One Little Accident

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, if I did then Barty would have been the Main Character! ^^

Note: I want to thank a friend of mine who was my beta reader and improved some of my expression so that there would be fever mistakes and the story easier to read! Thanks so much!

It was only one little accident that changed their lives forever – just one which was unknowingly born because of one Hermione Granger…

Hermione walked down the hall towards Mad-Eye Moody's DADA classroom – she wanted to ask him something that she didn't dare to ask someone like Dumbledore. Finally she reached the door, which led to the classroom and knocked. "Professor?"

She heard something crash and decided that she could accept the Professor's wrath for storming in and opened the door to reassure herself that he was alright. No one was in the room and another crashing noise came from Moody's private rooms. As she opened the door, she started to say: "Professor are you al-" but stopped when she saw someone who was definitely not Moody – he was too skinny for that – but with Moody's clothes on. Despite her better judgement she rushed towards his side to help him up. When she touched him, his head wipped around as if he had just realised that someone else was with him and his startled dark-brown eyes with a slightly crazy glint to them, stared into her own brown ones. In seconds surprise was replaced by fury – not at Hermione it seemed but at himself. "Shit!" He locked the door that led to the room and put silencing charm on to make sure no one outside this room could here him – all this while using wandless magic. He started pacing around Hermione, who was still kneeling, and ran his long thin fingers through his brown chaotic-looking hair. The young man muttered to himself – ignoring Hermione's presence till she spoke up in a calm voice, interrupting him. "You're a Death Eater, aren't you?"

The man stopped his pacing and looked at her with an undecipherable look on his face. His tongue darted over his lips as he said: "You seem awfully calm, Miss Granger, considering you just found me – a Death Eater as you correctly concluded – impersonating your DADA teacher. My name is Bartemius Crouch Junior but please call me Barty, Miss Granger." As Barty introduced himself he bowed before her – eyes never leaving her and a small smile gracing his features, which made him, seem even younger. He held his hand out as an offer to help her up, which she accepted without hesitation – and one of Barty's eyebrows shot up in this show of trust.

"A pleasure to meet you Mr Crouch." Hermione replied politely and Barty had to hold back his anger at being called like this – she didn't know any better, he had introduced himself with his full name and he should have expected of her being to polite to call him by his nickname even if he offered it and so he said through gritted teeth: "Please Miss Granger, as I already said: call me Barty. I always think of that disgustin- ähem, I'm sorry – I meant that I always have to think of the Head of the DMLE (Department of Magical Law Enforcement) Crouch, when I am called 'Mr Crouch'."

"Alright, but I want you to call me Hermione and not 'Miss Granger' then." Hermione gave the young looking Death Eater a small smile and Barty motioned for her to sit down in a chair.

"So Hermione, how come you don't scream and point your wand at me – being the good little Gryffindor that you are supposed to play?" Barty asked as he slumped down in another chair, summoning tea and biscuits. Now it was Hermione's turn to raise a questioning eyebrow. "Play? You have an interesting choice of words."

A sly grin spread over Barty's face as he said: "You know as well as I do, Hermione that you are not out of your own free will a Gryffindor or even friends with these brats Potter and Weasley. You were manipulated by Dumbledore and once you realised this, you still did nothing: why?"

"I think you are really smart Barty – you detected something in a few month what this whole school did not in almost four years, so I think you can figure it out yourself." Hermione retorted playfully with a grin on her face. It only lasted a few seconds but you could see Barty figuring out what she meant while you looked into his eyes and after only a few second he exclaimed an "Ah!" and his face mirrored Hermione's only that his own seemed a bit crazed. "You have waited for the perfect opportunity to strike back. Very Slytherin of you, my dear. So now that you have your chance do you want to take it and leave this life behind?"

"Of course! I have waited a long time for this chance! Besides I did a bit of research and with the help of Draco Malfoy I realised that this 'Lord Voldemort is evil'-thing is just a whole lot of crap – I mean, yeah, he has not the nicest methods to change things in the wizard world but his intention is to change it for the better and not to destroy every Muggle-born and/or Muggle!"

