speculation on the Plot Hole

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 38421

My friend wrote:
> There's been some discussion on rec.music.filk as to whether
> Quidditch might have been sparked by 43-man Squamish
> (see http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/squamish1.html).

***
On to the real topic!

BBC Newsround's Interview with JKR about GoF is available at
http://www.geocities.com/aberforths_goat/Fall_2000_BBC_Newsround.htm
Here is a piece of it:

M:  Last time we spoke you said there'd be a Weasley cousin. It didn't
appear. You've deceived me!

JKR: It got pulled. Sorry about that. What happened on Book Four, and
one of the reasons why it was easily the most difficult to write, which
had absolutely nothing to do with Harry being famous or me being famous,
was that for the first time my plan fell down. I got
halfway through and realised there was a huge gaping plot hole. The two
ends just didn't meet. It was entirely my own fault: I should have had
the sense to go through it very carefully before I started writing. So I
had to do an enormous amount of unpicking and in the process I'm afraid
the Weasley cousin disappeared. 

M:  Will we see her again?

JKR: Possibly. I really like her as a character but it's quite a complex
plot I'm dealing with so I'm not sure that she'll fit anywhere else.
She'll be the "character that might have been."  

Another JKR interview is at
http://www.ew.com/ew/daily/0,2514,3590,00.html and says:

JKR: The first three books, my plan never failed me. But I should have
put that plot under a microscope. I wrote what I thought was half the
book, and ''Ack!'' Huge gaping hole in the middle of the plot. I missed
my deadline by two months. And the whole profile of the books got so
much higher since the third book; there was an edge of external
pressure.

Q: And what exactly was that gaping hole all about? 

JKR: I had to pull a character. There you go: ''the phantom character of
'Harry Potter.''' She was a Weasley cousin [related to Ron Weasley,
Harry's best friend]. She served the same
function that Rita Skeeter [a sleazy investigative journalist] now
serves. Rita was always going to be in the book, but I built her up,
because I needed a kind of conduit for     information outside the
school. Originally, this girl fulfilled this purpose. 

***

I keep wondering what the original plot was supposed to be, and what was
the problem with it. 

Here is a possible clue: There has been speculation on our list that
this Plot Hole was somehow connected with Voldemort's statements "come,
Wormtail, one more obstacle removed and our path to Harry Potter is
clear" on p.15 and "One more curse" on p.16. Some people indicated that
they had an edition with "one more murder and our path to Harry Potter
is clear" altho' that is not on Steve's Lexicon's list of UK/US
differences.

So it has been speculated that the original intention was that Moody
would be murdered rather than captured by the attack on his home and the
plot hole was how could Barty Jr have a year-long supply of Moody-hair
for his Polyjuice? 

I'm not actually sure that the hair for Polyjuice has to be from a
person who is alive at the time the Polyjuice is used; for all I know,
Barty could have harvested Moody's hair right before killing him and
then used that hair all year. Even if the hair is SUPPOSED to be from a
living person, that wouldn't be a worse error than Remus turning wolf
when hit by a moonbeam! Anyway, keeping Real Moody alive wouldn't
require changing the middle of the plot, only adding that bit at the end
where the real Moody is found unconscious and captive in Barty-boy's
luggage, not any other change to the plot. Also, if the real word was
'obstacle' rather than 'murder', at that point there were TWO obstacles
to be removed: Real Moody and Barty Sr. At that point, Barty Jr hadn't
escaped at the QWC.

So maybe the 'one obstacle' was Barty Sr. Maybe Moody wasn't supposed to
be interfered with at all, and Voldemort and Wormtail were going to
murder Barty Sr in order to free Barty Jr and then Barty Jr was going to
impersonate Barty Sr. Then Barty could use his Department of
International Magical Co-operation role in the Triwizard Tournament to
make sure that Harry was selected, that Harry won, and that Harry was
Portkeyed as Voldemort had planned. Crouch was only going to be at
Hogwarts for the Selection of the Champions and then for each of the
Three Tasks, which would explain why the bad guys didn't Portkey Harry
sometime BEFORE the Third Task and June. (Also, if Moody had been Real
Moody, that would explain why he so carefully taught Harry to resist
Imperius.)

And it would also explain why a Weasley cousin would be used for
conveying information. People always say that the Weasley cousin was
named Icicle and call her 'evil', but I can't find anyplace where JKR
says she was evil; in this speculation she is innocent. Suppose at the
Quidditch World Cup, Arthur introduces his kids to 'your cousin Icicle
from Canada, she goes to school at Beauxbatons' and Percy (who was shown
to not be getting along well with any of his siblings at that point)
somehow got along well with her. 

She might write letters to Percy, and address them to him at work
because his family would tease him unmercifully about getting letters
from a girl at home; she might come to Hogwarts with the Beauxbatons
delegation and thus be positioned to pass on information about Harry.
Crouch could sneakily read the letters that his assistant Percy left in
the office, or could encourage Percy to talk about the letters by
pretending a mild fatherly interest.

The 'plot hole' MIGHT have been that Icicle was a one-way conduit of
information. Barty couldn't very well tell Percy to tell Icicle to tell
Harry to use his Firebolt for the First Task (well, JKR could have made
Sirius think of it) or to use Gillyweed for the Second Task (but JKR
could have made Dobby know about Gillyweed on his own), and especially
couldn't tell Percy to tell Icicle to tell CEDRIC (or even Harry) to
take the golden egg into the bath. (Btw, how did KRUM solve the golden
egg, when neither Fake Moody nor Cedric TOLD him?)

Or maybe that Icicle was unable to discover some information that JKR
needed for Barty Boy to have. I don't know what information that would
be, tho'. 

So she decided to have Barty present at Hogwarts for the whole story,
which she could do by having him impersonate Moody instead of Crouch Sr.
Then she had to go back to add the violent dustbins episode and go
through all the Moody scenes adding clues to him being an imposter, and
then there was no need for Icicle as Barty-Moody could collect his own
information. However, there was all of a sudden a need to Imperius
Crouch Sr to behave in a way to reduce suspicion at Hogwarts and at the
office. Thus making Percy more of a gullible idiot -- Crouch Jr was a
good actor and very familiar with Crouch Sr and it wouldn't take an
idiot to be fooled by that impersonation, but Imperius'ed Sr acted weird
and then made implausible excuses for a long absence...
 
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