Chapter Twenty-Two: The Madness of Mr. Crouch
Bill stood at the door, he hesitated for a fraction of a second and Rodolphus Lestrange frowned. Behind him, Ron saw Crouch surrounded by the paper airplane memos the ministry used, a quick quotes quill scribbled furiously behind his head. Ron wished in that moment he knew how to use the cruciatus curse, he wanted nothing more than to make Crouch suffer. He'd been there, he'd summoned you-know-who down to the Department of Mysteries …
"Something the matter, William?" Lestrange asked. Bill blinked, regaining his composure.
"Not at all, Inquisitor. Please, come in." Bill gestured for the two men to enter. They took the seats opposite Bill's desk. Bill conjured up another chair for Ron, but he didn't take it.
"I hope you don't mind my assistant sitting in." Bill said quickly, giving Ron a nod. Ron was relieved that he didn't look like himself. "He's in training. We needed more wizard tellers, you see …"
"Fred Arthurson, how do you do?" Ron held out his hand, picking up on the cue Bill gave him. Rodolphus's eyes lingered on Ron for a moment in acknowledgement, but he did not shake his hand. Crouch ignored that he had even heard Bill speak.
"Arthurson? Don't recognize it, and I sure as hell don't deal with no stinking half-blood." Rodolphus said, Ron put his hand away. Mr. Lestrange reminded him absurdly of Percy, the way he held himself high above everyone else in the room. Ron wondered if Mr. Lestrange knew that he worked directly for a half-blood.
"What do I owe the pleasure, gentlemen?" Bill said, pouring three firewhiskeys from the cart. He offered the two men drinks, but they ignored the offer. Ron was almost certain people had tried to poison both of the Death Eaters before. He certainly would have if given the chance.
"Just following up, due process and all that." Rodolphus said thickly, he pulled out a mangled golden object from his bag and tossed it unceremoniously onto Bill's desk. "Recognize this, Weasley?"
Ron's heart leapt in his throat as he looked at the burnt horcrux on the desk. Bill looked down at the object, more excited than Ron would have hoped.
"There's a badger mark," he said, delicately touching the cup. "Surely this didn't belong to Helga Hufflepuff?"
"Good eye," Rodolphus Lestrange nodded. "It was in my vault, the Dark Lord himself gifted it to my wife. I found it in one of my colleague's offices at the ministry in this state, any guess as to how it got there?"
"I don't believe Madam Lestrange has been to the bank recently," Bill said in a matter-of-fact voice. "If that's what you're asking. Although I can't believe anyone would do this to such a valuable artifact."
"I've no idea how James Potter's brain works." Rodolphus Lestrange said gruffly, plucking the cup off Bill's desk. "Bloody idiot, if you ask me. I want you to pull every goblin working the two weeks prior for interrogation."
Bill paled at Lestrange's words; Ron expected him to fight back. But he sat blankly across from the two Death Eaters.
"I could pull the work ledgers instead; to make things easier, do you know approximately when the cup went missing or—"
"If we did, we wouldn't be here." Crouch said coldly. "Come now, Bill. You won't miss a few goblins running around." He smiled, and Ron felt blood pounding in his ears. Crouch would know where Harry was. Rodolphus turned quizzically to look at Ron, reading the anger on his face.
"Something wrong, half-blood?" He asked, and Crouch also rounded to look at Ron.
"I'll put in a request." Bill said quickly. "There's a conference room on the third floor, you can set up in there. We won't tell them ahead of time, of course." Ron hated how quickly Bill folded into their demands. Rodolphus turned his attention back to Bill.
"Much obliged," he smiled insincerely. "We also need to go down to do some banking, so probably best not to let the little buggers know what's headed their way before." Lestrange laughed harshly, Crouch pulled out two keys from his jacket pocket.
"Let's see, we'll do 531 to check if anything else was stolen from the Lestranges," Crouch ran his finger down a check list. "Then give me 653, and … oh yes! I'd almost forgotten," Crouch tossed a third key onto Bill's desk. "Give me 687 before 653, asset seizure."
Bill frowned at the three keys glittering on his desk.
"Now what?" Rodolphus said, clearly annoyed.
"I can't give you access to other people's vaults without a writ of consent or a search warrant." Bill said flatly. "It's against the bank's rules. We can freeze members of the Order of the Phoenix's access, and let you know if they try to come here, but …" Bill looked up, and Ron saw that he was nervous. "Unfortunately, I can't give you access to James Potter's vault today."
Ron felt fury burning inside him, it was so unbelievably petty … Riddle had taken James's family and peace of mind, and it still wasn't enough. He felt his hand fall unconsciously to his wand.
"You can't," Crouch repeated mockingly. "There seems to be an awful lot that you can't do today, Bill, until you've got the right motivation." He looked back over to Ron. Crouch drew his wand, pointing it at Bill's face. "I'm curious, have you heard from any of your brothers recently?"
