Hermione as bleeding Heart/Justice/Moody was really Crouch, Jr.

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 34008

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "btk6y" <btk6y at v...> wrote:

[snipped analysis of Crouch/Moody]

> 2)  I agree that there are no "bleeding-heart liberal" stereotypes 
> in Potterlore and there is a reason for it.  The time when 
> Voldemort was in power was essentially a time of war, and it is a 
> lot more difficult to justify that sort of stereotypical attitude 
> in such dire times.  

I disagree that there are no "bleeding-heart liberal" stereotypes in 
the books.  Hermione is very much playing this role when she 
conceives S.P.E.W.  She is also, IMO shown to be very much out of 
step with wizarding society, however.  Even the "Muggle-loving" 
Weasleys seem to be somewhat on the conservative side about many 
things.  One wonders whether very many of the Muggle-born witches 
and wizards reflect Muggle attitudes of this sort, and whether this 
is another source of friction between "pureblood" magical folk and 
these relative "newcomers."  Also, while it is easier to "sell" 
conservative attitudes during times of war, the wizarding world has 
been free of Voldemort for going on fourteen years.  What excuse is 
there for continued entrenchment and conservatism?  (Other than 
force of habit?)

> You sometimes CANNOT bring hardened criminals to justice doing 
> everything "by the book".  More on Moody later... but because the 
> world of Voldemort is basically a war-time era, JKR is not really 
> able to introduce a believable "bleeding-heart" liberal stereotype 
> because that viewpoint simply does not wash in a time of war.  She 
> succeeds in bringing attention to those issues in a more reasoned 
> way, by juxtaposing Crouch and Moody.

Indeed, we have yet to see a really extensive depiction of wizarding 
justice.  We saw what we thought was a miscarriage of justice when 
Crouch sent his son to Azkaban (turned out to be perfectly right) 
and what seemed to be justice when Bagman was released (there are 
hints from Winky that he is far more sinister than he appeared, and 
the twins' opinions notwithstanding, possibly brighter than he 
seemed as well).  We also see an episode that is common in the 
Muggle world: someone making a deal to get released, with no 
intimation that they were not completely in the wrong (Karkaroff 
naming names).  

The only other "justice" we know of is Sirius' being imprisoned 
without a trial--but it seemed that his deep-seated feelings of 
guilt for switching the Secret Keeper were as much to blame for 
this, as we never hear of him demanding a trial.  He seems to have 
gone off willingly (he's said to be laughing madly).

(original poster):
> >I don't like Moody. 
> >I really don't care for him at all. He strikes me as the 
> >sort of person who would happily strip away all of my civil 
> >liberties, given half the chance, and I consider such men a 
> >serious threat to civilized society.

I'm unclear as to how you came to this conclusion.  Are you sure 
you're not basing this on the ersatz Moody, who was really Barty Jr.?

> Even though we can argue Malfoy deserved it in this specific case, 
> we can't allow teachers to do that to students across the board.  
> But I don't think we have to classify Moody as someone 
> that "tortures" students and forget all of the good he has done 
> for the magical world.  

Again, it wasn't Moody who did this, it was Barty Crouch, Jr.  
Basing any analysis of Moody's character on GoF is specious in that 
we have no idea whether most people who knew Moody felt he was 
acting in character or whether they reckoned he was starting to get 
senile and erratic.

--Barb