"Have you lost your fucking mind?" Sev hissed, startling Barty at both his sudden appearance and the venom in his tone.
He looked down at Sev's hand and saw the parchment he was clutching.
How did I forget the map?!
He'd been so careful. So meticulous. And to leave behind actual active proof of his true identity sitting in the open on his desk?
It was nearly laughable.
"Why are you always asking me that?" Potter groaned as he looked up at Sev's furious face. "You knew who he was-" he jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards Barty, who was startled by that.
Sev knew who he was?!
"So what's the problem?" Potter asked him.
"The problem, you brain dead imbecile," Sev hissed at Potter, his furious eyes flashing at Barty only once. "Is that the other Bartemius Crouch's dot has just disappeared off the map. The map that he," Sev glanced at Barty again and glared at him harshly, "left on his desk."
"Oh," Potter turned and shook his head at Barty. "Damn."
"Damn," Barty repeated nervously. He doubted if Sev saw him kill his father behind Potter's powerful shield, but he certainly had accurately guessed at why his fathers dot disappeared off the map.
"Did you kill him?" Sev asked Potter, apparently opting to ignore Barty's presence when he wasn't glaring at him.
"Nope," Potter shook his head again. "Barty did."
Sev looked at Barty again, and Barty thought his eyes looked just a little softer for a brief flash, before he twisted his lips in a scowl.
"Bed, now," Sev snapped at Potter.
"'Kay," Potter saluted Sev and turned to smirk at Barty. "If you hurt him, I really will kill you," he said.
And Barty believed him.
How many times since Barty entered the castle had Potter rushed to Sev's defense?
And the day the young man killed Avery? He'd only done it once Avery aimed the killing spell at Sev.
Barty was under no misapprehension that Potter would easily kill him if he harmed Sev.
"Snape's the best person I've ever met," Potter sneered with a dark glare in Sev's classroom.
"Don't talk to him like that," Potter spoke calmly but he carried a promise of vengeance in his eyes. "Won't end well."
Not that Barty wanted to hurt Sev.
Not now.
Sev turned and watched Potter strut casually towards the castle, his hands in his pockets and his head held confidently high.
"I believe it is time you and I spoke," Sev said after Potter entered the castle doors.
"Yeah... probably..." Barty agreed. He glanced down at the bone that his father used to be and picked it up. "I have something I need to take care of first, do you want to meet back in my office?"
Sev stared at him for a long moment before Barty saw his upper lip twitch, just the slightest amount.
"You turned him in to a bone? Was that not plan 76?"
Barty let out a nervous chuckle, "I didn't think you'd remember that. Potter thought it was too kind of an end for him."
"Any death that does not involve terrible pain and mass amounts of blood is too kind of an end for any enemy in Potter's opinion," Sev said sardonically. "I will join you in burying him. The forest?"
"The forest," Barty agreed.
Barty tried to pretend that Sev following behind him didn't make him nervous. There used to be a time in his life where it would have made him feel safe. When it did make him feel safe.
"They say that he's going to change the world," Reg whispered in the hidden room that Sev changed to mimic a sunlit field. "He's going to change the way people see magic. And he needs warriors. My father wants me to join."
"What about your mother?" Barty asked quietly.
"I don't give a damn what she wants," Reg said, his grey eyes hard as he thought of the mother they all knew he despised. "She wants me to join Him too, but it's almost enough reason not to."
"Think of the power we would have," Sev sighed, his cheek still bruised from his scuffle with James Potter earlier. "We wouldn't be outcasts, or losers, or weak anymore. We'd be powerful, strong. Our families couldn't hurt us, nobody could. Lucius told me that it's inevitable, the Dark Lord will take over and anyone opposed to him will be stopped."
"It's just... I don't know..." Barty said hesitantly. "I've heard he wants to stamp out muggleborns. And subjugate all muggles. My father said he's imprisoning people... torturing them... killing them..."
"What's one less muggle in the grand scheme of things?" Reg sneered. "What have they ever done for us? Tried to kill us? Burnt our ancestors?"
