Chapter 51 So It Begins
"Cassie."
I blinked.
"I'm supposed to be getting a vision." I told Morgan when I saw her.
"No you're not actually. We need to talk to you about your future." Morgan said as she and Kassandra led me to a bench.
"Why my future?" I asked her as I sat down between them.
Kassandra put a hand on my knee but I pushed it away. We still weren't that close and I wish she wasn't sitting next to me.
Morgan put her hand on my knee and I left it.
She may have gotten too lax in watching the family line, but it wasn't her fault.
"You-Know-Who is coming back tonight." Kassandra said on my other side.
"Voldemort." I corrected her.
Kassandra winced at the use of the name.
"It's just a name, Kassandra." Morgan said sternly.
"Yes, Voldemort, is coming back tonight." Morgan turned to me.
Kassandra winced again.
"I'm aware that I'll meet him in the summer." I told her.
Morgan blinked and opened her mouth.
"The Malfoy's are Death Eaters, and they're going to try and be in his good graces so they'll host him at their manor. I'm not stupid, I'm fully aware of what is going to happen next." I told Morgan.
She closed her mouth and blinked again.
"Did you See that?" Kassandra asked.
"No, I know that Mr. Malfoy is a Death Eater. It was obvious because people kept coming and going and I can just tell, okay?" I turned toward her.
Something flashed across her face but I couldn't tell what it was.
"Okay, are you aware of what Occlumency is?" Morgan asked.
"No, how do you say it again?" I turned back to Morgan.
"Occlumency." She repeated herself.
"Ah-cle-mincy?" I asked.
"No," Morgan shook her head. "Oh-clu-mency."
"Oh-cle-mency, Occlumency?" I said it again.
"Yes. It's a special type of magic that can let a wizard, or a witch, read another person's mind." Morgan nodded.
"Okay, is Voldemort an… Occlumencery user?" I asked Morgan.
She let out a little chuckle.
"Yes he is a skilled Occlumens." She told me.
"Occulemns." I repeated the word quietly.
And then I realized what they were trying to say.
"Wait, will he be able to read my mind? See what I have Seen?" I asked, standing up in a panic.
"That's what we wanted to talk to you about, dear." Kassandra stood up.
She made a motion to put her hands on me but stopped herself.
"He won't be able to read your mind." Morgan told me calmly.
I was rushing through all the visions I've had in the past, all the ones that he could use against my friends or change the future from what I had already Seen when it clicked what Morgan had said.
"He won't be able too?" I asked her, turning towards her.
"No, he won't be able too. With the Seer bloodline, we are given defenses to help block out our mind from anyone. It doesn't matter if they want to know the future for good reasons, or bad reasons, no one can see into your mind." Morgan explained.
I let out the loudest sigh of relief.
"But you still can't let him find out about your journal." Kassandra told me.
"Okay, I'll start carrying it around everywhere I go." I nodded.
"You'll have to transform it." Kassandra said in a matter of fact tone.
Morgan and I both looked at Kassandra like she had grown a second head.
"I can't use magic outside of school." I deadpanned. "I'm only getting away with my visions and morphing powers because they're not really detectable." I finished.
"You're not using magic outside of school?" Kassandra asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"Did you ever use magic outside of school?" I asked her, not raising my eyebrow at her.
"Of course I did and I never got caught!" Kassandra scoffed at me.
I looked over at Morgan who only shrugged at me.
"I only use magic to transfigure my hair into a false cover when I put my journal in my nightstand drawer." I told them.
"You know the Shrinking Charm, yes?" Kassandra asked.
"Yes?" I nodded to her.
"Start carrying it with you on a necklace. It will be safer with you than it will be in a nightstand drawer." Kassandra advised.
"Oh, okay?" I nodded.
"When can I go back?" I asked Morgan.
Morgan looked up and I noticed an hourglass floating above us.
"In a few more minutes." She said.
"Okay." I nodded and sat down next to her.
"Cassie, where were you when we called you?" Morgan asked me.
