Chapter 19: Voldemort's Servant

Buffy heard Voldemort's scream of fury as the portal, created by Dawn's use of the Key, closed behind her. She looked around and saw that she was in Dumbledore's office and that Dawn was standing in front of her smiling.

"Very good, Dawn," Dumbledore said from where he stood next to Harry.

"Albus," Buffy said. "Voldemort's back. He used my blood in his resurrection. The protection our mother left won't work anymore." Dumbledore sighed. "Also, you have a spy. Voldemort admitted he had someone on the staff who put Harry's name in the goblet. I think I know who it is too, Albus. The same person I told you my Slayer senses were tripping on months ago. Since I got away, he will…"

"Will try and get at you to finish what Voldemort was unable to," Dumbledore said. "Head to the hospital wing. Hopefully our fake Alastor Moody will see you and realize you escaped from his master and will try and finish the job. Dawn I want you to keep track of your sister."

"I've been meaning to ask," Buffy said.

"When Mr. Diggory returned and told me what you had done and that the cup was a portkey," Dumbledore admitted. "I realized what the green glow you all have said you saw around Dawn meant. Dawn had been learning to control it or at least trying to. Using a time turner, I completed the cycle as I went back to the beginning of the year and started teaching her in secret to harness it and control it. In the beginning it showed itself just as you saw when she was particularly angry. But as time came, she learned something that Harry himself learned his first year at Hogwarts."

"Love," Harry said as Dumbledore nodded.

"Yes, love," Dumbledore said. "Utilizing the love, she felt for you, Buffy, she was able to find you and open the portal to bring you back. That I now believe is the power that Voldemort knows not. Not the Key, but the love you three share because you are family. For he has never felt love."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy walked through the castle heading toward the hospital wing.

Moody came up beside Buffy. "You look terrible," he said.

"I just got away from Voldemort," Buffy admitted. "The cup was a portkey."

"You look like you are about to fall over," Moody said. "My office is closer. I will go get Madam Pomfrey once I get you there."

Buffy nodded and let Moody drag her down the corridor.

"So, what happened?"

"He explained everything to his Death Eaters," Buffy explained. "Then he wanted me to duel him."

"You dueled with the Dark Lord?"

"Got away…" Buffy said. "No idea how. The cup was gone, I sent Cedric back with it."

"In here, Buffy… in here, and sit down… You'll be all right now… drink this…"

Buffy heard a key scrape in a lock and felt a cup being pushed into her hands.

"Drink it… you'll feel better… come on, now, Buffy, I need to know exactly what happened…"

Moody was about to tip what he had given Buffy to drink down her throat when he noticed a green glow appear in his office. He raised his wand as he watched Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Dawn and Harry come out of the portal.

"Stupefy!" Buffy said while Moody's back was turned on her, she had grabbed her wand from out of her robes.

Moody was thrown backward onto the office floor.

Dumbledore placed a foot underneath Moody's unconscious body, and kicked him over onto his back, so that his face was visible. Snape followed him. McGonagall led Harry and Dawn straight to their sister.

"Come on, Buffy," McGonagall whispered. "Come along… hospital wing…"

"No," said Dumbledore sharply.

"Dumbledore, she ought to—look at her—she's been through enough tonight—"

"I have to agree," Dawn said.

"It's okay," Buffy said. "I want to hear what our imposter has to say. And I am sure Harry would like to know why his name was put in the goblet."

Dumbledore bent down over Moody's limp form and put a hand inside his robes. He pulled out Moody's hip flask and a set of keys on a ring. Then he turned to McGonagall and Snape.

"Severus, please fetch me the strongest Truth Potion you possess, and then go down to the kitchens and bring up the house-elf called Winky. Minerva, kindly go down to Hagrid's house, where you will find a large black dog sitting in the pumpkin patch. Take the dog up to my office, tell him I will be with him shortly, then come back here."

Snape or McGonagall turned at once and left the office. Dumbledore walked over to a trunk with seven locks, fitted the first key in the lock, and opened it. It contained a mass of spell-books. Dumbledore closed the trunk, placed a second key in the second lock, and opened the trunk again. The spellbooks had vanished; this time it contained an assortment of broken Sneako-scopes, some parchment and quills, and what looked like a silvery Invisibility Cloak. Dumbledore placed the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth keys in their respective locks, reopening the trunk, and each time revealing different contents. Then he placed the seventh key in the lock, threw open the lid.

