The fourth book in the Harry Potter series. Published in 2000. Following the events of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Voldemort now has a loyal follower by his side and is making plans to become stronger and regain his body. Meanwhile, Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament between three Wizarding schools in Europe, and Harry discovers that he has been selected to compete, even though he is below the age restriction and did not, as a matter of fact, actually apply as a candidate. He begins to fear that he's a pawn in someone else's plan, whilst becoming slowly more aware of the rising specter of Voldemort...This book was a turning point in the series in a lot of ways.
It's the first book to even mention that there is a wizarding world outside of Great Britain, much less international magical politics. The scale of the story opens up in proportion to the plot.
It's the first Doorstopper, about twice as long as the books that preceded it.
It's the point which Cerebus Syndrome really sets in, as Voldemort returns to power and a significant supporting character becomes a Sacrificial Lion, all of which is set up by the events of Prisoner of Azkaban.
And finally, it's the first book in the series that arrived after Pottermania had gripped the world, making its release a major event in the year's entertainment calendar.
Tropes exclusive to this book or at least especially prominent:
8.8:invoked Karkaroff gives Harry's performance in the first task a 4/10, in contrast to the 8's and 9's from the more impartial judges (and Bagman's definitely-partial 10). Naturally this provokes outrage from Ron, but Harry doesn't mind too much; he's too happy that Ron is speaking to him again.
Anachronism Stew: A minor case: at the beginning of the book, Harry, in writing a letter to Sirius, makes a remark about Dudley and his PlayStation... in the summer of 1994. The console did not get released in Europe until September the following year. A bit of brilliance perhaps, since if he screamed enough his father could have ordered one from overseas, but Rowling fessed up to the minor mistake.
Army of the Dead: Voldemort's most recent victims (Harry's parents among them) emerge from his wand and block him from pursuing Harry just long enough for Harry to escape.
"You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking." Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk.
Artistic License - Biology: In-universe example. In order to make Hagrid look bad to Rita Skeeter, Malfoy claims that in addition to being attacked by Buckbeak, Crabbe also got a bad bite off of a flobberworm. Which mainly eat lettuce, don't have any teeth, and have a X (boring) classification from the Ministry of Magic.
Ascended Extra: Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang, both introduced as background characters in Book 3, have central roles in this book.
Asshole Victim: Barty Crouch, Sr., who is found in the woods insane and begging to speak to Dumbledore but then vanishes and is revealed to have been killed.
The Bad Guy Wins:Voldemort's plan to resurrect himself using Harry's blood goes off almost perfectly, aside from Harry escaping.
Badass Teacher: Moody. The fake one does a good job at acting the part, and the real one would have been one too if he'd actually been able to do the job.
Beam-O-War: A rare effect (their two wands have the same core from the same specific specimen of phoenix) makes Harry's and Voldemort's wands connect and results in an anime-style beam-of-war battle. Harry and Voldemort supply the page image for the trope.
Blind Mistake: When Harry reads a letter sent by Sirius and considers its tone too much babying, his response hints at this: "You'd think I walk around with my eyes shut, banging off the walls...."
Bond Villain Stupidity: Near the end of Goblet of Fire, Harry has been disarmed, gagged, and tied securely to a gravestone. Rather than simply killing Harry after using his blood to regain his body, Voldemort not only has Wormtail cut him loose and give him back his wand, but insists on fighting him in a one-to-one duel and forbids interference from any of his Death Eaters, for no other reason than to prove, once and for all, that he is the stronger of the two. The final result of this is that Harry manages to escape Voldemort's attempt on his life, once again through luck, and warn everyone of his resurrection. It was reasonable of Voldemort to assume that Harry was no longer protected by love, but he was unaware of the twin cores. However, Voldemort does use Harry's escape to his advantage in Order of the Phoenix.
Rowling stated that the reason for Voldemort's downfall was mainly because of his over-inflated ego. This scene was foreshadowing all the pride-related mistakes he'd make in the future. Also, Ralph Fiennes mentioned something about how the scene — when you strip the magic elements away — is really just a man humiliating a young boy. Voldemort was gloating over having his body back and wanted to mess with the kid who'd caused him so much trouble over the years. He wasn't exactly using his head at that moment.
Brick Joke: In one of the first chapters, it is mentioned that a Hufflepuff girl tried to curse her pimples off, and had to have her nose put on again. Later, when the Trio are discussing Yule Ball date possibilities, that same girl is mentioned. Ron says he won't go with her, because her nose is slightly off-center. Mentioned again in the Yule Ball chapter, only to confirm that her nose is perfectly fine!
