TBAY: Crouch - Sympathy For the Devil (8 of 9)

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 47962

Eight

Sympathy For the Devil

-----------


"You didn't *really* think that I was going to argue against Crouch's 
last scene being a redemption scene, did you?" asks Elkins, helping 
Eileen to haul the overturned CRAB CUSTARD table back up onto its 
legs.  Now that there is clean up to be done, Cindy has absented 
herself.  Ever since this past summer, she has been decidedly 
hesitant whenever it comes to helping to clean up wreckage.  
Something about a Portkey, and the Safe House.

Eileen lets go of her end of the table, steps back a few paces,
and surveys the damage, scowling.  

"You *did* so argue," she says.

"Well...yes, okay, I did, but only because I *could.*  I mean, you 
*know* that I can never resist an opportunity to show off like that.  
But I didn't actually go through with it, did I?  I let the angels 
have him, in the end."

Elkins stoops down and begins picking up the scattered cups of
CRAB CUSTARD, one by one.

"Although, you know," she adds, smiling slightly.  "It does seem 
to me that those angels might just have to wait a little while..."

Eileen's brow furrows, then clears.  Her eyes light up.

"Point Nine of the CRAB CUSTARD manifesto!" she exclaims.  

> 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. 

"I've been plugging for *months* for Barty Crouch Sr. to return as a 
ghost," she says.  "No-one in canon dies a death quite as unhappy as 
he does, and it could tie in quite nicely to our dodgy auror subplot."

She frowns suddenly.  "Unless of course the dodgy auror subplot 
exists only in our feverish brains..."

"O, ye of little faith!" exclaims Elkins.  "Why, of *course* there's 
going to be a dodgy auror subplot coming our way!  It's practically a 
canonical inevitability at this point in the game!  But even leaving 
aside those Bad Bad Aurors, I do think that Crouch as future 
canonical ghost makes quite a bit of sense.  He seems like a prime 
candidate to me.  And not just because he dies unhappily."

"You mean also because he died at the hands of his son?" asks 
Eileen.  "Parricide is a pretty big taboo.  That's got to count for 
something."

"Well, maybe it does.  Maybe it does.  Mainly, though, I was 
thinking...well, isn't there a tradition about people coming back as 
ghosts when they die with unfinished business on their hands?  When 
you look at the ghosts that we've already seen so far in canon, a lot 
of them do seem to have some pretty evident, er, unresolved issues.  
In fact, just as I've been typing this, Shane Dunphy has posted a 
truly spectacular thing on that aspect of Myrtle's character.  It's 
message #47531."  

"Is that the one about Myrtle being trapped in an, uh, anal stage 
of development?" asks Eileen, frowning.  "That's Freudian or 
something, isn't it?  I never really understand all that Freudian 
stuff." 

"Well, you don't really have to accept the Freud to see that she's 
trapped in an arrested state of development," says Elkins.  "She's 
an adolescent voyeur.  We're told that she was confined to Hogwarts 
because she had been haunting her old school tormentor, Olive Hornby. 
Refusal to forgive old adolescent grudges really does seem to be a 
recurring motif in these novels.  And then there's Nick, who was 
never fully beheaded.  And the Baron's all covered with that silver 
blood, which so many people have suggested could be unicorn blood..."

"What about the Fat Friar?  Or the Gray Lady?"

"We've barely even *seen* the Gray Lady.  And the Fat Friar might 
well have some unresolved issue that we just haven't learned about 
yet.  At any rate," adds Elkins quickly, noticing Eileen's hand
reaching for a Yellow Flag.  "I still think that there's a pattern
here."

"What about Binns?"

"He was eagerly awaiting his pension when he died?"  

Eileen looks at her.

"Oh, all right," sighs Elkins.  "I don't know.  But the way that 
Crouch died really does seem to me to make him classic revenant 
fodder.  He died desperately trying to convey a vitally important 
message.  A message that never got through.  If anyone died with some 
pretty serious unfinished business on their hands, I'd say that it 
was Crouch.  For that matter," she adds.  "His son is sort of 
unfinished business too, when you think about it."  

"Also," Eileen reminds her.  "He received a *most* improper burial."