"I was running to the Hospital Wing. I was in a crowd of people because it's the night of the third task, and I had to use the restroom." I answered.
"Why the Hospital Wing?" Kassandra asked.
"Madam Pomfrey is someone I trust, and I didn't want to hide in a classroom. Harry will also probably end up in the Hospital Wing so it made sense to me to be there." I answered.
"I told you we should have waited!" Morgan turned to Kassandra who had a guilty look on her face.
"I didn't think she would come since it's the final task tonight!" Kassandra defended herself.
"Wow. I thought you were trying to build a relationship with me and you think so low of me." I deadpanned.
Kassandra flushed and opened her mouth.
"Now is not the time to be squabbling like children. Cassie, would you have come?" Morgan asked me.
"I was in a crowd of people, with nowhere to hide while I had this conversation with you. No, I wouldn't have come because I wasn't in a safe area. You're lucky I was in the loo while I was." I told them hotly.
Kassandra flushed a deeper red while Morgan pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers.
"Okay, next time, we will only pull you here if there is an emergency!" She directed this last part at Kassandra who nodded in embarrassment.
I looked up at the hourglass and watched the steady stream of sand fall down.
My stomach did a flip and my heart suddenly had a pang.
"Ah!" I gasped and grabbed my heart.
"Cassie!" Morgan put her hand on my shoulder.
"Harry's in trouble!" I said.
I sat up from the ground.
"Oooow!" I groaned as I stood up.
"Okay, I'm fine. No broken bones, no sprained ankles. Go find Dumbledore." I told myself.
I took off my shoes and put them under a random bed.
I started to run down the stairs, and this time I didn't try to skip stairs. I was on a serious mission and I needed to know where Harry and Cassius were.
I was surprised to see Dumbledore with Snape and McGonagall.
Especially Dumbledore, he did not have a twinkle in his eye.
"Cassie. Where is Alastor?" He asked as soon as he saw me.
"I don't know. I was in the middle of a vision." I answered.
"Where would Alastor take Potter?" McGonagall asked me, her face white.
"Um… probably his office? He wasn't in the Hospital Wing and I didn't pass them." I said, pointing behind me.
Dumbledore nodded and McGonagall waved at me to follow.
I followed them up the stairs, Dumbledore led the way and he moved faster than I expected.
"He has a Foe-Glass in his office, if he's keeping his guard up he'll be focused on it as well as Harry." I mentioned.
"We will be able to handle it, just stay in the back, Cassie." Dumbledore said over his shoulder.
When we reached the door to the D.A.D.A. classroom Dumbledore pulled out his wand.
"Stupify!"
With a flash of red light, the door splintered open.
I peeked around McGonagall and Harry was looking exhausted and surprised to see us.
"Harry!" I pushed past McGonagall and ran for Harry.
He was more than ready to wrap his arms around me, and he allowed himself to use me as a crutch.
Harry looked exactly as I saw him after his fight in the graveyard.
"Come along, Potter, Zwart." McGonagall whispered behind me.
I turned around and put myself between her and Harry.
"Come along… hospital wing…"
"No," Dumbledore said sharply.
"Dumbledore, he ought to - look at him - he's been through enough tonight -"
"He will stay, Minerva, because he needs to understand," Dumbledore was curt as he examined the fake Moody. "Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. He needs to know who has put him through the ordeal he has suffered tonight, and why."
"Moody," Harry said.
I turned back to him and pushed him back into the chair. He didn't fight me too hard about it.
"How can it have been Moody?"
"This is not Alastor Moody," Dumbledore said quietly. "You have never known Alastor Moody. The real Moody would not have removed you from my sight after what happened tonight. The moment he took you, I knew - and I followed."
Dumbledore turned me.
"How long have you known?" He asked me.
"October thirtieth, when I saw him holding the casket with the Goblet of Fire. That's when I knew." I answered.
Harry looked at me, his eyes blinking in shock.
