DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.
Harry
1978, the Hanged Man Pub.
I couldn't face him. I simply couldn't face Snape after listening to his story because it seemed, the more I learnt about his past the more I wavered on my former opinion of him. Sure the man was still a mean bastard who had openly sided with the Slytherins and had had no tolerance for me whatsoever because of my father's treatment of him but, that, unfortunately did not keep me from empathizing with him just a little!
And I think it was because of these new unfamiliar thoughts that everything became even more difficult for me to accept. Especially the thought that I might have even forgiven him somewhat, for having been such a prick towards me all the time! Unable to cope with this new concept I found myself running from the Hogs Head pub hoping to find some peace and quiet to sort it all out!
Deciding to do some work rather than just loitering around the place as ready bait for some fortuitous death eater, I apparated outside the door of the 'Hanged Man,' which was the name of another seedy pub located in none other than Tom Riddle's own hometown, the Little Hangleton.
The pub's management, I'd only recently discovered, had been taken over by rather cankerous, smelly old man, which long hours of research had proved him to be an unrepentant, ex-convict from Azkaban whose new sponsor remained enshrouded in mystery.
The place had become the regular haunt of one Mr. Barty Crouch Jr. whom I had been shadowing as one of the key suspects in the foreign ambassadors massacre for about nearly two weeks now.
The man/boy whom I had initially thought of as nothing but a spoilt brat, clamoring for his father's attention forced me to change my opinion of him within the short time that I had been following him.
I found out from close observation that he was genuinely depressed and lacking when it came to having a firm direction in his life. His father whose unrealistic dreams for him had kept him bogged down for a while now and his mother's ill-health and said father's continual absence due to long hours of work had made him come to despise the man so much so that every time he got drunk he'd let the entire bar know of his father's failing's in a loud, unreserved voice that openly displayed his pain and disillusionment so clearly that I had almost come to feel sorry for the poor bugger.
Don't get me wrong though! I knew his background story and really felt for him but I also knew that that wasn't enough to stop me from going after him if he was indeed responsible for all those deaths. Especially the terrible crime I knew from history that was going to commit in the future in the name of his fallen lord in year 1991 when he'd go after the Longbottom's, ultimately depriving Neville of his parents.
No mercy! I reminded myself. Sure, I'd be changing history but if it would help Neville this way and if I could only prevent that bitch Lestrange from driving Alice and Frank Longbottom from going mental, I would; no matter what the outcome.
Again I felt that blinding pain whenever I thought of that particular death eater and the Godfather she took from me while cackling like a goddamn hyena! Sirius Black, the man whom I had spent hours agonizing over all summer long in Privet drive with feelings of guilt, loss and pain all colluding together mercilessly. His death, I still struggled to come to terms with even to this day as I was unable to comprehend the mysterious veil he had fallen behind.
Bellatrix who had mocked us all in his final hour made me want to avenge every single person who had suffered by her hands. In fact my most recent musings had led me to thinking that just maybe I could change some of their sad fates by protecting them in this timeline! And the first step I'd be making towards that insane but genius direction was by testing the waters with this Barty Crouch case!
"Yo Barty! Just the bloke I was looking for!" Some called out his name in a loud voice making several people in the bar swivel their heads towards its owner when I saw Crouch's face pale with sudden recognition and his pupils darted about in panic.
Turning around to see who could have wrought such a change in him, I nearly ended up choking on my bottle of Mc Spratt's sparkling spring water when it turned out to be Evan bloody Rosier who I knew had dropped out of school to join Voldemort's death eaters and who had ended up dying because of good ol' Moody during the first war.
Now the living breathing, barely eighteen year old, strutted up to the table as if he owned the filthy pub and knocked on the table's surface in front of Crouch before stealing his drink from him and downing it in one gulp.
"We've gotta leave" Rosier slapped down a couple of galleons on the table before hoisting up the unsteady drunk he had come for to his feet. "The chaps want to talk to you about something important so we've gotta get moving" he dragged the sodden fool outside the door while I saw several other men in the bar shoot pitying looks his way.
"Wher…where are we going?" Crouch slurred but went along quite willingly with the other man without putting up any resistance whatsoever.
