Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Chapter 7 Summary

Chapter Seven

Bagman and Crouch

 

The group arrives on a deserted moor, only to walk a little further and discover hundreds and hundreds of tents containing thousands of witches and wizards eager to attend the Quidditch World Cup. The “site manager” is a muggle named Mr. Roberts who continually has to have his memory modified in order to keep him from knowing about this magical encounter. As Harry and friends walk among the tents, Harry notices that most of them look fairly normal (except for the occasional chimney and weather vane). When they arrive at the Weasley campsite, Harry is incredibly excited (never having been camping with wizards before), but he is surprised when the group erects what looks like a pair of shabby two-man tents. As Harry ducks his head to enter, he is shocked that the two tiny tents looked just like full-size apartments inside. Seeing that the group left the Burrow before dawn, it is now early morning and the wizarding folk already there for the World Cup are just beginning to rise and begin their day.  Sent out to get water, the friends have a look around the camp.  First, they come to a large group of tents that are stunningly green: all fans of the Irish World Cup team.  Later, they come to the Bulgarian area where everything is white, green, red, and adorned with the same poster of their star player: Viktor Krum (who Hermione says looks very “grumpy”). Ron is starstruck by Viktor Krum’s genius on the Quidditch field. The group meets up with some classmates from Hogwarts as well as some other students from other magical wizarding schools around the globe.  When they return, Mr. Weasley is having fun with muggle matches and trying desperately to light a fire. Suddenly, Ludo Bagman arrives, sporting the colors of yellow and black from when he used to play Quidditch for England. Mr. Weasley introduces his family to Bagman. Bagman, of course, does a double take when Mr. Weasley introduces Harry Potter, but proceeds fairly rapidly trying to get them to bet on a winner of the match. Percy is astounded when Bagman finds and loves one of the twins’ fake wands, accepting it as a wager. Bagman and Weasley begin discussing the disappearance of Bertha Jorkins again.  Suddenly, Barty Crouch appears, wearing a stiff suit and tie and looking very opposite of Bagman. The twins have a laugh when they find that Percy, who has been spending his time bragging about his good working relationship with Crouch, is actually hardly noticed and even called “Weatherby.” In the conversation, the two let slip that something important is going to be happening at Hogwarts this year. Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape to buy some exciting Quidditch World Cup souvenirs.  Suddenly, there is a loud “gong” calling for everyone to approach the field: the Quidditch World Cup is about to begin.