"Why didn't you say anything, Zwart?" McGonagall asked me, her voice tight.
"I didn't have any proof other than my feeling. So I didn't say anything." I said bitterly.
"That's why you never liked him." Harry asked, sounding far away.
"Yes." I nodded.
I put my hand on Harry's shoulder.
Dumbledore bent over Fake Moody's limp body and put a hand inside his robes, pulling out Moody's hip flask and a set of keys on a ring. Then he turned to McGonagall and Snape.
"Severus, please fetch me the strongest Truth Potion you possess, and then go down to the kitchens and bring up the house-elf called Winky. Minerva, kindly go down to Hagrid's house, where you will find a large black dog sitting in the pumpkin patch. Take the dog up to my office, tell him I will be with him shortly, then come back here."
I was surprised that they didn't question Dumbledore's odd demands. I knew about Sirius and Winky, the truth potion made sense since we would have to interrogate the stranger, but Winky? Why does Winky need to be brought here?
Both Snape and McGonagall turned around and left. Leaving me and Harry with Dumbledore and Fake Moody.
Dumbledore walked over to a trunk with seven locks, and fitted the first key in the lock, and opened it.
The first lock contained a mass of spellbooks. The second key revealed an assortment of broken Sneakoscopes, some parchment, and quills. There was an odd silvery Invisibility Cloak.
I watched as Dumbledore opened each lock, revealing different things until he got to the seventh key.
Harry let out a cry of amazement.
"Cassie, come here please." Dumbledore said softly.
I squeezed Harry's shoulder and then walked over to Dumbledore.
The chest had a ten foot pit inside of it, and at the bottom was the real Mad-Eye Moody. His wooden leg was gone, the socket that should be holding his eyes was empty beneath the lid, and chunks of his grizzled hair were missing.
"I'm going down there, he might attack you if he wakes up. But stay close." Dumbledore said and lowered himself down into the pit.
"Stunned - controlled by the Imperius Curse - very weak," he said. "Of course, they would need to keep him alive. Cassie, throw down the imposter's cloak - he's freezing. Madam Pomfrey will need to see him, but he seems in no immediate danger."
I threw down the cloak and watched as Dumbledore covered Moody with it and he came back out of the trunk.
"Will he be alright?" I asked.
I don't know who I was asking about, Harry or Moody.
"Yes." Dumbledore said.
I looked around and saw that he had picked up the hip flask from the desk, so I walked back over to Harry.
"It's Polyjuice Potion, isn't it?" I asked.
"Correct, Cassie. You see, Harry, the simplicity of it, and the brilliance. For Moody never does drink except from his hip flask, he's well known for it. The imposter needed, of course, to keep the real Moody close by, so that he could continue making the potion. You see his hair…" Dumbledore looked down on the Moody in the trunk. "The imposter had been cutting it off all year, see where it is uneven? But I think, in the excitement of tonight, our fake Moody might have forgotten to take it as frequently as he should have done… on the hour… every hour… we shall see."
Dumbledore pulled the chair out from behind the desk and sat down on it, his eyes on the unconscious Moody on the floor.
I found another chair and pulled it next to Harry.
"Cassie -" Harry turned to me.
"Oh!" I pointed at the man.
Harry turned to see and we both watched him transform back.
The scars were disappearing, the skin was becoming smooth; the mangled nose became whole and started to shrink. The long mane of grizzled gray hair was withdrawing into the scalp and turning the color of straw. Suddenly, with a loud clunk, the wooden leg fell away as a normal leg regrew in its place; next moment, the magical eyeball had popped out of the man's face as a real eye replaced it; it rolled away across the floor and continued to swivel in every direction.
I didn't recognize the man, but Harry seemed too.
There were hurried footsteps outside in the corridor. Snape had returned with Winky at his heels. McGonagall was right behind them.
"Crouch!" Snape said, stopping dead in the doorway. "Barty Crouch!"
"Good heavens," McGonagall stopped dead in her tracks as well.
