[HPforGrownups] Re: Barty Crouch Jr. (was More thoughts on the Cloak)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158936

> Abergoat responds:
>
> Neither of us can say definitely that Barty was guilty or innocent of
> torturing the Longbottoms. His actions in GoF do not prove anything.
> Just because one person is guilty of murder doesn't mean you can blame
> all unsolved cases on this person. Barty may have tortured half the
> wizards in his county by the time he was 19, but that still isn't
> proof he tortured the Longbottoms.

Magpie:
No, I can't prove it, but storywise it seems like the more logical 
conclusion.  I mean, this isn't pinning a random case on him, it's pinning 
the case he was brought to trial for on him--a crime for which he was 
brought in with Bellatrix who was guilty.  What's to be gained from Barty 
being not quite so guilty upon going into prison if it's not revealed as 
something that's driven him to be so loyal to Voldemort now?  It seems to 
just take away from Barty Crouch as Voldemort's most loyal follower and add 
nothing in return.  (It also changes the story of Crouch Sr.'s breaking him 
out of prison.)  How exactly did he turn from a young boy who was a DE but 
not a really committed one to the guy we see in GoF who loves Voldemort more 
than anything and would do anything for him, who hates DEs who *didn't* seek 
Voldemort after he was defeated and has sadistic moments, and why don't we 
hear about it?  It's true Barty never specifically confesses to the 
Longbottom murder either, but it seems like he'd be far more likely to not 
need to mention the crime if he were guilty rather than innocent.  His 
dealings with Neville in the book have more weight if he's guilty.


Aberforth:>
> And I don't know if this is important enough to be resolved in book
> 7...although if Lucius and Rufus set up Barty Jr to take out Barty Sr
> it might get a passing mention.

Magpie:
I don't really consider it a hanging question that we're supposed to be 
waiting for the answer to in Book VII.  We might hear about somebody being 
the one to send the group to the Longbottoms but saying Lucius was behind 
Crouch's murder seems again to dilute the drama, not intensify it.  Barty's 
conflict with his father seems like the root of the whole tragedy of the 
family; it made him a loyal follower of substitute-dad Voldemort.  Lucius 
setting him up is just chess-playing.  And how could Lucius have set Barty 
up to take out his father--am I not understanding how that would work?

Of course if we learn in Book VII that Barty was innocent I'll see I was 
wrong, but until I have that information I consider the case closed.

-m