From[dw1] the Death Eater Chronicles Chapter One: High Noon in Arkham A/N: I took the liberty of borrowing the town of Arkham from the great H.P. Lovecraft. From the story, 'The Dreams in the Witch-House.' This plunnie, of course, would not leave me alone and demanded to be written. Inspired by a song from Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, 'High Noon in Killville.
The little wizarding town, lay tucked away in the folds of the Lancashire coast. And just to the east on the outskirts of that quiet village, Bartemius Crouch Jr. sat on a driftwood log. His long legs spread out in the sun. Tall black boots were impatiently digging in the sand. He waited for Bruce and Edward Fawley. They were not the first choice. But they were quick with a curse and not bright enough to ask too many questions. The Dark Lord hated questions. Now tasked with obtaining a book, hidden away by a shopkeeper in the village of Arkham.
Barty was early. Unfortunately, this gave him time to think. Time to second guess. And time to ponder those past mistakes. Barty's mind was never still. Everything about Barty was in perpetual motion. From the whirlwind in his brain to the nervous ticks. What was detrimental in school had become a blessing as a Death Eater. Barty could think fast on his feet. Always quick in a firefight, Barty's mind being two steps ahead of about everyone else's. Just the opposite when silence and stillness crept in. His mind betrayed him and shot in a dozen different directions. Staying on task was a struggle.
If he could procure that book, the Dark Lord would be pleased. Barty had recently failed on his last mission; he had one more chance to redeem himself. He was not yet one of the inner circle. And with each failure, the chances of that happening, seemed to slip through his fingers.
He had to stay focused.
He had been in town for the last four days. As to not draw attention to his reconnaissance, he had wanted to bring his intended along for the trip. Madeline, she was a Selwyn. Pureblood and spoiled, beautiful, and ruthless. More than anything else Madeline Selwyn was a vicious lying cunt. And Barty loved her. She would have been the perfect cover.
Everyone looked at Madeline, and no one would look at Barty. They had met at one of his father's galas over the Winter Holidays. The attraction was instant, and Barty was utterly smitten. She would have made the perfect Slytherin had she not gone to Beauxbatons. She had played him, made a fool of him. In front of his fellow Death Eaters. For that, she was going to pay.
Without Madeline as a distraction, Barty was forced to use Polyjuice. It was his one specialty. Barty had been proficient at the use of Polyjuice by the time he had left Hogwarts. Anyone could use it, but to be good at it took skill. And Barty had the talent to become anyone he wished to be. Transforming himself into an unassuming witch on holiday, he browsed the shops and meandered along the walkways. Purchasing trinkets as he went. He hummed as he walked and smiled. Waving at the children and batting his eyes demurely at the gentlemen. Barty glimpsed at himself in a storefront window. Not a soul knew of the monster lurking behind the eyes of the middle-aged mousey haired witch. Strolling so casually amongst them, watching the joyous couples on holiday.
Barty's hatred was coiling inside, at the happy couples everywhere. Barty grinned, delighting in the terror he could bring to this quaint setting. This was when he had a positively fantastic, terribly, evil idea. It would not be enough to slip in, polyjuiced and abscond with the tome. No, Barty had a much better idea, and he needed some help.
Barty stepped through the doorway of Poppies Treasures. Dainty heeled boots, clicking sharply on the hardwood floors. The cashier sat in the rear of the shop. She was young and bookish. Black hair piled high on her head, glasses perched on the end of her nose. She looked up as Barty entered. "Good morning, let me know if I can assist you." She offered.
"Oh, no thank you, dear, I'm just browsing." Barty's polyjuiced voice, oddly soft to his ears.
The little shop was a mix of antiques and sweets, books, and tea. Its shelves packed with oddities. Barty slipped his wand into his hand and muttered the spell his master had given him. He felt the tingle of a response from the ancient tome. He followed the sensation to a back wall. High up and locked in a glass case.
The sign in front read merely 'Display Only.' This was not going to be as easy as he had hoped. The shop was not in the ideal location, for a robbery that is. But that is how it was going to have to go down. He could not just walk in and nick it. Or purchase it. Mayhem was required. He would contact the Fawley brothers and arrange to meet.
