Why Fleur Delacour Performed So Badly in the Triwizard Tournament - Harry Potter Explained

Video Description

Hey everyone, Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going to be discussing the bride of Bill Weasley and French quarter-Veela, Fleur Delacour. More specifically, however, we’re going to be discussing her performance during the Triwizard tournament in the Goblet of Fire. Fleur was a talented witch and a student of Beauxbatons, in fact she was chosen as her school’s champion- so why did she keep getting the short end of the stick? What gives? The triwizard tournament is a contest like no other- an event dating back more than 700 years that tests the intelligence, courage, and strength of those participating. Since its inception, the contest has gone forward every 5 years- with a BRIEF 200 year pause due to all three champions being injured in 1792. Typically the tournament featured 3 champions - one from each of the three largest wizarding schools in Europe: Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Hogwarts. These school champions would then take place in 3 brutal challenges. 3 participants, 3 challenges - hence ‘tri’ wizard tournament. The prize for the tournament was eternal glory, 1000 galleons, and the famed triwizard cup. However, Harry Potter sort of unintentionally broke this mould, as during his time at Hogwarts his name was thrown in as an EXTRA participant. In the year that Harry participated there were four: Harry Potter, Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory, and the focus of this video: Fleur Delacour. Accounts of the tournament vary a little from book to film, but the general idea of the tournament was the same: 3 challenges. One other constant was Fleur’s performance, which quite frankly- wasn’t there, as she tailed behind the other 3 participants for the duration of the tournament. The first challenge was to retrieve a golden egg from one of four immensely powerful and dangerous dragons. Each champion was paired with a dragon- and ended up obtaining the egg in their own unique way. Harry opted to take advantage of his flying skills, Krum utilized a conjunctivitis curse, Cedric used Transfiguration, and Fleur- who faced a Common Welsh Green- chose to enchant the dragon to sleep. Everyone was successful in obtaining the egg, however, for some it was not without hiccups. Though Fleur’s enchantment worked, and the dragon was put to sleep, she faced issues when the dragon snored- releasting a jet of flame. This jet of flame set her skirt alight, but she was still able to put the flames out and retrieve her egg. Fleur’s issues resulted in a fourth place finish - last. The second challenge was at the great lake- a challenge involving water, merpeople, and something that the participants would ‘sorely’ miss. The thing that the participants would ‘miss’, however, ended up being important people in their lives. Strangely enough, Hermione was Krum’s ‘rescue-ee’, Ron was Harry’s, Cho Chang was Cedric’s, and Gabrielle-her younger sister- was Fleurs. Given one hour, the participants were tasked with saving these individuals, and once again- each ended up pursuing it in their own individual way. Though Fleur figured out how to breathe underwater, she still had considerable difficulty with the challenge. In fact, Harry ended up saving more than his own champion out of fear that they would die if left un-saved “Harry looked around, waiting. Where were Fleur and Krum? Time was getting short and, according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour …” Because Fleur hadn’t yet arrived to save her sister, Harry acted hastily- thinking that she would die if he didn’t take action. Harry’s selflessness meant that he ended up with a third place finish- however, that placing was later revised to ‘2nd’ for showing ‘moral fibre’. Fleur, once again, finished in last. Going in to the third task Harry and Diggory were tied for 1st, Krum was second, and Fleur was in third- aka fourth- aka last. The third task involved a 20-foot high maze full of obstacles, riddles and creatures. Participants would have to circumnavigate the maze, overcome the obstacles, and claim the triwizard cup. From there the winner would bask in eternal glory. Things didn’t look good for Fleur, however, as she went in to the third task with 2 fourth place finishes under her belt. In the end, Fleur got last in this challenge as well. Though I’m sure it could be argued that Cedric- the boy who died- that had the biggest loss that day. ..Watch the video for the rest! MYTHOLOGY CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMNO5DyuBpWRlWwTjqaP6RQ Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVqoigIqNacy9xMnEDZzN_Q/join Leave your video ideas down below! Thanks! Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hptheory/ All content falls under fair use: any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner.