TBAY: Fourth Man Takes A Dive

[Cindy C. <cindysphynx@comcast.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50198

Cindy picked her way along the deserted strand of beach, dodging 
bits of seaweed that had washed ashore and clutching her cap against 
the blasts of wind.  She could feel the sandy grit between her teeth 
as she squinted into the sun.  Most of the other captains busied 
themselves shoring up their theories for the approaching storm --  
mending sails, varnishing decks, polishing canons.  As the Big Bang 
Destroyer was already Hurricane proof -– the only such vessel on the 
Bay, in fact –- Cindy tended to spend her afternoons patrolling the 
beach, offering unsolicited advice to captains of more vulnerable 
vessels.  

She veered to the south and after a short while was relieved to find 
herself in an isolated cove sheltered from the howling 
winds.  "Welcome to Ambush Cove!" read a battered signpost.  Cindy 
leaned closer and squinted at the peeling black letters.

"Beware sharp rocks!"

"No lifeguard!"

"Wicked undertow!"

"Jellyfish hazard!"

"Have a nice day!" 

Cindy stopped suddenly in her tracks, her mouth slightly open.  
There, flipped over onto its side in the sand lay the once-mighty 
Fourth Man hovercraft, which hadn't been glimpsed in the Bay in 
months!  Tethered to it was an expanse of blue tarp, which stretched 
across the beach to form a makeshift lean-to.  The tarp flapped 
violently, threatening to catapult the heavy rocks that anchored it 
to the beach.

*Squatters!*  Cindy thought.   How many times have I told Elkins 
that she needs to take care of her vessel?  You leave a high-quality 
vessel like this out here unattended, and someone will hijack it 
*every* time, she muttered to herself.  

Cindy armed herself with a long, gnarled stick and, tip-toeing 
carefully, sneaked up to the tarp and jammed the stick inside, 
swinging wildly.  "All right, you squatters!" she yelled, "Get outta 
that hovercraft before  -—"

"*OUCH!*  Hey!  Knock it off!"

"Who -- " Cindy stammered, peering around the edge of the tarp and 
dropping her stick in shock and disbelief.  "Elkins, is that *you*?"

"Of *course,* it's me," Elkins snapped.  "Who on earth were you 
expecting?"

"I . . . you -– you're *living* in the hovercraft?"  Cindy's eyes 
took in a worn sleeping bag, two lanterns, a tottering stack of 
empty C.R.A.B.C.U.S.TA.R.D. cups and a soggy pile of dictionaries.  

"I most certainly am.  You got a problem with that?"

"Elkins," Cindy said urgently, "you'll never survive Hurricane Jo in 
this place!"  She struggled to pull Elkins to her feet.  "Come with 
me.  You can't live here.  Let me set you up on the Big Bang.  We 
have a brand new Shipping wing where you can try —-"

"I'm not doing any Shipping," Elkins spat.  "I like it right here on 
Fourth Man.  Why should I leave?  Give me one good reason why I 
should leave?"

"Elkins, you don't even have electricity!  You can't live without 
electricity."

"Electricity is overrated," Elkins countered.  She stopped suddenly, 
her eyes wide.  "Oh, goodness!  Where are my manners?  I should 
offer you something to drink.  Let's see.  I'm fresh out of Kool-
Aid –-"

"Really, I don't need –-"

"—- but I can offer you some water.  I fetched it from that ditch 
over there.  I boiled it myself," Elkins said, beaming with pride.

"Er . . . ."  Cindy faltered, trying to think of a polite 
response.  "Tell you what.  I'll buy you a drink over at George's 
place.  You remember George, don't you?"

Elkins' eyes narrowed to slits, and she nodded curtly.  "Oh, I 
remember that -– yes, I know him."

"Great!  Let's get going, and I'll catch you up on the way.  Don't 
worry," Cindy said, glancing around at the piles of odds and ends 
Elkins had collected, "I don't think anyone will make off with your, 
uh, furnishings while we're gone."

Elkins followed Cindy out of the Cove, and they leaned into the wind 
as they trudged over the ridge toward town.

"Elkins," Cindy said after a few minutes, "there is a very good 
reason why you need to abandon the hovercraft.  I hate to be the 
bearer of bad news, but I've found some canon that renders Fourth 
Man unseaworthy.  And you do not want to be in a vessel like that 
with Hurricane Jo on its way."

"There is nothing wrong with Fourth Man," Elkins said defensively.

"Mmmm," Cindy murmured.  This was not going to be easy.  Elkins had 
never been one to convert to a new theory without a fight.  In fact, 
Elkins had never been one to convert to a new theory *at all.*

"All right.  Let's review Fourth Man.  The whole idea is that Avery 
is the Fourth Man in the Pensieve in GoF, right?   If I'm 
remembering the theory properly –- and do correct me if I have it 
wrong -– there are several reasons for this."  Cindy held up her 
hand and began to tick off the points with her fingers.

