Crouch Jr. – Wands – "one more death" - Snape

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 18230

Abbie wrote:

>IM ever so HO, crouch slipped up at least once, before the third 
task ->- like the boomslang skin and **other object whose name 
escapes me at >the moment** stolen from Snape's office -- ingredients 
for a polyjuice >potion. 

Oh, good catch on the boomslang skin!  Like Harry, I assumed that 
when Snape was lambasting him about it, he was talking about the time 
Hermione stole it, and it seemed so odd—-I thought, he's accusing 
Harry of a 2-years-past theft?  When there are so many more recent 
things to accuse him of?

I think the only other thing that was stolen was gillyweed, but if 
Dumbledore was informed of that theft, the natural person to suspect 
of stealing it would be Harry, since everyone knows he had some.  I 
wonder why he didn't get called on the carpet for it.  Maybe Snape 
didn't say anything to Dumbledore because he preferred to do a little 
extrajudicial threatening of Harry with it instead.

I agree with you that the most improbable plot point of GF is Crouch 
pulling the wool over Dumbledore's eyes for that long.  I do think 
that Crouch's trial in the Pensieve tells us that Dumbledore is 
wondering something about Crouch Jr. by that time (well geez, it's 
June already). If he knew boomslang skin had been stolen, his mind 
might well go to Polyjuice.  Snape doesn't know that the person in 
his office was "Bartemius Crouch," but Sirius does, and probably 
passed that info on to Dumbledore.  All of this explains why AD sent 
Snape to fetch Winky before the Polyjuice Potion wears off; once 
Moody took Harry, he not only knew Moody was bad news, he knew 
exactly who he was.

Which leads us to another question—if he was already suspicious of 
Moody, why'd he let him referee (or whatever you'd call it) the 3rd 
task?  Why didn't he tell Harry not to be alone with him?  Etc.?

Rita, loved your thoughts on using other people's wands.  I also 
think Harry was particularly hard to match:  Ollivander says, "Tricky 
customer, eh?"  I also wonder, though, whether it perhaps took Harry 
so long to find a match because the wand that fit him so well was the 
last one Mr. O would have thought of trying out.  My thinking was 
that Mr. O has a lot of intuition about what wand will be right for 
what witch or wizard, and so he often chooses a good one fairly early 
on, out of all the hundreds in the shop.  But in Harry's case, he 
ignored his intuition because it seemed so strange that Harry's wand 
should be related to Voldemort's.  Only after he'd turned up a lot of 
duds did he heed his intuition and have Harry try the Fawkes wand.  
Thoughts?

Dai wrote re: "one more death/curse/obstacle" in GF 1:

>It seems bizarre that they would change the US versions so that they 
>make so little sense. But that's americans for you.

Oh, now be nice.  There are other places where the US version makes 
more sense, yet the British editors didn't then say "yeah, that's 
better" and fix them.

Monika wrote:

>I am still not over the revelation that Lily and James had Harry 
right >after they graduated from Hogwarts...

Heya Monika, good to hear from you!  See if this calms your reeling a 
bit:  Lily and James graduated in 1978, married we don't know when, 
and Harry was born two years and a month after they'd left school.  
That seems young (in US terms anyway) if Hogwarts is like high 
school, but if it's more the equivalent of college, because further 
education is rare, then it's not so odd (again, in US terms).  Also, 
I wonder if the uncertainty of the time might have led them to marry 
quickly.  "Do it now, because tomorrow we may be killed," sort of 
thing-—which would make some people postpone having a child, but make 
others rush into it.

Lea pointed out:

>Brewing the P.Potion takes four weeks, as we know from CoS. Unless 
>you suggest Snape always has some of it brewing somewhere in case 
>anyone wants to transform into someone else

He could've been doing just that.  Then he just has to add Hair of 
Whomever and presto!  

I'm intrigued by the Snape-impersonates-Harry idea, but if he turned 
into Harry, then what did he do?  Go to Voldemort and thumb his 
nose?  Whoever posted this idea, I'd love to hear more.

MMMfanfic wrote:

> I think it is very, very likely that Snape was the one informing 
>Dumbledore about the Potters. (Wait till Harry finds out, can you 
>imagine the shock?)

Reading the Pensieve scene is very poignant if one has this idea in 
mind.  Harry asks Dumbledore,

"What made you think he'd really stopped supporting Voldemort, 
Professor?"
  Dumbledore held Harry's gaze for a few seconds[, thinking, "Because 
he nearly got himself killed trying to save your parents from 
Voldemort, Harry"], and then said, "That, Harry, is a matter between 
Professor Snape and myself." (GF 30)

> It seems that it was not common knowledge that Snape and Karkaroff 
>were DE.  (Harry only found out from Sirius.) 

Even Sirius didn't know about Snape.  "As far as I know, Snape was 
never even accused of being a Death Eater—-not that that means much." 
(GF 27)  But Sirius was already in prison when Karkaroff cut his deal 
with the MOM.

Amy Z
making the most of her GF before lending it away tomorrow—-sniff!