[the_old_crowd] Best of Enemies. pt. 4.

[elfundeb]

Kneasy writes:

<<"Next!"
And who is this shuffling to front and centre?
Of course! Barty Crouch the younger!>>

I'm enjoying this series, but especially Barty Jr., who is my absolute favorite Ever So Evil character.  :-)

<<And Crouch Snr  keeping a zonked out officially dead DE in the 
woodshed, the attic or wherever. What on earth was he going to  do with 
him? Eventually transfigure him into a draught excluder, perhaps? And 
if Jnr was constantly enveloped in an Invisibility Cloak, how the hell 
did Barty Snr ever know where he was?  By blasting Leg-locker spells 
around the kitchen until something fell over? Yeah, sure.>>

Well, that was Winky's job.  "I was always with the house-elf.  She was my keeper and caretaker."  Though that doesn't explain everything, does it?  When did Winky sleep?  Did she accompany him to the shower?  Perhaps, though, Crouch Sr. didn't expect a son who screamed "I didn't do it" and begged for mercy to be quite so recalcitrant after being rescued.

<<Lots of  fans are unhappy that Archduffer!DD didn't  spot Crouch!Moody 
as a ringer for an entire school year. Old friends, common experiences 
and memories - "'ere, Ally, remember that time at Coven 80 to 130, when 
you, me and them two Veelas...." - no way could Barty cover up for that 
long. Of course not. DD knew. The Portkey Cup may have caught him on 
the hop, nothing else did IMO.>>

Obviously Fake!Moody must have avoided everyone on the ostensible basis of his irrational fear that *they* were all DEs in disguise.  Unfortunately, Dumbledore strongly implies that, at a minimum, he was not sure until young Barty swept Harry away from the melee after the return from the graveyard.  "The moment he took you, I knew -- and I followed."  But if he suspected (and surely he must have, because otherwise he could not have put two and two together so quickly and had a plan ready to implement), my answer to why he didn't confront his suspect is simply that that's not generally how Laissez-faire!Dumbledore does things.  He'd much rather let Barty Jr. hang himself with his own rope, as he eventually did.

Though, I must ask, if Dumbledore became suspicious, why didn't he use his Legilimency skills on his suspect?  Did Barty Jr. deliberately avoid face-to-face contact with Dumbledore?


<<And just what is he intending to do with all these millions once he's 
got them in durance vile? Turn 'em into slaves? Sounds good, that  - 
but there's one small snag. Slaving at doing what? If they're *all* 
slaves there's no-one to buy what they produce - no wages, no money, no 
consumers thirsting for the latest Madam Malkin creation.>>

Ahh.  That's what the sycophants -- whoops! I meant the DEs -- are for.  Any villain worth his salt can always find enough materialistic, status-seeking slimeballs who are willing to grovel in exchange for an opportunity to feed at the feast and lord themselves over the masses.

Debbie

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