18
IT was the distinct smell of cooking breakfast wafting through the air that woke Alice up the following morning.
Alice, barely conscious, and still in a considerable amount of pain from her wounds, rolled over and buried her head further under the mossy green duvet that someone—probably Barty—had found for her last night. She grumbled something unintelligible in protest as the sun began to snake its way over the horizon, signaling the start of a brand-new day.
It was early morning, entirely too early for any reasonable human being to be awake so soon or so Alice thought. It only took a second thought of the sun creeping over the horizon into the sky, and the soft bed underneath her, for Alice to realize that something was wrong.
She'd… She'd been in the Forest, with Barty, she remembered that, and the vampires, but everything that followed was a blur…
Alice immediately shot upright, throwing the blanket off of her in the process. It took one glance around the dark bedroom for Alice to realize this wasn't her and Frank's room, or any room in their house, for that matter.
She was…she was in Barty's spare bedroom, which meant that last night, the immense pain she felt, wasn't a dream.
Flashes of last night and the vampire attack came rushing back to her all at once and Alice felt her stomach take a turn for the very worst. Pressing a shaking hand to her forehead, she doubled over and tried to force air back into her burning lungs while steadying the dizzying feeling creeping up behind her from the back of her skull.
It wasn't a dream, it couldn't be, right? She was in Barty's house. Taking a deep, yet shuddering breath, Alice focused on her breathing and willing her nausea to leave her.
Once her breathing had regulated back to something that resembled normalcy and her dizziness and sick feeling had subsided, for the most part, Alice straightened up and carefully slid out of bed.
She shivered slightly as her bare feet hit the cold hardwood floor and she glanced around the room in search of a change of clothes.
Much to her surprise, Alice found a lovely modest blue dress on a hanger on the closet's door hook already set out for her.
Was it Winky who had brought her this? It certainly wasn't anything that she owned. It looked brand-new. Her eyes widening in shock and gratitude, lost in her thoughts again, Alice stood staring at the dress on its hanger. She had calmed the worst of her shock, and her racing heart had relaxed.
Her mind slipped unbidden back to the events of last night.
She'd sworn Barty had…kissed her.
When she came to herself, she was surprised to find she was actually breathing heavy and biting down on her lower lip.
Her hand was clutched the extra-large shirt of Barty's someone had dressed her in that was so big on her petite frame, it might as well have been a nightdress until a good portion of it was bunched in her hand and pulled tightly across her slender hips.
Alice forcefully shook her head.
"Stop it!" she ordered herself. Her embarrassment turned to anger. Alice turned wrathfully from the beautiful simplistic dress just begging her to wear it.
As she licked her lips to moisten them, bits and pieces of last night came slowly trickling back to her mind. Barty holding onto her from behind, his hand in her hair.
Crouch looming over her, his dark eyes while worried, also hot, and full of…hunger.
Alice shook her head as she moved to the bathroom, the most modern, but still not modern, room in all of Crouch's house thus far that she had seen of the place, which was strictly limited to this room.
She flicked on the light and looked in the mirror and was startled by the smeared sight of blood on her lips. Alice rationalized she must have bit her lip during the night and, as lips could be very vascular, had bled more than usual, that was all.
She rinsed her mouth out with fresh water and brushed her teeth, hopping into the shower when the water in the shower was hot, hoping Barty wouldn't mind if she freshened up.
Alice didn't want to greet him or anybody else that was here this morning looking like a slob.
Once her hair was dried and a light, loose makeup applied from a cosmetics bag resting on the counter, again, she guessed Winky's doing, she was just about to leave the bathroom when something caught her eye, near her collarbones.
Her eyes fell to her chest as she let the towel wrapped around herself drop in a heap to the floor.
The scarred claw markings from the vampire that had done this to her were prominent jagged pink lines against her pale skin.
Permanent. Ugly. Cursed Dark markings. She gingerly ran a shaking hand over the markings, careful not to touch them, a violent shudder clawing its way down her spine. She hoped that Frank would still think her pretty.
She swallowed the bile rising in her throat and left the bathroom, practically yanking the dress off of its hanger and began to dress in the darkness.
Alice looked around for her wand but didn't find it. She felt foolish, and powerless against her own thoughts, letting herself get captured like that.
Merlin, but Barty must hate her. And what was Frank going to think about her when he saw her? This wouldn't happen again. It could not. She would not allow it to.
She would fill her mind with the task at hand, which was to convince Barty to come to the Ministry for questioning.
If her friend was innocent, then he had nothing to hide and nothing to fear from her department. Nothing and no one—especially Barty—was going to impede her from her job.
Once she'd fully dressed and trimmed her short black pixie via magic so not a stray wisp or strand was out of place, Alice looked in the mirror.