"First, you think it is curious that Avery has a name and not a 
face, and the fourth man in the Pensieve has a face and not a name.

"Second,  the text seems to go out of its way to draw the reader's 
attention to Avery, he alone of the Death Eaters has no other 
connection to the plot: the details of his past crimes are left 
unspecified, he has no known children at Hogwarts, the reader has 
never even heard his name mentioned before GoF. 

"Third, in Avery's one canonical appearance, Avery is not only 
masked, but also goes completely physically undescribed; even his 
normal speaking voice is obscured. Avery has a name, but neither a 
face nor a role; the Fourth Man has both a face and a role, but no 
name." 

"So JKR is setting up Avery as a Supremely Evil if SYCOPHANTish 
Death Eater!  Ergo 'Fourth Man,'" Elkins finished proudly.  "Right.  
You've got it.  Not only that, it is clear that Avery will be the 
cornerstone for most of the major plot developments in --"

"Whoa! Whoa!  Not so fast," Cindy said.  "Let's start from the 
beginning.  Who are all of the known characters who could possibly 
be Fourth Man."

"Well," Elkins said thoughtfully.  "There really aren't all that 
many people who would qualify.  I mean, we know Fourth Man is a DE, 
and that narrows it down quite a lot.  So the list of suspects -– 
that is, other than Crouch Jr. and Mrs. and Mr. Lestrange -– are 
Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Avery, MacNair, Rookwood, Wormtail, 
Dolohov, Rosier, Wilkes, Karkaroff, Mulciber, Nott and Travers."  
She shot Cindy a sharp look.  "Hey, that's a pretty long list, isn't 
it?  How are we going to narrow things down when half of those 
characters don't even have *dialogue*?"

"We use the process of elimination, that's how," Cindy assured her, 
walking more briskly now as George's Tavern came into view.  "First, 
we know that Harry sees Fourth Man's face in the Pensieve, but he 
doesn't identify him to the reader or appear to recognize him.  That 
suggests that Fourth Man is not someone Harry already knows from the 
first three books or anything that happened in GoF before that 
point."

"That makes sense," Elkins said, nodding.  "OK, then.  That rules 
out Malfoy, Wormtail, MacNair, and Karkaroff.  But that still leaves 
a lot of possibilities," Elkins said doubtfully, her brow knitted.

"Right.  But we can rule out a few others.  We know that the 
Pensieve Four received a life sentence, so anyone who is walking 
around free can't be one of the Pensieve Four.  That means anyone 
who apparated to the graveyard is out –- unless we are specifically 
told that the DE was pardoned or escaped or something."

"So that takes care of Nott, Crabbe and Goyle," Elkins 
agreed.  "That leaves Avery, Rookwood, Dolohov, Rosier, Wilkes, 
Mulciber, and Travers.  That's still a pretty big group.  We haven't 
made much progress with this approach."

"Oh, but we have!" Cindy cried.  "We know Rosier and Wilkes were 
killed by aurors, so they're out.  So we're down to Avery, Rookwood, 
Dolohov, Mulciber, and Travers."

"It *has* to be Avery then," Elkins declared.  "Sirius says Crouch 
Jr. was caught with a group of DEs 'who'd managed to talk their way 
out of Azkaban.'  We know Avery 'wormed his way out of trouble by 
saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse,' so I figure --"

"No, see, that's a real problem," Cindy broke in.  "It doesn't add 
up.  This has always bothered me about Avery as Fourth Man.  I mean, 
if he talked his way out of Azkaban once claiming he was under the 
Imperius Curse and then attacked the Longbottoms, how on earth can 
he claim he acted under Imperius a second time?  That's your 'Double 
Worm Theory' from Message 35,187 that Avery wormed his way out of 
trouble not just once but *twice* in the space of a few months, 
using the Imperius Curse defense both times.  

"Just how gullible is Crouch Sr. supposed to be, anyway?  Crouch Sr. 
is *way* too smart to release Avery a second time like that.  No, it 
just plain doesn't work."

"Well," Elkins folded her arms across her chest.  "None of the other 
suspects works any better, you know."

"Oh, there are some possibilities."  Cindy pulled hard on the 
ancient oak door to George's Tavern and was greeted with a blast of 
heated air as she and Elkins entered.  There were a couple of 
Shippers huddled at a table in the corner, but otherwise, the place 
was deserted.  

"You?" George said, glancing nervously at Elkins.  "And *YOU*!" he 
cried, turning his attention toward Cindy.  "Oh, this is *not* going 
to be a good night, is it?"

"Take it easy, George," Cindy assured him.  "We'll behave.  I 
promise.  No vandalism, no violence, nothing broken.  Scout's 
honor!" she said brightly, raising three fingers into the air.
 
