Solzhenitsyn's Russia meets the Wizarding World (WAS: Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: TBAY: Screw-up!Crouches With Invisibility)

[Eileen]

No: HPFGUIDX 52244

Cindy unloaded the contents of the drawer on the
counter, and Sneaky began gleefully fussing around the
kitchen.  Eileen rose and looked out at Elkins.  "Um,
I am not too good in the kitchen, and you know I
cannot leave a good debate with Elkins about Crouch
Sr. alone, so if you do not mind..."

Her voice trails off as she edges her way to the door.


Outside, the sun is shining, and Eileen briefly
marvels at the quick change from winter to summer.
Clouds are moving in on the Bay, but they are still
far away. 

"I don't want to spoil everyone's fun," says Eileen to
herself. "But I think invisibility cloaks belong to
old families, not people with connections to the DMLE.
After all, Barty Crouch Sr. wasn't just head of the
DMLE, he was an aristocrat. And something in the way
JKR describes the Potters makes me think we're looking
at a similar background. James inherited all that
money, so he didn't have to work, says she. But I do
hate to spoil Cindy's fun..."

"Do you?" asks Elkins, eyeing her clones on the swings
with disapproval. "Because I like to spoil your fun.
What did you think of my spin on your Crouch theory?"

"Loved it," says Eileen. "The Pensieve scene is not
nearly as upsetting to me now."

Elkins shakes her head in disbelief. 

"No, listen. You remember that in my original
responses to the sections of the Crouch Novenna
dealing with this precise point, I was very...
emotionally distraught."

"Yes, I remember," says Elkins with a snicker.

"Your picture of Crouch's behaviour was so black, and
I really couldn't find anything to argue with it,
except to start weeping and protesting it couldn't be
true. Now, factor in self-protection and the picture's
a whole lot greyer."

"Not very admirable," says Elkins.

"No, not very admirable at all. I mean, we're never
going to get back to the good old pre-novenna days
when Crouch Sr. was a tough, steely, Livian tragic
hero, but this is a step up, Elkins. For me, at
least."

"Really, now, Eileen!  You can't honestly imagine that
I don't see *exactly* what you're up to here, can you?
 *You* just want to find a way to make Crouch Sr.
keeping his son under that Invisibility  Cloak for all
those years some kind of twisted ironic *punishment,*
rather than either a means of trying to break the
lad's spirit, or proof that he couldn't even stand to
*look* at that faulty mirror that was his son."

"But, Elkins," says Eileen. "Do I need to look very
hard for a way? I took it for granted that the
Invisibiity Cloak was on one level a twisted ironic
*punishment.* Even minus my little Invisibility Cloak
theory... After all, what did Barty Jr. do to the
Longbottoms? Stripped them of their identity. Removed
them from sight. Cut them off from society. I think
that Crouch Sr.'s methods are a quite conscious twist
on the fate of his son's victims."

She shudders. 

"Not that they weren't an attempt to break his son's
spirit or his refusal to look in his son's mirror. The
man had a quite a bit going on, didn't he? And you
know what, I don't like the Invisibility cloak as a
twisted ironic *punishment*. You know that I can't
stand to think about Crouch Sr.'s punishments. He had
a remarkable capacity for cruelty." She pauses for a
second. "Argghh... I hate this. I just hate this. I've
mentioned my first emotional response to Crouch Sr. on
the list many times. Sympathy. And, of course, that
response to his... charisma. But I've never really
gone into the darker side of my emotional response on
the list, have I?"

"No, you haven't."

"I have this nasty suspicion that for all my bleeding
heart tendencies, I would have been a Crouchist during
the first Voldemort years, and absolutely worshiped
the man. And believe it or not, this actually does
*not* make me feel very kindly towards him."

