- “He was tipped as the next Minister for Magic. He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical — and power-hungry. Oh, never a Voldemort supporter. No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But... I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side.”
- ―Sirius Black regarding Crouch's ruthlessness and extreme methods
Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Senior (d. 27 May 1995) was a British pure-blood wizard, the father of Bartemius Crouch Junior, and an influential British Ministry of Magic official during the mid-to-late 20th century.
He was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement during the First Wizarding War, and a candidate for the highest role. He had a reputation for "fighting fire with fire", exhibiting the sort of ruthlessness and brutality against criminals that could be compared to some Death Eaters to their victims.
He was cast aside after the First Wizarding War and was put in charge of Department of International Magical Co-operation. He was eventually murdered by his Death Eater son, Barty Crouch Jnr, who despised him. He and his son were the last members of the pure-blood Crouch family.
Background[]
Biography[]
Bartemius was born to the pure-blood Crouch family. He was trained in the magical arts, most likely in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and pursued a highly successful career at the British Ministry of Magic.
He was married to a "wispy-looking little witch" and they had a son, who was named after him, Bartemius Crouch Junior. Crouch quickly rose through the ranks of the Ministry of Magic and became the judge in the Council of Magical Law whilst heading the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Crouch spent much of his life in his career and as such, did not pay enough attention to his family, especially his son. According to Sirius Black, he "dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic".
During the downfall of the Death Eaters in the First Wizarding War, Bartemius convicted several suspected criminals to life imprisonment in Azkaban, including Sirius Black, who did not even receive a trial. He authorised Aurors to use the Unforgivable Curses on their opponents if necessary and went under the principles of "kill rather than capture" and "attack first, ask questions later". Crouch oversaw a trial where he had the Death Eater Igor Karkaroff set free in exchange for the names of several other Death Eaters, including Augustus Rookwood.
He also oversaw the trial of Ludo Bagman, but much to Crouch's fury, the Council cleared Bagman of all charges and even applauded Ludo for his previous achievements in a Quidditch match, though it should be noted that Bagman was merely an unwitting informant rather than an actual Death Eater. Although Crouch's tactics were cruel, most people believed that he was doing the right thing, as there would be no way to defeat Lord Voldemort otherwise. Many people predicted that Crouch would be the next Minister for Magic, since Albus Dumbledore refused the position multiple times.
However, after Lord Voldemort's fall, Crouch got the news that his own son had helped drive two Aurors — Alice and Frank Longbottom — insane through use of the Cruciatus Curse alongside with the three Lestrange Death Eaters, trying to learn where their master was in hiding. A trial being the closest to fatherly affection he can give, Crouch did not make any difference for it despite his son being among the convicts.
Ignoring his son and wife's pleas, as well as the apparently not completely certain evidence that his son was guilty in the first place (it was later stated that there was some ambiguity about whether his son had taken part in the torture or merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time), he sentenced all four Death Eaters to Azkaban for life, while cruelly claiming that he had no son: his decision was met with the roaring approval of the court. In Sirius's opinion, and by all accounts, this court was nothing more than a sham trial for Crouch Snr. to express his hatred for his son and to publicly disown him in front of the entire Wizengamot.
Shortly after the imprisonment, the Crouch couple was permitted a deathbed visit due to Crouch's high status as a Ministry official. Mrs Crouch's health was failing at the time due to the stress and begged her husband to rescue their son from prison as one last favour, to which he agreed out of love for her. The two took advantage of the deathbed visit by using Polyjuice Potion to switch Barty Junior and Mrs Crouch, in case any of the prisoners were watching from their cells, and then Barty Snr smuggled his son out of Azkaban. Mrs Crouch died shortly afterwards posing as her son until the end and because Barty never went to retrieve her body in fear of having the breakout exposed, staged her death and held a quiet, private funeral with an empty grave.
According to Crouch Jnr, his father only saved him as a favour for his wife and that Crouch Snr himself "loved her as he never loved [his son]", though due to Crouch Jnr's mental instability and biased hatred for his father at the time it is likely this take on things is not completely accurate. However, since the Crouch's house-elf Winky was able to gain concessions for Barty Jnr through evoking the name of Barty Snr's deceased wife, it is safe to assume that he was respecting his wife's wishes in allowing her to sacrifice herself by spending her last days in a place like Azkaban for their son's sake and in risking his own position in the Ministry despite his hatred for the Dark Arts and all who practise them.
