Part Two, Chapter Sixteen
Barty stayed close behind her as they stepped out of the fireplace at the Ministry. She stopped in front of him and he immediately thought to her to continue moving towards the lifts. They were caught up in the crowd of Ministry employees moving to and from different offices, and he hoped everyone would be too busy to notice the mechanical way in which he was moving. He was beginning to realise that although it was easy to exercise control over her, it was difficult to get it to appear natural. It would be even more difficult once they reached the department.
Once they were at the lifts she got in and turned round. He followed her and gave her a smile, pretending to have just noticed her. "Morning, Laura." "Say good morning," he thought.
"Good morning." Her voice was flat, but he thought it would seem natural enough to everyone else in the crowded lift.
The doors were about to close when a wizard Barty didn't recognize suddenly rushed towards the lift and squeezed himself in. "Sorry, sorry," he said as he crammed himself in among the people already tightly packed in. He managed to fit into a space next to Laura, and Barty felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he turned to talk to her. "Laura, did you get my memo?"
Tell him no.
"No, sorry." Ask him to resend it. "Can you send another one?"
The man sighed as the door to the lift closed and they began to move. It was five stops back, one left and two down to the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, and Barty hoped the man would get out of the lift before then. "I need it sorting by this afternoon. Could you come round to the office at twelve o' clock?"
No, you're back in the field investigation this afternoon. Tell him to send a memo to someone else in the department if he's desperate.
"I'm in a field investigation this afternoon. Send a memo to the department if you're desperate."
"I need someone who knows about muggle transport. We're really struggling with the airyplanes."
Barty tried to think of someone else in the department he knew was muggle-born. Tell him to ask Eric Brydon.
"Ask Eric Brydon."
The lift stopped, and the man sighed again. "Alright. Thanks, Laura," he said as he got out, and Barty breathed a sigh of relief.
A couple of minutes later they arrived at the stop for the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, and Barty and Laura got out. He made a point of ensuring she said 'hello' to a couple of other people as they passed in the corridor, and Barty did the same. He was desperately hoping they wouldn't run into his father, not so much because he'd be more likely to notice something was wrong, but because Barty simply didn't want to talk to him.
Fortunately, they didn't run into Crouch Sr., but as they turned the corner to head down the corridor where Laura's office was situated they did come across someone else Barty would rather have avoided. Christine Coulthard gave them both a tired looking smile, but stopped to speak to Barty as they passed each other. "Morning, Barty."
"Morning." He hoped this was going to be brief, but the look on her face suggested it probably wouldn't be.
"Sorry, but I need to ask you. Things are alright between you and Gwen, aren't they? It's just that she's seemed a bit down these last couple of days, but you know what she's like; she won't talk to anyone about it."
Barty really didn't want to have this conversation with her. He hadn't wanted to see her today at all: the implications of it were just too difficult to handle. What if Bella had asked me to do this to Christine and not Laura? The thought had crossed his mind several times the night previously, and he still wasn't sure what he would have done in that situation. He didn't think he could do that to Gwen, even if she wouldn't know it was him doing it, but at the same time he had a desperate need to do something to prove himself to Bella and do everything he could to help find the Dark Lord. Gwen may be the only person in the world who actually genuinely liked him at the moment, but he thought he wanted Bellatrix to respect him just as much as he wanted Gwen to like him, if not more. He still found the thought that it could have been Christine instead of Laura uncomfortable, but this was something that had to be done.
In the end he'd decided that it wasn't Christine so there was no point worrying about hypothetical situations, but seeing her now brought all the doubt back. Even as he thought about it he felt his concentration slipping, and he got the strange sensation as if Laura was trying to mentally pull away from him. He quickly stopped thinking about Christine and focussed on getting Laura to walk down the corridor to the door to her office, but then it registered with him what Christine had said.
He immediately felt concerned for Gwen, and slightly guilty that he was probably the reason she was upset. He didn't want to upset her. He could handle everybody else in the world hating him provided the one person he actually wanted to like him did so, but it seemed he was running the risk of falling out with her as well now. But her mother was really not somebody he wanted to discuss this with. "Yeah, everything's fine, I think. Why? What's wrong with her?"
Christine looked thoughtful. "Well, nothing really specific, she just seems a bit…I don't know, depressed. Not like our usual, Gwen."
