portkey

I’ve brought it up before here at The Hog’s Head and never received an answer satisfactory enough: Why didn’t Fake Moody just make a portkey out of Harry’s broomstick or pumpkin juice at the beginning of the year? Why the long, elaborate, risky plan?

I may have been thinking too hard about it. At the book table after the event in NYC last night, Melissa Anelli, webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron, said, very simply, “Dumbledore wouldn’t have allowed that kind of magic except in that particular instance – at the end of the tournament.” That didn’t seem like a strong enough argument to me at first, but I asked her a few clarifying questions, and three things struck me in our discussion:

1. Portkeys are highly regulated in the Wizarding World.
2. The Ministry of Magic may not know who is casting a spell, but they always know which spell is cast.
3. A portkey is a perfect way to finish the tournament: The winner is zapped back to the start of the maze.

With these thoughts in mind, the answer might be as simple as this: Fake Moody couldn’t randomly create a portkey. It would be noticed by the Ministry. But since the final trial of the TriWizard Tournament was set to end with a portkey, the plan was hatched that Harry would make it to that portkey, that Fake Moody would be the one to make that portkey, but that instead of sending the tournament’s winner back to the beginning of the maze, it would send him to the graveyard instead.

Even if the whole plan is still a little bit too elaborate and perhaps risky, it’s the best explanation I’ve heard! (My apologies, by the way, if someone here suggested this and I’m forgetting it. Please step up and take credit if you did.)

Thoughts?

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