GoF chapter 24-26 Post DH look

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182036

Alla:
> > And hmmm, how does Snape know that Moody searched his office
before if he shows up on the map as Crouch?
> 
> zgirnius:
> Snape does not have the map. I think he knows someone searched his
office, and presumed it was Moody. He's the new teacher, it fits his 
persona as the paranoid ex-Auror, and perhaps Snape feels other
similar suspects are ruled out. <snip>

Carol responds:
I agree regarding the map. Harry still has it at this point. (Lupin
returned it to him before he left the school.) However, my impression
is that Snape *know* that "Moody" searched his office. Possibly, Barty
Jr. made a point of doing so, with DD's knowledge, with the excuse
that Snape was an ex-DE. Snape would have grudgingly allowed it, if
only to prove that he *didn't* have anything in his office that
shouldn't be there. And Barty, of course, would have stolen potion
ingredients while he was there.
> 
zgirnius:
> I think you are right that Barty Jr. is very aware of House Elves.
He deliberately brought up the subject of gillyweed in a conversation
with Minerva because he knew Dobby was listening, in order to help 
Harry win the TWT. He admits it to Harry in the scene in "Moody's" 
office after Harry return sfrom thre graveyard.
,snip quote>

Carol responds:
Right. It's not Dobby eavesdropping, exactly. "Moody" summoned him so
that he'd overhear the conversation. My question is what he means by
"staged." Was McGonagall actually there, or did Crouch!Moody imitate
her voice and pretend to have a conversation with her that he made
sure Dobby overheard?

Alla:
> > Love, how she drops hints about Dumbledore's academic talents.
Have we met another person in the series but him who can do so [speak
Mermish]?
> 
> zgirnius:
> Dirk Cresswell, a talented Muggleborn who was a former protege of
Slughorn, speaks Gobbledygook. So knowing the language of another
intelligent magical species is not an unprecedented accomplishment,
though I can think of no one else who knows Mermish specifically.

Carol:
If Percy is right that Mr. Crouch could speak about a hundred
languages (I don't recall the exact figure), it seems likely that
Mermish was one of them. However, he wasn't present at the Second Task
(Percy had taken his place), so we don't know for sure.

Carol, thinking that learning so many languages with so little reward
requires a great deal of ambition and wondering whether Barty Sr.
(and, for that matter, Barty Jr.) was a Slytherin