I know! Maybe Rowling really did write this book with the idea of having three chapters at a time. Or it could be a coincidence.

Not that Rita Skeeter is really a trustworthy source... But yes, I agree with all of that. Nice thinking on his feet by Bagman, though, to come up with that excuse that fast. Then again, maybe he thought of a cover story beforehand.

Indeed. Though perhaps we really should know better, what with knowing that Voldemort needs/wants to get his hands on Harry, not just have him die in some freak accident.

Indeed. Though it seems a bit unlikely that he would not recognize Hermione just because of the make-up and different hair. Rebekah's link on the other board makes clear how big a difference those things can make - but the woman is still recognizable as the same woman. Of course at a first glance from a distance he might not have recognized her, but then if he's apparently seen enough of her to decide she's "pretty", it's a bit strange.

Yeah. Not much of a modern man, Barty Crouch.

That one is very sneaky, Rowling must be quite proud of it. I wonder if she even did it on purpose - and if we wonder about that, it means it's neatly done, obviously.

Yeah, this would've been more obvious if we'd known about the Dark Mark, but we don't really, so...

Yeah, and again with the justifications of why discriminating against giants makes sense - which we'll see confirmed later on. The problem with Rowling's dealing with the theme is that the bigotry often is at least partially justified...

And Hermione gets on the case. Rather liked that too.

A few other things I noticed that are more or less plot-related:
- Krum, unlike Harry, has done his homework, he's not going to go swimming in that lake just for fun.
- Percy doesn't respect Bagman much more than his brothers, but still assumes that they have been bothering him and that if anyone's done anything wrong, it's them. Wrongly, of course.
- Harry forgetting, rather ironically, to put a bezoar in his Potions assignment. Making it all the stranger that he's the only one to think of it in book six (or, well, to read it in the book).