How It All Goes Down
Veritaserum
- Harry and Cedric land back on the Hogwarts grounds.
- Harry can't focus on what's happening around him.
- But he does manage to tell Professor Dumbledore: "He's back [...] He's back. Voldemort" (35.9).
- Slowly, the word begins to go around: "He's dead!" "He's dead!" "Cedric Diggory! Dead!" (35.12).
- Harry is still in shock: "The scene flickered oddly before Harry's eyes" (35.23).
- He suddenly finds himself being led away from the field.
- Someone bigger and stronger than him is taking him away.
- He realizes at last that it's Mad-Eye Moody.
- Moody sits Harry down in his office, feeds him some kind of potion, and waits for Harry to collect himself.
- Moody makes Harry explain how Voldemort got his body back.
- And then Moody tells Harry, "No [...] No, [Karkaroff] didn't [put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire]. It was I who did that" (35.59).
- Harry can't understand what he is hearing. It can't have been Moody.
- Moody continues: "I told you, Harry ... I told you. If there's one thing I hate more than any other, it's a Death Eater who walked free. They turned their backs on my master when he needed them most" (35.68).
- Uh oh. "Master" is never a good word in Harry Potter.
- Moody explains that it was he who fed Harry information about the tasks every step of the way.
- Moody needed Harry to reach the Triwizard Cup first, so that he could be transported to the graveyard where Voldemort would be waiting.
- And just as Moody decides to kill Harry once and for all, the door bursts open and he's stunned.
- Professors Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall all come storming in.
- Professor Dumbledore breaks the news to Harry that this is not the real Moody at all.
- The real Moody has been kept in a magic trunk for the last year.
- He's been kept alive because the fake Moody has been harvesting his hair for Polyjuice Potion, which allows the fake Moody to look like the real Moody.
- Without his potion, the fake Moody transforms before Harry's very eyes, into a "pale-skinned, slightly freckled" man "with a mop of fair hair" (35.107).
- It's Barty Crouch, Jr.
- Harry recognizes him from Professor Dumbledore's Pensieve memories.
- Winky the house-elf suddenly appears, weeping, "Master Barty, Master Barty, what is you doing here?" (35.112).
- Professor Snape feeds Barty Crouch, Jr. Veritaserum to make him speak the truth.
- Under the influence of this truth potion, Barty Crouch, Jr. explains everything.
- He managed to escape from Azkaban by changing places with his mother.
- His mother was dying, so she convinced Mr. Crouch to use Polyjuice Potion to swap Barty Crouch, Jr. (in Azkaban) for her.
- She stayed in prison and soon died.
- Barty Crouch, Jr. remained in his father's home under the influence of the Imperius Curse.
- Winky talked Mr. Crouch into allowing Barty Crouch, Jr. to attend the Quidditch World Cup under his Invisibility Cloak.
- She argues "that [his] mother had died to give [him] freedom. She had not save [him] for a life of imprisonment" (35.139).
- Mr. Crouch agrees eventually.
- And it's at the Quidditch World Cup that Barty Crouch, Jr. manages to free himself from the Imperius Curse.
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- Turns out, he got right to it and was the one who cast the Dark Mark after the Cup final.
- Voldemort hooks up with Barty Crouch, Jr. again.
- Voldemort puts Mr. Crouch (Sr.) under the Imperius Curse and forces him to go about his business as though nothing has happened.
- And, together, Wormtail and Barty Crouch, Jr. prepare a Polyjuice Potion they plan to use on Mad-Eye Moody.
- Just before the new school year starts, they kidnap Moody so that Barty Crouch, Jr. can take his place at Hogwarts.
- Voldemort and Wormtail continue to live in Mr. Crouch's house.
- But Mr. Crouch starts to break free from the Imperius Curse and tries to warn Dumbledore.
- Barty Crouch, Jr. murders Mr. Crouch and transforms his body into a bone.
- Barty Crouch, Jr. finishes his confession: "I offered to carry the Triwizard Cup into the maze before dinner [...] Turned it into a Portkey. My master's plan worked. He is returned to power and I will be honored by him beyond the dreams of wizards" (35.169).