"I don't think they ever truly found a witch," Barty said thoughtfully, having once been quite obsessed with the history of the Wixen persecutions in the States. "They just killed each other."
"Not for a lack of trying though," Sev said. "I think... I think I want in. Lucius says He needs a potioneer. And he'd pay for my mastery courses."
"I'm joining as soon as I graduate," Reg said. "Sooner, if I can."
The two dark haired boys both turned to Barty.
"I don't know..." Barty repeated.
"Come on Barty," Sev said brightly. "We can join together. Maybe he'll pay for your mastery in history! Once Dumbledore is gone, we could come back together! You could teach history, I could teach potions-"
"And I'll be headmaster," Reg laughed.
"You hate kids," Barty grinned at Sev, wistfully thinking of the bright future he painted.
"I'd put up with them if you were here," Sev smiled. "Don't leave us now, join with us."
And Barty hadn't left his friends. They left him. But that was at least fifteen years ago. Before the Dark Lord-
Timmy, he corrected himself. If Potter wanted the Dark Lord to be called Timmy, as peculiar as that was, he'd do it.
-fell. Before they lost Reg, and Sev and Barty had mourned their mischievous and sneaky friend together. Before Barty found out that the group Sev pushed him to join, had been abandoned by Sev. Before Azkaban. Before ten years spent under the imperious curse by his father.
And now? Now it made him uneasy to have Severus Snape at his back.
"I... this is far enough," Barty said, refusing to sound weak in front of the man he once considered his closest friend.
Sev leaned against a tree and watched as Barty dug the hole quickly with a spell.
"I wonder why you decided to join Harry," Sev said after Barty dropped the bone in the ground and spat on the bone once more.
"I wonder the same thing about you," Barty said, straightening up and meeting Sev's eyes square on. "I wonder why you left the Dark Lord and never told me. Why you left me."
"Would you have came?" Sev asked quietly. "If I told you I left in an attempt to save Lily Evans' life, would you have came?"
"With you? Yes," Barty said firmly. He would have. He had revered and worshiped the Dark Lord, but he had loved Sev. He was his closest friend. One of only two people who truly saw and understood Barty's soul.
"I did not believe you would have," Sev said. "I did not wish to even ask you and risk our lives if you denied me."
"Instead you left me," Barty spat, suddenly furious with his old friend. "Left me to Azkaban."
"I mourned you," Sev told him, his dark eyes softening. "I mourned your death as hard as we once mourned Reg."
"He... He's dead," Sev whispered once they apparated to his home straight from their meeting with the Dark Lord. "He abandoned our Lord, he abandoned us."
"Why?" Barty asked, secure enough in privacy with only Sev to let a few tears escape as he thought of their friend. "Why would he do that?"
"I don't know," Sev said, his eyes dry but his voice choked.
"Let's make a pact," Barty said, "no matter what- we stick together."
Sev looked at him and nodded solemnly before he summoned a bottle of Barty's favorite wine and two glasses.
"We stick together," Sev agreed, clinking his glass to Barty's.
"That wasn't exactly helpful to me," Barty said. "Seeing as I was alive and under my fathers thumb once more."
"And once you were freed of his influence- your first instinct was to rejoin the Dark Lord and attempt to kill my child?" Sev hissed. "If Harry were not intrigued by you, I would kill you where you stand."
"The child you abandoned me for!" Barty yelled. "How long until you leave him too?!"
"Never," Sev snarled. "I would die for Harry."
"And so will I," Barty said. "He's promised me freedom Sev. Finally, freedom. Whatever I have to do, whatever I have to swear to him, I'm going to do it."
"And when your Master comes calling, what will you tell him?" he murmured in a silky voice. "Hmm? Harry may have trust in the oath you have sworn to him, but I have seen the way you look at your Master. The way you revere him, worship him, kiss the hems of his robes. He will whisper sweet nothings in your ears and you will turn on Harry in an instant."
