Part Two, Chapter Eighteen
The shock of seeing Gwen at the Ministry wiped all thoughts of Laura from Barty's mind. As he called out her name she turned to see who it was, and Barty saw a look of surprise register on her face before it was quickly replaced with one of relief. Before he had chance to say anything more to her she ran the few paces between them and wrapped her arms round him in a hug. He was slightly taken aback at first, but then realised something must be wrong and hugged her back. He found himself thinking back to what Christine had said, and wondered what had prompted her to act this way. Something must be the matter, and as he glanced up at the aurors standing behind her he felt a flicker of fear. Maybe she'd found out? What if they'd told her, or she'd told them, and they were here to arrest him… Even though the thought made him panic just for a second he quickly realised it made no sense, and his thoughts immediately shifted to concern for Gwen.
He pulled back from the hug to look at her, genuinely worried. "Gwen, what happened? Why are you here with them?"
"Nothing," she answered rather quickly, and he gave her a look as if to say, "Oh really?" She quickly backtracked. "Well, something, but it doesn't matter. I was in Diagon Alley and something went off, but it's all alright now. It's just…I'm so glad to see you."
At her last few words he felt a sense of warmth spread through his chest, but that didn't undo the fact he was probably responsible for her having been so miserable these past couple of days. He was going to have to make it up to her somehow, but right at this instant the more pressing matter was what had caused her to arrive at the Ministry with an auror escort. "What do you mean something went off?" he asked, before looking up at the aurors she'd arrived with to try and work some of out for himself.
As he looked at the auror standing just a few feet behind her he felt a brief sense of recognition. He didn't know any of the foreign draftees, but this one looked strangely familiar. He thought the man looked unusually like the businessman who kept visiting her at Gringotts, but Barty knew they couldn't be the same person. That still didn't stop Barty taking an instinctive dislike to him. Protectively, he took a step closer to Gwen, and the auror did the same. Gwen noticed the movement, and as she glanced at each of them he noticed her expression seemed almost exasperated. He thought he should perhaps back off a little, just for her sake. "Gwen?" he prompted, gently but still with a sense of urgency.
"Well," she began, "I'd gone to an apothecary on Diagon Alley, but the usual shopkeepers weren't there. Instead there's was this crazy guy with a snake and he was about to attack me, but then Martijn showed up and, well, everything's fine."
"What?" It took him a while to process what she'd just said. He glanced up at the auror and then back at her. "A crazy guy with a snake?"
"Yeah, um, Martijn thinks he might've been possessed." She looked at the auror for confirmation, and he nodded.
"Yes, that seems the most likely explanation," he said in a moderately strong Dutch accent which confused Barty somewhat. This definitely wasn't the same guy he'd run into at Gringotts, but they were remarkably similar. Related perhaps?
"Possessed by whom?" Barty asked, but in his mind he was already beginning to piece the puzzle together. A possessed man with a snake: that was something significant; something Bellatrix and Rodolphus should know about…but he couldn't forget that it had attacked Gwen. He was torn between feeling a sense of excitement that the snake may be key to finding the Dark Lord, and also worry and anger that Gwen had been in danger. But it wasn't like it had deliberately gone after her: she'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And besides, everything had turned out fine. He'd just have to make sure nothing like this ever happened again in future, which would be easier once he and the Death Eaters had succeeded in returning the Dark Lord to power.
Even though he was trying to pretend to himself it would be that simple, he knew that it wouldn't, and so instead tried to focus on the immediate issue concerning him and waited for the auror's answer.
"We can't know for certain," the auror replied, "We'll need an investigative unit down at the shop as soon as possible." He then frowned for a moment. "Sorry, but I'm sure I recognise you. You work in the Law Enforcement Department, right?"
"Yes, that's right," Barty replied coolly. He still hadn't warmed much to the auror.
"What's your name?"
"Bartemius Crouch." He went for the formal 'Bartemius' but left off the 'Junior'. Being 'Junior' wasn't exactly something he was proud of.
The Dutchman looked confused. "I thought Crouch was the man I met last week? The head of the Department?"
Barty glared at him. This was why he hated being burdened with his father's name. "I'm his son."
"Oh," came the response. "Well, I'm Martijn Westerbeck. I was sent with the draft from the Netherlands." The man was holding out his hand to shake and Barty intended to just ignore it, but then he noticed Gwen was frowning at him slightly, and accepted the handshake silently.
"Would you be able to arrange an investigation team for us?" Martijn asked.
Barty thought he could, but didn't particularly want to; both because he'd like to irritate the Dutchman, and also because he thought the investigation should be left to the Death Eaters. But it wasn't exactly like he could refuse. "I can try to," he said.
"Thank you," the auror said in response. "Now I think we need to get our suspect to the holding cells." Martijn had turned away to try and locate the rest of his unit but then Barty asked another question.
"What happened to the snake?"
Westerbeck turned back to him. "It disappeared."
Barty felt a sinking feeling in the bit of his stomach. "What, completely?"
"As if it disapparated. I don't think much to our chances of finding it actually, but we've got to try."
Barty let the wave of disappointment wash over him. If the snake had vanished then it wasn't going to be much use to the Death Eaters, but perhaps at least now they had an idea of what it was they should be looking for.
He turned to Gwen, who looked as if she was about to say something, but then there came the sound of a voice cutting across the general noise in the foyer and the three of them turned to look in the direction of the lifts. "Martijn, do you mind keeping up? I prefer it if my operatives don't just vanish without warning."
