I hate being wrong. But I'm glad I can admit it.

Last month I ranted about "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and selected a few scenes as examples of what I didn't like. This was #1:

1) The presence of Barty Crouch, Jr. (BCJ) in the Riddle House in the opening was appalling. Why was that necessary? I can only assume it was intended to help viewers who hadn't read the books understand that there was a prison escapee in cahoots with Lord Voldemort gunning for Harry. But it destroyed the tension. BCJ was in awe of Voldemort and came up with the plan to impersonate Mad-Eye Moody on his own. Like many of V's followers, BCJ hadn't seen V after his failed attempt to kill Harry.

BCJ asked Harry so many questions about what it was like to be in Voldemort's resurrected presence because he hadn't seen him since his downfall, was excited that he'd returned, and knew he'd be rewarded for his evil plot. His presence with Voldemort in the Riddle House in the beginning dampened some of that anticipation at the end, at least for me.

I have all six books on MP3, and I was listening to "Goblet of Fire" again this week. As Barty Crouch, Jr. confessed, I was reminded of a few things I'd forgotten.

First, I was wrong about the plan to impersonate Mad-Eye Moody. Sort of. I wrote that BCJ had no contact with Voldemort since he fell and that he alone came up with the plan so he could surprise V, and that’s not true. V practically tortured Bertha Jorkins to find out what she knew, and she told him about BCJ and his mother switching places in Azkaban. V made contact with BCJ, who wanted a spy inside Hogwarts. It's unclear from the text whether it was V or BCJ who came up with the specific idea to kidnap and impersonate Moody.

Second, the second paragraph is accurate, but I have a clearer understanding why they included BCJ in the Riddle House scene. There was no time for all the backstory about BCJ switching places with his mother or being under the Imperius Curse and locked in his father's house or being watched by Winky, and no time to show Crouch Sr. being put under the same curse and escaping, etc. The director (or screenwriter?) had to quickly establish that BCJ was a bad guy working for the main bad guy.

But…there is no excuse for revealing who conjured the Dark Mark so early in the movie. OK. The obsessing is over…

Update (4/27): The Harry Potter Lexicon, an ecyclopedia of everything Harry Potter, is a must-see for the hard core HP fan. The site is fantastic.

The dedicated editors document practically everything about the books and movies you can think of. For instance, they break down differences between the U.S. and U.K. versions of the books, errors and discrepancies, and differences between the books and movies. Check out the Goblet of Fire update.