She completed a little brief twirl, admiring how the skirts of the knee-length, short-sleeved collared blue dress twirled with her movements, and giving her reflection a nod of approval, she shoved her emotions once more to the pit of her stomach and strode out of the room.
The rumpled bedsheets left as the only witness to her weakness from last night's ordeal.
Out in the hallway, Alice was drawn yet again to the smell of what smelled like cooking bacon and sausage and eggs flitting through the air and into her flaring nostrils.
Though the smell of cooking meat made her stomach lurch for a half-second, the nausea was gone as soon as it had come as her stomach let out a low grumble. It demanded that she go in search of the delicious aroma.
Yet, a feeling of apprehensiveness gave Alice pause and caused her to hesitate at the foot of the stairs.
What would be waiting for her when she set foot in Crouch's kitchen or dining room? Crouch hadn't exactly asked her if he could bring her here. He had taken her here while she was knocked unconscious, and while Alice knew she would be forever grateful and indebted to Barty, she was not about to forget that kiss he'd given her, and she was a fool to think that Barty's help and him saving her life wasn't going to come without a price.
She dreaded to think what it was. The way that Crouch would look whenever Frank's name was mentioned by her, and Winky's words to her last night had not been exactly comforting, despite the house-elf trying.
Still, nothing was going to be accomplished if she held herself up here all morning and refused to come down. No fear, she chanted inside of her mind like a mantra.
Trying her best to feel at least somewhat fearless. But this didn't make Alice stupid, though. Before she could lose what little was left of her famous inner Gryffindor courage, Alice barreled down the stairs, her pace quickening when she heard raised voices coming from down the stairs and to her left and…and…
Alice furrowed her delicate brows into a frown as she held out a hand against the wall to steady herself once she stepped off the bottom step.
Raised voices were arguing in the room next to her, which sounded like the dining room, judging by the sound of Winky making a ruckus and the sound of clattering plates and cutleries could be heard.
As she gingerly crept around the corner and stood in front of the closed door, she flinched as another shout rent the air.
No Silencing Charm had been cast.
She could not, for the life of her, comprehend why whoever was on the other side of this door had not thought to do so.
The sheer intensity and volume of their shouts were liable to wake up Crouch's neighbors. She fell silent and she listened intently, her fingernails digging into the wall.
"I should have been told, Crouch! Would you care to tell me why the Administrations's Office wouldn't grant my request? They told me to talk to you! They sent me back home with my tail tucked between my legs like a bloody dog! I've been waiting all night to see my wife! What if she'd died and I wasn't by her side, Barty? You're covering up for your own son, Crouch!" Frank screamed.
For a brief moment, her heart soared, despite hearing how hoarse and emotional her poor husband's voice sounded; rough, like sandpaper, like the man had been yelling for hours for days prior to the start of this squabble.
"Frank!" she breathed in an excited whisper, though her temporary euphoria at being once again under the same roof as her husband dissipated almost instantly, and her little smile fell off of her face faster than a Vanishing Charm.
Alice couldn't be exactly sure what this altercation was consisting of, as she'd been asleep, though she was honestly surprised that with all the shouting her husband was doing, that Frank or Crouch hadn't managed to wake her up.
Someone spoke up in response, and by then, she could recognize it.
Not Barty, as she'd originally thought. Well, yes, Barty, but rather, Barty's father was speaking to someone, she would recognize his voice anywhere, that deep voice calloused by ire, with no grace and sounding like he was furious with Frank for some reason.
Alice rested a palm on the wall as a sudden chill shot through her veins and pulled her away from immediately opening the door and announcing her presence to the men.
"—I should have been told, Crouch!" Frank screamed, his voice hoarse and emotional. "How could you kidnap my own wife and keep her here for so long?! SHE'S MY WIFE, YOU BASTARD! MINE! AND YOU WOULD STEAL HER?"
Frank's anger and pain laced throughout his voice as he lost his temper were unmistakable.
The sound of Crouch Jr.'s voice saying something in response to Frank resonated through the air, sounding calm and unfazed by Frank Longbottom's outburst of the pure onslaught.
"It was what was for the best, Longbottom, you ask me, Alice should have never married you, Longbottom, she—" though Barty Crouch Jr. was cut off as the distinct sound of fist on flesh echoed from behind the heavy wood.
What sounded like a noisy scuffle followed by Crouch Sr.'s shouts, and colorful lights of hexes emitted from the cracks of the seams in the door, the bright light of a Stunning Spell filtered under the door's crack, followed by a loud thud and the room went silent, until Barty Crouch Sr. spoke.
"Mr. Longbottom, that's my son you just attacked!" the older wizard spluttered indignantly.
Though whatever Frank said in response, Alice didn't hear it as her husband wrenched open the door and pocketed his wand as he awkwardly stood in the doorway, running a hand nervously through his thick dark hair.
