Wouldnt have been easier for the fake Moody to just get Harry to touch some other portkey, instead of making him go through the whole tournament where he might not have won in the end? Obviously the book would have been much shorter had this happened ;) Just wondering if anyone had read a good reason for this, or if it's just a plot hole.

Voldemort didnt only want to capture and kill Harry, he wanted to humiliate Dumbledore, and what better way to do that then to capture Harry in the moment of great glory during a world famous competition. He wanted to say "Noone is safe Dumbledore, no matter what you think!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA"... he's your typical meglomaniacal villan, and doing things the simple fast way isn't what he does.

Also, people have speculated that portkeys might not typically work inside Hogwarts grounds, but the charms placed on the school were relaxed during the final competition.

since so much magic normally happens at Hogwarts, it seems like the charms would have to be against specific types of magic. In which case, why would the charm against portkeys and its like be nullified? Dumbledore knew someone was out to get Harry, so he wouldn't have relaxed any charms except the ones that interfered with the competition.

Actually, there was a large crowd consisting of family members of those involved + Ministy of Magic members + interested spectaters who could get tickets; so Portkeys would have to be used if Dumbledore didn't want to 1) Send out the Hogwarts Express train or 2) Relax the spell against Apperating.

Ummm... maybe he just didn't think about doing that? I mean... hindsight is 20/20. We can say the same thing about just every book or movie in history. "Why didn't so and so do so and so? It would have made such and such a lot easier."

I wouldn't call this a plot hole, I'd call this reality. We're assuming this guy is infallable, but what if he just didn't think about it? I would say he's human after all, but not really. But he's the same as all the other witches and warlocks out there.

No need to over analyze the books, just enjoy them.