13
SNAPE let out a haggard sigh as he wiped a bead of sweat off his browbone. He was exhausted. It had taken the better part of an hour, with his own magic and the house-elf's combined, to treat Alice's cuts and bruises alone. Of course, the worst injuries of all had taken the longest. The infection had already set in. The claw markings that now littered Alice Longbottom's collarbones were cursed.
Though once they healed, though they would never fully heal, Severus supposed they would resemble the same harsh jagged lines that Lupin suffered from. Alice's only consolation would be that considering where the vampire that had done this to her had scratched her, she could cover them with her shirts, at the very least.
Severus was not going to lie, it was to be a long recovery ahead for the young witch. She wasn't going to be let out of bed for roughly three or four weeks, and Severus still firmly believed the best place for Mrs. Longbottom was in a private room at St. Mungo's, not here in a dark, dank bedroom at Crouch's estate. He turned towards Winky and offered a curt nod before turning back to look at Alice Longbottom's unconscious form resting in Crouch's bed.
I never want to see you here again, Alice, Severus communicated in his impossible telepathy. I know you don't fully trust me, but I hope that you can hear me. This shit…is too much for me. Crouch is on the verge of losing his mind, and this is all because of you, Longbottom. Your fault, this is your fault, Alice, Snape thought meanly and bitterly to himself as he addressed Frank Longbottom's wife in his impossibility telepathy as a Legilimens.
Though of course, such were thoughts he could not and dared not give a voice.
Snape sighed again and turned towards Crouch's house-elf, who was nervously smoothing down stray strands of her short black hair and looking nervously at the floor.
"Find your master, elf," he barked in a rough voice that was the embodiment of sandpaper, wiping his hands clean of Alice Longbottom's blood using a clean damp cloth that he conjured. "I can't imagine what he might be doing to himself," he grunted, turning to look at Alice. "Hurting himself."
Winky silently nodded in agreement. She sighed, her overly large, bat-like eyes drooping in exhaustion and a sense of fear.
"Master is most likely worried about his Special Young Miss!" she squeaked, hopping off the edge of the mattress, though not before giving Alice Longbottom's now-bandaged hand a light reassuring little squeeze.
She did not know Master Crouch's object of his affections well enough just yet, though any woman of Master's was sure to be special to Winky.
House-elves were intuitive creatures, and Winky could tell just by looking at Master's Special Young Miss, that the young witch did not have a cruel bone in her body. Which made this important to Winky to see that she was happy and well-treated here.
Any woman who could quell the darkness in Master's heart was worth keeping her around for a while. Perhaps indefinitely.
Winky staggered towards the door in a tizzy, painfully twisting her stained tea cozy into knots as she peered back over her shoulder to cast the unconscious young witch resting seemingly peacefully in the bed a furtive, worried glance before opening the door via a snap of her fingers, causing the door to fly open of its own accord.
Crouch's house-elf was just about to step into the hallway when she noticed something resting against the opposite wall. It was her Master.
"Master!" she squeaked, darting forward, and shaking her master's shoulder.
Crouch awoke to someone shaking his shoulder timidly. He blinked as colors swirled and shapes blurred, and then cleared.
Winky was inches from his face, a deeply concerned expression on her face, and worry evident in her huge, round, unblinking dark brown eyes. "Master! Oh, thank goodness!" she exclaimed, stepping back, and tugging on his jacket sleeve, though he was not sure she felt the need to do so. "Is Master well? Is you sick? Why are you lying on the floor?" she said breathlessly.
Before Barty could even have the chance of gracing his family's house-elf with a response, the black-haired house-elf huffed in frustration and swiped a lock of her black bob that had fallen in front of her eyes and pressed her tiny hand to his cheeks and neck.
"No fever, Master. And it does not appear that you is having any contusions."
"Winky, I'm just fine," Barty grunted as he pushed himself upright with a low grunt, stumbling slightly as he shakily rose to his feet. "I just fell asleep that's all, Winky."