Winky, looking much more filthy and disheveled than before, peered around Snape's legs. Her mouth opened wide and let out a piercing shriek.
"Master Barty, Master Barty, what is you doing here?"
She flung herself onto the man's chest.
"You is killed him! You is killed him! You is killed Master's son!"
"He is simply Stunned, Winky." Dumbledore said," Step aside, please. Severus, you have the potion?"
Snape handed Dumbledore a small glass bottle of completely clear liquid. I didn't know what it was.
Dumbledore got up, bent over the man on the floor, and pulled him into a sitting position, against the wall beneath the Foe-Glass, in which the reflections of Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall were still glaring down upon us.
My image had disappeared from the Foe-Glass.
Winky remained on her knees, trembling, her hands over her face.
Dumbledore forced the man's mouth open and poured three drops inside then. Then he pointed his wand at the man's chest and said, "Ennervate."
The man opened his eyes. His face was slack, his gaze unfocused. Dumbledore knelt before him, so that their faces were level.
"Can you hear me?" Dumbledore asked quietly.
The man's eyelids flickered.
"Yes," he muttered.
"I would like you to tell us," Dumbledore's voice was soft, "how you came to be here. How did you escape from Azkaban?"
The man, Barty Crouch, took a deep, shuddering breath, then began to speak in a flat, expressionless voice.
"My mother saved me. She knew she was dying. She persuaded my father to rescue me as a last favor to her. He loved her as he had never loved me. He agreed. They came to visit me. They gave me a draught of Polyjuice Potion containing one of my mother's hairs. She took a draught of Polyjuice Potion containing one of my hairs. We took on each other's appearance."
Winky was shaking her head, trembling.
"Say no more, Master Barty, so no more, you is getting your father into trouble!"
But Crouch took another deep breath and continued.
"The dementors are blind. They sensed one healthy, one dying person entering Azkaban. They sensed one healthy, one dying person leaving it. My father smuggled me out, disguised as my mother, in case any prisoners were watching through their doors.
"My mother died a short while afterward in Azkaban. She was careful to drink Polyjuice until the end. She was buried under my name and bearing my appearance. Everyone believed her to be me."
The man's eyelids flickered.
"And what did your father do with you, when he had got you home?" said Dumbledore quietly.
"Staged my mother's death. A quiet, private funeral. That grave is empty. The house-elf nursed me back to health. Then I had to be concealed. I had to be controlled. My father had to use a number of spells to subdue me. When I had recovered my strength, I thought only of finding my master… of returning to his service."
"How did your father subdue you?" said Dumbledore.
"The Imperius Curse," Crouch said. "I was under my father's control. I was forced to wear an Invisibility Cloak day and night. I was always with the house-elf. She was my keeper and caretaker. She pitied me. She persuaded my father to give me occasional treats. Rewards for my good behavior."
"Master Barty, Master Barty," sobbed Winky through her hands. "You isn't ought to tell them, we is getting in trouble…"
"Did anybody ever discover you were still alive?" Dumbledore asked. "Did anyone know except your father and the house-elf?"
"Yes," said Crouch, his eyelids flickering again. "A witch in my father's office, Bertha Jorkins. She came to the house with papers for my father's signature. He was not at home. Winky showed her inside and returned to the kitchen, to me. But Bertha Jorkins heard her talking to me. She came to investigate. She heard enough to guess who was hiding under the Invisibility Cloak. My father arrived home. She confronted him. He put a very powerful Memory Charm on her to make her forget what she'd found out. Too Powerful. He said it damaged her memory permanently."
"Why is she coming to nose into my master's private business?" sobbed Winky. "Why isn't she leaving us be?"
"Tell me about the Quidditch World Cup," said Dumbledore.
"Winky talked my father into it," Crouch's voice never changed from its monotonous tone. "She spent months persuading him. I had not left the house for years. I had loved Quidditch. Let him go, she said. He will be in his Invisibility Cloak. He can watch. Let him smell fresh air for once. She said my mother would have wanted it. She told my father that my mother had died to give me freedom. She had saved me for a life of imprisonment. He agreed in the end.
