Mad-Eye's Unforgivable Class

[lea.macleod at gmx.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 18119


> jenny from ravenclaw wrote, " If Mad-Eye is not really Mad-Eye, but 
> Death 
> > Eater Barty Crouch, Jr, then why would he want anyone from 
> Gryffindor 
> > to be able to throw off the [imperious] curse?" 

Rosmerta answered:

 Imperious would be the No. 1 thing you would *avoid* 
> teaching if you were truly Voldemort's servant. 
>
> My own personal belief is that JKR wrote Mad-Eye as a likable, good-
> guy character, hit her much-publicized plot difficulties, and re-
> wrote him to be evil Crouch. to me the whole Mad-Eye/Crouch 
> revelation is so much less well set up than anything else she has 
> written....in my mind, it just sticks out like a sore thumb as a 
plot 
> fix. 

Good question, Jenny, I´ve been wondering too.

JKR probably needed to introduce the three curses in some way, because 
whenever a new spell or magic method becomes vital to the plot, we 
will have been told shortly before that it exists (invisibility 
cloaks, animagi, truth potion, polyjuice potion...).

I don´t agree with Rosmerta though that Moody teaching it is an 
inconsistency because JKR did not know herself at that time that Moody 
WAS Barty.

I think she knew all along. In an interview or chat she said the most 
difficult chapter she ever wrote was # 9 in GoF, which is at the world 
cup when the dark mark appears and all the ministry wizards, including 
Crouch sen. go looking for the culprit and Crouch covers up for his 
son.

So the Moody/Barty revelation might not be as well "set up" as other 
revelations (my absolute favourite is still Lupin being a werewolf), 
but it´s not inconsistent.

I personally think Dumbledore hired Moody to give the kids a real DADA 
teacher for a change because "he´s reading the signs, if noone else 
is", as someone says in GoF. He also authorised Moody particularly to 
teach them the unforgivable curses, in a way of preparing them.

What choice did Barty/Moody have but to do it?