"Transfigured into a bone and then buried in unconsecrated ground by 
his murderer?"  Elkins thinks about it for a moment.  "Yeah," she 
agrees.  "That's pretty improper, all right."

"*And* in Hagrid's garden," points out Eileen.  "Right on the borders 
of the Forbidden Forest.  Just think what the Forbidden Forest did to 
the Anglia!"

"Oh, good point!  Not to mention whatever Hagrid slips in his compost
to make those pumpkins grow so big.  And then, also, he died while 
under the Imperius Curse, which is a form of magical compulsion.  His 
will was still partially bound to anothers when he died.  Really,
he just seems an absolutely perfect candidate to me.  Or he *would,* 
except for this one little thing..."

Eileen frowns.  "What?" she asks.

"Well, the basis for Crouch-as-Ghost is really that interview, isn't
it?  The one in which JKR seems to be promising a ghost subplot in
a future volume?

"You're not about to tell me that the Intentional Fallacy Is Not
Fair Play and renders my theory non-canonical, are you?"

"No, no.  Of course not.  We don't say things like that around here.  
No, it's just...well, it seems to me that Crouch would indeed be the 
front-runner for our future canonical ghost if only that subplot 
had been promised for the *next* volume.  But if you actually go 
and look at the original interview itself...well..."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript1.htm

Q: What makes some witches/wizards become ghosts after they die and 
some not? 

JKR: You don't really find that out until Book VII, but I can say 
that the happiest people do not become ghosts. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------


"Oh." says Eileen.  "Book Seven."

"Yeah.  Which does somehow make it seem less likely to me that it's
going to be Crouch.  Because...well, Book Seven is rather a long
way away, isn't it?  The fact that JKR's talking Book Seven makes
me think that it's actually far more likely to be, well, *Snape* 
than it is a Book Four character like Barty Crouch."

There is an unhappy silence.

"Oh, never mind," sighs Elkins.  "I'm not giving up on Ghost!Crouch
that easily.  I'm just not.  He's too perfect.  Besides, JKR only
said that the readers weren't going find out what *makes* people 
become ghosts until Book Seven.  She didn't say that there wouldn't
*be* any new ghost characters before then, did she?  And besides, 
Ghost!Crouch is just too good to pass up.  Because you know, he
could serve a really interesting *plot* function if he were to 
come back as a ghost."  

"You mean there's Bang?" asks Eileen.  "Should we tell Cindy?

"No, we'd best not.  It's really only a Humpty-Dumptied Bang, and we
probably shouldn't encourage her in those.  Well...unless you
think that he wasn't redeemed in death, I suppose.  Then I guess
it could be Bangy.  You see, I just keep wondering...well, Crouch 
died while still under the Imperius Curse.  So does that mean that 
Voldemort might still be able to command him?  Even from beyond the 
grave?  Yet another faithful servant at Hogwarts?"

"Elkins!" cries Eileen.  "That's just horrible!  What is *wrong* 
with you?"

"Well, what do you think.  Could he?"

"You *still* haven't made your peace with poor old Crouch, have you?
You just don't want to let the poor man find any peace at all.  Not
even in death."

"Hey, you're the one who brought Ghost!Crouch into this.  I'm just 
taking your ball and running with it, that's all.  See, the thing is 
that Crouch didn't really die free of the Imperius, did he?  Unless
he had some breakthrough in his very last moments, he was still under
it.  When Harry shakes off the Imperius, it's just gone.  When Crouch 
Jr. finally breaks free of it completely, he describes it as being 
himself as he hasn't been in years.  But even before that happened, 
he was still capable of small acts of rebellion.  He was able to 
steal Harry's wand *before* the sound of those DEs acted like cold 
water on him.  So I think that's about where Crouch Sr. was.  He 
wasn't clear of it.  He was just fighting it.  Wasn't that what 
accounted for his apparent madness?"  

"Oh, is that what you thought it was?" asks Eileen.  "I thought..."
Her voice trails away.

"What?"

"well, er, have you ever wondered what Voldemort did to Crouch in the 
little time he had him at his disposal?  Imperius isn't the 
Unforgivable Curse that is known to leave people insane, you know." 

