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Harry and Cedric had equal points going into the Third Task:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, with eighty-five points each — Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School!"

Harry and Cedric touched the Triwizard Cup at the same moment:

He grabbed Harry's arm below the shoulder and helped Harry limp toward the plinth where the cup stood. When they had reached it, they both held a hand out over one of the cup's gleaming handles.

"On three, right?" said Harry. "One — two — three —"

He and Cedric both grasped a handle.

Whether the tournament is won by having the most points or by touching the cup first (as I asked in this question), it should have been a tie between Harry and Cedric — they had the same amount of points and touched the cup at the same time.

Indeed, the whole reason that they took the cup at the same time was that they wanted it to be tie:

"Both of us," Harry said.

"What?"

"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."

Cedric stared at Harry. He unfolded his arms.

"You — you sure?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah... we've helped each other out, haven't we? We both got here. Let's just take it together."

For a moment, Cedric looked as though he couldn't believe his ears; then his face split in a grin.

"You're on," he said. "Come here."

Yet Fudge gave the entire thousand galleon prize to Harry:

"Your winnings," he said shortly, taking a large bag of gold out of his pocket and dropping it onto Harry's bedside table. "One thousand Galleons. There should have been a presentation ceremony, but under the circumstances..."

This was clearly the entire prize money, as that is the amount that was specified before the tournament began:

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

Why was Harry considered the sole winner if it was actually a tie between him and Cedric? Granted Cedric was dead, but the money could still have been given to whoever inherited the rest of his possessions.

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  • 7
    How would they have known about the tie? The Cup was rigged and Harry's first reaction when he came back wasn't "yeah, it's a tie, I'm not the sole winner", it was "Voldemort is back, listen to me he is back!"
    – Jenayah
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 21:43
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    A student died I really don’t think they’ll be bothered about the semantics of exactly who won and why. Harry came back alive, Cedric didn’t that was enough to decide a champion.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 21:47
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    In most sporting event, the rule makers/officials have discretion to interpret the rules and apply judgment in same.
    – Skooba
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 21:48
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    Hence my "Cup was rigged". Whatever spells they put it on, they were broke. They had a mess on their hands, and only one live guy to give it to. Is it fair? Probalbly not. Did they care? Don't think so, they had other stuff to handle. Plus that Tournament was already a mess to begin with (four students and all)
    – Jenayah
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 21:48
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    @Jenayah it's also worth noting that the goblin bookmakers who were handling betting considered it a tie, since they refused to pay out Ludo Bagman's bet on Harry on that basis.
    – Kyle Doyle
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 22:14

2 Answers 2

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"You-Know-Who... returned? Preposterous."

We know that Voldemort killed Cedric Diggory after he touched the cup. But the only person in power who believes this is Dumbledore, and he's not the judge of who won. Everyone else, especially Fudge, didn't believe this. They believed that Cedric died during the Tournament, disqualifying him.

It's also worth mentioning that Harry offers the gold to the Diggorys, and they refuse:

Harry seized the sack of gold on the bedside table.

‘You take this,' he muttered to [Mrs. Diggory]. ‘It should’ve been Cedric’s, he got there first, you take it –'

But she backed away from him. ‘Oh, no, it’s yours, dear, we couldn’t ... you keep it.'

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  • If they don't know what actually happened in the maze, on what basis is Harry declared the winner? Surely, being in possession of the cup at some point after the tournament is not proof of winning.
    – Alex
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 17:46
  • @Alex Harry was holding the cup, which was a portkey that transported the winner back out (ref: scifi.stackexchange.com/a/18134/20672). If Cedric reached the cup first, he would be the one holding the cup.
    – neverendingqs
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 20:46
  • @neverendingqs Unfortunately, I think that that answer is entirely incorrect, as I have just explained in my answer there.
    – Alex
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 22:46
  • @Alex Yes..yes and your question could be considered 'incorrect' too depending on your definition of 'incorrect'. It ignores many circumstances like a student had been killed, there was nobody else who could have won (unless you think it should go to a corpse? ...) and many other things. And for all we know there was a property in the Cup that said only one could win even if both grabbed it at the same time. One could also say that the gold was an afterthought since if the contest was manipulated it wasn't really fair or valid. Harry shouldn't have even been in there. But he was.
    – Pryftan
    Commented Mar 24, 2019 at 12:16
  • @Pryftan An answer is incorrect when the explanation it proposes is false. A question is not incorrect, though it may be based on incorrect premises. In any case, I don't believe my question ignored any circumstances. The question is simply that according to the rules of the tournament Harry was not the (sole winner). The circumstances you speak of might be used to attempt to answer the question (as indeed some people have) but that's not a flaw in the question. And as I noted in earlier comments, dying after the tournament's completion should not have any official bearing.
    – Alex
    Commented Mar 25, 2019 at 17:42
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Harry Potter is the points winner

Harry Potter was the only competitor left, Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour were resigned from tournament and Cedric Diggory is dead.

Also the Task Ⅲ ended when Harry was apparated back (with the Cedric body and the Cup) at the beginning of the Maze.

“Harry felt himself slam flat into the ground;” — — “he tightened his hold on the two things he was still clutching – the smooth, cold handle of the Triwizard Cup, and Cedric’s body.” — — “He had come back to the edge of the maze.”

Harry and Cedric both had 85 points after the Task Ⅱ, so I would assume the Harry would get more points during the Task Ⅲ and get higher total points than other competitors.

Although Harry tried to offer the price money to Diggory's family.

Harry seized the sack of gold on the bedside table.
“You take this,” he muttered to her [Mrs Diggory]. “It should’ve been Cedric’s, he got there first, you take it –”
But she backed away from him. “Oh, no, it’s yours, dear, we couldn’t ... you keep it.”

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    He didn't claim the victory.
    – Oni
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 23:18
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    @Alex "When you have eliminated every other competitor, whoever remains, however reluctant, must be the winner." - Sherlock Holmes, more or less.
    – Misha R
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 0:16
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    @MishaR That would be true if he had died during the tournament. But he died after already (jointly) winning the tournament.
    – Alex
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 0:18
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    @Oni No, he did not. He was killed after completing it. By someone who was not part of the tournament.
    – Misha R
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 15:45
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    @Oni The challenge of the task was to reach the goblet. It's why they decided to touch the goblet together. If you have information to back up the claim that the return marks the end of the task, please cite that. Otherwise it's just something you're saying.
    – Misha R
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 17:22

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