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Complete, detailed, and amazing Reader's Guides
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter Twenty-Eight:
The Madness of Mr. Crouch

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NOTES | CHARACTERS | SETTINGS | TIMELINE / CALENDAR
EXCEPTIONAL CHARACTER MOMENTS
SPELLS | LINKS & RESOURCES | MEMORABLE LINES | STRICTLY BRITISH

Synopsis by William Silvester
Notes and links by Michele L. Worley

U.S. hardcover edition: pages 535 - 563
U.K. hardcover edition: pages 465 - 489
U.K. paperback edition: pages 582 - 612
Timeframe: Sunday 7 March - Thursday 27 May 1995 [Y15]

The Madness of Mr. Crouch, GF28, by Mary GrandPré

In which HRH visit the kitchens again, Hermione upsets Winky, and Harry sends owls with food to Sirius, Hermione gets threatening letters by owl, Hagrid has Nifflers in Care of Magical Creatures, more hate mail arrives, Harry learns that the Third Task involves a maze, Krum asks Harry about his relationship with Hermione, Crouch appears (bloody, bedraggled and incoherent), Harry goes for Dumbledore but Crouch apparently attacks Krum and runs off.

Interesting facts and notes about the text of this chapter:

The chapter title is an historical reference, and a bit of a joke, being a play on "The Madness of King George". King George III of England was considered insane for much of his adult life, and in particular was noted for talking to trees, as Mr. Crouch is shown doing in this chapter - even the same species of tree, an oak.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione went up to the Owlery after breakfast on Sunday...

An unusually large variety of post owls are mentioned in this chapter, either explicitly or implicitly, but very few referred to are in the Owlery itself; mostly they appear in the Great Hall hate mail scene later on.
  • Pigwidgeon
  • four barn owls
  • brown owl
  • eagle owl
  • gray owl
  • two screech owls (helping Pigwidgeon carry a food parcel to Sirius)
  • snowy owl (Hedwig)
  • tawny

They proceeded down to the kitchen to give Dobby his new socks.

Harry is being prompt about keeping his word (having promised himself after the Second Task to buy Dobby a pair of socks for every day of the year), being considerate of a friend (giving Dobby something he'll enjoy), and looking out for Sirius at the same time, as we shall see in a moment.

"We should get some stuff to send up to Snuffles," Harry muttered.
"Good idea," said Ron. "Give Pig something to do."

As we see later as Pig struggles with the food parcel for Snuffles, offering his services is not necessarily one of Ron's better ideas, given Pig's size.

Winky was sitting on the same stool as last time, but she had allowed herself to become so filthy that she was not immediately distinguishable from the smoke-blackened brick behind her. Her clothes were ragged and unwashed.

The whole subject of clothes is rather touchy for house-elves, of course. Notice that of the house-elves we have met (Dobby, Kreacher, Winky, and the as-yet unnamed staff members of Hogwarts), those who are happy in their work take care to dress themselves neatly in whatever they use as clothing, while those who are unhappy with their situations wear filthy rags: Dobby in his days with the Malfoys, Kreacher in his dirty loincloth, and Winky here.

"Winky is getting through six bottles a day now," Dobby whispered to Harry.
"Well, it's not strong, that stuff," Harry said.
But Dobby shook his head. "'Tis strong for a house-elf, sir," he said.

At a guess, the fact that house-elves are much more sensitive to the alcohol content of butterbeer than humans are is probably due to a combination of their much smaller size and some quirk of a house-elf's metabolism.

"Winky is pining, Harry Potter," Dobby whispered sadly. "Winky wants to go home. Winky still thinks Mr. Crouch is her master, sir, and nothing Dobby says will persuade her that Professor Dumbledore is her master now."

Until the Quidditch World Cup, Winky had spent her entire life with the Crouch family, so it isn't surprising that she still thinks of the Crouch household as home. Her devotion to Crouch senior even after being sacked is a reflection on his character as well as hers. Note that Crouch can inspire extreme loyalty in some of his subordinates despite his somewhat careless treatment of them - his inability to remember Percy's name, and his public harshness in sacking Winky to cover up his son's actions at the World Cup.

"Master is needing his - hie - Winky!" whimpered the elf. "Master cannot - hic - manage - hic - all by himself. . . ."

Winky, of course, is worrying about how Crouch senior can cope with his imprisoned son without her help as caretaker and guardian. She is the most likely person to be aware of the fact that he had begun to fight off the Imperius Curse after spending so much time in its grip, and thus more likely than Crouch senior to be aware of the risk he would run if, for example, he left his son alone for the day while he went off to his job at the Ministry.

