I am re-listening to Goblet of Fire on tape after seeing the movie (insert rave review here).
I am looking for the differences between book and movie, to see what was done to condense it. No subplot of SPEW or Dobby, to save time and budget on special effects.
In the book, Moaning Myrtle points Harry in the correct direction in the lake during the Second Task. Myrtle mentions that she is familiar with the lake, because sometimes, when her toilet is unexpectedly flushed, she winds up in the lake “along with the contents of a toilet”, as Harry muses.
Which means that the toilets at Hogwart’s drain into the lake. :eek:
Hogwart’s has been around for what, a thousand years? That means that lake is getting pretty foul by now. And the Second Task involves swimming in raw sewage.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
The Tri-Wizard Tournament is tougher than I thought!
And despite this, the merfolk are still more or less friends with Dumbledore, and allied with (although distant from) the wizarding world to the point that they will cooperate with the Department of Magical Games and Sports and help out with the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
Well, presumably the waste has been recycled into the environment. Fish poop in the lake, too, you know. And modern “leaching fields” don’t become unbearable fields of manure. Plants and other things re-use the waste. One o’them Cycle of Life kinda things.
That said, I’m a lot less interested in swimming in their lake, now.