Elkins stares at her.  She puts the plastic spoons that she has been
gathering up from the pavement down in a neat little pile at her side,
and sits back hard on her heels.

"Do you know," she says slowly.  "I have never even *thought* about 
that?  Not even once.  What sort of a morbid imagination have I, 
anyway?  I should turn in my FEATHERBOAS this very minute.  You've a 
very nasty little mind, Eileen."

"I know," Eileen says shyly.

"That's a spectacularly sick line of speculation.  But I wouldn't be 
so sure about the Imperius not driving people insane, if I were you.  
So far in canon to date, we've only seen two people other than Harry, 
who is some sort of weird freakish savant, struggle free of the 
Imperius by their own force of will.  They're both named Bartemius 
Crouch.  And neither of them seems to have gained much in the way of 
sanity by it.  And besides," adds Elkins, smiling.  "You really do 
want to be careful with that logic, you know."

"I do?"

"Oh, yes.  You really do.  Because, you see, Crouch Jr. was mad as a 
hatter, and *he'd* been his *father's* prisoner for the past ten 
years.  You know, Cindy once told me that if Crouch Jr. were her son, 
she'd have, uh, 'taken him to the woodshed.'  I'm not altogether 
certain what that phrase means, but I believe that it has something 
to do with corporal punishment.  Sort of like 'taking someone out 
behind the chemical sheds,' I guess.  But far less permanent.  Have 
you ever wondered if Crouch punished his son for that little outburst 
at the QWC?  He must have been absolutely furious with him, I should 
think.  And Winky wasn't around to calm him down anymore." 

"I don't think that Crouch would ever have practiced Cruciatus on
his son," says Eileen firmly.

"No," agrees Elkins, rather surprisingly.  "I don't either.  I think 
that he probably would have balked at that.  Voldemort, on the other 
hand..."  She sighs.  "Oh, Eileen.  I really wish that you hadn't 
brought that up.  Crouch was ill-treated, all right."

"It is a not-so-pleasant topic of speculation, isn't it?" says 
Eileen, just a trifle smugly.  "I *told* you that the punishment 
exceeded the crime."

"No, no."  Elkins shakes her head.  "No, you don't...it's even worse 
than you think.  Crouch was *definitely* ill-treated.  But not just 
because Voldemort is a sadist.  Also because...well, his plan really 
did rely on Crouch Jr. for quite a lot, didn't it?  It relied on him 
to act with a good deal of autonomy, under no supervision 
whatsoever.  It relied on him to be not only competent, but 
*extremely* loyal.  Voldemort's not usually too trusting of his DEs, 
is he?  And really, why on earth should he be?  Unless you go in for 
a Magic Dishwasher approach, they're treacherous scum.  At the 
beginning of GoF, Voldemort suggests that Pettigrew is planning on 
scarpering on him.  He is resolutely unimpressed with his DEs' 
protestations of loyalty in the graveyard.  Yet he really does seem 
awfully convinced of *Crouch's* loyalty.  Why? After all, given 
Crouch Jr's situation when Voldemort liberated him from his father's 
Imperius Curse, he was naturally going to pay lip service to 
Voldemort no matter what his actual degree of loyalty.  He would have 
been crazy not to.  Yet Voldemort truly does seem to trust him.  So 
what convinced him that Crouch Jr. really was so utterly and 
unquestioningly devoted to his service?"

"I did try to *warn* you that this was a not-so-pleasant topic of 
speculation, Elkins," says Eileen, smiling.  "You can't really 
imagine that I haven't already been here myself, can you?  Why didn't 
you just *listen* to me when I told you that it didn't bear thinking 
about?"

"I can't help it," moans Elkins.  "Whenever somebody advises me not 
to think about something, I always find that I can think of nothing 
else.  That's the real reason I liked Denethor so much, you see.  It 
was that Palantir.  I'd *never* be able to resist staring into one of 
those things.  *Especially* if I knew that it could take me to a Bad 
Place."  She sighs.  "Yeah, Crouch Jr. had his father screaming and 
writhing down there on the floor, all right," she concludes.  "Ugh.  
And I'll bet that he really enjoyed it, too.  'You are not my 
father.  I have no father.'  Tit for tat, you know.  Barty Jr. really 
did enjoy tit for tat."