Crouch took his real son home, having his house-elf Winky to nurse the boy back to health. After that, Crouch searched long and hard for methods to restrain his son from returning to Voldemort and was eventually forced to utilise the Imperius Curse to keep Barty Jnr under house arrest for twelve years and his visual body hidden under an Invisibility Cloak. He then assigned Winky to become the boy's keeper and carer. Winky would try to persuade her elder master to award his son for his good behaviour, despite it all being a byproduct of the subjugation.
Because of the public reaction after his "son" died, with the ambiguity of the imprisonment starting to overtake the rash decision of the trial, not to mention that people starting to take pity on Crouch Jnr for his father's neglect, Crouch Snr lost his popularity and chance to become Minister for Magic and was shunted sideways to the Department of International Magical Co-operation, with Cornelius Fudge succeeding Millicent Bagnold as Minister instead.
At some point while serving as Department Head, a Ministry worker named Bertha Jorkins called at the Crouch home with Ministry paperwork. Crouch was out, but Bertha secretly overheard Winky talking to Barty Crouch Jnr. She heard enough to guess that it was Crouch Jnr hiding under an Invisibility Cloak.
Upon returning home, Crouch was confronted by Bertha. Crouch took drastic measures by casting an extremely powerful Memory Charm on her, which accidentally caused Bertha some brain damage, although it was not noticeable except for a new tendency of forgetfulness. Bertha went to work for Ludo Bagman at the Department of Magical Games and Sports.
Sometime later, Winky convinced (after months of efforts) Crouch Snr to take her and Barty to the 1994 Quidditch World Cup final, which was being held in England that year, stating that it was what his wife would have wanted. Crouch remained in his tent while Winky took Barty, hidden under an Invisibility Cloak, up to the Top Box. She covered her eyes for the duration of the match because she was so afraid of heights. Barty, however, had awoken from the Imperius Curse and proceeded to steal Harry Potter's wand from his pocket, as Harry was sitting right in front of the invisible Barty. He later used Harry's wand to cast Morsmordre.
Crouch saw the effect the spell had — the Dark Mark was hovering overhead — and hurried to the place where it had just been cast. It was there that he found Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, as well as Winky in the bushes nearby with Harry's wand. Crouch also found his invisible son on the ground, unconscious. After Harry's wand was determined to be the culprit, Crouch publicly dismissed Winky (ostensibly for disgracing him, but in reality for failing to supervise his son). After the witnesses to Winky's dismissal left, Crouch recast the Imperius Curse on Barty and returned home.
Meanwhile, Lord Voldemort had found and tortured Bertha Jorkins into telling him vital information about the present state of the Ministry, including the fact that Barty was alive and still loyal to the Dark Lord. Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort travelled to the Crouch home, placed the Imperius Curse on Crouch himself which removed the one placed on Barty Jnr.
Crouch was ordered to go to work and do all his usual jobs as if nothing had happened. This included becoming one of the judges in the Triwizard Tournament, which he and his department had helped plan out. When Crouch, along with Ludo Bagman, came to Hogwarts, Crouch was unable to get as much applause as Bagman did, probably partly because he was not a very pleasant-looking man. While this was happening, Crouch's son was also in Hogwarts, impersonating the scheduled Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Alastor Moody using Polyjuice Potion and plotting to help his master rise to power. Crouch showed no sign of surprise, exhaustion or any emotion at all when the name of Harry Potter came from the Goblet of Fire, as a part of Voldemort's plan. Presumably due to Voldemort's influence, Crouch insisted that any person whose name came out of the Goblet had to compete in the tournament.
A short time later, however, Crouch started to resist the Imperius Curse, just like his son had done during his time under Crouch's control. Voldemort, fearing that people would become suspicious, ordered him to stay home and write letters. These letters said that he was sick and this resulted in his duties as a Tournament judge being primarily carried out by Percy Weasley. This brought suspicion to some people (such as Sirius Black) who knew that Barty would never take a day off work simply because of some unexplained illness, but no investigation was made.