Even though Barty thought it was probably his fault she was like this, he couldn't exactly explain it to Christine. "I don't think it's me. Or at least I hope it's not. Maybe I should go and see her, do you mind if I call round?"
Christine gave a tired sigh. "No, it's no problem. She and John are usually in in the evenings, even if I'm not," she said, with a slightly resentful tone in her voice. She looked like she was about to say something more to him, but then her eyes focussed on a spot just over his shoulder and she frowned. "Laura, can I help you with something?"
Barty turned to see Laura Edmondson standing just outside the door to her office, looking at them. That worried Barty slightly. He'd told her to go inside, and he realised he'd let his concentration slip again. He tried to focus.
No, you're just waiting to see if any memos arrive.
"No thank you, I'm just waiting to see if any memos arrive."
Christine looked up to see if there were any folded paper planes flying along the corridor. "Well, there don't seem to be any," Christine said in a slightly perplexed tone.
No there aren't, so go inside.
"No, there aren't," Laura said, and then opened the door to her office and went inside.
Christine stared after her for a moment, slightly baffled, and then shook her head. "I think the stress is getting to her, poor girl. Anyway, see you later, Barty."
"Bye, Christine."
He waited for her to turn the corner at the end of the corridor before heading to Laura's office and going inside, closing the door behind him. Inside, she was stood passively in front of the desk, and he tried to think what he wanted her to do next, but he was distracted. I should never have walked out on Gwen like that. Is she going to be mad at me now? But if I hadn't left when I did things might have ended up even worse… Oh, damn I shouldn't even be thinking about this right now.
He was realising the Imperius Curse was much more difficult to control when it didn't have his undivided attention.
Get out the apparitions report on the Potter investigation.
He watched her as she went to her desk and began to open a drawer, but he still wasn't concentrating. Damn it, why did Christine have to show up just then? It's not like I upset Gwen on purpose…
As his thoughts wandered Laura stopped with her hand on the drawer handle, but she didn't move any further. Oh fuck, open it! he thought, but it was too late. She wasn't responding. He'd lost control of her.
He watched as she slowly seemed to drift back into a state of self awareness, and she lifted her head to look at him. "No." Her tone was scared, but defiant.
He sighed. "Oh, Laura…"
"You really are, aren't you?" she said, both fearful and incredulous, "You really are one of them."
"Surprised?" his tone was slightly mocking.
"But, how…how could you do that? How could you betray your father like that?"
He glared at her. "You stupid bitch. You're just like the rest of them. Why do you all assume that just because I have his name I'm supposed to be just like him? I am nothing like that bastard."
"Clearly…" she said, and began to reach into her robes as if searching for something.
He smirked, and reached into his own robes to take out two wands, one of which he held up for her to look at. "Looking for this?"
As she recognised it she glared at him. "How did you get that?"
He laughed, "Oh, come on Laura, don't be an idiot. As if we'd have let you keep your own wand."
She frowned and looked as if she was trying to work something out. "I don't remember clearly…What exactly happened?"
"I really don't think it matters. What matters is that you're going to give me that report now."
She shook her head. "No, I'm not."
He gave an exasperated sigh as he put her wand back in his pocket and levelled his own to point at her. "Yes Laura, you are."
"If I screamed loud enough I could have ever auror in the department in this office in less than a minute."
"Feel free to try, you know all these offices are soundproofed."
She scowled, realising he'd called her bluff. "I'm not going to do it."
He raised an eyebrow as he prepared to place her under the curse again. "Really, Laura? How long do you think you can fight it for?"
"How long do think you can fight to control me for?" He was vaguely impressed by her defiance, but still found it idiotic.
"Well, I don't need to, do I?" he said casually, "You've already shown me where it is. Sangstasio." It wasn't the spell he'd originally intended to cast, but it had a much more satisfying effect. Laura gasped and stood completely still for a moment before sinking to her knees, hunched over on all fours on the floor. She tried to look up at him, but he could see the effort it was taking her to move her head. Barty grinned to himself. He'd never actually used this spell on a human before, and the results were quite pleasing.
