Do I find it highly embarrassing that my only two posts are all about the same person, completely giving away the fact that I’m fixated on him? Yes. Am I posting this anyways? Also yes.

You may consider this a round two of my unnecessary TED talk about Barty Crouch Jr.

But first and foremost, it would be a good idea for me to address a couple of things. I am not in any way justifying any of Death Eaters’ actions. Being a wizarding nazi is a very bad choice. End of story. All I’m saying is that there can be a lot more to a character than just this, and maybe anyone can have something humane about them no matter what side they’re on.

Another little remark: my opinion can be a bit biased and I’m not denying this at all, since, as I mentioned in the previous part of this mess, I’ll be talking about my favourite character from the series. None of this is meant to make you change your opinion on the matter, its only purpose is to just give some sort of a fresh perspective. Before reading, I’d recommend you to check out the first part for some context.

The main reason for this post to ever be written is a comment I saw on TikTok, stating that it’s unlikely for Barty to have any empathy. And, what a fun little coincidence, I’ve been thinking about it quite a lot.

The original commenter was talking about the Neville Longbottom situation that occurred after the Unforgivable Curses class. ‘Moody’ had tea with the boy and gave him a herbology book.

My starting point won’t be here, though. We’re going way back to 1981.

Frank and Alice

Four people were caught at the crime scene after the terrible act of cruelty that the Longbottom tortures undeniably are: Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrainge and our today’s subject, Barty. Bellatrix is the one that surely was responsible for driving Franks and Alice crazy and she never actually denied it. However, it’s a whole different story with Crouch. Not only didn’t he admit to the crime at all, but there isn’t really any proof to help us tell whether he’s guilty or not. What version you like the best is only a matter of how you perceive the character. Personally I like to believe that he was most likely dragged into the whole case by either Bellatrix or any other person involved.

This is where the whole story actually starts.

Let’s stick with the ‘not guilty’ version for a bit. Barty could do absolutely nothing in the given circumstances, so he just had to stand there and watch two wonderful people lose their minds. And ever since then, he was feeling a different kind of guilt. He felt responsible for what happened, for not being able to interfere, which isn’t that unreasonable or unrealistic if we’re talking about him before Azkaban and the Imperio thing.

Azkaban sweet Azkaban

Azkaban turns people’s brains into ground beef. That’s just the way it works. It can change someone completely or even destroy them. As I think, Barty’d gone through something in the middle, since he’d only spent not so long of a time in his cell and got saved by his mother shortly after being charged. He didn’t really become completely soulless, but something surely did click in his head. What I can tell for sure is that he definitely wasn’t sane anymore, which, combined with the need to play the role of our beloved paranoidal gramps Moody, can lead to some... interesting stuff.

Neville and guilt

Breathe freely, for we’re finally back to 1994. So, the Unforgivable Curses class. Neville, poor sweet thing, surely was incredibly traumatised by seeing a spider getting tortured by the exact same curse his parents suffered from. It’s a horrible thing to see, especially when you’re a child.

And, as I said, Barty wasn’t completely inhumane. He saw that. He felt guilty. He wanted to express that. So he invited Neville for some tea.

Here’s the main reason why I think so. After analysing the way Crouch acted throughout GoF, it becomes visible that he never really does anything straightforward. For example, he doesn’t talk directly to Dobby about the whole Gillyweed thing, he doesn’t tell Cedric ‘Hey, what if you talk to Potter about the prefects’ bathroom?’ There wasn’t any need for him to actually communicate with Neville, though that’s what he did. He showed some sympathy towards him.

Now, one may argue that it was some kind of an act of mockery, and that Longbottom was his trophy of sorts, or that he just got that deep into the role of Moody. And both are completely valid points. Sure, there may’ve been different motives for his actions, one will never know for sure. That’s why I’m writing this post in the first place. I wanted to share my opinion and my perspective on the matter.

And that’s a wrap.

Thank you for reading. I will eventually write about someone else. Pinky swear. Let me know what you think in the comments.

P.S. I do have some headcannons about my boy Barty :D Should I share them or am I being way too obsessed?