Crouch ran his hand down over his drawn and worried face. He raised his red-rimmed and cracked at the edges eyes to the ceiling, remembering his friendship with Alice and—ALICE!
Before Winky could protest further about her young master's health, Crouch forwent any other thought except for the witch on the other side of the door.
"Alice, Winky! How is she? Has she woken up? How are her wounds?" he growled, picking up Winky by the scruff of her tea cozy and ignoring the creature's mewls and squirming as she writhed in his grip, though Crouch wasn't going to hurt her.
"Young Master, you's must remain calm!" Winky interrupted breathlessly but firmly, reaching out her hands, the tips of her little fingers just barely brushing his shoulders as Crouch continued to hold her at his eye level by a fistful of Winky's tea cozy. "Master's Special Young Miss is sleeping. Wounds are minor, save for the ones here. That is where most of our concerns lie," she muttered fearfully, gesturing to her own chest and breathed a sigh of relief as Crouch finally relinquished his grip and let Winky fall to the ground, though she caught her fall.
He'd stopped imagining anything but a life with Alice weeks ago when the witch began permeating his thoughts a month or so ago. He'd been walking through downtown London and had spotted a young woman with remarkably similar features as his Alice.
The same color hair, same haircut, and facial structure. But when he'd looked into the Muggle woman's eyes, they were green. Not the shade of brilliant blue he'd come to know and love over the years.
It was then that the ache for Alice began to return to him tenfold when he thought that he had managed to bury her.
Barty had thought of this moment over the last several weeks, bringing her home. But not like this. A wave of crushing guilt settled on his chest and his heart, though he wasn't given time to dwell on it as the sound of approaching footsteps caused his ears to practically perk up at the noise.
At that moment, Severus walked slowly through the open doorway of Crouch's spare bedroom. His colleague was deliberate in his motions, and Severus's drained face showed the exhaustion the Death Eater would not allow his body to feel yet for several hours.
Barty leaned against the wall for support, still feeling lightheaded and unsteady on his feet. He was almost afraid to try to read Severus's unreadable expression.
"How is she?" he growled, fear shadowing his hopes as he searched Snape's narrowed eyes for any shred of the truth.
Severus looked at Barty, his dark eyes heavy.
Taking a deep breath as he continued to wipe his hands on the blood-stained rags, he calmly delivered the news. "She made it through the procedure," he reported. "She is asleep. I've given her a bit of a Sleeping and Calming Draught to help her sleep and keep her calm when she wakes. I've done what I can for her wounds near her collarbones, but there's going to be a substantial amount of scarring, but she is going to make it through, Crouch," he added as he watched Barty Crouch Jr. practically dissolve in relief as Winky wound her arms around his pant leg.
Snape felt one of his eyes give a twitch, still cautious of declaring Alice fully healed.
"She's not out of the woods yet." Snape tempered Barty's temporary happiness. "She's still asleep. There's no telling what her temperament will be like when she wakes up, even with the potions and aids that I've given her, and there is still a high possibility the infection could worsen," he warned. "Her injuries were serious, Crouch. They'll take time to heal, and even then, they'll never fully mend. Her life is no longer in danger unless the infection becomes worse. The bleeding, your house-elf was able to stem and save it…" Severus's voice trailed off.
"Infection?" Crouch gnashed his teeth together, hating how his voice and resolve faltered upon hearing the word, this sickening crushing fear returning tenfold.
Severus recognized that panic mounting behind the slightly younger Death Eater's dark brown eyes and did not hesitate to give Barty a sharp shake. "Crouch, you listen to me. I cannot let you see if you cannot maintain control over your emotions. Mrs. Longbottom is still asleep, but when she wakes, she's going to sense your panic, and therefore it will only cause her more distress. Do you understand what I am telling you?"
"Yes." It was all that Barty could say.
