Voldemort's faithful servant - I think so.

[cornflower_o_shea]

No: HPFGUIDX 31695

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "pigwidgeon37" <pigwidgeon37 at y...> wrote:
> 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.

Cornflower adds:
And a dead give-away to boot. He tried to win sympathy from his 
mother so he could manipulate her into trading places with him in 
Azakaban, and was successful, obviously. Playing the "innocent" was 
highly strategic on his part. However, he seems so fanatical about 
Voldie, in that "culty" way, that I really hope he is what he seems, 
because it as interesting psychological profile. That said, I still 
think mysteries may surround him. I don't trust Fudge, so I'm one of 
those who suspect there may have been some switcheroos involved 
during Barty Jr.s last kiss. We may not have seen the last of Barty 
Jr! Mwa ha ha!
> 
> >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)
> 
Right. But only AFTER V. missed his opportunity. The window to Harry 
opens only rarely, so the demented Barty thought that that was what 
Voldie would want, and desperatly sought to please him. I can take 
that on face value. Especially considering the very first thing Jr. 
asks Harry is if the other D.E. were punished. He's like Glen Close 
in "Fatal Attraction" - his own internal logic is based on his 
desire to be approved of by V., not on the external logic we might 
impose on 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?

I think that in Crouch's mind no one defeats the "Dark Lord" - it's 
just an impossibility for him, so learning those curses was 
irrelevent - just a way to win the tournament at all costs.