"And this is a character you identify with."

"Yeah, I know.  It's just awful, isn't it?  But I can't help it."  
Elkins shakes her head firmly.  "All right," she says.  "That's quite 
enough of *that,* I think.  I think that it's time to put that entire 
line of speculation safely away in the little box where I keep *all* 
of the things about these books that I prefer not to dwell on.  You 
know, like where precisely that Ugly Baby body of Voldemort's came 
from in the first place.  Or that potion in Moste Potente Potions, 
the one that turns people inside out.  Or--"

"Or Crouch Jr. getting the Dementor's Kiss?" Eileen asks, with an
exceptionally twisted smile.

"Oh, *don't.*"  Elkins shudders.  "You know that I can't even stand 
to imagine that."

"Well, I have a similar reaction to Crouch Sr's death," says Eileen.  
"Have you ever tried to imagine the final scene between him and his 
son? I always back away from it. I have tried to convince myself that 
it was done quickly, and that Crouch didn't realize what was 
happening, that he was fluently conversing with Weatherby at the 
time. But I can't really believe that. And I don't want to think 
about what really happened." 

"I know what you mean."  Elkins lowers her voice.  "In fact," she 
says. "I'll let you in on a little secret here, Eileen.  I've never 
liked imagining the man's death either."

"What?  But I thought that you *loved* the idea of Crouch Jr. kicking 
around his poor old father.  I thought that sort of thing made you 
cackle with malicious glee!"

"Well, usually it does.  But not there.  I mean, the poor man's 
already *broken,* isn't he?  That takes all the fun out of it, 
somehow.  Nah, I always find myself hoping that Barty Jr. just, er, 
well, you know.  Took him from behind.  Quickly.  And didn't feel the 
need to go making some big *production* number out of it or anything."

"You do remember who we're talking about here."

"Yeah."  Elkins sighs.  "Sadly, I do.  And it really is rather hard 
to imagine that he wouldn't have wanted to spit out at least one 'sic 
semper tyrannis,' isn't it?  Or to look into his father's eyes while 
he did it? Like Brutus and his sons, you know."  She smiles 
faintly.  "Just like staring into a mirror."

"You really are a rather disturbing person, Elkins.  Do you know 
that?"

"But all the same," Elkins says quickly.  "I think that he would have 
done it fast.  He was in a hurry, after all.  He wouldn't have wanted 
to risk getting caught.  And he knew that Harry was going to be 
returning at any moment with Dumbledore.  He was actually there in 
his Invisibility Cloak, watching the entirety of that conversation 
between his father and Harry and Krum, so he would have known that he 
hadn't any time to waste."

"That's true," agrees Eileen slowly.

"Also, the forest was just *swarming* with red herrings that night,
wasn't it?  Ludo Bagman was bopping around somewhere, and Madame 
Maxine's carriage wasn't too far away, and on top of all of that, he 
had just come across *two* students out there in the woods.  How 
could he know how many other random people might come wandering by at 
any moment?  I mean, from his perspective, it must have seemed like 
Grand Central Station out there, don't you think?  Rather surreal, 
really.  Almost farcical.  And very nerve-wracking, I'm sure.  

"So I feel convinced that he did it quickly and cleanly," Elkins 
concludes.  "I just can't imagine that he would have wanted to waste 
any time, or been willing to risk any unwanted attention.  I mean, he 
wouldn't have wanted there to be any screaming, you know, or any 
broken *weeping,* or any horrified *pleading,* or..."

"Do you *mind?*" 

"Oh."  Elkins blinks.  "Sorry.  Sorry about that, Eileen.  Sorry.  I 
just mean, you know, that he wouldn't have wanted there to be any 
noise. That's all.  And also..."  She takes a deep breath.  "Also," 
she says, with a faint air of finality.  "I don't think that he 
really wanted to do it."

"Oh, now, you *DO* remember who we're talking about here!"

