Bartemius Crouch Junior

Bartemius “Barty” Crouch Junior was a pure-blood wizard and a fanatically devoted Death Eater, whose loyalty to Lord Voldemort surpassed all others. The son of high-ranking Ministry of Magic official Bartemius Crouch Snr, Barty was sentenced to Azkaban for his role in the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom. After a daring escape, he played the central role in engineering Lord Voldemort's return to power. By impersonating the Auror Alastor Moody using Polyjuice Potion, he infiltrated Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and ensured Harry Potter's delivery to Voldemort at the climax of the Triwizard Tournament. His subsequent capture and fate were critical in the Ministry of Magic's denial of Voldemort's return.

Barty Crouch Jnr was an exceptionally intelligent student, achieving twelve O.W.L.s during his time at Hogwarts. Despite his academic brilliance, he fell in with a pro-Voldemort crowd and became a Death Eater shortly after graduating. During the First Wizarding War, he joined Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, and Rabastan Lestrange in capturing the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom. They used the Cruciatus Curse to torture the Longbottoms for information on Lord Voldemort's whereabouts after his downfall, driving them to permanent insanity.

Crouch Jnr and his accomplices were captured and tried before the Council of Magical Law, a trial presided over by his own father, Barty Crouch Snr, then Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Despite his son's pleas of innocence, Crouch Snr publicly disowned him and sentenced him to a life sentence in Azkaban as a show of his own ruthlessness against Dark Magic. A year into his sentence, his dying mother persuaded her husband to orchestrate an escape. During a visit, Mrs. Crouch used Polyjuice Potion to switch places with her son. She died shortly after in his cell and was buried outside Azkaban under his name, while the real Barty Jnr returned home with his father. To control him, Barty Crouch Snr kept his son constantly under the Imperius Curse and hidden beneath an Invisibility Cloak.

Over the years, Barty Jnr began to resist the Imperius Curse. His presence at the Crouch household was accidentally discovered by Ministry of Magic employee Bertha Jorkins. Lord Voldemort, having captured Jorkins in Albania, extracted this information from her mind before killing her. Voldemort and Wormtail travelled to the Crouch house, where they overpowered Barty Crouch Snr and freed Barty Jnr from his father's control. Barty Jnr happily rejoined his master, and they placed Crouch Snr under the Imperius Curse to maintain his public-facing role at the Ministry.

As a key part of Voldemort's plan to return to power, Barty Jnr was tasked with infiltrating Hogwarts. He ambushed the renowned Auror Alastor Moody just before he was due to begin teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. Keeping the real Moody alive in his own magical trunk, Barty used Polyjuice Potion to assume his identity for the entire school year. As “Moody,” he proved to be a shockingly effective, if unorthodox, teacher, famously demonstrating the three Unforgivable Curses to his fourth-year students. His primary mission was to ensure Harry Potter won the Triwizard Tournament. He secretly entered Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire under a fourth school, guided Harry through each of the three tasks, and turned the Triwizard Cup into a Portkey that would transport the winner to the Little Hangleton graveyard where Voldemort waited. During this time, his father briefly escaped the Imperius Curse and attempted to reach Dumbledore. Barty Jnr intercepted and killed his own father on the Hogwarts grounds, transfiguring the body into a bone and burying it in the Forbidden Forest.

After Harry returned from the graveyard, “Moody” escorted him away from the panicked crowd, intending to kill him and be heralded as the one who brought down the last of the Potter family. However, his Polyjuice Potion wore off, revealing his true identity. Cornered by Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Severus Snape, he was dosed with Veritaserum and gave a full confession of the entire plot. Before this confession could be officially recorded, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge arrived with a Dementor as a bodyguard. The Dementor performed the Dementor's Kiss on Barty Jnr, sucking out his soul and leaving him in a permanent, vegetative state. This act effectively silenced the only witness who could have confirmed Voldemort's return to a skeptical Ministry.

In his youth, Barty Crouch Jnr was described as a pale boy with a mop of straw-coloured hair, freckles, and a terrified expression. After his escape from Azkaban, he still appeared boyish but bore the marks of his ordeal. Barty's defining trait was his fanatical, worshipful devotion to Lord Voldemort, whom he saw as a true father figure in contrast to his own. He was highly intelligent, cunning, and an exceptionally powerful wizard. His ability to impersonate Alastor Moody for nearly a year, fooling even Albus Dumbledore, demonstrates his skill as a consummate actor. Beneath this facade, he was ruthless, cruel, and devoid of remorse, as shown by his participation in the torture of the Longbottoms and the murder of his own father.

• Overall Proficiency: Barty Jnr was a wizard of outstanding ability, having earned twelve O.W.L.s.
• Dark Arts: He was an expert in the Dark Arts, capable of casting all three Unforgivable Curses with great power.
• Transfiguration: He demonstrated remarkable skill in Transfiguration by transforming his father's entire body into a single bone.
• Potions: He was a masterful brewer, successfully creating the highly complex Polyjuice Potion on a continuous basis for an entire year.
• Duelling: He was a formidable duellist, capable of overpowering the famously skilled and vigilant Auror, Alastor Moody.
• Resistance to Imperius Curse: He was one of the few individuals known to have successfully thrown off a long-term Imperius Curse through his own willpower.

• Wand: His own wand was presumably confiscated upon his arrest. He temporarily used Harry Potter's wand to cast the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup and later used Alastor Moody's wand throughout his year of impersonation.
• Polyjuice Potion: He carried a hip flask filled with Polyjuice Potion at all times to maintain his disguise as Moody.
• Alastor Moody's Magical Items: While disguised, he used Moody's magical trunk to imprison the real Auror, as well as his magical eye, Foe-Glass, Secrecy Sensor, and Sneakoscope.
• Invisibility Cloak: He was hidden under an Invisibility Cloak by his father for many years.

• Lord Voldemort: Barty worshipped Voldemort with absolute fanaticism, viewing him as a leader and a replacement for his own father. Voldemort, in turn, considered Barty to be among his most faithful and valuable followers.
• Bartemius Crouch Snr: His relationship with his father was defined by mutual hatred. His father's public disownment and imprisonment of him fostered a deep-seated resentment that culminated in Barty murdering his father without hesitation.
• Mrs. Crouch: His mother loved him dearly, sacrificing her own life to save him from Azkaban. Barty's feelings toward her are not explicitly stated, but he took advantage of her sacrifice to gain his freedom.
• Harry Potter: Barty viewed Harry as a mere pawn in his master's plan. He skillfully manipulated and guided Harry for a full year, feigning care and mentorship, all with the goal of delivering him to Voldemort.

• Bartemius: This name is likely derived from the New Testament figure Bartimaeus, a blind beggar whose sight was restored by Jesus. This is deeply ironic, as Barty Crouch Snr was “blind” to his son's true nature, and Barty Jnr himself was blinded by his zealous devotion to Voldemort.
• Crouch: This English surname means “to bend low or stoop,” which aptly describes Barty's subservient, worshipful posture towards Voldemort. It can also allude to the “low” act of deceit his family committed to break him out of prison.

In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Barty Crouch Jnr is portrayed by actor David Tennant. The film depicts his trial differently from the book's Pensieve memory; instead of being terrified and pleading, he is shown as defiant and maniacally proud of his allegiance to Voldemort, famously flicking his tongue at his father. This tongue-flick tic was an improvisation by Tennant that was then adopted by Brendan Gleeson for his portrayal of the disguised Barty as Alastor Moody (film).