It was Ella, who was stood holding open the door of a lift which contained only Hanson and the two Italians. There were several people standing around in front of her looking disgruntled that the auror had used her lift priority pass. It may be a safety precaution, but that didn't stop it being irritating.
"You just carry on, Ella," Martijn called back, "I'm with a member of the Department."
The pixie-like auror looked a little annoyed, but then she glanced at Gwen and then at Barty and nodded. "Alright. Meet me in the briefing room when you reach the Department," she said, before sliding the door shut so that the lift was able to retreat back into the wall.
Martijn turned back to Barty and Gwen and rolled his eyes. "Do you mind if we take the long corridor route? I can't say I'm in a particular rush to have that meeting with her."
Barty noticed Gwen grin at that. "No, that's no problem," she said.
Martijn shrugged. "Alright," he set of in the opposite direction to the lifts down a corridor, and Barty and Gwen followed behind him.
Staying close to her, Barty leaned in to whisper quietly in Gwen's ear so that Martijn wouldn't hear them. "Are you alright?"
She looked at him and gave him a small smile. "Yeah, don't worry about me. The snake didn't get chance to do anything before Martijn and the others arrived."
She'd misunderstood him. "I didn't mean about that, I just meant, well, in general. Your mother says you've been a bit down these past couple of days."
"Oh…" she seemed quite taken aback by him asking and glanced away.
"It's not to do with me, is it?"
She quickly looked back at him once he'd asked that. "No! Well, um, actually…"
He was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
"…I do suppose I need to talk to you about…stuff."
"What stuff?" It was hard not to keep the worry out of his voice. He had no idea what she meant by this. At least if she'd said, "I'm mad at you from just walking out on me like that," he'd have been able to understand it.
"Just things I think we ought to discuss."
His mind was going into overdrive. "You don't mean the break-up talk?"
Her reaction made her seem almost offended by that. "No, I do not mean the break-up talk."
He was pleased that she genuinely seemed to mean that, but it was only making him imagine even worse scenarios. Out of the blue, a thought popped into his head and he couldn't stop himself saying it. "Well…wait. You're not pregnant, are you?"
At that she actually stopped walking for a second and punched him none-too-lightly on the arm. "No!" she said rather loudly, causing Martijn to turn and look at them. He seemed both mildly puzzled and amused.
"I'm, um…I'm going the right way, yes?" he asked, pointing down the corridor.
"Yes, that's fine, just carry on in that direction," Gwen said, waving for him to continue, and then she turned back to Barty and spoke more quietly as they set off again. "No, I am not pregnant. How would I even be able to tell? It's only been...damn, I can't know for sure, can I? I bloody well hope I'm not…Oh, shit, you've worried me now."
"Sorry, sorry," he muttered to try and calm her down. He moved closer to her and put his arm round her waist, and she seemed happy to let him do so. He leant in to kiss her on the cheek and then muttered in her ear, "Don't worry about that, forget I even said anything. Obliviate the last two minutes. There, is that any better?"
He noticed she was smiling slightly. "Um, yeah, ok…" she seemed to calm down for a moment, but then flared up again. "Oh, why did you even have to say that?" she said, pulling away from him. She didn't seem angry, just rather bothered by the fact she was probably worrying herself needlessly.
"Gwen…I, uh…yeah, I wish I hadn't said it. You just got me panicking when you said we needed to talk. Please, please try not to worry about that."
She looked at him and sighed. "Well, I guess we'll see, won't we? Although if I am pregnant you are in so much trouble. Anyway…" she said, keen to change the subject, "It's nothing to do with that. It's about the, um, job you used to do."
"Oh…" he said. If she was referring to what he'd told her about the Department of Mysteries, then he was starting to think that maybe he'd have less to worry about if she were pregnant. "What about it exactly?"
"Well, um…It's kind of hard to explain right now. Are you alright to come round to mine later?"
He was relieved when she asked that. It would give him time to work out what she might ask and what he should tell her, and he also wanted to know the details of everything that had happened today. "Yes, absolutely," he replied, "I'll come round and we'll talk. And I can bring some chocolate frogs, if you like." He was hoping that if he kept her happy she'd ask less awkward questions, but he had to admit it was worth it too to just see her smile. Nobody ever seemed to smile at him except Gwen.
He was pleased when his efforts were rewarded and she gave him a grin. "Yes, that would be nice."
"Ok," he said, putting his arm round her shoulders and squeezing her briefly, "I, uh…Well, we're here now," he said as they reached one of the department corridors, "and I think the auror wants you." That last part was added rather resentfully.
"Yeah, he does," she said apologetically as she saw Martijn standing at the entrance to the briefing room, waiting for her. She turned to Barty, to give him a quick kiss goodbye. "Promise you'll come round though?"
"Yeah, I promise, as soon as I finish my shift." Which isn't exactly true, he thought. He was going to have to report back to Bellatrix and Rodolphus first, but there was no way he could tell Gwen that. Lying to her was regretful, but necessary.
"Ok, bye then," she said, giving him another quick kiss on the cheek before heading over towards Martijn, who smiled at her as he guided her into the room.
She glanced back at Barty one last time before entering and he smiled at her, but even as he watched the door close behind them he couldn't quite stop his hands balling into fists. He'd decided that he really didn't like Dutchmen.
A/N: Why is it every time I plan an event to last one chapter it always ends up being at least three? It's not necessarily a bad thing, it just means this story seems to go on for longer than I intended it to. I thought I was going to have reached this point now by the end of chapter thirteen! Oh well, I don't really mind. I love writing this, so the more of it I write the better. Hope everyone's enjoyed reading it too, and thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far.