Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing a topic which branches out from yesterday’s video involving the Triwizard
tournament. Now, the triwizard tournament is an integral part of the Harry Potter story,
as the Goblet of Fire was the sort of pivot point at which Voldemort’s proper resurgence
was confirmed. After Harry travelled to the little Hangleton graveyard, Peter Pettigrew
was able to collect all of the ingredients necessary to bring lord Voldemort back in
to his real form. Though the tournament had been around for hundreds of years, and had
its fair share of mishaps through the ages, I’m not sure that anything ever happened
that was quite so bad as to be compared to the events of the 1994 tournament- where Cedric
died and the dark lord Voldemort returned. Sure, people have purportedly died in the
tournament before- but the events of 1994 were dark..sinister..So my question is- what
happened after 1994? Did the tournament continue? Before we get started, here’s a brief recap
on the tournament from Albus Dumbledore himself:
“The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly
competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons,
and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions
competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once
every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing
ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities — until, that is,
the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."
The tournament dates back 700 years, and ran uninhibited until the year 1792, at which
point a 200 year hiatus was put forth due to all three champions being injured. If the
tournament stopped for such a long due to injuries, SURELY they cancelled it after the
year Cedric died- right? In my opinion- I don’t think that it’s very likely that
it continued. The following quote from Dumbledore in the Goblet of Fire suggests that reinstating
the tournament is not so easy.
“There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament,”
Dumbledore continued, “none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments
of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is
ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time,
no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger.”
However, despite the best efforts of the departments involved with the tournaments resurgence,
it turns out they weren’t able to prevent people from being injured/killed. Though,
in their defence, it’s hard to be prepared enough for a resurgence from the Dark Lord.
Given that one of their highest priorities was making sure that the tournament was safe-
and that they failed in that regard, it’s unlikely that the tournament would continue
on. However, that’s not the only reason. In
fact, the 94’ tournament had a lot of weird things going on.
First of all, there was a fourth champion- a fourteen year old one at that. This was
not supposed to happen, and Hogwarts having two representatives is unfair to the other
institutions. The rules explicitly forbade anyone under 17 from competing, but here Harry
was, just 14 years old and the tournament winner. This no doubt would have impacted
the interest of both Beauxbatons and Durmstrang for future tournaments. Having the school’s
greatest champions bested by an illegitimate 14 year old participant is basically just
blatantly disrespectful, even if it was unintentional.
Not only that, but basically everyone involved with organizing the most recent tournament
had died.
“Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements
for the Triwizard Tournament,” Dumbledore continued, “and they will be joining myself,
Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts.”
After the 94 tournament took place most of these people died- which would have made the
organization of future tournaments improbable.
In addition to all of this, continuing the tournament would have almost been insensitive.
So much went wrong in the tournament of 1994, and provided that it was now associated with
Voldemort’s resurgence-it was almost.. Tainted.
What do you guys think? Did it continue after 1994? Let me know in the comment section below.
Until next time
Until such time you remain, in the eyes of the Ministry, a convicted Death Eater.