Smiling sadly at Alice, he coughed once to clear his throat. "Alice, sweetheart," Frank whispered in a hoarse voice, tears brimming at the edges of his eyes as he held out his arms, hoping his wife would come to him.
Alice did not need to be told twice. She ran to her husband, not that she had very far to go. Part of her wanted to punch him for the worry he'd caused her.
However, most of her wanted to throw her aching arms around Frank and hold him. She simply stopped short before reaching Frank and stared at her husband in wonder, her mind echoing, "He came for me." The startled gasp that escaped her lips was heard by Frank as he steadied her gait by putting either of his hands on both of her shoulders.
"Are you alright?" he questioned his wife urgently.
"I'm fi…" she began, one of her hands drifting to the flat of her stomach. "We're both fine, Frank…" Then she noticed Crouch Jr.'s limp form on the hardwood. "Frank!" Alice squealed, and rushed forward, kneeling on the ground to check Crouch's pulse. She glanced up, bile rising in her throat, and frowned, pursing her lips into a thin, rigid line. "What…what did you do to him?"
"Petrificus Totalus. He'll be just fine, Alice."
Frank returned her frown with one of his own, shoving his hands in the pockets of his trousers. Even in rage, his lovely wife was beautiful, and it pulled him off his own fury for his nemesis.
Winky came barreling in after Alice through another doorway that led into the kitchens from the dining room with obvious fret in her eyes.
"You shouldn't have done that! You might not like Barty, Frank, but he did save my life, like it or not, and I owe him a favor!" Alice snapped, leaving Frank's face drained off colors as he gaped in disbelief at his wife, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing from his own wife.
Had the entire country fallen on top of them?
"You're mad, Alice," Frank snapped, his lips parted in disbelief as he didn't even flinch as Barty's father came to stand in the doorway, after examining his son and determining he'd come round in a moment. "Can't you see that he's using you, Alice? He—he wants you," he snarled.
Crouch Sr. surveyed the dining room before decided to take a seat instead.
"Good morning, Mrs. Longbottom," he said, his mustache bristling as he attempted to diffuse the tension between them. "You must have slept nicely. Are you feeling well?" he questioned, studying the object of his son's affections over the rim of his teacup.
Alice stopped in mid-step, startled at being addressed in the midst of her growing fury at her husband attacking her best friend, and nearly staggered backward and fell over, and likely would have, were it not for Frank catching her.
Straightening herself and gingerly shrugging out of Frank's grasp, much to his annoyance, she sent Barty Crouch Jr.'s father a perturbed look.
"Peachy, Mr. Crouch, sir," Alice clipped, her tone brisk as she folded her arms across her chest. "I usually sleep wonderfully after narrowly escaping the brink of death following a vampire attack," she snapped angrily, her tone annoyed.
Crouch Sr.'s strained but still polite smile instantly fell, and he physically winced at his best Auror's barb.
He bowed his head and glanced away, shame marring his face, anger bubbling in his chest at his son's antics towards sweet Alice.
Annoyance at her husband for not following his instructions. The man had gone down to the Administration's Office in the Ministry after-hours and had attempted to bribe the third shift receptionist into giving him his son's address.
He'd received an owl of the attempt this morning, which had sent Barty Crouch Sr. straight here to his son's home first thing in the hopes of confronting the Auror about it, and he'd also wanted to check on Mrs. Longbottom's progress and see how she was healing from her wounds.
A thick silence hung in the air and Crouch Sr. swore he thought he saw his house-elf shoot Alice Longbottom a severe look of disapproval, as Winky was working on reviving his son.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Crouch, I…I apologize, sir," Alice apologized, her voice reaching Crouch Sr. and causing the older wizard to look up to see her rubbing the back of her neck irately. "That was uncalled for, sir." She rubbed her brow and her blue eyes narrowed in thought before she continued sheepishly. "I guess I'm…not really…I'm not…back to my usual self just yet, sir."
"Quite understandable." Crouch Sr. fell silent as Alice Longbottom turned her wrath upon Frank, but only after giving her employer a curt nod.
She angrily gestured to her friend's stirring form as he mumbled something incoherently under his breath as Winky had roused him.
"If you're going to jinx him for saving my life, Frank, then you had better point your wand at me and jinx me too, for it was me who insisted on going after Barty in the Forest on my own, but let it be tomorrow, as I think you've already caused enough of a fuss today, don't you think?"
Frank opened his mouth to answer Alice, but before he could so much as utter the first syllable, Alice turned her back on him and motioned for Winky to help him up as best as she could. The house-elf did as she was told.
Barty Crouch Jr. grunted as he was forced from his laying place on the dining room floor, but he welcomed the help from his family's house-elf.
Frank spun furiously on his old classmate once he was confident that his wife was unharmed. He stepped towards the two of them and brandished his wand again, holding it at the ready, just in case.
