Chapter Discussion: Chapter Fourteen, Goblet of Fire: The Unforgivable Curses

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 192201

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at ...> wrote: 
> Chapter 14
> 
> The Unforgivable Curses

> Questions:
> 1. In the beginning of class, Crouch!Moody says he'll only be staying for a
> year. We know why Barty Crouch, Jr had no intention of staying any longer. But
> do you think this was originally agreed upon between the real Moody and DD, and
> did that have anything to do with the DADA curse?

Geoff:
My feeling is that this is what was agreed between Dumbledore and Moody.
Moody's remark "Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to 
Dumbledore... one year and then back to my quiet retirement." (GOF "The 
Unforgivable Curses" p.187 UK edition), implies (with hindsight) that he 
must have found out what Moody was planning - Legilimency perhaps - and 
run with that.

I think that Crouch was intending to play it by ear and seize opportunities 
as he went along and that, if a different chance to get Harry away to meet 
Voldemort came up before the Third Task, he wold have used it. The 
Third Task ultimately provided the best chance.

> 2. Do you think Crouch!Moody* left the Cruciatus on the second spider too long? 
> Do you remember the impression it made on you on your first reading, if any?

Geoff:
It gave me an impression that Moody was a very hard man and possessed a 
streak of cruelty in rather enjoying what he was doing.

> 3. Having seen Crouch!Moody demonstrate the Unforgivables in Harry's class, what
> do you think of the Ministry's policy of not showing dark curses to students
> until they're in sixth year, and about DD ignoring that?

Geoff:
I think that some reference would be useful but not in such a blatant way as here.
 
> 4. Harry didn't seem to make anything of Neville's distress after seeing the
> Cruciatus curse. Given his own feelings about Avada Kedavra, do you think he
> should have been more perceptive about Neville, or did he have too much to think
> about on his own account?

Geoff:
I think this is a thought in hindsight. 

At this point in the book, Harry does not know about the Longbottoms:

'Dumbledore gave Harry a very sharp look.
"Has Neville never told you why he has been brought up by his grandmother?" 
he said.
Harry shook his head, wondering as he did so, how he could have failed to 
ask Neville this, in almost four years of knowing him.
"Yes, they were talking about Neville's parents," said Dumbledore. "His father, 
Frank, was an Auror just like Professor Moody. He and his wife were tortured 
for information about Voldemort's whereabouts after he lost his powers, as 
you heard."
"So they're dead?" said Harry quietly.
"No," said Dumbledore, his voice full of a bitterness Harry had never heard 
there before, "they are insane..."'
(GOF "The Pensieve" p. 523 UK edition)

> 6. What do you think of the name S.P.E.W. and Hermione sticking with it after
> Harry's and Ron's immediate reactions?

Geoff:
She obviously recognises it as a word: "Not spew", said Hermione impatiently.
"It's S-P-E-W..." (UK edition p.198) - but doesn't seem to register that people 
will see it in the way she does. She still doesn't see Ron's objection "And you 
think we want to walk around with badges saying 'spew', do you?" (p.198). 
Perhaps she fails to see how others look on a word like that.