"I believe it.  Why would it make you feel kindly
towards him? I think it's natural to feel a bit of
resentment towards people against whose particular
charms you're vulnerable under the *best* of
circumstances, and in a case in which one feels that
this conflicts with other political principles?" [1]

"Thanks, Elkins. So about that Pensieve crowd... I do
think they liked to see Crouch's son being dragged off
by the Dementors. Do you know what it's like to break
away from that particular type of charm?"

"No, Eileen, I don't."

"It's an exhilirating experience. To stand on your own
two feet and realize that whatever De.. errr... I
mean, the hypothetical politician wants is not the
be-all and end-all. But you also feel very angry. You
want to strike back at that person for taking
advantage of you, of blinding your eyes to certain
things. That's not entirely a healthy reaction.
Certainly, our hypothetical politician charmed you
into forgetting that national policy can't the
personal perogative of dictators such as ... errr... 
Anyway, you probably wouldn't have gone that direction
by yourself, but the fact remains that you went that
direction, and other braver, more independent people
didn't. The wizarding world couldn't have felt very
good about itself. They didn't just have something to
regret in the small world of Canadian politics. They
had to regret supporting some pretty horrible things.
So, naturally, they would have turned their anger on
Crouch. They wanted him gone. Because he reminded them
of themselves. He was their faulty mirror.   I don't
think the Pensieve Croud's jeering just represents the
anger of the people who had been hurt by Crouch. I
think it represents the far greater swell of anger
from the people who had helped Crouch hurt others.
"Take him away. Shunt him aside to International
Magical Co-operation, where we'll never have to see
him again. Where we can forget what we did." 

"By the way," adds Eileen lightly. "I think that
public state of denial saved him. Really, Crouch Sr.
should have been brought to trial for what he did
during the war. And, if the public hostility towards
him had been very black-and-white, he would have. But
bringing him to trial would have meant that the
society would have had to examine its own self. Much
better to exile him to Magical Co-operation... There
was, of course, one other way to lash back at him, as
I agree they desperately wanted to." 

"Yes," said Elkins. "Off-hand, I can think of about
five marvellously slanderous and conspiratorial ways
to explain why Crouch might have wanted to torture
very popular Frank Longbottom and his wife into
insanity."

Eileen nods her head. "And that would have worked too.
If that conspiracy theory had ever taken off, the
public would have been out for Crouch's blood. Because
if Crouch could be pinned for torturing
ever-so-popular Auror Frank Longbottom, no-one would
have any qualms about pursuing that further. You can
get back at Crouch without bothering to examine the
way you approved his measures against "supporters of
the Dark Lord." I would have been scared out of my
wits the moment the Longbottom affair was traced back
to my door, invisibility cloak or no invisibility
cloak. And that's..."

"Sympathetic!" says Elkins. 

"Pitiable, anyway," says Eileen, with a rueful grin.
"What was it you said a bit back about always feeling
for the person who's fighting for their life, no
matter what they've done to get there?"

"Barty Jr. was fighting for his life in that Pensieve
scene, and I fail to see you shed a tear about it,"
says Elkins. 

"Yes, that's rather strange," says Eileen. "I have got
weepy over Crouch Jr. several times, but it's never
when reflecting on the Pensieve scene. The Pensieve
scene just doesn't move me. I always feel remarkably
cold-hearted towards Crouch Jr. there."

"Like you could have joined the jeering crowd."

"I told you I can see where that crowd was coming
from. It's only on reflection of what happened
afterwards, that I start to feel for him. Like Harry,
actually."

"One more question about the Invisibility Cloak. If
that evidence was ever a matter of public record, then
why would Sirius tell the Trio that Crouch's son might
'just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time?'
 Why would he have emphasized Crouch's son being
caught in the company of the others as the most
damning evidence against him?"

"Well..." began Eileen.

"I can only think of one explanation that fits," said
Elkins quietly.  "Crouch suppressed the evidence."  

Eileen nods, "To save himself." 

"I suppose you think that was a worthwhile objective,"
says Elkins.

Eileen

[1] From a private email.

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