The Kissing of Barty Crouch (was: Fudge and the Longbottoms)

[i_am_erasmas]

No: HPFGUIDX 40993


I think the kiss on Barty Jr. is another clue about what is special 
about Harry. The kiss attempt in PoA shows that the dementors are 
under limitted control by their own goals, by Voldemort, or by his 
other agents. They accept their mandate as azkaban guards as long as 
their instructions from the ministry do not directly oppose their own 
mission. In the case of Crouch Jr. I'm thinking they either:

i) automatically kiss any time they catch someone that's escaped from 
azkeban (In which case they would have kissed Sirius with or without 
MoM permission), or 
ii) were acting according to their own motives, seeing Crouch Jr. 
either as a threat to their soul food supply or as a dangerous source 
of information that they don't want to get out if he were to be 
interrogated, or
iii) they communicate directly or indirectly to voldemort or his 
agents, and were under orders to ensure that dark force information 
officers are not captured with souls intact. 

Whether Fudge is one of those agents is another question. To me it's 
plausible but I have a feeling that the function of Fudge in the 
story is similar to Lockhart; Fudge is an caricature of a character 
flaw prevalent in both wizard and muggle society. 

Their behavior around harry in PoA is another indication that 
dementors have their own goals when it comes to Potter. I'm sure 
others have talked about how Harry was their direct target in each of 
his encounters with dementors. They targetted him on the train (and 
had to be dispersed by Lupin's Patronus), they targetted him in the 
quiddich match (before he fell he saw them all gathered and focussing 
on him, rather than the crowd where they probably would have had a 
much more satisfying though feast, and of course the attempted kiss 
by the lake. 

I've noticed that non-human magic creatures all have their own 
special treatment for Harry. House-elves and centaurs come to mind. 
It could be that the non humans reveal Harry's special position more 
often than humans because they don't understand that it is important 
that Harry not be told of his importance in the same way that other 
wizards understand. 

What I'm trying to say (rather awkwardly) is that I think Harry's 
interaction with dementors, house-elves, etc. is directly related to 
the reason that Voldemort wanted him dead in the first place. Most 
witches and wizards seem to just accept Harry as the famous "boy who 
lived", but some (Dumbledore, Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Weasly, 
Lupin ... ) have so far kept his special powers to themselves. When 
Rowling hints that Harry will ask questions in book 5 that will make 
us wonder why he hasn't asked them before, the obvious ones centre on 
what his parents role was before they died. 

Having survived the graveyard incident it's also going to be 
difficult to justify holding back other information (the question 
Dumbledore said he couldn't answer yet at the end of PS). Having 
taken on the responsibilities of a direct fighter against the dark 
forces, he now needs to know the details about how he fits in the 
conflict. My *theory* is that Harry has special powers that have the 
potential to unite non human magical creatures in the fight against 
the dark forces. 

I think "Dobby's Warning" has a lot more to it than the concern for 
elf welfare in the event that Voldemort returns to power. Were house 
elves really treated much differently when Voldemort was in power? It 
doesn't fit with what we've seen, nasty masters are free to be nasty 
with or without Voldemort in power. I think the real problem is that 
Voldemort's rise presented a basic moral dilema to the house-elves: 
they were tempted to unleash their extraordinary powers to put 
Voldemort down -- powers that are so ummm powerful that they 
submitted to enslavement hundreds of years ago to keep them leashed. 
(Yes I subscribe to the theory that house-elves are the nukes of the 
wizarding world).

Yeah Harry may be the heir of Griffindor, and Dumbledore may be 
harbouring him from that discovery and the responsibilities that it 
entails, but I think that there's something more. Whatever the power 
this may have given James (or Lily) is may be sufficient motive for 
Voldemort to hunt and kill Harry's parents, but I think Harry's death 
was more crucial to Voldemort. I don't think Voldemort fully 
understands Harry's position (Tom Riddle didn't seem to understand) 
but he will soon.

Erasmas