Harry noticed Moody's flask on the floor and picked it up. He sniffed and realized he recognized the smell. "Polyjuice potion," he said.

Buffy looked at her brother before standing and moving over to the trunk. She looked down into the truck at the real Alastor Moody who quite clearly was nearly bald. "Harry's right, our fake Moody's been drinking Polyjuice potion."

"Yes," Dumbledore said. He then climbed into the trunk, lowered himself, and fell lightly onto the floor beside the sleeping Moody. He bent over him. "Stunned—controlled by the Imperius Curse—very weak. Of course, they would have needed to keep him alive. Throw down the imposter's cloak—he's freezing. Madam Pomfrey will need to see him, but he seems in no immediate danger."

Harry grabbed the cloak and threw it down to Dumbledore who covered Moody in the cloak, tucked it around him, and clambered out of the trunk again.

Dumbledore pulled out the chair at the desk and sat down upon it, his eyes fixed upon the unconscious Moody on the floor.

"You are thinking he forgot to drink," Harry said.

"Right," Buffy said as she realized what Harry getting at. "You told me when I mentioned it that it had to be drank every hour on the hour."

"Yes," Dumbledore said.

Minutes passed in silence…

Then, before their very eyes, the face of the man on the floor began to change. The scars were disappearing, the skin was becoming smooth; the mangled nose became whole and started to shrink. The long mane of grizzled gray hair was withdrawing into the scalp and turning the color of straw.

Suddenly, with a loud clunk, the wooden leg fell away as a normal leg regrew in its place; next moment, the magical eyeball had popped out of the man's face as a real eye replaced it; it rolled away across the floor and continued to swivel in every direction.

There were hurried footsteps outside in the corridor. Snape had returned with Winky at his heels. McGonagall was right behind them.

"Crouch!" Snape said, stopping dead in the doorway. "Barty Crouch!"

"Good heavens," said McGonagall, stopping dead and staring down at the man on the floor.

Filthy, disheveled, Winky peered around Snape's legs. Her mouth opened wide and she let out a piercing shriek. "Master Barty, Master Barty, what is you doing here?" She flung herself forward onto the young man's chest. "You is killed him! You is killed him! You is killed Master's son!"

"He is simply Stunned, Winky," said Dumbledore. "Step aside, please. Severus, you have the potion?"

Snape handed Dumbledore a small glass bottle of completely clear liquid: the Veritaserum.

Dumbledore got up, bent over the man on the floor, and pulled him into a sitting position against the wall. Winky remained on her knees, trembling, her hands over her face. Dumbledore forced the man's mouth open and poured three drops inside it. Then he pointed his wand at the man's chest and said, "Rennervate."

Crouch's son opened his eyes. His face was slack, his gaze unfocused.

Dumbledore knelt before him, so that their faces were level.

"Can you hear me?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

The man's eyelids flickered.

"Yes," he muttered.

"I would like you to tell us," said Dumbledore softly, "how you came to be here. How did you escape from Azkaban?"

Crouch took a deep, shuddering breath, then began to speak in a flat, expressionless voice. "My mother saved me. She knew she was dying. She persuaded my father to rescue me as a last favor to her. He loved her as he had never loved me. He agreed. They came to visit me. They gave me a draft of Polyjuice Potion containing one of my mother's hairs. She took a draft of Polyjuice Potion containing one of my hairs. We took on each other's appearance."

Winky was shaking her head, trembling. "Say no more, Master Barty, say no more, you is getting your father into trouble!"

But Crouch took another deep breath and continued in the same flat voice. "The dementors are blind. They sensed one healthy, one dying person entering Azkaban. They sensed one healthy, one dying person leaving it. My father smuggled me out, disguised as my mother, in case any prisoners were watching through their doors. My mother died a short while afterward in Azkaban. She was careful to drink Polyjuice Potion until the end. She was buried under my name and bearing my appearance. Everyone believed her to be me."

The man's eyelids flickered.

"And what did your father do with you, when he had got you home?" said Dumbledore quietly.

"Staged my mother's death. A quiet, private funeral. That grave is empty. The house-elf nursed me back to health. Then I had to be concealed. I had to be controlled. My father had to use a number of spells to subdue me. When I had recovered my strength, I thought only of finding my master… of returning to his service."