"My brothers?" Bill asked, his mouth now very dry. "I have no idea what you mean, sir, I haven't heard from them in years." Bill tried to play innocent. "Why? Was there an update on the case?"
"Easy Bartemius, we've done this song and dance before with Weasley." Rodolphus sighed, and threw a sack of galleons onto the desk. "How's this for motivation, William? Else we might have a problem, I wonder if Greyback is willing to pay a visit to that pretty half-breed you've been seeing. Now—and I'm only going to ask this once—do we still have a problem?"
Bill went extremely pale, his eyes darting between Ron and the two Death Eaters. Ron knew he'd do anything to protect Fleur, and he didn't even sound sure that Ron was actually himself earlier. Ron's heart skipped a beat, his own brother wouldn't sell him out to the Death Eaters, would he?
"No, we don't have a problem." Bill said, diverting his eyes. He scooped up a few of the gold pieces, and placed it to the side on his desk.
"Smart lad," Rodolphus Lestrange leered at the two of them. "I still think you'd be better off in the ministry. Maybe something in your dad's old department." His smile widened. "Muggle services is much more interesting now."
"I'll consider that." Bill said quietly. Ron wanted to scream, to rip Crouch and Lestrange limb from limb. He stuffed his hands in his pockets so they wouldn't see him shaking.
"I'll go ahead and start getting set up upstairs." Rodolphus clapped his hands together. "What do you think Bartemius?"
"I'll manage," Crouch smirked. "Although I'd prefer you two show me downstairs instead, I can't stand goblins … disgusting creatures …"
"Of course, Mr. Crouch." Bill grit his teeth. "Please, follow me."
Ron numbly followed Bill and Crouch out towards the front of the bank again. He saw Andromeda still in the waiting room. Ron shook his head, almost imperceptibly, as they passed. He was thankful to be standing behind Crouch. But Crouch must've noticed Andromeda staring, he looked between the two of them. Ron was relieved to remember that they were still disguised as mother and son.
"Your mum?" Crouch asked tonelessly. "You're a little old to have her come all this way to work with you. Aren't you out of school?"
"It's my first day," Ron lied.
"How touching," Crouch said, mocking him. Ron thought sickly back to the first time they met in the Hogwarts dungeon. "We've got lots of internship opportunities in the ministry too, you know. 'Course we can never seem to fill the ones in the Department of Mysteries, recruits just seem to up and vanish."
Ron knew Crouch was probing him, he'd seen the way Ron reacted in the office. Ron wondered if he suspected his identity, or if he just though that Ron was involved in stealing the cup somehow. It must've been the latter, otherwise Ron had no idea why Crouch hadn't summoned you-know-who yet.
"What about the minister's office?" Ron asked in a dangerous low voice.
"Oh no," Crouch breathed in his ear. "That one's filled."
Ron got into the cart beside Bill, he mentally cursed himself for bringing the diadem to the bank. But Crouch had no way of knowing that it was close. Ron's heart pounded rapidly in his chest as Crouch climbed into the cart behind them. Bill adjusted the brakes on both carts, sending the three hurdling down into the darkness of Gringotts vaults. Ron's stomach did a somersault that had nothing to do with motion-sickness. Bill diverted the cart from a small stream of water falling over the tracks. Ron turned around and saw Crouch give Bill a curious look.
"New policy," Bill shouted over the roar of the carts. "The thief's downfall isn't necessary for our higher up clients."
"No wonder they robbed you," Ron heard Crouch yell back.
Ron felt a sense of relief, Bill wasn't going to sell him out. He'd completely forgotten about the enchantment on the carts, if he'd gone through the waterfall, the charm on his amulet would have been removed. Bill brought the cart to a halt in front of vault 531.
"Vault 531, Lestrange family," Bill said in a monotone voice. Crouch tossed Bill the key to the vault, and both men stepped out of the cart. Ron hesitated for a second, before deciding to follow them. He didn't want to leave his brother alone with Crouch.
For a moment, Ron thought the door opened back up to the sunny street miles above their heads. But he realized that was impossible. Instead, the glittering light came from mountainous piles of treasure, hoarded by Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. Crouch apparently had a check-list, and quickly took notes of some of the larger items in the vault. Ron could hear him muttering to himself and his quill. Ron opened his mouth to speak to Bill, but a nudge from his brother told him not to. Bill placed a hand on Ron's shoulder, squeezing tightly as they watched Crouch inspect the treasure.
"This must be a special treat for you, Bill." Crouch said, counting the strands on a pearl necklace. "Didn't your family house only have one bedroom?" Bill didn't take the bait, forcing himself to maintain the same fake smile he used earlier when Andromeda pretended to yell at the teller.
