Chapter Fifty Two
Harry looked round to the door and breathed a sigh of relief as his mother threw her arms around him.
"Oh my gods Harry." she sobbed into his hair, "I tried to get to you, I couldn't get through but I tried I-"
"I know Mum." Harry said, "I know, I'm OK." it was a lie, he was still very far from OK but he was a lot better now.
Severus and Lucius heaved the unconscious Moody up into his chair and bound him there with strong magical chains.
Dumbledore was still standing in the doorway. Harry understood, seeing him there, why people said he was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared. He looked very powerful, silhouetted against the light.
The office seemed very crowed, as Narcissa, Nikka and Sirius also managed to push passed Dumbledore and crowed around Harry.
"We need to get him to the hospital wing." Nikka said.
Lily nodded and went to pull Harry up to his feet, "Can you walk?"
Harry nodded, "I can try."
"No." Dumbledore said, "He stays here."
Sirius looked at him, "Dumbledore, you can't be serious? He's still bleeding!"
Dumbledore shook his head, "Harry will stay here."
Lily's eyes flamed angrily, "Harry will go to the hospital wing if that is what I want."
Dumbledore looked at her for a moment, before softening his gaze, "Forgive me Lily, I wasn't meaning for it to seem like I was taking control of Harry. I just feel it would be better for Harry to understand why everything has happened to him tonight."
Lily had a tight grip on Harry's shoulders, it was almost painful but Harry really didn't want her to let go.
"Harry?" she asked, softly.
Harry wasn't sure, he didn't want to have to be the grown up, but he did want to know the truth, "I… I want to stay."
Lily took a deep breath and nodded, "If you're sure."
"Maybe some of you should go and wait in my office?" Dumbledore suggested, "It is a little tight in here."
"We're staying." Nikka said, taking Sirius's hand.
"We're all staying." Severus said, "Harry needs his family here."
Dumbledore gave them a polite smile, "Of course." he flicked his wand and the room grew by several feet, meaning they all had a little more room, "Severus, I am going to need you to fetch your strongest truth potion."
Severus nodded and opened the door to the room. Draco was standing outside, his ear pressed to the door. Along the corridor, Daphne, Pansy, Neville and Hermione were all listening at doors.
"They're here." Draco called, "Is Harry all right? Can we see him?" Draco tried to move passed Severus but he blocked the way, they didn't need to see Harry like this.
"Harry will be fine." Severus said, "Wait for him in the Slytherin dorm, you have my permission to take Miss Granger and Mr Longbottom with you. I will send for you once he is ready for visitors."
Draco nodded, "You promise he's OK?"
Severus nodded, "Could you do something for me first? Run down to the potions lab, in my private store room, bring me a bottle labelled Veritaserum. It's small and green."
Draco nodded again, "Yes sir."
Severus reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a small vial. He pushed the tip of his wand into his finger and placed a few drops of blood into the vial, "You'll need this to get in."
Draco took the blood and went, with the other children, to get the potion. Severus turned and walked back into the room, next to Harry. Dumbledore was looking over an old chest with seven different locks.
Dumbledore took a set of keys off of Moody's desk and fitted one into the first lock. It clicked slightly and Dumbledore lifted the lid. It was filled with piles of spell books.
"That's not Moody." Harry said, "I don't know who it is but it's not Moody."
"I know Harry." Dumbledore said, closing the trunk, "The real Alastor Moody would never have removed you from my sight after this evening's events."
He took the second key and opened the second lock, this time when the chest swung open it was filled with broken Sneakoscopes along with a handful of quills and parchment.
Harry watched in confusion as Dumbledore moved onto the third lock.
"It's a charm," Lily whispered to him, "Heavily controlled but makes it easier to transport things. You father has one, much smaller, he uses it for potions ingredients."
Harry continued to look as Dumbledore moved though the locks until he reached the last one. Lily gasped and moved between Harry and the chest.
Harry peered round his mother and looked at the chest. It was a deep pit, an entrance to an underground room. Lying on the dirty, stone floor was the real Alastor Moody. He was thin and weak with large clumps of hair missing.
