Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Barty Crouch Jr.

Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character
Bartemius Crouch Junior
Gender	Male
Hair color	Straw colored
Eye color	unknown
Related Family	father Bartemius Crouch Sr., mother Mrs. Crouch
Loyalty	Lord Voldemort

Overview

Bartemius (Barty) Crouch Jr. is the son of Ministry of Magic employee Bartemius Crouch Sr., and one of a group of four convicted for the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom.

Role In The Books

Goblet of Fire

Note: Events in this subsection appear in a different order than they appear in the book. Much of what is mentioned here actually is only revealed in the closing chapters of the book, and some events actually occur well before the beginning of the book, but are revealed during the course of this year.

Shortly after Lord Voldemort's disappearance, Bartemius Crouch Jr. and three other young Death Eaters (Bellatrix Lestrange, and brothers Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange) attacked and tortured Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom, using the Cruciatus Curse on them until the two lost most of their mental faculties. It is believed that their intent was to find out what the Aurors had done with Lord Voldemort so that they could bring him back.

Harry Potter first hears about Barty Crouch's sentencing and removal to Azkaban at Bartemius Crouch Sr.'s orders, from Sirius Black, and later observes that trial and sentencing in Albus Dumbledore's Pensieve.

Barty Crouch's escape from Azkaban was engineered by his father, Bartemius Crouch Sr., presumably acting at the request of his wife. Barty's escape remained undiscovered because Bartemius' wife took his place, very quickly dying in Azkaban from a pre-existing condition, and being buried there. Bartemius was keeping his son controlled by means of the Imperius curse, and the actions of the Crouch house-elf, Winky. Over the years, however, Bartemius' control over his son slackened, to the point that at the Quidditch World Cup he was able to escape control completely, albeit briefly. Stunned by Ministry wizards investigating the appearance of the Dark Mark during the riot following the Cup, Barty was returned to the family home and placed under the Imperius curse again. However, with the dismissal of Winky, Bartemius' control over Barty was weakened, and Barty was able to contact Lord Voldemort. Voldemort and Wormtail then attacked Bartemius and placed him under the Imperius curse; with Wormtail's help, Barty stunned and then impersonated Alastor Moody throughout Harry's fourth school year.

Because of the impersonation, his career during that year is largely covered under the topic Alastor Moody. However, the following events, that were not initially attributed to Moody, occurred:

• Barty apparently Charmed the Goblet of Fire such that it acted as though there were four schools competing in the Triwizard Tournament, rather than three; he then placed Harry's name in the Goblet as the sole competitor in this fourth school, thus forcing the Goblet to select Harry as a Champion.
• During this time, Voldemort had Bartemius Crouch Sr. controlled by the Imperius Curse. With Barty's assistance and advice, Bartemius interpreted the Triwizard Tournament rulebook in such a way as to make it seem that Harry was required to compete in the Tournament.
  • Bartemius Crouch Sr. did manage to break free much later in the year, and made his way to Hogwarts; but was there discovered and killed by Barty Crouch Jr., and his body hidden.
• To replenish his stocks of Polyjuice Potion, Barty broke into Severus Snape's office to steal potion ingredients. He was observed by Harry using the Marauder's Map, but due to the similarity of names, Harry thought that the intruder was Bartemius.
• Barty, acting as Professor Moody, provided assistance to Harry in the various quests:
  • suggesting summoning a broom to fly past the dragon in the first challenge;
  • loaning Neville Longbottom a book that described Gillyweed in the expectation that Harry would mention to Neville that he needed to figure out a way to survive underwater;
  • when that failed, mentioning Gillyweed in front of Dobby so that Dobby would provide a method for Harry to win the second challenge;
  • using the Imperius curse again to control and eliminate Harry's opponents in the third challenge.

Finally, captured by Dumbledore, he reverts to his actual shape when his dose of Polyjuice potion wears off. Having been dosed with Veritaserum, he then reveals all that he had done. He then receives the Dementor's Kiss, before he can repeat his story to a representative of the Ministry, as a consequence of Cornelius Fudge's actions.

Strengths

Barty is apparently an accomplished wizard. He was able to subdue Alastor Moody and impersonate him for several months. He was also capable of creating a Confundus Charm powerful enough to fool the Goblet of Fire. According to his father, Barty received an impressive twelve O.W.L.s at Hogwarts, though Bartemius was admittedly delusional at the time.

Barty tells Cedric Diggory to open his egg underwater, knowing that he will in turn tell Harry in order to pay him back for tipping him off about the dragons. When telling Harry about this, Barty says that "decent people are so easy to manipulate." This would seem to indicate that Barty lacks Voldemort's primary weakness of being unable to understand love or, specifically in this case, gratitude.

Weaknesses

Barty is shown to believe that his faithfulness and service will make him and Voldemort emotionally close, like a father and son. Thus, Barty views Voldemort as a replacement father figure, either not knowing or refusing to accept that Voldemort will always see him as just another disposable follower. In the sixth book, Dumbledore states that "You will hear many of his Death Eaters claiming that they are in his confidence, that they alone are close to him, even understand him. They are deluded. Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one."

In the trial Harry witnesses, Barty is seen desperately proclaiming his innocence while Bellatrix Lestrange openly admits to being a Death Eater. Later on, however, Barty boasts that he is Voldemort's only faithful follower and claims that the Death Eaters who refused to brave Azkaban for their master should be severely punished. This indicates that Barty is a hypocrite, condemning other Death Eaters for what he tried to do himself and disregarding Bellatrix's higher degree of faithfulness.

Relationships With Other Characters

All relationships we hear about are adversarial. For instance, he imprisoned 'Mad Eye' Moody for an entire school year while taking his identity. During this time, he would interrogate Moody repeatedly to improve his own mimicry. We also hear of his imprisonment by his father and Winky, and learn of his odd relationship with Winky as part of that imprisonment. We hear very little of his worshipful relationship with Voldemort, only enough to know of its existence and nature.

Greater Picture

Shortly after his return, Voldemort summons his Death Eaters to his side. As Voldemort goes around the circle of Death Eaters, commenting on the gaps in the circle, he comes to the largest gap of all... "And here we have six missing Death Eaters ... three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return ... he will pay. One, who I believe has left me for ever ... he will be killed, of course ... and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already re-entered my service. ... He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friend arrived tonight..." By not naming these Death Eaters, and by not completing the circle, the author is able to leave it in doubt as to who exactly is being referred to here. We are led to believe, correctly, that it is Karkaroff who has run, but it is unclear whether that is the cowardly one, or the one who has left Voldemort's service forever. At this point, we are unaware of the existence of Barty Crouch, and so we are misled into believing that the faithful servant who has already re-entered Voldemort's service is Severus Snape. And despite the revelation of Barty's role in the events of the book, the casual reader may well retain this mistaken belief even after that revelation, and may see this particular scene as confirmation of Snape's continuing loyalty to the Dark Lord. In fact, though, the faithful servant is Barty, Karkaroff is the cowardly one, and it is Snape who Voldemort feels has left. We will find out in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Voldemort had his doubts about Snape, but that Voldemort had accepted Snape's explanation, both for his apparent desertion of Voldemort in the intervening years, and for his failure to appear instantly at Voldemort's summons on this occasion.