"Your mum's brothers caused the Dark Lord quite a bit of a headache back in the day." Crouch continued, now near a pile of silver plates that hadn't been used in well over two hundred years. "Took us ages to round 'em up, but I think everyone got the message in the end." Crouch laughed softly, and Ron saw the color drain from Bill's face.
"How many years have you been Dolph's favorite inside man, and he never told you what his wife did to your family?" Crouch wondered out loud, he snapped his fingers, the parchment paper with his notes and his quill rolled back up in his hand. "We're all set here, they just took the cup."
Crouch gestured for Bill and Ron to go back out to the carts. Ron barely even noticed the sharp turns now; his knuckles were white from the tight grip he had on the barrier in front of him.
"Vault 687, James Potter," Bill said dully.
Crouch hopped out of the cart, apparently undisturbed by their descent into the bank. He hummed, placing the vault key in its lock. Ron heard the gears in the door whir, before opening to the small fortune inside the vault. Crouch let out his breath in a low whistle.
"Very nice," he said, taking out a coin purse. Crouch greedily shoved fistfuls of galleons into it. "Hate to admit it, but can you call down a few of your filthy little friends Bill? The rest of its going into the Riddle account."
Bill shut his eyes and nodded. He walked back out to the cart, leaving Ron alone with Crouch.
"If you ask me, I think we should just wipe out all blood traitors." Crouch said calmly, as if they were discussing the matter over drinks. "I reckon we got it right with the rest of Weasley's family." Ron was clenching his fist so tightly that his nails were drawing blood. Bill returned, still looking pale.
"They're on their way." Bill said, looking at Crouch was a deep animosity.
"Excellent," Crouch pocketed one of the coin purses, grinning wildly. "My fee," he said, and tossed Bill a significantly smaller coin purse. "And yours, buy a pretty ring for your pet veela."
"You disgust me." Bill said quietly, letting the bag drop to the vault floor. The smile on Crouch's face twitched.
"Do you have any idea who I am?" Crouch growled. "I could have the record of your birth erased like that." Crouch snapped his fingers, he'd taken out his wand. "You'd best remember your place here Weasley. You're lucky they let you breathe, let alone use a wand." Crouch spit on Bill's jacket.
Ron felt the rage that'd been bubbling inside of him for the past thirty minutes reach a boiling point. He pointed his own wand at Crouch's face, twisting the amulet around his neck to drop the charm. The Death Eater whipped around to face Ron, but for once, Crouch was too late.
"You shouldn't have done that." Ron said quietly. "Crucio!"
The force of the spell knocked Crouch flat off his feet, and into the pile of gold. But he wasn't writhing and shrieking in pain like Ron wanted, instead a look of primal fury was etched into every part of Crouch's face.
"You've got to mean it, pathetic boy!" Crouch screamed. He raised his left arm to press the dark mark—Bill shot a volley of electric blue spells at Crouch. Bill grabbed Ron's arm and raced for the vault door. Ron heard a muffled shout from the other side as the gears locked back down.
"He'll kill us." Ron's voice shook, looking up to his older brother. He knew the vault wouldn't keep Crouch occupied long. And he didn't think he'd ever forget the look of satisfaction on Crouch's face when he killed Neville. Ron could hear spells hitting the door to the vault. The metal door hissed, burning a bright orange.
"We need him alive," Bill panted, shoving Ron back towards the carts. "I've let Griphook know to evacuate all the tellers. Now they'll think I helped the Order get in, not the goblins."
Ron felt a rush of pride for his brother. Bill twisted a lever on the cart, shooting them back up into the darkness of the vaults, Ron could have sworn he saw fire shoot out from an alcove, but he was sure he was just imagining it. His hands were still shaking from nerves.
"HOLD ON," Bill yelled. Ron noticed several other carts in front of them, they were back at the bank entrance. Bill grabbed Ron by the collar of his shirt, leaping out of the cart before it came to a halt.
Two goblins were waiting at the top of the tracks. The closest one gave Bill a curt nod.
"The aurors are responding to a fire on the second floor." The goblin smiled knowingly. "But we cannot distract them long, go."
Bill seized Ron's arm, running up the steps to the lobby. Andromeda was waiting for them at the top of the stairs. She grabbed a hold of the Weasley brothers before disappearing with a faint pop as the windows to the bank broke on all sides. Three Death Eaters appeared in the middle of the hall, ignorant to the screams of other bank-goers at the brief appearance of several members of the Order of the Phoenix. Rodolphus Lestrange raced down the stairs to meet them, just as Crouch staggered back up from the vaults.
"Bella, I felt the mark. Why're you—" Rodolphus looked between his wife and Crouch. "What the hell happened to you, Bartemius?" Crouch ignored the man, instead rounding his attention to the Death Eater standing in the middle.
"Took you long enough." Crouch coughed, glaring at Harry. "They're back."