TBAY: Barty Jr., Consummate Screw-Up

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52259

In an abrupt break from narrative continuity. . . .


"Didn't you say last night Elkins that you always like it much better
when it turns out that people screwed up big time than you do when it
turns out that they were actually being very clever and getting things
right all along?" Melody asked.

Elkins looked up, smiled, and nodded.

"Doesn't Barty Jr. fit that clever bill rather nicely though?"


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Well, he is clever (and I do realize that that's a big part of why 
you like him so much, Melody), but I also see him as rather striking 
for the extent to which he screws things up (which is a large part of 
why *I* like him so much).  He's not really much of a criminal genius 
at all, if you ask me.  He doesn't really get a whole lot of things 
right.  I mean, let's take a look at his nasty, brutish and short 
life, shall we?  

First off, he became a Death Eater.  That's screwing up right there, 
I'd say, especially when you consider that he had all the practical
advantages: wealthy and influential parents, good connections, 
academic talent, blandly inoffensive looks.  Entering into compacts 
with Dark Wizards is always screwing up, if you ask me, but in 
Barty's case, you can't even explain it on pragmatic grounds: unlike 
the giants, for example, who may have had very good cause for 
supporting an insurrectionist agenda, Barty was well-positioned to 
benefit from the status quo. 

Second, assuming that the Death Eaters didn't take minors or 
schoolboys, he probably accepted the Dark Mark only a matter of 
months before Voldemort went down.  If that.  (Myself, I always like 
to imagine that it was only a matter of days, but that's just because 
I'm seriously Bent.)  Assuming that he left school in June of 1981 
(for the reasoning behind this timeline, see posts 39828, 47294), he 
would have become a Death Eater around four months before the event 
at Godric's Hollow at the *most.*  I rather suspect that it was even 
less time than that, as I imagine that given whose son he was, he 
would have been very carefully vetted before being ushered into the 
inner circle.  So we're looking at the most *appalling* timing here.  
Seriously Bad Timing.

Nonetheless, he did avoid getting exposed as a Death Eater after 
Voldemort's fall.  Lucky devil!  So what did he do?  Did he keep his 
head down and just try to get on with his life?  No, no.  Of course 
not!  That would have been *sensible.*  No, instead he started 
hanging with the crazed *fanatics.*  Naturally.  And then he got 
himself arrested.  Invisibility Cloak Left Behind At Scene Of Crime?  
Wrong place at the wrong time?  Actually innocent, and framed by one 
of his father's political enemies?  Under the Imperius Curse (dig 
that theory, btw, Eric!)?

Well, there's no way to know for sure.  But no matter how you spin 
this, I'd say that it qualifies as a Bad Mistake.

He didn't have the requisite fanaticism to stand up to the 
dementors.  The Woman Assumed To Be Lestrange wasn't on *her* death 
bed after a year of replaying her worst memories.  I think that her 
fanaticism probably helped to sustain her, just as Sirius' knowledge 
of his own innocence did.  So in Barty, we're looking at someone who 
*wanted* to be a fanatic, but who wasn't even really very *good* at 
it, when push came to shove.  Sad, sad, sad.

Once again, though, he has the luck of the devil.  His parents rescue
him from prison.  Choice opportunity for him, yes?  He could have 
started a new life, perhaps.  Or, he could have feigned gratitude and 
compliance long enough to put his father off his guard, and then run 
off to try to bring back Voldemort.  Either one of those two actions 
would at least have shown a bit of competence.  But instead, what 
does he do?  He actually lets his father *know* that he's all set to 
run off and find Voldemort -- and he gets himself Imperio'd for all 
his pains.  Pathetic.

After a decade of slavery, he starts managing to resist the Imperius
from time to time.  He succeeds in keeping it a secret from Winky.
So far, so good.  So what does he do at the QWC?  He kicks that
Imperius, and he's outdoors, there's a crowd, there's already the 
distraction of the little DE parade going on...I mean, we're talking 
chance of a *lifetime* here.  So how does he exploit it?  Does he
seize this opportunity to make his great escape?  Take advantage of
the situation to try to break free of Winky, and then flee into 
hiding?  

Err...no.  No, see, instead what he decides to do is to shoot the 
Dark Mark into the sky, thus alerting everyone to his precise 
location.  Yes, so clever is our Barty that within *minutes* of 
casting his Morsmordre, he's been triangulated upon by a bunch of 
Ministry guys and stunned into unconsciousness.  He only avoids going 
right back to prison because his father covers for him.  And then he 
winds up right back where he started: under the Imperius Curse, and 
his father's prisoner.  I mean, really now!  This is hardly a 
criminal mastermind we're looking at, is it? He can't even cast a 
single spell without getting caught!  He's perfectly hopeless!

He can't throw off the Imperius a second time.  He needs to be 
rescued by Voldemort.  And then we get to the Cunning Plan -- which
isn't even *his.*

Okay.  First, he and Wormtail botch their abduction of Moody badly 
enough that there's a commotion.  They only get away with it by the 
skin of their teeth.  

Then, his mission to ensure that Harry wins that Tournament is 
constantly on the brink of doom.  Barty's skating on thin ice 
throughout the entire novel, really.  He needs to resort to a 
rather desperate 'Plan B' to get Harry through the Second Task, 
and even then, he only succeeds through the dumbest of luck.  
Harry very nearly *sleeps* through the thing, for heaven's sake!  

He nearly gives himself away with Bouncing Ferret.  He nearly gets 
caught out by the Marauder's Map.  He nearly gets caught killing 
his father.  He plays his part a bit too well by teaching Harry to 
resist the Imperius Curse.  In fact, Eileen has argued, and I think 
that I'm forced to agree, that his behavior as "Moody" is in some
ways utterly *reckless.*  He shows off, he seeks out old companions,
he gives other people clues to his real motives.  He is not careful.

And that Third Task was also an awfully close shave, wasn't it?  In 
spite of all of his efforts, in spite of taking Fleur out of the 
running, in spite of that breathtakingly *vicious* "Imperio Krum 
Into Crucio'ing Cedric" ploy, Cedric *still* comes thiiiiiiiis  close 
to taking the trophy.  And wouldn't *that* just have pleased 
Voldemort no end!

And finally, there's the End Game.  Ah, the End Game.  He breaks his 
masquerade by dragging Harry out of Dumbledore's sight.  Then he 
takes Harry...where?  Why, to his *office,* of course!  The very 
first place that Dumbledore is likely to go looking for him.  He is 
so consumed with explaining how terribly cunning he's been that he 
not only fails to look into his Foe Glass; he also somehow fails to 
notice that his would-be victim keeps *stealing* glances at said Foe 
Glass.  He can't even manage to kill a helpless, traumatized, unarmed 
fourteeen-year-old boy.  Not even after drugging him first!  Instead, 
he degenerates into bwah-hah-hah Villain Mania and then gets himself, 
in rapid succession, stunned, spurned, exposed, veritaserum'd, 
interrogated, bound, and Dementor Kissed.

Yes, he is clever, in his way.  He has a quick wit and an agile mind, 
and he's just killer with all of those sly double-edged comments.  
He's also one heck of an actor.  But at the same time, I can't really 
say that I view him as all that *competent.*  In fact, he strikes me 
as rather notably self-sabotaging.  It seems to me that whenever he's 
in danger of actually getting away with something, he finds some way 
to shoot himself in the foot.  To me, he comes across very strongly 
as someone who on some deep and fundamental level really doesn't 
*want* to succeed.  

In short, he's a screw-up.


Elkins