[HPforGrownups] More Moody Madness

[Pen Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 36285

Leon wrote:

>Something I have never been able to work out about the whole
>GoF "Crouch is Mad Eye Moody" thing:

>Why did he help any of the kids at all? I can (barely) understand his
>helping Harry to get to the end of the TriWizard tournament so that
>he could touch the portkey and get to Voldemort (which is a huge
>stretch when there were so many other ways to do this - just take
>Harry out for icecream in Hogsmead and then portkey him there. Or
>forget the portkey. Knock him cold and carry him. Whatever.)
>ahem.

>My question though, is why Moody worked with Harry so many times on
>the curses, why he worked with Harry until it was nearly guarenteed
>that he'd be able to resist Voldemort?

I find that a bit puzzling, too.  Perhaps Moody was initially hoping Harry
would be susceptible to the Imperius curse, and worked on him to find his
limits.

>And why did he give Neville those books, inspiring the kid to work
>harder to excel. Why not laugh at the feeble spawn of the parents he
>had killed, and leave Neville to wallow another year?

The exotic herbology book was specifically 'planted' with Neville because
it contained information on gillyweed, which Moody/Crouch knew Harry would
need for the second task.  He assumed Harry would ask everyone for help,
and that Neville would remember the gillyweed and tell him about it.  He's
actually using Neville's vulnerability as a way to get information to Harry
without it being obvious that he's helping Harry.

It seems to me there are some subtle opportunities for Moody/Crouch to
indulge in a little light sadism with his pupils.  F'rinstance, he
recognises Neville as the child of two people who were driven mad by the
Cruciatus curse.  So he enlarges the spider and keeps it under the curse,
and Neville is deeply affected by the sight.   He applies the Imperius
curse to Harry, who ends up hobbling out of the lesson because he has
banged his legs against the desk so many times while trying to resist it.
(One M/C knew that Harry could resist, he could have commanded him to bark
like a dog, or something of the kind, which it would not have *hurt* Harry
to resist.)   Later, he leaves Harry with his leg painfully stuck in the
staircase while he asks questions, and only releases him when Harry pleads.

The Malfoy ferret incident also fits in with this.  From Harry's POV, which
is what we get in the books, it marks Moody as a good guy, but it's a
pretty traumatising thing to do to a student.  Moody/Crouch is indulging
himself with nasty games at the expense of the son of one of the Death
Eaters who walked free.

All this stuff *could* be excused because Moody is just not a very
sensitive type, if Moody is a good guy.  But as Moody turns out to be
Moody/Crouch, I see these incidents as Crouch allowing himself to be nasty
to the students without any comeback.

>It seems totally out of character for Crouch, even mascarading as
>Moody. All Crouch needed was to be mediocre - teach the course book,
>don't cover extras, keep a low profile. Befriend Harry along the way
>only as much as it would help keep him in the game.

I think Moody is such an obviously flamboyant character that any attempt to
be ordinary would have Dumbledore's suspicions aroused instantly.  And if
Moody/Crouch were to be discovered early on, there would be no chance for
him to get Harry Potter to his Master.

Pen