Tension was building in Severus Snape's angular jaw, making his fingers go white as he curled his hands into fists at his sides, though he shoved his wand back into an interior pocket of his black robes. Crouch raised an eyebrow at the shift in behavior.
"You were foolish to bring her here," Severus spoke up calmly, stepping back a little, wand clutched in his hand to await the outburst he was sure to come with what he was about to say. "Her husband will come looking for her, Barty. Frank will come for you, along with the rest of his team of Aurors at the Ministry, and when he does, it's your head." Snape's tone was blunt, almost cold.
"Don't call him that!" Crouch snarled, his dark eyes narrowing and burning in rage.
"But that's what Longbottom is, Crouch, she's the wedding ring on her finger and is pregnant with a baby to prove it, Crouch," Severus said with a raised eyebrow, wishing he had a goblet of elvish-made wine.
Anything to stave off the burning in his throat and quell the headache felt coming on, though he sensed it was a direct correlation to Crouch's anger that was causing it, not how exhausted he felt now.
But Barty shook his head, not able to believe what he was hearing. "I should have been her husband, Severus. She loves me!" he argued, beginning to pace an agitated and restless line in front of the spare bedroom.
Severus quietly listened, the man's understanding quickly giving way to incredulity as he stared at him in disbelief.
"You gave up that right, Barty," he reminded his colleague. "Once, I believe Prewitt did love you," Severus state calmly, using Alice's maiden name before she'd married that bastard, for which Barty was grateful. "I am certain of that." Snape's mind traveled back to their time at Hogwarts. "Alice respected you, saw something within."
"I am the one she loves, Severus, not Longbottom!" Barty shouted, unable to hold his ire any longer. Snape shot the slightly younger Death Eater a rueful flower, and quickly closed the door to the bedroom that Alice was resting inside and cast a Silencing Charm around the door, preventing the sound of Barty's raised hollers and shouts from reaching her eardrums and waking her up prematurely before her body was ready.
Crouch seethed, grinding his teeth. "She'll stay here," he asserted. "As she heals and she sees me, she will not be able to deny any longer that I'm the one she truly loves. Then she'll stay with me, and Longbottom is left to rot in the thick of the Forbidden Forest and let him be food for Aragog's children," he grinned, imagining his scheme.
But Severus again shook his head. "She will not leave, Crouch," he said confidently.
"Then I'll keep her here." Crouch's mind felt like it was racing a mile a minute as Barty began creating options in his mind. "When she's away from Longbottom, Alice will remember what we had once, how much she really loves me. I'll get her back, Snape."
Severus was not a man who was comfortable with openly displaying his emotions, though, at this exact moment, he stared at Bartemius Crouch Senior's son with disbelief and abject horror. Had the boy lost his mind? Of course, he has, he thought angrily and ground his teeth together.
"I can guarantee you the witch will not allow that to happen, Crouch," Severus snapped as he looked almost angrily at Barty.
"What makes you so sure she won't stay with me of her own free will, Snape?" Crouch asked, still confident in the feelings that Alice had once held for him, long ago.
"You know the witch better than I do," Severus continued solemnly as he kept his arms folded across his chest. "Do you truly believe Longbottom to be the kind of woman who would abandon her husband and child, Barty?" Severus squinted at Crouch, seriously. Crouch stiffened and closed off his mind, knowing fully bloody well his comrade was dipping into his mind.
The pit forming and swooping in Crouch's stomach clawed its way to his heart until bile rose up within the back of his throat. How he wanted to be the father of Alice's child. Barty knew, deep down, Snape was right, Merlin damn the man to the seven hells below for that fact. He knew that Alice would sooner rather give up her own life than leave behind her own flesh and blood, or that she would willingly leave Frank to be with him.
His intentions raced ahead of logical thought.
"I'll raise the boy as my own. In another eight months, he is a part of her. I will learn to love him," Crouch offered with a nod of his head just then, more to ease his own mind and assuage his own guilt of the darkness that was festering in his own heart, as he was already working ahead to deal with his nemesis. Frank wouldn't bother her again. Not after tonight, he'd make sure of it.