"Maybe you've got us confused, Snape," Barty sneered. "Because I think you were the one who keeps switching Masters. First the Dark Lord, then the fool Albus Dumbledore, now Potter? How is anyone meant to trust your word?"
"My words have always been lies," Sev said coolly. "Carefully built lies to continue my life and reach my goals, as you are already aware. My lies are a work of art, and they have kept me alive thus far. Harry knows this. Harry knows me. My words may be lies, but Harry carries my very soul within him. I would die for him and I will kill for him."
"Beautiful," Barty sneered, pretending that didn't hurt him in the way he was sure Sev meant to. "It's really touching what a family man you've came to be. And here I always thought you didn't want children. I guess Lily Evans' son was an exception? You couldn't have her so you took the next best-"
Sev had his wand at Barty's throat in less time than it took for Barty to draw his own wand.
"You will never insinuate such a thing again," Sev hissed in his ear. "Harry is mine. His parentage matters not at all. I may be unable to kill you at present, but rest assured, it would hardly take me a single conversation to convince Harry to do it himself."
Sev withdrew his wand and took two steps away from Barty. Both men kept their wands drawn, until Barty slowly lowered his to take a drink of the thick polyjuice potion in his hip flask.
"I might not be Potter's pretend father, but I swore myself to him," Barty said. "And unlike some people, my word means something."
"See that your actions do as well," Sev said calmly. "Or you will be the first person, of what I assume will be the many, that I kill for Harry."
"And here I imagined our reunion to involve more apologies from you," Barty jeered. "Does our history not matter at all to you?"
Sev pocketed his wand as he fixed an icy smile towards Barty.
"Our history stopped mattering when you made an attempt on the life of the reason I continue to live," he said. "Of the two of us, I believe it is you who owes me an apology. An apology I will not be holding my breath for."
Sev turned on his heel and strode towards the castle, his robes billowing behind him.
"I thought we were meant to be roommates again this summer!" Barty yelled at his back. "I suppose I'll just take the sofa instead then?"
"You can sleep in the broomshed," Sev called back.
Despite his best efforts, Barty let out a low chuckle.
Sev always wanted to have the last word. A trait he'd noticed in Potter as well.
Sev may have abandoned him fifteen years ago for Potter, but they were on the same side with the same Master once again.
And once Sev saw that Barty was dedicated to Potter's causes- he'd apologize. Well... he wouldn't say he was sorry, Sev never said he was sorry, but Barty would know it all the same.
"Stupid stubborn snake," he grumbled.
He spat one last time on the bone that represented his fathers body. "Goodbye you monster," he said as he dropped the pile of dirt back in the hole.
He left the forest without even a marker for his fathers body. The exact lack of pomp and importance that he believed his father deserved for the eternity he now faced.
***
Barty was comfortable enough with the plan to continue on as Alastor Moody for the time being. He could ignore Sev, not set off any alarms in either the Dark L- Timmy's nor Dumbledore's sharp minds, and he truly did enjoy teaching. Though, he would relish the day he no longer needed to utilize a wooden peg leg.
The magic eye he would miss terribly. It would almost be worth losing one eye if it meant that he could have an eye like Alastor Moody's.
But this plan to ignore Sev and continue on as normal was perfectly tolerable in Barty's opinion, until Potter commanded otherwise.
"Thursday at four my friends and I are meeting in Snape's classroom to train," he told Barty after his defense class. "You should come. As Moody, of course, nobody but Snape and I know who you really are. The less people who know, the better for now."
"You're training for the task with your friends?" Barty asked.
"Course not," Potter scoffed. "A maze full of traps and creatures? That'll be a cake walk, won't it? I'm training for when I get to Timmy at the end. And you're going to help."
Barty could hardly refuse a direct command, as loathe as he was to spend his free time with Sev and Potter's less talented friends.
"I'll be there," he told Potter. "Does Sev know I'm coming?"
"Course," Potter grinned. "It'd be a nasty shock otherwise, wouldn't it?"
