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Sirius's face darkened. He suddenly looked as menacing as he had the night when Harry first met him, the night when Harry still believed Sirius to be a murderer.
"Oh I know Crouch all right," he said quietly. "He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban -- without a trial."
"What?" said Ron and Hermione together.
"You're kidding!" said Harry.
"No, I'm not," said Sirius, taking another great bite of chicken. "Crouch used to be Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know?"
Harry, Ron and Hermione shook their heads.
"He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic," said Sirius. "He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical -- and power-hungry. Oh never a Voldemort supporter," he said, reading the look on Harry's face. "No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But then a lot of people who were against the Dark Side... well, you wouldn't understand... you're too young..."
"That's what my dad said at the World Cup," said Ron, with a trace of irritation in his voice. "Try us, why don't you?"
A grin flashed across Sirius's thin face.
"All right, I'll try you..." He walked once up the cave, back again, and then said, "Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing... the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere... panic... confusion... that's how it used to be.
"Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning -- I wouldn't know. He rose very quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors were given new powers -- powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of the Unforgiveable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you -- plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened..." Sirius smiled grimly. "Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power."
published July 8th, 2000
For those few readers out there who have resolutely resisted Potter-mania so far, the Unforgivable Curses are three:
Imperius: compels another to instant, unquestioning obedience
Cruciatus: causes intense pain and, eventually, madness
Avada Kedavra: the killing curse, causing death without marks
Aurors are elite magical law enforcement, dedicated to catching practicioners of the Dark Arts.
Muggles: mundanes, ordinary non-magical folks.
Death Eaters: the Dark Lord's corps of dedicated followers, fanatical in their belief in blood purity, and the self-justifying nature of power.
Voldemort: the once and future Dark Lord, who was once a half-Muggle orphan boy named Tom Riddle.
Sirius Black: Harry's godfather, still public enemy number one in the wizarding world, believed a Death Eater, on the run for a mass murder he didn't commit, betrayed by an old friend, after escaping from the [literally] soul-destroying high security prison Azkaban.
The book begins with the account of a shell-shocked, disabled WWII veteran being arrested and, in the public mind, convicted, of the mysterious murders of the aristocratic family he worked for, fifty years ago.
July 25 2005, 04:39:51 UTC 6 years ago
Life imitating art
Or, rather, art reproducing the truths we already know (though we try not to remember) from life.Ang
July 25 2005, 11:29:20 UTC 6 years ago
Yup.
I *still* see bloggers who should know better saying "But we used to be the good guys!" or "When did we become the bad guys?" in re this latest revelation about the WH working to block the torture evidence from Abu Ghreib.No, I said, we're the guys who got away with it before, which isn't the same thing at all.
But you can put up timelines, links, first-hand source material quotes, and they will nevertheless manage to avoid comprehension. I've never seen so much invincible ignorance in one place from supposed-adults in the teeth of the evidence.
(Other versions of this are When did Colin Powell/John McCain/Lindsay Graham/So-and-So lose their honour? They used to be decent Republicans of integrity)
July 25 2005, 15:08:45 UTC 6 years ago
Re: Yup.
I *still* see bloggers who should know better saying "But we used to be the good guys!" or "When did we become the bad guys?"As if "bad guys" and "good guys" were teams where you could become a member, and kicked out due to some decisions you have no part in. You do bad stuff, you're a bad guy. How hard is that?
July 26 2005, 03:17:37 UTC 6 years ago
except for that "do bad stuff" is itself conditional
Only Bad Guys™ can Do Bad Stuff. If you're a Good Guy™, your deeds are necessarily Good Stuff - even if they're otherwise identical to those committed by the Bad Guys™.(This sort of unprincipled idealism™ was one of the hallmarks of a certain rising world power in the first half of the last century, according to those who were part of the resistance to it at the time.)
--If you all really want to be weirded out, go check out Ultimate X-Men 1: The Tomorrow People, graphic novel. I had to check three times before I was fully convinced that it was written and published in 2000...
Anonymous
July 26 2005, 19:36:49 UTC 6 years ago
Re: except for that "do bad stuff" is itself conditional
Along the same lines, I recently saw a well-meaning person write that until Bush came along, he had never been ashamed of being an American. Well, I'm not sure I'd put things that way in the first place, but the fact is that Bush's crimes aren't really all that far out of the ordinary. Lying about wars, torturing people, supporting murderous thugs--what's new here? I think Bush is arguably the worst President we've had in a long time, but it's because he's bad on practically everything, not because torture is something we've never been involved in before. Nixon was a worse war criminal, but he was decent on the environment. Reagan supported mass murderers on several continents, but he recognized Gorbachev's sincere desire for peace between the superpowers while the rest of the American right wing thought glasnost was all a deep Commie plot. Carter was a hypocrite on human rights, but sometimes he meant it.Bush--well, I'd honestly have trouble thinking of any redeeming qualities.
Donald Johnson