Severus inwardly groaned as his face sagged with the enormity of what Barty Crouch Jr. was currently proposing to him.
"Oh, yes, Crouch, I am sure that is exactly what Alice would want for her son," he began sarcastically, clasping his fingers together in front of his middle. "A man who merely tolerates him, rather than the boy's own devoted father." Snape rolled his eyes, knowing full well by the way Crouch's already pale face turned a shade paler at the mention of fathers that he was striking a chord with the man's last nerve. "Listen to yourself," Severus demanded impatiently. "Do you even realize what you're saying?"
At this point in their conversation, he was practically beseeching Crouch to be reasonable, though the glimmering unshed moisture in the younger man's dark brown eyes told Snape all that he needed to know.
That Barty was already unhinged.
"I know exactly what I'm saying, Snape." Crouch defiantly lifted his chin and jutted it out slightly, almost as a challenge. "I intend to fight for her," Barty declared.
"I'm certain stealing another man's wife and child goes over about as well on that side as it does on our side, Crouch." Severus spun on Barty, forcing the dark-haired man to examine his so-called master grand plan. "If you go through with this, you might even wind up causing that woman's death, Barty."
He illustrated the worst possible outcome that Severus could conjure.
Barty said nothing. He simply stood there, his thin mouth contorting into a grimace. His breaths were shallow from hatred. Snape took the man's silence as a sign that he was meant to continue speaking to him. "What exactly did you think she was going to do?" Snape continued to grill his comrade. "Did you simply assume that perhaps one day, her husband would die fighting during a raid or a mission, and then you would swoop in to take Longbottom's place by Alice's side as her husband, then? You didn't even give her that much at Hogwarts, did you, Crouch?"
Snape could no longer hold his venom. Though he was not exactly bosom friends with Alice Longbottom nee Prewitt, he'd always respected the witch well enough. She had an intelligent mind and a keen knack for Potions. He would never dare admit it out loud, but he hated to see the witch suffer, knowing it was by Crouch's hand that she was now cursed with afflicted vampire scratch marks on her chest.
Crouch drew in a shuddering breath and looked up after a moment of looking at the ground, willing his anger to cool a little.
As soon as their eyes met, Snape stiffened and pointedly looked away from him, prompting Barty to address the issue.
"What's eating at you, Snape?" Barty asked as he cocked his head to the side and put on his best-concerned face, which was too difficult for him to manage upon still learning that Alice's recovery was going to happen, though it was sure to take time.
Snape scowled, his black eyebrows coming together as he pursed his lips into a thin line. It became clear to Crouch then exactly what it was that bothered Severus.
Had been since he'd killed the nosy fucker that was hardly a Death Eater not even an hour ago downstairs. The man had been carious since Crouch summoned him.
"You think that I did that to her, don't you, Snape?" Crouch's words were spat more than spoken, his tone low, but the mocking and judgment in his voice were unmistakable. "That she crossed me somehow and I hurt her before I called you here to my place?"
One glance at Snape was more than enough for Barty. His hands were still curled into fists at his sides, though Severus quickly folded his arms across his chest, his jaw tightly set like rigor mortis and his black eyes still angry. This was the face of a man who wanted answers, and perhaps for once in his life, Barty Crouch Jr. was feeling generous.
He gnashed his teeth together, his lips curling back to reveal his pink gums as he glowered at the very man who had saved Alice's life.
"I thought better of you, Severus. The Dark Lord trusts you implicitly, as do I. I thought you would have figured it out by now." He drew out a shuddering breath and ran his hand through his thick tuft of dark hair. "I thought maybe you gathered that I've been disappearing every few days like clockwork over the last couple of days, skipping meetings with the Dark Lord because one witch managed to slither her way inside my head like a snake, filling all the empty parts of my brain like a thick cloud of smoke from a Dungbomb, and linger there even when I swore to myself I didn't want it, and I did not want her back into my life." His nails curled into the skin of his palm. "That bringing her here, back home, was my only want of life, to be with Alice, but…" He paused, not sure he could confess this next part, but it was already too late to take back his words. "But not like this." He shook his head as if to convince himself of it.
