deathtocapslock | GOF Chapter 28: The Madness of Mr. Crouch

So the kids send a letter to Percy and go to bring Dobby his new socks. Harry wants to thank him, Ron just wants food. While they're at it Harry thinks of sending more food to Sirius. Hermione wants to see Winky. Who is even worse than before. Being told of Crouch's supposed illness almost leads her to give him away - she says that besides housework she was entrusted with his secrets. But she won't say anything more (and promptly falls asleep - great defense mechanism). Once Hermione brings up the possibility that elves could be unhappy the kids are sent out of the kitchens by elves who prioritize serving their masters over personal happiness. (Note that the enslaved elves are the ones with most dignity. Also note that Hermione still doesn't bother to think of their POV.) This leads to hours of mutual bickering between the 'soulmates' that drives Harry away.

When Harry goes to send Sirius the food he sees mysterious eagle owl (the kind the Malfoys use, ie the Owl of Evil). He also sees Hagrid digging and Olympe attempting to talk to him, with little success.

The next morning Hermione starts receiving hate mail. Including undiluted bubotuber pus, which indeed does funny things to her skin, as Pomona had said. But what I find remarkable is the letter that called her a Muggle and ordered her out of the Wizarding World, because this is the first time we see a non-Malfoy denigrating Hermione for her non-magical origins.

Today's COMC lesson is about using nifflers to detect treasures and other sparkly things. Of course Hagrid only warns the kids to remove their own sparkly items after Pansy gets bitten. Harry was still wearing his broken watch so he'd have something sparkly to remove. Ron's niffler is particularly efficient at bringing back gold. There has to be a catch right? Oh, it's leprechaun gold. It doesn't last. Like the gold Ron collected at the QWC to pay Harry for the omnioculars. So again we are shown how wizarding-raised Ron doesn't know about leprechaun gold. But then neither did any of the others who collected it at the QWC. Is this such a big secret? Except it is written in Fantastic Beasts. I suppose Harry and Ron only opened that book after 4th year despite having it all along? What about the rest of the wizards - what is their excuse?

Now Hermione is obsessed with discovering how Rita operates (and with taking revenge on her). 'Moody' claims he didn't see her near the lake at the time of the second task. Also, looks like he was working seriously to teach the class about hex deflection. I'm sure Barty enjoyed hexing all those kids. Hermione is a true witch, she is already thinking of Muggle technology as 'substitutes for magic'. Anyway, she really hopes Rita is using illegal means for her eavesdropping. Because then Hermione can commit the illegal act of blackmail in return.

OK, no need to keep counting Harry's letters to Sirius, he is enclosing notes saying all is well with the food. (Hah! As the series ends all is well just as much as it is here. The next Dark Lord is around the corner.)

Hedwig shows up with a package of Easter eggs (first time in the series we hear of wizards following this custom) and Percy's letter. While Molly never sent Hermione any hate mail the tiny Easter egg is an anvilliscious hint as to what Molly thinks of her. Has Hermione's blood status got anything to do with Molly's acceptance of Rita's version or is it just the fact that it was in the paper so it must be true? Percy sticks to the version that his superior was just taking a break. For some 4 months. And yes, it was Crouch's handwriting on the owled instructions (well, it was).

Springtime is the season when traditionally in HP little happens for months on end, so we skip to the last week of May, when the champions are invited to meet Ludo in the Quidditch field at 9:00 pm for instructions. (Aha! That's why Quidditch was canceled this year - there was a maze to grow. Though I'm not sure when the hedges were planted, if they can grow from a size that can be easily climbed over to 20 feet in the coming month.) Fleur is nice to Harry since the second task. A decent girl would have sucked up to him all along.

Ludo says the first champion to touch the cup gets full marks. Was the cup intended to become a Portkey that would transport the winner to the starting point? Hard to tell, but to remind you, when he presented the first task Ludo avoided mentioning dragons - he called them "the thing you are about to face" as he presented the bag of mini-dragons. So Ludo may have been just as coy here. In any case, one was supposed to touch the cup, merely reaching it was not enough.

