The Enemy of my Enemy
Harry would recognise that Scottish drawl anywhere even if he had only heard it once 4 years ago. He immediately pushed himself up, dislodging his now identified attacker. He rolled and pulled his wand on the man.
“You’re supposed to be dead.” Harry stated calmly as he could, and he was proud his voice didn’t waiver
“Oh, astutely noted gorgeous.” Barty Crouch Jr. said, eyeing up the wand levelled at his face warily “Now now sweetheart there’s no need for such hostility. Why don’t you just bring your dainty little hand down a little and we can have a civilised conversation.”
“Why aren’t you dead? Everyone witnessed your kiss, even Dumbledore. There’s no coming back from the Dementors kiss.” Harry asked again
“Well as you have probably noticed there has been a recent trend with dead people suddenly changing that state of affairs, I just thought I’d join the party.” He smiled in a way that may have been handsome once but he was gaunt and starved and his hollow cheeks kind of ruined the effect.
Harry just eyed him, not impressed, with his continued avoidance of the question.
“You better give me a reason not to curse you within the next 10 seconds or I swear you’ll wish you hadn’t changed that ’state of affairs’.” Evidently the impression was conveyed well enough as Barty just huffed, and his smile left him.
“Oh, you’re no fun love, we’ll have to work on that. Fine, I’ll tell you a little story, be sure to listen carefully. Do you really think a man that managed to pass a an auror for a whole year with no one the wiser didn’t have a backup plan in the event of discovery? Oh, I was kissed, and everyone was there to see it. But as you would’ve seen I had quite the supply of polyjuice stored. All that was needed was dropping a little tuft of my hair in some and drugging one of my guards. Oh, I ensured that he would be silent about our little switch. Once his soul was taken there was nothing for the polyjuice to revert back too. He wasted away and within the year I was free to do as I pleased without constant looking over my shoulder. Which you would know about now wouldn’t you? Back on the run eh Potter? All those good too shoes betrayed you and now you’ve turned to only thing you have left in you, the darkness.”
Harry just looked at him in disbelief, but he honestly didn’t know what to do. He was right, he was on the run. He couldn’t hex him. If there were to suddenly be curses coming out of muggle building it would certainly be suspicious enough to send some aurors and that was the last thing he wanted. He couldn’t risk Barty exposing him either, as well as the little fact that Barty was a convicted Death Eater and would kill him as soon as he lowered his wand.
“Now you may be wondering why I didn’t re-join my lord after I had escaped…” Harry hadn’t thought of that but now he mentioned it that was strange. Had he had a change of heart like the Malfoys? Or was he falsely accused like Sirius had been. Had he ever committed a crime? Merlin it was hard to tell anymore. He wouldn’t even be surprised if everyone who he had thought was the ‘light’ side was actually a bunch of murders and cowards. Well, he knew half of that was true anyway. Bunch of cowards, the lot of them, they hadn’t spoken to him in months, ever since his condemnation of Dumbledore and his actions in the paper, and then all of a sudden, they’re all attacking him and making up false accusations in the paper. His thoughts were interrupted as Barty continued,
“… the truth is that I did try to return, I came back here that exact night to find my Lord torturing his own followers beyond sanity over the loss of one little boy. He’d always been a bit curse happy but only when deserved, and never to the point of permanent damage before, yet many Death Eaters came out of that night with nerve damage and extremely inhibited motor functions, which is why we were beaten so easily at Hogwarts by a bunch of teenagers and untrained adults. I was disgusted by what I saw, this was not the Lord I had followed in the first war, gone to jail for. Eventually everyone, including my Lord left that night. I knew the plan was to not return to the manor as it was compromised due to your escape back to the flaming chickens. I looked for the book Pettigrew had said he’d found the ritual in to try and find where we went wrong.”
“What do you mean where you went wrong? You used the complete wrong ritual did you honestly expect it to work?” Harry exclaimed. Even he could see that, and he was no ritualistic expert.
“I wasn’t aware of what the original ritual said, only the copy Pettigrew handed me and said that he’d found in a book in our Lords library here. I had only just found the original ritual and the book it was from when I heard of the attack on Hogwarts, it was too late, my Lord was dead for sure now, all his horcruxes were gone and I needed one to complete the ritual, my Lord had no children or living relatives to tie him to this world, all he had left of him here were the pieces of his soul he had split off before his death. There’s no hope without anything to tie him here. I’ve been hiding out here since.” Barty finished with a shrug as if to be indifferent, but Harry could see the pain in his eyes, he really wanted to bring that thing back.
Although Harry supposed it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Barty correctly performed the ritual this time. What no, why was he even thinking about bringing that monster back? But really, they had everything they could need for the ritual, Harry as the murderer did truly feel remorse for the killing of Voldemort, he knew it was necessary, but he still felt horribly about it. He also wouldn’t half mind setting an angry resurrected Dark Lord on the ungrateful world. Really what had they ever done for him for them to deserve his help with Voldemort. The more he thought about it the more appealing it sounded to him. He could have his revenge and also get over the guilt that still consumed him a year later.
Harry turned to Barty with a vindictive smile on his face that made Barty flinch just slightly. “What would you say to bringing you Lord back? Properly this time?”
Barty just rolled his eyes, emotional, vindictive teenagers, they thought they could do anything. “I just told you I can’t, he doesn’t have any more horcruxes, and besides you can’t just want to bring him back for revenge against those who wronged you. You actually need to regret killing him.” Correctly guessing his reasons for bringing back the Dark Lord.
“I suppose,” Harry said. “You read the paper this morning I take it, from your knowledge of my fugitive status?” Barty nodded hesitantly, not understanding the relevance.
‘Well, it included the part about me being a horcrux.”
“That was just more of the old coots lies.” Barty stated sceptically, but Harry could see the beginnings of hope in his eyes.
“No, it’s the only bit of truth in that rag. It was just killed by Voldemort in the forest that night when he cast the killing curse on me, but I figure maybe there’s a trace or something that we could use? Or maybe…” Barty interrupted before he could continue
“Wait he removed it with the killing curse?” Harry nodded. “But that’s impossible, the killing curse is just that, a killing curse, it can only affect that which is living, a piece of soul isn’t living, it simply is until it isn’t. No life no death, just there until it’s not anymore. It can’t be killed” Barty said, hope leeching into his voice, if the kid was right, this changed everything.
“Oh,” Harry said “Well in that case it’s probably still there. That means we can use it for the ritual, right?”
“Yes, but like I said you can’t just want him back for revenge, you have to actually regret killing him and want your mistake rectified.” He said echoing the book that still sat between them.
“I do regret it.” Harry stated firmly, he truly did.
“No, you don’t.” Barty scoffed
“Do too.”
“Do not.”
“Look I’m not having this childish argument with you, if I say I regret it then I do, and then if I do, that’s it right? That’s all the circumstantial conditions met? We just need the ingredients and materials?” Harry said hopefully. Merlin that’s weird, hoping for the return of Voldy.
“Look, hypothetically speaking, yes.” Barty admitted, “But even so it would be almost impossible to get all those ingredients and materials again, they’re very expensive and I still doubt it would even work with your reasons behind wanting him back.”
“But it could work otherwise?” Harry said, finally a plan, a way for revenge.
“It could work.”
That was all Harry needed