"Did you honestly think you could steal away my wife, Crouch?" he scoffed rhetorically.
Barty all but ignored Frank's posturing. His sole focus was only on his lovely Alice. He didn't give a damn for Frank or Father's opinions anymore.
Crouch knew his words would make him sound weak, but it didn't matter.
"I'd hoped…there would be no need for me to convince you, Al," Barty muttered in a reedy-sounding voice as he addressed and had eyes only for Alice. "My wish was that you would choose to be mine willingly." Barty said this to her with desperate longing in his eyes, his quiet voice trembling with emotion.
Standing in front of the two of them, Frank blustered with rage as his face turned mottled.
"Oh. That's it!" he bellowed. "Alice, elf, whichever one of you wants to do it, hold him down," he ordered, no warmth in his voice. "I'm going to gut this bastard and enjoy every second," Frank smiled in bloodthirsty anticipation, and the mere sight of it sent a chill down Alice's spine as she gaped in shock at him.
She was his wife, and the thought of her own best friend thought he could steal her heart for him, was an insult to which he could not submit.
"Frank," Alice spoke shyly yet calmly, silencing her husband as she lowered her wand, not wanting more discourse to break out because of her. Her cheeks were flushed high with color. "Like it or not, Barty brought me back here and made sure I didn't die from my wounds. I owe him a favor. I'm still a guest in his home, and he should receive us with the same courtesy as anyone else."
Frank squirmed in front of her, eager to jinx Crouch's son to the point where the man had to grovel at his feet and apologize.
Alice stepped next to him and whispered softly into his ear as she rested her hand on his arm.
"There's no need for you to be this upset, love," Alice calmly reassured her husband. "We'll be gone soon, and then we'll go home. Just…give me a moment." She bore deeply into Frank's eyes, and just his soul was calmed by the depth of hers.
Though he was momentarily calmed, he was still angry with Alice and her naivety in this matter. It didn't matter if they were friends.
Crouch wasn't a good man, and he aimed to try to make Alice see that, no matter what it took. Frank gaped angrily as Alice began to walk away from him, mesmerized as she helped Winky escort him out of the dining room and down the hall to where Crouch's master bedroom was at.
"Alice, sweetheart, this is insane," Frank seethed. "You don't know what you're doing, darling! You shouldn't even be talking to him like this, like he's…" His voice trailed off as Alice glared at him.
"Human?" Alice fired back, a note of annoyance seeping into her tone as she glowered at Frank. "He is a human being, sweetheart," she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "You'll never reach him if you treat him like a psychopath. Psychopaths don't think of themselves in those terms, and Barty is far from that, Frank. There is something there, some good in him, Frank, I just know it."
Frank gritted his teeth and repressed the great instinctive urge to roll his eyes.
"Alice, sweetheart, please. Speaking to him, at him, for so long, it could trigger something within him."
"Isn't that what we want?" Alice fired back as she paused at the end of the hallway outside of Crouch's master bedroom, though she did not follow Winky inside. "Any reaction is better than none, Frank. I would have thought you'd known."
Frank felt his frustration bubble within his chest as he curled his shaking hands into fists, grateful he'd shoved them into the pockets of his trousers so Alice wouldn't see just how badly he was getting affected by his wife's stubborn streak.
"You're playing with fire, Alice!" he called out and Alice froze as she turned back to face Frank.
Her jaw clenched and she stalked back down the hallway towards her husband and angrily jabbed a finger in the middle of his chest and poked him, hard enough that it almost hurt Frank then.
"I don't care if you dislike my methods, darling, but I do care, Frank, when you disrespect me so blatantly. I'm as much of an Auror as you are, I've every right to be here. Dumbledore asked me to be the one to question Barty and bring him in, not you, sweetheart. Now you back off and let me deal with my friend as I see fit to. I'm going in his room to tend to him now in an environment where he'll be more comfortable. If you still feel the need to supervise me, Frank, then come with me and you can watch me do it, but I'm not going to interrogate him and question him after you just hit him with a Stunning Spell and a Stinging Jinx, Frank!"
"Alice, honey, this is an insult!" Frank seethed.
At this, he took note of the pause that caused Alice to come to a complete standstill and the skirts of her simple blue dress in a bouncy twist. She turned her head to meet her eyes to his, and Frank stiffened as he took note of the strange bolt of electricity in her pale blue eyes just then.
"No, Frank," she sighed sadly, disappointment and hurt gleaming in her eyes as she spoke in volumes that sent a chill under his skin. "You're humiliating my best friend, sweetheart. That's all this is. How could you, Frank?" she asked, pained. Alice narrowed her eyes in despair and sadness. "We don't even have proof that he's….one of them," she motioned to her left arm worriedly, frowning. "How could you?" she repeated. "…Blame him for being one of them without proof? We're better than this, love," she whispered in a small, meek voice.