"Yes, I do.  We're talking about someone who in many ways is 
portrayed as a walking manifestation of the law of the mirror: the 
law of *Nemesis.*  In some respects, he's almost like a 
personification of Turnabout itself.  He has a *very* strongly 
developed, if also totally twisted, sense of justice.  He was so 
absolutely infuriated by the sight of all of those smug successful 
DEs at the QWC that it enabled him to overcome the Imperius Curse 
completely for the first time in over a decade.  He goes out of his 
way to treat his father's corpse to this sort of weirdly metaphoric 
variation on the theme of how his father treated his mother's body -- 
and by extension, his own.  He nearly gives himself away with his 
rather excessive reaction to Draco Malfoy's unfair duelling tactics.  
He's just dying to learn that Voldemort punished the unfaithful at 
his rebirthing.  In his confession, he takes particular pleasure in 
remembering his father being placed under the Imperius Curse.  
Turnabout.  Tit for tat.  That's what young Crouch enjoyed.  Even 
that sense of irony of his I tend to see as related to a kind of 
twisted sense of justice.  Dramatic irony and Nemesis are very 
strongly related concepts.  Crouch Jr's sense of justice may have 
been downright *weird,* but it still seems to me to have been one of 
his more predominant characteristics." 

"Elkins, you've just suggested yourself that the evil little monster 
not only tortured his father for Voldemort's amusement, but also that 
he *enjoyed* it!"  

"Oh, but that's completely *different,* Eileen!"  Elkins stares at 
her. "That's not the same thing at *all.*  You see, *that,*" she 
explains.  "Was Fair Play."

"Fair *PLAY*?"

"Sure.  His father tortured him, didn't he?  Threw him to the 
dementors.  Tried to brainwash him.  Not to mention whatever 'taking 
him to the woodshed' might ever have happened.  So that makes it 
turnabout.  Tit for tat -- plus a good bit of interest.  Perfectly 
fair play, according to Crouch Jr's standards."

"But--"  

"He liked seeing his father enslaved, as he himself had been 
enslaved.  He liked seeing his father helpless and subject at the 
hands of his enemies, as he himself had been helpless and subject at 
the hands of his enemies.  He liked seeing his father suffer, as he 
himself had been made to suffer.  I think that he probably even liked 
*making* his father suffer, even to the extent of the Cruciatus.  But 
did he really like the idea of his father actually being *killed?*"  
Elkins shakes her head.  "I don't know if I really think that he 
did," she says.  "Because you see, no matter what else Crouch Sr. may 
have done to his son, he *did* preserve his life."

"But surely he must have realized that Voldemort was going to murder 
his father eventually," says Eileen.

"Yeah, one would think.  Although young Barty...well, he wasn't 
really altogether attuned to reality, was he?  At the end of his 
confession, he's retreated into this pathetic little fantasy that 
Voldemort is going to come along and save him, and then he'll be 
sitting at his right hand, honored above all other Death Eaters.  I 
mean, let's face it.  The poor lad was schizoid.  He wasn't precisely 
a realist."

"I think you're whitewashing," says Eileen flatly.

"Whitewashing?  I've admitted that I think he got a kick out of 
Crucio'ing his poor old Dad, haven't I?  I'm not whitewashing him.  
He wasn't a nice fellow.  But I see plenty of indications in the text 
that parricide did not agree with him at all.  We actually see him 
right after he's done it, you know.  When he stomps up to Dumbledore 
and Harry, who are dealing with the stunned Krum, it's got to be only 
minutes after he's killed his father.  And he seems to be in a right 
foul mood.  He masks it by complaining about his leg.  'Furiously.'  
That's partly to cover for his absence, obviously, but my feeling is 
that he's drawing off of that emotion from somewhere.  Crouch does 
seem to have been rather a method actor.  I don't believe there is 
*anywhere* in the canon where we see Crouch/Moody showing strong 
emotion when Crouch does not himself have reasons to be feeling 
strongly emotional about something."

"Perhaps," says Eileen.  "But the strong emotion that he was drawing 
off of could have been vindictive satisfaction.  Or fear about the 
possibility of getting caught.  Or--"  

"He looks like hell the next morning," says Elkins.  "When Harry, Ron 
and Hermione seek him out, the next day.  He really doesn't look too 
good at all.  He's exhausted, he's twitchy, he's utterly on edge..."

