Shopping and Surprises
It had been an accident, truly.
Remus, Arthur, and John had entered Diagon Alley under various disguises. Remus had taken one of his dwindling vials of Polyjuice that had been left in his flat to imitate a muggle from the streets. Arthur had a few charms applied to change his appearance only enough that he couldn’t be identified later in case of trouble. John was under a heavy notice-me-not charm and kept his head down for the most part.
It was hardly the first time that Remus brought the Shelby family into Diagon Alley, Remus only didn’t flaunt it when there were more important matters at hand.
The first matter of importance had been visiting the apothecary and haggling for enough Wolfsbane to get Remus through January and possibly February. Severus certainly wouldn’t still supply Remus with the potion and Albus would sooner poison him once he realized Remus had no intent on returning himself or Harry to Hogwarts.
Wolfsbane was expensive, but it would keep Remus from having to travel during the full moon. Charlie took himself far away when he transformed and Remus didn’t like the idea of being away just yet. Even the few hours he had been gone so far were causing him discomfort. If Remus didn’t know that Harry was with Tommy he wouldn’t have been able to stand it.
Tommy, for his many flaws, was obstinate to a near fault. Even if Tommy didn’t yet consider Harry family, he would protect him to the death merely because someone else might wish to take him or hurt him.
The Shelby men were all like that… loyal blue-eyed magpies they were.
It meant that Remus should have had the day to pick up the necessities, track down Petunia Evans and her husband, then find a wizard to assist in the warding of Small Heath.
Except Remus was wholly distracted the instant he stepped foot in the apothecary.
There was a man at the counter, familiar though it took Remus a moment to place his name. Tall, thin, a pencil-mustache, Ministry robes… the man glanced toward Remus and his eyes placed the name.
Bartemius Crouch, he had been the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement during the war. Remus was unsure what his current job was, he did know that he was quietly moved out of the spotlight after his son had been sent to Azkaban.
Remus only raised an eyebrow at him and lingered at the displays near the door while Arthur and John began a ruse of browsing. Remus could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck prickling and he sifted through a bowl of cat hearts while he tried to place what was off.
The shopkeeper was the same unpleasant witch who had ran the store since Remus was a boy. Crouch was the only other customer in the shop…
So why was Remus so certain that he could hear soft footsteps that didn’t belong to Arthur or John?
Crouch turned to leave and Remus adopted a friendly smile as he moved to hold the door open for him.
“Terribly cold out,” Remus said cheerfully.
Crouch fastened his cloak more securely around his neck and nodded at Remus.
“It is January,” he said with a bite to his tone. “Good day.”
Remus kept up his bland smile and, on a whim, stuck his foot out after Crouch stepped out of the door.
And something solid stumbled over it.
Crouch whipped his head around to glare at Remus, but Remus already made himself seem nonchalant, as if he didn’t notice the invisible human who he tripped. After a second, Crouch began striding away quickly, the invisible human following him.
It was a man, of that Remus was certain.
What Remus was unsure of was who it was… though he had a decent guess.
Bartemius Crouch had been the one to sentence Sirius to Azkaban without a trial. If Sirius were being petty, he very well might decide to mark Crouch off whatever list he worked through. For all Remus knew, Sirius might even be targeting the man on behalf of Crouch’s son.
Barty had been a year behind Remus and Sirius, the same year as Sirius’s brother Regulus. Barty and Regulus had been friends, Remus had spent much of his fifth year and half of his sixth year hanging around their group.
It had started as punishment to Sirius, retaliation for his prank against Severus. Then Remus merely found them to be interesting friends to have.
Regulus had been bright, snarky, well-read. Barty was a genius, mildly unhinged, and the most dramatic human that Remus had ever met.
They were good company until they went and got themselves tattooed.
Remus could see the Black brothers reuniting once they were following the same wizard. Sirius would have liked Barty as well, they were very similar. Remus imagined that Barty and Sirius had talked in Azkaban, further bonded over Crouch imprisoning them both.
Remus didn’t plan on killing Sirius that day, but who was he to question the cards being offered to him?
“New plan, boys.” Remus gathered Arthur and John quickly, pulling them back outside without having made any purchases.
If Remus took away the threat toward Harry that Sirius posed that day, then traveling during the full moon would be much less of an issue. There was still Albus to consider, but legally there as only so much Albus could do.
“Arthur, you’re going to Surrey,” Remus said in a quiet rush. “You must get Harry’s aunt and uncle to relinquish their guardianship. You can pick up the forms from the council administrative offices.”
“Why’m I doing that?” Arthur asked. His forehead was creased in confusion and Remus simply didn’t have time to satisfy his curiosity as much as he would do any other time.
