Author's Note: This is pretty much just me figuring out Barty's plan, in the moment, in-character (minus the inevitable complications that will come from actually implementing it, of course). I wrote it down like this to help myself put everything together while making sure it made sense from Barty's point of view, and thus you all get to see it now!

"My Lord," Barty bowed deeply to the baby-homunculus his Lord still inhabited, which currently sat upon a chair with enough cushions to raise it slightly taller than Barty himself. Barty was Polyjuiced as Percy Weasley, having come straight from a long day planning with the Minister. Anyone wandering Lucius's manor might have found the scene comical, were they to look in, but they would be fools for thinking so – and for breaking into an old Pureblood manor just to walk about, but that–

"Bartemius," his Lord said. "Your cover remains?"

"Yes," Barty replied, shaking off his lingering tiredness as he straightened up. "And I have finally devised a solution to the task you have set for me."

"Good, good." Barty smiled as his Lord praised him. "But you do not think I would let you put such an important plan into practice without you explaining it, first?" the homunculus glared at him, failing to fully convey his Lord's dissatisfaction. Barty's own memories of said dissatisfaction being expressed in the past filled in the gaps, but he once again understood exactly why his task was so important. Such a body could not hold his master for long, and could not do so well.

"Yes, of course." He waved his wand, conjuring a very basic wooden table at eye height for his Lord. Then, he conjured an elongated wedge and a flat rectangle of wood, along with a dozen simple cylinders, placing them on the table and coloring them with the appropriate charms.

"These are witches and wizards," he said, coloring the little cylinders purple. "Some Pureblood, some lesser, a few Muggleborn filth." He did not demarcate the different castes, because in the field, as it were, it wouldn't matter. Even the Pureblooded among the crowd could not be relied upon to help him, and there would be relatively little in the way of collateral damage, all of it impossible to aim at specific witches or wizards.

He had more important aims in this mission. If a few Purebloods died too… Acceptable casualties for a brighter future.

"This," he continued, "is the main section of the stands." The triangular wedge went to one edge of the table, and he placed four of his cylinders on top of it, in various positions. One, he colored red. "The Potter brat will be here, with the other students. There are two other stands, but those are for visitors." He quickly conjured two more triangular wedges and eight more cylinders, hoping his Lord wouldn't notice that he had forgotten those until that moment, and placed them to either side of the important stand. "All face the hedge maze of the Third Task." The flat wooden rectangle he charmed green, and put out in front of the stands.

"As you have known for months," his master remarked.

"Yes," Barty conceded. His position as Percy Weasley meant he was privy to these designs from their very inception. "The positions and designation of one as the student stands were only finalized today, though, my lord. Fudge or Dumbledore might have changed the layout before, but neither can now."

"Good…" his Lord waved a stubby arm for him to continue.

"We need either Potter or Dumbledore, and either their blood or them as captives," Barty summarized. "Potter will be in the stands, distracted, and Dumbledore will be with the judges and Fudge, here." He colored another cylinder red, and placed it with a few others off to the side, between the leftmost stand and the maze. "We do not need both Potter and Dumbledore, and holding Dumbledore captive is unlikely to be possible without more of your servants to assist me."

His lord allowed him that acknowledgement of weakness without comment. They both knew it to be true.

"I intend to try for all three of the remaining goals," Barty explained. "Starting with the most unlikely to succeed, and using its potential failure as a further distraction for my subsequent attempts. I will arrive with Fudge in the guise of Percival Weasley, moments before the task begins." He conjured a final cylinder and colored it green, placing it by Dumbledore and the judges. While he was at it, he conjured three squat cubes, and three small brown cylinders…

And that was it for conjuring, which was good, because he was already tired and making so many small, simple objects was still a strain. Good for clarity – misunderstandings between himself and his lord might get him killed, or tortured for his incompetence – but bad for his stamina.

"As Weasley, nobody will care if I go sit in the student stands to watch the task," he explained, palming the last half-dozen objects. "If anything goes wrong with the task that might threaten the audience, a ward will come up around the stands, so I have to be inside when they do, to get to Potter."

"And Dumbledore?" his master asked.

"First prong of the assault," Barty replied, setting one each of his green and brown markers by the judges, Minister, and Dumbledore. "Get Dumbledore's blood. A Malfoy house elf will bring in a nest of mundane vampire bats under Lucius' Imperius curse, and release them behind the judges."

"Dumbledore will spell them all out of the sky," his lord hissed.

"Yes, possibly," Barty agreed. "I wouldn't be surprised if none manage a single bite. If they do, they've been Imperiused to flee the grounds and await pickup. Blood of the enemy, Dumbledore. But it won't happen that way, and he will be on guard."

He placed the second green token, representing another of Malfoy's elves, and the second brown token, within the maze. "At the same time, another elf will deliver a defoliation potion to the inside edge of the maze, and apply it to the hedges. This is the same potion the organizers intend to use to dispel the charmed foliage after the event, and will set off the very chain reaction they set up for that, destroying a large portion of the maze. The creatures inside will be able to get at the stands…"

"Which is when Dumbledore will raise the wards around the spectators," his lord hissed. "Locking you, Barty, in with Potter."