Eventually, Crouch broke free of the curse and due to Wormtail's neglect, managed to escape and fled towards Hogwarts to warn Dumbledore about Voldemort's plans. Exhausted and slightly mad from the effects of Voldemort's mind-controlling spells, he staggered through the Forbidden Forest onto the Hogwarts grounds, eventually coming across Harry and Viktor Krum. Crouch's resisting of Voldemort's spells caused him to continuously talk to a nearby tree, thinking it was his assistant "Weatherby" and to think his wife and son were still alive and well, saying that his son had gained twelve O.W.L.s. In a short sane state, Crouch begged to speak to Dumbledore, claiming that it was "all his fault". and saying that "the dark lord was rising.
While Harry went to get him, Barty Jnr arrived (as Alastor Moody) and stunned Krum. He then murdered his father and transfigured the corpse into a bone, burying it in Rubeus Hagrid's garden.
Barty Jnr was later captured and admitted, under the influence of Veritaserum, to having murdered his father, among the other facts of the breakout and Voldemort's plan. Soon afterwards, he was subjected to the Dementor's Kiss by Cornelius Fudge's Dementor which he took into Hogwarts for his own safety when he heard there was a Death Eater in the castle.
After his son's confession, it is unknown if Crouch Snr's corpse was retrieved and untransfigured, though Fudge did deem him mad and delusional from what he heard Harry describe.
Crouch's act in rescuing his son from Azkaban for his wife and Winky's sake had indirectly ensured that a path to help Voldemort return to power was sealed, which ultimately did come to pass after Crouch's death. However, as Crouch Jnr was captured after Voldemort's return, he was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss which permanently ended the Crouch family bloodline. After Crouch Snr disappeared as a result of his capture and subjugation by Voldemort's Imperius Curse, along with his secret murder at the hands of his son, his popularity and legacy within the Wizarding community and Ministry had reached its lowest level. This was because his warnings about Voldemort getting stronger were not taken seriously as he was in a delusional state at the time and the Wizarding community and Ministry had both lost already trust in him due to the fact that he put his Ministry career before his own son's welfare, which at the time had resulted in him sentencing his son to life imprisonment in Azkaban.
This loss of trust for Crouch along with the lack of physical evidence of Voldemort's return indirectly caused the Ministry, encouraged by Cornelius Fudge due to his paranoia and refusal to accept the Dark Lord's return, to launch a smear campaign against Dumbledore and Harry Potter, believing they were all lying about it, and proved to be one of the major factors to Voldemort eventually seizing control of the Ministry a few years after his return. A year later, the true circumstances of Crouch's death and disappearance were likely exposed to the wizarding community after there was evidence of the Dark Lord's return when he appeared in the Ministry of Magic himself. However, this still didn't do much to improve Crouch's legacy as the community still lost trust and respect for him due to him helping his son escape from Azkaban and consequently sealing a path for Voldemort's return, contrary to Crouch imprisoning his son earlier to protect his career.
Even though Crouch's popularity and legacy was largely tainted with the wizarding community by then, some of Crouch's misguided policies were adopted by the Ministry when Rufus Scrimgeour succeeded Fudge as Minister for Magic since he allowed the arrest of innocent people like Stanley Shunpike just for making boastful claims of knowing Voldemort's plans, similar to what Crouch had done throughout his career. This was one of the reasons why Harry Potter refused Scrimgeour's attempt to recruit him into the Ministry to serve as a "mascot" to raise public morale and claim that the Ministry was winning against Voldemort, despite the contrary, with Harry pointing out that Scrimgeour and the Ministry had learnt nothing from either Crouch or Fudge's mistakes. Fudge's refusal to accept Voldemort's return and Scrimgeour's inability to take enough action against Voldemort both resulted in a downward spiral of corruption which ensured that Voldemort seized power in the Ministry a few years after Crouch's death and was only undone after Voldemort's final defeat, when Kingsley Shacklebolt was appointed as then acting Minister for Magic.