"Not very pleasant, is it?" he said to her, as he crossed over to the desk to open the drawer. "Not the kind of thing they teach at Hogwarts. It stops the blood circulating, deprives all your cells of oxygen. Essentially, you turn into a walking corpse for a few moments, and if you're lucky the curse will be lifted before you've had chance to get brain damage." He turned his wand away from her to lift the spell, but she was still weakened by it, laying on the floor and breathing heavily.
Barty smirked as he looked at her pathetic form crumpled by the foot of the desk, before opening the drawer she'd had her hand on to leaf through the papers inside. He was looking for the one entitled 'Apparition Report #42061' but as he flicked through the documents something else caught his eye. He took out one of the top pieces of parchment to scan it briefly, before muttering, "Shit," and folding it up to tuck inside his robes. That was definitely something else Bella and Rodolphus would be interested in, but he didn't have time to worry about it now.
Once he found the piece of parchment he was after he rolled it up and put it in his inside pocket along with Laura's wand, and then he walked round the desk to stand over Laura as she lay still trembling slightly on the floor. She seemed to have recovered slightly, but was still very pale. There was no way she'd be able to fight it now.
Barty's expression was blank as he cast the curse again. "Imperio."
Even though she was weak, he managed to get her to stand up and head towards the door out of her office. Out in the corridor there was nobody else around, which Barty was glad of. He didn't need any more distractions. He directed her down the corridor towards the office and the end, which belonged to one of the departmental supervisors, Malcolm Hessler, then stood behind her as he gave her further instructions. Knock. When he answers, go inside. Tell him you're ill and you need to go home. She knocked and was answered by a gruff bark of, "Come in."
She entered and waited to be addressed.
"Edmondson, what is it?"
"I'm not feeling very well, Malcolm. I need to go home."
Barty was standing just outside the door out of sight, but he knew at this point Hessler would be looking at Laura's pallid face and thinking she genuinely was ill. He heard the reply, "Yes, you look it. Perhaps you should have a lie down or something."
Tell him again, you need to go home.
"I need to go home," she reiterated. Barty knew that Hessler wouldn't be happy about losing one of his staff when the department was so busy, but he couldn't keep this up all day.
"Well, maybe you…" Hessler began, but then Laura started to sway slightly on her feet and Barty darted forward to catch her as she almost collapsed completely. He glanced into the office at Hessler's quizzical expression.
"I think she really does need to go home," Barty said as he helped Laura find her balance again, trying to explain why he'd been standing just outside. "She almost fainted in the office just now." He thought he may have been a bit heavy handed with the blood stasis curse. The Imperius Curse could make a person do whatever you wanted them to, but it couldn't override biological limitations. If she actually did pass out there'd be little he could do about it.
Hessler looked at the pair of them. "Yes, I think you're right."
"I'll make sure she gets to the fireplaces safely," Barty said, before leading Laura back out towards the lifts. He didn't have much further to go now, and now that most people had started their morning shifts the corridors were less busy. Thankfully, he reached the main foyer without anymore interruptions like the one with the wizard earlier, and he led her over to one of the fireplaces. He thought about giving her the documents before he sent her back off to Bellatrix and Rodolphus, but thought that since he'd been the one who put the work in to get hold of them he should have the privilege of being first to read them.
Once he'd ensured she'd said the words to get back to the house he backed away from the grate and finally relaxed. He didn't have to keep up the Imperius Curse any longer now that Bella and Rodolphus would handle her back at their home. It was at that point that it occurred to him he had no idea just what they were going to do with her now. He'd never even considered it before, he'd just got on and done what he'd been asked to without thinking about what would happen afterwards. Now that he did think about it, he supposed they'd kill her.
That bothered him slightly, even though he wasn't sure why. She was a necessary sacrifice to return the Dark Lord to his rightful position of power, but at the same time he felt uneasy about it. It wasn't exactly upsetting, just strange. He'd passed her in the corridors, spoken to her occasionally and worked in the same department as her for two years, and now he wouldn't. How odd.
He quickly stopped thinking about her though as he realised he did actually have a job he needed to be getting on with. Or at least pretend to be getting on with if he wanted to get paid. He couldn't exactly rely on his father for income anymore.
He was scowling at the thought of his father even as he walked away from the grates and back towards the lift area, but then stopped in surprise as he noticed one of the auror units coming as a group out of a fireplace, accompanied by someone he hadn't expected to see.