"You've been gabbing about us all a bit too much lately, haven't ya?" Rosier smirked evilly "The guys have been wanting to give you a bit of some kindly advice to make you shut your pie-hole" he snickered gleefully while Crouch hung his head in sad resignation but let himself be propelled towards what could definitely not have had a good outcome for him.
I waited a bit until I knew it was safe to follow and then hiding behind a tree outside the pub I watched as they headed straight towards a dilapidated barn not far from the Hanged man itself. Wishing for my invisibility cloak, I followed them sneakily and immediately began looking for a window or some kind of opening in wall which would aid me in my task of eavesdropping on the conversation inside.
Finding the perfect spyhole, I peered into the dark room beyond it and felt intimidated by the five or six death eaters gathered around in a circle, surrounding a sobbing, penitent Crouch and mocking him in loud, garish voices through their gleaming silver masks.
They kicked him mercilessly and Crucioed him until he couldn't find the voice to scream and through it all I stood feeling utterly revolted and helpless when I couldn't save the poor bastard from his fate.
"The dark Lord is unaware of your idiocy" one of the death eater's hollow tone, rang out in the night "and he continues to remain pleased with your efforts during last wee…"
I never saw or heard it coming and so was left reeling in horrified shock when someone who had snuck up upon me when I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings slammed my head into the wooden wall in from of me with enough force to be able to crack my skull open.
But I had not been training in vain with the Prewitt brother after all and managing to stay conscious I whipped out my wand before the other man, who was definitely not expecting any resistance, could call out for more back up. Whispering a quick stupefy I hastened to move away from the fallen man in front of me when I suddenly heard the front door of the barn creak open and was joined by three more rather fierce looking death eaters.
Backing up slowly, I tried apparating myself out of that hellhole but was stunned when absolutely nothing happened! The entire place I realized in that horrible moment had been rigged with multiple anti-apparating and intruder alerting charms and that I was trapped like some cornered animal!
"Who the fu** are you?" one of the men slowly approached me with his wand held up at ready.
"I…I was just passing by when I thought I heard something strange so I…"
"Ever heard of how curiosity killed the cat?" the man beside him sniggered as if I was of no consequence at all.
I could have begged and pleaded of course, but for one, I knew it would have been a futile attempt and two, after the triwizard fiasco in Hogwarts during my fourth year, I had promised myself never to bow or kneel willingly in front of scum like this ever again.
"Die!" The third man obviously tiring of this whole cat and mouse game drawled "He's just a stupid boy" he dismissed me callously and just as a blindingly, green light erupted at the end of his wand, I ducked and rolled over as I had learnt to do in practice and using what little skill I possessed in the DADA and the element of surprise on my side, I threw a rather strong and destructive Confringo spell in their direction and took to running away from them simultaneously to find myself an open place to be able to apparate in peace.
Not even bothering to look back at the results of my handiwork, which I knew would have been considerable since I'd been learning to actually control the humungous force of magic within me, I ran and ran until though my lungs would burst but they didn't let up and inch frustrated at being bested by a mere 'boy'.
"Get the fu****!" One of the death eater's behind me cried out and I suddenly experienced a searing pain over my left calf as I dodged the volley of spells that were being thrown at me one after another while I stumbled and struggled to maintain the pace I'd managed to run at thus far.
Because it was night time and I couldn't risk using Lumos I got thoroughly pummeled by several low lying branches and twigs as I made my hurried getaway but willfully ignored pain and did not stop, not even when I recognized an Entrail-Expelling curse being flung at me from behind.
"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Expelliarmus!..." I ran and ran until I finally came across an open space of land and tried desperately to calm myself so that I wouldn't end up splinching myself if I managed to apparate!
"There he is!" I heard the shouts getting closer and closer feeling the heat from their spells as they whizzed past me once again. Deciding that it was now or never, I panted out a soft "Hogs Head pub!" and found, to my utter happiness, that this time it had worked but just barely when I saw that I'd lost some of the fabric from my robes during my journey!
