BARTY CROUCH SENIOR

'Bartemius "Barty" Crouch', the elder, (d. May 24, 1995) is a fictional character in the ''Harry Potter'' series of books. Barty Crouch was played by British actor Roger Lloyd-Pack, in the screen adaptation of ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire''.
When Lord Voldemort first came to power, Crouch headed the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He became as ruthless as some on the Dark Side, and gave Aurors powers to kill rather than capture suspected Death Eaters who resisted arrest. He sent Sirius Black to the wizard prison Azkaban without a trial. Crouch appeared to be the favourite to become the next Minister for Magic, when his own son, Barty Crouch Jr, was caught with Death Eaters who were trying to bring Lord Voldemort back to power. Crouch gave his son a trial before sending him to Azkaban; however, according to
Sirius Black, the trial was a sham, merely a public demonstration of how much he hated the boy.
About a year after the trial, Crouch's terminally ill wife begged for her son's life to be saved, so Crouch gave her Polyjuice Potion that made her take on her son's appearance while their son drank some that caused him to take on his mother's appearance. In this way the younger Barty Crouch escaped Azkaban, leaving his ailing mother to die and be buried while still magically disguised as her son. The elder Crouch held a funeral for his wife, but the casket was empty.
After the supposed death of his son, public sympathy fell on Crouch Jr; the wizarding world placed all the blame on Crouch Sr, accusing him of driving his son to join the Death Eaters because of his neglect of his family. After the scandal, Crouch lost much of his popularity and he was shunted sideways to a post as the head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation.
While secretly held in his father's home, Barty Crouch Jr was nursed back to health by Winky, the family's House-Elf. He hid under an invisibility cloak at all times and was kept under control with the Imperius Curse. Some time later, Bertha Jorkins, Ministry of Magic employee, discovered Crouch Jr; Crouch Sr put a powerful Memory Charm on her to make her forget what she had seen.
Years later, Lord Voldemort broke through the Memory Charm placed on Bertha Jorkins and discovered that Barty Crouch Jr was still alive. Voldemort became determined to rescue and restore his loyal servant.
Barty Crouch Senior makes his first appearance in the series at the Quidditch world cup in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” Crouch accuses Harry Potter of attempting to set off the Dark Mark, and when Winky is found to have Harry’s wand, he angrily dismisses Winky, earning the dislike of Hermione Granger. Voldemort and his servant Wormtail showed up at the Crouch family home and put Barty Crouch under the Imperius Curse, freeing Crouch Jr from the Imperius curse placed on him by his father and thus rejoining Voldemort. Crouch continues to appear in public at first and is one of the five judges at the Triwizard Tournament, attempting to judge the contestants fairly. However, worried that Barty Crouch would fight the Imperius Curse, Voldemort later kept him imprisoned within the house and had him communicate exclusively through supervised owl post. Percy Weasley who had become Crouch’s loyal aid and was known to Crouch as Weatherby, replaced him as the British’s ministry’s representative on the Triwizard judging panel.
Meanwhile, under Voldemort's orders, Crouch Jr abducted Mad-Eye Moody who had recently secured the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts, Crouch Jr kept up the pretence of being Moody by means of polyjuice potion and used it to get close to Harry Potter. In the scene in Crouch Jr/Moody's room, Crouch Sr can be seen briefly appearing in the Foe-Glass on the table. Later Crouch Sr, who had escaped from his home, meets Harry Potter and Viktor Krum in the Forbidden Forest and begs to see Dumbledore. However, Harry, while on his way to inform Dumbledore of the events, unwittingly alerts Crouch Jr in the disguise of Moody to his father's presence. Crouch Jr instantly goes to the Forest, knocks Krum unconscious, and proceeds to kill his own father. Crouch Jr transfigures his father's body into a bone and buries it on the Hogwarts grounds. In the film adaptation Crouch Sr realised that Moody/Crouch Jr was his own son and was killed in the Forbidden Forest by his son. Harry then discovers his body afterwards.
Barty Crouch is quite likely descended (by an unknown but small number of generations) from Charis Black and Caspar Crouch.

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Film depiction

External links

Film depiction

While the Crouch of the book was portrayed as being extremely harsh and unsympathetic, he was depicted as being a mostly reasonable man in the film. Sirius Black said that Crouch was an unforgiving man who sent his own son to Azkaban but there was no mention made of his harsh policies and Dumbledore stated that, due to "overwhelming" evidence, Crouch had no choice but to convict his son. This is in contrast to the book, where there was only circumstantial evidence against Crouch Jr and it was stated that Crouch Sr made no attempt to get his son off. However, the filmic Crouch tells Crouch Jr that "you are no son of mine," after his son sarcastically spat at him "Hello FATHER!" after he is arrested and tried violently to break free and attack Igor who ratted him out. Although Crouch was even harsher in the corresponding scene from the book, in the Film version, he was visibly hurt and shocked that his son became a terrorist. The film also does not mention that he convicted Sirius without a trial, or that he allowed use of unforgivable curses on suspects as the book does, all which make him out to be a harsh, brutal Tyrant in the book, while in the film he is shown to be nothing worse than a worried, concerned, kindly and even polite Ministry official.

External links

★ Overanalyzing the Text: The Crouch Novenna - A Nine Part Essay on the Crouch family