Title: Cause and Effect
Author's Note: Well hello there you lovely people! First off, thank you so much to those who left a review on the previous chapters. I really appreciate it. Thank you! Also, thanks to those who read, followed, and favorited this story. It brings me great joy to know that you all enjoyed it so much. I apologize for the bit of delay on the update, but I'm finally done now, so enjoy!
P.S- Ignore the OOC bits and pieces. I can't keep them in character without ruining the plot of the story.
-McDiggin'It
…
Chapter Three:
….
...
His eyelids feel like they've been glued together, but he forces them open. His breakfast certainly isn't agreeing with his stomach and he feels the need to upchuck its contents. "Seriously, who came up with a spell that would render you incapable of functioning properly?"
"Merlin." Hermione answers for him.
He manages to pry his eyes open, and he has to suppress the grin that wants so badly to form on his face because he's actually seeing twelve Hermione's. "Of course… the old nutcase couldn't make it so the victims of the spell could be able to at least tell which one of you is real?"
Hermione quirks a questioning eyebrow at him. "No… unfortunately he also didn't make it so the 'victims' of the spell would be incapable of speech as well." She mutters. "How many of me do you see?"
"Well," Barty squints up at Hermione and smiles. "…just before you asked me that question? Twelve."
Hermione nods, making a mental note of that. "And now?"
Barty snorts, trying to count how many Hermione's are left. "Five… I think."
"Right… I saw a bit of what you saw before the Romanian dragon chased you down." Hermione tells him. "Why the bloody hell would you wake up a sleeping dragon?"
Barty tries to think back on what his memories could tell him, but it's all a little blurry. "Not sure, but I think I needed it."
"You needed a dragon to chase you down?" Hermione asks confusedly.
At that, Barty rolls his eyes at her as if she's not seeing the point. "Of course not. I meant I needed the dragon for something, but ended up being chased by it."
Hermione nods, trying to follow along. "And what exactly was it that you needed?"
Barty scratches the back of his head for a moment as he sits up slowly. He blinks back at the only Hermione left and smiles. "You."
"Me? Why do you need me?"
Barty chuckles shaking his head, "I meant you're you."
"Not following."
"There were five of you, and now there's only you."
Hermione shakes her head with a sigh. "That doesn't answer my question."
Barty rolls his eyes at her and tries to sit up straight on the couch. "Oh come on… don't the people of your generation just relax and talk about things that don't hurt your head?"
"I'm trying to find out what you're doing here, Barty!" Hermione snaps. "Not talk about things that don't hurt your head."
Again, he rolls his eyes. "We've been at this for hours! Can't a man have his rest after long hours of sweaty and exhaustive activities?"
She knows he's making it sound dirtier than it is just to get under her skin, but she can't really say it's not working. She was about ready to hex him into oblivion. "Fine. We can take a break. But we're not going to be drinking Martini's and braiding each other's hair."
Barty lets out a loud whoop as he pumps a fist into the air. "Deal... let's have some Scotch instead."
She was about to snap out a stern 'No!', but stopped at the last moment. Maybe the only thing that would make it easier for me to work without having this pompous git disturbing me with his dirty, perverted comments would be to get him so drunk, he wouldn't even remember his own name. With that in mind, she stores away her initial disagreement with the idea for future use and shrugs at him. "No harm in that, I suppose."
Barty blinks at her for a moment before his face splits into a grin. "That is probably the first thing you've said to me that makes complete sense." He mutters teasingly.
Hermione rolls her eyes at him as she gets up off the end of the couch and moves towards the kitchen in search of a bottle of Scotch and two glasses of ice. "I'll be right back."
...
…
"Where were you?" Harry asks immediately when Ginny enters their shared apartment.
Ginny looks up to find her boyfriend sitting on the couch in the den, nursing a glass of Fire whiskey. "Hermione's."
Harry waits for an explanation, but it doesn't come. Ginny only shrugs out of her coat, kicks off her shoes and proceeds to get comfortable on the arm chair across from him. "What were you doing there? And what'd she say in the letter she sent you yesterday?"