“Because John is going with me to trap Black,” Remus said. “And you are going to get those signatures and convince them to never so much as think Harry’s name again, understand me?”
“You found Black?” John asked, a toothpick in the corner of his mouth. “Fuckin’ hell, Scar. We’ve been here for five bleeding minutes.”
“If it’s Black then send Johnny to Surrey and I’ll go with you,” Arthur said stubbornly. “No reason to cut corners, eh?”
“Arthur, look at me,” Remus snapped impatiently. If Crouch left Diagon Alley then it would take Remus hours to track him down. Sirius could get away by then.
“You go to Surrey and get those signatures by any means necessary,” Remus said slowly, staring directly in Arthur’s eyes. “It would be best if they never had any ideas of trying to find Harry later, understand me?”
“Ah.” Arthur smirked slightly. “‘M tyin’ up the loose ends then?”
“The man? Absolutely,” Remus said with a curl to his lip. Remus had planned on taking that honor for himself the moment that he saw Harry’s boggart - Harry had been hunted by Voldemort as an infant, faced him again when he was eleven. When he was twelve, Remus was told he slayed a basilisk. Dementors had made him faint twice, once resulting in near fatal injuries.
And it had been Vernon Dursley who stepped out as Harry’s worst fear.
“It cannot be tied back to us, ever,” Remus stressed to the one man he trusted to finish the job without mistakes. “The woman cannot be killed, Arthur, I mean it. When Albus goes to find her, she must be able to say she signed Harry over without question.”
“That I can do,” Arthur agreed. “Any message you want to send ‘em?”
“Yes.” Remus smiled and it was cold, calculated, full of loathing. “Tell Petunia that Remus Lupin said hello and if she speaks with Albus that I’ll see her on the next full moon.”
An empty threat; Remus would kill Petunia before he turned her, but it would be effective.
“That’s me off then.” Arthur clapped John’s shoulder and tipped his flat cap to Remus. “Good luck, gents. Tell Black I said ‘ello and to enjoy Hell.”
“No evidence,” Remus reminded him. “Cover your face, the charms may wear off by then.”
As soon as Arthur left, Remus turned to John.
“Come on then,” he said. “We can’t let your brother have the only kill of the day.”
“Birds of a feather, you two are,” John sighed, falling in step beside Remus despite his complaints. “I thought maybe we’d be shopping, do some magic. Nooo, you can’t go to London with Arthur and Scar and not become involved in at least one murder.”
Remus chuckled and looked at John innocently.
“Would you prefer to go home? I could swap you for Tommy?”
“Don’t be an arse, Scar.” John moved his toothpick so he could spit on the ground. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
He was, and Remus was grateful.
It took them a bit to catch up to Crouch and his invisible companion. Remus tried to determine if it was indeed Sirius by scent alone, but there were too many other smells to be certain.
Who else would travel underneath an invisibility cloak with a high-ranking ministry employee though? Even if it turned out to not be Sirius, it was still a mystery and Remus planned to solve it.
“Grab my coat and be ready,” Remus warned John in a whisper. They had followed Crouch while the man completed his shopping and Remus knew he planned to return home soon. They could not lose him to apparation, Remus had no idea where Crouch lived and didn’t want to waste time finding his address.
“When I move, you move,” Remus said. The four of them were approaching the official apparation point for the market. Most didn’t bother with it, Remus had assumed that Crouch would be one who did.
Remus had planned on grabbing the man he assumed was Sirius when Crouch disapparated. Even if Sirius grabbed Crouch, they would all be taken to the same place. If Remus could prevent that, he would be able to take Sirius somewhere more secluded to exact James’s revenge, ensure Harry’s safety.
What Remus didn’t foresee was that as Crouch turned to disapparate, Sirius would as well.
Remus had caught him before he disappeared fully, taking John along with him, but it brought up a new question…
Why did Sirius know where Crouch would be going? How long had be been following him and why? Patience had never been one of Sirius’s strengths before… Remus didn’t think Azkaban had changed that.
As soon as they landed, Remus could smell blood. Someone had been splinched, but he couldn’t focus on that as Crouch had pulled his wand.
“What are you—” Crouch’s shout was cut off with Remus’s much quicker stunner. As Crouch fell to the ground, Remus did a quick surveillance of the area while keeping a tight arm around the neck of the man beneath a cloak.
A residential area, quiet, muggle. Remus couldn’t see any nearby neighbors who came at the cracks of apparation and had to assume that Crouch’s area had been warded by the best that the ministry could offer him.
John still had one hand grasping the back of Remus’s coat, and when Remus turned to look at him, he saw that John was the one who had been splinched. The hand at his side, the one he held up for Remus to see, was missing a pinky.
“Next time…” John was panting, pale from the injury and the general discomfort of disapparating. “Ya bring Tommy.”
