Fathers (was: A message?)

[muscatel1988]

No: HPFGUIDX 178981

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Kemper <iam.kemper at ...> wrote:

> This seems to be the case, when later, after Master Barty is
> administered the Veritaserum, he states of his escape from Azkaban:
> "She persuaded my father to rescue me as a last favor to her.  He
> loved her as he had never loved me."
> This statement suggests to me that Master Barty longed for 
> expressions of his father's love.

Mus:
For me, there's another interpretation, though.  We know that he's (at
least by the end of GoF), at least slightly mad, and, with Bellatrix,
the most dedicated DE we meet.  I'm always a little suspicious of
children who claim that their parents loved someone else more - denial
of a parent's love is, in this case, perfectly consonant with DE
philosophy, which is one of denial of love if it is anything.  

Murdering his father and Transfiguring his body into a bone to be
buried in Hagrid's vegetable patch is pathological contempt, and I
can't quite take Barty Jnr's word for much.  He's one of the most
deceitful characters in the whole series - he lied under oath
(Bellatrix at least stood up for what she believed in), he carried out
the whole Tri-Wizard Tournament ruse, he kept Moody starving in a
trunk for nine months.  If he tells me his father didn't love him,
then I'm not inclined to believe him without other evidence.  Note, in
fact, that he doesn't say that his mother loved *him* - all he's
fixated on his hatred of his father.

I'll agree that Barty Snr isn't a touchy-feely father, but this is in
keeping with all the rest of his character.  To paraphrase Sirius, I
don't believe the world is divided into touchy-feely fathers and those
who don't love their children.  And this reader finds it rather
touching that when he's babbling as if he were at work, he's talking
about his son.

I agree that he may have seemed distant, and that his work probably
took him away from home too much (though it didn't, if we *do* believe
 the son, stop him loving his wife).  I suppose it could be argued
that his use of Imperio on his son was Bad, but after DH, we can no
longer regard that as inherently wicked.  It's a perfectly acceptable
ploy when effective control is required. <eg>

Mus, who thinks young Master Barty is bonkers and the most unreliable
of sources, and who wouldn't believe him if he said water was wet.