GoF 28

[pauraque_bk]

GoF 28: The Madness of Mr Crouch

'Winky is getting through six bottles [of Butterbeer] a day now,' Dobby whispered to Harry.

'Well, it's not strong, that stuff,' Harry said.

But Dobby shook his head. ''Tis strong for a house-elf, sir,' he said. (466)

Because they don't weigh very much, presumably.

Remarkably, I still sometimes hear people doubting that Butterbeer is alcoholic! The wizarding world doesn't see a problem with selling alcohol to children.

Half-a-dozen house-elves came hurrying forward, looking disgusted. One of them picked up the bottle, the others covered Winky with a large checked tablecloth and tucked the ends in neatly, hiding her from view.

'We is sorry you had to see that, sirs and miss!' squeaked a nearby elf, shaking his head and looking very ashamed. 'We is hoping you will not judge us all by Winky, sirs and miss!'

'She's unhappy!' said Hermione, exasperated. 'Why don't you try to cheer her up instead of covering her up?'

'Begging your pardon, miss,' said he house-elf, bowing deeply again, 'but house-elves has no right to be unhappy when there is work to be done and masters to be served.' (467-468)

Since we were just talking about Sirius's depressive drinking, this reminds me of it again. In OotP, Sirius's misery will also be hidden away as Dumbledore stows him at Grimmauld Place rather than addressing his ultimately fatal unhappiness.

Have we already discussed the way the elves speak? Unless awkward speech is part of the original Brownie myth, JKR seems to have chosen to make her elves sound uneducated -- especially since they don't all make the same grammatical errors. If they were raised and educated as humans, would they speak like humans?

[Hermione's hate mail:] You are a WickEd giRL. HaRRy PottEr desErves BetteR. gO Back wherE you cAME from mUggle. (470)

The reaction to this is a little subdued... Ron tells Hermione again that she shouldn't have made trouble, rather than expressing horror that she should receive racist hate mail. Interesting that this one is made of cut-up letters, disguising the sender's handwriting. They're afraid to openly announce their anti-Muggleborn views.

Harry took off his watch, which he was only wearing out of habit, as it didn't work any more, and stuffed it in his pocket. (472)

This is the second time in two chapters that Harry's non-working watch has been pointed out (it stopped working after he spent all that time down in the lake). Is there any significance to it?

I had forgotten Hagrid's lesson with the Nifflers. Aw, it's cute!

'Count yer coins! An' there's no point tryin' ter steal any, Goyle,' he added, his beetle-black eyes narrowed. 'It's leprechaun gold. Vanishes after a few hours.'

Goyle emptied his pockets, looking extremely sulky. (472)

Hm! Are the Goyles hard up for money too, or is Gregory just greedy?

Percy's letter was enclosed in a package of Easter eggs that Mrs Weasley had sent. Both Harry's and Ron's were the size of dragon eggs, and full of home-made toffee. Hermione's, however, was smaller than a chicken's egg. Her face fell when she saw it.

'Your mum doesn't read Witch Weekly, by any chance, does she, Ron?' she asked quietly. (476)

Hermione can laugh off bullies (sometimes), and Rita causes her more anger than anguish, but Molly's harsh judgment gets to her. Understandably. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that Molly would jump to conclusions about her, since she's the one the "scarlet woman" talk was coming from.

'What d'you reckon it's going to be?' [Cedric] asked Harry, as they went together down the stone steps, out into the cloudy night. 'Fleur keeps going on about underground tunnels, she reckons we've got to find treasure.' (477)

Since when do Cedric and Fleur hang out?

'I've done ... stupid ... thing ...' Mr Crouch breathed. He looked utterly mad. His eyes were rolling and bulging, and a trickle of spittle was sliding down his chin. Every word he spoke seemed to cost him a terrible effort. 'Must ... tell ... Dumbledore ...' (482)

I guess the "stupid thing" is supposed to be going with his wife's plan to get Barty Jr out of Azkaban, though the way it's phrased makes it sound like something more recent than that.

It's also interesting that he now knows what happened to Bertha Jorkins; I wonder if he was treated to a little patented Evil Exposition before being placed under Imperius.

Crouch's extremely poor physical and mental condition could support theories that Peter let him escape intentionally (e.g., out of spite or to help Harry), rather than that Crouch had the strength to free himself.

'Mr Crouch!' Harry shouted. 'From the Ministry! He's ill or something -- he's in the Forest, wants to see Dumbledore! Just give me the password up to--'

[...]

Harry could tell Snape was thoroughly enjoying himself, denying Harry the thing he wanted when he was so panicky. (484)

I'm surprised that Snape doesn't take this seriously. He's usually quick to catch on when it's not an appropriate moment to toy with Harry. He never picks up on it here; Dumbledore hears them and comes out of his office himself.

Snape's presence in the corridor may be meant to serve as an alibi for him. It's pretty evident that Snape is not the one who conked Viktor over the head, whereas fake!Moody gets no such alibi.


Previous GoF posts are saved in memories here.

Comments

[likethemodel.livejournal.com]

I disagree. Ron, IMO, is the emotionally wisest member of the Trio. Hermione tends to come up with her own conclusions about people's behavior and Harry ignores them, while Ron understands why people do what they do. I think it's from living in such a large family. The Weasley's are all such individuals that to coexist in (relative) peace Ron has to have a sense of each individuals needs.

Hermione spends all her time in the library, behavior I'm sure that was more pronounced when she was still in the muggle world. What she knows about people comes from books and then from removed observations. Rarely does she intuit.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I think Ron may be emotionally wisest, unless he himself is invested (as most of us probably are). See, for instance, his complete inability to understand Percy leaving the family in OotP, Percy's continued estrangement in HBP, and Molly's distress over Percy after Christmas.

I can't actually think of a single character who seems to be particularly good at grasping other people's emotions. Dumbledore is frequently portrayed that way, including in HBP, but the entire plot of OotP is based on his complete incompetence at just that. Hermione analyzes, but doesn't understand. Harry is usually completely clueless. We don't really see many characters trying to understand or explain other people's actions or motivations.

[nakedcelt.livejournal.com]

Hermione analyzes, but doesn't understand.

I'm not sure that's quite it. I think she gets it pretty right when she coaches Harry in OotP, on how not to make Cho jealous. I think it's more that, while Hermione can see external emotional situations unfolding, and even figure out what the best course of action is, she loses that perspective once she's engaged in the situation herself.