Why Pseudo-Moody's Happy About Harry (my view) Also comments on Snape/Lily

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 28902

I think that one reason that Moody (Barty Crouch, Jr.) is happy about Harry
Potter being able to resist the Imperius Curse so easily is that Crouch, Jr.
spent so very long under that same curse himself.  As we say in the
crime-ridden US, a liberal is a conservative who's just been arrested, just
as a conservative is a liberal who's just been mugged.  No matter what he'd
done as a Death Eater, he _had_ to have a dislike for the Imperius Curse
after spending so very long (years?) under it.

He also might be happy to see that it _is_ possible for even a beginning
wizard, which Harry still is, to fight it off, if only because this little
trick could be _so_ very useful to the Death Eaters.  Imagine, forex, the
expression on an Auror who gets the drop on a DE, puts him under Imperius
and questions him, when said DE suddenly says "Ah-HA!  Fooled you!  The
Imperius Curse doesn't work on me!  By the way..._Avada Kedavra!_"

Very interesting stuff about the possiblity of Snape being soured on life
through an unrequited crush on Lily Evans.  However, do we know that _as a
teenage girl,_ Lily Evans was a nice person?  Quite a few women I know
who've turned out to be admirable people were, as teenagers, treacherous
little cows whom I wouldn't have trusted with my back turned for one second.
If Snape _had_ a Thing for Lily Evans, and she was a no-goodnick (nothing as
evil as being a DE, but something rhyming with "witch," if you know what I
mean) and she deliberately used him...as in, for instance, setting him up to
be the fall-guy for some scheme of hers or the Marauders'...it could have
easily left a permanent sour taste in Snape's mouth about relationships in
general, and Lily Evans (Potter) very much in particular.  Snape and I, I
fear, share a weakness, Corsican Alzheimer's.  That's where you forget
everything but the grudges.  And Snape now has to deal with the fact that a
lot of people know he was a DE once, no matter who vouches for him.  That
could put the kibosh on a lot of potential relationships.

Lily Evans' teachers' good opinion of her doesn't count for much,
necessarily.  The women I referred to above, in many cases, were very good
at presenting one face to those in authority and another to their classmates
and age-mates.  For an example, think of how Snape sees Draco Malfoy
compared to how his classmates mostly see him.  We don't even know for sure
that most of the Slytherins like Draco, but most of them probably think it's
politic to stay on his good side...rich influential daddy, goons at his
side, it's better to get along with him because one cannot get away from
him.