Snape's expression remained, as always, impassive, though Barty frowned as he swore he thought he saw a flicker of something akin to sympathy dart through the sallow-faced Potions Master's dark eyes.
"I couldn't have done this to Alice, Severus. I couldn't even let the witch die in front of me, and you know how much I usually enjoy that. What I wouldn't give to see Frank Longbottom suffer," Barty growled, an ugly shadow flitting across the man's pale features at the thought of Alice's husband. The one man who had everything that Barty had ever wanted: Alice's love.
Crouch let out a nervous little chuckle to hide the fact that his throat had constricted, and his chest felt tight at the mental image his mind's eye had created of seeing Alice laying prostrate and lifeless. "I can't let her go yet, Severus. I fucking can't. Which is why I need you to move so that I can see Alice. I—I need to see her, Snape." When he spoke, his voice was a growl.
Severus gave a brief incline of his head.
"She should still be asleep, though I suspect she'll wake up soon," he murmured, his droll baritone almost sounding contemplative. "But again, I must reiterate to you that you will need to remain calm, or I won't have any qualms about moving her somewhere else."
Crouch ground his teeth, not used to taking orders, though he nodded slowly despite himself, trying to focus on Severus's words. Deep down, he knew the man was right. Alice needed rest and peace and comfort. If he continued in his current agitated state, he would make Alice worse.
The last thing he wanted to do was cause his lovely Alice any more pain at all.
Alice was going to live. She'd recover.
"How long?" he asked in a soft tone.
"About a month," Severus replied carefully with a light shrug of his shoulders. He was still eyeing Barty Crouch Jr. as if his answer would send the Death Eater further into panic and cause him to have another outburst. "If the infection clears and you both follow my instructions precisely. I've left a list of what needs to be done on the nightstand in there. Her bandages will need to be changed daily, a poultice applied. The ointment I've left in a jar on the table inside, it's got quite a distinctive smell but should aid in helping her scars to heal that much faster, however, there is a chance that she might develop a fever as a result of all of this," he added, almost as an afterthought as Snape jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the bedroom's door.
Barty frowned, the edges of his lips turning downward and creating a deep-lined groove near his mouth. "So, are you saying that the witch's life is still in danger, Snape?"
"Nothing is for certain," Severus answered in a calm and collected voice, though if Barty wasn't mistaken, the man's voice and his eyes revealed the first twinges of what seemed to be genuine sympathy.
Crouch slowly nodded as he took in the man's words. "I'd like to see her. Please," he added through gritted teeth, speaking the courtesy as though it caused him pain just to utter the command to his fellow colleague.
A flicker of something akin to amusement passed through Severus's coal-black eyes, though just as quickly as it had come, it was gone again as Snape sighed.
"Very well, then. But remember what I said about staying calm. Follow me." He nodded and turned on the heels of his black boots, the ends of his black robes billowing and swishing with his movements as Severus strode back into the spare bedroom, with Crouch right at his heels the whole way in.
Tension met him immediately when Crouch entered the bedroom. Alice rested on top of the bed's mattress unconscious and motionless, looking delicate and frail on the king-size cot with a thin grey blanket. Her already pale skin now looked faded and pale from loss of blood and held a faint sickly looking greyish tinge that Crouch immediately knew he didn't like at all.
Her breaths were weak and shallow. She appeared more dead than alive, and a perfect candidate for an Inferi corpse.
The moment Crouch laid eyes on Alice, his legs lost their strength and buckled beneath him, and he fell to the ground at her bedside, no longer giving a shit if Snape saw.