Barty gapped at her for a moment and then laughed out loud, but when Hermione gave him a strange look he slowly stopped and tried to explain himself.

"Haha I'm sorry but I never thought that you of all people would talk to Lucius' brat to confront him about our Lord's true intentions! Just imagining his face when you ask him for his help makes me never stop laughing again!" Then he suddenly coughed violently and immediately stopped laughing holding his throat as if hurting.

"Barty? What is it? What is wrong?" Hermione jumped out of her chair and hurried to his side but he tried to wave her away. "I-it's nothing, just haven't laughed like this for a long time. Azkaban doesn't give its inmates something to laugh about… only to scream in pain." Not being able to control herself, Hermione hugged the young Death Eater to comfort him. At first he tensed but after another moment of hesitation he hugged her back relaxing in her arms.

They stayed like that for a few more moments till Barty reluctantly let go of her and leaned back in his chair. Hermione followed his example and sat also back down also and they looked each other into the eyes – not saying anything.

Suddenly Barty spoke up, startling Hermione who had enjoyed their companionable silence. "Do you want to help me reviving our Lord? A bit help in getting Potter through the tournament without him dying before he can give his blood to our Lord, would be really great."

Hermione face brightened and she happily agreed.

Together they achieved it to get Harry through the first two tasks. Hermione learned a lot from Barty and became at first his apprentice and friend and slowly they became something more than just teacher and apprentice or friends.

After some time, Barty told her how he had gotten into and later out of Azkaban – and the circumstances were really a surprise to Hermione: Barty had been at the trial of Igor Karkaroff who had betrayed them and their cause. When said traitor had accused Barty of having tortured Alice and Frank Longbottom to insanity, Barty had left the observer area and had been standing for everyone to see. Then Mad-Eye Moody had shot some kind of spell at him which had thrown him back and now came the part that had surprised Hermione so much that she had spit out the tea she had been drinking: according to Barty, Mad-Eye Moody was one of them and had attacked him to keep up his cover as Auror and Member of the Order of the Phoenix. But the spell had not only thrown him back but had also somehow fused with Barty's magic which was why he still looked like being in his early twenties instead of the mid-thirties that he should look like.

Hermione – always eager to learn – asked him why it had happened since she never had read about such a thing - the only answer that she got was a shrug and that was it, nothing more was said on this topic.

Barty's escape was also something she wouldn't have expected: the original plan had been to be freed by another Death Eater, but something turned it impossible to execute the rescue and so Barty had been in Azkaban without hope until one day Crouch Senior had saved him through switching Barty with his already dying mother. But then he had kept him under the Imperius Curse for years until Barty managed to break free once again at the Quidditch match. After this he casted the 'Dark Mark', reunited with his Lord and made the plan they were executing right now.

Shortly after the second task, Barty told Hermione why he hated Crouch Senior so much – after the had found him pacing and ranting in his chambers.

"He was never there when I needed him, always keeping a great distance between himself and me. Then I tried my hardest to impress him with my OWL's and NEWT's, but I still was not good enough to even be properly looked at! When I met my Lord, he revealed something to me that made me hate this man who called himself my father even more!"

Hermione had put a hand on his shoulder to stop him in his pacing and asked softly: "What was it?"

Barty relaxed slightly under her touch and leaned on his desk, keeping eye contact with her as he told her. "He told me that Bartemius Crouch Senior is not my father. He abducted me as a baby from my real parents who had been followers of my Lord: the Blacks."

Hermione's eyes widened and she was glad that she hadn't been drinking the tea Barty had summoned for her – if she had then she would have repeated the accident at the 'Moody revelation' and once was embarrassingly enough.

"So does that make Sirius your…"

"Brother? Yep, and Regulus too." At her confused look he added: "Regulus is Sirius' younger and my older brother. He is really great! You will like him once you meet him – he is a bit of a prankster like Sirius but in a more Slytherin way." A fond smile grew on Barty's face as he remembered his one-year-older brother and Hermione was happy that even with all the bad experiences in his life he could still smile and have such a warm heart for those that were dear to him.

