Barty Crouch Jr. Was Actually a Pretty Good Teacher
I know he’s supposed to be imitating Moody, but it’s not as though Moody’s known as someone who’s great with teenagers.
The ferret thing wouldn’t win him any awards and he’s certainly rather unconventional, but he’s not actually that bad.
He’s got excellent classroom management skills, though the eye allows him to cheat a little.
During the Unforgivables lesson, he starts out by letting them participate as a class in naming and defining the Unforgivables. Then he demonstrates each of the spells. And then he teaches them something that’s undeniably useful.
He doesn’t set unreasonable expectations or tell them they’re useless for not knowing the 3 Unforgivables from the moment they walk into the classroom.
Harry was obviously the best, but all of the students walked away with a better idea of what it felt like to be under the Imperius curse and a good idea of what it looked like on other people.
If not for the fact that he turned out to be a Death Eater, I would have said that he treats them like he would treat the Auror trainees. He sees himself as imparting life-saving information, and he has little tolerance for people that are going to screw around or distract their classmates. However, he will give positive feedback when you earn it.
Even though he obviously doesn’t have Neville’s best interests at heart, he did a really good job raising Neville’s confidence.
In fact, Neville actually volunteers information in Moody’s first class:
“Hermione’s hand flew into the air again and so, to Harry’s slight surprise, did Neville’s. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.”
Moody clearly knows who Neville is, but doesn’t push it in front of his peers. When Neville is visibly upset by the Cruciatus curse, Moody invites him for a private chat.
when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.
“It’s all right, sonny,” he [fake-Moody] said to Neville. “Why don’t you come up to my office? Come on… we can have a cup of tea…”
And despite the fact that Neville appears visibly frightened by the idea of tea with Moody, it actually seems to have made a difference by the time Harry/Ron see him after dinner:
He looked a good deal calmer than at the end of Moody’s lesson, though still not entirely normal. His eyes were rather red.
“You all right, Neville?” Harry asked him.
“Oh yes,” said Neville, “I’m fine, thanks. Just reading this book Professor Moody lent me…”
He held up the book: Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean.
“Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I’m really good at Herbology,” Neville said.
There was a faint note of pride in his voice that Harry had rarely heard there before.
Harry notes that it was the sort of thing Lupin would have done, and he’s right. Crouch realized that Neville and Harry might be a bit sensitive, and is paying attention to Neville as the class breaks up. Obviously we know Crouch had an ulterior motive, but either he noticed Neville’s feelings on the spot or he realized in advance that Neville would be sensitive to the subject.
Once they’re together in his office, he was patient enough to not to spook a very skiddish Neville, made Neville tea, and might even have given him a chance to talk (I wouldn’t be surprised if Neville actually did open up to Crouch a little, since he really doesn’t have many people to whom he can confide in about his parents). He skillfully complimented Neville and then gave him something to distract him. Obviously we know that Crouch wanted to make sure that book reached Harry, but still he handled Neville pretty well for a Death Eater impersonating a gruff ex-Auror.
Maybe Barty Crouch Jr. missed his calling.
