Welcome back to Chapter 10. This story is approximately 20 chapters in length so we're at the halfway point! I hope you enjoy it so far!
The next couple of chapters skip forward in time and deal with Frank and Alice's careers as Aurors in Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix following their graduation from Hogwarts, and I plan to feature their wedding in a couple of chapters, something different from my Remadora fics.
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CHAPTER 10
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CROUCH was seated in Professor Slughorn's office, actively trying his best to avoid his Head of House's cold and unfathomable stare, though he quickly swiveled his head upward the moment he heard the door to Old Sluggy's office swing open.
His blood ran cold and turned to ice in his veins as Alice was ushered him, escorted by Mrs. Longbottom, who shot Barty a cold, withering stare and pursed her thin, lipstick-coated lips into a rigid, unmovable line as she proceeded to raise her eyebrows at him in alarm, and motioned for Professor Slughorn to follow her.
Slughorn's mouth dropped open slightly in shock, though upon being under the receiving end of a particularly withering look from Augusta Longbottom that would have had the power to wilt a fully bloomed rose, he closed his mouth, though still looking like he wanted to protest.
His inquisitive gaze flitted from Crouch towards Alice, who stood by the door, nervously wringing her hands together, and only seemed to calm down the moment Remus Lupin laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.
Alice offered a curt nod of her head and watched as Professor Slughorn and Mrs. Longbottom reluctantly left the room, though not before Professor Slughorn cast one more scathing, disappointed look towards Barty Crouch Jr. before looking at Alice.
"We'll be right outside if you need us, Miss Prewitt, Mr. Lupin," Professor Slughorn murmured under his breath as a fiery pink blush of shame and embarrassment speckled on its cheeks.
Remus nodded, biting down on his bottom lip, and made no move to remove his hand from Alice's shoulder, though he glanced over his shoulder out into the corridor and shot Frank a nod.
On the way down the Grand Staircase, the two young men had discussed it and decided it would be best if Remus went in with Alice, as he was, out of all the Marauders and their friends, the most level-headed and able to remain calm under pressure, of which Alice wanting to converse with Barty Crouch Jr. was definitely an event that caused poor Longbottom's blood pressure to spike, and Remus decided the best course of action was to remain present in the room with Alice and not say a single word.
As Alice looked on at Barty Crouch Jr.'s rapidly paling face and dawning look of anger at the surprising simple intimacy of the gesture of Lupin's strong, slightly calloused hand on her arm, something tugged at the back of the young brunette witch's mind which had nothing to do with her injured sprained and bandaged hand or wounded pride as it tugged at her heartstrings.
Barty Crouch Jr. looked, for lack of a better word here, utterly defeated.
His cold, calculating dark brown eyes no longer held the unforgiving steel they once had, and he looked remarkably small and frail as he sat in the chair in front of Professor Slughorn's desk, shivering, waiting with gritted teeth, for whatever harsh words his Head of House and now from her that the pair of them wished for the young man to accept.
It was the first time she had seen him since the attack, and yet it might as well have been an age, Alice pondered in shock.
He sat in his chair, looking even more well put together than last night when the man had so cruelly disguised himself as Frank. Crouch was dressed in a simple black sweater and black jeans, his hair disheveled slightly, and yet, somehow it suited him.
But right now, Barty seemed to be having trouble meeting Alice's gaze, for his face blanched and his dark brown eyes darting this way and that as he took in the surroundings of Professor Slughorn's office as though this were the most interesting room in the entirety of the castle. Alice bit her lip and her frown deepened.
She knew Barty's disposition, knew the sharp Slytherin never missed a detail, and Alice felt her cheeks begin to burn as she took in a deep breath and observed Crouch instead of the room, feeling immensely satisfied with the shock Alice saw displayed on his face.
This was the vast difference between them.
But just as Alice was beginning to grow complacent, however, his dark eyes landed on her, and as if by Portkey, she had suddenly been transported back to that third-floor corridor.