Deducing that I'd indeed landed in the quiet but familiar streets of Hogsmaede, I quickly hobbled over to the pub while shooting worried glances all around me only letting go of my fears once I was safely behind the doors of what had become home to me.
"Cripes!" I felt someone rushing over to my side and roughly managing to prop up my sagging body with the strength of their own before leading me towards a narrow stool nearby.
"Dean! What the hell happened to you?" I recognized Fabian's tensed voice but was much too drained to formulate a reply of my own and slumped against the bar counter instead of facing the barrage of questions being thrown my way.
"Let the lad sleep" Ab said as he slowly made his way down the staircase "He looks like he's goin' to be needin' a bit of a rest to be able to talk ter us so soon."
I had known Ab for about nearly three months now so I could easily recognize the tone of relief in his voice at seeing me without him having to actually state it out aloud.
"But…" Gideon argued "What if…"
"No!" Ab's tone brooked no argument "Put him up in my chamber since the Snape lad's still sleeping on his bed and come back ter join me fer a spot of drink" he lumbered off behind the bar intent on mixing the drinks while the Prewitt brothers levitated my battered body and tucked me under the warm covers of Ab's bed.
Harry
1978, The next morning.
"So you're telling us that Barty Crouch's son is in cahoots with the bloody death eaters?" Fabian's mouth hung open in his disbelief "But Barty's almost fanatic about justice! He'll be utterly devastated to learn about this!"
He was, I couldn't help sighing as I remembered how Barty had gone against every single one his principles to be able to protect his wayward son in the future. How his wife and he had betrayed the entire system in their fight to keep their son from going to Azkaban.
"I know that they're working together but I couldn't find out if he was actually involved in the massacre or not because I was too busy having my head shoved into the wall" I grinned feeling so much braver in the light of the day and with a scrumptious breakfast laid out in front of me.
"That's not funny you nutter!" Gideon mumbled "You could have died last night you know?"
"Anyway…" I tried not to look into their concerned faces as I dug into a pile of rather buttery scrambled eggs on my plate "What are we going to do with all this new Intel now?"
"Fabian and I are going to get a search warrant which will enable us to be able search the poor sods house" Gideon rubbed the nape of his neck glumly "But it's going to be a really uphill battle because Barty's got quite a bit of clout at the Ministry and the Wizengamot already thinks that he can do no wrong so..."
"So in the meanwhile I'm going to keep following his son if I can" I said this very quickly while waving away all of their rebuttals "I knew that I was on the right track when I started this mission so I'm going to keep going until the very end."
"Dean…" Ab who had been a silent spectator until then suddenly jumped into the fray.
"No!" I said stubbornly while trying not to sound too petulant "I'm almost as old as you guys are" I glowered at the Prewitt brother's pointedly "and though I agree that I'm not as good at fighting with the opposition as you lot are I can still help you guys out."
"You've already proven to us that you can Dean" Fabian tried to placate me "but for some reason that I can't explain, I feel like I need to keep you safe somehow, to protect you. I feel like you're still much too young and inexperienced to be involved in all this dangerous business."
His face furrowed by worry lines reminded me so much of his sister's expression that I couldn't help but smile up at him. Who knew that I would be accepted so easily into their fold when I was but a stranger to them?
Their concern for me felt good and comforting but even I knew that my being here was an opportunity that I simply could not afford to waste and that I had to take full advantage of the situation. So, I continued to ignore their kind words until the younger version of Snape descended upon us for breakfast.
"Are ye ready to face the headmaster today son?" Ab asked him not missing a beat while he wiped the glasses on the shelves behind him with that sickening rag he loved so dearly.
"I guess I have to be" Snape the ever friendly bastard sniped at his well-meaning question.
"Yes you have to" Fabian said firmly. "If you want to find some measure of freedom from your current situation you're certainly going to need all the help you can get!"
Grunting rather rudely, the greasy haired but strangely good-looking boy (in a bad boy sort of way) looked up at us frowningly until his gaze fell upon me and lingered there for an instant as a look of confusion stole into his eyes before he reverted back to sipping on the freshly made and rather precious pumpkin juice which Ab had been able to acquire only after much haggling with our usual supplier.