What the Triwizard Tournament tells us about procrastination

Listening to the Goblet of Fire Audiobook for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but notice something I did not notice before, or at least I did not notice it as clearly. When Harry is chosen as the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament, he gives us three shining examples for how students prepare for an exam. There are probably a whole bunch of university students out there who can painfully relate to Harry's struggle with time in Goblet of Fire, as he "learned the hard way that year, time will not slow down when something unpleasant lies ahead." So here are the three ways to prepare for an exam, as shown by Harry James Potter himself.

The First Task - not knowing what to study and getting lucky because the task is something you can do without preparing (much)

When Harry is first chosen as a Triwizard Champion, he's in shock for quite a long time. Indignant that nobody believes he did not put his name in the goblet of fire and doesn't want to be a champion in the first place and having this feeling strengthened by the temporary loss of his friend Ron, Harry feels isolated and does not know what to expect of the first task at all and pushes it away in his mind. The reminder comes with Hagrid showing him what the champions can expect in the first task - dragons. Harry then proceeds to research in the library books for ways to fight a dragon, but to no avail. It is Professor Moody who tips Harry off by telling him to use his flying skills. With "just" one spell to master, Harry does not do much magical practice to prepare him for the task. He's very lucky indeed that he can use flying - which he is a natural at - to his advantage in getting the golden egg. Just like you are lucky if you do something that in german is called "auf Lücke lernen" meaning to only study certain parts of the subject matter and hoping only questions you studied for will be in the exam, and then there actually are none of the topics you did not study for in the exam. I don't blame you though, Harry. "Auf Lücke lernen" is something I wish I could master.

The Second Task - Procrastinate until the last minute

Ah yes. Haven't we seen that one before. I see it everyday during study-season when I look in the mirror. The endless circle of procrastination. It might be the most relatable of the three examples right now because like us this time of the year, Harry is still in post-Christmas-january-blues-mode. For the longest time, he doesn't pay the golden egg the slightest bit of attention, thinking he has "ages" to think about the second task. Funny thing is, he does have the time but doesn't use it to busy himself with the egg. During that time, Harry himself is the definition of procrastination:

"Avoiding doing something for as long as possible, sometimes not doing it at all." (urbandictionary)

Harry lies to everyone who asks about the process of his preparation for the second task - saying he has it "nearly figured out" when he hasn't done anything at all - and continues to feel worse and worse about the lie until finally, he pulls himself together and follows the clue Cedric has given him weeks ago to open the egg underwater. Harry is then presented with a riddle he has a mere few days to solve before the task begins. Of course, he is getting nowhere and eventually falls asleep in the library, waking up 10 minutes before the beginning of the second task, still with no clue. Once again, he gets very lucky indeed that the solution is brought to him by Dobby the House-Elf, who provides him with Gillyweed, the last-minute solution to breathe underwater, which technically makes this the first time Dobby saved Harry's wizarding backside. I think we all need a Dobby in our lives.

The Third Task - Actually preparing and hoping for the best

In the preparation for the third and final task, Harry has finally gotten the hang of things. He practices spells in time and has the huge advantage that he can assess the situation much better because he has gotten past dangerous obstacles before (because he's Harry Potter, duh!). He now has a much better idea of what to expect and which spells to practice to successfully handle the third task. There's also a feeling of relief because this will be the final task of the tournament and it'll be over after that. But sadly, as we know, Harry does not get the feeling of relief he so hoped for after the tournament. Not at all. The idea of an endless Triwizard Tournament seems more appealing than the return of Voldemort by far, but then the story we all love wouldn't have gone on so I'm okay with exchanging some Blast-Ended-Skrewts for Death Eaters. And the final task of defeating Voldemort is completed in the end.

Regarding different ways to study, the moral here I guess is to try and prepare for your exams like Harry did for the third task, do all that's in your power and do it well. Or just use one of the other methods and try to survive the exam somehow. Just try not to write blogposts about procrastination instead of studying for your Old English exam. That would just be pure procrastination.