So, now here he sat. Staring at the sea, thinking of Madeline. Letting the warm sand run between his fingers. Thinking of how he would love to curl those fingers around her pretty little neck and squeeze the life from her eyes. They would have married in the spring he supposed. Not because his father wanted him to. It was something he had wanted. She had been his first true love, a lying cheating whore that broke his heart. But his only love. She understood him and all of his quirkiness. Or she had pretended too.
Black smoke coalesced at the edge of the woods and Bruce and Edward Fawley stepped into the mid-morning sun.
"Good morning gentleman." Barty greeted the brothers. "Good of you to join me. This shouldn't take up too much of your time."
"What is this little favor for our mutual friend then?" Bruce asked with a smirk. "That requires the full uniform?"
"It's a simple job. In and out. Our Lord requires a book that a certain wizard has in his possession. The Dark Lord was very particular, no one must know he has the book. We are to make it look like a common robbery... Demand all the gold, knock a few things over and rough them up a bit that's all... Call them Blood-traitors and mudblood lovers ... Simple mayhem... I know where the book is, so I'll toss it in a bag with a few trinkets."
"Simple mayhem then?" Ed remarked, "Got it."
He and his brother were of similar build, their brown hair was long and hung below well-muscled shoulders. Their faces shaded under their cloaks he could just see their green eyes through the silver masks.
"No cutting throats this time around, and we'll sidelong apparate directly into the store... There were a few Aurors lurking about yesterday in the pub round the corner... but I don't think it will be a problem." Barty snorted. "Bruce, ward the place when we enter. Ed, take the gold from the clerk, keep her distracted. While I rough up the customers and get the book, we apparate back here and then jump to a safe house."
"Let's get to it then, shall we?" Ed was eager as always. He held out a hand.
Barty stood and dusted the sand from his dark robes, placed his mask across his face and locked arms with the brothers.
Sidelong apparating to just inside the front door.
Bruce turned and warded the front entryway of Poppies Treasures. Barty and Ed cast a shield and an anti-apparation charm. No one would be walking in on them. Or walking out for that matter. Their heavy black boots, loud against the wooden floorboards caused the girl at the register to turn her head. She gasped at the site of the Death Eaters. A customer she had been helping screamed and dropped the antique vase she had been holding. No one moved.
Ed reached the clerk behind the counter and shoved a bag at her, "Fill that bag with gold love." He growled to the cashier. "Fill that bag with gold, and we'll be out of here!"
Barty shattered the glass on the display case and shoved several items along with the book into the bag. Sending murderous glares at the trembling couple that had been shopping. "Empty your pockets...your jewels as well Madame!" He grabbed the elderly woman's hand. Pulling the rings from her fingers. Barty was divesting the customers of their valuables when someone tripped an alarm. And all Hell broke loose.
The stock boy came from the rear of the shop. He stepped into the aisle way, pulled his wand, and fired off an 'Expulso' charm, blowing a hole straight through Bruce. Sending him crashing into Barty. The elderly woman fainted. Covering Barty in gore. Bruce's eyes were frantic beneath the mask. His breath coming in wet, sucking gasps. His hands played at the edges of the torn hole, while his brain caught up to the fact that he was dead.
Ed spun away from the cashier and roared, firing in return. Catching the stock boy square in the chest with a 'Sectumsempra' and propelling him back, over six meters.
The ragged, dissected body lay at the feet of a young couple. They watched in horror as the stock boy attempted to get to his knees. The spell had cleaved his body almost in two, intestines spilling onto the floor. In vain he gathered them up, sadly attempting to shove them back where they belonged. Sobbing and reaching out a hand to the couple. He whispered through bloodied lips, "Help me."
Ed approached the boy from behind, gripped him by the hair "This is for my brother!" He hissed in his ear, cutting the boys throat he dropped the body to the floor.