Censor Suds: The prefect bathtub is loaded with suds and bubbles, which come in handy when Moaning Myrtle decides to drop in on Harry.
Chekhov's Gun: The series has its own page. Voldemort's agent even tries planting one - the book about magical water-plants he gives Neville - well in advance of Harry needing it. This backfires when Harry, not knowing he's in a book, has no reason to remember it.
Bulgarian Minister of Magic:(in response to Bulgaria losing the Quidditch World Cup) Vell, ve fought bravely... Fudge: You can speak English?! And you've been letting me mime everything all day! Bulgarian Minister of Magic:(shrugging)Vell, it vas very funny...
*Cough* Snark *Cough*: Ron accuses Hermione of only liking Cedric because he's handsome. When Hermione claims she doesn't like people just because of their looks, he gives a false cough that sounds oddly like "Lockhart".
Harry ran his fingers over the scar again. It was still painful. He turned on the lamp beside him, scrambled out of bed, crossed the room, opened his wardrobe, and peered into the mirror on the inside of the door. A skinny boy of fourteen looked back at him, his bright green eyes puzzled under his untidy black hair. He examined the lightning-bolt scar of his reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.
Diet Episode: The Dursley portion of the book involves Dudley being put on a diet.
Disapproving Look: Harry gets this from Fleur as he tries to clean his wand in the weighing of the wands.
The Dragon: Barty Crouch Junior, particularly in the movie adaptation.
Dub-Induced Plot Hole: A small one. When Hermione mentioned that the 1792 Triwizard Tournament was cancelled because of a cockatrice breaking free and injuring the judges, the Dutch edition translates cockatrice as basilisk. But this is impossible, since breeding basilisks has been illegal since medieval times, and they certainly don't want to use one of the most deadly creatures ever in a school tournament. Its gaze alone would have killed the entire audience.
Due to the Dead: Cedric asks Harry to retrieve his corpse, and Harry does.
Dungeon Bypass: During the third task, Harry blasts a shortcut through the hedge maze when he hears one of the others being tortured. It takes a curse plus a bit of fighting to get through.
During a trip into Dumbledore's Pensieve, Harry sees the trial of the Lestranges, being especially struck by the fanatic — and, at this point, unnamed — Mrs. Lestrange. Bellatrix is an important villain in the later books.
Much more minor one, but Cedric's father says that a family called the Lovegoods have been at the World Cup for a week.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Voldemort is later shown to be an offender, but his main agent in this book is not. "Decent people are so easy to manipulate." Although the agent did have a moment. He assumed that Harry would ask absolutely everyone for help, but he instead stuck with just his close friends. This forced the agent to play Xanatos Speed Chess.
Fandom Nod: The pronunciation of "Hermione", which was finally clarified by Hermione herself in this book — then the films were released, so everyone knew how to pronounce it anyway.
Fixing The Game: The Weasley twin subplot is driven by Ludo Bagman's welching.
Football Hooligans: The Irish after their win at the Quidditch World Cup, which accidentally becomes a very convenient cover for the riot the Death Eaters caused on the same night.
In the first chapter, "I will allow you to perform an essential task for me, one that many of my followers would give their right hands to perform...."
Voldemort's warning to Wormtail when he gives him the silver hand.
Dumbledore gets "an odd look of triumph" after learning that Harry's blood was used in Voldemort's resurrection spell. It's not until very late in the final book that this pays off.
While Harry, Ron and Hermione are confronting Fred and George in the Owlery about their "blackmail" conversation over Ludo Bagman scamming them at the World Cup, George says to Ron: "Carry on like this and you'll be made a prefect." In the next book, Ron is made a prefect alongside Hermione.
Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise as Mad Eye saying "If there's one thing I hate, it's a death-eater who walked free." Pays off when it's discovered that it's not really Mad Eye but a loyal death eater in disguise who said it.
Could have been worse: Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status. It wouldn't fit on the badge.
Gravity Screw: One of the obstacles Harry meets in the maze is a strange mist that acts as a local "inverse gravity" zone. It gives Harry the terrifying impression he's a second away from falling into the sky. Once he finds the nerve to take a step, the illusion breaks.
Gut Punch: Cedric's death is this for both the book and the series.
Hagrid has been secretly breeding manticore/firecrab hybrids called "Blast-Ended Skrewts". The actual creation of magical crossbreeds is forbidden in the Potterverse.
Human variants appear with Fleur Delacour, whose (presumably) human-wizard grandfather married a veela and Hagrid, who had a wizard father and giantess mother.