"Other people manage to do their own housework, you know, Winky," Hermione said severely.
"Winky - hic - is not only - hic - doing housework for Mr. Crouch!" Winky squeaked indignantly, swaying worse than ever and slopping butterbeer down her already heavily stained blouse. "Master is - hic - trusting Winky with - hic - the most important - hic - the most secret..."

While Hermione means well, she is unintentionally being condescending to Winky (who is, after all, a full-grown house-elf and should be treated as an adult). Winky has taken enough drink that she becomes a little indiscreet in her indignation at Hermione, though not enough to completely overcome the house-elf code of silence.

Half a dozen house-elves came hurrying forward, looking disgusted. One of them picked up the bottle; the others covered Winky with a large checked tablecloth and tucked the ends in neatly, hiding her from view.

Not surprisingly, given the nature of their work, the house-elves seem to be very disciplined about keeping things tidy even among themselves; only desperately unhappy house-elves seem prone to personal slovenliness, as with Kreacher's nest in Grimmauld Place.

"Begging your pardon, miss," said the house-elf, bowing deeply again, "but house-elves has no right to be unhappy when there is work to be done and masters to be served."

The house-elves as shown here seem not unlike many working-class communities of Muggles: every able-bodied adult is expected to be responsible and have a job, and one of the worst forms of disgrace is to be known as someone who drinks.

"Listen to me, all of you! You've got just as much right as wizards to be unhappy! You've got the right to wages and holidays and proper clothes, you don't have to do everything you're told - look at Dobby!"
"Miss will please keep Dobby out of this," Dobby mumbled, looking scared.
The cheery smiles had vanished from the faces of the house-elves around the kitchen. They were suddenly looking at Hermione as though she were mad and dangerous.

Hermione's characterization here is quite realistic, in that she's being shown as having good intentions without having enough experience of people to be as effective as she'd like. She is well-intentioned toward the house-elves, but inconsiderate of their point of view. She seems to be thinking in terms of what she would want in their place: the chance to study magic, and use a wand (GF14), and pursue intellectual interests, rather than considering that house-elves have their own point of view, and might be interested in other kinds of activities.

An eagle owl flew through the coil of smoke rising from Hagrids chimney; it soared toward the castle, around the Owlery, and out of sight.

Note that this may well be the same owl as that which Harry sees delivering a message to Voldemort in his dream in Divination, the next day (see GF29).

Looking down, Harry saw Hagrid digging energetically in front of his cabin. Harry wondered what he was doing; it looked as though he were making a new vegetable patch.

Hagrid, of course, is preparing the ground for his next Care of Magical Creatures lesson, which will cover nifflers. As an unintended side effect, though, the fact that the earth around Hagrid's cabin had been so recently churned up accounts for the fact that fake-Moody was able to effectively conceal Crouch senior's body so quickly, something rather difficult even in its Transfigured state.

As he watched, Madame Maxime emerged from the Beauxbatons carriage and walked over to Hagrid. She appeared to be trying to engage him in conversation.
Hagrid leaned upon his spade, but did not seem keen to prolong their talk, because Madame Maxime returned to the carriage shortly afterward.

From Hagrid's remarks later in the chapter, he now believes that Maxime's attempts to be sociable are completely insincere, serving only as an excuse to pump him for information about the Triwizard tasks on behalf of the Beauxbatons champion.

"I've taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet. I'm getting sick of finding everything out from the Slytherins."

As we are to learn later, Hermione is giving the Slytherins more credit than they deserve; they've been feeding Rita Skeeter information for months rather than following the newspapers. As we will see the following New Year's in OP25, very few Hogwarts students follow the wizarding news any more than Dudley Dursley follows the Muggle news.
Krum and Harry in the Forest by Marta T.

Characters introduced in this chapter:

  • none

Characters returning in this chapter:

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

Settings and locations:

Settings and locations mentioned in this chapter:

Exceptional character moments:

Spells:

Links and Resources:

Memorable lines:

  • "Come on,Ron, it could be worse. At least your fingers aren't full of pus."

  • "What's the betting she comes back with a box of I hate Rita Skeeter badges?"

  • But nothing at Hogwarts had ever moved just because he shouted at it; he knew it was no good.

Strictly British:

Timelines/Calendar:

This chapter begins on the Sunday after the end of the previous chapter.

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original content © 2005 - 2006 The Harry Potter Lexicon and Michele L. Worley
Synopsis © 2002 William Silvester
original artwork of Winky by Mary GrandPré © Warner Bros., used by permission
Krum and Harry in the Forest © Marta T., used by permission
HARRY POTTER, characters, names, and all related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros. © 2006.
NO PART OF THIS PAGE MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY MANNER WITHOUT PERMISSION
original page date 19-January-2005 by MLW
last page update 27-April-2006 by MLW