Wands, Wizards, Whimsy and Wagnalls!

In today's episode, Junior Librarians Andrew, Addison, Isaac and Abigail discuss the Triwizard Tournament tasks of the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Listen in as they also give some pretty strong arguments for favorite characters and what they liked best in the Harry Potter universe!

Links & Resources:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (library link)
Junior Librarians meet the fourth Thursday of every month from 4-5pm. Call 614-837-4765 ext. 112 for more information!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Harry Potter
• 2:08 The Triwizard Tournament Tasks
• 4:23 Surprises and Character Deaths
• 7:34 Favorite Characters and Their Fates
• 9:18 The Luck of Harry Potter

Transcript

[0:00]Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we'll be talking about Harry Potter, the Goblet of Fire, and all the Triwizard Tournament tasks. Dragon, the walk, the lake, and the maze. Welcome to the Junior Librarian Podcast. This podcast is written for kids, by kids, to help them learn more about the Wagnalls Memorial Library.

[0:27]Okay so dragon what's dragon uh that's the first task pretty much you gotta fight a dragon and try and get this golden egg surprisingly really loud for an egg the egg is loud yeah it tells you very weird riddles kind of ish ish do you have to guess the riddle Not really. You just have to put it underwater in a tox. Yeah. Okay. Why is that important? To get the egg underwater? So you can figure out what the second task is. Oh. So does the egg underwater tell you what the second task is? In a riddle-ish way, yeah. Yeah. A riddle-ish way. So once we get to the second task, what's the second task? You go under a lake and you have to rescue people from the mermaids. They're not aerial type of stuff. They're horrifying. That's not like aerial. It goes.

[1:34]So they're more like sirens. They're like, they're like, yeah, really scary. Yeah. And you got to do all that in an hour to not the dragons, just the lake. Just the lake. In the second task. You gotta do that in an hour. But Harry also rescues the other person's person. Yeah. Yeah, that person's person. Now, from the mermaids and the lake, you go on to the third task.

[1:59]That's just this big maze that is literally trying to eat you. Carnivorous plants. Carnivorous plants. Not like the Venus flytrap. They are actually trying to

[2:08]

The Triwizard Tournament Tasks

[2:08]eat you, not your finger. Then at the middle, there's the trophy, but when Harry and Cedric got in this big fight about who got the trophy, and then they both took it, and they got teleported into a graveyard. So let's say them both taking it was a big mistake. They paid the consequences for that. Yeah. Yeah, Voldemort just went up and went, pew, and killed him. Oh my. So they wind up in the graveyard. Do they escape the graveyard? Eventually. Yeah. But Cedric isn't really alive. But Harry does. Because he's the main character. Yeah. Main characters never die. Technically, Peter Pettigrew, using Voldemort's wand, kills Cedric. And then Peter Pettigrew puts Harry's blood in a cauldron with the little Voldemort, helpless guy Voldemort version. Yeah. And a bunch of other random stuff that somehow makes him come back to life. He just gets a bunch of clothes out of nowhere. And he also gives Peter Pettigrew a silver hand that eventually coaxed him to death. Yeah. But he was the bad guy. He was. He was also the rat. Literally. Yeah, literally. So is this like your favorite part of this book?

[3:27]Yeah. Why? Because it's exciting. I like it. Because I like it. Because I like it. I have no reason. I just like it. Do you have anything else to say about the tasks? Were you surprised? Yeah. Tell me how you were surprised. What did you expect to happen? Cedric not get killed at the very end of the third task. Ooh. And basically everything else that happens. Yeah, that's how very part of books are. You expect this one thing, and that one thing happens, but then a totally different other thing happens based on that one thing. And then Cedric dies. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Every book, somebody dies at the end. Yeah. Every book. And then a lot of people get angry. And then a lot of people cry, and a lot of people go, when they see the person

[4:23]

Surprises and Character Deaths

[4:17]die, then it's all super dramatic after the person dies. They have a really dramatic death. They do. They, like, fall to the ground so dramatically.

[4:32]Yeah. Takes them, like, at least a minute to, like, announce their death, and then it takes them another five minutes to fall to the ground. I'm gonna ask you the following question i want to ask you about this if you had to pick one character could be good or evil which would be your favorite because of how he or she ends up like in the fourth book or just the entire series the entire series oh totally luna lovegood say it again luna lovegood okay totally why because she's a ravenclaw and i like ravenclaw and she's cool she's cool i don't know i don't i'd say honestly hermione granger because i've only watched her first movie so i'm kind of the new here so i guess i like hermione granger because she's like my friend avery strong well 75 of the time angry um yes um there's lots of um.

