Theory: Writing GoF

[Lynete]

No: HPFGUIDX 144831

Ok, fellow students. Let's see a show of hands: how many have re-read 
GoF to prepare for or check up on the GoF movie? (counts hands) 
That's what I thought. Well, I did too, and here's what struck me 
about it:

-I believe she originally intended Mad-Eye Moody to actually BE 
Moody, not Barty Crouch Jr. on Polyjuice. There are an awful lot of 
remarks Moody makes and things he does which are difficult to explain 
away as Polyjuice!Moody.  I know over the years many of us have made 
valiant efforts to justify these things, but in light of HBP!Snape, I 
think we can reevaluate the GoF text in a new light. We know 
polyjuice only makes the user LOOK like the person they are 
impersonating, not ACT like them. This is after all why there has 
been speculation about Tonk's behavior in HBP. Barty Crouch Jr. 
certainly didn't have the time (and I suspect he also didn't have the 
patience and attentivieness to detail in his personality) to 
impersonate Moody's behavior in enough detail to fool those who knew 
him well. Consider his kindness to Neville after the Unforgivable 
Curse DADA class – if this was Polyjuice!Moody merely wanting Neville 
to get the book on magical water plants, he could have come up with a 
more forthright way to do so. There is no reason for a Death Eater to 
teach Harry how to RESIST the Imperious Curse (as Mistful humorously 
points out in a pointedly humorous spoof of the GoF movie). Why 
encourage the kids to consider being Aurors? Why bother annoying 
Lucius Malfoy, a fellow DE, by Transfiguring and assaulting his son? 
I'm convinced Rowling wrote the scenes with Moody AS Moody, later 
changed her mind (see the reason for this below)and rewrote vast 
sections of the book. She has stated she felt GoF was her 'sloppiest' 
book, and I think this is what she meant!

-I believe JKR intended to bring Snape `out of the closet' in Book 4. 
I think that's why the  Karkaroff/Dark Mark subplot was in there. 
Again, I think she changed her mind (as she stated with her original 
intention to put the Half-Blood Prince subplot in CoS). There are an 
awful lot of things this explains away – Snape offering to make 
apologies for Karkaroff could mean making those excuses to Voldemort 
& Co., NOT to Dumbledore and the Triwizard  judges. This also makes 
Voldemort's accounting of missing Death Eaters makes more sense. 
After HBP we know now Snape is high in LV's confidences, that makes 
HIM the loyal servant at Hogwarts.

-I think the Barty Crouch Jr. character was an afterthought. Because 
JKR changed her mind about having Snape `come out' in this book and 
needed someone else to take the place of Voldemort's 'most loyal' 
servant. The Barty Crouch Jr. subplot led to the creation of Winky 
and eventually S.P.E.W., which may be amusing but does muddy the 
plot. Finally, she gets rid of Barty pretty quickly in the end, a 
convenient deus ex machina. It's interesting how you can read the 
book, ignore the Barty Crouch Jr. parts, and still have a good story. 
You end up with the Moody we all know and love intact, and with Snape 
as the guy with questionable loyalties we ended up with in HBP. 

Jo may never describe the details of the parts of the plot she 
shuffled around  in writing the series, but I think this is a case 
where we can see a place she did.

Sorry if anyone else has previously posted similar ideas - this forum 
is difficult to search!