Chapter Twenty-Five: The Egg and the Eye
In chapter twenty-five of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry takes a bath with Moaning Myrtle, and Crouching Barty, Hidden Moody covers for Harry and taunts Snape.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
So Harry’s decided to take his egg for a bath because that’s totally something someone would do and would be an easy clue to crack, Ministry, and he finds out that the Prefects bathe in some sort of palace, complete with chandeliers, marble, and golden taps for the tub and damn, where do I sign up to be a prefect?! I volunteer as tribute!
He’s just innocently taking a bath with a giant golden egg when Moaning Myrtle shows up to be a giant creep and perv on a naked teenage boy, not for the first or the second time, and on one hand I’m appalled, on the other hand what else are you doing when you’re a teenage girl ghost forever? Either way, there’s a snappy and hilarious song all about it!
Myrtle’s all put out that Harry hasn’t been visiting her toilet in years and Harry lies lies LIES that his terror of Percy and other authorities is keeping him away from the sweet smells of a flooded and haunted toilet. MM buys this, and then tells Harry to put the egg in the water like Cedric did, and can you imagine being naked in a bathtub, listening to an egg underwater, feeling like a dolt, and then this pops out at you?
Harry pries Myrtle’s grasping ghost hands away and listens to the egg, wherein he deduces that there are mermaids in the lake and they’ve taken something from him that needs returning, and he better get it, OR ELSE. Really focus on that last part, because Harry surely will!
After Harry gets rid of Myrtle by offending her (don’t mention she’s dead, y’all, or do, to get her to go away) Harry sneaks back to Gryffindor and notices that “Bartemius Crouch” is in Snape’s office. Which…of course…he is. *winkwinkwink*
Harry bless his little heart, of course never notices things like this
going on however.
As any normal snoopy person would, Harry’s like wtf at the weirdness of “Barty Crouch” being in Snape’s office when Percy’s been filling in for him for ages due to “illness” and goes off to investigate, then drops his egg which falls open and wails, attracting Mrs. Norris, Filch, and SNAPE Aughhh run for it Harry!
Snape’s pissed that someone is rummaging in his storage closet, Filch is pissed Peeves has gotten a hold of an egg, and Harry’s FREAKING OUT because he’s trapped in the stairs, dropped his map in plain sight unwiped, and his egg is in Filch’s hands and that’s when Not!Moody shows up. It’s interesting, because in retrospect we know Crouching Barty, Hidden Moody is helping Harry get out of this jam because he’s eeeeviiilll and it’s part of his eeeevvvillll plan (also his name is Bartemius Crouch on the map, instead of Moody) but when we first read it, I suppose we assume Moody is cool like Remus is cool and let it slide how suspiciously helpful he is to Harry.
This is also an intriguing scene on first read, because “Moody” is hostile and aggressive towards Snape, who barely fights back, which as we know with Snape is…unusual, to say the least. He also suggests to Harry that Bartemius Crouch (lol) was in Snape’s office because he’s obsessed with catching Death Eaters, another interesting tidbit. I do wish we’d seen interactions between Snape and the real Moody in later books, to see if they have the same dynamic or not.
After Bartemius “Naming me Bartemius Jr. is why I turned evil dad” Moody makes off with Harry’s incriminating map he tells Harry he should consider becoming an Auror which is HILARIOUS in retrospect because you know this is secretly him mega dissing Harry.
“Oh yeah, Potter, you’d make such a great Auror, those noble and intelligent creatures.”
*turns to his Dark Mark*
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So tell me your thoughts about Myrtle spying on Prefects?!
Does the real Moody treat Snape the same as the fake Moody?
Why does Barty tell Harry he’d be a good Auror?
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