His wooden leg was missing and although he was asleep Harry could tell there was no eye under the lid. It was a sorry sight.
Dumbledore lowered himself down into the trunk and landed lightly on the floor.
"He's stunned, and controlled by the Imperious curse." Dumbledore mused, "He's very weak, they would have needed to keep him alive of course. Harry, throw down the imposter's cloak, Alastor is freezing."
Sirius moved over before Harry could drag himself up and handed Dumbledore the cloak. Dumbledore tucked the cloak around the sleeping Moody and climbed back out the trunk.
Severus was holding the fake Moody's hip flask, "Polyjuice potion." he said, dripping a small bit of the thick liquid onto the floor.
"As we suspected." Dumbledore said, "It's brilliant, brilliant for it's simplicity. For Moody never does drink except from his hip flask, he's well known for it. The impostor needed, of course, to keep the real Moody close by, so that he could continue making the potion. I do believe though, that in the… excitement, of tonight the imposter may have forgotten to take his dose, every hour as he was meant to."
"That must have been a lot." Harry mumbled, "A lot of potion, I mean. It takes like a month to make after all, not a quick five minutes."
"I expect we'll find a large set of potion equipment in his private quarters." Severus said. He couldn't help but smile at Harry's knowledge of potions.
Dumbledore pulled up a chair and sat, watching the clock tick by. Minute after minute passed in silence.
Then, before Harry's eyes, the imposter began to change. The long white hair moved back into his skull and was replaced with shorter, sandy coloured hair. The scars were disappearing and there was a loud clunk as his wooden leg fell away. The magical eye fell from his eye socket and rolled across the floor, spinning wildly as his real eye grew back.
The man that was left much younger than Professor Moody. He was about the same age as Harry's mother, with sandy hair, pale skin and a smattering of freckles.
"Is that…?" Lily asked, leaning forward.
"Barty Crouch?" Severus said, "He's meant to be dead."
There was a knock on the door, Nikka walked over and opened it.
"I have the Veritaserum that Professor Snape requested." Draco said, "I also ran into Winky, she said that she was looking for Professor Dumbledore, she was asking about Mr Crouch. Turns out one of the house elves let slip to her that he was missing."
"Thank you Draco." Nikka smiled, taking the vial, "I think we'll get Harry to the hospital wing soon, I hope so anyway."
"Thank you Nikka." Draco said.
"Did I hear that Winky was there?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes." Nikka said.
"She can come in." Dumbledore said.
Nikka moved back and let Winky in before shutting the door, shooting Draco an apologetic smile. Winky looked even worse than when Harry had last seen her. Her blue skirt and top were ripped and filthy, she clearly hadn't washed at all in a long time.
She flung herself at the man's feet, hugging onto one of his legs, "You is killed him! You is killed him! You is killed master's son!"
"He's only stunned Winky." Dumbledore said, "Please take a seat. Nikka do you have the potion there?"
Winky moved out the way slightly, allowing Nikka to hand Dumbledore the potion. He tipped back the man's head and poured three drops down his throat.
"Rennervate." Dumbledore said clearly, pointing his wand at the man's chest.
The man opened his eye, looking around the room rather unfocused before straining at his chains.
"Can you hear me?" Dumbledore asked, sitting opposite him.
The man's eyelids flickered, "Yes..."
"You are Barty Crouch Junior?" Dumbledore asked.
He nodded, "Yes."
"Good." Dumbledore said, "Now, can you tell me what happened after the fall of Voldemort in the last war? You were announced to be dead, I went you your funeral."
"My father." He spat.
"No nos master! You is getting your father ins to trouble!" Winky sobbed.
Crouch ignored her, "My father was humiliated when our plot came to light, to find out from the Longbottoms what happened to the Dark Lord. He would come home and yell to my mother about how everyone was looking at him strangely in work, he didn't even bother to talk to me."
"And?" Dumbledore pressed.