Unlike that time, however, Alice saw no deep emotions smoldering in his eyes, nothing at all to suggest what had transpired between the two of them before Remus and the others had burst into the room to save her from the worst of his temper.
He merely took in her appearance, his gaze lingering on her bandaged hand, and if Alice wasn't mistaken, a light pink blush speckled along his cheeks before Barty pointedly looked away.
Alice froze, rooted to her spot, her fingernails digging into the skin of her palm and she began playing with the cuticle of her thumb. For the first time, Alice could not make out anything of the inner workings of Barty Crouch Jr.'s mind. She was stumped.
In her mind, Crouch had never seemed quite so…small.
And to Alice's own surprise, she found that, deep down, despite what he had tried to do to her last night, she pitied the Slytherin.
All he had ever accomplished as a student here at Hogwarts, thanks to his home life, what little she knew of it, was the mastering of manipulation and fear and he used those skills to his advantage.
Yes, Alice pitied him.
Perhaps Barty himself had never known what it was to be loved wholly and unconditionally. What little she knew of the man's father, wasn't exactly good news, see.
Perhaps his own past was just as sad and dark and that was why Crouch did not allow himself to feel it, those foreign feelings that he claimed to be an intense love for her, but Alice knew if the man truly loved her, he would not have had to resort to trickery.
Still, she could not help but to feel sorry for the man, thinking that, if circumstances had perhaps been different, then maybe she could have loved him if Frank hadn't gotten to her first.
At the very least, Alice would have liked to have become friends. Alice furrowed her brows as she strode slowly and cautiously towards the spare chair that remained next to Crouch.
A fact she found odd as if Slughorn had been expecting her. Suddenly, as Alice moved to sit down in the chair, she felt compelled to do something for Barty.
Anything at all, something.
Hate and rage had to stop with someone, and in Barty's case, she was afraid of what would happen if the man couldn't find it within himself to change, and soon, then Alice feared there was nothing she could do for him, and she had, in her mind, already done more than enough and what he deserved by saving the man from expulsion from this place, and yet, deep in the recesses of her heart, she wanted more. Wanted to help him.
Though before she could so much as take another step towards Crouch to join the man where he sat, a strong arm shot out and latched onto her forearm, preventing the young witch from so much as taking another step forward.
"Alice, no. Don't." Remus's voice reached her eardrums, soft, reserved, breathy, almost barely above a whisper, and Alice felt if she hadn't already been hanging onto the Gryffindor Prefect's every word, then she would have missed it completely. "Please…"
He was begging her now, a tactic that had always worked well on Alice before whenever she was engaging in questionable behavior that Remus or Frank did not approve of, but Alice shook her head to clear her mind, needing her resolve to remain strong.
She had to do this, no matter what Frank and Remus wanted.
Alice slowly swiveled her head to the left, as Lupin halted in his tracks, taken aback by Alice's request to talk to Barty again.
After what he had put her through, Remus was sure that Alice would have been of a mind to never speak to the man again.
And he was not the only one, it would seem.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see before Mrs. Longbottom and Professor Slughorn gingerly close the door to his office behind them, Frank craning his neck to look into the classroom to see what was going on, his expression ranging from incredulous to puzzled to downright angry, though the door was shut in his face before he could protest and demand to be let in alongside Remus.
But Lupin knew that he was not willing to yield to his best friend's request, not this time. He shook his head and turned back to Alice, his fingers curling into an even tighter fist around her forearm, though he flinched when Alice's voice came again, firmer.
"Rem, please let me go."
This time, Alice did turn her head to look at him, reluctantly tearing her gaze away from Barty, her sky blue eyes solemn and quite serious, no hint of warmth within her pale orbs.
There was something else within them, but what that 'thing' or those 'things' might be, Lupin could not place it, this foreign emotion that was flitting its way through Alice's mind.