The man shoved his companion behind a bookcase and began firing hexes at Ed. They were weak, and pathetic; Ed easily cast them off. He stalked forward, growling at the man. Ed grabbed the man by the back of the head and drove his silver knife into the young wizard's abdomen. He let the man slip to the ground in a pool of entrails. The young witch began to scream; Ed quieted her with a flick of his knife. Laying her throat open and pulsing. She too slumped to the floor, in a growing halo of blood.
Barty untangled himself from Bruce's limp form. A smoldering hole where his heart should have been. He eyed Ed from across the store. "That will be the Dementors Kiss now if we get caught, instead of fifteen years!" He hissed at him. "EVERYONE DOWN ON THE FUCKING FLOOR!" Barty bellowed, "IF ANY OF YOU FUCKING ARSEHOLES SO MUCH AS FARTS I'LL FUCKING BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEADS OFF!"
Barty stalked forward, choking on the hot scent of bodily fluids and crackling magic. He snatched the second bag of gold from the front desk," Ed grab your brother...I'm not dying in some stinking second-hand shop in the middle of fuck all nowhere!"
Barty headed for the door and attempted to drop the wards. Nothing worked, his magic muted. With a glance, out the front window, he could see the streets filled with Aurors. Both wizards dropped to the ground, below the storefront window.
"Well, Barty I guess that's what we get for robbing a shop around the corner from a pub filled with Aurors!" Ed chuckled. "Can't apparate now... got any ideas?"
Barty scrambled across the floor to the cashier. Ignoring the pools of coagulating blood and cooling entrails. He pulled her into his lap and stuck a knife to her throat. He took a quick glance out the front window and confirmed his worst fear. "That you Moody?" he called out.
"That you Crouch?"
"Big Dick Moody!... I have hostages! ...You need to let us leave!"
"Fuck you, Crouch!... Throw down your wands and come on out! ...Let those people go... this heist is over... you're not getting out of this!"
Barty looked at his partner. He had had run-ins with Alastor Moody. The ginger Auror stood fearlessly in the center of the street. There was no doubt who was running this show.
Barty knew he had no intention of bringing them in alive. He would be lucky to reach a holding cell if it were up to Auror Moody.
Ed looked up to catch a glimpse of the famous Auror. A curse pierced his forehead, and the back of Ed's head was suddenly gone. Ed turned to him, his eyes blinking, mouth moving but unable to form any words. He slumped to the floor. Moody was grinning. He twirled his wand like a gunslinger with a pistol and winked at Barty.
The girl in Barty's lap was screaming. Ed's brains had painted the floor. Barty cursed and tightened his grip on the terrified girl. Moody was right; there was no getting out of this. Barty looked around, taking in the scene. His partners both lay dead on the floor. He had three hostages, more than he could handle. More than he needed. Moody would not negotiate. Hostages meant nothing to him. Killing Death Eaters was what mattered to Big Dick Moody.
It was time for plan B.
The girl was still screaming in his lap. Barty took a deep breath; he was getting the Kiss anyway. He stuck the knife deep in her neck, just at the base. Severing the jugular vein and the artery near her clavicle, she would bleed out in seconds. Hot blood pulsed over his fingers and Barty whispered in her ear, "Shhhhh...Shhhh...easy love, easy... it will all be over soon." Her thrashing body began to twitch, the pulsing flow against his hand slowed to a trickle.
Barty shoved her off his knees. Grabbed Ed's wand and crawled to the young woman that had dropped the vase. Without hesitation, he cut her throat from one dangling diamond earing to the other. She resembled Madeline a little too much.
A silent scream left her lips while she gasped through the blood. Desperately attempting to stop the flow with her hands. Barty scrambled around to the old witch he had taken the rings off of. She leveled a steady, watery gaze at him, daring him to kill her. He smirked at her," I'm not going to kill you, I have plans for you, love!" Barty scooted closer to where she lay prone on the floor and glanced into the mirror above the register. He had the full view of the street and Moody had not moved. He just stood there with a maniacal grin plastered on his face. "Come on Crouch ... we both know I'm not letting you walk away!"