The third task had begun and Hermione had sneaked away from the cheering crowd to meet with Barty and Mad-Eye who would switch with Barty. Barty who had kept Moody up to date with current events while Moody had stayed hidden and regularly sent a bit of his hair for Barty's polyjuice potion.

Once she stepped into the room, she was greeted with the sight of two Moodys and only the grunted "Miss Granger" from one and a big smile from the other allowed her to distinguish between the two – Barty had really perfected Moody's role brilliantly.

Hermione smiled at both of them. "Professor Moody, Barty. Now, I think it's time to go, isn't it? Will you stay like this when meeting our Lord, Barty?"

The smiling Moody (Barty) just said: "Nope." Popping the 'p', which seemed strange with Moody's voice and slightly annoyed the real one. "I will change back any second now."

As soon as he had said that, the polyjuice potion wore off and he had to steady himself on the table – removing the magical eye and the fake leg – and Hermione helped him to stay upright and kept him from crashing down to the ground like the first time she had met him.

After the transformation had finished, Barty's clothes were again too big, which Hermione adjusted without a second thought like she had done many times before.

"Thanks Hermione." Again Barty flashed his breath-taking smile at her and Moody cleared his throat – interrupting their little moment - to get their attention. "I think you two should go before this fool Dumbledore realises that you have vanished and tries to stop you. Here is the portkey." He held out a silver bracelet that Barty accepted and took a hold of Hermione's hand.

"Thanks Moody. See you later."

They waved at him and the portkey teleported them to the graveyard just in time to see Harry teleport away with a dead Cedric. As soon as Harry was gone, Voldemort changed his appearance to an older version of the Tom Riddle that Harry had described to her and he turned towards them – a small smile tugging at his mouth. "Barty and Miss Granger! How nice of you two to join us."

Barty smiled at Voldemort and bowed. "My Lord." Hermione mirrored him, doing exactly as he had.

"Now don't be so formal. I thought I told you this many times already Barty and the same goes for you Miss Granger: call me Tom."

Barty grinned like a Cheshire cat and when he spoke Hermione realised that this seemed to happen every time they meet. "But my Lord it would be improper to address you in such an informal way!"

Lord Voldemort – no Tom – let out a dramatic sigh in defeat. "You really like to go on my nerves, don't you?"

"Of course my Lord! It is fun to do so!"

After their small banter, which had been observed by amused fellow Death Eaters, Hermione was formally (re-) introduced to the people of the inner circle – Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange née Black (Barty's cousin), her husband Rodolphus Lestrange, his brother Rabastan Lestrange as well as Regulus Black. They welcomed her with open arms and she became a part of their little family.

Once properly introduced, they left the graveyard and began to execute their plans of reforming the Magical World into a better one.

It took them a while, but after three more years they had finally done it: they had won against the 'light', which had cost them a few followers, but also gained them new ones like Sirius who – once he heard the complete truth – stopped fighting against them and instead helped them, just like Remus and Tonks to name a few.

Tom changed the corrupted Ministry of Magic into one that was better suited for wizard and witches – be they Muggle-born, half-blood or pureblood – and had less prejudices towards others than before.

Barty and Hermione had grown even closer in the three years of fighting alongside each other and they confessed their love to each other on one of the many battlefields. Once the war had been won they had married with only their closest friends attending. (Barty had begun to age normally again too, and they still had no real explanation why he even had stopped at all.)

Together Hermione and Barty worked in the new Ministry, changing laws for Magical creatures to give them the chance of better lives.

Bartemius and Hermione Black (Barty had reclaimed his real last name with a test to prove the truth of his words) finally became two of the most important people in the history of the wizard world to have lived. They went down in books as a couple that was such a perfect match that they didn't even need to communicate verbally anymore as well as one that made great changes possible being the right and left hand of Tom Marvolo Riddle – one of the most powerful and righteous wizards ever.