Lupin hesitated, reluctant to relinquish his ironclad hold on his best friend's arm for fear that Crouch would attack her again, he'd find a way somehow even with him here in the room with her and Professor Slughorn and Frank's mother just outside the door.
"Alice…" Remus trailed off hesitantly, sparing an uneasy, fleeting glance towards Crouch, who was now merely proceeding to look up at the pair of friends from his chair with a listless, dull, numb expression in his eyes that Lupin could not read at all.
And he was quick to decide that he did not like it. Barty Crouch Jr. was the last person that Remus wanted Alice even remotely close to right now, and if Frank were in the room with them too, Longbottom would say the exact same thing.
Especially after all that Crouch had inflicted on her. Physically hurting her, forcing himself on her like some sort of beast with no control.
Yet, when he turned around to look at the young woman, Prewitt's face was set in a soft but fierce determination, the hint of the future Auror that she was to one day become, and her blue eyes held a sort of pleading look that he did not agree with, but couldn't deny.
Remus felt his heart tighten and his chest constrict, his throat hollowing, unwilling to give in for fear that Barty would hurt his best friend again. His reeling mind could not help but sort through all the rather unlikely outcomes and possibilities that could happen if he relinquished his hold on Alice right now.
But, like always, Remus had never been able to deny Alice what was in his ability to give his best friend. Even right now, though he wished more than anything he held a stronger resolve.
"Fine, Al," he grumbled darkly under his breath, reluctance in his quiet, kind tone, which was so quiet, that only Alice could have heard him, already silently seething that Alice had managed to keep Crouch from getting expelled for his actions against her.
What her reasons for that decision were, he could not even begin to understand Alice. And Lupin wasn't sure that he wanted to try.
With a heavy heart, he did not relinquish his grip on her arm as he escorted Alice towards the spare chair seated next to Barty.
He stopped, standing approximately three feet away from the Slytherin and after giving Crouch Jr. a distrusting, scathing look, he moved to stand next to Alice, putting enough distance between the two of them to give her privacy, but close enough to stay in the range at the first instance of trouble, if Crouch so much as laid a finger against Alice in anger, then Remus wouldn't hesitate to hex him right where he stood, not caring if he got detention for it.
Lupin watched, biting down on his bottom lip as he moved to stand in the furthermost corner of Slughorn's office, folding his arms across his chest and glowering at the scene before him as Remus rested his back against the stone wall and shrank into his thick woolen sweater as much as he possibly could for warmth.
For a moment, Alice and Barty simply stared at one another, neither making a move towards the other, yet neither refused to avert their gaze first, no matter how uncomfortable it became.
Barty lowered his head slightly and looked at Alice with a rather indifferent, unreadable expression that Remus could tell was troubling Alice, as she prided her ability to read a person's emotions on their face, to discern what they were thinking, feeling.
But it was as if Crouch did not wish to truly show what it was that was going through his mind right now if anything at all.
Alice too, Remus noticed, kept her own expression neutral, though Lupin saw a muscle in her jaw give a twitch and behind her eyelid as well, and her expression was less of stowing her emotions completely away and more of trying to keep under control.
Barty watched as Alice waited, almost apathetically. Her breathing was so calm, it made him feel sick, and he swore he could feel it as his face paled and turned an interesting shade of green.
When the young brunette lifted her chin and jutted it out slightly defiantly to meet his gaze, he caught the full sight of her expression.
It was like looking at a frozen lake, her blue eyes, and looking at an empty abyss too, red at the rims and screaming exhausted.
The fiery embers within her eyes, that spark he'd always loved had died down and she seemed to want to retreat into herself.
Alice's almost cracked lips parted with a whisper that brooked no argument.
"Barty, I…do you hate me for loving Frank?" she whispered.
Crouch froze, his mind starting to whirl in an uncontrollable eccentric grimace. Of all the questions she had thought she would ask of him, this was admittedly not one of them.