However, while Crouch's plight played a major role in Voldemort's return and eventual rise to power in the Ministry due to the them denying his return to power, his act in attempting to warn Dumbledore of Voldemort's rising power and alerting Harry Potter to it before his death also inspired Dumbledore to reinstate the Order of the Phoenix to help fight against Voldemort. This was down to the fact that Dumbledore knew that Voldemort would eventually return to power, his empathy towards Crouch's family history and other evidence of Voldemort's rising power due to the surrounding disappearances of Bertha Jorkins, Frank Bryce and Crouch himself. Dumbledore also realised that he could not afford to let Voldemort influence and tear apart other families the way the Crouch family had been influenced and destroyed and was able to take Crouch's claims that Voldemort was getting stronger seriously due to this and his empathy and trust for Crouch.
Even others like Sirius Black and Harry Potter were able to take Crouch's claims seriously and eventually fight against Voldemort when he returned to power, despite Sirius having a huge grudge against Crouch for imprisoning him in Azkaban without a trial, and Harry being shocked at some of Crouch's actions. This was especially important for Harry as he was the chosen one destined to defeat Voldemort which he ultimately succeeded in doing after destroying all of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes. Thus in a way, despite the critical fall in popularity and trust for Crouch within the wizarding community, Crouch's actions and legacy left both a negative and positive influence on the wizarding community after Voldemort's return as they helped shape both the Dark Lord's return to power and his ultimate defeat.
The only one who truly mourned for Crouch's demise was Winky, who was horrified when she heard of it from his son. Winky sank into further depression, her alcoholism on Butterbeer led on for years before finally ceasing (though she never truly recovered from it).
Barty Snr's death led to his son being the last living heir of the Crouch family, and Barty Jnr was eventually exposed, leading to him suffering the Dementor's Kiss. The family thus became extinct by mid-1996.
Physical Appearance[]
Crouch had short grey hair with a neat parting, which was described as "almost unnaturally straight" and a narrow toothbrush moustache. In certain lights, such as in semi-darkness, he took on a skull-like appearance.
While disguised as a Muggle for the 1994 Quidditch World Cup, he wore a black suit and highly polished shoes, making him look like a Muggle businessman, to the point that Harry Potter described that even Vernon Dursley would not be able to tell the difference. Due to this first impression, Harry thought Crouch looked weird in wizarding robes.
However, Crouch's appearance suffered after Voldemort put him under the Imperius Curse. When he appeared in Hogwarts for the choosing for the Triwizard Champions, Harry noted after seeing Crouch up close that he appeared ill with a papery look in his skin and dark shadows under his eyes, to the point that he partially agreed with the rumours that Crouch was ill until he eventually learnt the truth after Crouch Jnr was recaptured. After he fought the Imperius Curse and escaped from Voldemort's control, Crouch became almost unrecognisable in his final moments, sporting a weak, dishevelled and unshaven appearance with overgrown hair and ragged clothes due to the effort of fighting the Imperius Curse and travelling for many days between his house and Hogwarts before he was murdered by his son.
Personality[]
- “Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorised the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side.”
- ―Sirius Black on Crouch's actions as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement
Crouch spoke in a curt voice, and seemed to be an overly serious person in contrast to his peers and colleagues: he did not smile or wave when his name was announced in the introduction to the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, whereas Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, waved jovially and enthusiastically, though this probably had something to do with the Imperius curse he was under. He was known to be a strict rule-follower, someone who would not hesitate to either give his own son to the Dementors, or dismiss a highly devoted and loyal house-elf.
- “If he's ever taken a day off work because of illness before this, I'll eat Buckbeak.”
- ―Sirius Black on Crouch's dedication to work
Having devoted his entire life to eradicating the dark forces, Crouch was well known for despising the Dark Arts and those who practised them, but the methods he used were just as brutal and cruel as those he worked to prosecute. He legalised the usages of the Unforgivable Curses and went under the principles of kill rather than capture, shoot first and ask questions later. Crouch would unethically imprison many people, including Sirius Black, without trials. To this end, he disregarded true justice for no good reason other than to make himself look good in the public's eyes, so as to further his own career and work his way up to becoming the Minister for Magic. If anything even looked like it might destroy his reputation, he would make it his first priority to remove it, even to the point of publicly disowning and imprisoning his son in order to make it clear that he had nothing to do with anyone who was even remotely suspected of being connected to the Dark Arts. He would later dismiss his devoted house-elf just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time (though the true reason is he deemed her unreliable since she had almost let his subjugated son get away). In order to make progress, he even accepted a plea bargain with Death Eater Igor Karkaroff, granting him pardon in exchange for the names of other Death Eaters.
