Try Goyle Sr. instead (Was: Bagman as Loyal Death Eater and Big Blond)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 141801

Goddlefood wrote:
>
> Carol,
> 
> I remain far from convinced of your counter argument.
> 
> I have, however had useful discussions regarding my article here 
> with you and elsewhere and intend some revision.
><snip>
> You are right about Sturgis, but straw colour is quite different 
> from blond. Perhaps we shoulkd also look at Goyle as a suspect. 
> These points and others will be addressed in my revision.
>
Carol responds:
Aha! You've solved the case! While Goyle Sr.'s friend Crabbe Sr. is at
the Battle of the DoM, named by Lucius Malfoy as he pairs off the
other DEs (OoP Am. ed. 788), Goyle Sr. is not named and therefore
probably was not present and consequently was not sent to Azkaban.
Unlike Bagman, Goyle is an established DE, and he could well have been
sent with the named DEs to Hogwarts.

Bagman is never described as "huge" like the BBDE, but Goyle Sr. is
one of two hulking figures in the graveyard scene in GoF: 

"'And here'--Voldemort moved on to *the two largest hooded figures*
(my emphasis) "we have Crabbe. . . . You will do better this time,
will you not Crabbe? And you, Goyle?'

"They bowed, muttering dully.

"'Yes, master.'

"'We will, master.'"  

The senior Crabbe and Goyle are large and stupid, just the type to
clumsily cast AKs that kill their own comrades. Crabbe, however, is in
Azkaban (unless he's in St. Mungo's with his head still turning into a
baby's and back again), but Goyle is at large.

And Goyle Sr. quite likely resembles his son, just as Harry closely
resembles James and Draco has pale blond hair, cold grey eyes, and a
pointy chin exactly like Lucius's. 

The initial description of Gregory Goyle (the son) establishes his
size and disposition: "Both of them [Crabbe and Goyle] were thickset
and looked extremely mean" *SS Am. ed. 108) and "Crabbe and Goyle were
a lot bigger than him or Ron" (109). Later, his shoes are referred to
as "huge" (CoS Am. ed. 219). Harry's robes are a foot too short when
he transforms into Goyle (217). Like father, like son regarding size. 

And I don't suppose I need to find evidence that the younger Crabbe
and Goyle are both stupid ("You don't know how  bizarre it is to see
Goyle *thinking,*" says Ron, CoS 218, when Harry turns into Goyle
using Polyjuice Potion), which fits nicely with the "dull" Crabbe and
Goyle Sr. in the graveyard. Like father, like son again.

If Goyle Sr. is an older copy of his son, he's huge, stupid, mean,
oafish, and probably clumsy, all of which makes him a good candidate
for the BBDE.

So while Bagman is indisputably blond, he is not huge, merely an
athletic man gone to seed, with a paunch very like that of half the
men I know in their thirties and forties. He is missing, but we have a
perfectly plausible reason for his absence (fleeing from the goblins).
And while he was cleared of charges of willingly aiding a Death Eater,
he has never been accused of being one himself. A skilled Beater who
knows where to aim a Bludger, he seems unlikely to accidentally kill
someone on his own side with a misaimed AK. 

Goyle Sr., OTOH, is an established Death Eater and one of the few who
is not currently in Azkaban. The color of his hair is admittedly not
established (and Goyle Jr.'s is merely described as "bristly"), but
Goyle Sr. is indisputably one of the two largest Death Eaters in the
graveyard and the father of a huge son, making it quite likely that he
is "huge" himself. Goyle Jr. is a dim-witted bully, and his father, in
the brief glimpse we have of him in the graveyard scene, appears to be
equally dull-witted. He is not sent to the DoM, perhaps because
Voldemort doesn't trust him anywhere near the Prophecy globe, and is
consequently one of the few Death Eaters still available to be sent to
Hogwarts. It's not at all inconceivable that the stupid, huge, clumsy
father of the stupid, huge, clumsy Gregory Goyle would do such a
thing. After all, his friend Crabbe got his head stuck in a Time
Turner. (BTW, I can explain why I think the ugly baby-headed DE is 
Crabbe if anyone cares.)

Carol, who wondered all this time whether Goyle's absence from the DoM
was a Flint and is now convinced that it wasn't. Thanks, Goddlefrood!