Lacking strength or the wish to stand upright, Barty knelt by Alice's motionless form. He took her bandaged hand and held it to his lips.
"Alice," he whispered faintly, his voice breaking as her name erupted forth from his lips. "To me…come back to me…" The Death Eater frantically whispered his words like a mantra under his breath, wishing he could will the words into a powerful incantation that would undo this.
Crouch thought he was getting used to the dryness of his mouth and the constant swallowing of nothing there, but now, there was the disgusting slime of something thick and the taste of iron between his tongue and palate. He swallowed the blood that had welled up on his tongue from biting on it.
On the edge of the bed, his entire body shivered while he curbed his pained breaths. It hurt like hell.
Your fault, the snakelike voice whispered inside his mind from the darkest recesses of his brain. A voice that sounded entirely too much like Father.
Unfortunately, he was all too familiar with this voice.
Do you really think this witch could ever grow to love you, wretch? She won't, boy. She's already a taken woman.
"Shut. Up," Crouch whisper-hissed through gritted teeth, ignoring Snape's raised eyebrows as the man stood in the doorway, having casually observed him talking to himself. Barty chose to focus on the only thing that mattered to him at this moment: her. Shoving the dark voice of Father to the back of his mind, for the time being, Crouch drew in a shuddering breath and raised his tear-filled eyes to Alice's grey-tinged face.
The pads of his fingers traced along the familiar line and contours of her cheeks, his mind filling with memories that flashed in front of his mind's eye as though viewing them in a Pensive. The Black Lake incident was the first.
The first time he had kissed her, and she had kissed him back, following him saving her life from the Giant Squid, how often they would erupt into fights, how she would help him during Slughorn's Potions Class, joining the Slug Club alongside her.
And then visions of the life he still hoped to enjoy with her came too if only she could see that Frank was not the right man.
That it should have always been him.
Severus stood in the doorway, while Winky perched herself at the foot of the bed and gave Barty the time he urgently needed.
Crouch's jaw clenched and again his teeth dug on the wall of his mouth as sweat made its way to the tip of his nose and stayed perfectly still till a bead gathered and dropped off by the edge of his black boot.
He let out a bitter and tense breath as he almost swallowed his tongue as a few hot tears escaped his eyes. His mind blazed with foul curses as if they were the first and only words he could ever utter.
But the worst part wasn't the stinging of his broken knuckles from where he had hit the wall earlier that were no longer enough to swap with the anguish of the broken heart that now currently stabbed his chest, rendering him wishing he could just cut it out of himself.
Finally, Barty spoke up, his voice a hoarse and broken rasp, sounding smaller than usual, which was alarming to Severus, though the Legilimens was good at hiding it.
"When will she wake up?" he asked dryly, as he sanguinely lifted his head to him.
Severus cleared his throat. "It's hard to say," he murmured, ensuring his expression remained impassive. "Her body has been through a great ordeal," he said slowly, eyeing Barty Crouch Jr. guardedly. "The witch has to heal. Despite my efforts and that of your house-elf's, it will take time, Crouch, and…" he paused, a pensive expression plastered across his pallid features, frowning.
This did not go unnoticed by Barty.
"And?" Barty growled, feeling his hackles start to rose as he questioned Snape and turned in the Potion Master's direction.
Snape shot Crouch a withering look and continued as if to say he was getting to that part. "There is always a chance her wounds will become re-infected. Your house-elf and I have treated them as best as we can for now." Severus flinched as the thought left his mouth. He knew his words were cold and impersonal, but this was the cold, hard truth of the matter at hand. "Remember what I said. Keep calm, Crouch."
Rolling his eyes, Barty agreed. "Aren't I always?" he snapped, with only a slight teasing lilt to his tone to mask the worry in his tone that threatened to seep through.
Severus nodded, offering just a brief dip of his head in acknowledgment though if he disagreed with Crouch, the man hid it well. Without another word, Snape turned on his heels, the ends of his robes billowing out behind him as he moved swiftly and silently down the stairwell like a phantom, leaving Crouch alone with his sweet Alice.