Frank felt like his lungs had turned to stone. He looked to the side to catch Crouch Sr.'s quick evasion of eye contact, though he heard the grunt that Barty Crouch Jr.'s father let out then. And for the first time, a hot, marring shame rained down on him like jinxes being fired, which made all sense now that Alice was upset.
Though she paused, a hand lingering on the doorpost to steady herself before she made to follow Winky and Barty Crouch Jr. inside his bedroom and turned to look at her husband. The heartbreak and despair glistening within her shimmering blue eyes were too much for Frank to deal with.
Alice looked as though she wanted to say something, even had a hand outstretched towards Frank, but before her husband could say anything, he ducked his head and turned on his heels to go.
"I'll be outside when you're ready," he barked in a gruff voice, not looking back at her.
Alice inwardly screamed. She could feel the bile rising in her throat and all she wanted to do was throw her head back and scream.
Was there no way out of this that didn't end in someone, either herself, Frank, or Barty, or all of them, getting hurt?
Her hand fell limply to her side and a single tear escaped from the edges of her lids.
"I'm sorry, Frank," she whispered in a half-choked sob. "But I need to see this through."
She walked away from the silent, simmering Auror standing in the hallway angrily and followed Winky into Barty's bedroom, slamming the door behind her without even looking back. He thought she wouldn't be able to reach him.
She'd show Frank. She was sure of it.
Alice gingerly pushed the door to Barty's bedroom open, only to find Barty perched on the edge of his bed, and Winky staring at Alice, silently pleading with her master's 'Special Miss' to be released.
She waved off the terrified house-elf, sensing how happily the creature scurried away.
The man was in shock, Alice realized, seeing him sulking like this, that Frank had gotten one over on him, as if his soul had left his body via the Dementor's Kiss.
Crouch was looking pale, paler than usual. She steadily walked towards him, bland on the silence that always tugged at her heartstrings whenever Barty was around.
She knew that the man still held feelings for her, after all of these years.
And her heart poured out for him despite the disgust that plagued her. Alice did not want to believe the truth to the rumors that Barty could in any way be affiliated with Lord Voldemort. Her firm left hand jutted out of her and stiffly caught Crouch's loose jaw.
An odd power surged through her at the sight of the man's crestfallen face.
She read his dark brown eyes like an open book that stripped him and laid him bare before her, Barty Crouch Jr.: the scared and rejected boy never good enough for his father, and a mother who was never present.
Alice hesitated, realizing she could do whatever she wanted to the man in his moment of weakness and vulnerability.
She could slap him for bringing her back here to his house when the right thing would have been to escort her to St. Mungo's and alert Frank what had happened. He deserved no less than that surely for planting that unwanted kiss on her not once, but twice.
She shivered as the memories came back. There were no holes missing. None that she could remember anyway, and she tried to piece together the missing fragments of what Frank and Barty had been arguing about before she'd come to doubt.
Obviously about her, yes, but… but… Alice heaved a frustrated sigh as she realized Barty was a puzzle, a puzzle whose only missing piece was affection. Warm-blooded affections.
"Stop," Alice heard herself command in the same tone whenever she was dealing with a new recruit in the Auror Office. Barty was looking up at her as though she had hypnotized him. "You're a Crouch, Barty. Crouches don't snivel."
Her grip on Barty's jaw tightened and Crouch didn't even flinch. And how she secretly loved his look, though she'd never dare admit it to anyone. This must have been what he felt when she looked at him pleadingly as well, Alice guessed.
"Thank you, Barty. For…for saving my life," she whispered, shyly lowering her lashes.
It was everything that she could utter at the moment. His motives were probably egotistical and selfish in nature, but either way, he'd saved her from things worse than death either way last night when he'd killed those vampires for her.
Crouch acknowledged it with a tiny little nod.
"Frank won't bother you anymore, Barty," Alice promised, pulling back, and letting go of his jaw to silently observe her best friend's reaction.
He scoffed and rolled his eyes, which was about what she had expected from the young Slytherin.
"What will you do?" His voice was startlingly quiet, almost quivering as Crouch looked at her.
"I'll talk to him," Alice answered casually.
Crouch almost huffed in indignation as rage coursed through his veins, ready to cut down Frank Longbottom where the man stood outside, having trespassed and was uninvited in his home. But he knew he couldn't, not yet. It wasn't time.
"And talking will be enough?" Crouch prodded.
"Yes." It was all that Alice would say to Barty.
Crouch growled, realizing he wasn't going to get anything more specific out of his Alice than that. But maybe…maybe that was his clue, and he could push his plan to take care of his nemesis and get Frank out of the picture for good, into motion.
The recent events that had transpired had to deepen the wedge and enhance the distrust between the married couple, or at least Frank's. Crouch knew he just had to steer it in the right direction and use it to his advantage, and then, his sweet Alice would stay with him. Forever.