George heaved a labored sigh and, with a pained expression, began 
putting the better glassware under the counter for 
safekeeping.  "What'll it be, then?"

Elkins considered.  "I'll have a Tidal Wave," she said after a 
moment.  

"Equal parts of 151 Rum, Captain Morgan and Vodka with just a splash 
of Sour Mix and Cranberry Juice," George recited in a lifeless 
tone.  "Shall we make it two?"

"Uh, I guess," Cindy said doubtfully, perching on her stool and 
gesturing Elkins to do the same.  

"OK, where were we?" Cindy asked as George produced two frothy, pink 
drinks.  "Oh, yeah.  Avery, Rookwood, Dolohov, Mulciber, and Travers 
are left."

Elkins took a sizable gulp of her drink, shuddered slightly, and 
fixed her gaze on Cindy.  "So how are we supposed to figure out who 
makes the best Fourth Man?" 

"Well," Cindy began.  "We have to think about how Voldemort uses his 
DEs.  We don't know much about this, I admit.  But we know enough.

"First of all, it is common for readers to say that Voldemort is 
stupid.  And like all the Evil Overlords ever written, Voldemort 
does make his share of mistakes.  But he does a lot of things right, 
too.  After all, he outsmarted Dumbledore completely in GoF, and he 
went from vapor to slimy baby without much help at all.  Although he 
got the short end of the stick in the graveyard, he has his body 
back and is as powerful as ever, poised to take over the world.  

"We know Voldemort does smart things like make sure none of his DEs 
know the identities of all of his other DEs.  Another smart thing 
Voldemort does is have his DEs specialize.  As we all know, it is 
efficient to have your underlings learn to do one thing and do it 
well.  This is canonical – look at Mulciber:  'he specialized in the 
Imperius Curse, forced countless people to do horrific things!'"

"Yeah, but Mulciber is the only DE who has a specialty," Elkins 
observed.

"I'm not so sure about that.  Let's take a look at Wormtail.  Does 
he have a specialty?  Well, there are three Unforgivable Curses.  
How many have we seen Wormtail use?"

"He killed Cedric with Avada Kedavra."

"That he did, that he did," Cindy nodded cheerfully.  "He also blew 
up the street and killed all those muggles.  

"On the other hand, have we ever seen Wormtail use the Imperius 
Curse or the Cruciatus Curse?  No, we have not.  He didn't use 
Imperius on Bertha Jorkins, and if there were ever a time for the 
Imperius Curse, that was it.  But no.  Instead, according to 
Voldemort, Wormtail "display[ed] a presence of mind I would never 
have expected from him . . . convinced Bertha Jorkins to accompany 
him on a nighttime stroll.  He overpowered her."

"That doesn't sound like Imperius," George said quietly.

"No, it doesn't, does it?" Cindy agreed.  "In fact, we know that 
Wormtail wasn't able to keep Crouch Sr. under the Imperius Curse.  
Crouch Jr. tells us that 'Wormtail neglected his duty.  He was not 
watchful enough.'  Keeping Crouch Sr. under Imperius was a job way 
too big for Wormtail, that was the problem.  As a matter of fact, 
we've never seen Wormtail hurl the Cruciatus Curse, either.  Canon 
is explicit that Voldemort, not Wormtail, tortured Bertha Jorkins.  
And the reason we don't see Wormtail perform Imperius or Cruciatus 
is that Wormtail is a *Killing Machine* –- an Avada Kedavra 
specialist if I ever saw one," Cindy finished.

"Well, we already eliminated Wormtail as Fourth Man anyway," Elkins 
said, one eyebrow arched.

"Ah, but once we know that DEs specialize in various Unforgivable 
Curses, then we can get somewhere with this," Cindy said.  "What do 
we know about the others -- Rookwood, Dolohov, Mulciber and Travers?

"If Mulciber specialized in Imperius, we can rule him out as having 
tortured the Longbottoms, can't we?" Cindy continued.  "And as 
Moody's interrogation and imprisonment in his own trunk suggests, 
Imperius can be used to force someone to divulge information.  If 
Mulciber were one of the Pensieve Four, then he would have used 
Imperius to find out that Frank and his wife didn't know Voldemort's 
whereabouts.  So there was no need to resort to torture."  Cindy 
beckoned George to freshen her drink.  "Mulciber is out."

"OK.  What about Travers?"

"Another AK specialist," Cindy replied confidently.  "Karkarov 
says 'There was Travers –- he helped murder the McKinnons!'"

"Rookwood?" George interjected.