"When it was decided that the case wouldn't be pushing through the courts, my father blamed me for everything." Crouch said, "He knew it was the truth, that the stupid 'rules' had let us terrible people go. He was fuming about the Lestrange woman going free, he always said he knew she was a bad one. He was so angry that I'd gotten caught up in such things. Mum loved me, my father not so much but Mum begged him not to just kick me out the house, even after she found a plan in my room to go after the Longbottoms myself. The next morning I woke up, and I couldn't move. Winky looked after me, for two weeks she looked after me. While I was trapped on the bed. Then my father came in, he said I was dead, that he's announced my death, from dragon pox, to the world and I was never going to leave his house again, I would be punished whether or not the Ministry saw fit to do anything. I was moved to the newly emptied wine cellar that evening and placed under the Imperious curse as the potion he had slipped me wore off."
Dumbledore nodded.
"You were all alone? For all those years?" Harry asked.
Crouch glared at Harry, "No. My mother kept me company until she died, but she treated me as though I was a child, reading me children's books and tucking me in at night, she thought she was helping, I never told her that I hated her for it after all and my father used to pretend he was letting me answer for myself."
Winky was sobbing and begging him not to say anything more, Dumbledore ignored her.
"Did anyone ever find out about you still being alive?" Dumbledore asked.
Crouch nodded, "Once. Bertha Jorkins came to the house; I'm not sure why, to pick something up or drop it off, I don't know. She saw Winky talking to me, tucked under an invisibility cloak and worked it out. She pulled the cloak off me and started yelling at my father that he would go to prison for keeping me trapped there and faking my death. He stunned her, it was one of the few moments I could really relate to him, he didn't even blink; just attacked her to save himself." he smiled.
"What happened then?" Dumbledore asked.
"I thought I was finally going to be free, he couldn't keep us both locked away surely? But my father had other plans for her. He used a complicated memory charm on her, but it was too strong. She was never the same again, her memory was permanently damaged from his actions." Crouch told them, he strained against the chains but they didn't loosen.
"Tell us about the night at the Quidditch World Cup." Harry said, "You told me you did magic there, is that when you got free?"
"Yes." Crouch grinned, "Free at last."
"How?" Demanded Severus.
"Ever since Bertha came round I'd been fighting to get free. That glimpse of freedom had given me a new drive. Prolonged use of the Imperious Curse doesn't stay all happy and dreamy. After a few months it turns, slowly, into despair. Sapping all your motivation to do anything or fight, after years I begged for death just to get rid of the never ending darkness in my soul." Crouch spat, "But Bertha and a chance at escape gave my new life. I started to fight back against the curse that held me. Pushing it off for longer and longer, till I could push it off for the full hours between my father re-cursing me."
"But how did you end up at the game?" Dumbledore pressed.
"Winky, she'd taken over my care after mother died and she persuaded my father to let me go to the game." Crouch said, "She told him how much I used to love Quidditch and how much it would mean to me to be able to go. My father agreed, he told Winky not to leave my side, to take me from the tent, where I was trapped, to the game and then back to the tent where she wasn't allowed to leave. I was still under the Imperious Curse but I could fight through it, looking for my chance to escape, when who should sit in front of me but the famous Harry Potter, the boy who took down my Master. You had your wand tucked into you back pocket and I took it. Winky is terrified of heights so she wasn't looking and you were too distracted by the game. Still I waited, and I waited until the game was finished and we were back in the tent I heard people screaming and knew it was time. I broke free of the curse holding me and used Potter's wand to break down the wards around the tent. I saw the Death Eaters causing havoc and ran for the forest, so I could apparate back to my master, but first I let the world know that he would be back."
"Please master, please stop talkings!" Winky begged.
"What happened then?" Dumbledore asked.
"Ministry arrived and shot stunning spells into the forest. One of them hit us and broke the connection between us, both Winky and I were stunned but I was free, for the first time since the Dark Lord had fallen, I was free." Crouch told them, "Winky was found and my father knew I would be nearby but I was under the cloak and hidden from view. He made sure that I wasn't visible, that I wouldn't be seen by anyone else and ruin his good name, thinking he could come back, find me later. But I recovered before he could return and escaped."
