Polydoubts (was Arabella Figg)

[David <dfrankiswork@netscape.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 53079

Morgan D. wrote, as part of an elegant dissection of various 
Arabella Figg theories:

> Honestly, I don't see why Barty Jr has to keep Moody around and 
alive.

> Moody's hair is used for the potion, but hair is a
> dead tissue. It shouldn't lose its "properties" even if cut from 
the
> subject years before the making of the potion. 

One possibility is that Polyjuice only works as long as the person 
being mimicked is alive.  I think there must be some sort of magical 
connection to the person: for example, how does Moody's hair contain 
the information that he has a missing leg?  We can speculate under 
this possibility what would happen to a Polyjuice disguise if the 
original suffers injury or death while the disguise is in force.

> According to Hermione (CoS ch 10), the Polyjuice Potion takes 
about a
> month to be brewed (at least "the lacewings have got to be stewed 
for
> twenty-one days"). 
> 
> According to Veritaserum!Barty Jr
> (GoF ch 35), "Wormtail and I did it. We had prepared the Polyjuice
> Potion beforehand". But Voldemort and Wormtail only rescued Barty 
after
> the World Cup Final, which took place either one or two weeks 
before
> the September 1st (the references to that, in chapters 3 and 10 of 
GoF,
> seem contradictory). There's not enough time for them to brew the
> potion before the school term. ... wouldn't Barty
> Jr, under Snape's "strongest Veritaserum", ... [have] said 
something like, "They had everything
> planned. Wormtail had already started brewing the Polyjuice 
Potion, and
> I helped him finish it"?

I agree that the timescale is very tight for the whole Moody kidnap 
sub-plot, and it stretches credibility.  Why did Voldemort leave it 
so late?  However, perhaps the wording of Crouch's confession may 
just indicate his very strong identification with Voldemort and his 
gang.  So, we can interpret this passage along the lines 
of: "Wormtail and I kidnapped Moody.  We the conspirators had 
already prepared the potion."

David