WARNING: This is the inside of Barty's mind, so possibly a little disturbing. (no blood or onscreen death though)
029-FALL
It was Bella's idea, that he should meet the Dark Lord. He hadn't been keen at first (the last thing he wanted to do was get involved in politics, if his father ever found out…) but it had seemed to mean so much to her.
He'd thought: why not? How bad could it be? At the worst he'd spend an hour or two listening to the misguided politics of some gibbering idiot. At best he'd find out what Bella actually did in the evenings she couldn't meet him. After all, it wasn't as if he disagreed with any of the general principles, it was just the danger associated with getting involved he worried about.
So he went to meet the Dark Lord.
And everything changed.
He stared into those glowing red eyes, the eyes that stared into his soul, and realized that this was far more than some mad pureblood with dreams of grandeur. This was for real; this was about power, and the future, and things he couldn't even begin to understand.
The twin red points of light bored into his soul, ripping through the layers of sullen teenage willfulness, of awkward obedience to authority, to find the dancing star beneath. Inside his mind, the Dark Lord threw up visions of darkness and screaming, of death in the night, of pain and torment, of even his own father…
Barty's eyes sparkled. Deep inside him, something glowed.
There was something within him that those visions answered. Maybe it was the brilliant fractures in his mind, a childhood of adult neglect, or maybe just the end result of careful pureblood inbreeding. Whatever it was, the dark sick images released a hunger, a sort of need.
The Dark Lord spoke, "Are you willing to join us?"
Was he willing? How could he not be when this man, this god, had seen inside him, plumbed the depths of his soul, and, most importantly of all, had approved of it. Barty had never sought approval before, and until this moment had never realised just how much he craved it.
It was the atmosphere, he told Bella later, the smoke, the darkness, the guttering candles. Because he didn't want to admit, even to himself, that when he'd thrown himself to his knees and cried "Yes Master" in an embarrassingly passionate voice, that he'd actually meant it. Besides, how could he explain to her that at that moment he'd loved those glowing red eyes more than her, that he would have done anything, anything, the cold voice had commanded?
What he did say to Bella was, "He understands. He really understands what it's like…to be me."
"Of course he does." The cherry-red lips smirked, "I did tell you, you silly boy."
His initiation came later, in a night of pain and flame and a burning black mark. Bella said that the initiation was the most important part, but to Barty it hardly mattered, it was merely an afterthought.
Barty Crouch had fallen long ago.