Alice regarded Crouch with a confused frown.
"Why?" she asked, her face not harboring the passion that he'd hoped she would hold for him, but instead, a bewildered indifference.
Crouch could tell his love was thinking about something.
"Why did you bring me here, Barty? Really?" she questioned, suspicion laced through her tone.
Crouch stifled a growl building within his chest. He thought about lying to her, to tell her that it was merely to treat her wounds and nothing, but something in the way his love was looking at him told him he couldn't, that it was wrong, and it felt wrong.
"I thought…" he stammered, looking longingly at Alice. "I hoped that when I brought you back here, that you would…want to stay…"
Barty wanted nothing more than to find a pedestal upon which to place Alice, though he knew the witch would hate that.
He'd not meant for his words to sound so condescending. Though Alice immediately took offense to his judgmental tone.
She straightened incredulously and looked out the window at Crouch's front yard, where she could see Frank's unmistakable silhouette resting against the shade of a red and orange fiery maple tree, talking in low tones to Barty's father.
He looked upset, and Alice knew she and Frank still needed to make amends, though that would come in a moment after she corrected Crouch.
"Frank is my husband, Barty," Alice corrected Barty. "We've our own home in the countryside."
Her hand came to rest on the flat of her stomach, Crouch's narrowed gaze following it.
Barty was not making the impression he had imagined he would. He had wanted to sweep Alice off her feet, not make the witch angrier.
"Of course," he conceded through gritted teeth, the very words sounding like poison in his mouth as he spat them more than spoke them, knowing bloody full well Frank would get his competence, tonight, it was happening tonight.
But for now, he would let Alice think what she wished, and he would go along with her words.
"Forgive me," he apologized, a begging lilt to his voice in what he hoped was a convincing enough performance, though at the moment, all Barty could see was red.
Rage blinded his line of sight. His arms ached to take Alice in his arms and hold her, to kiss her, regardless of the fact that she was in the very early stages of pregnancy with another man's child.
Crouch let a soft smile flit across his features, watching her in the role of a wife, and he wished that he were her husband.
After tonight, his sweet Alice would be his wife, in time. It might take her time, but it would come. Of this he was sure of it, his reeling mind convinced himself as he mulled over the details of his plan in his mind.
"You'll make a great mother, Alice." Barty shoved the details of his plan in motion to the back of his mind as he tried to focus on the here and now, while he still had his sweet Alice alone in his bedroom with him.
He'd meant for his statement to be a praise of her, but again, his words were taken as hostile. Alice's anger flared and her cheeks painted rosy.
"You forget that I'm an Auror, Barty," she added, clutching onto her wand, grateful that Winky had found it for her and had given it to her in the hallway. She must have misplaced it. "I can still fight as well as any man in the Ministry." She sneered at him. "I can do it while pregnant. Don't think I won't." Her blue eyes darkened and glared with passion.
As always, even when she was angry with him, Barty was astonished and mesmerized by the sheer power of the petite little brunette witch in front of him.
Size was no guarantee of power, his Head of House, old Slughorn had been fond of saying, and he'd proven this once during a Slug Club meeting, a luncheon when Alice had caught a Hufflepuff leering at her and jinxed him when his back was turned after he'd picked on her about her relatively short stature.
Barty had been intending to take care of the bastard himself, but Alice had beaten him to it back then before he'd had a chance to.
That had been one of the first things that had drawn him to Alice back then, and her stunning crystalline sparkling blue eyes.
Her short dark hair was such a striking contrast against bone-white skin, and her haircut highlighted a good, strong jawline and high cheekbones, and her kind, shy, white smile… No other woman in all of Great Britain held such a smile, Barty was sure of it.
His eyes widened as he realized he was losing himself in his fantasies of her and shook his head to clear it.
Alice looked at Barty, her eyebrows furrowing as she regarded the man who'd broken her heart, that now had the audacity to think she would abandon her husband, her house, her life with Frank and her friends in the Order, all for him.
"Barty," she whispered, speaking slowly, and choosing her words carefully. "Did you honestly expect that I would leave my husband, my family?" She probed delicately, unable to believe the words that were coming out of her own mouth now.
"I thought…" The words were pouring from his mouth of their own volition, as if he had accidentally ingested Veritaserum, but he hadn't.
Nevertheless, he couldn't take back his words.
Alice frowned. "Thought what?" she prodded.
"I thought when you saw me alive in the Forbidden Forest that you would remember that it was me that you love, Alice," Barty confessed.
He needed to explain to her but did not want the witch's pity. He'd earned none of the compassion that he admired in her, he knew this.
"I…I love you. I've always loved you, always will," he vowed, swallowing the lump in his throat as it hallowed and constricted, blinking back his tears.
