Should Saw It?

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 38782

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Chelsea2162 at a... wrote:
> When allwas revealed in the end of GoF, everyone that I know who's 
> read the story seemed competely taken by surprise that Moody was 
> really Crouch...however, thee are alotta points that seemed to stick 
> out, and I'm rather surprised that it took so long for anyone to  
> catch on - first of all,though however amusing, what Crouch/Moody did 
> to Draco was completely uncalled for, and was really a horrible to 
> thing to - granted Draco was attempting to curse Harry at the time, 
> but what real teacher would actually turn a student into a ferret and 
> BOUNCE them on the hard stone floors? Yeesh! McGonagall should've 
> realized then that although Moody was a tad (alright, a but more than 
> a tad) paranoid, and he acted first and thought later, but honestly,
> he was BOUNCING a student! He was causing a student to repeatedly 
> slam into a stone floor! As soon as I read that, i knew that 
> something was up. Also, Crouch/Moody knew exactly what had happened 
> with the Goblet...true, some people may say that the other teachers 
> just figured he was taking an educated guess, and thinking along the 
> lines of the "bad guys" but he actually SAID the EXACT thing that he 
> had done in order to trick the Goblet! Anyone have any thoughts? Or 
> notice anything amiss?
>
> *Chelsea*

It's true that, in retrospect, many things that you take for granted 
suddenly take a new dimmension and start to stick out. Your question, 
however, is whether those things were self-evident at the beggining. 
Well, maybe for you it was, but for most of the readers (and specially 
me), those things looked so very in-character that, if Real!Moody ever 
appeared, I'd hope he'd do the self-same things.

You mention the ferret transformation as something no teacher would do. 
True enough, but remember: Moody is not a teacher. He's the equivalent 
to a marine of the USA or a special forces agent who's overcome 
everything he has faced with a combination of cunning, brute strength, 
ability and God knows what else. He is presented as a genius and, as 
many geniuses, on the brink of insanity. 

He's the best the MoM could get in the Reign of Terror, and he was 
extremelly efficient (filled half of Azkaban on his own). Since he was 
facing people who could kill him by muttering two words (AK), he 
couldn't have had time to think: he had to act, *always*, in the blink 
of an eye. What's more, after 40+ years of fighting DEs, he must know 
all tricks of the trade, all the possible ways of cursing, conjuring, 
etc, and al the ways of bending the rules of reality. Thus, when he 
"speculates" over how someone did something (especially if "someone" is 
a Dark Wizard), he's probably more often than not correct. 

There is no more obvious example of Darwin's natural selection rules 
than wars: people who survive tend to continue to survive because they 
get to know what they face and how to evade death. Moody is a survivor, 
a veteran, at the top with the very best and probably second to none in 
his trade: wars.

In conclusion, everything False!Moody does in GoF is, as I see it, 
reflection of what Real!Moody would have done. Maybe not with all the 
double-edged comments, but definetely with the same ruthless 
determination and efficiency.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who's having a horrible week and cannot follow the list, so 
he's just reading posts with interesting titles.