Another basic example of Hogwarts being the dumbest school ever

The plot behind the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” revolves around the titular hero, Harry Potter, being entered against his will into an age-old tournament comprised of three challenges. The event takes place at Hogwarts School, an institution that in the three previous books established what can best be called extremely questionable educational standards. Each event takes place on the school grounds, with all of the students invited to watch the contest from bleachers normally reserved for Quidditch, a sort-of flying soccer/basketball hybrid that was clearly invited by someone with only a passing understanding of professional sports.

The first contest involves securing a dragon egg from a dragon without incurring bodily harm. In this contest, the students watch from their vantage point and are able to easily take in the action. The second contest involves diving into the lake to rescue a loved one, and here it is a little less certainly how the spectators are seeing anything. They are situated in bleachers around the lake, but the water is established as deep, dark and murky. Granted, there may be some kind of spell that lets viewers see through the water, but later in the contest it’s established that the judges had no way of seeing what was going on (thus missing Harry getting to the site of capture first and exhibiting bravery). Thus, it’s questionable as to what exactly anyone is seeing or sitting around for, but the contest is also just an hour and presumably it was similar to the Tour de France where spectators wait at a vantage point to see a break in the action; in this case, the contestants resurfacing in the lake.

The real puzzlement comes on the third task, which involves a hedge maze filled with dangerous creatures. Here again the bleachers and stands are positioned high up and around the maze, yet it seems as though nobody can actually see anything of what is going on within. Unlike the previous task, this one takes hours to complete… it’s mentioned that the afternoon sun is setting (it’s early dusk) and during the course of the task becomes late at night. So… we’re presumably talking hours here.

This is a long time for people to sit around and stare at a bunch of hedges without seeing anything. To make matters worse, it’s unclear what happens when someone wins. The “Triwizard Cup” is situated at the center of the maze, with the winner being the one who gets there first. However, when Harry and Cedric (made worse by him being played by the sparkly vampire boy from Twilight) reach the prize there is no result or outcome that signals the event is over. Instead Harry and Cedric are transported to a trap thousands of miles away… which nobody notices. Then something like an hour passes before Harry returns with a dead Cedric. Except he actually transports himself outside of the maze… which seems like a pretty good idea because nobody would have noticed anything if he had gone back to the center of the maze. Rather than end going home on the train, Harry would have bled out in the center of the maze.

So what’s going on here? What is the point of setting up bleachers around the maze if nobody could see inside? And why couldn’t they see inside? It’s established that the maze is “twice human height tall”… yet hundreds of students and teachers are not able to see:

1. Harry and Cedric getting transported away.

2. Fleur getting attacked and stunned by a teacher wandering around outside the maze.

3.  Krum getting possessed and attacking Cedric.

4. Harry getting injured by a giant spider.

5. Harry and Cedric agreeing to grab the tournament cup together.

6. Any indication of someone actually winning the contest.

…and on and on.

We’re told earlier in the book that the school really cares about safety, but the premise here is that we’re going to toss four teenagers into a maze filled with dangerous creatures, have no way to see what they are doing or up to, and our safety measure is if someone gets in some trouble they should shoot some red sparks around over their head. What a safe and completely fool-proof system this is.

It really feels like everyone in these books are morons, particularly the supposedly educated teaching staff of “the most famous school in wizardry”. Why is it famous? For an abundance of easily preventable accidents? For an average IQ that’s low two-digits? We are talking about a group of people content to sit and stare at nothing for hours, putting them at least in the same class as NASCAR fans.