And it was a nasty shock.
Because Potter had not informed Sev that Barty was coming.
"Can I help you Professor Moody?" Sev asked curtly when Barty appeared in his classroom
"Potter asked me to help him train," Barty grunted, adopting the aurors harsh dialect. "He said to be here at four."
"Of course he did," Sev grumbled with a put upon sigh. "Foolish brat."
"He didn't tell you?" Barty asked.
"He rarely does before he makes incredibly stupid decisions," Sev sneered. "Move."
Barty took a step to the side of the room as Sev waved his wand and the desks, tables, chairs, and cauldrons all flew to the walls.
"I can't imagine what Potter thinks you will be able to teach him," Sev said with his 'I am a genius and you are the dirty beneath my heel' tone that Barty had heard him use so often in their school days. "I have his preparation well in hand."
Barty quickly brandished his wand and sent a jelly-legs jinx at Sev.
"Constant vigilance," he barked. "That's what I'll teach Potter."
Sev reversed the jinx with a finite incantatum before he immediately retaliated with a silent spell.
Which Barty blocked.
And the two men began dueling in earnest.
"Keep your wand up Barty!" Sev yelled at him as they threw spells back and forth in their hidden room. "Never lower your wand! Never use the same spell twice in a row! And never ever slow down! They'll kill you if you slow down!"
"You've gotten slower," Barty taunted him as they parried curses back and forth. "You're out of practice, Snape."
"I think you'll find yourself incorrect," Sev said calmly right before blasting Barty to his feet and summoning his wand.
"You were saying?" he drawled, waving Alastor Moody's wand tauntingly.
"You started without us?"
Both men turned and saw Potter lounging in the doorway, a bored expression on his face and his friends behind him.
"Professor Moody believed that I was incapable of disarming him," Sev said smoothly as the students filed in. "I was disabusing him of that notion. Although I may have gotten slower," he threw Barty back his wand, "at least I remain unpredictable in my attacks."
"Constant vigilance, right Professor?" Blaise Zabini quipped. "Are you here to teach or join Potter's Army?"
"We are not called Potter's Army," Potter sighed. "We don't need a tacky name."
"Teach," Barty interrupted the bickering children in a low grunt. "Potter wouldn't need an army if he'd practice CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
He did love shouting that.
Every student, aside from Potter, jumped every time he did it.
"Pair off," Sev told the students, apparently used to taking charge of these meetings.
"Frederick and Theodore, Longbottom and Ronald, Granger and Lovegood, Blaise and Draco. Bones and Potter against myself."
"I'll take Potter," Barty offered.
"Not yet, assist the others for now," Sev said. "If the children are dedicated to fighting by Potter's side, then they will need to learn each other's style."
"We switch off every week," Lovegood said quietly with a soft smile. "Harry and I beat Professor Snape last week."
"That's because you're brilliant Lue," Potter smiled at the airy Lovegood girl that Barty still had no idea how she wound up in Ravenclaw.
"Am I not brilliant Darlin'?" One of the Weasley twins, apparently Frederick, asked with a teasing smile.
"You distracted me," Potter sighed. "And we lost. So, no. Not brilliant Acid Pop."
The students all chuckled as they paired off.
Barty backed away to the wall and watched as the room broke out in spellfire.
And even though Sev had disarmed Barty in nineteen minutes, he was hardly a match for Potter and Bones, both of whom had no quarrel with fighting dirty.
"You fight dirty Reg!" Barty yelled after Reg disarmed him with a spell from the Black Family Library.
"You could do it too," Reg laughed. "I told you I'll take all those books when I graduate and you can just study your little Ravenclaw heart out."
"Well then I can't do it for another six months," Barty grumbled.
"Here Barty," Sev walked up and brandished his wand before smiling at him, "if Reg's going to fight dirty then we'll team up on him."
"We're a perfect team," Bones smiled at Potter as she threw back Sev's wand. "I told you that you should bring me on more missions."
"And I told you that I'd rather you not get hurt or distract me," Potter said.
