"Mad-Eye Moody" - Character Sketch (long)

[atelecky at mit.edu]

No: HPFGUIDX 6126


> > (6) Dumbledore says that Barty gave himself away when he took 
Harry away
> > from his presence.  Why was this the give-away?
> > 
> 	From what little we know of the real Moody, I can't think of a
> reason of why the real Moody would have taken Harry away. He is 
deeply
> paranoid (with reason).  As has been stated over and over, Voldy can 
not
> harm Harry when he is under Dumbledore's protection.  I think the 
real Moody
> would have kept Harry where Dumbledore could see him at all times.
> 
> 	Angela

Perhaps Moody was involved in some of the charms, etc. performed early 
in Harry's life to protect him, and would have known that some one of 
them would fail to protect Harry should he removed from Dumbledore's 
presence. Crouch would have had no reason to ask the real Moody 
questions about Harry's past; Crouch's main interest in keeping Moody 
alive was only to allow him, Crouch, to mimic Moody's everyday habits 
and manner. 
But whether or not there is some deep magic in Dumbledore's presence 
that protects Harry, I can imagine how Moody's sudden flight from the 
scene would seem very, in fact, unquestionably, suspicious. Harry was 
just in serious danger, and it hardly seems that there is any reason 
for anyone to believe that Harry is no longer in danger. After all, he 
has just been abducted from Hogwarts itself by some means as yet 
undetermined. Hogwarts was supposed to be "the best place for 
anything you want to keep safe", one of the few places that was 
safe even at the height of Voldemort's power. And suddenly, in the 
middle of the confusion, Moody runs off back to the probably 
effectively deserted castle (everyone is out watching the tournament, 
after all) with Harry, with scarcely a by-your-leave or a good 
reason to anyone. Madam Pomfrey herself was probably out on the 
Quidditch field; she certainly was for the incident with the Hungarian 
Horntail, in a hospital tent on the field. It makes no sense that with 
people running around inside this maze though crowds of Blast Ended 
Skrewts and Sphinxes and who knows what else, not to have the school 
nurse on hand in case of injuries. So why should Moody need to bring 
Harry back to the hospital wing? The real Moody, with his Auror's 
instincts in addition to his ordinary common sense-- his Auror's 
instincts which as we know, always lead him to err definitely and even 
excessively on the side of caution, would hardly have suddenly decided 
that Harry was now out of danger--not when the means by which he had 
been abducted from Hogwarts itself were still unclear; when the 
safety of Hogwarts itself had just been so clearly put into question. 
And the real Moody, if he HAD believed that Harry was in danger, would 
never have taken him off to the deserted Hogwarts castle with only 
himself, much past his prime and possibly facing any number of Death 
Eaters or even Voldemort himself, to defend the boy. How foolish could 
he be, to remove Harry from the presence of the strongest wizard 
present, the wizard who could defend him best against any Death Eaters 
or even Voldemort himself? None of Harry's wounds are so serious that 
they justify putting him in such danger once again, even if Madam 
Pomfrey were not probably out on the Quidditch pitch herself. Crouch 
clearly was shaken out of caution by Harry's escape and the sudden 
evidence of the complete failure of Voldemort's careful plan, that he 
had been entrusted to put into action. Voldemort would likely never 
have exalted Crouch as Crouch so hoped he would, over all other Death 
Eaters, if Crouch's assignment had led to failure. Even if if was 
hardly Crouch's own fault! Evil overlords are scarcely known for their 
ability to forgive their minions' mistakes or to take blame upon 
themselves. So Crouch had reason to be distressed into 
carelessness when Harry, not unscathed but still very much alive, 
reappeared at the center of the maze.
Incidentally, Moody's character put me very much in mind of my tenth 
grade history teacher. He was similarly unconventional in his approach 
to teaching, didn't care for the rules and regulations and 
paperwork of teaching, never had us use our books in class (though it 
was death on anyone who didn't do the reading!) and appreciated it 
when in our discussions we got excited enough to argue heatedly with 
each other or even with him! We were at least a century ahead of 
the other history sections at all times, and still we often spent 
a whole class period in earnest discussion of current events. 
There was certainly no lesson plan engraved in stone. Just as Fred, 
George, and Lee Jordan immediately were impressed with Moody ("Moody! 
How cool is he!". . . "Beyond cool." "Supercool."), a lot of the 
merrily unstudious if still very smart people in our class went to 
lengths studying and writing papers for his class that you never would 
have believed them capable of. And when our teacher was irritated with 
us, thought we weren't putting in enough effort, he would threaten us 
with LESS work, tell us we clearly just wanted to be "spoon-fed" our 
lessons, and spend maybe one class period just reading out of the 
book. This inevitably made us all thoroughly miserable and had us 
begging him to make us work harder by the next class. :)
JKR has apparently said that the real Moody "is even cooler" than the 
fake Moody. This I have to see. I think that Crouch is probably the 
most effective and frightening villain we've seen so far--more so, in 
fact, than Voldemort. He was made into such an attractive figure of a 
teacher, and furthermore, he managed to beautifully fake friendship 
and kindness towards Dumbledore and Harry, Hermione and Neville, and 
probably many others, without this elaborate farce ever penetrating 
beyond his appearance--without ever being drawn into truly caring 
about any of them. I and many of us never had any idea of Moody being 
the traitor the whole time we were reading; his faked concern seemed 
for all intents and purposes to be genuine. But from Moody's 
explanation of his whole plan at the end of the book, he never spoke a 
kind word or gave help to any student, whether it was Neville, Harry, 
Hermione, or anyone else, without some specific reason behind it. As 
for his explanation of the three Forbidden Curses, I think that there 
was probably good reason behind that as well. While the students were 
frightened by the curses they saw, they were fascinated in spite of 
themselves. Yes, perhaps if you see what you're up against you will be 
better prepared to deal with it when it comes. But after years of 
learning Summoning Charms and Banishing Charms and laboriously 
turning pincushions into hedgehogs, seeing magic with that kind of 
apparently easy and immediate power could be very attractive to a 
person, especially one so young, who has no real idea of the 
suffering such curses can cause. Ron comes out of the lesson saying 
"When he did Avada Kedavra, the way that spider just DIED, just 
snuffed it right there--", in a way that clearly suggests that he is 
impressed in spite of himself, though he is checked by the look on 
Harry's face. Hermione, Harry, and Neville all are more shaken than 
impressed--Harry and Neville, after all, know that there is far more 
to fear in these curses than their effects on spiders. 
Ron does seem to be the weakest of the main triad; it may well be that 
he will be led into betraying Harry. Of course, Harry is of almost 
superhuman bravery, will, and moral fiber. Rowling gives Harry, so far 
at least, only just above average magical talent. It is not his 
magical strength that saves him from Voldemort every time, but always 
his own bravery and will, and the help of his friends. It is, after 
all, Gryffindor that is the "good" house, and Gryffindor is 
characterized by its moral strength. Slytherin seems to be more the 
place for the young magical prodigies, as Voldemort himself was. 
Slytherin has, after all, a long history of winning the House 
Championship.

Sorry for the over-long post,
Alexandra