuff? He'd have been somewhat scared, and would have acted like the typical Abused!Harry in canon. Again, his friends would be too scared to participate in the action, thereby making things boring.

Slytherin? It'd be cool to see him be manipulative, crafty and sly in his decisions, but that would make the HP series anything but childrens' books. If these were targeted towards adults (for which the fantasy market is a lot, lot smaller), then yes, it would have been straight up awesome to read about Harry being proactive, but sly in his dealings, and slowly builing power and support. Once again, in Slytherin, Harry would have nothing to offer to make others help him in the various tasks he had to undertake.

And I'll address the idea of 11 year olds being manipulative: I agree, this is garbage. No 11 year old is evil, perhaps a little sick in the head, but not with concrete plans for world domination. But as the story progresses, it would have to become increasingly clear that Harry is more and more on his own, and has nothing to offer that woud garner him some support from his fellow housemates.

Only Gryffindor gives the right 'personality' profile, with people who are more prone to making rash decisions and running off stupidly in search of glory and recognition, as well as the tendency to do heroic things just to be the 'good guy'. Even Wormtail...he had only been passing secrets for a year, as canon says, but before that he must have been a solid, dedicated Order member/Light!Supporter for a while before he became disillusioned/whatever by his lack of success/recognition/skill or just out of pure fear.

Sorry for the garbled post, I'm on Adderall right now, and I've got an exam in 30 minutes that I need to run to now.