Broomsticks Ahoy!

Skeeter joins a cast of characters first introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997). Three years later the famous young wizard still lives on Privet Drive with his horrible Muggle (non-magical) relatives, the Dursleys. Harry usually spends his holidays crossing off days until the next term at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and further capers with his pals Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. This summer, however, Harry's post-owl Hedwig has brought an invitation from the Weasleys to attend the Quidditch World Cup finals between Ireland and Bulgaria - treating him to the closest thing to a family that he has, and a thrilling match.

But strange things are afoot: a Ministry of Magic official is missing, a Muggle has been murdered, and the lightning-bolt scar on Harry's forehead is hurting. The international Quidditch match, organised by the superbly bureaucratic Ministry, is disrupted by acolytes of the evil Lord Voldemorte.

Back at school, between Potions class and Divination, everyone is consumed by a rare event: the year-long Triwizard Tournament. Participants face three dangerous tasks to win a prestigious cup up for grabs after nearly seven centuries. With students from foreign magical institutions on campus, the staff is on high alert. A key teaching post is filled by paranoid Moody, who is nevertheless equipped to fight Death Eaters and other dark forces. Harry has the protection of his godfather Sirius Black and headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Still, more than one tragedy befalls the school.

To give out any more would be to steal the pleasures of Rowling's finely-constructed mystery. She keeps you slavering for the next page by making everyone look a little suspect. And ...The Goblet of Fire offers inklings of what might be developed in subsequent books - Dumbledore's role, international wizardry, or an upcoming large-scale conflict.

But suspense is only Rowling's third strength: the second is a brilliantly imagined alternative world. The Potter books are compelling in their fleshly detail: branded broomsticks, Floo powder, moving maps, Diagon Alley, the Pensieve, Butterbeer, and Ministry reports on thin-bottomed cauldrons. It's lovely to see Dobby the elf and Peeves the poltergeist again, to yawn at dreary Professor Binns who hasn't let his own death interfere with his teaching, and to watch fat Dudley Dursley and nasty Draco Malfoy get their comeuppance.

Rowling's greatest strength remains unswervingly authentic emotion, warts and all: Harry is as much a lazy procrastinator as a brave hero, as often silly and sulky as clever and mature. The characters age a year with each book, as do young readers (and, with great discretion, Rowling's language). Harry now blushes when pretty Cho Chang looks his way; Hermione is blooming; Ron has an impossible crush. And friends are feeling the divisiveness of class, gender, and power.

Instead of the heavy-handed recap Rowling tried in the second and third Potter books, she simply lets the context speak for itself. And she winks at the initiated with occasional references to the previous books.

Each fresh publication brings a prickle of foreboding: can Rowling sustain the brilliance and satisfy millions of Potter fans? In this fourth tour de force she certainly does, remaining empathetic, imaginative, and very funny. It's a good thing that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is 636 pages long, because there's no more delicious feeling than to pause (for food only) knowing that it isn't over just quite yet.