Yet, he retained his emotionless expression, though he felt his eyebrows furrow in puzzled astonishment.
Remus, however, from his spot in the corner, narrowed his eyes and stifled a growl as he could have sworn something flashed in the Slytherin's darkened brown eyes.
It was brief, there one moment and the next, gone completely.
The answer tumbled unchecked from his lips before he could stop himself.
"Yes," Crouch heard himself answer in a hoarse voice that did not sound entirely like himself at all. "I do."
Alice closed her eyes and let out a tired, almost defeated sounding sigh as her shoulders slumped forward in utter defeat.
I hate you…yes. I hate that you did not choose me, he thought, grinding his teeth in anger, wanting nothing more than to take Alice away from Longbottom. Frank did not deserve her.
Prewitt's eyes remained closed, and in a fit of anger, Barty wanted to demand she open them and look at her, and he merely continued to stare at the object of his affections, his love, if only she would accept it, at her fingers resting uneasily in her lap, the bandaged fingers of her injured, broken hand giving a little twitch.
It was the most serene he had ever seen Alice Prewitt, and he drank the sight of her in selfishly, ignoring Lupin's glowering.
I hate your beauty. I hate how it makes me worry that I'll never see it again and I want to break it and bottle up the pieces. I hate your natural-born kindness, how it's wanted by so many. I want to break it. I hate your innocence and that I'm losing you to Frank. I've always wanted to break you, Alice, but…I can't do it.
Barty was pulled from his thoughts as Alice continued speaking after spending a few moments in silence to collect her thoughts, her voice still so soft and quiet.
Her pale blue orbs reflected a kind of sadness that came from looking at something that no longer has any hope left for itself. Hope for him to change.
"I—I can't help you, Barty, to change, though I have to admit, there's a part of me that doesn't want to," Alice murmured, ducking her head low to hide whatever unwanted emotion had seeped through to the surface.
Lupin darted from his spot in the corner and was at his best friend's side in an instant, gingerly rubbing her shoulders, trying to relay some form of comfort to her.
Remus wanted to find some small way to reassure his best friend that Alice was not alone in this.
He wanted suddenly for nothing more than to wrench her from her seat and to take her away, that she did not have to put herself through this.
She did not have to confront her attacker. And yet, at the same time, it seemed to Remus that Alice was, in her own way, was looking for a kind of closure. An end to a nightmare that had harmed her.
The young brunette witch sanguinely lifted her head and looked her assailant square in the eyes, a new kind of strength within them.
"Yet, I know you do. I can feel it. You want to change. But whatever help that I could give you, whatever support I could provide for you, I don't think it would ever be enough." She paused to draw in a shaky breath and fought back a half-choked sob. "I—I don't forgive you, Barty. Maybe I will, one day. But for now…" Her voice cracked, and Remus could feel Alice's slender shoulders start to shake. "Now, all I want is to put what happened behind me, for it to end. And you, has anybody ever asked you what you want?"
Again, Barty did not provide Alice with an answer. He just continued to look at her with the same blank expression, and yet, something flickered in the young Slytherin's darkened brown eyes.
Something that had nothing to do with the cold, unfeeling steel that Alice and Remus were used to seeing in the man's eyes.
"There is nothing more I can do for you, Barty." Now, Alice's quiet, shy voice was beginning to violently tremble, and Lupin could tell Prewitt was fighting back the urge to burst into tears. "I—if it was in my power to do so, I don't know if I would or not."
She lowered her head once more as Crouch's dark eyes slid instinctively towards Alice, who refused to meet Barty's gaze, though she could sense him staring at her. He saw how Alice's shoulders stiffened, her shoulders rising slightly before she quickly whiplashed her head sharply upright, to gauge his reaction.
Barty blinked before realizing he'd been staring longer than was appropriate in the young Gryffindor witch's vulnerable state.
But it had not been hard for him to do. He'd hardly spoken a word to her so far, so he had to rely on his vision to discern how she had taken what had transpired between them just last night.
