The Triwizard Tournament

The Triwizard Tournament is a prestigious and historically perilous inter-school magical competition held between the three largest wizarding schools in Europe: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and the Durmstrang Institute. Originally designed to foster international magical cooperation and friendly rivalry, the Tournament challenges chosen student “champions” with a series of three dangerous magical tasks. After being discontinued for centuries due to a high death toll, its revival in 1994 during Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts became the central event that facilitated Lord Voldemort's return to power.

The Triwizard Tournament was established approximately seven hundred years ago, around the 13th century. It was held every five years, with the host school rotating among the three participants. The goal was to promote connections and understanding between young witches and wizards of different nationalities. However, the Tournament's history is marred by tragedy. The tasks were notoriously dangerous, and the death toll among champions eventually became so high that the competition was cancelled indefinitely. It was not held for several centuries until a concerted effort by the Department of International Magical Cooperation and the Department of Magical Games and Sports led to its revival in 1994, with new safety regulations intended to prevent fatalities.

The selection of champions is conducted by a powerful magical artifact known as the Goblet of Fire.

• Selection: Aspiring champions from each school place their names into the Goblet of Fire. On the designated day, the Goblet chooses one student from each school whom it deems most worthy.
• Age Restriction: For the 1994 tournament, the Ministry of Magic imposed a new rule stipulating that all contestants must be of age (seventeen years or older). Albus Dumbledore enforced this by casting an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire.
• Binding Contract: The selection of a champion by the Goblet constitutes a binding magical contract. Once chosen, a champion cannot withdraw from the Tournament and must see it through to the end. This was the reason Harry Potter was forced to compete despite being underage and not entering his own name.
• Scoring: After each task, a panel of judges awards points to each champion based on their performance. The champion with the highest total score after all three tasks wins the Tournament.

The revived Triwizard Tournament was hosted by Hogwarts and overseen by Barty Crouch Sr. and Ludo Bagman. The arrival of the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang in October 1994 marked the official start of the event.

• Judges: Albus Dumbledore (Headmaster of Hogwarts), Igor Karkaroff (Headmaster of Durmstrang), Olympe Maxime (Headmistress of Beauxbatons), Ludo Bagman, and Barty Crouch Sr.. Percy Weasley served as a substitute judge for Mr. Crouch during the second task.
• Champions:
  1. Cedric Diggory (Hogwarts)
  2. Fleur Delacour (Beauxbatons)
  3. Viktor Krum (Durmstrang)
  4. Harry Potter (Hogwarts), who was mysteriously selected as a fourth champion.
• Prize: The Triwizard Cup and one thousand Galleons in prize money.

Held on November 24, 1994, the first task required the champions to retrieve a golden egg from a nesting mother dragon. The egg contained a clue for the second task. Each champion faced a different species of dragon:

• Cedric Diggory used Transfiguration to turn a rock into a dog to distract a Swedish Short-Snout.
• Fleur Delacour attempted to lull her Common Welsh Green to sleep with a charm, but it snorted fire and set her robes alight.
• Viktor Krum used a Conjunctivitus Curse on his Chinese Fireball, but the dragon thrashed in pain and damaged its real eggs, losing Krum points.
• Harry Potter used a Summoning Charm to call his Firebolt and out-flew the Hungarian Horntail to retrieve the egg.

A traditional part of the Tournament, the Yule Ball was held on Christmas Day. It was a formal dance open to fourth years and above, intended to promote social interaction between the students of the three schools. The evening was opened by the Champions' Dance, where each champion and their chosen partner took to the floor first.

Held on February 24, 1995, the second task required champions to rescue a person of great importance to them from the merpeople at the bottom of the Great Lake within one hour.

• The “hostages” were Cho Chang (for Cedric), Hermione Granger (for Krum), Ron Weasley (for Harry), and Fleur Delacour's younger sister, Gabrielle Delacour.
• Cedric used a Bubble-Head Charm to breathe underwater. Harry used gillyweed provided by Dobby. Fleur and Krum both used forms of partial Transfiguration.
• Fleur was forced to retire after being attacked by Grindylows. Harry, showing “moral fibre,” rescued both his own hostage and Fleur's, although he finished outside the time limit. He was awarded second place for his actions.

On June 24, 1995, the final task took place in a vast maze grown on the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch. The champions entered in order of their current scores. The goal was to reach the Triwizard Cup placed at the center. The maze was filled with magical obstacles, including:

• A Blast-Ended Skrewt.
• A Boggart that impersonated a dementor.
• A golden mist with disorienting properties.
• A Sphinx that posed a riddle.
• An Acromantula.

Unbeknownst to the participants, Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Alastor Moody, had bewitched the maze to aid Harry and had turned the Triwizard Cup into a Portkey.

Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory reached the Triwizard Cup at the same time and, demonstrating sportsmanship, agreed to take it together. The Portkey transported them to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew were waiting. On Voldemort's order, Pettigrew murdered Cedric Diggory with the Killing Curse. Voldemort was then restored to a physical body using Harry's blood. Harry managed to escape back to Hogwarts with Cedric's body. In the aftermath, Cornelius Fudge refused to believe Voldemort had returned, beginning a Ministry of Magic smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore. The Tournament ended in tragedy, and Harry, who was declared the winner, gave his one-thousand Galleon prize to Fred and George Weasley to start their joke shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

The Triwizard Tournament serves as the central plot device for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Its complex structure and the involvement of the Ministry of Magic allowed Barty Crouch Jr. to execute Lord Voldemort's convoluted plan to capture Harry. The Tournament's conclusion, with Cedric's murder and Voldemort's rebirth, marks the definitive end of Harry's childhood and the beginning of the Second Wizarding War.

• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are depicted as single-gender schools (all-girls and all-boys, respectively). In the books, both schools are co-educational.
• The third task is significantly simplified in the film. Most of the specific magical creatures and obstacles like the Sphinx and Blast-Ended Skrewt are removed, with the maze itself being the primary, animated antagonist.
• The discovery of Barty Crouch Sr.'s fate differs. In the book, he is murdered by his son in the Forbidden Forest, and his body is Transfigured into a bone and buried. In the film, Harry discovers his dead body in the forest.