Harry Potter thought: it's been a long time since I actually sat down and read the book so there could be something I'm forgetting here but wouldn't it have made sense to like... just not let Harry participate in the Triwizard Tournament? like his professors would know that he's generally not a malicious liar and troublemaker and there's plenty of evidence that shenanigans were at play in getting his name in the Goblet of Fire. it seems like it'd be a lot more sensible to just go "yep we're disqualifying you from competing because this doesn't add up" than to put him in just because he's Harry Potter. this whole plot could have been avoided.
@gravezwave I think the in-story explanation was "the goblet has a binding magical contract, once your name has been chosen you can't not compete"...
@dukhovni that sounds probable, though I still feel like they'd have some sort of disqualification mechanic in place. surely they can't have had no cheaters or anything in the entire history of the Triwizard Tournament
@gravezwave i think the workaround was there being some dire circumstance if a someone tried to back out. like horrible disfiguration or something. a bit of weak writing sure, but still made for a fun story.
@pixelpaperyarn oh for sure, I'm not saying the story itself shouldn't have happened. it occasionally just occurs to me how many magical rules and such just don't make sense (but then I suppose that's on par with a lot of the established system in the HP universe. wizards got a lot of arbitrary nonsense going on.)
@gravezwave definitely. i think mr weasley had the right idea. there were quite a few situations that would have gone more smoothly with muggle thinking. probably part of why hermione is extra exasperated at everything.
@gravezwave fanfictions usually make this a "binding magical contract" like "if you don't participate you'll lose your magic" or other dire consequences but yep i don't think it is adressed in canon at all