“Next time I bring Tommy,” Remus agreed, grimacing at the injury. Remus could heal it, but he doubted if they would be able to find John’s pinkie to replace. “The good news,” Remus announced, “is that we have…”
Remus pulled the cloak off —
Not Sirius.
Remus raised his wand, leveling it at his chest, and blinked a few times.
Where Remus expected to find black hair and grey eyes, he found blonde hair and blue eyes. Remus expected to see tattoos, scars. He saw a clean shaved face, gaunt cheeks.
There was no mischief or malice in the eyes, only a blank glazed appearance of a man under a heavy curse.
“Barty?” Remus stared at Barty Crouch Junior… a wizard who had died ten years ago.
Reportedly, anyway, as he was clearly alive.
“I am so confused,” Remus admitted, as much as it galled him to admit.
“And I’m bleedin’ to death here, Scar,” John complained. “Think we can do somethin’ about that?”
Barty only stared at Remus while Remus hastily levitated Crouch and directed their entire troop inside the Crouch home.
Why the hell was Barty Crouch alive and following his father, a man he despised, around beneath a pricey invisibility cloak?
The inside of the Crouch home was bland, poorly decorated and felt hardly lived in. The one surprise was a small female house-elf that screamed when they entered the house. Remus quickly stunned her, just in case, then cast a charm to ensure there were no more surprises lurking around.
“Give me your hand,” Remus told John. When John immediately held his hand out, Remus healed him the best he could.
“If I heal it entirely, I won’t be able to reattach your pinky in the event that we find it,” Remus said, grimacing at the severing. It looked worse with the blood cleaned off.
“Just bloody heal it,” John sighed. He pinched his nose as Remus did it. “Next time, you’re takin’ Tommy and he can lose a finger.”
“Noted,” Remus said, fighting down the horrible inappropriate urge to laugh. “The good news is that we won’t call you Johnny Boy anymore.” Remus smiled charmingly at John. “Johnny Nine Digits isn’t quite as witty, but Ada will think of something.”
John barked out a short laugh and took a step back, casually leaning against the closed door.
“Who’s he then?” John asked, pulling a cigarette and pointing it at where Barty was still silently standing. “That ain’t Black.”
“It is not,” Remus agreed. He stared at Barty and became unnerved by the empty eyes that stared back.
“This is Barty Crouch Junior,” Remus said slowly, waiting to see if any flicker of recognition would fill Barty’s eyes. When none did, Remus sighed heavily. “He died ten years ago and I believe his father has him under the imperious curse.”
“Is that so?” John smoked his cigarette casually, an easy grace about him despite the strangeness of his hand missing a finger. “‘E looks alive to me, Scar.”
“A half-life,” Remus murmured. Perhaps Crouch faked his son’s death, kept him trapped for a decade.
“My father?” Barty laughed and passed the bottle they were sharing to Regulus. “My father wants me to follow him in the Ministry. ‘You will be seen and not heard if you cannot talk with respect!’”
Barty laughed and looked ready to cry, an uncomfortable side-effect of the liquor they had drank.
“I hate him,” Barty whispered it like a secret. “I fucking hate him.”
Remus, in his never ending wisdom, waited for Regulus to pass him the bottle before raising it to Barty in a sarcastic toast.
“If it helps, it sounds as if the feeling must be mutual,” Remus offered.
Regulus and Barty stared at Remus for a moment, shocked by his blunt view on the matter. Then Barty grinned, Regulus chuckled.
Before Remus knew it, they were all rolling with laughter.
Remus knew what Barty had been sent to prison for, Remus also knew that Barty had been desperate to escape his father…
Mostly, Remus was curious about how Barty had escaped prison all those years ago and there was only one way to get an answer…
“The thing about unforgivable curses, is that they all three carry the same sentence in Azkaban,” Remus said as he slowly pocketed his wand. Remus could imperius Crouch, tell him to remove the curse on his son, or he could cast the killing curse and face the same sentencing if he were ever caught.
“John, your revolver?”
John straightened up and passed Remus his gun with no hesitation. They were family, John knew that Remus would ensure nothing Remus did could harm John.
Remus pointed the gun at Crouch and glanced once more at Barty for any reaction. Where there had been glazed nothing in his eyes before, Remus swore he saw a hint of life as the blue fixed on the trigger where Remus’s finger rested.
“Three…” Remus kept an eye on Barty, waiting for any more breaks through the curse. “Two…”
Barty’s lips moved in time with Remus’s, “One.”
The explosion of the bullet tearing through Crouch’s chest sent a shock through Barty’s body. Barty stumbled, fell forward and caught himself on the wall.
John was still smoking while one man died and another returned to life.