Bode's madness

[John Kearns]

No: HPFGUIDX 131827

> Derek:
> As I continued with OotP tonight, I must confess that I wondered 
> why Bode changed so dramatically over a period of four months 
> from a sane man to someone having to be kept in a ward with people 
> like the Longbottoms. Harry's vision in Chapter 26 explained 
> this.  He witnessed LV's interview with Rookwood and, during 
> Harry's conversation afterwards with Ron and Hermione, I 
> remembered that Dumbledore had said in Chapter 37 that only 
> Harry and LV could take down the prophecy.  Anyone else who 
> attempted it would be driven mad.  Bode, whilst under the 
> imperious curse, controlled by Lucius Malfoy, had obviously 
> attempted to take down the prophecy and was consigned to the 
> closed ward in St Mungo's as a result.  Clearly, Bode's 
> mind was getting back to normal by the time Harry and his friends 
> visited the Closed Ward in error and to prevent Bode speaking out, 
> LV arranged his murder.

I think you hit it on the head.  There are a couple of other 
interesting things of note regarding Bode.  First, an unidentified 
man comes to visit him in the hospital (p486 Scholastic) before the 
plant arrives, as has been discussed here very recently.  Second, 
when we see him in the elevator (p135), he seems a little off - and 
we discover later it's probably because he's under the Imperius at 
that very moment, perhaps even on his way to try to retrieve the 
prophecy.  So JKR uses him to show us what the effects of the 
Imperius curse look like: "a sepulchral voice," "unblinking,"  
an "unfaltering gaze."  Odds that we'll want to look for these again 
in the future?

JohnK