GOF Chapter 25: The Egg and the Eye

[oryx_leucoryx]

Harry plans his excursion to his one recorded bath in great detail. The prefects' bath is deep enough to have a diving board. Now I imagine Percy and Penelope having a great time during their years as prefects. Did Ron and Hermione come here during OOTP? That would be a good way to avoid Harry when he was CAPSLOCKING. OTOH in HBP Harry had the privilege to use the room too but as far as canon tells he did not. (Well, he was following Draco who also had the privilege to use this bathroom, but preferred working on the cabinet). We know portraits can move around in the castle. So any deceased school Head can in principle show up in the mermaid's portrait and spy on prefects having baths. Maybe it isn't such fun then.

I notice Harry is still suspecting the whole thing was some nefarious plot of Cedric's to get him caught by Filch. Harry does have company - Myrtle, the lonely, oversexed ghost, stuck in teenage for over 50 years so far. She berates him for not keeping his word to visit her on occasion - a common theme with Harry towards people who are only useful to him once in a long while. Heck, he only started writing to Sirius when he needed his help. He never wrote to Remus, his admired teacher from last year (and Hedwig is so annoyed that Harry isn't employing her service).

Myrtle can visit this bathroom and spy on prefects. I guess she can visit any bathroom in the castle then? No wonder Harry avoids showering and bathing.

Well, since Harry doesn't figure it out himself, Myrtle tells him what Cedric did with his egg. So Harry gets to hear a riddle in song format. I recall he was never particularly good with those. And Hermione isn't around to think for him. Meanwhile we learn Hogwarts dumps untreated sewage into the lake. Don't the merefolk complain? Why don't they migrate by magical underground network of waterways (like those used by the Durmstrang ship) to cleaner waters?

OK, so Myrtle hints enough for Harry to catch on. And once again Harry makes an empty promise to visit Myrtle. I don't think he realizes it's a nasty habit of his.

The Marauders Map reveals some Bartemius Crouch in Severus Snape's office. Wasn't Crouch too sick to come to work? Or to the Yule Ball? I wonder who this really is... So instead of going back upstairs to Gryffindor tower Harry decides to go downstairs and see what's up with Crouch. And gets stuck in the trick stair, as foreshadowed by Neville in chapter 12. He also drops the egg, that rolls away screaming, and the Map. Harry thinks to attempt to wipe the Map blank but not to summon it. Or the egg. Really, after summoning the Firebolt all that distance in the First Task why isn't summoning one of the first things to try? Well, Filch is here, so now it's too late.

Filch believes Peeves stole the egg and dropped it as a prank. He wouldn't think a school champion would be stupid enough to drop his egg with its clues like that. At least Filch can close the egg and stop the noise. I don't know how long the egg was wailing, but the first person to show up is Severus, all the way up from the dungeons, at least 5 floors down. Was nobody else woken by the noise? Or did nobody else care? The egg sounds like the screams of someone being tortured, like someone in horrible pain. And the only one who cares is Severus? Notice his priorities - he awakes to the noise, and on his way out he notices his office, where assorted restricted and dangerous items are kept, has been broken into. But his top priority is to find the source of the screaming. It is only after Filch shows him the screaming wasn't a person in need that he focuses on investigating the intrusion to his office. (And only later, when he sees the Map that he realizes this involves Harry.) It's one of those moments where Rowling inadvertently shows us the extent of Severus' protectiveness of everyone (especially students) - well beyond his promise to keep Harry alive in order that Lily's death will not have been in vain.

Oops! Someone else managed to make it! It's 'Moody'! (Of course we know he is also coming from the dungeons. So by the time it took him to hobble up all those stairs no other staff member thought to come and see what the trouble was? Or did they all decide that since the noise stopped everything must be under control?) Anyway, Severus attempts to hush Filch - he does not want to involve 'Moody' in anything.

Again we see the power of the magical eye to see through Death's own Invisibility Cloak. (Maybe the maker of the Eye is stronger than Death himself? Who could that have been? Heck, maybe the Eye is that person's Horcrux. S/he may still be around. In the Pensieve scenes in chapter 30 Moody still has both of his natural eyes. If the magical one is a Horcrux he only came under its influence after the first war. Maybe that's the real reason for his paranoia?) As for Mrs Norris, it isn't clear if she actually sees Harry or merely smells him.