Viktor has to ask Harry about his relationship with Hermione (sorry, Hermy-own-ninny, sigh) because she talks about Harry so much. Harry can't believe Viktor is treating him like an equal - is Harry channeling Dobby?

Oops, Crouch shows up. After having walked all the way from where? I used to think it was from his home, but close reading of the next chapter suggests he had been kept in the Riddle House in Little Hangleton.

Crouch's rantings are of 3 types: references to the days before his son's arrest, references to the last summer and his attempts to confess to Albus. Crouch was very proud of his son's 12 OWls. And looks like attending a concert with the Fudges was the height of the Crouches' social life back then. Anyway, if Crouch took the time to take his son to a concert then he didn't spend the entire time at work, war or no war. As for Weatherby, he seems to have occupied much of Crouch's world for a while.

So what does his confession amount to? It is his fault Bertha is dead, something about his son was his fault, the Dark Lord is stronger, something about Harry Potter. It seems Crouch was quite aware of the plot. But his oddest line is "You're not ... his?... Dumbledore's?" Elkins took this to mean that even at his death Crouch did not believe in human autonomy. People belonged to their leaders (and fathers and bosses), to serve them as the latter saw fit. Thus in her interpretation Crouch died unredeemed. Too bad it turned out Crouch's view was shared by Albus.

Harry runs to Albus' office, which surprisingly was moved 5 floors down from its usual location. Unfortunately the password was changed too over the course of the last two years. Also, it is Severus that shows up to deal with the impatient Harry. You know, suddenly duj's reading, that Albus was taking a bathroom break and Severus was holding Harry up in the meantime makes a lot of sense. Of course Severus is impatient - Harry isn't making more sense than Crouch. Additionally, whatever it is that complicates Severus' reaction to Moody should be true for Crouch as well. By next year Severus will learn to pay attention when Harry seems to be talking nonsense. It means dramatic events are afoot.

Harry is able to convey what little he understood from Crouch to Dumbles. They find Viktor, who was stunned from the back, but no Crouch. Oh, Dumbles sends a silvery ghostly bird from his wand to Hagrid's cabin - first use of a Patronus as texting device. Here one needs to aim it, yet in future books people will be using this method to communicate across the country. Hagrid is sent to call Igor and 'Moody'. Surprisingly 'Moody' was already there, claiming Severus reported to him about Crouch. Well, we know 'Moody' was there already - I'm guessing he had the bone into which he transfigured his father's body in his pocket. And he knew to mention Severus because he must have seen him on the map with Harry when he was following his father on said map.

Now 'Moody' is off, supposedly in search for Crouch, when Hagrid brings Igor. The latter is quick to blame Albus and his friends in a plot to harm Viktor in order to enable Harry's victory. Characteristically for Hagrid he responds to Igor's spitting on the ground in front of Albus by slamming Igor against a tree. Perhaps it would have been even more in character if he had done so to Viktor.

I realize that I don't really understand Igor. Does he believe as he states that Harry's participation in the tournament and the attack on Viktor were motivated by an attempt to snatch a deserved victory out of his student's hands or does he believe something more sinister is going on, something related to the darkening Mark on his arm? And why did he give Harry a mean look when he first saw him, before the Goblet situation? Shouldn't he have been grateful to the boy to whom he owed his freedom? Unless he thought it was proof Harry had lots of native Dark Magic?

Albus sends Harry to Gryffindor Tower with Hagrid as escort, and a heavy hint to write to Sirius in the morning. We learn from Hagrid that Albus is really worried. More than he was when he had Tom on the back of a teacher's head. More than when a monster was attacking students, or a suspected mass murderer got to a student's bed with a knife.

Oh, and Hermione shouldn't be hanging out with that foreigner Viktor. Foreigners only date you to use you to get information to their advantage.