"How did your father subdue you?" said Dumbledore.

"The Imperius Curse," Crouch said. "I was under my father's control. I was forced to wear an Invisibility Cloak day and night. I was always with the house-elf. She was my keeper and caretaker. She pitied me. She persuaded my father to give me occasional treats. Rewards for my good behavior."

"Master Barty, Master Barty," sobbed Winky through her hands. "You isn't ought to tell them, we is getting in trouble…"

"Did anybody ever discover that you were still alive?" said Dumbledore softly. "Did anyone know except your father and the house-elf?"

"Yes," said Crouch, his eyelids flickering again. "A witch in my father's office. Bertha Jorkins. She came to the house with papers for my father's signature. He was not at home. Winky showed her inside and returned to the kitchen, to me. But Bertha Jorkins heard Winky talking to me. She came to investigate. She heard enough to guess who was hiding under the Invisibility Cloak. My father arrived home. She confronted him. He put a very powerful Memory Charm on her to make her forget what she'd found out. Too powerful. He said it damaged her memory permanently."

"Why is she coming to nose into my master's private business?" sobbed Winky. "Why isn't she leaving us be?"

"Tell me about the Quidditch World Cup," said Dumbledore.

"Winky talked my father into it," said Crouch, still in the same monotonous voice. "She spent months persuading him. I had not left the house for years. I had loved Quidditch. Let him go, she said. He will be in his Invisibility Cloak. He can watch. Let him smell fresh air for once. She said my mother would have wanted it. She told my father that my mother had died to give me freedom. She had not saved me for a life of imprisonment. He agreed in the end."

"It was carefully planned. My father led me and Winky up to the Top Box early in the day. Winky was to say that she was saving a seat for my father. I was to sit there, invisible. When everyone had left the box, we would emerge. Winky would appear to be alone. Nobody would ever know."

"But Winky didn't know that I was growing stronger. I was starting to fight my father's Imperius Curse. There were times when I was almost myself again. There were brief periods when I seemed outside his control. It happened, there, in the Top Box. It was like waking from a deep sleep. I found myself out in public, in the middle of the match, and I saw, in front of me, a wand sticking out of a girl's pocket."

"Ginny's," Dawn said as Dumbledore nodded.

"I had not been allowed a wand since before Azkaban. I stole it. Winky didn't know. Winky is frightened of heights. She had her face hidden."

"Master Barty, you bad boy!" whispered Winky, tears trickling between her fingers.

"So, you took the wand," said Dumbledore, "and what did you do with it?"

"We went back to the tent," said Crouch. "Then we heard them. We heard the Death Eaters. The ones who had never been to Azkaban. The ones who had never suffered for my master. They had turned their backs on him. They were not enslaved, as I was. They were free to seek him, but they did not. They were merely making sport of Muggles. The sound of their voices awoke me. My mind was clearer than it had been in years. I was angry. I had the wand. I wanted to attack them for their disloyalty to my master. My father had left the tent; he had gone to free the Muggles. Winky was afraid to see me so angry. She used her own brand of magic to bind me to her. She pulled me from the tent, pulled me into the forest, away from the Death Eaters. I tried to hold her back. I wanted to return to the campsite. I wanted to show those Death Eaters what loyalty to the Dark Lord meant, and to punish them for their lack of it. I used the stolen wand to cast the Dark Mark into the sky."

"He's the one I saw that night," Buffy said.

"Ministry wizards arrived. They shot Stunning Spells everywhere. One of the spells came through the trees where Winky and I stood. The bond connecting us was broken. We were both Stunned. When Winky was discovered, my father knew I must be nearby. He searched the bushes where she had been found and felt me lying there. He waited until the other Ministry members had left the forest. He put me back under the Imperius Curse and took me home. He dismissed Winky. She had failed him. She had let me acquire a wand. She had almost let me escape."

Winky let out a wail of despair.

"Now it was just Father and I, alone in the house. And then… and then…" Crouch's head rolled on his neck, and an insane grin spread across his face. "My master came for me. He arrived at our house late one night in the arms of his servant Wormtail. My master had found out that I was still alive. He had captured Bertha Jorkins in Albania. He had tortured her. She told him a great deal. She told him about the Triwizard Tournament. She told him the old Auror, Moody, was going to teach at Hogwarts. He tortured her until he broke through the Memory Charm my father had placed upon her. She told him I had escaped from Azkaban. She told him my father kept me imprisoned to prevent me from seeking my master. And so my master knew that I was still his faithful servant—perhaps the most faithful of all. My master conceived a plan, based upon the information Bertha had given him. He needed me. He arrived at our house near midnight. My father answered the door."