Despite his ruthlessness and apparent selfishness, he was not completely unreasonable, as he was capable of feeling true love, since he agreed to his wife's dying request of saving their son from prison, despite his high position, reputation and general dislike for the Dark Arts and was willing to use the son, breaking the rules to restrain his son, breaking the laws he was so adamant in enforcing. He was willing to listen to Winky's persuasion of letting Barty Jnr to see the Quidditch World Cup for a taste of freedom and fresh air, though it did take her many months of effort to achieve this. In this sense, he was more of a hypocrite than anyone but Sirius could have imagined. The reason he was seen as an unloving workaholic was due to him placing his public image and career over his family, having set his entire life into following rules and eradicating dark forces and would spend little to no time on his family life. Indeed, Sirius found it extremely weird when Crouch was calling in sick, as the Barty he (and the public) knew would never miss a day of work for any simple reason such as sickness. This tough love for his family made his own son see it as neglect, leaving a negative impact on the young man's perception and choices.
Crouch's rule-abiding, ruthless, selfish and neglectful nature however ultimately turned out to be his undoing, especially after losing his popularity in the Wizarding World and keeping his son under the Imperius Curse for years to fulfil his wife's wish and to prevent him rejoining Voldemort's service. After Voldemort freed his son from the Imperius Curse Crouch put on him, Crouch's sanity was damaged by the Imperius Curse Voldemort put on him, leaving him in a delusional and weakened state after he managed to fight the Imperius Curse, and resulted in his death at the hands of his own son. While he became delusional to the point that he was at times unaware of his point in time, his location and mistook a tree for Percy Weasley, in one of his sane moments, he expressed remorse over his mistakes and attempted to warn Dumbledore by telling Harry Potter about Voldemort's rising power. This demonstrated that in spite of his ruthlessness and hypocrisy, his ability to feel true love meant that he was still capable of realising and admitting his own faults.
Magical abilities and skills[]
Bartemius Crouch Senior was noted by Sirius Black to be a great wizard, magically powerful, and his accomplishments and skills have once made him very close to achieving the position of Minister for Magic.
- Charms: Crouch was able to effectively use the Portus spell, a charm used to create portkeys: indeed, he created portkeys across five continents, which he later described as "no mean feat". His Memory Charm was so powerful that it caused Bertha Jorkins permanent memory damage. Furthermore, he could produce a non-corporeal Patronus, a mark of superior magical ability. He was also capable of casting the Stunning Spell proficiently.
- Dark Arts: Despite his loathing for the Dark Arts and those who practise them, Crouch was able to cast an Imperius Curse powerful enough that even an extremely adept caster of the spell, such as his son, could only resist after twelve years. His understanding of this branch of magic's potency led Crouch to legalise the Unforgivable Curses during the First Wizarding War, effectively allowing many Death Eaters to be captured and killed. Amos Diggory also implied that Crouch had at least cursory knowledge on how to cast Morsmordre when accusing him of having his servants cast the curse during the Quidditch World Cup.
- Multilingualism: Ludovic Bagman stated in August of 1994 that Crouch can speak one hundred and fifty languages: the same day, Percy Weasley corrected him by boasting that Crouch could speak over two hundred, including Mermish, Gobbledegook and Troll.
- Indomitable willpower: Crouch was able to shrug off the Imperius Curse cast on him by Voldemort himself, after a much shorter span of time than the one he had cast on his son, showing that he had an exceptionally strong willpower. However, it should be noted that Voldemort was in a weakened form at the time, and Crouch's resistance to the curse had led to him becoming delirious and maddened.
Appearances[]
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire[]
Video Game Appearances[]
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4[]
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery[]
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite[]
Printed Media[]
Harry Potter: The Character Vault[]
Relationships[]
Barty Crouch Jr.[]
Winky[]
Percy Weasley[]
Bertha Jorkins[]
Ludo Bagman[]
Albus Dumbledore[]
Cornelius Fudge[]
Harry Potter[]
Hermione Granger[]
Ron Weasley[]
Sirius Black[]
Amos Diggory[]
Arthur Weasley[]
Wizarding community[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
Differences from the source material[]
External Links[]
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