Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing Draco’s lackey- Vincent Crabbe (of the Crabbe and Goyle duo). More
specifically- however, we’re going to be discussing Crabbe in relation to a powerful
piece of dark magic- the spell that is FIENDFYRE.
Vincent Crabbe was pure-blood wizard born in the year 1980. He came from a long line
of dark wizards and death eaters- and his father, Crabbe Sr, is mentioned in the series.
Though Crabbe came from darker beginnings, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t allowed
to study at Hogwarts. Unsurprisingly, Crabbe was sorted in to Slytherin when he got to
the school, and formed a particularly close bond with fellow Slytherin Gregory Goyle and
ringleader Draco Malfoy. In the year that Umbridge became headmistress, Goyle & Crabbe
joined Malfoy in the ‘inquisitorial’ squad- ratting out his fellow students for refusing
to acknowledge the new Hogwarts rules. However- at this point in time Crabbes actions were
certainly more ‘innocent’. As he grew older and became a man, the state of the wizarding
world was at stake- which forced a lot of students to pick a side. Crabbe chose the
side of evil, of Voldemort, and it was ultimately this decision that turned him from petulant
child to a very corrupt, twisted young man. In fact, when the Carrows were teaching at
Hogwarts- we’re given a glance of the type of person that he had become.
‘Amycus, the bloke, he teaches what used to be Defence Against the Dark Arts, except
now it’s just the Dark Arts. We’re supposed to practise the Cruciatus Curse on people
who’ve earned detentions –’
‘What?’
Harry, Ron and Hermione’s united voices echoed up and down the passage.
"We're supposed to practise the Cruciatus Curse on people who've earned detentions...
I refused to do it. Some people are into it, though; Crabbe and Goyle love it. First time
they've ever been top in anything, I expect."
The tragedy of Crabbe is that he never even really stood a chance- he came from a family
of death eaters, and right from the start he became a part of a friend group that made
all the wrong choices. To quote Dumbledore: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what
we truly are, far more than our abilities."- and Crabbe made a LOT of the wrong choices.
By the time Crabbe’s final year at Hogwarts rolled around- he had become a fully-fledged
dark wizard in his own right, not just the son of one. This ultimately lead to him acting
in opposition to the trio, as well as turning on a large number of the students that he
had grown up with. On May 2 1998 in the Room of Requirement, Crabbe ends up casting one
of the most powerful dark curses in the wizarding world- Fiendfyre.
"It was not normal fire; Crabbe had used a curse of which Harry had no knowledge: As
they turned a corner the flames chased them as though they were alive, sentient, intent
upon killing them. Now the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: Flaming
serpents, chimaeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again, and the detritus of centuries
on which they were feeding was thrown up in the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high
on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno."
Fiendfyre is a piece of extremely advanced dark magic- a spell which produces enchanted
flames of an enormous scale that essentially destroy anything in its path, often taking
the form of gigantic fiery beasts. I guess now the question is - how did CRABBE cast
it? Fiendfyre seems like the type of spell that would be reserved for extremely powerful
dark wizards like Voldemort and Grindelwald. I know that I was personally quite surprised
to see the spell being produced by someone who has often been painted out to be quite
incompetent. Up to this point this is probably the most powerful spell performed by ANYONE
at any point. So- how did he do it? Isn’t Crabbe just Malfoy’s lackey?
Here’s the thing: of the two (Crabbe & Goyle)- Crabbe was certainly more talented. Interestingly,
though, the films seem to give us the opposite impression.
Crabbe was more than meets the eye- and it turns out that he wasn’t a complete simpleton-
in fact- he became quite skilled at producing dark magic as he grew older. We even see him
cast an effective ‘avada kedavra’ at Ron- a spell which requires a fair bit of concentration
and skill.
“Crabbe wheeled round and screamed, ‘Avada Kedavra!’ again. Ron leapt out of sight
to avoid the jet of green light. The wandless Malfoy cowered behind a three-legged wardrobe
as Hermione charged towards them, hitting Goyle with a Stunning Spell as she came.”
Given his death eater heritage, I think that Crabbe must have been taught an awful lot
of dark magic at home in addition to the magic that he was learning at Hogwarts. Not only
that, but he learned quite a lot from the Carrows- eager at the opportunity to learn
more about the dark arts.
After the fiasco in the room of requirement ends, Harry surmises that Crabbe must have
learned how to cast the Fiendfyre curse from the Carrows.
‘Fiendfyre – cursed fire – it’s one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes,
but I would never, ever have dared use it, it’s so dangerous. How did Crabbe know how
to –?’
‘Must’ve learned from the Carrows,’ said Harry grimly.
‘Shame he wasn’t concentrating when they mentioned how to stop it, really,’ said
Ron, whose hair like Hermione’s was singed, and whose face was blackened. ‘If he hadn’t
tried to kill us all, I’d be quite sorry he was dead.’
And that’s another thing I need to touch on here- Crabbe didn’t exactly survive his
brief stint at casting Fiendfyre. You see, Crabbe was taught dark magic very quickly-
and though he was able to cast Fiendfyre, which is impressive by itself- it doesn’t
mean that he was able to control it. Crabbe’s understanding of magic was very one dimensional
- and that’s because he didn’t really make a proper effort to learn until later
on in life. Even as late as sixth year Crabbe still had a hard time with his Defence Against
the Dark arts OWL- as revealed by Snape:
"If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L
this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres
—"
And it appears that even when he’s casting these powerful spells, he still fails to understand
basic things- like following orders or repercussions:
Draco Malfoy: " STOP! The Dark Lord wants him alive —"
Vincent Crabbe: "So? I'm not killing him, am I? But if I can, I will, the Dark Lord
wants him dead anyway, what's the diff — ? It's that Mudblood! Avada Kedavra!"
In short, Crabbe learned a lot of dark magic very quickly- and this ultimately lead to
his own demise. He knew how to cast these dark spells- but he didn’t quite understand
what he was casting- which lead to his inability to control his own Fiendfyre.
When Crabbe attempted to kill Harry in the room of requirement, his last words were:
"Like it hot, scum?"
Which is of course painfully ironic given that the only person properly subjected to
the curse was himself and a room full of objects. In a sick and twisted way, I’m willing to
bet that Amycus and Alecto Carrow KNEW what they were doing when they taught Crabbe how
to only partially perform Fiendfyre. They probably thought that it would be funny to
teach this evil, albeit misguided student a bunk spell- effectively sending him on a
suicide mission.
And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the content please remember to LIKE the video
and subscribe to the channel.
Until next time
It is important to fight and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil
be kept at bay though never quite eradicated.