The smile spread wider over Crouch's face, as though recalling the sweetest memory of his life. Winky's petrified brown eyes were visible through her fingers. She seemed too appalled to speak.

"It was very quick. My father was placed under the Imperius Curse by my master. Now my father was the one imprisoned, controlled. My master forced him to go about his business as usual, to act as though nothing was wrong. And I was released. I awoke. I was myself again, alive as I hadn't been in years.

"And what did Lord Voldemort ask you to do?" said Dumbledore.

"He asked me whether I was ready to risk everything for him. I was ready. It was my dream, my greatest ambition, to serve him, to prove myself to him. He told me he needed to place a faithful servant at Hogwarts. A servant who would guide Harry Potter through the Triwizard Tournament without appearing to do so. A servant who would watch over Harry Potter. Ensure he reached the Triwizard Cup. Turn the cup into a Portkey, which would take the first person to touch it to my master."

"But Buffy almost foiled the plan," Dumbledore said.

"Nearly," Crouch said. "But my master was sure he could use her blood that it could break the enchantment that prevented him from touching Harry Potter."

"You needed Alastor Moody," said Dumbledore.

"Wormtail and I did it. We had prepared the Polyjuice Potion beforehand. We journeyed to his house. Moody put up a struggle. There was a commotion. We managed to subdue him just in time. Forced him into a compartment of his own magical trunk. Took some of his hair and added it to the potion. I drank it; I became Moody's double. I took his leg and his eye. I was ready to face Arthur Weasley when he arrived to sort out the Muggles who had heard a disturbance. I made the dustbins move around the yard. I told Arthur Weasley I had heard intruders in my yard, who had set off the dustbins. Then I packed up Moody's clothes and Dark detectors, put them in the trunk with Moody, and set off for Hogwarts. I kept him alive, under the Imperius Curse. I wanted to be able to question him. To find out about his past, learn his habits, so that I could fool even Dumbledore. I also needed his hair to make the Polyjuice Potion. The other ingredients were easy. I stole boom-slang skin from the dungeons. When the Potions master found me in his office, I said I was under orders to search it."

"And what became of Wormtail after you attacked Moody?" said Dumbledore.

"Wormtail returned to care for my master, in my father's house, and to keep watch over my father."

"But your father escaped," said Dumbledore.

"Yes. After a while he began to fight the Imperius Curse just as I had done. There were periods when he knew what was happening. My master decided it was no longer safe for my father to leave the house. He forced him to send letters to the Ministry instead. He made him write and say he was ill. But Wormtail neglected his duty. He was not watchful enough. My father escaped. My master guessed that he was heading for Hogwarts. My father was going to tell Dumbledore everything, to confess. He was going to admit that he had smuggled me from Azkaban."

"My master sent me word of my father's escape. He told me to stop him at all costs. So, I waited and watched. I saw the Durmstrang boy go for Dumbledore, heard him mention my father had been found. I hurried out and found the eldest Potter with my father. I stunned Buffy Potter. I killed my father."

"Noooo!" wailed Winky. "Master Barty, Master Barty, what is you saying?"

"You killed your father," Dumbledore said, in the same soft voice. "What did you do with the body?"

"Carried it into the forest. Covered it with the Invisibility Cloak. I walked back out of the forest, doubled around behind Krum and Dumbledore, went to meet them. I told Dumbledore Snape had told me where to come."

"Dumbledore told me to go and look for my father. I went back to my father's body. Watched. When everyone was gone, I Transfigured my father's body. He became a bone… I buried it, while wearing the Invisibility Cloak, in the freshly dug earth in front of Hagrid's cabin."

There was complete silence now, except for Winky's continued sobs.

Then Dumbledore said, "And tonight…"

"I offered to carry the Triwizard Cup into the maze before dinner," whispered Barty Crouch. "Turned it into a Portkey. My master's plan worked. He is returned to power and I will be honored by him beyond the dreams of wizards."

The insane smile lit his features once more, and his head drooped onto his shoulder as Winky wailed and sobbed at his side.