Barty Crouch Jnr

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 38098

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "blpurdom" <blpurdom at y...> wrote:

> Crouch, Jr. definitely seems like more of a Ravenclaw than a 
> Slytherin.  And I don't see his dad being a Slytherin--it seems 
> unlikely he could have gotten far in politics with that background 
> (or if his son had been put in that house and people got wind of 
> it), with the prejudices in the wizarding world, and he was on a 
> track for the Minister of Magic when his career was derailed by his 
> son being an accused DE. 

I don't think that there's anyone in the entire series who's so 
properly a Slytherin as Crouch Sr. actually, so we're probably coming 
from completely different ends here. First of all, I don't hold this 
theory that Slytherins in the WW are despised and feared. If Lucius 
Malfoy himself is lounging around the Top Box at the World Quidditch 
Cup, I don't believe that the more innocent Slytherins are the 
wizarding world's peons. Is it too coincidental that if you explain 
Slytherin to someone, and then give a list of several names and ask 
whether he thinks they're Slytherin, that he'll pick all the 
politicians. I've no doubt that, in normal times, the Ministry is 
absolutely swarming with Slytherins. What good are the power-hungry if 
they never get a chance to go for power because people are prejudiced 
against them? Even now, how many Death Eaters are at the Ministry? I'd 
peg Crouch as a Slytherin, and a little more cautiously, Fudge 
himself. Ludo Bagman? I don't know. Much will depend on his future 
appearances. 

>It wouldn't have been hard for DEs to 
> recruit Ravenclaws, though--in fact, I think they probably would 
> have been prime targets, as extremely bright people.  Crouch, Jr. 
> isn't a Slytherin at heart because his ambition isn't for himself as 
> much as for his master--he speaks at the end of being honored by 
> Voldemort, but it seems almost like a afterthought.

Crouch Jr. was recruited in school, though, which makes me feel that 
he was in Slytherin.

> I'm not sure where you get the idea that Draco Malfoy isn't a 
> Slytherin at heart.  He's nasty, selfish, ambitious, and he'll do 
> anything to achieve an end.  Just because he's not too cautious or 
> prudent doesn't mean anything; if anything, it's clear because of 
> this that he's definitely no Ravenclaw (the only class in which we 
> know he excels is Potions, making him a kind of one-song-Sue), and 
> he clearly isn't hard-working enough to be a Hufflepuff, let alone 
> brave enough to be a Gryffindor (he's quaking in his boots in the 
> Forbidden Forest).  The hat knew before it had touched his head.  
> He's right where he belongs.

You're right. He belongs to Slytherin. He's a total failure of a 
Slytherin, imho. In fact, the entire current generation seems to lack 
the ingredients to ever go anywhere.

Eileen, who thinks someone should teach Draco the word "charm"