Also On Topic (was Re: GoF: Murder vs. Curse? (LONG)

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26113

---> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., cynthiaanncoe at h... wrote:
> > Because I could really use a distraction, I'm reviving this thread
> > that I posted on Tuesday.  If you all tell me I'm all wet, at 
least
> > it will take my mind off of things for a few minutes.  It's about
> why
> > JKR changed the language about whether V wanted Wormtail to curse
> > someone or murder them.
> 
> >Haggridd wrote:  
> 
> One difficulty I see with LV intentionally murdering Moody, and
> therefore being surprised if Moody resurfacesin OoP, is that you
> cannot then account for the year long impersonation of Moody by 
Barty
> Crouch, Jr.  What did they do, keep the cadaver of Moody in a 
magical
> deep freeze in order to snip parts from him for making more 
polyjuice
> potion?  Does the person to be impersonated have to be alive?  How
> long will polyjuice potion keep fresh?  Just as you, I am puzzled by
> the change in language.  I am inclined to blame the Scholastic
> editors, who have made some rather silly changes, IMHO.
> 

The "frozen cadaver" issue doesn't trouble me much.  JKR was clever 
enough to have the one ingredient you need for polyjuice potion be 
something that keeps indefinitely -- hair -- and something that Moody 
had a lot of.  (JKR could have given Moody a crew cut or made him 
balding, but instead she gave him a "long mane of grizzled dark gray 
hair").  She could have made the key ingredient blood, but that would 
require the person to be kept alive and raise the spoilage issues you 
mentioned.  

So Crouch Jr. and Wormtail would just hack off Moody's hair, put it 
in Moody's trunk, and proceed to make the potion all year as needed.  
Nothing suggests that Moody had to be alive for this to happen.

Cindy (who thinks it well could have been a silly editor's change, 
but thinks it is more fun to imagine something else)