Ginny shrugs as if it's nothing. "I told you. Girl trouble."
He nods. "And why didn't you come home last night?"
"Hermione needed a friend."
Harry quirks an eyebrow at his girlfriend. "She needed three friends."
At that, Ginny looks questioningly at him.
He shrugs, "Ron came back a little early from Romania and came over to find Luna."
"And you just assumed that Luna was at Hermione's?"
Harry rolls his eyes at the way she's asking him as if he were a delinquent. "Of course not. Luna and Parvati were getting pretty close as of late, so we owled Neville, who owled Parvati, who then owled him back. He came over by floo and told us that Parvati told him that all three of you were crashing at Hermione's for the night for some unknown reason."
Ginny sighs heavily, mentally rolling her eyes at Parvati's incapability of keeping anything a secret. Well, at least she didn't mention anything about Barty… that was the only thing Hermione needed to keep a secret. "Right. Well then why'd you ask if you already knew?"
Harry lets out a long, exhausted sigh, "Gin, what's going on with Hermione? We tried sending her an owl, but all she wrote back was 'I'm fine, just please stay away until I say it's okay'… What does that even mean?"
"It means she's okay and that she needs some time and space until she thinks its okay for you or anyone else to barge into her apartment again."
"But—,"
"No 'buts'." Ginny interrupts. "Harry, she's your friend, and you know that she's more than capable of taking care of herself. I saw her with my own two eyes this morning, and she's perfectly fine. Still Hermione, still smart, and still alive and well. Okay?"
"That's not what I'm worried about." Harry says softly.
Ginny looks at him curiously. "What?"
"Is she… I mean, is she mad at me and Ron?"
"For?"
Harry shakes his head, and Ginny can instantly tell that he's hiding something.
"What is it?"
Again, he shakes his head. "It's nothing."
"Harry, I've known you for majority of my life… What's going on?"
He sighs heavily, leaning back on the couch and taking a sip from his glass of fire whiskey, probably for a bit of courage. Finally, he speaks, "Ron and I were both in Romania a couple of nights ago."
This was news to Ginny, who had thought that Harry was still in London a couple of nights ago. "You said you were in the field."
"Yes, but I didn't tell you where the field was."
Ginny narrows her eyes at Harry. "This better be good, or you're sleeping on the couch, Potter."
Harry sighs heavily and begins to retell the events of the past few days.
He's not entirely sure of what he saw, so he doesn't say a thing. Surely, he's mistaken. That can't possibly be Bar—, Nahh. That wasn't him. It can't be. The guy is dead. He saw it with his own eyes.
"Harry, I'm not sure if I'm seeing things, but that bloke looked an awful lot like… well, like—,"
"Bartemius Crouch Jr?" Harry finishes in a questioning tone.
Ron nods immediately and swallows hard. Just as he was about to ask Harry if he was 100% sure the guy was dead, a loud piercing shriek pierces their ears, interrupting him. "What the bloody hell was that?"
Harry's eyes widen as he turns to Ron, remembering the golden egg from fourth year, and Ron asking the exact same thing when he heard a screech similar to the one they just heard a moment ago. He knows exactly what the bloody hell that was. "Dragon."
He's bleeding, his arm is scorching where the dragon had blown fire at him and he had barely managed to get away, and he's sweating like a racehorse. Today was indeed, not Harry's favorite day. He turns to look at the other end of the rocky terrain where they had found the dragon, to see his best friend panting heavily. He motions with his hands and calls, "You okay?"
Ron looks up, face almost as red as his hair and rolls his eyes. "Oh, I'm certainly enjoying myself, Harry." Ron replies sarcastically. "Whadaya think?!" he shouts snappishly.
Harry sighs heavily and shakes his head. "We need to shut this dragon down right now, Ron!"
"What have we been trying to do for the past two hours? Playing hide-and-go-seek with the bloody thing?!"
"Quit complaining and get your arse over here. I have a plan!"
Ron rolls to the side and tries to sprint towards him while in a crouched position. He reaches Harry in a few seconds and looks at him skeptically. "You said two hours ago that you had a plan, and we have yet to contain that thing." He hisses.