Somewhere deep within Alice lingered a bitter salty rawness that wanted to scream at Crouch that if he had really loved her, he wouldn't have made friends during their sixth year with the wrong sort. Part of her wanted to laugh at Barty.
There was even a tiny part of her that wanted to unleash Frank's fury upon Barty a second time. But then it occurred to her that Barty's reasons or even his actions in choosing that path did not matter to her anymore.
It was the thought of her husband, and the knowledge that the two of them were going to become parents, that grounded her. She spoke with the assurance of a young witch who'd found all she wanted of life.
She regretfully understood Barty was hurting and that she would have to destroy the hopes that had sustained him for so long, but her heart and loyalty now rightfully belonged to her husband.
Barty had become but a painful memory for her, and now, one that only sometimes fleetingly crossed her mind during moments of weakness.
"I don't know what you and I had back then, Barty, maybe it was love," Alice whispered faintly. "But you never gave us the chance to find out," Alice said as her tone became more serious. "What I do know, is that what you and I had once, it wasn't like what Frank and I have, Barty," she told him, trying to be kind. "I truly wish you the best of everything and I will be forever grateful to you for—for saving my life. You could have left me in that cave to bleed to death, but you didn't. And I'm…grateful for it, Barty, I am."
Alice sincerely hoped that Crouch could put their past behind him and move on, find a young witch who would love and appreciate him, settle down, and give him a good life and happiness. She hoped that for him, she did.
"And I'm sorry to have caused you to worry about me." Alice looked at Barty sympathetically and shook her head softly, the light in her blue eyes dimming. "But there's nothing for you here."
With those words, she broke him a second time.
Barty ducked his head, a lock of his dark hair falling in front of his eyes, shielding whatever hurt but firm expression Alice wore from him.
"Do you believe in love, Alice…?" Barty questioned out of the thick and uncomfortable silence that now existed between the two of them.
Her answer would help cease the madness that was running wild between his legs and in his chest as he ground his teeth, visions of Frank's death, each one bloodier than the last, flitting through his mind in rapid-fire succession.
"Yes." Alice looked at him as if he were mad.
And there, Crouch surrendered her, for now, letting her walk towards the door, away from him. Only now. He heard Alice sigh in relief.
"Go," he blurted out in defeat.
Alice moved away and decided to see her friend for the last time, before ducking her head and continuing her path to the door that would take her to the hallway and towards the front door, where Frank was waiting to escort her back to their home.
Her fading soft footsteps equaled the deadening of his joy and the realization that Alice would stay willingly, which meant his plan was changing.
He was going to have to take her. By force.
Barty didn't care if he were going to have to start spiking her morning tea or coffees with Love Potions, but one way or another, she would be his. Just his.
His and his alone. Not Longbottom's.
"Wait! Alice!" he called out as he heard her pull the door open, clamoring within, wracking his brain, and thinking of something to keep her here by his side, just for a single moment longer.
She stopped midway from completely quitting the scene and silently waited for his want as he slowly rose from the edge of the bed, the effects of Frank's Stunning Spells having worn off by now.
"What is it?" Alice stammered nervously.
Crouch straightened his posture and ran a hand through his dark hair.
"You owe me one for saving your life, love, I heard you say it in the hall. Did you mean it?" he asked her, just a hint of a smile tugging at his lips in a devilish smirk that made her quirk her thin eyebrows at him.
"I do," she agreed, a stab of nervousness and fear pricking at her heartstrings. "What is it that you want?" Alice asked, suspicious of Barty.
"A kiss." He folded his arms behind his back and resisted the urge to smirk at Alice's bewilderment. He had her, oh, she was his….
Alice inhaled sharply, certain she'd misheard. "A—a what? A kiss?" she squeaked, breathlessly.
"Yes. Just one. I don't expect it to lead anywhere or get me anything else from you except perhaps a well-deserved slap, but one kiss from you is all the reward that I could ask for. Now." He leaned against the doorpost for support and was close enough that the tips of their noses touched. "Will you keep your word?" he questioned her softly.
Alice looked over her friend with a frown.
Everyone had always told her, from the moment the two had parted ways, that Barty was now a dangerous man, a man not to be trifled with, and this certainly would count as trifling, she figured, no matter what she did or said around the man.
But nothing about Barty seemed dangerous in this moment—not with his disheveled dark hair, his unlaced black boots, and his shirt that sat askew across his broad but muscular chest.
It looked to her as though Crouch had tried to change into something fresh and neatly pressed this morning and had given up halfway through.
Alice realized with a visible start that his shirt was blue, a darker shade of the blue of her dress, perhaps a rich navy blue.
She couldn't recall the last time she'd seen Barty in anything but black. The young witch kept her gaze locked on his, watching Barty's cheeks turn from bone-white to pink in the space of those few split half-seconds.
Alice saw how he straightened, and his tongue ran over his lips as though he were tasting the air for her scent.
