Skip to main content

harry potter - What happens when a Triwizard Contestant refuses to participate?


It seems different enchantments trigger different consequences - for example, Lily's protective enchantment over Harry disappears the moment Harry turns seventeen, and the Unbreakable Vow results in death if broken. What constitutes the 'binding magical contract' in Goblet of Fire regarding the Triwizard Tournament? What are the repercussions of breaking the Triwizard contract? Both Dumbledore and Mad-Eye Moody stress the fact that Triwizard champions cannot withdraw from the tournament. However, I cannot find any canon reference to what would happen if a Triwizard champion outright refused to participate. Is there any canon source that addresses this? Please no Wikipedia/Wikia answers - I'm looking from information from the books or J.K. Rowling. An appropriate speculative answer based within the spirit of canon if a canon reference cannot be found is fine. For reference:



‘Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the Tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the Goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become champion.’ - Dumbledore -

Goblet of Fire - page 226 - Bloomsbury - chapter 16, The Goblet of Fire



and



‘He’s got to compete. They’ve all got to compete. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?’ - Mad-Eye Moody -

Goblet of Fire - page 244 - Bloomsbury - chapter 17, The Four Champions





Answer



A magical contract would be able to cause its effects through two systems that I can think of:



  • Compulsion, to cause the party to want to comply with the contract.

  • Enforcement, by providing a negative action on those who do not comply with the contract.


Extrapolating based on what little canon we know, the contract obviously does not force the contractee into taking part by compulsion as Harry is repeatedly unwilling and reluctant to take part, only to be effectively ordered to do so by the organizers.


That leans me to believe that in this case, enforcement is how a magical contract goes about its work - especially since the most closely corresponding magic to what we know of the magical contract is the Unbreakable Vow, which also does its work via enforcement, and we do know what happens when you break the Unbreakable Vow:




"Well, you can’t break an Unbreakable Vow...."


"I’d worked that much out for myself, funnily enough. What happens if you break it, then?"


"You die," said Ron simply. "Fred and George tried to get me to make one when I was about five. I nearly did too, I was holding hands with Fred and everything when Dad found us. He went mental," said Ron, with a reminiscent gleam in his eyes. "Only time I’ve ever seen Dad as angry as Mum, Fred reckons his left buttock has never been the same since." (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)



Harry taking part in the Tri-Wizard tournament is viewed as a potential death sentence:



"Don't you?" said Moody quietly. "It's very simple, Karkaroff. Someone put Potter's name in that goblet knowing he'd have to compete if it came out."


...


"Maybe someone's hoping Potter is going to die for it," said Moody, with the merest trace of a growl. (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)




It'd take some serious enforcement to make it worth risking potential death for. Given the analogous Unbreakable Vow and making Dumbledore and the likes willing to risk Harry's life in the Tournament, I can only come to the conclusion that the effect of breaking the magical contract is indeed death or some lasting injury, mental or physical. Nothing else seems to make sense given the evidence. And with those risks in mind, I can see the teachers not wanting to inform Harry of these risks in order to avoid distressing him any further than necessary.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more