Why did Barty Crouch Jr join Voldemort?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189734

Nikkalmati wrote:
> 
> I do think Barty Sr loved his son, but he neglected him. <snip>

Carol responds:
We have only Sirius's word that he neglected him because, IIRC, he loved his wife more than his son, and, as Potioncat pointed out, Sirius is wrong on almost all counts in that discussion (and he has, understandably, no love for Barty Sr.!). Certainly, Crouch Sr. was obsessed with his job and ridding the WW of Death Eaters by whatever means, but we see in "The Madness of Mr. Crouch" when he's talking to Percy (knowing who Percy is at that point but mistaking the decade)that he's proud of his son, who has just earned twelve OWLs.

The question is whether Barty Jr. was already on the wrong track at that time and earned the OWLs to be useful to Voldemort, or whether he felt that his father's pride in his accomplishments was no substitute for spending time with him. Barty Jr. was nineteen when he was arrested for taking part in Crucioing the Longbottoms (Sirius is surely wrong that his offense was merely being seen with people Sirius knows to be Death Eaters, aka the three Lestranges). That would be about three years after he took his OWLs (assuming that he was sixteen at the time). Maybe he did equally well on his NEWTs but didn't get the same proud reaction. Or maybe he was Sorted into Slytherin and his friends, one of whom could have been Regulus, became Death Eaters. He might have been in much the same position as the young Snape, finding validation of his brilliance from his fellow Slytherins.

I think we can compare him to two other boys as well--Regulus, who admired Voldemort as if he were a celebrity or action hero, complete with press clippings (it took Voldemort's cruelty to someone he cared about to make him see the truth, and that didn't happen in Barty Jr.'s case) and Percy, who turns against his family (temporarily) because they don't value his success and think (rightly) that he's being used. Unlike those two boys, Barty Jr. had no chance for redemption.

One trait we don't see in Barty Jr. that we do see in Severus, Regulus, and Percy is courage (physical or moral). Barty cries out to his father for mercy and denies his involvement in the crime for fear of the Dementors, but Bellatrix's attitude (they're all guilty and she's proud of it) and Barty's later behavior, revealed in his confession, shows that he was, indeed, loyal to Voldemort and trying to find his whereabouts.

Carol, who dislikes the adult Barty Jr. intensely but has some sympathy for the clever boy who went so badly wrong