Voldemort's faithful servant

[pigwidgeon37]

No: HPFGUIDX 31679

Dave Hardenbrook wrote:

>Is there anyone besides me who's wondering if Crouch really *was*
>V's loyal servant?  Two things get me: One, in the Pensieve he's
>desperately screaming his innocence, unlike his three companions.

Yes, true, he screams his innocence, but unlike all those who claimed 
to have been under the Imperius Curse (Malfoy etc.), his words are:
"Father, I didn't! I didn't, I swear it, Father, don't send me back 
to the Dementors!"
"Mother, stop him Mother, I didn't do it, it wasn't me!"
"No! Mother, no! I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't know! Don't 
send me there, don't let him!"
"Father! Father, I wasn't involved! No! No! Father, please!"
So you're right, he claims that he didn't do it (BTW, this scene 
still gives me the creeps), but not for a single moment does he 
accuse the Lestranges of having forced him to join them against his 
will, which he could easily have done, thus probably saving his own 
hide. And then we mustn't forget that the boy is only 18 or 19- to 
expect the Lestranges' icy calm and deep fanaticism from him would 
perhaps be exaggerated.

>Second and more crucially, in the final scene between him and
>Harry, Crouch says that Voldemort "so wanted" to kill Harry...
>We know this to be true, because V is desparate to demonstrate
>to the DE's that he's stronger than Harry.  Yet, Crouch is on the
>verge of killing Harry *himself*!  This seems to me like Barty is
>playing a double-game here -- If V fails to kill Harry (by virtue
>partially by Harry's training and advice from pseudo-Moody)

Frankly, I don't think that all of Moody/Crouch's training could 
possibly have saved Harry, hadn't his wand had the same core as 
Voldemort's. If fortune (or destiny, call it however you like) hadn't 
been on his side, the things Moody taught him would probably have had 
exactly the effect desired by Voldemort: The boy would maybe have 
resisted a little longer, because he was able to shake off the 
Imperius Curse, but in the end V. would have killed him anyway, thus 
demonstrating that, even if Harry had grown stronger, he was no match 
for him.

 >but then
>Crouch kills him, this would show that Crouch is stronger than
>Harry who's stronger than a restored V!  The DE's would see this, see
>where the real supreme power is, and suddenly it's *Crouch* who's
>"the biggest bully in the playground!"  Does this make sense?
>*Could* Crouch have worked so hard to bring V back, really in order
>to embarrass him and prove himself the stronger?  Is *this* why he
>meticulously taught Harry about the three unforgivable curses, and
>told him to "play to his strengths" (his Quidditch reflexes) so that
>Harry could escape and get killed by Barty later?  Is *this* why V
>(perhaps) ordered the Dementor to finish Crouch off -- to remove a
>potential rival?

Mmh, for the above-mentioned reasons I really don't think so. No, I 
suppose that Barty jr. simply thought he'd do Voldemort a favour by 
bringing him Harry's dead body. Who knows, maybe they could have come 
up with a credible story that it had been Voldemort to kill him?

But another question: When Voldemort mentions his faithful servant, 
he says: "He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was 
through his efforts that our young friend arrived tonight
" What do 
the assembled DEs think of the "faithful servant's" identity?  
Wouldn't they automatically assume it is Severus Snape? Or even 
Karkaroff? Because they can't have the faintest idea that Crouch jr. 
escaped Azkaban. Six are absent, three of whom have died, one is the 
coward, one has left forever, and one has re-entered his service and 
is currently at Hogwarts. For the assembled DEs, this must be a bit 
puzzling- who is who? They certainly know that young Barty is in 
Azkaban, but they don't necessarily know what exactly happened at 
Snape and Karkaoff's trials. We, the readers, know the back story and 
can be fairly sure at least about the equation Barty Jr = faithful 
servant, as for Snape= left forever and Karkaroff= coward, things are 
not so unambiguous. But the DEs know even less than we do after 
Barty's Veritaserum-induced confession. Is it Voldemort's intention 
to keep them guessing who's who???

Susanna/pigwidgeon37