Barty sent a light stinging hex at Bones.
"And I told you both CONSTANT VIGILANCE! Go again, against me and Snape both now, eh?"
Sev had rolled his eyes, but when they dueled together, they could have been seventeen again. Blocking, hexing, dodging, and meshing their spells together in the same cohesiveness that once made them just as fierce of a duo as Potter and Bones were.
***
"Excuse me Filius, I need Potter," Barty said in Moody's low gravelly voice, interrupting the fourth years charms class. "Just found a student trapped in the second floor utility closet who says Potter jinxed him there him earlier."
Potter shrugged in his seat and gave his nearby friends a small grin.
"Come along lad," Barty grunted, nodding to Flitwick after he dismissed Potter with nothing more than a shake of his head.
The two of them waited until they were in Barty's office before he filled Potter in.
"He called me," he said. "I couldn't wait to tell you first, he would have known something was different if I delayed any. I didn't want him suspicious."
"What'd he want?" Potter asked, waving away his excuses and getting straight to the point.
"To know about my father," Barty said, lowering his voice despite the many wards on his office. "I told him I killed him. He's torturing Pettigrew now for letting my father escape in the first place."
"Good," Potter said with a sharp smile that sent a chill down Barty's spine. "And he wasn't suspicious about you at all?"
"No," Barty said. "But... but he's one of the greatest Legilimens to live. He'll become suspicious. And when he reads my mind- I'm exposed. Between the dementors, and the chronic imperio... I doubt if my occlumency shields could stop a five year old from gaining access to my mind."
Potter nodded and his eyes took on a thoughtful look.
"So... so after the third task... we kill you," he said slowly. "If you're dead he can't read your mind."
Barty took three quick steps away from Potter, unsure of his own position here. If he killed Potter, he'd die from his vow. If he didn't, he'd die by the young man's hands.
"I'd prefer to live, I can be useful to you," he said quickly. "I can prove my loyalty and my worth, I swear to you."
Potter tilted his face up at him and raised his brows before he smirked.
"Not literally kill you, not without cause," he drawled. "But the whole world, except Timmy, thinks you're dead, yeah? After the third task, we'll just make Timmy think so too."
Barty released a heavy sigh at that, causing Potter to smile outright.
"You didn't think I'd really kill you, did you?" Potter said mockingly. "C'mon now, we still have Death Eater scum to see, Dark Lords to kill. There's a lot of work to do, and you're helping."
And by that, apparently Potter meant that Barty was meant to continue making an appearance at Potter's now weekly training sessions with Sev and his friends.
"You're going to win for sure," Susan Bones beamed at Potter. "As long as you don't do anything stupid."
"Even if I do something stupid I can still win," Potter smirked at her before he glanced quickly at Barty and slyly added, "It'll be a night to remember anyway."
Which Barty could easily admit- was a chilling thought.
Potter against the Dark Lord in an empty cemetery.
He wished he was as confident about Potter's plan as he was.
***
Sev never did apologize. But at the last training session of 'Potter's Army' before the third task, he did meet Barty's eye and nod at him.
Which was better than the nothing he'd treated him to before then.
***
"Are you sure?" Barty murmured to the spot he knew Potter stood beneath his invisibility cloak.
It was the morning of the third task, the sun had yet to even rise, but Potter had appeared in his office at the agreed upon time. Barty knew it was not his place to question Potter... but he hardly felt confident about the plan either.
Potter was brilliant. A true master of magic. But the Dark- Timmywas fearsome. Ruthless. Vicious.
There was a reason that the Wixen people of the United Kingdom hardly dared to even whisper his name.
"Do it," Potter said. Barty could see his eyes lit up with an eager light.
Barty slowly touched his wand to the trophy...
"Portus," he murmured.
Beneath his cloak, Potter smiled.
"Brill," he said.
Barty prayed to Merlin that Potter returned safely after his trip to Riddle Manor. He doubted that he would live through the night if Sev's child didn't return.