[5:31]I'd say maybe Harry. How come? All of them. All of them. If you had to pick one for how the character ends up, which one would you pick? Albus. The kid. Why? Tell them why. He doesn't get killed. He's the one possum that doesn't get killed. Or nothing bad actually really ever happens to it. What about the island? Oh, yeah. That was so sad.

[6:03]That was sad. If nobody else is going to say it, Hadrid. Oh, yeah. The big tall person with the beard. Half giant. Oh, the guy wants to keep 50 dragons as a pet even though he lives in a wooden cottage. What? Oh, yeah, the guy with the golden little dragon thing. Norbert. Norbert. How come you like him? He's funny. And, I don't know, he's funny. He doesn't die. Oh, he does not. A good reason to like any character. He almost dies like at least once every book, but he ends up alive somehow. Somehow.

[6:44]Because he's like the main character's best friend. I thought that was the guy that looks like you. That's everyone. Everyone is Harry Potter's friend except for Draco. That's it. Except for everybody in Slytherin. But Draco still ends up alive. What about the voice? Draco ends up good. What about the Voldemort guy? Well, yeah, he's a major. You know, Voldemort is my favorite character, if I have to say why he ended up. Because he just disintegrates. Disintegrates. Just like his clothes came on in thin air, his body just goes out in thin air. And there's nothing left of him. The one word. No, that was the last one. He, like, was one of the teacher's backfaces. That was horrible in the first one.

[7:34]

Favorite Characters and Their Fates

[7:34]He dies in the last book. Finally. The last book is the most overrated one. The last book is so sad. Everybody died. The last book, like in the last chapter... It may as well just be, oh, hey, guess what? Everyone else except for like one person is going to die. Enjoy your day.

[7:58]That's basically the last chapter. Okay, so if you have one more thing to say about Harry Potter in the form of your two last words on Harry Potter, what would they be? Molly Weasley. Why? Probably because in the near the end of the seventh book. Bellatrix restrains and Jenny Weasley are dueling and Bellatrix hits Jenny with a spell. And Molly Weasley just destroys her. She turns her to stone and then disintegrates her. Yeah. So what would your last two words on Harry Potter be for this episode? We must loop him. And why would you want to talk about that one? Because he doesn't really get mentioned a lot in all of the Harry Potter stuff. He never really gets mentioned, and he's kind of cool. Why is he cool? He got bit by Greyback, so he turns into a werewolf. He eventually left Hogwarts because of it. Then he had to marry someone who he didn't want to marry. Yeah. How about you? What's your last two words on Harry Potter for this episode? Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Okay.

[9:18]

The Luck of Harry Potter

[9:15]So why do you mention Harry Potter here? Because you know what? You haven't talked a whole lot about Harry in this episode, have you? Not really. What kind of name is he? Exactly. The books, not the person. Not the person. He does a lot of good things that are pretty much just luck. Yeah. He says that in the fifth book. Everything he does is just lucky. Very good. Everything that happens to him is just pure luck. It's like pure luck and 1% skill. Maybe not even that.

[9:49]Point 001% skill. You're saying Harry has 0% skill. Exactly. Yes. She proved my point. The crowd says yes. I think you might get some pushback on that. I think people might say, hey, that thing you said about Harry Potter, not so sure. We stick with our words. You stick with your opinion. Harry's luck mostly comes from Hermione setting it up so that he would get lucky. Yeah, that is true. And then Ron is always the sacrifice. Ron's the sacrifice. Who they want to, they don't want him to die, but he's always the one. He's the bait. That they sacrifice. He's the bait. He sacrifices himself. And then he leaves. But he sacrifices himself. In the first book, he sacrifices himself and Hermione was like, no.

[10:42]I don't know why he would do this. So they could win the chess game and destroy Carol who had the Voldemort on the back of his head. I'm horrible at chess. I'm not that bad. Wait, how did this become more Harry Potter than chess? Because of the giant chess set that they had to get to to kill Voldemort and Quam. But Voldemort still doesn't die. He doesn't. Because he's Voldemort. He's the bad guy. Yeah. You can't have an eight-book series and then just have the evil dude die in the very first book. Good, it was near the end of the first book. It was still in the first book. Thanks for listening. Tune in next time.

[11:28]Music.