Finished with Book Four!

I will start out by saying that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was my favorite book to read so far. Now, before you HP fanatics get all up in my case and tell me that it's too long and boring...this was my first time reading it. Think back to the first time you read it (because I assume the majority of Harry Potter fans have read each book at least twice) and now try and remember how you felt.
I can definitely see re-reading this book and getting bored with the long explanations and the endless amounts of time that the characters seem to spend at the Quidditch World Cup and preparing for the different tasks.  It could get a little tedious. But I was rapt with anticipation anyway, and you can't take that away from me!

That said, I will now go into detail about my Book Four reading experience. Since this book sort of comes in sections, I will break it down and express my reactions to each part.

Part One: The Quidditch World Cup
Not gonna lie, this part, to me, was pretty long and boring.  Harry goes to the Weasley's house, they use the Portkey, they set up their tent, they hang out, they go to the game, the game ends, they get terrorized and someone sets off the Dark Mark, and it's all over.
However, I learned some more Harry Potter lingo that I was not really sure about before but kept hearing people talk about! Death Eaters: Voldemort's followers.  Pretty easy, but I had in mind that they were some sort of creature that people who followed Voldemort could turn into that....ate death.  Which I figured to be an oxymoron as well.  If you wanted to be scary, why wouldn't you be Life Eaters? YOU EAT LIFE. Muahaha!!
I guess I always envisioned Death Eaters as something that sucked the life out of people, but that's more like Dementors.  The real Death Eaters are a lot more lame.
Anyway, not my favorite part, which brings us to...

Part Two: The Goblet of Fire
Among other things, this part consists of arriving at Hogwarts, announcing the Triwizard Tournament, the introduction of Professor Moody, and (drum roll, please) the drawing of Harry's name out of the Goblet of Fire.
I saw it coming. I knew from the one and only mental snapshot I had of this book's movie (I had only seen trailers) that Harry competes in some sort of competition. My snapshot: Harry going through a maze.
But I was still surprised! Because once Cedric Diggory's name was pulled, I wondered if I was somehow wrong in my remembering. Yet, soon enough, old Harry's name got drawn and all was right with the world.
In this section, I learned exactly what Avada Kedavra means.  I knew it was something bad from constant exposure to Harry Potter maniacs, but as with a lot of these things, I didn't really know.
Now I do. Avada Kedavra is bad.  Very very bad.  Yeah, I figured it probably killed people in a horrible way, but this seems almost worse.  With these two words, you can take a life, just like that.  And these words are what took Harry's parents' lives.  So it took on a new meaning.
But that's all for that part, so...

Part Three: The Tasks
I could make different parts for each task, but I won't because they are not all that involved in themselves.  First, Harry flies past a dragon.  Then, Harry turns into a fish and saves people held captive by mermaids.  Finally, Harry gets through a dangerous maze.  And there's a Yule Ball in there somewhere, which was kind of cute and funny.  It's interesting watching these little crushes when I know how all the pairings turn out in the end.  I would have bet my life (okay, maybe that's a little drastic) that Harry ended up going with Ginny, but good thing I didn't because he went with some girl named Parvati or Pansy or Lavender or Periwinkle.
But Ginny went with Neville, and that was exciting because she's my character and Neville is my favorite! (My character as in me and Kelsey choose characters from everything we do.)
So, we've got the ball and the tasks, and as soon as Harry completes the final task...

Part Four: The Craziness
Harry and Cedric are instantly taken by a Portkey (the trophy) to Voldemort's hometown! Cedric gets killed on the spot (Avada Kedavra-ed)!! Voldemort rises again!!!
And this is where I stopped reading early Monday morning.  And I didn't get a chance to read again until Wednesday evening.  Yeah...I know.
This part is so twisty and turny, I love it!  Harry beats Voldemort with the help of the "shadows" of Cedric, an old man, and his parents, and returns to Hogwarts with Cedric's body and news of Voldemort's rising.
Here is where I started freaking out. I was still scared for Harry's safety with shady people like Ludo Bagman, Snape, and Krum around, so when Mad-Eye Moody took Harry away, I was relieved.
But then my comfort was shattered as I learned that Moody was the hidden Death Eater at Hogwarts that Voldemort had been talking about!!  How could this be?!  I knew from seeing the fifth and seventh movies that Moody is a good guy, so, again, how could this be!?!
Well, it wasn't.  The real Moody had been captured by Crouch's son, and Barty Crouch Jr. had been acting in Moody's place using Polyjuice Potion all year.  That made a lot more sense to me.
And I know I'm telling you all things that you already know, but it's new to me, so it's exciting. :)

Anyway, the rest of the story winds down with a bunch of explanations that all seemed to tie back to seemingly unrelated incidents that happened previously in the book. With all of this, I found a new appreciation for Professor McGonagall because she yells a lot at Cornelius Fudge, so she is now one of my favorite characters.
I've also found that I'm getting paranoid as I'm reading these books now.  I knew that the first few were relatively harmless and no one really died, but now that things are getting serious, I'm expecting people to die left and right.  For example, when Harry finds Crouch in the forest, he runs off to get Dumbledore but can't find him. And Snape tells him that Dumbledore is "busy."  And since all I know about Dumbledore's death is that Snape kills him, my first reaction was "Nooo! Not yet!" But Dumbledore really was just busy.  But this is bad because now I'm getting attached, and I don't want him to die. He is awesome.

I'm starting to think that these posts are getting too long for just writing one follow-up post about them.  I might, don't hold me to this, write a post when I'm halfway through the fifth book so I don't end up with a monstrously long post.  We'll see.
For now, on to the next book!

Want to see my other posts about the series? Right here.