Goblet of Fire-Running Grave Links, Part 3. Arrivals and early days at Chapman Farm and Hogwarts.

As Ed Shardlow pointed out a few posts ago, Chapman Farm has quite a few parallels with Hogwarts, so it should not surprise us that more GoF-TRG connections spring up once Harry and Robin reach their destinations.  Of course, many of the similarities could be said to link to any of the Harry Potter books, except, ironically, Deathly Hallows (the book most similar to TRG, see here also) in which our Trio does not return to Hogwarts.  Still, I think we can make some reasonably specific connections to GoF. Here, I am going to compare the book sections that start with arrival (Chapter 22 in TRG; Chapter 11 "Aboard the Hogwarts Express" in GoF) and ending with Robin joining the UHC (Chapter 35) and with Harry's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire (Chapter 16: "The Goblet of Fire.") 

Let's get what I would call the "generic" Hogwarts connections out of the way first.

• Students/recruits arrive on designated transportation (The Hogwarts Express/The UHC mini-busses).
• Student/recruits wear uniforms and are housed in sex-segregated dormitories. 
• There are impressive buildings for meals and full group gatherings (UHC temple and dining hall/ The Great Hall).
• New arrivals are greeted at a dinner gathering by a charismatic leader wearing colorful robes (Dumbledore/Papa J).
• Both Church Principals and Hogwarts professors sit at a top table, overlooking long tables of members and students. 
• New arrivals quickly begin a scheduled regime of classes and other activities, with relatively little free time. 
• Ironically, the children of Hogwarts have a lot more freedom than the adults of Chapman Farm. 
• Certain "adult privileges" are granted at age 13 (and, yes, for Chapman Farm I'm being sarcastic). Hogwarts students are allowed to visit Hogsmeade at their third year; thirteen is the age that UHC children move to the adult dormitories and presumably start "spirit-bonding." 
• The main campus is surrounded by woods that are off-limits except in specific circumstances. 

Of course, there are several clear contrasts, too. For example, the food in Hogwarts is delicious and plentiful; Chapman Farm's is anything but. Also, there is the minor detail of Hogwarts being run by fundamentally good people, not power-crazed sadists and child traffickers. 

Now, onto some Chapman-Hogwarts connections that are more specific to Goblet of Fire: 

• Robin and her fellow newbies are sorted into groups immediately upon arrival. 
• True, Sorting happens every year at Hogwarts, but it is fairly rare for Harry to actually witness it, given the mayhem that often arises on his journey to school.
• GoF contains the first Sorting Ceremony that Harry and Ron have seen since their own at age 11. 
• Robin is assigned to Fire Group; Fire is the element corresponding to Gryffindor House. 
• Most of the work his done by slave labor.
• Yes, the House-Elves have always been there, but GoF is the first time the Trio or the readers are aware of them. 
• Many, many objects are forbidden. UHC recruits can bring nothing but underwear and a coat with them; in GoF, Dumbledore points out that Mr. Filch has a list of 437 forbidden items. 
• Jonathan Wace says "We shall replenish our material bodies, and then we'll talk;" Dumbledore makes his start-of-term announcement after everyone is "fed and watered." 

I also saw my first clear character connection in the arrival scenes. Mad-eye Moody and Mama Mazu, in addition to sharing their alliterative initials, have some physical similarities, particularly in their asymmetrical eyes. 

The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief, and it was like no other face Harry had ever seen... a large chunk of his nose was missing. But, it was man's eyes that made him frightening. One of them was small, dark and beady. The other was large, round as a coin and a vivid, electric blue.

Her eyes were shadowed by the long curtains of black hair that fell to below her waist; only the long, pointed nose was clearly visible. Only as Robin drew nearer did she see that one of the woman's dark, narrow eyes was set noticeably higher than the other, giving her a strange, lopsided stare. 

Of course, the "curtains of black hair" and large nose also remind us of Snape, who is also known for having jars of slimy creatures in his dungeon office,  Mazu is similarly creepy. 

And for reasons Robin could not have explained, a tremor passed through her, such as she might have experienced on glimpsing something pale and slimy watching her from the depths of a rock pool. 

This reminds us a bit of the instant dislike Harry felt for Snape (and the twinge of pain in his scar) the first time Harry saw him back in Philosopher's Stone. 

A few other connections: 

• Mad-Eye Moody's early lessons are also a bit reminiscent of Jonathan Wace's lectures, especially when Wace is trying to build up fear about the "bubble world" and how corrupt and dangerous it is, with a constant war waged against his people by "the Adversary."
•  I was really struck by the similar effects of the Imperius Curse he tries on Harry in class and the effects the temple chanting has on Robin. Both lure the target into a type of trance with a sense of escape from stressors and comfortable well-being. 
• In my earlier analysis of TRG I directly compared the "mind control" techniques employed by the UHC to the Imperious curse; the hyponotic effect of the chanting is perhaps the closest thing to "casting a spell" that we see in the UHC. For a full look at how undue influence techniques are employed by the UHC, see here. 
• We also have similar imagery of a bunch of "new arrivals" in soaking wet clothes: Robin and her fellow recruits are sopping wet in their track suits after their baptisms. Between the torrential storm and Peeves' water balloons, all of the Hogwarts students arrive at the Feast soaked to the skin, and the first years are even wetter, appearing to have swum across the lake rather than have taken the boats. 
• Just as Robin has to make up past traumas in the form of her cancelled wedding in order to impersonate Rowena Ellis, Harry and Ron have to make up predictions of future calamities to complete Professor Trelawny's Divination assignment. 

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