Chapter 711: Barty Crouch's Story
“I was looking through the window and watching them dispose of her body. I didn’t expect …” said Sirius sadly.
There was no doubt that Barty Crouch’s mother was very great. She was willing to give anything for her son.
It was hard for Evan to imagine how a crazy Death Eater like Barty Jr. appeared in such a decent family. How did his character degenerate and distort to this point step by step?
Voldemort’s temptation was, in this respect, mainly due to Mr. Barty Crouch’s erroneous educational ideas.
“What did your father do with you, when he had got you home?” Dumbledore asked quietly.
“He staged my mother’s death and held a quiet, private funeral. The grave was empty. The house-elf Winky nursed me back to health. My father wanted to conceal me and control me. He had to use a number of spells to subdue me. When I had recovered my strength, I thought only of finding my master… of returning to his service.”
“How did your father subdue you?” Dumbledore asked.
“The Imperius Curse,” Crouch said. “I was under my father’s control. I was forced to wear an Invisibility Cloak day and night. I was always with the house-elf. She was my keeper and caretaker. She pitied me. She persuaded my father to give me occasional treats as rewards for my good behavior.”
“Master Barty, Master Barty,” sobbed Winky through her hands. “You isn’t ought to tell them, we is getting in trouble!”
“Did anybody ever discover that you were still alive?” Dumbledore asked softly, “apart from your father and the house-elf?”
“Yes,” Crouch’s eyelids flickered again, “A witch in my father’s office, Bertha Jorkins. She came to the house with papers for my father’s signature. He was not at home. Winky showed her inside and returned to the kitchen to take care of me. But Bertha Jorkins heard Winky talking to me. She came to investigate. She heard enough to guess who was hiding under the Invisibility Cloak. When my father returned home, she confronted him. He put a very powerful Memory Charm on her to make her forget what she had found out. The charm was too powerful. My father said it damaged her memory permanently.”
“Why is she coming to nose into my master’s private business?” sobbed Winky. “Why isn’t she leaving us be?”
“Tell me about the Quidditch World Cup,” said Dumbledore, “that sudden Death Mark!”
“Later, Winky convinced my father,” said Crouch, still in the same monotonous voice. “She spent months persuading him. I had not left the house for years. I had loved Quidditch. Let him go, she said. He will be in his Invisibility Cloak. He can watch. Let him smell fresh air for once. She said my mother would have wanted it. She told my father that my mother had died to give me freedom. She had not saved me for a life imprisonment. He agreed in the end.”
“It was carefully planned. My father led me and Winky up to the Top Box early in the day. Winky was to say that she was saving a seat for my father. I was to sit there, invisible. When everyone had left the box, we would emerge. Winky would appear to be alone. Nobody would ever know.”
“But Winky didn’t know that I was growing stronger. I was starting to fight my father’s Imperius Curse. There were times when I was almost myself again. There were brief periods when I seemed outside his control. It happened, there, in the Top Box. It was like waking from a deep sleep. I found myself out in public, in the middle of the match, and I saw, in front of me, a wand sticking out of a boy’s pocket. I had not been allowed a wand since before Azkaban. I stole it. Winky didn’t know. Winky is frightened of heights. She had her face hidden, buried in her hands.”
“Master Barty, you bad boy!” whispered Winky, tears trickling between her fingers.
“You took the wand,” said Dumbledore, “what did you do with it?”
“I was going to use that wand to get rid of my father’s control completely,” said Barty Jr. “But the vampires suddenly attacked, and everyone fled the box. Winky took me with her. In the battle between the boy, Evan Mason, and the vampires’ leader, I felt my master’s breath from the vampire, but I couldn’t find him. I cast the Dark Mark into the sky with the stolen wand. I had to let the master know I was there, too.”
Obviously, that Dark Mark had the opposite effect, Voldemort and the vampires immediately retreated and ran away! He did not want the news of his return to be known to the outside world until he recovered his strength. Voldemort didn’t want to be associated to that attack, but Barty Crouch Jr. ruined everything…
“After the Dark Mark was cast, Ministry wizards arrived. They shot Stunning Spells everywhere. One of the spells came into the ruins where Winky and I stood. The bond connecting us was broken. We were both Stunned.”
“When Winky was discovered, my father knew I must be nearby. He dismissed Winky. She didn’t look after me. She had let me acquire a wand. She had almost let me escape.” Barty Crouch Jr. continued. “He put me back under the Imperius Curse and took me home. I was under control again …”
Hearing that, Winky let out a wail of despair.
“Now it was just Father and I, alone in the house. And then …” Crouch’s head rolled on his neck, and an insane grin spread across his face. “My master came for me!”
“He and the vampires found me. My master had found out that I was still alive. He had captured Bertha Jorkins in Albania. He had tortured her. She told him a great deal. She told him about the Triwizard Tournament. She told him the old Auror, Moody, was going to teach at Hogwarts. He tortured her until he broke through the Memory Charm my father had placed upon her. She told him I had escaped from Azkaban. She told him my father kept me imprisoned to prevent me from seeking my master. And so my master knew that I was still his faithful servant… perhaps the most faithful of all. My master conceived a plan, based upon the information Bertha had given him. He needed me. He arrived at our house near midnight. My father answered the door.”
The smile spread wider over Crouch’s face, as though recalling the sweetest memory of his life. Winky’s petrified brown eyes were visible through her fingers. She seemed too appalled to speak.
“Before Father could realize anything, he had been placed under the Imperius Curse by my master. Now he was the one imprisoned, controlled! I was released. I awoke. I was myself again, alive as I hadn’t been in years. I used the Polyjuice Potion to become my father’s double, and attacked Moody with the vampires’ leader, who took Moody’s place at Hogwarts.”
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