Hypocritical Humor: Before the Weasleys come to get Harry, Uncle Vernon calls Mrs. Weasley a "Dumpy sort of woman." Harry reacts with private outrage that he dares to call Mrs. Weasley dumpy when Dudley is the size of a small whale.
Harry offers the Triwizard Cup to Cedric Diggory, because his entrance in the tournament was unfair.
Harry offers the prize money from the tournament to Cedric's parents, who turn it down. He then gives it to Fred and George Weasley.
I Have No Son: Barty Crouch, Sr. He says this exact line at his son's trial.
Improbably Predictable: Harry predicts how Ron and Hermione will react to his dream about Voldemort, and they both react more-or-less exactly as he thought they would.
Inevitable Tournament: A straight example. A super-dangerous and challenging tournament takes place at Hogwarts, and despite being three years too young, Harry finds himself forced into competing.
Jerkass: Rita Skeeter. Intrepid Reporter nothing, she seems to live not to tell the truth but to humiliate people! Case in point: Hermione just for criticizing her, and Hagrid due to him confessing he's half-giant with her deliberately eavesdropping.
Jerkass Has a Point: Malfoy is right about how it's a bad idea to keep blast-ended skrewts around. Hermione admits this in a private moment.
Just Between You and Me: A lot of this, both from Voldemort and Moody/Crouch at the end of the book.
Kaizo Trap: The Giant Spider at the very end of the third task, meant to blindside champions who were focused on the Triwizard Cup ahead. It was only thanks to Harry's yell that poor Cedric wasn't killed, well, not immediately anyway.
Kangaroo Court: The trials in the Pensieve Flashback are stacked against the defendants. Sirius says he didn't even get that much. However, Ludo Bagman managed to get off, largely because he was a popular Quidditch player, making him acquitted by public opinon. We also find out later that the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. did deserve to be tossed in jail.
Kick the Dog: Snape in the exchange of spells outside the Potions dungeon. After Hermione is hit with a spell that enlarges her already noticeable buck teeth to a cartoonish size (and Goyle's nose having done the same). Snape tells Goyle to go to the hospital wing, and then turns his attention to Hermione when Ron points out that she's been hit with a spell too. Snape says, "I see no difference." Hermione runs off crying.
Ladykiller In Love: Viktor Krum, who's surrounded by female admirers for his first few months at Hogwarts, asks Hermione to the Yule Ball because she's the one girl who wasn't throwing herself at his feet.
Land Sea Sky: The three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, in reverse order.
Limb Sensation Fascination: After Wormtail cuts off his hand at the end, he is given a new silver one through magic. He stares at it in disbelief, then experiments with motion and crushing a twig between his fingertips.
Literary Allusion Title: The Harry Potter Lexicon speculates that the title of the chapter "The Madness of Mr. Crouch" is a reference to The Madness Of King George, especially since George III is reputed to have mistaken a tree for the King of Prussia, while Crouch mistakes a tree for Percy Weasley.
Loose Lips: Bertha Jorkins gives Hagrid a run for his money on blabbing secrets. Hagrid at least has enough sense to realize at times that he shouldn't have blabbed; she doesn't.
Beauxbatons means "pretty wands" and that school's crest shows two crossed wands, while Durmstrang is a Spoonerism of "Sturm (und) Drang", "storm and stress", a German cultural movement.
Ludo Bagman, who starts as a shifty character and we later learn is actually a bagman. "Ludo" also means "I play" in Latin; Ludo is the Head of Magical Games and Sports.
A "Bagman" is also someone involved in the collection of dirty money and Ludo turns out to have been cheating his gamblers, in order to pay of his debt to the goblins.
Rita Skeeter. Skeeter is an annoying, bloodsucking parasite who thrives on human misery... and so are mosquitoes, a.k.a. skeeters.
Mood Whiplash: As said in the description, the series gets dark after this book. It starts with Cedric's death and goes downhill from there.
Moral Guardians: It was with this entry that they started coming out in full force against the series. Just as the series became a worldwide phenomenon, it also brought a wave of parents, politicians, and preachers raging against the series, accusing it of glorifying witchcraft and Satanism to children, some having burnings of it. This required them to buy copies to burn.
Motive Misidentification: Throughout the story, everyone thinks that someone put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire in an attempt to get him killed while making it look like an accident. In the end it is revealed that his name was entered in the hope that he would win, touch the Triwizard Cup, and restore Voldemort to life.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Crouch can't seem to remember that Percy's last name is "Weasley" and not "Weatherby". Fred and George have a lot of fun with this.