"That could just be because he had been out all night long, 
pretending to be looking for his father.  And because he had a close 
shave, which got him a little stressed.  And because he now knows 
that Dumbledore knows that his father had been trying to convey an 
important message, so he's quite reasonably fearful that Dumbledore 
might figure it all out.  Especially if Harry tells Dumbledore that 
his father kept mentioning him while he was raving."

"Perhaps."

"He's certainly not feeling guilty enough to refrain from delivering 
one of his horrible Crouchisms," points out Eileen.   "'Now, 
Dumbledore's told me you three fancy yourselves as investigators, but 
there's nothing you can do for Crouch.'  Now isn't that charming.  
It's...Elkins, you're grinning.  Stop it." 

"Sorry."  Elkins attempts to reconfigure her expression to one of 
gravity.  "Sorry, Eileen.  Sorry.  Okay, yeah.  He delivers a 
Crouchism.  But he still doesn't look so hot to me.  JKR really seems 
to be going out of her way in that scene to describe him as exhausted 
and stressed.  There's even that bit where it looks as if he's very 
nearly slipped up on remembering to take his potion: 'He looked as 
tired as they felt. The eyelid of his normal eye was drooping, giving 
his face an even more lopsided appearance than usual.'  And then, 
almost immediately thereafter, he's chugging from his hip flask.  Do 
you think he was actually starting to transform there? Right in front 
of students?  That's really careless for Crouch.  My feeling has 
always been that that's a sign that he's starting to slip.  I don't 
get the impresssion that he was at all pleased about having been 
called upon to murder his father."

"He *boasts* about it, Elkins," says Eileen.  "He brags of it to 
Harry."

"Yes, he does.  'And both of us had the pleasure...the very great 
pleasure... of killing our fathers to ensure the continued rise of 
the Dark Order!' What gives with those ellipses?  With the 
repetition, the added emphasis?  Doesn't that sound rather like he's 
protesting a bit too much?"

"You *are* whitewashing."

"No, I'm not.  In Part Five I went over some of the ways in which 
Crouch Jr. seems to be rationalizing in his confession.  Why would he 
feel the need to rationalize at all, if he didn't feel at least some 
degree of ambivalence over what he had done?  And it's not the only 
thing about his confession that implies that parricide was not really 
to his tastes either."  Elkins rises to her feet and walks over to 
her satchel.  She bends down, rummages through it, and pulls out her 
copy of 'Sympathy For the Devil: Veritaserum, A Close Reading.'  
Eileen groans and rolls her eyes.

"Oh, not *this* again!" she complains.  "Elkins, you can't really 
tell a *thing* from that confession.  On the meta-level, that entire 
scene is engineered by the author to provide plot exposition for the 
reader.  And on the level of the fictive reality, he's speaking under 
*compulsion.*  Furthermore, the veritaserum is dulling his affect..."

"It is compelling him, and it is dulling his affect," Elkins 
agrees.  "But that doesn't prevent him from expressing himself 
emotionally, nor from volunteering information that is not demanded 
of him.  And JKR *does* use the confession to elucidate his character 
and motivations, as well as to explain the plot.  She uses it for 
that a great deal.  Just about everything that we know about his 
motivations or his character comes from the confession scene, and 
most of it is actually not offered in direct response to Dumbledore's 
questions.  I think that if JKR had wanted to show Barty Jr. as an 
eager parricide, then she would have written this scene very 
differently.

"Just look."

======================================================================

While Crouch Jr's testimony in the 'Veritaserum' chapter is indeed
largely a matter of plot exposition, I think that we can deduce quite 
a bit from it about his character and motives as well.  For one 
thing, it is clear from his testimony that he *is,* in fact, capable 
of quite a bit of digression.  He is also capable of emotional,
subjective, and non-factual testimony.

This is how Crouch Jr describes his experience at the QWC.  
The "question" which he is answering in this passage is: "Tell me 
about the Quidditch World Cup."