"Shut up!" Harry snaps. "This plan will work."
Ron widens his eyes comically. "Well what is it?"
After explaining the plan to a skeptical redhead, Harry decides that it's about time they execute it. The dragon screeches loudly as it stomps left and right, the ground shaking with its force.
"I hope you're right about this, Harry." Ron tells him.
Harry shakes hi s head because he's not even sure he's right about this. "I'm not… but I think I heard Hermione saying it, and if she really did, then this should work."
Ron turns his head to glare at Harry. "You THINK you heard Hermione say it?! Well that is really reassuring, Harry." Ron mutters sarcastically. He exhales heavily before shaking his head and turning towards the dragon. "Well, here goes nothing." With that, he takes off in a high speed sprint towards the dragon, praying to every holy being out there that he won't be barbecue by the end of this insane mission.
…
...
Ginny squints for a long minute at Harry. "So let me get this straight. You were on a mission in Romania because the Ministry had been notified of some sort of dark activity going on there, and you saw a man who is as good as dead,"
Harry shakes his head. "Not as good as dead. He is dead."
"Fine. You saw a dead man, and then you had to fight a dragon?"
Harry nods, "Yes."
"And what happened to the dead man?"
Harry shrugs, "He apparated."
"And the dragon?"
Harry grins, "We managed to contain it just in time for the Aurors to arrive."
"And the dark activity?" Ginny asks curiously.
Harry sighs heavily, shaking his head. "We couldn't track it since it disappeared exactly when we saw the Crouch Jr. look alike."
Ginny nods, trying to piece everything together. "And what makes you so sure that Barty is dead?"
Harry quirks an eyebrow at his girlfriend. "Barty? Did you just give that monster a nickname?"
Ginny mentally kicks herself for the slipup. "No, it's just easier to say than Bartemius." She shrugs.
Harry rolls his eyes at that. "Well, I saw Barty get executed. It happened four feet away from me."
Ginny tries not to let her surprise show, and she thinks she's doing a really good job. "What do you mean he was executed? Wasn't he a kissed prisoner?"
"Well yeah, but the Minister figured that they wouldn't really care if they were killed. Would probably appreciate it even. Azkaban needs more cells now that the Wizarding community is continuing to grow with crime, so they eliminated the prisoners who were kissed."
"That's murder!" Ginny cries out.
Harry shrugs. "I didn't exactly agree with their methods, Gin, but… those prisoners deserve worse than death, and that was really an easy out for them. They're probably thanking the Ministry right now wherever they are."
Ginny only shakes her head in disagreement. "Where does Hermione come in on all of this?"
Harry gives her a confused look. "What?"
"You asked if Hermione was mad at you." Ginny say matter of factly.
Harry shrugs, "She made us promise that we would let her know if we're ever on life-or-death missions."
Ginny snorts at that. "I think that's the least of her worries."
"What makes you say that?"
Ginny doesn't answer as she turns to leave. She has to speak to Hermione first before she can process this whole thing.
"Where are you going?" Harry asks incredulously.
"Hermione's."
Harry blinks at his girlfriend in bewilderment. "Again? You just came back from there!"
Ginny shrugs, "Girl trouble... you wouldn't understand." without another word, she kisses him on the cheek before apparating on the spot.
...
…
When Ginny steps through the foyer of Hermione's flat, she's immediately hit with the strong smell of alcohol in the air. Her eyebrows furrow in confusion as she begins to worry. Hermione was never one to drink at an hour like this. It's only 3 in the afternoon, and she barely even drinks! But Barty was here, and none of them really trusts him because he's kind of a psycho. Ginny continues into the apartment, calling out Hermione's name. "Hermione? Are you here?"
No answer.
