Harry Potter: Barty Crouch Sr’s private war against the Death Eaters

A look at Bartemius Crouch Sr. and his very own private war against the Death Eaters in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

“He’s a Great Wizard Barty Crouch, powerfully magical and power hungry”, Sirius Black’s assessment of Barty Crouch Sr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire couldn’t be more accurate. He was above all things incredibly skilled, it is ever the more so sad then that Crouch should die a lonely death murdered by his own son.

Personality wise, Crouch wasn’t particularly affable, he didn’t have the cheery demeanor of Cornelius Fudge or the raconteur ability of Horace Slughorn and Dumbledore. Indeed, he could be quite a difficult employer as Arthur Weasley would attest but one thing he most certainly was not as Sirius Black said was a “Voldemort Support.”

The fact that Crouch could be an exceptional magic user and not be seduced by the Death Eaters is commendable but his struggle against them although at times misguided was outright heroic.

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It is difficult to appreciate how close Voldemort came in his first war let alone its sequel to taking over the magical world. With the exception of maybe Hogwarts, the entire wizard society was up for grabs. Voldemort’s hold was not simply over Death-Eaters and dark wizards who wanted to murder but high born wizard families. One particular case being the Malfoy’s who is an “old wizarding family” as well as “rich” as Fred Weasley succinctly puts it. But it wasn’t the Malfoy’s alone. They were one of many pure bloods who saw Voldemort as a way to prop up their dynasties.

With this in mind, it is even more impressive that Crouch never gave in to any temptation to join Voldemort’s followers given that the enemies were not simply outside but within. This was literally as well as metaphorically as Death-Eaters were selecting and targeting to kill in particularly nasty ways anyone who opposed them. Who was going to lead the fight back? The answer seemed to be Barty Crouch “Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”

Barty Crouch and others in the Ministry and elsewhere began to conceive of a misguided perhaps but an understandable idea. Why not use the Death-Eaters methods against them? Why not instead of becoming a victim of the Death-Eaters wrath when or so they choose, fight back instead?

This involved a tit for tat approach. The Death-Eaters use Avada Kedavra and other evil spells on wizards and muggles? The wizards respond with equally brutal measures. Unfortunately, while “Crouch’s principles might have been good in the beginning” they began to cause problems. After all, if you had information to provide on the whereabouts of Death-Eaters you might be dissuaded if you thought you might be carted off to Azkaban as well!

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The lack of mercy given to any of the Death-Eaters also raised the pitch to an even more dangerous level. For any followers of Voldemort that might regret their actions especially if they had not been involved in any violence or use of forbidden spells themselves. They couldn’t surrender as lifelong imprisonment or worse was the punishment. This meant that to fight on was the only alternative.

Now one might think, well they should have thought about this when they joined a pure blood death cult, and that is certainly understandable but it also follows that Death-Eaters now had no reason not to take hostages, eliminate innocents and generally be very evil.

The war began to take a toll on Crouch himself as well, he had a fractious relationship not only with his colleagues but now also with his family. As Sirius Black states “Crouch own son was caught with a group of Death-Eaters”. Now, Black’s assessment that Crouch should have “left the office early once in a while” is perhaps unfair. There are many characters in Harry Potter who have difficult upbringings, Sirius himself included who do not become Death-Eaters but it does ring true that Crouch had become what he had once sought to oppose.

What often doesn’t get discussed with Barty Crouch and his downfall is the years between his son being imprisoned in Azkaban and the return of Voldemort. It is forgotten that Crouch Sr remained stoic he had ensured his own child hadn’t got off lightly and had kept his mission going. Unfortunately, it ultimately destroyed him.

The Barty Crouch Sr that is seen in The Goblet of Fire is still not to be underestimated but nevertheless a shadow of his former self. He has a mental breakdown within the presence of Harry Potter and begins having a rather pleasant conversation with a “tree” or “gabbling” as Harry refers to it. Yet still flickers of the once great mind remain and he is aware that by allowing his son out of Azkaban he has compromised Dumbledore and the Wizarding world itself.

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Barty Crouch is ultimately a tragic figure, indeed perhaps the tragic figure of Harry Potter. He is not an evil person actually and given the extremely sadistic nature of the Death-Eaters, a harsh response was not without merit. Crouch was, however, someone who in the process of fighting monsters ultimately became one himself, as the old adage goes.

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