It was then, he saw her. Madeline, his Madeline. She crossed the street and stood next to Ol' Big Dick Moody.
"Barty, ... Barty please, please come out of there. We can make a fresh start...I made an awful mistake... I swear I really do love you, Barty! ...Please, I'll wait for you, I'll wait till you get out of Azkaban. I promise Barty; please come out!"
But he knew that she was lying, Madeline never told the truth. It was the first time he had seen her in seven months. She had cheated on him with another Death Eater and left that guy two weeks later for some broom salesman. He wanted to cut her throat, just like the witch with the vase. She had used him. She had broken him, and he loved her, still. Barty reached into his cloak, pulling out two vials of Polyjuice. He plucked a few hairs from his head and dropped them into the first flask. He leaned over and snatched a few grey hairs from the old witch and dropped them into the second vial. "Undress ...NOW!" Barty pointed the knife at her, and began to undress. His nervous tick was starting to manifest.
The longer he listened to Madeline profess her undying love and devotion to him. Oh, how he wanted to gut that bitch. The old witch fumbled with the buttons and Barty was becoming increasingly impatient. He glanced back at Madeline's reflection. He would give anything to taste her lips, once more. Maybe she meant it this time, maybe this time they could start fresh. Maybe, this time she would be faithful. And maybe, Alastor Moody would let him walk away. Barty poured the vial with his hair down the old woman's throat. And quickly downed the one with hers. He stripped and began dressing the rapidly changing form of the old woman. Barty pulled on her dress and shouted before his voice could change. "I love you, Maddi, I'm coming out...Do you hear me, Moody? ...I'm coming out!"
"I hear you Crouch ...throw out your wand and walk out with your hands up!"
"Do exactly as he say... and you'll live, you got that?" Barty hissed at the woman now completely transformed into his doppelganger.
Barty finished stuffing himself into the old woman's robes. His body had completed its transformation. He threw Ed's wand through the broken glass of the storefront window, pulled the old woman to her feet and shoved her around the corner of the bookcase in full view of Moody. The polyjuiced woman opened her mouth to scream out his secret.
But Ol' Big Dick Moody did exactly what Barty expected him to do. The same curse that had cut down Ed now shot at the fake Barty. There was a streak of blue light and pink mist. And the real Barty watched his polyjuiced form fall to the ground.
Barty pulled the book out of the bag of gold and stuffed it beneath his skirt. It was time to put on a show.
Aurors found the old women sobbing and trembling behind the bookshelf. They helped her to her feet and slowly walked her outside. Someone had conjured her a chair, and Barty sat, dabbing at his eyes and babbling like a crone.
Through the fake tears, he spotted Madeline. She had was kneeling next to his body, her tears fell onto the polyjuiced form, and she was holding his hand to her lips. Maybe, she did love him back. It was time to take this show on the road. Moody was shooting glances his way. The Aurors were forcibly removing a very distraught Madeline from the now slaughterhouse of a secondhand shop.
Madeline shoved them away. Her grief-filled rage causing her magic to spark around her. The Aurors knew there was nothing more dangerous than an enraged witch. They backed away from her, their arms held out to the side in contrition. She marched in front of Moody and slapped him, hard across the face and spitting at him. "YOU... YOU LIED TO ME! ...you told me he wouldn't be harmed!"
The Aurors moved in now and stepped between her and Moody. Madeline backed away from him, "YOU LIED TO ME!" She pointed her wand at him, and the Aurors responded in like. "You're going to pay for this ... I promise you that!" She put her wand down to her side and spun on her heel. Shoving her way through the gathered crowd, walking straight into the arms of an old woman. Barty watched the scene play out from the sidelines. Proud that she was his witch. He was still going to kill her. But she was a remarkable sight in her rage. If he currently had a cock, it would have been hard. Barty stood from the chair and made his way toward her. She stepped right into his arms as the polyjuice started to wear off. She started to push away from him. Then tightened her grip. Not a soul seemed to notice the two apparate from the center of the crowded street. No one that is except for Alastor Moody.
[dw1]