Turning away, Barty found himself being inspected also. The werewolf's dark brows had shot so far up onto his forehead in surprise that they almost disappeared into his hairline, and seeing Remus Lupin staring at him so critically, Barty felt, perhaps for the first time in a long time, a desire to be approved of.
For once, his appearance and reputation were crucial, and much to his chagrin, he found himself trying to sit up a little straighter, nervous under the werewolf's scrutinizing gaze of awe.
Alice, after another few minutes spent in silence, slowly lifted her head as well as her bandaged hand and reached up and placed her injured hand over the top of Remus's still resting on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze, though she flinched in pain.
"Why?" she asked, regarding Crouch with a piercing scowl, her face no longer holding the renewed passion Barty hoped to see within those eyes of hers, but an impassive, cold indifference. "Why did you do it, Barty?" she questioned, her voice warbling.
Barty quickly realized that she saw no reason for him to even want to attempt to apologize for what he had done to her last night, and yet, at least seemed to find it imperative that she asked.
"I thought…" Crouch stammered in a hoarse voice, looking longingly at Alice. "I hoped that I could bring you home with me, or anyplace that you'd want to go," he offered her, almost begging. "Somewhere…away from here. Away from Frank," he growled.
He meant that he wanted to take Alice to a place much more befitting of a woman of her pureblood status. He wanted to find a pedestal upon which to place his love, she would be his queen.
Although Crouch knew Prewitt would hate that and hate him for it. He did not mean for his words to sound so condescending, and he could tell by the angry look in her eyes, that Alice had once again misinterpreted his intentions. Again. He let out a tired sigh.
Alice, as he had predicted, immediately took offense to his seemingly judgmental tone, and bristled in her spot in her chair.
She straightened and regarded Barty with an incredulous look. "I love Frank, Barty," she corrected him, her tone ice-cold. Alice was staring at Barty Crouch Jr. as though the dark-haired Slytherin sixth-year student had sprouted antlers. "Did you honestly think that I'd leave him? For you?" she demanded, sounding as though she could not believe her ears.
"I expected that if I could just show you how much I care about you, that you would come to learn it was me you love," Barty confessed, seeing only Alice, ignoring Remus Lupin's flushed, outraged face as the werewolf stood in front of her protectively.
Crouch swore he heard the wolf snort in mocking laughter. He bristled, balling his hands into fists at his side, but he continued his plea, desperate to make Alice see the light. He needed to explain to her, but he did not want Prewitt's pity of him.
He earned none of the compassion he had admired in Alice.
"My only thoughts are of you, Alice," he murmured lowly in a voice so soft that he ensured only Alice could hear his next words, though he swore he watched the damned werewolf's ears perk up slightly at the noise, and Crouch cursed the animal for it. He fought against the tears that sprung to his eyes. "I…love you. I always have. And always will," he proclaimed, and now, waited.
Alice blinked owlishly at Barty, her chest tightening and constricting with an old rawness that wanted to scream at the man that if he truly loved her, he had a funny way of showing it, that he would not have lured her out of the Common Room last night under false pretenses and attacked her, tried to assault her.
Part of her wanted to laugh in his face, and the other part of her wanted to allow Remus to unleash his wolfish fury on Barty.
Then it occurred to Alice that Barty's reasons or even his actions last night in the out-of-bounds corridor no longer mattered. It was the thought of Frank that settled her and her friends.
All of them would watch her back, just as she'd watch theirs, and neither of them would let no further harm come to her.
Alice breathed in a shaking breath and spoke with the assurance of a woman who had found what she wanted in this life, and it was not Bartemius Crouch Jr.
She understood regretfully that the man, in his own way, was in pain and that she was going to have to destroy the hope that had sustained him, but her heart and loyalty had always belonged to Frank Longbottom.
"I…hope that you find the help that you need, Barty," Alice began hesitantly, rising from her chair and intertwining her arm around Remus.