"It was carefully planned. My father led me and Winky up to the Top Box early in the day. Winky was to say that she was saving a seat for my father. I was to sit there, invisible. When everyone had left the box, we would emerge. Winky would appear to be alone. Nobody would ever know.
"But Winky didn't know that I was growing stronger. I was starting to fight my father Imperius Curse. There were times when I was almost myself again. There were brief periods when I seemed out of his control. It happened, there, in the Top Box. It was like waking from a deep sleep. I found myself out in public, in the middle of the match, and I saw, in front of me, a wand sticking out of a boy's pocket. I had not been allowed a wand since before Azkaban. I stole it. Winky didn't know. Winky is frightened of heights. She had her face hidden."
"Master Barty, you bad boy!" Winky whispered, tears trickling between her fingers.
"So you took the wand," Dumbledore said, "and what did you do with it?"
"We went back to the tent," said Crouch. "Then we heard them. We heard the Death Eaters. The ones who had never been to Azkaban. The ones who had not suffered for my master. They had turned their backs on him. They were not enslaved, as I was. They were free to seek him, but they did not. They were merely making sport of Muggles. The sound of their voices awoke me. My mind was clearer than it had been in years. I was angry. I had the wand. I wanted to attack them for their disloyalty to my master. My father had left the tent; he had gone to free the Muggles. Winky was afraid to see me so angry. She used her own brand of magic to bind me to her. She pulled me from the tent, pulled me into the forest, away from the Death Eaters. I tried to hold her back. I wanted to return to the campsite. I wanted to show those Death Eaters what loyalty to the Dark Lord meant, and to punish them for their lack of it. I used the stolen wand to cast the Dark Mark into the sky.
"Ministry wizards arrived. They shot Stunning Spells everyone. One of the spells came through the trees where Winky and I stood. The bond connecting us was broken. We were both Stunned.
"When Winky was discovered, my father knew I must be nearby. He searched the bushes where she had been found and felt me lying there. He waited until the other Ministry members had left the forest. He put me back under the Imperius Curse and took me home. He dismissed Winky. She had failed him. She had let me acquire a wand. She had almost let me escape."
Winky let out a wail of despair.
"Now it was just Father and I, alone in the house. And then... And then…" Crouch's head rolled on his neck, and an insane grin spread across his face. "My master came for me."
I couldn't help the shiver that made me shake for a second. Harry put a hand on my knee and squeezed it in comfort.
"He arrived at our house late one night in the arms of his servant Wormtail. My master had found out that I was alive. He had captured Bertha Jorkins in Albania. He had tortured her. She told him a great deal. She told him about the Triwizard Tournament. She told him the old Auror, Moody, was going to teach at hogwarts. He tortured her until he broke through the Memory Charm my father had placed upon her. She told him I had escaped from Azkaban. She told him my father kept me imprisoned to prevent me from seeking my master. And so my master knew that I was still his faithful servant - perhaps the most faithful of all. My master conceived a plan, based upon the information Bertha had given him. He needed me. He arrived at our house near midnight. My father answered the door."
The smile spread wider on Crouch's face, as though recalling the sweetest memory of his life. Winky's petrified brown eyes were visible through her fingers. She was too appalled to speak.
"It was very quick. My father was placed under the Imperius Curse by my master. Now my father was the one imprisoned, controlled. My master forced him to go about his business as usual, to act as though nothing was wrong. And I was released. I awoke, I was myself again, alive as I hadn't been in years."
"And what did Lord Voldemort ask you to do?" Dumbledore asked.
"He asked me whether I was ready to risk everything for him. I was ready. It was my dream, my greatest ambition, to serve him, to prove myself to him. He told me he needed to place a faithful servant at Hogwarts. A servant who would guide Harry Potter through the Triwizard Tournament without appearing to do so. A servant who would watch over Harry Potter. Ensure he reached the Triwizard Cup. Turn the cup into a Portkey, which would take the first person to touch it to my master. But first -"
"You needed Alastor Moody," Dumbldore's eyes were blazing with fury, but he remained calm.
