The leprechaun gold will also be a contributing factor for the big fight between Harry and Ron later on, and I think this whole plotline is meant to underscore the poverty of the Weasleys and how that does affect them (although you have to wonder, if even a public servant doesn't make enough to live decently, when it seems widespread in the wizarding world to have stay-at-home-mums, why there isn't much more poverty). And it doesn't make much sense for Harry to give them the gold at the end if they haven't been shown beforehand to be in need of it.

And yes, red herring.

Good point.


A few more things:
- The Trio actually stumbles upon the kobolds with their (fake) gold that they've just gotten from Bagman. By throwing the Veela's inbetween that and the Bagman meeting, Rowling obscures the connection that might otherwise have been a tad more obvious.
- Percy mentions Mermish as one of the languages Crouch speaks
- First mention of the Department of Mystification, and iirc one of the guys mentioned here will be Imperiused by Voldemort in book five
- Before Crouch realizes Winky and his son are involved, he shows a little of the mentality that so abhorred Dumbledore and his sympathizers - and Harry, in the Pensieve - thirteen years before.
- Fudge almost directly admitting that Malfoy obtained tickets for the Top Box through a generous donation to St. Mungo's, not for the last time; you have to wonder if some of those generous donations don't stick to Fudge's fingers in the process, considering how thick they are
- Re: sexism among Death Eaters and friends: Fudge has never met Narcissa yet? Seriously? What, does that woman ever even leave her house?