She could sense the man was growing fatigued with their conversation, and furthermore to the point besides, there was nothing more that she could do for Barty Crouch Jr.
"I think that you should know I spoke to Professor McGonagall. You won't be expelled, Barty, not this time," she murmured, her words eliciting a shocked reaction from the man as his face paled and his eyes widened in utter shock and disbelief at hearing Alice's words. "I'm sorry that things have to be this way. Truly, I am."
Alice looked at Barty, almost sympathetically, and shook her head, her fingers of her uninjured hand tightening around Remus's arm as he started to lead her towards the door, intent on guiding her out of the dungeons and back to their Common Room.
"But there is nothing for you here," she whispered, uttering the very words that nearly crushed Barty's heart on the spot.
He looked up as he watched Remus and Alice open the door to Professor Slughorn's office, and it stung like hell to see Alice look at Frank Longbottom, at all they had shared running through her mind. Nothing within her could ever imagine leaving Longbottom.
She would sooner give her life willingly than to be separated from him. The pair of them paused in the doorway, and Alice gripped onto her boyfriend's fingers even tighter as his hand reached for hers, Alice smiled that brilliantly white smile that Crouch wished to see, and although it was Barty she was addressing, it was if he were no longer there.
"I love Frank," she announced and stepped closer towards the man that she adored.
Frank returned Alice's smile with a gentle one of his own and did not hesitate to pull Alice Prewitt close, rubbing small circles near her spine.
Crouch could only watch mournfully, his anger and jealousy mounting as the pair shared a passionate kiss of a happy relationship. Seeing the love they shared pulled Barty from his vision of the life that he desired to make with Alice one day.
He swore he almost saw his dreams crumble to the ground before him, and he wished for nothing more than the cobblestoned floor beneath his feet to open up and swallow him whole, to not let him look.
It was clear Alice Prewitt had never loved Barty, not in the way that he had hoped. Her heart truly did belong to him.
She was someone else's girlfriend. One day, another man's wife and the mother of any children the two of them might have.
And Crouch could not bear it. Longbottom was her world. For perhaps the first time, Barty realized that Alice would not go with him, not willingly. She had made her choice a long time ago.
His heart shattering inside his chest, he could not ask her to leave, not after what he had done to her the other night, then.
She would not go, and now, with the professors keeping a much closer eye on him from now on going forward, he certainly could not take his Alice by force, at least…not yet, anyways….
Fighting the tears that Barty knew would overwhelm him later in private, Crouch proceeded to lower his head in defeat.
He did not see the group of them leave him alone. Fitting, really.
All he would have left of Alice Prewitt was her words, and even as Prewitt walked away from him, chatting in low tones with Mrs. Longbottom, her future mother-in-law, and Frank and Remus, Barty could not help but regard Alice Prewitt with awe.
She had declared her love openly for Longbottom, and it hurt like hell, but the conviction with which she had done so was astonishing.
Even if she did not want him, Barty could not help but feel his love for Alice grow even more overpowering than the worship that kept his heart pumping blood to his veins as he thought of her, though before she could fully disappear from his line of sight, he felt something within himself shift and give way.
He bolted from his chair and paused at the edge of the doorway that separated Slughorn's classes from the outside hall.
"Alice. Wait." His words had enough of an effect to cause the entire group to turn, with Mrs. Longbottom and Professor Slughorn exchanging wary glances with one another, while Lupin and Frank merely looked outraged at the moment of peace interrupted. Alice looked cautious and yet hopeful as she waited.
Barty swallowed the lump in his throat, squeezing his eyes shut and spoke from his heart, for the first time in his entire life.
"I—I need you to know…" he faltered, hesitating in indecision, his mind reeling with all that was left unsaid between the two of them. "I am…sorry…" Crouch trailed off, unable to say anything more.
He had never wanted to hurt Alice.
But he needed her, Merlin, he needed her, or he would surely lose himself, then.
