Suggestions please: Mysteries

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121641


Jim Flanagan wrote:
> <snipped> 
>  How did Crouch Jr. learn all the advanced magic that he displayed
while at Hogwarts pretending to be Moody?  He was very young when 
sent to Azakban, then was under the Imperious Curse up until the QWC.
 When did he change from the crying youth that Harry saw in the 
pensieve into an accomplished mage capable of hoodwinking a powerful 
magical object and successfully fooling Dumbledore for almost an 
entire school year?
> 
amosdiggory99 responded:
> It is about 13 years between the trial of Barty Crouch Jr (aka 
> Polyjuice Moody) and GoF. I would assume that the imperius curse 
> would NOT prevent him from practising his magic. Besides, what magic 
> do we see Polyjuice Moody do other than turning Malfoy into a
ferret? <snip>

Carol responds:
How about using all three Unforgiveable Curses on spiders, Imperioing
his students, Imperioing Krum to Crucio Cedric Diggory, and AKing his
own father? I may have forgotten a few, but I think this list is
sufficient to prove that he was well-acquainted with Dark Magic and
both willing and able to cast illegal curses before he came to
Hogwarts as Fake!Moody.

Barty Jr. was bright (he got twelve OWLs and was able to impersonate
the real Moody convincingly), he was evidently a powerful wizard given
his ability to cast Unforgiveable curses, he was highly motivated to
return to his master and prove his devotion (in contrast to the DEs
who "walked free"), and even before his trial in the Pensieve, he was
thoroughly corrupted, having helped the Lestranges Crucio the
Longbottoms. I agree with you that he probably learned Polyjuice
potion (and the Transfiguration spell he used on Draco) as a student,
but he must have learned the Unforgiveables as a young DE, maybe an
apprentice to Bellatrix, the Crucio expert, and her devoted followers,
Rodolphus and Rabastan. And for all we know, Winky in her mistaken
kindness to poor young Master let Barty Jr. practice magic under the
cover of his invisibility cloak. We know that he had periods when the
Imperius Curse was weak, and the Imperius Curse didn't prevent him
from maturing physically, so probably it didn't prevent the natural
maturation of his magical powers, either. Mor important, I don't think
you forget how to do an Unforgiveable once you've cast one.
"Hoodwinking a powerful magical object" simply fits the pattern of
intelligence, power, and motivation. If he didn't already know the
spell he needed, he had access to Moody's books and the Hogwarts library.

The crying boy in the Pensieve may have been a coward or a convincing
actor or both, but either way, he was already a servant of Voldemort
capable of casting the most terrible curses. By the time he stole
Harry's wand and cast the Dark Mark (also obviously learned when he
was a DE), he was a young man of about thirty-two, fully grown and
full of hatred and determination, a fanatic to match Bellatrix in his
devotion and willingness to serve the cause of evil as personified in
Voldemort. 

Carol, who thinks that the Crouches as a family are tragic figures,
particularly Crouch Sr.'s love for his son, which came too late to
save either of them