"Hermione?" Ginny continues further, turning into the den. No one. Her eyes search the entirety of the room. Barty's sheets were lying in a heap on the floor at the foot of the couch, his pillow still on the couch, but no Barty in sight. There are only two bedrooms in Hermione's apartment, so Ginny goes for the guest room first, wondering if Barty had decided to use it. She finds it empty, so she continues to the only other room in Hermione's apartment. Ginny's heart begins to race, worrying over her friend's life and safety. What if Barty had killed her or something? What if he got her drunk and raped her? What if he's torturing her in her own bedroom? Ginny braces herself for what's to come as she slowly turns the knob on Hermione's bedroom door and pushes the door back. Her eyes practically bulge out of her skull. She blinks several times, not really sure of what she's seeing. When she grows tired of trying to make sense of what she's looking at, she voices the words that are floating around her head. "What the bloody hell is going on?"
Hermione's head snaps up, her eyes narrowing at the owner of the voice, to find her friend standing at the door with a confused look. "Gin, be quiet." She whispers.
Ginny steps into the bedroom, looking closely at the sight before her. Barty was lying half naked in just his boxers on Hermione's bed, eyes closed as though he were sleeping, sweating, and mumbling under his breath. Ginny whispers across the room as she draws near the bed. "What's going on?"
"He's under a spell." Hermione explains. "I got him drunk enough to shut up, and so I tried the Legilimens again, and I honestly think he's more alert than he was before he was drunk."
Ginny doesn't bother trying to understand Hermione's explanation. "And what have you found?... and why is he shirtless?" she asks, quirking an eyebrow at Hermione.
Hermione rolls her eyes at the redhead. "He started stripping while stumbling towards the bathroom door and ended up running straight into the wall. That's when he passed out, so I levitated him to the bed and began the process of picking his brain apart."
Ginny nods, "And what have you found so far?"
"Not much, but I think I know how he managed to apparate straight into my flat."
Ginny raises her brows in question, "How?"
Hermione turns, pulling a book from her bedside table and flipping to a page in the far back. "He imagined it."
At that, the redhead blinks confusedly. "Sorry, what?"
Hermione hands the book over to the other girl and points to a paragraph at the top left corner. "I'm not sure of how it works, but I think he used some sort of spell to track me down. He used my address, and imagined up an apartment that looks exactly like mine."
Ginny shakes her head, not following any of what Hermione was saying. "How do you know this?"
Hermione points to Barty. "Legilimens. I saw him imagining my apartment. Apparently, he knows quite a lot about me, and though I'm not entirely sure of how I feel about that, I'm actually quite surprised at how much he actually knows about me. The man managed to imagine up what my apartment would look like, and he was pretty darn close."
"How close?" Ginny asks curiously. This was actually getting quite interesting.
Hermione gestures around her room. "He got everything in my room correct except for the door knob, and the color of the window curtains."
"Wow… talk about creepy." Ginny mutters, eyeing the sleeping and drunk man in Hermione's bed.
Hermione nods in agreement as she looks at the man on her bed. She shakes her head at the image. Usually, when she pictures a 'man in her bed', he'd be her husband, sleeping soundly beside her. She pictures them both asleep when their kids barge into their room and whining about breakfast, and hopping up and down on their bed to wake them… instead, Bartemius Crouch Jr. has beat her future husband to her bed. Literally. After a moment, Hermione clears her mind of her thoughts and looks curiously at her friend. "I thought you went home to Harry."
Ginny blinks at her for a moment, trying to remember what she's doing there. "Oh." She looks between Barty and Hermione before continuing. "I did… but then Harry told me that he and Ron were in Romania a couple of days ago, and saw a Barty Jr. look-alike there."
Hermione's eyebrows shoot up at that. "They saw him there?"
Ginny nods in confirmation. "Thing is, Harry also saw Barty get executed a few weeks ago."
This, Hermione thinks, is quickly turning into a huge problem. A problem she's not even sure she can solve.
At that moment, Barty's eyes begin to flicker as he stretches his arms up over his head, unknowingly flexing every muscle in his upper body in front of the two witches watching him.
Hermione would never say it out loud, but… Barty really is, very distracting. "This is going to take a lot longer than I thought."
...
…
Author's Note: Yes, I know. It's all very confusing. But I'll explain it all in the next few chapters. I really hope you all liked this. And if you did, please leave reviews! Thank you all for reading!
-McDiggin'It
