Crouch Sr. (the abbreviated version)

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 37476

I was flipping through the acronym list the other day and came on 
B.A.B.E.M.E.I.S.T.E.R.: the definition of which escapes me except that 
think the second B. stood for Barty and S. stood for sexier. The whole 
thing frightened me, and I wanted to get it out of my mind, along with 
 F.O.R.L.O.R.N.B.A.R.T.E.M.I.U.S.: the theory where Mrs. Lestrange 
seduced Barty Jr. to spite his father.

How come Crouch Sr. doesn't have a cool acronym, I wondered? He had 
grey hair in GoF, for sure, but a kid like Bartemius Jr. would give 
anyone grey hair. It's described as dark beforehand. Until the very 
end, he was extremely attentive of his looks, he was a very popular 
politician, and if you read all his description pieces (when he isn't 
ready to pop a vein, in which case Rowling reaches for the word 
"bulging",) he comes across as quite a striking personality. If his 
eyes aren't "bulging" under the stress of yet another personal 
tragedy, Rowling's favourite word for them is "sharp." In fact, I was 
very much surprised to discover that most of the code words for Crouch 
Sr. were rather attractive, contrast to Snape who gets the most 
hideous code words in the book. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a 
conscious contrast, indicating beauty is skin deep. Therefore, I 
demand that Tabouli write an acronym demonstrating that Crouch Sr. was 
indeed sexy. 

Or at least that's what I planned to write about. Looking for evidence 
in the books, I ended up analysing every reference to Crouch in GoF. 
The post went on for about 6 pages, and covered everything from Ludo's 
significant offhand introduction of Crouch, "Talk of the Devil" to the 
 significance of Barty Jr. being fair-haired, while his father was 
dark-haired. Unfortunately, my computer crashed. So, this post just 
goes over a few salient points.

1. While under the Imperius curse, Crouch sometimes acts like an 
automaton. However, he breaks through it with his own personality at 
the end of the Goblet of Fire scene. "I've left young Weatherby in 
charge ... very enthusiastic ... a little over-enthusiastic, if truth 
be told ..." which goes against Ron's assertion that Crouch has no 
sense of humour, and makes one wonder if Crouch would have been an 
entirely bad influence on Percy. There's a lot of lessons that Percy 
has to learn, but this "over-enthusiasm" as Crouch puts it, is getting 
in the way of learning any of them. He wouldn't ever drop it on Gred 
and Forge's suggestion, but could contact with Crouch have cured him 
of it? 

2. Which leads to the fact that Percy is not Crouch in miniature. 
First of all, all evidence does point to Percy's assertion that Crouch 
is indeed a brilliant man. But he has more than that. A certain style, 
a calmness in the most bizarre situations (the only time he loses his 
temper is right at the very end of the trial scene), a methodical way 
of going about things. This is a man that people pay attention to, as 
they did when Voldemort was alive. Meanwhile, Percy, no matter how 
brainy, comes across to everyone as an annoying puppy, bounding 
about and showing off. 

3. On the House-elf front, dismissing Winky was a very bad move. 
Crouch is being very Roman there. "Caesar's wife must be above 
suspicion," and it kills him. If he had had Winky by his side when 
Voldemort came, I think he would have had good odds against Pettigrew 
and his EvilUndeadBabyMaster. Later, Crouch's story becomes even more 
expressly Livian. The condemnation of Crouch Jr. seems to me to be a 
conscious analogue of the famous old story about Brutus (not the one 
who stabbed Caesar, but an ancestor) condemning his sons to death for 
their treachery. And the wizarding world blanches at it, which shows 
that they're losing their touch? Crouch also does not forget things, 
and perhaps stands for the evils of excessively dwelling on the past, 
as opposed to Fudge who tries to sweep the past under the rug.

4. Crouch did not sacrifice his son to his career ambition. This seems 
to be a red herring in the plot. Crouch thought Barty Jr. was as 
guilty as sin, and was quite justified in thinking so. Yelling "I have 
no son" after everything else was tactless and career-damaging, but 
not indicative of some Slytherinesque scheme (put up your hands if you 
think Crouch Sr. was in Slytherin.)His mistakes were made before and 
after Barty Jr. was sent to Azkaban.

5. If Crouch had survived GoF, he would very likely have finally been 
made Minister of Magic. With Voldemort back, he would not have stayed 
silent, and people would have rallied behind him. Deep down, Fudge is 
thanking his lucky stars that Crouch was killed. 

6. Barty Jr. is an ungrateful b-eeeeeeeeeep. Don't care how unloving 
he thought his father was. Being under Imperius curse was a heap nicer 
than Azkaban, especially since he was guilty. I loved Elkins's 
comparison of Barty Jr. to Boo Radley, however. 

7. Barty Jr. inherited his talent for acting from his father. Watch 
how he manipulates Diggory in "The Dark Mark": down to the point where 
 he allows Diggory to question Winky superficially, and keeps 
completely out of it to look objective, and then blocks Diggory 
from actually finding out anything. 

8. Did anyone else notice how on second reading, Arthur Weasley's cry, 
"STOP! That's my son!" takes on an extra connotation, with Crouch 
beside Weasley, thinking almost the same thing. 

9. J.K. Rowling said that it's the unhappy people who come back as 
ghosts. I can't think of a person in all the books who dies more 
unhappily than Crouch Sr. 

Eileen, eagerly awaiting the requested acronym