But he didn't move to grab her, not even when the tip of her nose brushed his.
"One?" she asked softly, still suspicious. "And only one?" she challenged, raising her eyebrows.
"One," he promised her. "And nothing more, Al. Nothing that you wouldn't give me of your own volition. It's not like I haven't kissed you before."
Alice nodded numbly and leaned into him, and it was at that exact moment that Barty seized his chance and took hold of her possessively, pressing his lips to hers.
He tasted like tea and biscuits, she realized and smelled like flour. She'd expected this one kiss to be a short one, but it was anything but that. Right at the beginning, Crouch yanked Alice flush to him, his left arm winding tightly around her waist, his other hand buried in the back of her dark hair, pressing her mouth even tighter against his.
Alice had nowhere to put her hands save for the man's chest, where they splayed across his shirt as Crouch deepened the kiss.
Her lips parted obediently to his tongue, and outside of her own intent, Alice heard herself let out a cry of pleasure. That small sound was encouraging enough to make Barty let out a guttural moan.
He tilted her chin up to him and pressed his lips hard against hers for a second one, his tongue eagerly exploring her mouth.
Crouch pulled back at least, leaving Alice panting and gasping against the door, a hand over her racing heart, and then her hands moved to her mouth to cover it, shocked at how she had just repaid her favor.
"Alice," he breathed, almost whispering her name with such tenderness, it made her shiver.
Alice knew that Crouch would keep her here if he could, that he would take a hundred more kisses and the rest of her if she would let him.
She swallowed down hard past the lump in her throat, willing the feeling of the searing heat he gave off to leave her, as she had Frank to think of.
But it was hard for thoughts of Crouch to leave her troubled mind when every inch of her was aflame, an old forgotten hunger awoke in her that she'd not possessed since her days as a student during their sixth year, before Frank.
It took every last inch of Alice's willpower not to close the distance once again.
She fidgeted with her gold wedding band on her finger before gingerly shoving Crouch's chest and gently pushed the man back, still gasping for breath.
"Was that kiss worth saving my life and putting up with my talent for trouble?" she asked, her smile small and fragile and just a bit hopeful.
But hopeful that Crouch would change, that he would come in quietly to the Ministry for questioning, and when her fellow Aurors learned nothing from Barty, everything would be fine.
Barty stepped away from her, his fists curling.
"Yes. Always." He turned away and ducked his head, hiding his current expression from Alice. "The snake must go back to his nest now, you've had your fill of the viper's poisonous company. But…don't…" he muttered, turning his head a quarter so Alice could only see the side of his face, his dark eyes looking down at the floor.
"What…?" she breathed, utterly confused.
"Don't believe in it," he answered angrily.
Alice was stunned, having wrenched open the door, but not before smoothing her dress and hair to ensure she looked presentable to Frank, that some of the flushed hue had left her cheeks.
She didn't want Frank asking any questions.
"Why?" she asked, furrowing her brows.
Barty could almost read Alice's mind without him even having to look at her in order to see it. There was less truth in what he believed.
That the world around them was cruel because it was devoid of love.
But Alice grew up in a house built with it, with her parents, well, when they weren't fighting and before the two had gotten divorced, and Frank, her friends.
He knew to her, love wasn't merely just a phantasm. It was real, yes, but isolated. But he never did believe in love…
I don't have it. But Merlin, I want it with you.
When he spoke, visions of his plan in his mind came to fruition, and his tone sounded bitter.
"Because…it's stupid and does not exist."
Without even seeing Alice, he imagined the beautiful brunette staring plainly at him, and he knew that she had left as her footsteps receded. She'd not bothered to close the door behind her.
Barty looked down at both his hands, his lips tingling and burning with the memory of her kiss, his body instinctively reacting to her touch. He filled his hands with the image of Alice's sweet face, her ocean blue eyes staring at him. Crouch knew he would be happy if those eyes were looking at him, but then he remembered. That they never would.
He stiffened, grinding his teeth, and bolted towards his bedroom window, watching Frank. His only consolation to assuage his guilt for almost getting the love of his life killed was that she still cared for him.
Otherwise, she would not have kissed him. His lips moved to trace his lips, still tingling, and burning in the kiss's aftermath.
After tonight, he rationalized, Barty knew he would no longer need reassurance that Alice would be his until their wedding.
His mind reeling, he stalked his way down the opposite end of the hallway, heading towards the backdoor to head not for the Ministry, or another safehouse of Lord Voldemort's comrades, but back to the Forbidden Forest.
Tonight, Alice was going to be his, but first…
First…he had to take care of Frank, and he knew just what to do, who to go to for help in rectifying his little 'problem,' his problem, of course, being Longbottom, but once he was dealt with and out of Alice's life for good, then…
Alice would be all his. And he couldn't wait.