LV is a psycho (Book 4 Spoiler)

[carsten]

If you rethink the chain of events in book 4 (Goblin of Fire) and the plans behind it, you run into some alarming questions.

The basic premise of the book was LV's plan to catch Harry. His used a port-key, which worked to some extend. Some questions remain:

1. Why making Harry stronger? Crouch, LV's backer, taught Harry some useful stuff, which he used against LV.
2. Why so complicated? He had a helping hand in Hogwarts. Instead of teaching Harry DADA, Crouch could have asked Harry in for a private meeting, presenting him a pencil, which could be the port-key. Make him touch it and: Finished!
3. Why so late? LV postponed his plans several times. Is he an attention seeking psycho? Did he need the audience of the game?
4. Why not in the first round? Make the golden egg the port-key: Finished! (OK, OK, he might habe brought a dragon to the graveyard, but LV should be able to handle this.)
5. Why so easy? If port-keys are known to work in Hogwarts, why did nobody tell poor Harry about it? There were no decent safety-measures taken.
6. Why make him win? Part of the plan was Harry's win of the game. Actually Crouch went to great lengths in order to achieve it. This made Harry even more popular as a hero of resistance against LV.
7. What next step? Did LV plan to present himself to the audience in Hogwarts after killing Harry? Probably not: DD was as strong as ever.

I am having a fuzzy, nebulous theory about the matter, but I would like to listen to your ideas first.

Carsten

[Ferrus]

Well, Lv is a pretty tipical bad guy (when you think about it) so he behaves like one. That includes the terribly complex and intricate plans to kill the good guys.

[carsten]

Well, Lv is a pretty tipical bad guy (when you think about it) so he behaves like one. That includes the terribly complex and intricate plans to kill the good guys.

Yes, he shows some stereotype behaviour copied from mainstream American movies. If we think about it, we might get to the conclusion, that JKR had a few problems in story structure, but this is kind of a forbidden thought in this forum (and should be).

I can make up (weird) explanations for some of the questions raised. Comments welcome.

Carsten

[Mint]

You know I don't think LV told Crouch what to do exactly. He just told him that he needs Harry to be in that place and Crouch had to figure out the rest of the details on his own.

Or perhaps Crouch was the one who came up with the plan to begin with and LV just agreed to it.

[carsten]

You know I don't think LV told Crouch what to do exactly. He just told him that he needs Harry to be in that place and Crouch had to figure out the rest of the details on his own.

Or perhaps Crouch was the one who came up with the plan to begin with and LV just agreed to it.

OK, OK, but does the plan become any better by this?

Crouch may be a less brillant guy than LV, but LV was informed (remember the conversations with Wormtail) all the time. He could have pointed out some of the obvious flaws - if it were flaws. I think his overall plan involves terror and he seeks for power over the masses. So bringing Harry into public focus and killing him on the verge of success might be an especially malicious part of the plan.

Carsten

[thestral]

maybe LV wanted to make it a big deal and the biggest way to shout it out to the wizard world that LV is back and all powerful is to kill harry when the attention of the whole wizarding world is focused on harry's involvement in the tournament.

Think about it the crowds cheering and suddenly harry potter's body turns up with the sign of the dark mark over it for everyone to see in a stadium full of people. Creating full-scale panic and a climate of absolute disunity and fear, the perfect time and politcal atmosphere for Voldemort to return to the height of his strengths among the indecision and panic getting a good grip on the fear he had like 14/15 (?) years ago.

Of course this all relied on killing harry at the most opportune, high exposure moment as it wouldn't create as much of an effect if it was just a random day people woke up and read in their papers VOLDEMORT RETURNS POTTER DEAD. More shocking if lots of people saw a demostration of his power by killing his biggest enemy (exception of Dumbledore) in front of the whole wizarding world. Like he said in GoF he boasted to harry, "how foolish it was to suppose that this boy could ever have been stronger than me. But i want there to be no mistake in anybody's mind. Harry Potter escaoed me by lucky chance. And I am now going to prove my power by killing him here and now in front of you all"

This is meant to be a historical moment in the wizard world he has it carefully orchestrated to make it as dramatic as possible, create the mass panic and chaos the perfect conditions for him to take over in. Like at the end of phoenix when the public find out it's all over the papers, and talked about but it's not a collapse of democracy and the wizarding world,more like a gradual realisation and there's a sense of the wizard world gearing up and preparing to fight voldemort rather than a sudden shock re appearance in blaze of death and glory.

[Phinea Rogue]

Great thinking, thestral, you may be right. On the other hand, didn't Dumbledore say something about it later, something like Voldemort didn't want anyone yet (especially not Albus) to know that he's back? I think he says something in the book 5.

Hmm, that makes Voldemort... a split personality? A psycho, definitely.

[thestral]

damn a flaw in my plan, maybe JKR is leaving it open to interpretation? well pyscho's are unpredictable. lol

[Phaerie]

Maybe there was specific timing on the spell that restored LV to his body, like it needed to be done at a particular time of year.

The reason Crouch junior didn't give harry a pencil portkey is that it could too easily be linked to him. Somebody else would know that he was the last person to see Harry and DD would become very suspicious.

As for the stuff he taught. Well i guess he had to be a convincing Moody. Maybe moody had lesson plans which he had already shared with DD. Crouch jr would have had to have stuyck to these to a reasonable extent to again avoid arousing suspicion.

The maze was the perfect challenge to use ( as oppose to the dragon one) firstly because of the risk of taking the dragon. If you remember it took several simultaneous stunning spells to bring one down. LVis currently only ina "baby's" body. Him and wormtail are not going to be able to control a dragon and keep it from muggle notice. Secondly there is a lot more confusion in the 3rd task. All the contestants are competing at once. in the dragon task it would hvae been instantly noticable when harry dissapeared as he was highly visible and the centre of attention.. In the 3rd task hes inthe middle of a dark maze where nobody can really seehim (accept moody with his magic eye) It would take a little while fo anyone to realise he'd gone.

I assume the portkey was 2 way to send Harry's body back to Hogwarts to the middle of the maze, where teachers would assume he'd been killed by the acromantula. They'd never realise he'd actually gone anywhere and LV would have been resurrected without anyone knowing

[carsten]

You have some excellent points here! I was thinking, too, why LV tried to keep undercover for some time, and then chosing a major event for his attack against Harry. But your ideas give a twist to the situation: People have died before in such a tournament, and maybe it was LV's plan to stay hidden by making it look like an accident.
I still have some open items:

The reason Crouch junior didn't give harry a pencil portkey is that it could too easily be linked to him. Somebody else would know that he was the last person to see Harry and DD would become very suspicious.

OK, but he could leave too, because his mission was accomplished.

I assume the portkey was 2 way to send Harry's body back to Hogwarts to the middle of the maze, where teachers would assume he'd been killed by the acromantula. They'd never realise he'd actually gone anywhere and LV would have been resurrected without anyone knowing

That would explain the 2-way portkey. The maze must have been very annoying for the audience: not much to see!

Thanks for sharing your ideas!

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

my brain is too dead to come up with something to say about all this, but here's something interesting I discovered as I re-read 4. In the graveyard scene when LV is talking to Harry, JKR mentions that a yew tree isn't even moving, or something like that. LV's wand is made out of yew.