GoF 14

[pauraque_bk]

There was a theory discussed in Chapter 13 that I'd never heard before: Trelawney is reading Voldemort's horoscope via the scar. Scarcrux ahoy!


GoF 14: The Unforgivable Curses

The next two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrelful of horned toads. (185)

Snape knows Neville has a pet toad -- he almost poisoned it in PoA 7. Nasty.

'You know why Snape's in such a foul mood, don't you?' said Ron[...]

'Yeah,' said Harry. 'Moody.' (185)

I'll bet! Not because Snape yet again failed to get the Defence job (as Ron and Harry think), but because it's a bit scary having him around when you're a DE who walked free.

'You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?' Moody said. 'Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago ... yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to Dumbledore ... one year, and then back to my quiet retirement.'

He gave a harsh laugh[...](187)

As usual, Crouch!Moody keeps overt lies to a minimum. Arthur coming to smooth things over did help him, and he isn't planning to stay more than one year. He's laughing at his own irony with the "quiet retirement" line -- his expectation right now is that at the end of this school year, Voldemort will once more rise to power, and he'll be at his side.

It's notable here that kids this age aren't normally taught this level of magic. Crouch!Moody isn't just doing the job and staying below the radar, he's going out of his way to give them useful information.

'Er,' said Ron tentatively, 'my dad told me about one ... is it called the Imperius curse, or something?'

'Ah, yes,' said Moody appreciatively. 'Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius curse.' (188)

This is my favorite piece of evidence in skelkins's Arthur Weasley was under Imperius during the war theory, which I think still holds a lot of water, even three years later.

Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently--'

'Stop it!' Hermione said shrilly.

Harry looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and Harry, following her gaze, saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified. (190)

I point this out mostly because I like it when Hermione shows concern for Neville. She and Neville were friends in the beginning of PS/SS, before Ron and Harry decided she was cool enough to hang out with.

'Avada Kedavra!' Moody roared. (190)

The HP Lexicon has a little blurb on the etymology of Avada Kedavra. My understanding is that its real use was as a healing charm.

In the context of the HP books, though, it seems the Muggle nonsense phrase denoting magic (abra cadabra) is a distorted remembrance of the deadliest curse, presumably from before the Muggle-magical split, which is a detail I love.

All four of them fell silent, watching [Moody] apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.

'It's all right, sonny,' he said to Neville. 'Why don't you come up to my office? Come on ... we can have a cup of tea...' (193)

They went up to the dormitory to fetch their books and charts, and found Neville there alone, sitting on his bed, reading. He looked a good deal clamer than at the end of Moody's lesson, though still not entirely normal. His eyes were rather red.

'You all right, Neville?' Harry asked him.

'Oh yes,' said Neville, 'I'm fine, thanks. Just reading this book Professor Moody lent me...'

He held up the book: Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties.

'Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I'm really good at Herbology,' Neville said. There was a faint note of pride in his voice that Harry had rarely heard there before. 'He thought I'd like this.'

Telling Neville what Professor Sprout had said, Harry thought, had been a very tactful way of cheering Neville up, for Neville very rarely heard that he was good at anything. It was the sort of thing Professor Lupin would have done. (194-195)

This is heady stuff. As we find out later, Junior was one of the DEs who tortured Neville's parents. He is one sick puppy, and no one has an inkling that anything is wrong -- not Neville, and certainly not Harry, who astoundingly compares him to Remus. What did Neville think when he found out who was really comforting him over tea that day?

Junior giving Neville the book about water plants is part of his Sinister Plot, right? He's hoping Neville will show the book to Harry, and it'll help him in the second task? Crazy shit, especially since Harry and Neville barely speak to each other. No wonder Junior and Voldie are such pals; they both love convoluted schemes.

[Ron:] 'I think it's back to the old Divination standby.'

'What -- make it up?' (195)

And so they do. Recently garlandgraves had a good post on how strange it is that in a story hinging on a prophecy, Divination is usually treated as all but useless.

However:

[Harry:] 'OK ... on Monday, I will be in danger of -- er -- burns.'

'Yeah, you will be,' said Ron darkly, 'we're seeing the Skrewts again on Monday. OK, Tuesday, I'll ... erm...'

'Lose a treasured possession,' said Harry, who was flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas.

'Good one,' said Ron, copying it down. 'Because of ... erm ... Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?'

'Yeah ... cool ...' said Harry, scribbling it down, 'because ... Venus is in the twelfth house.'

'And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight.'

'Aaah, I was going to have a fight. OK, I'll lose a bet.'

'Yeah, you'll be betting I'll win my fight...' (196)

First task: Dragons. (Danger of burns.)

Second task: Rescuing the person you'd miss most from the lake. (Lose a treasured possession.)

Harry will be betrayed by Crouch!Moody. (Stabbed in the back by someone he thought was a friend.)

He will also have a fight -- the duel with Voldemort -- and it certainly doesn't go as well as it could for him.

As Harry watched, George shook his head at Fred, scratched something out with his quill and said, in a very quiet voice that nevertheless carried across the almost deserted room, 'No -- that sounds like we're accusing him. Got to be careful...' (197)

Presumably they're writing to Ludo Bagman here, after realizing he gave them Leprechaun gold.

' "Spew"?' said Harry, picking up a badge and looking at it. 'What's this about?'

'Not spew,' said Hermione impatiently. 'It's S -- P -- E -- W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.' (198)

I don't know if the "spew" joke is supposed to make us agree with Ron that Hermione's being stupid, or if it's just... there.

sistermagpie had a post on the way wizards relate to non-wizards, including some points about elves that I think are quite valid and relevant here.


Previous GoF posts are saved in memories here.


[The preceding was typed after having been stabbed painfully in both arms by a less-than-competent blood draw technician. Ow.]

Comments

[pacoman.livejournal.com]

Bella is one of the DEs who did wind up in prison so presumably Barty likes her??

From the look of things on Pensieve Flashback #3, Bellatrix was leading the group behind the attack on Frank and Alice (which included the Lestrange brothers and Barty himself), so I suppose Barty respects her on some level.

I always thought that on some level Barty regretted taking part on the attack when he came face to face with the boy who lost his parents to Crucio-induced insanity, so maybe he told Neville all the details because he owed him that much.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

But wouldn't regretting the attack mean questioning Voldemort? It seems like Barty would still think it was the right thing to have done, unless he's having second thoughts about Voldemort.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sure that at that point Barty believes they could have simply used a Legilimens (it's what Voldemort would have done), instead of Crucio-ing first and asking questions later (which is more up Bella's alley).

[pacoman.livejournal.com]

Uh, that was me.