----------------

"Then we heard them. We heard the Death Eaters. The ones who had 
never been to Azkaban. The ones who had never suffered for my master. 
They had turned their backs on him. They were not enslaved, as I was. 
They were free to seek him, but they did not. They were merely making 
sport of Muggles. The sound of their voices awoke me. My mind was 
clearer than it had been in years. I was angry. I had the wand."

-----------------

Okay.  His affect is certainly deadened, although I've never been 
altogether clear on whether that's really completely due to the 
Veritaserum, or whether it's also due to the fact that he's finally 
slipped his very last mooring.  I rather suspect that it's a bit of 
both.  Whatever the cause, though, it doesn't prevent him either from 
volunteering information or from showing insight.  Dumbledore did not 
ask him to explain his motives for behaving as he did at the QWC.  He 
did not ask him about the wand.  He did not ask him about breaking 
free of the Imperius Curse.  Crouch Jr. is volunteering all of that 
information, based on his *own* interpretion of what about the QWC is 
important, relevant, or of interest.  And given the emotional nature 
of the above passage, I think that it is also clear that to a certain 
extent, he is choosing to focus on what about this event was of 
importance to *him.*  

This is really not factual testimony.  It's not a 'just the facts, 
ma'am' account.  It is subjective, emotional, and personal.

Nor is Crouch Jr. completely deadened in affect, although he is 
extremely dissociated.  He's not exactly a zombie.  He is capable of 
emotional responses, albeit of a rather disturbing sort.

----------------------

"'My father answered the door.'

"The smile spread wider over Crouch's face, as though recalling the 
sweetest memory of his life. Winky's petrified brown eyes were 
visible through her fingers. She seemed too appalled to speak.

"'It was very quick. My father was placed under the Imperius Curse by 
my master. Now my father was the one imprisoned, controlled.'"

---------------------------------------
 
That's what Veritaserum'd!Barty looks like when he's enjoying the 
memory of a bit of payback on dear old Dad, yes?  He's not so far 
gone that he can't display emotion, albeit of a rather mad sort, at 
the memory of vengeance.  And he doesn't lack insight so utterly as 
to be incapable of explaining the extent to which his pleasure at 
this memory derives from Turnabout-Is-Fair-Playdom either.  He may 
have bats in his belfry, but he is perfectly emotionally 
comprehensible.  He can explain his motives, and he seems often to be 
interested in doing so, even when it is not technically required of 
him.  He does so at times quite eloquently, in fact:  "It was my 
dream, my greatest ambition, to serve him, to prove myself to him." 

But this is all that he has to say about his act of parricide:

----------------------------

"'My master sent me word of my father's escape. He told me to stop 
him at all costs.  So I waited and watched.  I used the map...'"

There then follows some discussion of the Map, and then:

"'For a week I waited for my father to arrive at Hogwarts. At last, 
one evening, the map showed my father entering the grounds. I pulled 
on my Invisibility Cloak and went down to meet him. He was walking 
around the edge of the forest. Then Potter came, and Krum.  I waited. 
I could not hurt Potter; my master needed him. Potter ran to get 
Dumbledore.  I Stunned Krum. I killed my father.'"

--------------------

And that's it.  There's no editorial commentary there.  No mad grin.  
No gloating.  No description of his feelings about this turn of 
events.  Nothing.  It's a very stark series of statements of fact, 
and it is nothing at all like the way he speaks of recovering his own 
volition after a decade under the Imperius, or of firing the Dark 
Mark into the sky at the QWC, or of watching Voldemort overpower his 
father.

Dumbledore then gives him an opening to elaborate on the parricide
if he so chooses.  "You killed your father?"  

Crouch Jr. says absolutely *nothing* in response to this, although he 
does answer the next question about what he did with the 
body: "Carried it into the forest. Covered it with the Invisibility 
Cloak."  We're back to choppy sentences and 'just the facts' here, 
although Crouch is in fact *not* incapable of a far more eloquent 
mode of diction.  He will prove this with the very last line of his 
confession: "My master's plan worked. He is returned to power and I 
will be honored by him beyond the dreams of wizards."  Even at the 
very end, his diction is not so degraded that he cannot manage that 
sentence.  But when asked about the disposal of his father's body, 
incomplete and choppy sentences are all he has to offer. 

