Let the cat out of the Bag(man)

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 91461

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)"
<catlady at w...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Berit Jakobsen" <belijako at o...>
> wrote:
> 
> > The subject of whether Ludo Bagman is/was a Death Eater has no doubt 
> > been discussed a number of times. (snip) "Rowling's voice", Hermione 
> > and Dumbledore, won't give us a straight answer...
> 
> On first reading GoF, when I hadn't found out about Crouch Jr yet, I
> tried to assign one "faithful servant", one "coward", one "who has
> left me forever" between Karkaroff, Snape, and Bagman. Of course, once
> I found out about Crouch Jr, it's way easy to think Barty = faithful,
> Karkaroff = coward, Snape = left. But if Barty's assigned place in the
> circle was somewhere else, then the easy assumption is not the right
> assumption.

Annemehr:
It's interesting to me that the position of "faithful servant" seems
to be coveted by the DEs.  In ch. 1 of GoF, when Voldemort says "Come,
Wormtail, one more curse ["death" in US] and our path to Harry Potter
is clear.  I am not asking you to do it alone.  By that time, my
/faithful/ servant will have rejoined us --"  then Wormtail replies:
"/I/ am a faithful servant," with the merest trace of sullenness in
his voice.  Bellatrix, at the sentencing Harry saw in the pensieve,
shouts "We alone were faithful!  We alone tried to find him!"  That's
a claim Crouch Jr. reasserts for himself after Harry gets back from
the graveyard: "Tell me he told them that I, I alone remained
faithful...". (GoF ch. 30 and 35 respectively)  Barty Jr., in fact, is
alone in these examples in claiming to be the *only* faithful servant.

I'm not sure whether all this claiming to be faithful is merely the
byproduct of fearing the consequences if Voldemort thinks otherwise,
or whether it's something else -- a striving to get into his inner
circle, to get power over the others or extra privileges or something.
 
Catlady:
> Maybe Ludo was the faithful servant, altho' I can't see anything but
> his position in Department of Magical Sports and Games on which
> Voldemort could have based creditting him for Harry arriving to the
> Graveyard Gathering. It seems to me that one might just as well give
> Dumbledore the credit, for having suggested reviving the Triwizard
> Tournament in the first place.

Annemehr:
You know, you've just suggested a really interesting possibility to
me.  If old Ludo was a faithful DE, then he was in the perfect
position to have suggested the Maze task itself and the ruse of having
the Triwizard Cup be a portkey to the Maze's entrance.  This is
*perfect* if Hogwarts is indeed Portkey-proof and only Dumbledore can
override that protection (a theory some hold as necessary to Hogwarts
Security not to mention the plot of GoF).

This might solve some other lingering difficulties:

Maybe JKR never told us *why* the Cup had to be the portkey because
the answer (that Hogwarts is otherwise portkey-proof) points too
strongly to Ludo, who along with the senior Barty Crouch made the
arrangements* for the tasks.  I'm also remembering that Karkaroff and
Maxime (and presumably Dumbledore) were not *supposed* to know about
the tasks ahead of time (remember them finding out about the dragons).
 So Karkaroff can't be counted on to know about portkeys ahead of
time. [*See Note at end of post]

Another thing, surely at the time Voldemort captured Bertha Jorkins
she did not know all the details of the three tasks?  In GoF ch.7,
when Bagman and Crouch Sr. are talking to Arthur around the campfire,
and they're talking about the difficulty of organizing the World Cup
match, Arthur suggests that Crouch and Bagman will be glad when it's
over.  Ludo's response: "Glad!  I don't know when I've had more
fun....Still, it's not as though we haven't got anything to look
forward to, eh, Barty? Eh? Plenty left to organize, eh?"  Plenty left
to organize! -- could that "plenty" be *only* how many students each
visiting school can take to Hogwarts, or are there tasks to plan?  And
does Voldemort rely on Crouch!Moody to report the final form the tasks
take so he can figure out a way to use one to get Harry?  Or does he
have Ludo Bagman to plan a task involving a Portkey which can be
diverted to a certain graveyard? (BTW, Dumbledore's speech the night
of *Oct. 30* after the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons contingent arrived
includes the line "Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly
over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard
Tournament." -- ch. 16)

This does not make Crouch!Moody redundant.  Crouch!Moody was on the
spot to guide Harry through the tournament.  While Bagman could help
by giving high marks, Crouch!Moody was really the only one able to
search Harry's thoughts and give help and advice as necessary, as well
as help Harry through the Maze itself.

 
<snip discussion about whether Ludo *sent* Bertha to LV on purpose --
Annemehr figures there's got to be *one* coincidence *somewhere* in
the books and Wormtail finding Bertha could be it  :P >


***Note:
There is a passage I find odd now that I read it again, in
Dumbledore's welcoming speech the night of October 30 (GoF ch. 16):

----------------------------------------
"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have
already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," said Dumbeldore
as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they
have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. [...]"
-----------------------------------------

The instructions have been *examined* by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman? 
WHOSE instructions are those; who wrote them?  It *couldn't* have been
Dumbledore, could it?  Surely the other two headmasters would not have
stood for the tournament being *designed* by the host headmaster? 
Maybe the instructions were written by some charmed magical object
that keeps its brain we know not where?  Or is it just something they
read from an ancient TWT rulebook?

Not that this hurts the "DE Bagman Suggests Use of Portkey" theory;
after all, he's still making "necessary arrangements."

Annemehr
who figures a DE!Ludo would have been in the graveyard that night, and
so not the faithful servant Voldemort said was at Hogwarts.  And
Voldemort punished him thoroughly for screwing up his very useful
Ministry job by getting into trouble with the goblins.  He's still
"Bludger-for-brains" Bagman behind his back!