JKR's cryptic answer: "Who sent the Lestranges to the Longbottoms?"

[dcgmck]

No: HPFGUIDX 119844


 SSSusan:
> Just a question of clarification.  
> 
> Barty, Jr., in his trial scene, was nothing more than a kid 
> screaming, crying and begging his father to spare him, pleading and 
> denying his guilt.  He didn't go off calmly or willingly, declaring 
> loyalty to Voldy, the way Bella, for instance, went.  Are you 
arguing 
> that this was totally an act on BJ's part, his attempt to try to 
gain 
> sympathy for himself and/or generate an outcry against his father?
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan

dcgmck:

Yes.  OK, a little more... As the faux Mad-Eye Moody, we are given an 
opportunity to see Barty, Jr. sustain a role for an entire school 
year, this after years of having been under an imperious curse 
himself. One simply doesn't get that kind of skill overnight. Of 
course, one might argue that he honed his acting craft conning his 
father while breaking the imperius curse, but to have even had the 
stuff to begin with, he had to have had some bent for acting.

So, yes, I can easily see Barty, Jr. putting on an act in order to 
discredit his father. Whether or not he knew he would later be able 
to throw off an imperius curse, (possibly from training similar to 
that he gives Harry's DADA class?), or because knowing his parents, 
he was pretty sure his act would cause his mother to intercede for 
him later if his father proved to be the heartless bastard he'd 
always suspected, he hated his neglectful father enough to run the 
risk.

If anything, that Pensieve scene is a strong argument for Barty's 
later acting success in GoF.