Moody was really Crouch, Jr.

[ftah3]

No: HPFGUIDX 34011

blpurdom wrote:
> 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.

I completely agree with this statement.  The only time there is a 
comment on an inconsistency between Moody/Crouch v. Real Moody is at 
the end of GoF, when Dumbledore says that he knew the man wasn't the 
real thing because the Real Moody would never have spirited Harry 
away from Dumbledore's protection in such a perilous situation.  In 
fact, all that we know which can be directly related to the Real 
Moody is:

- from the beginning of GoF, when we discover through the Weasley's 
that Moody was a great auror who has become extremely paranoid and 
eccentric, and it's nothing of a suprise to hear that Moody heard a 
noise outside of his house and ran out and started hexing trash cans

- from the Pensieve, which, as has been pointed out, showed Moody and 
others in a very intense war-time courtroom situation.  He's 
described as being reluctant to use excessive force/kill; he's not 
above making harsh off-hand statements about breaking a prisoner's 
trust, which could be interpreted as sincere, or as a hard-ass-law-
enforcement guy mouthing off.

- from Dumbledore's statement as to what tipped him off to the fake 
Moody, i.e. that the Real Moody, regardless (it is implied) of 
eccentricity or paranoia, would never remove Harry from Dumbledore's 
protection in that situation.

Attempting to base any other explication of the Real Moody's 
character on the actions of Fake Moody/others' reactions to Fake 
Moody's actions is, imho, fairly useless.  At least, I don't think 
that any conclusions could be said to even approach a high level of 
likelihood.  The reason for this is that we never, until the end of 
GoF, get a perspective on Moody from the only person who seems to 
have a fairly realistic understanding of Moody, i.e. Dumbledore.  
Everyone else is very much caught up by Moody's reputation, either as 
a present-day crackpot or as a past great auror, or even as a 
combination of both.  

For example, to say that since Moody/Crouch wasn't canned for 
excessively humiliating Draco Malfoy, this must mean that Dumbledore 
accepts that it is part of Real Moody's character to go 
about 'torturing' anyone who annoys him severely enough is only *one* 
possible explanation.  

Another explanation is that Dumbledore accepts that while Real Moody 
is still highly intelligent, insightful, and generally responsible, 
Real Moody *has* reached a level of eccentricity wherein one such 
instance of inappropriate use of magic to punish a student isn't 
surprising.  Notice that Moody/Crouch doesn't do it again ~ could be 
that we weren't allowed to see the scene in which Dumbledore firmly, 
though maybe somewhat sympathetically, dresses down Moody/Crouch, 
telling him that he understands that Moody has a certain history, but 
that some things are in fact inappropriate and cannot be tolerated at 
Hogwarts.  This second explanation does not indicate that Moody is a 
fascist pig with no respect for human decency, or even a wizard world 
parody of the 'bad cop.'  Rather, it would indicate that Moody has 
lived through a lot, has some lately developed behavioral 
eccentricities, but is agreeable to changing his ways simply at a 
word from Dumbledore.

Even when it comes to the text references which apply directly to 
Real Moody, the possible interpretations are numerous.  But trying to 
interpret text references which apply to Real Moody via the actions 
of Moody/Crouch is an even *more* labyrinthine undertaking, and in my 
humble opinion quite nearly a moot point.

Talking too much as usual thanks to an obsessive need to point out 
the three billion other possible ways to interpret any given piece of 
literary text but shutting up now,
Mahoney