Since they were first introduced in Goblet of Fire. When Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys are set to return from the Quidditch World Cup to the Burrow, they are given the same portkey that brought them there.
Lots of stuff in the 7th book. That pirate “radio” station. Not funny. Not important to the plot. Not at all believable in the wizarding universe Rowling had set up, and certainly not something we’d hear about for the first time 7th year.
Getting the cup out of Gringotts (for the safest bank in the world, they suck). Escaping from there on a dragon.
Turning a bunch of kids into Harrys to make the jump to the safe house (not everyone, mind you, turned to Harry - just the half of the party that were kids - making the kids more of targets than the Order of the Phoenix members).
That’s a start.
Are you sure? That’s not how I remember it, but GoF is probably my least favorite of the books and I haven’t re-read it in a long time.*
If that’s the case then it does make less sense than I had convinced myself of, unless Crouch/Moody had permission to make the cup a portkey to get the winner out of the maze but set it to the graveyard instead.
*Prior to the introduction of the Grawp subplot I’d have said my least favorite part of the series was the endless Quidditch World Cup sequence.
I want to read about his twin brother, Romulus–the one who wasn’t bitten by a werewolf… 
THIS!
The fucking stupid-ass naming convention she chose wears thin on about the, oh, 2nd fucking name.
Wizard duels. One guy with a gun could kill every wizard on the planet if they fought like that.
Yes, I think so too. It’s a shame.
I guess you didn’t go to high school in England, then.
They do consider this after escaping Grimmauld Place but ultimately decide it’s too risky to summon Kreacher, for fear of Death Eaters arriving with him.
The time turner isn’t destroyed in Prisoner of Azkaban. Hermione hands it in after classes are done for the year because using it to juggle her class load was taking its toll. In Order of the Phoenix, the ministry’s collection of time turners were accidently destroyed at some point during the fight at the end.
You know, I’ve thought about this some, because you do have a point. It doesn’t usually happen that way. And you know, there were times I thought she’d surprise us with Harry/Luna at the end. I think I would have liked that, actually. But the Ron/Hermione pairing has been set up from the very beginning. For them to not end up together after she spent 7 books establishing that relationship would’ve felt very WTF.
Agreed, 100%, re Grawp and the giants storylines. Bo-ring and goes absolutely nowhere.
If I remember correctly: at some point, in an interview that Rowling gave, she said that Hagrid’s speculation was wrong, and the real reason for the masquerade was that a gun-toting mob of Muggles could easily take out a good chunk of the entire wizarding world. And if they could do that, what about an entire army? Basically, the wizards hide because they’re scared.
Which makes it incredibly stupid to catch the snitch of you’re that far behind. At that point, you’re doing all you can to prevent the other seeker from catching the snitch. Assuming you’re trying to win (apparently Krum wasn’t).
I always thought it odd that Harry had so few relatives. It’s not impossible for a child to be born to young parents and yet have no living grandparents, but it is unusual. It’s even more unusual that he’d have NO relatives on either side other than Aunt Petunia/Dudley/Uncle Vern; apparently Lily had no aunts, no uncles, no other siblings, no cousins who might have given him a loving home. Same with the Potters; both died by the time James was in his early 20s and were apparently both only-children themselves and the children of only-children, for it’s odd that Harry had no apparent relatives in the wizarding world (and for somebody of his fame even a great-aunt or 2nd cousin would likely come forth to introduce themselves, especially if they were poor and knew he was rich, and if they were Death Eaters they’d probably seek custody).
Plus Harry has no apparent curiosity about his wizarding family. We’re not talking distant genealogy remember, we’re talking grandparents who were alive just 20 years before; didn’t they have any heirlooms (they were rich after all) other than James’s stuff, or a house (other than the one James and Lily died in) or other property (their money came from somewhere after all)?
That was addressed, to be fair: someone explained that Krum realized the game was lost, and wanted to lose with dignity. Not that you get to the World Cup finals of any sport with an attitude like that, but did you really expect the author to admit her game was broken? :smack:
Awarding and withdrawing points is one thing; some American schools do the same thing with individual students’ grades. But what I really thought was a dick move was the end-of-year banquet in book 1. Slytherin was the top house, as far as everyone knew. Their banners were displayed and (IIRC) the House Cup was already engraved. If Dumbledore was determined to give the deal-breaking 160 points to Gryffindor, he should have left it undecided at the start of the banquet, instead of switching the banners on the spot and effectively pantsing Slytherin. No wonder Slytherins are so full of hate.
Just a note, in the US the “public schools” are the ones the public attend, in England the “Public Schools” are the ones the general public are (mainly) excluded from.
some portkeys are timed. in book 7 every one is very concerned as the portkeys arrive with no one attached.
it seems as if they can be set for a place with out a time as well. as in book 4.
the trophy thingy in book 4 was to transport the champion out of the maze. faux moody tampered with it to transport the champion to the graveyard.
when harry and cedric touched the cup they went to the graveyard first. then when harry touched the cup after the goings on in the graveyard it still had the orig. programming and it took them back to where the cup was set to go.
I always thought that was a jerk move on Dumbledore’s part too. It was like he was trying to do it in the way that would be most disappointing to the Slytherins. Malfoy and Co. were little punks and I wouldn’t feel sorry if they were embarrassed, but as far as we saw then the rest of the house played by the rules. Snape did hand out points pretty freely to his own house, but if that wasn’t the fault of the students.
The #2 house (Ravenclaw, IIRC) might also understandably have felt that if Slytherin wasn’t the winner then it should have been them.
I have no good answer for this (because there isn’t one), but Rowling did say in an interview that she made Harry’s grandparents dead* to make it easier on her and to not complicate the story.
Who knows how or where wizard money comes from–another detail not well thought out (including her basic maths skills re currency). I have no idea what all those people DO in the MoM. It’s (another) one of those things that doesn’t bear scrutiny.
*there is something wrong with this sentence, but you know what I mean.
Nope.
Also, the wizards lack of knowledge & understanding about the “Muggle world” was not well thought out.
A lot of things don’t add up properly - number of students in each year at Hogwarts vs. Number of students in each house. Number of people working at the Ministry vs. the entire idea of what the hell people who don’t work there do for a living.
I can see some pure Wizarding families not having a lot of understanding of the Muggle world, but the shear number of Muggle Connected Wizards (Hermoine, etc) mean that clueless people like Arthur Weasley would never be put in charge of issues related to Muggles. They have a large enough pool of people who have those connections and know these things. Likewise, Arthur would have a lot of peers who are perfectly well versed in How Muggles Operate and would not long remain in a state of ignorance. (Thus, it’s just a fun plot device.)