'Moody' pretends to take part in Severus' investigation, thus finding out what Severus suspects. At the same time he attempts to provoke Severus by bringing up his history. I really do think the real Moody was involved very directly in Severus' interrogation after VWI, and Severus does not cherish those memories. Meanwhile we learn 'Moody' already searched Severus' office openly earlier in the year. 'Moody', like Hagrid in the previous chapter, promotes Albus' reputation as the one who gives second chances. Except he only does it to have another victim to exploit. Does Severus actually sense something in his Mark when 'Moody' hints about it or was his reaction entirely psychological? Are we to understand the real Moody knew about the Dark Mark but Order members who were not Aurors, such as Sirius did not? Or did Moody only learn of the Dark Mark after the war was over, the Marks no longer visible and Sirius was arrested? Why didn't Albus share this information while it might have been useful?

Oops! Barty nearly lost everything - the Map was open. Severus was very close to seeing whom he really was speaking to! He was also very close to catching Harry. Of course he knows Harry was there. And now Harry is Severus' main suspect as the intruder to his office. 'Moody', OTOH plays up Severus as a red herring for Harry. Dumbledore is very interested to know who is after Harry - and so is Barty? Is this the one time his words as 'Moody' don't match his intent as Barty? Yes, Barty, actually Severus does have Harry's best interests at heart. As hard as it is for Harry to believe. And yes, Harry does have to be stopped for his own safety.

So 'Moody' sends Severus and Argus away and pulls Harry out of the trick stair. While learning what the Map can show. Like his true identity. And that Harry saw his name, but mistook it for his father's. Yes Barty, your dad is even more obsessed with catching Dark wizards than Moody or yourself. Especially the one he held prisoner for some 12 years. But not really any others, or he'd have searched places such as Malfoy Manor during those years for evidence of misdeeds, not leave it to the next DMLE head. But yes, you so hate Death Eaters that walked free, you so do. Except Harry thinks this is Moody talking about Igor. And 'Moody' borrows Harry's map, thus closing off that way of discovering his secret. He also flatters Harry saying he could make a good Auror. Harry would consider it if they're not all as scarred as Moody. Well, he already has a headstart on scars.

Some speculation about Barty's Polyjuice strategy: In COS we learned that to make Polyjuice Potion one needs 2 restricted ingredients (and other non-redtricted ones) - boomslang skin and bicorn horn. These ingredients are added at a late stage in the production. We do not know how much of them is needed. From the exchange between Severus and 'Moody' it seems there were 2 times he had access to Severus' supplies - early in the year and now. It is late January, about the midway point of the school year. Did Barty steal 5 months worth of Polyjuice ingredients at both these times? Did he have enough for the first 5 months when he arrived and just ran out? Is he really brewing his entire supply all the time? An alternative strategy would be to owl order it and keep a batch half-brewed - at the stage when the boomslang skin and bicorn horn need to be added, so he only needs to get those ingredients and complete the brewing if his order doesn't arrive in time. I'm not sure which strategy is riskier. BTW in this book only boomslang skin is mentioned as an ingredient Barty had to steal. Did he bring enough bicorn horn for the entire year? Or has bicorn horn become deregulated over the last year or two? Or perhaps we have here the case of the ever-improving Polyjuice Potion - no longer takes a month to brew and needs only one restricted ingredient. In DH we will see the next improvement - Polyjuice that lasts for more than an hour. Looks like Barty missed his calling as Potioneer. And so did (the real) Moody.

Comments

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Then again, if Moody didn't make the Horcrux then... who did...?

[oryx_leucoryx]

It could be anyone who supposedly died in the past but did not quite. The problem with Horcruxes is that anything in principle could be the Horcrux of someone or other from the past. Even the very distant past. Not everyone who might decide to make a Horcrux would choose something flashy. And not everyone who might make a Horcrux would decide to curse it. So in principle people might run across a Horcrux without knowing what it is.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Now, that would make a really interesting fanfic (unfortunately I don't have any ideas here).

[oryx_leucoryx]

OK, I have a canon possibility: Order member Caradoc Dearborn. Moody (the real one) said he disappeared with no trace 6 months after the Order photo was taken. The photo was from 2 weeks before the McKinnons died, which places Caradoc's disappearance around early January 1982. After Voldie was gone. I can understand him dying while attempting to apprehend an escaped DE, but disappearing completely? Nobody was making inferi and no Nagini around to eat bodies up.