"Wormtail and I did it. We had prepared the Polyjuice Potion beforehand. We journeyed to his house. Moody put up a struggle. There was a commotion. We managed to subdue him just in time. Forced him into a compartment of his own magical trunk. Took some of his hair and added it to the potion. I drank it; I became Moody's double. I took his leg and his eye. I was ready to face Arthur Weasley when he arrived to sort out the Muggles who had heard a disturbance. I made the dustbins move around the yard. I told Arthur Weasley I had heard intruders in my yard, who had set off the dustbins. Then I packed up Moody's clothes and Dark Detectors, put them in the trunk with Moody, and set off for Hogwarts. I kept him alive, and under the Imperius Curse. I wanted to be able to question him. To find out about his past, learn his habits, so that I could fool even Dumbledore. I also needed his hair to make the Polyjuice Potion. The other ingredients were easy. I stole boomslang skin from the dungeons. When the Potions Master found me in his office, I said I was under orders to search it."
"And what became of Wormtail after you attacked Moody?" Dumbledore asked.
"Wormtail returned to care for my master, in my father's house, and to keep watch over my father."
"But your father escaped." Dumbledore said.
"Yes. After a while he began to fight the Imperius Curse just like I had done. There were periods when he knew what was happening. My master decided it was no longer safe for my father to leave the mouse. He forced him to send letters to the Ministry instead. He made him write and say he was ill. But Wormtail neglected his duty. He was not watchful enough. My father escaped. My master guessed that he was heading for Hogwarts. My father was going to tell Dumbledore everything, to confess. He was going to admit that he had smuggled me out of Azkaban.
"My master sent me word of my father's escape. He told me to stop him at all costs. So I waited and watched. I used the map I had taken from Harry Potter. The map that had almost ruined everything.
'Son of a bitch!' I swore to myself.
"Map?" Dumbledore said quickly. "What map is this?"
"Potter's map of Hogwarts. Potter saw me on it. Potter saw me stealing more ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion from Snape's office one night. He thought I was my father. We have the same first name. I took the map from Potter that night. I told him my father hated Dark wizards. Potter believed my father was after Snape.
"For a week I waited for my father to arrive at Hogwarts. At last, one evening, the map showed my father entering the grounds. I pulled on my Invisibility Cloak and went down to meet him. He was walking around the edge of the forest. Then Potter came, and Krum. I waited. I could not hurt Potter; my master needed him. Potter ran to get Dumbledore. I Stunned Krum. I killed my father."
"Nooo!" Winky wailed. "Master Barty, Master Barty, what is you saying?"
"You killed your father," Dumbledore's voice was still soft. "What did you do with the body?"
"Carried it into the forest. Covered it with the Invisibility Cloak. I had the map with me. I watched Potter run into the castle. He met Snape. Dumbledore joined them. I watched Potter bringing Dumbledore out of the castle. I walked back out of the forest, doubled around behind them, went to meet them. I told Dumbledore Snape had told me where to come.
"Dumbledore told me to go and look for my father. I went back to my father's body. Watched the map. When everyone was gone, I Transfigured my father's body. He became a bone… I buried it, while wearing the Invisibility Cloak, in the freshly dug earth in front of Hagrid's cabin."
There was complete silence now, except for Winky who continued to sob.
"And tonight…" Dumbledore said.
"I offered to carry the Triwizard Cup into the maze before dinner," whispered Barty Crouch. "Turned it into a Portkey. My master's plan worked. He is returned to power and I will be honored by him beyond the dreams of wizards."
His insane smile lit his face once more, and his head drooped onto his shoulder. Winky continued to sob and wail by his side.
Oof
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Pamela Hutchins: After Cassius's little mini series I will be getting a start on book 5! And I'm super excited to get that going!