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Alastor Moody's magical eye acted as a replacement eye for him after he lost his original one in battle. It is a round, electric-blue eye that he placed into his empty eye socket. It can rotate 360 degrees in Moody's head and allowed him to see through anything, whether it be wood, Invisibility cloaks, or even the back of his head. It is this eye that earned Moody his nickname "Mad-Eye."

History

First Wizarding War

Sometime during the First Wizarding War, Moody lost his eye during his clash against Death Eaters and had the magical glass eye as his replacement.[1]

1994-1995

During 1994, before Moody was able to take his one-year post as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he was attacked and captured by Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch Jr. Using Polyjuice Potion, Crouch Jr. disguised himself as Moody and then took Moody's eye and leg as his own.[2]

"Damn it, it keeps getting stuck — ever since that scum wore it."
— The damage the eye suffered from Crouch's wearing.[src]

After Moody was freed and regained his eye, the eye tended to get stuck in mid-rotations at times due to Barty Crouch wearing it. Moody had to put the eye in water and clean it to get it to function properly.[3]

1997-1998

In July 1997, Moody was killed by Lord Voldemort during the Battle over Little Whinging. Moody's corpse was recovered by the Death Eaters, and his magical eye was taken by Dolores Umbridge, who used it to keep track of her subordinates in the Ministry of Magic.

Moody-eye-ministry

Moody's Eye in the Ministry

When Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley broke into the Ministry, Harry found the eye and was disgusted by how it was used.[4] He took it off its wall, which raised alarm. After the trio fled from the Ministry and to the forest near where the 1994 Quidditch World Cup was held, Harry buried the eye under the oldest, most gnarled and resilient-looking tree he could find and marked the grave with a small cross. With this, Moody was given a proper burial, even if not much.[5]

Behind the scenes

  • In the novels, the magical eye replaced Moody's right eye. In the films, it replaced his left.
  • In the books, the eye has been depicted to be simply to be inserted into his empty eye socket. In the films, it requires some special holder strapped around the socket.
  • In the fourth film, the eye has shown to also have zoom-in capabilities.
  • It is unknown if this eye is unique to Moody, or if anyone can get one if they needed an eye-replacement, although the fact that it is powerful enough to see through the Cloak of Invisibility, one of the Deathly Hallows, suggests that it may be a rare artefact or at least not commonly found or produced.
  • Although the magical eye was seen as a cameo on the door of Dolores Umbridges office following Moody's death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, there is no indication of Umbridge receiving it as a gift. Additionally, the parts of Umbridge using the eye to spy on the Ministry workers, Harry learning it is there and retrieving it, as well as Harry burying the magical eye out of respect for the late Moody, have been omitted.

Appearances

Notes and references

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