"Hard to say with Rookwood," Cindy said slowly, rubbing her 
chin.  "All we know about Rookwood is that he was with the 
Department of Mysteries, 'was a spy, and passed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-
Named useful information from inside the Ministry itself' and 'used 
a network of well-placed wizards, both inside the Ministry and out, 
to collect information –'

"There's not a lot to go on with Rookwood," Cindy said, "but he 
sounds more like an information specialist than a Cruciatus 
specialist to me.  Not a field guy who gets his hands dirty with 
things like garden-variety torture, I'm thinking.  In any event, 
there's surely no canon to suggest that Rookwood knows how to cast 
the Cruciatus spell."

Elkins downed the last of her drink.  "Which brings us to Dolohov," 
she said with a twisted smile.

"Right.  Dolohov," Cindy repeated.  "Karkarov really has the goods 
on Dolohov, doesn't he?"  

George produced a stained copy of GoF and passed it to Cindy, who 
opened it to the Pensieve scene.  "'There was Antonin Dolohov,' he 
said.  'I—I saw him torture countless Muggles and -– and non-
supporters of the Dark Lord.'"  

Cindy closed the book with a snap.  "Dolohov didn't just cast the 
Cruciatus Curse one time, did he?  No, he hurled that 
Curse 'countless' times.  And Karkarov is very specific, isn't he?  
He suggests that Dolohov is quite expert at torturing Muggles and 
Wizards alike."

"Hang on," George said.  "What about the most loyal DE of them all, 
Crouch Jr.?"

Elkins sat bolt upright at the very mention of Crouch Jr.'s name, 
her eyes wide with excitement.  "Exactly!  Crouch Jr. isn't a 
specialist!  He can cast all three Unforgivable Curses, and we saw 
him do it with the spiders.  That *destroys* your whole theory, 
doesn't it?"

"Not quite," Cindy said easily.  "Crouch Jr. tortures spiders all 
right, that's true.  

"But we never once see him cast any Unforgivable Curse on a wizard 
other than the Imperius Curse.  He puts Imperius on Real Moody.  He 
puts Imperius on Harry.  He puts Imperius on Harry's classmates.  He 
puts Imperius on Krum rather than fire Cruciatus on Cedric himself.  
We don't even know what curse Crouch Jr. was about to hurl to 
dispatch Harry –- it might not have been AK, and if it was, it might 
not have worked.  We also don't know how exactly Crouch Jr. killed 
his father -– he only tells us that he 'killed [his] father.'

"Is casting an Unforgivable Curse more difficult if the victim is a 
wizard?  Well, common sense and canon suggest that it is.  Karkaroff 
draws a distinction between torturing Muggles and Wizards when he 
explains Dolohov's proficiency with Cruciatus.  So the fact that 
Crouch Jr. could torture and murder lowly spiders doesn't mean that 
he was proficient at all three Unforgivable Curses.  

"Besides, we know that some wizards are better at throwing off the 
Imperius Curse than others –- suggesting the enormity of the task 
varies depending on the victim.  This enjoys a firm basis in canon, 
if you think about it.  When the students are learning a new skill 
in Transfiguration, what do they practice on?  Bugs and small 
animals, that's what!  So the fact that Crouch Jr. can have his way 
with small insects does not prove that he could cast AK or 
Cruciatus.  No, Crouch Jr. was most definitely an Imperius 
specialist, I think."

"So we're down to Double-Worm Avery as Fourth Man or we have 
CruciatusSpecialist!Dolohov.  Now what?" Elkins asked with a note of 
concern in her voice.

"I think," Cindy replied, "that the answer lies in the graveyard 
scene itself:"

*************

"I confess myself disappointed . . . . "

One of the men suddenly flung himself forward, breaking the circle.  
Trembling from head to foot, he collapsed at Voldemort's feet.

"Master!" he shrieked, "Master, forgive me!  Forgive us all!"

"Crucio!"

The Death Eater on the ground writhed and shrieked . . . ."

***************

"So?" George asked.

"So," Cindy replied evenly, "that's the biggest problem with 
FourthMan!Avery!  The Pensieve Four are the only DEs who tried to 
find Voldemort.  They were loyal.  They ought to be treated like 
heroes, right?

"So if Avery were one of the Pensieve Four, he would *never* behave 
like he does in the graveyard.  He wouldn't beg forgiveness.  He'd 
step forward and say, 'Master *I* tried to find you!  I tortured 
that miserable Frank Longbottom such that he'll never trouble anyone 
again!'  

"But beg forgiveness?  Fourth Man *beg forgiveness?*  Fourth Man has 
nothing to apologize for.  So Avery cannot be Fourth Man.

"And that, my friends," Cindy gulped the last of her drink, "means 
that we have a competing Fourth Man theory on our hands -- 
FourthManCruciatusSpecialist!Dolohov."

There was a long and very awkward silence.  The logs in the 
fireplace crackled and hissed as drops of rainwater dribbled down 
the floo.

"Another round?" George asked finally.

"I think I'll pass," Elkins said quietly, resting her head heavily 
in her hands.  "I'd better keep a clear mind right about now."

************

Cindy

******************

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