His misery felt utterly relentless and merciless as the pain of watching the witch whom he loved and would kill for—had killed for—fight for her life and being powerless to help her was more than Barty thought he could bear. He blamed himself for not being more attentive to Alice's needs.
He sat at Alice's bedside and held her hands, arms physically aching to gather the whole of her to him and bargaining with Merlin or the Muggle God or whichever entity or deity would hear a bastard's prayer.
He reached out a shaking hand and gently ran his fingers over the large bruise on the right side of Alice's head from where her skull had connected with the mouth of the cave. He saw her forehead crinkle slightly and he drew back his hand as though just her touch had seared his skin, and Barty waited.
When Alice didn't wake up, Crouch continued to stare at her. He didn't like watching the witch sleep. The muscles in her face were slack and relaxed. She looked dead. And he would know, for Barty had seen several dead people throughout his life.
If it weren't for the slow and barely noticeable rise and fall of Alice's breast, Crouch wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. The breath going in and out of her body was the only sign to Barty that she was alive. His initial growing discomfort began to fade, however, as her eyelids twitched. He had never seen a dead body do that, which meant his Alice was still alive.
He wanted to touch her again. Tentatively, Crouch raised a calloused hand and tucked several stray wisps of her dark hair behind her ear. As Barty did this, the pads of his fingertips accidentally brushed along the contour of Alice's left ear.
He froze, stilling his movements almost immediately, slightly startled at feeling just how soft and smooth it was. A tiny smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, thinking he had never really touched her ear in this manner before.
As easy as it was to be frustrated with Alice for wandering too far away from him back in the Forbidden Forest and getting herself cornered and hurt by a clan of vampires out for blood, Barty felt angrier and angrier with himself with each passing minute as he was content to sit by her side and watch her sleep. He should have been clearer when he'd been instructing Alice.
She'd been damned bloody lucky Severus had agreed to meet him here, that he had managed to save her life and the life of the babe growing within her stomach. Though worry wormed its way into the pit of his churning stomach as he recollected the Dark Lord's words and his threats. How he wanted Longbottom's brat taken care of.
Briefly tearing his gaze away from Alice's sleeping form and looking out the window at the darkened sky outside as black and purple thunder clouds started to roll in, Barty closed his eyes tiredly for a moment and shook his head angrily to himself.
There was no point in staying angry at himself or at Alice, or even at those disgusting fucking blood-sucking leeches, as the vampires he had brutally killed were now dead and no longer a threat to anything else in the Forest.
The important thing was that his sweet, lovely Alice was now safe from harm, and Crouch was not going to let something like this happen again. He would worry about the Dark Lord's threats later. But even so, the guilty feeling didn't leave him entirely yet.
He nodded slowly to himself. Take care of her, he thought as he nodded again. At the least, the beginnings of tentative understanding were beginning to form slowly in his brain as he knew what he had to do. He was going to have to take care of him.
Of Frank. Crouch listened to the sound of Alice's now-even breathing. There was no way in the seven hells below he was going to allow himself to drift off to sleep again with the way that his mind now raced with new and creative ways to hide his precious prize.
Alice needed to be hidden, their tracks covered completely.
Hell, the way he had Disapparated from the Forbidden Forest, thanking Merlin above that Dumbledore, the old bat, and blind bloody fool, hadn't thought to re-instate the protective enchantments around the barrier of the Forest that would have prevented him from Apparating back here with Alice in tow, was already enough.
Surely, her husband and her friends were already worried about Alice's absence. There were going to be Aurors searching for her, missing person's reports, and by then, Crouch knew he'd have her long gone. Locked up tight where no one would find her.
Alice was his now and his alone, and there was no way he was giving her back. Not after all that he'd done for her.
Given enough time, Alice would come to thank him for it. Of that, Barty was sure.