Crouch Jr. does not speak of murdering his father in at all the same 
way that he speaks of either his acts of anger or of payback events 
that he actually took pleasure in.  He shows no signs of enjoyment at 
the memory, nor any inclination to elaborate upon the event any 
further than he absolutely must do to satisfy his interrogator.  
While he may imply to Harry that he considered it an act of homage to 
Voldemort, when he is actually under the Veritaserum and therefore 
compelled to speak the truth, the only motive that he offers is that 
he was under direct orders to see it done "at all costs."  He is not 
even willing to confess to it a second time: he does not assent when 
Dumbledore asks for confirmation that he killed his father.  His 
diction degenerates into choppy broken sentences when he is forced to 
discuss it.  Compare his diction here with his diction when he speaks 
of topics on which he *does* seem proud of his actions and eager to 
communicate his motives: his devotion to Voldemort, his fury with the 
disloyal DES at the QWC.  Compare his affect here with his affect 
when he speaks of Voldemort's arrival at his father's home.

All of this leads me to conclude that Crouch really didn't enjoy 
killing his father at all.  He was clearly willing to do it.  But I 
don't think that he was at all happy about it. 


=====================================================================


"There, now," says Elkins soothingly.  "You see, Eileen?  My Crouch 
Jr. apologetics aren't really all that bad, are they?  That one can 
give you a fast and painless death for poor Barty."

"They're pure sophistry, Elkins."

"Nonsense.  It's all right there in the text.  Here."  Elkins pulls a 
leaflet entitled 'Barty Crouch Jr: Unwilling Parricide' out of her 
satchel and hands to to Eileen.  "You can keep that one," she says, 
generously. "No charge."

"I found the 'he wouldn't have wanted to risk any unnecessary noise'
argument much more convincing."

"Yes, well."  Elkins frowns.  "You *would,* wouldn't you.  At any
rate, it's really not Crouch's death that makes me pity him.  I'm
pretty well convinced that was relatively fast and painless.  It's
his life.  What were you saying about the last months of his life 
before?  Er...leaving aside the more unsavory speculations, if you 
would?"

"I said that he spent the last months of his life physically and 
spiritually alone," says Eileen.  "Tormented by his own choices."

"Yes.  But really, it had been going on longer than that, hadn't it?
At least a decade.  Ever since his wife died and he rescued his son.  
I mean, really, when you think about it, what sort of a life could 
the poor man have possibly had?  He did not encourage familiarity 
from his associates, to say the least.  He seems to have had no 
intimates, and no real friends.  The nature of the secret that he 
was keeping would have prevented him from forging any new 
associations.  He would have wanted to keep people at a distance, and 
certainly away from his *house.*  Bertha Jorkins came by when he 
wasn't home, and I don't get the impression that this was a common 
occurrence, people dropping by old Crouch's house to say hello and 
have a cup of tea.  Certainly Winky doesn't seem to have had the 
slightest idea how to handle the situation properly.  Jorkins was 
probably the first visitor they'd had in *years.*  And his son 
wouldn't have been very good company for him, I wouldn't think.  Not 
under the Imperius Curse.  Even assuming that Crouch had *wanted* to 
deal with his son on any normal or personable level, which I don't 
believe for a second that he did.  You see, that's another problem 
with trying to make the world into your hall of mirrors.  It gets 
*lonely.*

"And that's where I see the punishment exceeding the crime, frankly,"
concludes Elkins.  "Solitude may be in some sense a *just* punishment 
for a solipsist.  But ten years of having no one to talk to is 
really more than anyone deserves."

"Well," Eileen points out.  "He did have Winky."

"Yes."  Elkins smiles slowly.  "He had Winky."  She glances up
at the subject line emblazoned across the sky above Theory Bay
and shakes her head.

"Well," she says.  "My, my, my.  Would you just look at that."

"What?"

"I do believe that we're going to need a second prefix up there."

"Elkins!" gasps Eileen.  "You're *not!*"

Elkins grins evilly.

"Oooooh, yes I am," she says.


***************

Elkins

**********************************************************************

This post is continued from part seven.  It cites or references
message numbers 37476, 45402, 46468, 47531.

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