"Voldemort told you to come here? To come to Hogwarts?" Dumbledore said.
Again Crouch nodded, "Yes. I managed to find him, well he sent someone to get me. Bertha Jorkins had her mind addled by my father but the Dark Lord was able to break through the memory charms, she told him all about me, that I hadn't gone back to my normal life the way everyone else had, that I was still loyal and he was waiting for my return. He told me that he needed me to come and send Harry to him, and told me how to manipulate the Triwizard Tournament so that Potter would win."
"You? You put Harry's name in the Cup?" Lily hissed, "You made him go through all of this?!"
Crouch looked at her with disgust, "Yes. And I would again, in a second! It was worth everything for the Dark Lords return."
Harry reached up and held his Mum's arm, he was afraid she would attack Crouch she was so angry; Harry hadn't seen her like this in a long time.
"Mr Crouch? Your father?" Dumbledore said, looking thoughtful.
"He's dead." Crouch said, a wide smile stretching across his face.
"I assumed that." Dumbledore said, a harsh note in his voice now, "But even before then, he must have know you were gone."
Crouch nodded, "Oh yes. My master's servant had helped me escape the night of the game but I knew that my father would be looking for me. I went to his house, with the servant and they attacked him, put him under the Imperious curse, like he had done to me, and forced him to go about his daily life."
"Why did you end up killing him?" Dumbledore asked.
"He started to fight the curse, like I had; only he was much stronger, so it seems, and fought through quicker. Soon it wasn't safe to let him leave the house, so he sent in instructions for work but soon he fought through even that and escaped. I don't know how he made it so far, all the way to Hogwarts but he did. He found Harry and Krum and knew he needed to talk to Dumbledore, to come clean about what he had done. I saw him on the map though and was already out there under the invisibility cloak. I waited until Potter left, stunned Krum and killed my father." Crouch's eyes shone with happiness at recalling the memory, "I covered him with the invisibility cloak and went to bury him later. Those forests are so dense I doubt I could even tell you where now."
"I want my map back." Harry hissed, "Where is it?"
"Third draw in the desk, key is hanging on the wall." Crouch told him.
Harry forced himself to his feet and moved over to the desk.
"Harry…" Severus said,
But Harry didn't listen. He opened the desk and pushed aside the rubbish until he found the map and took it back, it seemed silly but it was something he had to do.
"It wasn't Mr Crouch who was snooping around Dad's office was it?" Harry asked, "It was you, stealing ingredients for making more Polyjuice potion."
"Yes." Crouch said, "The one good thing about sharing my stupid father's name was that when you saw it, you assumed it was him and not me."
"How did you get to Alastor Moody?" Lucius asked, "He's well known to be rather… cautious."
"We attacked him, my master's servant and I." Crouch said, "He did get several spells off but he wasn't expecting us and we managed to force him into the chest. We already had a batch of Polyjuice potion made up. I set his dustbins off and the ministry officials that arrived saw me as Moody and assumed that it was him just being crazy again and left us alone."
"Who is this servant?" Dumbledore asked, he was still very calm, calmer than anyone else was feeling by a long way.
"It's Bellatrix." Harry said, "It's Bellatrix Lestrange, isn't it?"
Crouch simply nodded and glared down at the floor, "Yes."
Harry wasn't sure how to tell Narcissa that her sister was no longer pregnant; it could wait for later. He was so tired now.
Dumbledore stood up and turned to everyone in the room, "Could I ask one of you to stay here, to guard Crouch until I can speak to Cornelius?"
"I'll send for Professor McGonagall." Lily said, flicking her wand and sending the small kitten hurrying through the closed door, "I think I can speak for everyone here when I say we're staying with Harry."
Harry smiled, he didn't want to be alone. It wasn't long before there was a sharp knock on the door and Professor McGonagall walked in.
"You said you needed me?" She said, "My god is that…?"
"Yes." Dumbledore said, "Would you mind watching Barty Crouch Junior here for us?"
McGonagall nodded and drew out her wand, her hand perfectly steady and pointed at Crouch's chest.