"I know," Alice whispered in a small voice, even as she leaned against Frank Longbottom's supporting arms, eyeing him sadly.
Barty nodded, blinking back salty, briny tears, turning on the heels of his boots to go, but stopped just short of the doorway.
He straightened and inhaled deeply, his face flushing pink with outrage at what he was about to do, his chest filling to its full girth. He wanted to try to be the man that Alice wanted him to be.
Crouch pivoted on his heel and retraced his steps until he was within arm's reach of Alice and all the others surrounding her.
"Longbottom," Barty's tone, though laced with a begrudging animosity, carried a flicker of reluctant respect as it rose, as he held out his hand to shake the hand of the man who'd won Alice.
Frank Longbottom eyed Crouch suspiciously and took a step in front of Alice with his arm flung out protectively in front of her, preventing the young witch from taking another step forward, to meet his rival. Crouch's hand remained outstretched, in waiting.
"You are lucky, to have a woman like Alice. Take care of her," he declared, whisper hissing his words through gritted teeth, as though each word that left his lips was causing him great pain.
Frank scrutinized Barty Crouch Jr. for a moment, feeling that moments ago, he'd been ready to fling himself at the Slytherin who had proclaimed an unyielding love for his girlfriend, but now he realized that Crouch had not truly been a challenger for Alice's affection at all, and there was a small part of him that felt sorry for the bloke.
The only woman he claimed to love was walking away from him, and with Frank being the one to possess her heart, it would be Crouch who was the one living the rest of his life without it.
It was this and this fact alone, this one small semblance of pity that caused Frank to reach out, albeit hesitantly and still quite distrustful and accepted Crouch's hand in his.
"That I am, Barty," he muttered, staring at Barty with raised eyebrows, as though he could not quite believe his eyes, choosing for the first time throughout his time here at Hogwarts, to address Barty by his first name rather than the cruel nicknames the other Marauders bestowed upon him.
It's what Alice would want, he guessed.
"That I am," he repeated, as he pulled back his arm and draped it confidently around Alice's uninjured shoulder and smiled.
Alice was Frank's, always, and she knew this as Frank gave her an affectionate look. Alice in kind returned Frank's gaze as if they were the only ones in the dungeons' corridor.
After a long moment, Alice turned her gaze from her boyfriend's admiration and regarded Barty with a look akin to pity intermingled with sympathy and, if Crouch wasn't mistaken, hope.
"Goodbye, Barty," she spoke softly, in a formal tone. "I hope that one day, you and I could be friends. If only you would change."
The only thing Barty was able to do was stare at Alice.
His eyes turned soft with the intense love he would always feel for her, and he lowered his head respectfully in the dungeon corridor, well aware Mrs. Longbottom and Professor Slughorn were both eyeing him carefully to gauge what his reaction would be.
Crouch turned away and did not see Alice leave, stalking down the hallway without the prize Barty had hoped to obtain.
Every step he took in the opposite direction took him farther away from the young woman that he loved, and as he walked, he realized that he needed to be patient.
Alice claimed she loved him.
But she was wrong, he knew this. And Alice may not understand it now, but she would. He just needed to be patient.
Barty would walk through the seven layers of Hell itself if that were what Alice needed of him. He knew that was exactly what he would do to win her back, and then Alice would see it.
That he loved her…
Yikes...I really don't think Alice realizes just how unhinged and dangerous Crouch is. The next chapter (I hope) is a real treat and features Frank and Alice as Aurors in the Order of the Phoenix, skipping ahead a bit, post Hogwarts, and actually is an ode to my short Remadora story here called 'The Night Watch' in which Remus attempts to assuage Tonks' fears of keeping watch by telling her the story of the first time he kept watch...and got spooked by his own owl.
I've been wanting to write the scene for a while, and thought it fitting that Frank and Alice would be there alongside the rest of his friends in the Order on that rooftop, so stay tuned :)