[HPforGrownups] Very Little Foreshadowing? (was Re: Malfoy's Redemption)

[Susan Hall]

No: HPFGUIDX 25448

Cindy, referring to foreshadowing, said

>Consider Crouch/Moody.  We get two tiny
direct clues (that I recall) that Moody is not himself.  One is the
>bouncing ferret business.  The second is in Padfoot Returns, when Ron
says that Dumbledore is smart, but a really clever dark wizard could
>fool him.  Everything else, IMHO, fits perfectly with the little we
know about Moody, or seems so unrelated to Moody that it isn't
possible to piece the facts together (e.g., Crouch searching Snape's
>office).

I actually think the Draco transfiguration business was a brilliant piece of
applied psychology on the part of Crouch/Moody.  It immediately established
his credentials with everyone who might be otherwise inclined to ferret out
any suspicious circumstances [sorry!] in his impersonations.  The real Moody
probably wouldn't have done it (though Filch's comment that "it's a pity
they let the old punishments die out..hang you by your wrists from the
ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains in my office, keep 'em well
oiled in case they're ever needed..." suggests that the Dippet regime went
in for some startling applications of corporal punishment, and presumably
Moody was from that sort of generation) but the fake Moody doing it
(1) establishes him as a maverick hero in the eyes of Ron, Harry, Fred,
George and anyone else who dislikes Draco (so about 3/4 of Hogwarts, then) ;
(2) establishes him as a vengeful Auror still out after suspected Death
Eaters in the eyes, paws, ears and whiskers of Draco;
(3) neatly befuddles most of the readership into going along with beliefs 1)
and 2) even though we should have been alert for it after SS/PS when JKR
pulled off the same trick in reverse ie conned us  into "Snape is beastly to
Harry; Harry is the hero; therefore Snape is the villain".  In retrospect,
it's hard to believe we fell for it again (Secondary foreshadowing with a
master's touch) but there it was "MadEye is beastly to Draco - and how!
Draco is a horrid little brat and Harry's enemy; therefore MadEye is
*coooool*" - does this woman play poker?

Susan