The Case Against Ludo Bagman

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25499

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ali Wildgoose" <diagonalley_ at h...> wrote:
> Ali wrote:
> Personally, I think he's just an idiot with bad judgement.  A very 
nice, 
> friendly, jolly sort of idiot...but an idiot all the same.  I don't 
think 
> he's really crafty enough to be a DE...


I took another look at Bagman in GoF, and now I'm REALLY convinced he 
is not a minor character or just an affable idiot bungling through 
the wizarding world.

Early in GoF, JKR spends time establishing that Bagman, this minor 
character, can apparate.  He apparates in "Bagman and Crouch" and 
again in the "Dark Mark" chapter when he comes across H,H and R in 
the woods.  The book is really long; why use any space to discuss a 
minor character who apparates other than to establish a foundation 
that Bagman apparated to the graveyard?  (She also mentions that 
Crouch Sr. can apparate, and the purpose of that is to show how he 
escapes and gets up to Hogwarts).

Also, there's no reason to believe Fred and George's explanation for 
Bagman's absence after the third task.  They state (Ch. 37) that 
Bagman had a bet on Harry, and Bagman ran from the goblins.

This doesn't make sense.  First, how would Fred and George know 
Bagman bet on Harry?  Well, Bagman could have told them.  But why?  
He was always careful to conceal his efforts to help Harry (lowering 
his voice to a whisper, etc).  And it isn't logical that the Head of 
Magical games, who is also a judge, would up and tell F and G (or 
anyone else) that he is cheating to help a contestant.  This suggests 
that F and G have simply guessed incorrectly -- Bagman really helped 
Harry for the same reason Crouch/Moody did.

But let's say F and G heard this information some other way, and 
Bagman really did bet on Harry.  The second problem is F and G say 
the goblins play dirty and considered the result of the tournament a 
tie and refused to pay Bagman, so that's why he fled.  (They offer no 
explanation for how they know this.)  But Bagman wouldn't know who 
won or how the goblins would view things when he fled, which was 
during or right after the third task.  F and G's statements are 
supposition -- it is more plausible that Bagman left when he did to 
apparate to the graveyard.

Finally, Harry had a dream (beginning of Ch. 9) in which Bagman 
appears and delivers the following line:  "I give you . . . Potter!"  

Cindy (wishing someone -- anyone-- cared about Bagman as much as she 
does)