Lord Voldemort’s main goal in the Harry Potter series was to kill “the boy who lived”, and he almost achieved this in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but what if his plan was much more elaborate than just killing Harry Potter? Readers and viewers didn’t meet Lord Voldemort properly until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, having only been named in the previous books and appearing briefly in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone through Professor Quirrell’s body.
With the help of some of his most loyal followers, Lord Voldemort made a full comeback through a regeneration potion that required the “bone of the father” (Tom Riddle Snr’s bones taken from his grave), flesh of the servant (Peter Pettigrew’s hand), and the blood forcibly extracted from one of his enemies – in this case, Harry Potter. It was important to Voldemort to use Harry’s blood as he wanted to rise greater and more terrible than he was before. Because of this, he made an elaborate plan to bring Harry to Little Hangleton graveyard through a portkey to complete the potion/ritual.
However, there are some details about Voldemort’s plan in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that made an observant Harry Potter fan believe that Voldemort had something bigger and more complicated in mind, and capturing (and killing) Harry at the graveyard was only the beginning.
Voldemort’s Plan To Kill Harry Potter
A prophecy given to Albus Dumbledore by Sybill Trelawney predicted the fall of Lord Voldemort, saying that “the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies”, and the famous (and overly analyzed) line “either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives”. Part of the prophecy made it Voldemort’s ears, who felt threatened and went after those he believed the prophecy was referring to. At the time, there were two candidates: Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. Voldemort went after Harry, possibly because they had a similar family heritage, with both being half-bloods (Neville was a pure-blood).
Voldemort’s plan ended up backfiring pretty badly, as when he tried to kill baby Harry after killing his parents, the Killing Curse rebounded as Lily Potter’s sacrifice created a powerful defense of ancient magic – or, in other words, her love protected her son from the Dark Lord. As result, Voldemort’s body was destroyed, and 14 years passed before his full body could be restored. Once he regained his body and powers thanks to the regeneration potion, and with the Death Eaters in attendance, Voldemort’s plan was to kill Harry Potter on the spot – but not before forcing him into a duel. In yet another example of Voldemort’s plans backfiring, when he cast the Killing Curse and Harry simultaneously cast Expelliarmus, their twin-core wands became locked in Priori Incantatem, a charm that forces the loser’s wand to produce “echoes” of the most recent spells. This made Voldemort’s wand unleash the “ghosts” of Cedric Diggory, Frank Bryce, Bertha Jorkins, Lily and James Potter, who helped Harry escape by distracting Voldemort. Harry went back to Hogwarts through the same portkey that brought him to the graveyard – and it’s that detail which points to Voldemort’s plans going beyond killing Harry.
Did Voldemort Plan To Go To Hogwarts After Killing Harry?
Portkeys are objects enchanted to instantly bring anyone who touches it to a specific location. These objects were introduced in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where one is used early on in the story to transport Harry and company to the Quidditch World Cup. But as pointed out by Tumblr user Miraniel, portkeys only go one way, sometimes at a specific time – and the portkey used in Goblet of Fire to take Harry to the graveyard also took him back to Hogwarts, specifically to the front of the maze, when the portkey/Triwizard Cup was in the middle of the maze.
There are a couple of reasons why Barty Crouch Jr (disguised as Alastor Moody) could have made a special portkey like this. One is that they planned to send back Harry’s death body as proof or warning that Lord Voldemort had returned, and as a twisted way of celebrating that the prophecy couldn’t be fulfilled anymore. Another reason could be that Voldemort and Crouch Jr had a bigger plan that required the Triwizard Cup taking Voldemort back to Hogwarts after killing Harry Potter but without letting the world know that “the boy who lived” was now dead.
Theory: Voldemort (& Barty Crouch Jr) Planned To Impersonate Harry
The aforementioned Tumblr user went on to explain a theory that expands on why that portkey could transport people to the graveyard and back to a specific spot at Hogwarts. This theory suggests that Voldemort’s plan was to infiltrate Hogwarts by impersonating Harry Potter, and to achieve this, he needed some of his hair to brew a polyjuice potion. As for the rest of his body, it would have been Nagini’s dinner, as Voldemort often promised her.
Voldemort already had a spy at Hogwarts thanks to Barty Crouch Jr posing as Alastor Moody, who made the whole Triwizard Tournament plan possible in the first place by putting Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire and helping him get to the cup . Of course, this wasn’t enough for the Dark Lord as he needed to get into Hogwarts himself, and he could have achieved this by posing as Harry Potter. The author of the theory shares that Voldemort would have gone back to Hogwarts as Harry thanks to the portkey and Crouch Jr would have taken his place later on. However, it would have been very risky for Voldemort to just ditch his cover while at Hogwarts, so the best they could have done was keep posing as Harry and Moody.
According to the theory, Dumbledore would have died by the hands of either Voldemort or Crouch posing as Harry (thus gaining control of the Elder wand, unbeknownst to them), creating maximum chaos. The Wizarding World would have witnessed their “savior” and the so-called “boy who lived” rise as a more powerful and scarier threat than Voldemort, ending with all their hopes on Harry Potter being the one to stop Voldemort’s return and reign of terror. There’s some dark and chaotic poetry to all this, and this theory gives Barty Crouch Jr a much bigger and important role in the saga than just a loyal Death Eater that posed as Moody and brought Harry to Voldemort.
Why Voldemort’s Plan Would’ve Failed
As elaborate and scary as this plan is, it simply wouldn’t have worked (at least not for long). First off, Voldemort wouldn’t have had an endless supply of Harry Potter hair, so he would have been working against the clock, and that would have been quite suspicious to those who truly knew Harry. That said, it’s hard to believe that Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Albus Dumbledore wouldn’t have suspected there was something wrong with Harry almost immediately – and Dumbledore had his ways to uncover the truth, as seen multiple times throughout the series, not to mention Hermione wasn't an easy one to fool, and she would have done something right away without Voldemort/Harry even noticing.
It’s an interesting theory that would have taken the story on a completely different path, answers all doubts about that particular portkey, and gives Barty Crouch Jr a bigger purpose in the series while also giving Harry Potter’s story a horror twist. Although it wouldn’t have worked, it would be interesting (and fun, in a spooky way) to keep this idea in mind next time you watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.