Calendar of Events

Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire

"No one's tried to attack me all year."
       -- Harry Potter

NOTES:
Creating a reliable calendar of Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts is possible if one allows for some vaguenesses and inconsistencies.

Overall, it is clear that Rowling did work out a class schedule and calendar for the year, since the vast majority of dates, days of the week, and intervals are consistent with each other. However, she certainly was not attempting to conform to the actual 1994-1995 calendar, since the dates are explicitly contradicted (e.g., Halloween fell on a Monday in 1994, but JKR places it on a Saturday). Therefore, although Easter fell on April 16 in 1995, this is not a reliable piece of evidence for deciding when "the Easter holidays" fall in GF; Easter could be anywhere between the third week of March and the fourth week of April, as in any year. As a result, I have not tried to make this calendar consistent with Real Life 1994-95.

Instead, the calendar that follows is as nearly as possible internally consistent. In a few places, which are noted, adjustments such as extra or omitted days are necessary.

Course Schedule
The course schedule is quite consistent and follows a pattern Americans associate with college schedules: three, possibly four class periods per day, two before and two after lunch, with a break between the two morning classes (there is only documentation of break on Fridays, but I have assumed it would take place every day). "Double" classes are twice the length of other lessons. A particular subject may meet once or twice per week.

There are a few glitches. For example, the days History of Magic are held are clearly Tuesday and Friday (History and Double Potions on the same day--what an ordeal), but the time of day is not clear. In GF29 it is the first class on Friday, but an earlier passage implies that it takes place after lunch: "every time he glimpsed Cho that day--during break, and then lunchtime, and once on the way to History of Magic--she was surrounded by friends" (GF22). (It is possible, though unlikely, that it is Cho, not Harry, who is on the way to History of Magic.)

It is also possible that the schedule is more complex than the simple grid given below and that classes are not always in the same slot. The general consistency elsewhere suggests that the schedule is quite fixed, however.

There is no mention of Astronomy, whether of continuing it or dropping it.

Ron's schedule, as far as we know, is the same as Harry's
Hermione's differs in that she has Arithmancy on Monday afternoons (GF13)
Fred, George, and Lee have DADA on Monday afternoons (GF13)
Cedric has Charms in the first block on Monday mornings (GF20)
Cho has DADA last thing on Friday afternoons (GF22)

Inconsistencies
Time was behaving in a more peculiar fashion than ever.
    -- (GF20)

There are several internal inconsistencies in the GF calendar, mostly around intervals that are described as longer or shorter than they really are. Occasionally intervals are implied that are not borne out by the facts: e.g., Harry worries a great deal about Sirius when Hedwig takes 12 days to return with a letter (August 23-September 4), but later replies take much longer and meet with much less worry; his very next letter, sent to dissuade Sirius from returning north, doesn't get a reply for eight weeks.

Events in blue are approximate dates. The lettered items in the calendar have corresponding notes below.

1. In GF10, Harry says "On Sunday morning, I woke up with my scar hurting again." However, the evidence elsewhere is that it is a Saturday. Ron's letter says that Harry will be picked up "at five o'clock on Sunday" (GF3) and the next chapter says "By twelve o'clock next day, Harry's trunk was packed;" therefore, the day Ron's letter (and Molly's) arrived, the day Harry's scar hurt, was a Saturday. Furthermore, Harry spends one night at the Burrow (GF5) and the Quidditch World Cup is on a Monday ("Ireland vs. Bulgaria, Monday night") (GF3). The chronology seems clear: Harry's scar hurts early Saturday morning, the invitation arrives that day, the Weasleys pick him up the next day (Sunday), and the World Cup is the day after that (Monday). The GF10 reference is an error.

2. Rowling seems to have made an error here, placing both the return to Hogwarts and the first day of lessons on a Monday.

   • The last night at the Burrow is a Sunday, and they return to Hogwarts the next day: "'It's been absolute uproar,' Percy told them importantly, the Sunday evening before they were due to return to Hogwarts"; later in the same conversation, Fred says, "If the Hogwarts Express crashed tomorrow, and George and I died, how would you feel knowing the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded accusation?" (GF10).

   • The first day of lessons is also a Monday. "'Today's not bad . . . outside all morning,' said Ron, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his timetable" (GF13). Later references to Care of Magical Creatures, which they have that morning, repeatedly place it on a Monday and never on another day.

   • Furthermore, the two dates can't be a week apart, as Dumbledore speaks of lessons beginning "tomorrow morning" at the Welcoming Feast (GF12). Call it a Flint. I have proceeded as if the lessons begin on Monday, September 1.

3. Ernie says the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students' arrival is "only a week away!" (GF15) Given the choice between making that 4 days (notice posted on October 27) or 11 (notice posted on October 20), I have chosen the former.

4. Counting from September 1, October 30 should be a Thursday. However, the sign announcing the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students' arrival explicitly states that it is a Friday (GF15). If one accepts it as a Friday, the calendar is quite consistent from that date on, and I have done so by inserting a blank day (call it Thursday, October 29.5).

5. "The prospect of talking face to face with Sirius was all that sustained Harry over the next fortnight" (GF19), though it is in fact only 8 days between the letter and the conversation.

6. The article refers to Harry's scar paining him in class "Monday last," though it is actually four Mondays previous. Perhaps Rita's editor held onto it for a few weeks and added the bits about the third task being that night?