"Percival Weasley will seek out his terrified little sister, Potter's friend." Barty grinned. "I'll have a portkey on me, which I will activate once I get close enough to grab him. Portkeys shouldn't work on Hogwarts grounds, but I convinced the rest of the planning committee to carve out an exception in the wards for the safety of the contestants, and for the trophy." A sop to Fudge, since the trophy portkeying the champion back would be dramatic and look good for the press, and to the other organizers, who were worried about security after Barty's own sabotage of the second task. It was easy to suggest, and even easier to get everyone to agree to.

"And if this doesn't work?" his lord asked. "You'll be incapacitated, possibly revealed, or otherwise blocked from Potter."

"If we cannot have Potter's body, we will have his blood," Barty promised, moving the third elf token into the student stands. For a moment, brief and fleeting, he missed Winky. Her, he could have convinced to pop in, knife Potter, and pop back out. But Lucius' elves were much more timid and couldn't be trusted with even that much responsibility. "Mangled and broken, and there will be collateral damage, possibly even among the children of your supporters," he cautioned.

"Explain," his master said shortly. "Potter is to be mine to kill, but if both of the better plans have already failed…"

"Erumpent Horn," Barty elaborated, pushing the final elf token further up the stands. "Lucius' last elf will deliver an entire cauldron of agitated Erumpent Horn extract as close to Potter as he can get before it explodes. In the Malfoy library there is a spell to separate out mixed blood from many individuals. Either myself, Draco, or Lucius will perform the spell in the aftermath, and acquire Potter's blood."

"Explosions do not leave much blood," his lord objected, little fists tightening in displeasure.

"The cauldron will not be warded, but it will be sealed," Barty clarified. "The explosion will shatter it. Flying metal shrapnel cuts and punctures, and the magical backlash of the explosion itself will break any minor shields students could put up, letting the metal through."

"Potter may not be hit."

"Yes, my lord, that is possible," Barty admitted. "But by this point, if I am blocked and the bats did not work… Even if we do not hit Potter, surely we can sort through those we do hit and find a suitably odious Muggleborn or Blood Traitor to qualify as your enemy?" Left unsaid was that, if they reached this point in the plan without any better options, they would be forced to settle for anything, or to start over on embodying his lord.

"I am not in the habit of planning around the failures of my servants," his lord warned.

Barty bowed his head and waited for his well-deserved punishment… But none came. Instead, his lord growled, a feral little sound from the slowly rotting body before him. "Your plan relies upon elves and portkeys. What if Dumbledore restores the wards as soon as the bats arrive?"

"I will only use one Portkey, though I am of course bringing a backup," Barty reminded his lord. "Dumbledore will not block the safety measures for the Champions without seeing that he has to, and by then I will either have succeeded, or already tried the approach that requires a portkey."

"And the elves?"

"Hogwarts has always allowed elves in and out." It was just how things were done. The subservient, mostly nonviolent nature of Wizard-kind's slaves made warding them out nearly pointless. "I do not believe Dumbledore could put up an anti-elf ward in the very short time all of this will happen, not while fighting the maze's monsters. The elves shouldn't even be seen until the final elf with the explosive cauldron." That elf would die a horrible death, because it would have to set off the explosion and wouldn't be able to pop away in time, but Lucius was willing to sacrifice for the cause. There wouldn't be anything left to identify it, after.

"What of myself?" his lord asked. "If you are incapacitated…"

"If it is Dumbledore's blood, I will arrive by portkey with the bat and all will be well, or Lucius will pick it up later and come back to perform the ritual in my stead," Barty answered. "If it is Potter's blood, one of us will arrive with it in the aftermath of the third task, and again, the ritual will be performed. If it is Potter himself, I will be with him."

"Lucius has not fully regained my confidence."

"No, my lord, and he does not deserve it," Barty agreed. "But if he comes with the blood… I do not know if we will have a choice. He is better than any of the other traitors free to assist us, and he knows what is at stake if you are not resurrected appropriately."

"It will not come to that." Barty looked down at the floor as his lord glared at him. "Your plan is… Adequate. What monsters will be in the maze, to keep Dumbledore distracted?"

"Half-breed abominations bred by the half-giant, a murderous Sphinx, a small pack of Dire Wolves, two dozen Acromantula, at least one Boggart, and several gaseous potion byproducts that will spread once the containing enchantments on the hedge are broken by the hedge withering." Enough to keep Dumbledore occupied for at least a few moments, and that would be all Barty needed, if the bats didn't catch the doddering old man unaware.

"Good." his lord looked down at him from on high. "They suspect nothing?"

"Those were all suggestions that came from them, not Percy Weasley," he answered. "I put the idea in Fudge's head to inspect all of the security measures, which is how I know about the stand wards and the hedge potion, but I did that in the Ministry, so everyone else thinks it was his idea." Percival Weasley would disappear immediately after the third task, no matter what happened; that identity would be too risky. Barty was looking forward to being shut of Fudge and his rampant stupidity, to say nothing of the other people he was forced to socialize with at the Ministry. A purge would be in order, once his master took over. Even the more incompetent Purebloods would have to go.

Soon. So soon. "Do you have any other improvements to make to the plan, my lord?" Barty asked.

"No… See to it that you do not fail me."