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Quidditch champion Viktor Krum, is introduced here, and although Krum is Ron's "hero", Ron will soon feel quite differently about him in upcoming chapters.
Winky will have a large role to play in the next few chapters. Mr. Crouch has been hiding a secret, with Winky's active help, for many years at this point, and that secret has almostnearly escaped. It is because of thatThat near-escape thatwill be why Winky will beis dismissed from service. Winky's dismissal will actually prove instrumental in thethat secret's final and complete escape of that secret. A large part of the remainderMuch of the book's willremainder be dealing with the results ofinvolves that escape's aftermath.
The episodes with the Veela in this and the following chapters serve to highlight Harry and Ron's budding sexuality, as noted above. Ron will, in the next chapter, turn out to be more susceptible to the Veela's charms of the Veela than Harry; this will also result in his being infatuated with [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Fleur Delacour|Fleur Delacour]], a character who will turn out to beis one-quarter Veela.
OneThe ofseries' thestrong strengthswriting ofis the writingreflected in this series is the realism of therealistic romantic entanglements that our heroes get involved inexperience. Ron, clearly less mature emotionally mature than either Harry or Hermione, remainshas unabledifficulty to distinguishdistinguishing love from infatuation, even after he has shakenshaking off most of the effects of his close proximity to Fleur. Harry equally shows signs of immaturity, with thea relationship hethat willtakes be involved withshape in this book and continues into the next booksbook; he will bebecomes infatuated with [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Cho Chang|Cho Chang]], a romance that will ultimately be doomed by hisHarry's youthyouthful inexperience and Cho's fragile emotional state. Every reader has either gone throughundergone similar toils on his or her own, or knows someone who has. In a book likethat this, where the emphasis is on theemphasizes adventure and the conflict, it is easy to think that romance and the characters' similar maturation ofare thesecondary charactersto arethe secondaryplot and canare beonly hinted at rather than written about. It is vastly to the author's great credit that she realizes just how central romance is to thea young man's life romance is, whether he is Wizard or Muggle. By showing us Harry's romantic life, along with Ron's and Hermione's, the author brings the characters properly to lifealive, makingcausing themus to care even more peopleabout that we care aboutthem.
Ludo Bagman's wagers have gone disastrously wrong, although like any good bookmaker he puts on a good face to keep his clients happy. He comments that the game's outcome was totally unexpected and one that will be talked about for years (although the outcome seems to have been less surprising to the Twins). Finding himself deeply in the red, Ludo uses extreme measures to pay off bettors. It is revealed in [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Goblet of Fire/Chapter 37|Chapter 37]] that he pays off the Twins with Leprechaun gold, which, as noted above, soon vanishes. He also owes a large sum to high-ranking Goblins. In [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Goblet of Fire/Chapter 9|Chapter 9]], as Harry wanders through the forest, he passes Goblins who are counting their gold and chuckling; this is presumably winnings from Bagman. It turns out, however, that at least part of what Bagman owed to the Goblins was also paid off in Leprechaun gold. Throughout the book, Bagman can often be seen negotiating with Goblins about this debt and also avoiding Fred and George, who are attempting to recoup their winnings.
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