[HPforGrownups] Re: Crouch!Moody

[Janet Anderson]

No: HPFGUIDX 96804

Carol said:

>However, I think that bits and pieces of Crouch!Moody's behavior
>(notably turning Draco into a ferret and Imperioing his students)
>started to add up, and in the back of his mind started fitting
>together with larger puzzles--who put Harry's name into to Goblet of
>Fire and what happened to Barty Crouch Sr. among them.

Now, I have always disagreed with this point of view re: the amazing 
bouncing Draco/Ferret.

It seems clear in retrospect that JKR intended this to be a clue to 
Dumbledore and the other teachers, and indirectly to the readers (when 
McGonigall says "We never use transformations as a punishment!", which in 
theory Moody would know).  However, my immediate reaction when I read it was 
to put this scene at the top of my Top Ten Favorite list and Moody (as I 
thought) right up there with Dumbledore.  The students said it best: "Moody! 
How cool is he?"

And even knowing what I do now, it's still a favorite scene and a favorite 
chapter.

Perhaps the "clue" aspect depends on a) knowing that JKR is adamantly 
opposed to corporal punishment of any kind -- which I don't know, although 
most people seem to think so -- and b) an assumption that the readers will 
all hold this opinion as well. (My own opinion is that Filch and Umbridge 
are well out of line, but not Molly whacking her children with a 
broomstick.)

Incidentally, I think there's a certain inconstency in a punishment system 
that objects to turning someone into a ferret, but not to sending them into 
the Forbidden Forest at eleven o'clock at night.


Janet Anderson

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