(Glances in disdain). Oh, I suppose I could update. (Grins.)
The idea for this chapter was thought up by Nicoleb, the winner of the competition, in which Barty runs away to Hogwarts.
I had to happen some day, dudes. Let us now say, au revoir, to (nearly) everyone's favourite Death Eater.
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Barty runs away
Barty crept down the stairs of the house as quietly as he could. It was night time, midnight, in fact, according to the large clock on the wall.
He was trying to keep his breathing as light as possible, and stepping only on the steps that he knew did not creak. For it would be a disaster if his father woke up and stopped him from running away to Hogwarts to pretend to be a teacher.
All he had to do was get out of the house, swallow some of that foul polyjuice stuff that Snape had made and he'd be good to go. He just had to be as quiet as he-
CRASH!
"Oh crud," Barty cursed as his knocked into one of his father's favourite vases and it smashed into lots of little pieces.
Barty listened. Had it woken up his father?
"BOY!"
Yes it had.
"What on EARTH are you doing?" Yelled Mr Crouch, appearing at the top of the stairs to find his son, fully clothed, in the midst of creeping into the hall, amongst the remains of his best china vase.
There was a tense moment of silence, in which father and son looked daggers at each other, each waiting for the other to attack.
"STUPEFY!" Barty yelled, proving that youth was indeed quicker than experience as his father was hit by the spell and stood as still as a statue.
Cackling to himself, Barty hurried to the door and yanked out his sonic screwdriver. He pointed it at the lock on the door and opened it, took one last look at his house, and then disappeared into the darkness.
-
"Let me OUT!" Came yet another yell.
"Oh, isn't there some way we can shut him up?" Dolohov moaned.
All of the Death Eaters were in the kitchen, gathered around the table, all glaring at the trunk in the corner.
"Shut up!" Rodolphus shouted at it, throwing a spoon at the trunk. The yelling subsided, although that may have been because of Voldemort's prompt silencing charm.
"Where is Barty?" Bellatrix asked grumpily. "I don't see why we have to stay up all night to wait for him if we're not even going anywhere."
"I think it would be nice to say a collective goodbye to him," Voldemort said, glaring at her. "After all, we won't see the guy for nearly a year."
"Oh, you won't," Snape grumbled. "I have to put up with him the whole time."
"He'll be in disguise, Snape," Voldemort pointed out.
"But he'll still be Barty," Snape replied. "And probably do everything he can to make this year a misery for me."
"Probably," Voldemort shrugged. "But oh well. He'll still send us e-mails, I shall make sure he has a computer in his office. Wormtail, what on earth is the matter?"
Wormtail was bright red and looked as though he might explode, a huge grin had been on his face practically all evening. He glanced at Voldemort, and then opened his mouth.
"I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE! NO MORE BARTY! WAHOOO!"
There was silence after this little outburst.
"Yes," Dolohov coughed. "Well, there are some of us who will actually miss him."
"Not me," spat Bellatrix. "He's so irrtating and immature. Remember the time when he laughed at my broken nail?"
"And you insulted his mother." Rabastan pointed out.
"And that time when he threw up all over my new robes?" She continued, ignoring him.
"Well," Dolohov said. "You did deserve that."
Bellatrix shot him a dangerous glare and fell silent.
"I don't like him much either," Lucius said. "Remember when he turned my hair bright green?"
There was a chorus of sniggers around the room. Lucius glared at them.
"Well I don't think my roots will ever be the same again," he said indignantly.
"He has had his annoying moments," Voldemort remenised. "Like on April Fool's day, when he hung me upside down from the ceiling. And made that odd blue box thing appear on the lawn, with a muggle girl inside it."
"And when he used your best teaset," Snape said. "And sent us to another dimension."
"And let's not forget those times when he turned me into an owl, locked me in an anti gravity chamber, stole my maltesers, blamed me for the mess those owls made, soaked me in jam, stole my mini eggs, trod on my head, shoved a jam tart in my face, and when he forced me to row that floaty thing after trying to push me off it."
There was another silence.
"Nobody cares, Wormtail," Voldemort said at last.
Suddenly, Barty came sauntering through the kitchen door.
"This him, then?" He nodded at the trunk.
"Yes," Voldemort replied. "If you shrink it and put it in your pocket then you should be fine."
"Now," Snape said with a sneer. "Drink this, would you?"
Barty took the cup filled with polyjuice potion rather reluctantly.
"Say goodbye to this face, guys," Barty said, and then grinned. "Last time you'll see me in this silly old face."
He drank it, and all at once he started to change.
His dark brown hair turned into wispy ginger strands, he became shorter and stumpier, and one of his eyes became glass. His nose turned smaller, and with chunks missing, and several scars were formed across his face.
All too soon, the Death Eaters were no longer looking at the face of Barty Crouch Junior, but of Alastor Moody, the ex-auror.
Everyone froze when the transformation had finished, waiting for Barty's reaction.
He lifted a hand up to his head and ran to the mirror.
"I'm ginger!" He cried. "At last! Well gingerish, and to be fair, there isn't that much of it but still, I'm ginger! Wahoo!"
They stared at him as he felt his teeth with his tongue.
"New teeth," he said slowly. "That's weird. Well, I can't say it's an improvement at all, but hey. For Queen and country, eh?"
"No," Voldemort corrected him. "For me."
"Ah yes, of course."
"You need to stop speaking like that," Rodolphus said. "Try and sound more like Moody."
"I don't much like his clothes," Barty grimaced, trying a more Moodyish voice and looking at the odd clothes that he was wearing. "But still. Constant vigilance, eh?" He winked at the others.
"That's enough fooling around," Voldemort snapped. "Now apparate to Hogsmeade and go straight to the castle, all right?"
Barty nodded, and, with a small 'pop', he vanished.
"That's him gone for a while then," Voldemort grinned.
"Great," Bellatrix said. "Now can we go to bed?"
----
That's Barty gone then. You'll be hearing from him though, keep reading guys!
Reddy.