Crouch's treatment of Winky, as lampshaded by Hermione and Sirius. Sirius, oddly, fails to live up to his own advice in the next book, although that was partially to do with Kreacher being a reminder of the family he hated.
Hermione attempts this with the House Elves of Hogwarts. She means well, but it doesn't go over too well.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Harry, when going to the Triwizard cup in the third task, is forced to make a decision of whether to save Cedric Diggory from something in the maze, or to go for the cup. He ultimately decides to save Diggory, and they take the cup together. Let's just say that Harry really should have left Cedric Diggory behind, for Cedric'sown good.
Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Moody mentions explicitly that cheating is a traditional part of the tournament. And Harry even goes out on a limb to help Cedric when it turns out that Cedric was the one person who hadn't had any done in his favor.
Nothing Is Scarier: Harry's trek through the hedge maze was rather unnerving because of this. Crouch Jr. was making sure that he had a clear path to the cup.
Not Just A Tournament: Doubly subverted. Everyone thinks the tournament is a ruse to kill Harry during the contest. In truth, it is rigged for him to win, so he can be captured at the moment of victory.
Not Me This Time: Harry's trio did steal Polyjuice Potion ingredients from Snape 2 books ago, but they're not the ones who did it this time.
Off on a Technicality: The only reason the Muggle authorities didn't convict Frank Bryce for murdering Tom Riddle Senior and his parents (a then human-looking Voldemort was the real culprit) was the fact Muggles cannot establish a cause of death for victims of Avada Kedavra.
One-Hit Kill: Although it appeared in the first book, this one gives a name to the flash of green light that Harry kept remembering. It's revealed to be the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. (There's a reason this series has its own "Chekhov's Gun" page.)
Only Known by Their Nickname: Until Dumbledore calls him "Alastor", it doesn't occur to Harry that "Mad-Eye" isn't Moody's first name.
Opposing Sports Team: Refreshingly subverted with Cedric, Fleur, and Krum, who, whatever their flaws, are pretty decent people and end up having cordial relationships with Harry. Indeed, by the end of the series Harry and Fleur are in-laws.
Outscare the Enemy: A group of Death Eaters run amok at the Quidditch World Cup as the Ministry tries in vain to control them. The riot only ends once an unknown person conjures the symbol of Voldemort, from which the Death Eaters immediately retreat. They're more afraid of the punishment they'll get for denouncing Voldemort when he lost his power than they are of the Ministry.
Parting Words Regret: Molly Weasley worries about this when the twins have a close call with the Death Eaters.
Pensieve Flashback: The Trope Namer. This book is the first time they're used, at least directly (as Harry notes, the exact same concept previously drove the diary flashback in ''Chamber of Secrets
Real Men Wear Pink Both Charlie and Hagrid are mentioned are mentioned as knitting and this is either so normal for the wizarding world, or so normal for Harry, that the the only comment on it is the fact that they are knitting.
Igor Karkaroff spends the whole book acting as suspiciously as possible. For readers Genre Savvy enough to know it would never be someone so obvious, Ludo Bagman is made a viable suspect with evidence against him occasionally brought up, but nearly always dismissed by the characters as irrelevant.
We learn about mid-way through the book that Voldemort has a spy at Hogwarts. A little while later, Harry finds out that Snape was accused of being a Death Eater after Voldemort's fall. Is Snape Voldemort's eyes and ears in the school? No. But he was a Death Eater.
The Triwizard Tournament is a competition between three wizards though this is later subverted when Harry is chosen as an unprecedented fourth contestant, with three rounds.
Snape continues the role from the previous books, but really reaches his peak in this book, not even trying to hide his favoritism for his Slytherin students and his bias against the students from the other houses. This is most notable when he not only lets Malfoy off scot-free when he hits Hermione with a charm that makes her front teeth grow huge but then tells her he "sees no difference", causing her to run off crying, then has the nerve to take points from Gryffindor, and then give Harry and Ron detention when they get angry over this. Fortunately, in the next book, Umbridge appears, replacing him in this role and making Snape look not nearly as bad by comparison.
Imposter Moody briefly becomes this to Malfoy when he turns him into a ferret, until McGonagall shows up and rebukes him for using Cool and Unusual Punishment.
