[HPforGrownups] Snape's Task and Crouch-Moody as Teacher

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 15586

irbohlen at email.unc.edu wrote:

> Secondly, [and this _is_ someone else's idea, but I can't find it or
> any responses] what if Snape's task were to go back to Voldemort as
> Barty Crouch Jr.? Is there any way Lord V could know that Barty has
> been "kissed"? Snape could brew up some Polyjuice Potion, and returnto
> Lord V as his most faithful lieutenant, rather than his own disgraced
> self..

Although this is an excellent idea, I have a problem with it. Nobody
knows that Moody is a polyjuiced Crouch Jr. until that whole confession
scene, right after Dumbledore, Snape, & McGonagall come bustin' in and
rescue Harry. After Crouch Jr. finishes talking, Dumbledore sends Snape
and McGonagall away on errands; Snape goes to get Fudge, while
McGonagall guards Crouch. Dumbledore takes Harry & dog-Sirius away for
discussion in his office, then down to the hospital wing. Then, at the
hospital wing, is when Fudge, McGonagall, and Snape come storming in
after the dementor has kissed Crouch Jr. It is just at the end of this
scene that Dumbledore sends Snape away on his task. And it has clearly
been discussed and/or planned previously, awaiting the need to act on
it.

So the difficulty with Snape being assigned to be a polyjuiced Crouch is
this:

Dumbledore and Snape did not even know that Barty Crouch was still alive
until after he un-juiced, and since then they had no time at all to have
heads together and alter their plan. The concept of using polyjuice as a
long-term disguise, and the knowledge that Barty Crouch was alive and a
devoted servant of Voldemort, both came too late to be part of whatever
Snape's doing. Snape and Dumbledore clearly had prearranged whatever his
task is, but from the time they found out about Crouch and the polyjuice
disguise to when Snape was sent away, they had no time to alter the
arrangements.

That being said, Snape still might have done it, but considering (a) how
easy it would be to detect (Crouch got away with it because it hadn't
occurred to anyone, but now it has), and (b) it was likely Voldemort's
idea, but even if it wasn't, he also is very, very aware of polyjuice
and its spy uses. So I don't think this idea works, from an
outside-the-books-observer timeline point of view, or from an
inside-the-books strategic choice point of view. I think on both levels
polyjuice has been done to death--I think it was introduced in CoS so
that this whole Moody/Crouch substitution ploy could take place in GoF.
I doubt polyjuice will play a similar big huge role again, not least
because everyone's aware of it now, characters and readers alike.

--Amanda


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