Shout Out: Monty Python. Harry gains entrance to Dumbledore's office by trying various passwords, all of which are different kinds of sweet; the one that actually works, Cockroach Cluster, is a flavour used in the "Whizzo Assortment" sketch. Lampshaded in that Harry is amazed that it works and insists that he was kidding, which suggests that Harry is in Muggle-world a Monty Python fan. Cockroach Clusters are also shown to be a type of candy in the Harry Potter universe, though not a popular one.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Malfoy's boasting speech to Harry at the end of the novel gets interrupted by Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George blasting off a variety of spells simultaneously. Also see Berserk Button. Qualifies as Crowning Moment of Awesome
Spotting The Thread: Dumbledore realizes that Moody is not the real Moody when he removes Harry from his sight.
Spy Speak: A Subverted Trope: a Muggle believes that terms such as "Quidditch", "Muggles" and "Ministry of Magic" are codenames used by gangsters or spies, but these are just normal wizarding words.
Strawman Political: Averted or even subverted. Hermione, after seeing a house-elf get fired for the crime of being terrified, decides that house-elves are "uneducated and brainwashed" slaves and need to be liberated. But when she meets other house-elves, they're quite satisfied with their way of life, claiming that virtue is its own reward. There's a lot more details on all sides, but the point is that what could have been some sort of equal rights crusade gets pretty well deflated; if anything, Hermione ends up looking the fool due to her heavy-handed tactics, which the house-elves find amusing or even insulting. (Later books have Dumbledore pointing out that Hermione generally has the right idea, and Hermione gaining a better understanding of house-elf psychology.)
Talk About That Thing: Used by Hermione as an excuse to get her, Harry, and Ron out of the room before Mrs. Weasley blows up at Fred and George.
Tantrum Throwing: Upon discovering that Fred and George have engorged Dudley's tongue, Uncle Vernon begins throwing things at the Weasleys and Harry, who flee the house via Floo Powder.
Technicolor Fire: The eponymous object lights up with blue-white fire at the beginning of each tournament. When it's about to spew out the name of an accepted contestant, it turns bright red.
Took a Level in Badass: This is the point in the series where Harry seriously starts to improve as a spell caster. In the first book Harry is never seen casting a single spell successfully. In the second, he performs a spell here and there, but nothing particularly noteworthy. It takes most of the third book just to master one spell which, while admittedly difficult to learn, is an extremely situational charm. In this book, he learns a whole arsenal of jinxes, hexes and curses to survive the final trial, including Stupefy, his most powerful battle spell.
Understatement: "Potentially problematic? When was the last time you held your breath underwater for an hour, Hermione?"
Unscaled Merfolk: Viktor become half shark for the undersea challenge. It's later revealed that he messed the transfiguration up, and apparently one of the teachers had to put him back to normal. Giving himself only a shark's head was on purpose, since wizards who completely transform themselves without being an animagus lose their humanity. Not being able to say the incantation to turn himself back with a shark's mouth, however, was pretty straight Didn't Think This Through.
White Man's Burden: Hermione's house-elf liberation subplot is this. Somewhat unusually for this trope, it's portrayed in-universe as a bad thing, and she gets called on it by practically everyone. Even an attentive reader can notice the inherent hypocrisy of her cause: launching a house-elf freedom campaign on her own for the benefit of other elves without so much as asking for their help, forcing them into unwanted freedom. She also bases her view of house-elves on Dobby, whose views on freedom, payment and clothing are quite different than the average elf. And she completely misses the point about why house-elves are unhappy — their working conditions, not the work itself or lack of pay.
Why Don't You Marry It?: Percy just won't stop gushing about Mr. Crouch. Ron's waiting for them to announce their engagement.
Witch Hunt: The trials, or lack thereof for Sirius, of suspected Death Eaters at the Ministry.
Xanatos Roulette: The whole Tri-Wizard Tournament is hijacked by the scattered remnants of Voldemort's followers for the sole purpose of kidnapping Harry Potter by having him touch a object that would magically teleport him away to their Supervillain Lair. Their overly elaborate plan hinges not only on manipulating the title Goblet of Fire to draw Harry's name — an act that immediately draws suspicion since it violates half a dozen Tri-Wizard rules — but also on Harry's winning (and, for that matter, surviving) a multi-stage tournament that culminates in an obstacle course through a large maze. Surely there had to be a simpler way to get to Harry.
Xanatos Speed Chess: Fake Moody had to change his plans when Harry didn't ask Neville for help.
Your Mom: Malfoy insults Ron's mother and Harry responds by insulting Malfoy's mother:
Malfoy: Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren’t you, Potter? So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture? Harry: You know your mother, Malfoy? That expression she’s got, like she’s got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?
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