Corruzione (A Barty Crouch Jr Fanfiction)

ELEVEN - Hero Syndrome

Darcy was back at Hogwarts for her last term before her graduation. She had found the prophecy ball about the Dark Lord on her last day as an apprentice at the Ministry. She had also already been accepted for a job as an unspeakable and her work would start right after she graduated. She was elated about it all, she loved the work that the unspeakables did and the things they were researching, and for that reason she felt guilty that she would be letting in the deatheaters to possibly tear the place apart. She had already informed Barty that she had indeed found what they were looking for but she was no closer to finding a way to get Harry to follow her without completely blowing her cover of course, and exposing her as a deatheater. She had one last trick up her sleeve though and that was to lure Harry into the Hall of Prophecies with a dream.

She poured over the relevant book in the library, it was difficult spell work, involving an even more difficult potion but the dream she could induce in Harry didn't need to be perfect, it just needed to exploit Harry's one weakness, hero syndrome. Darcy prepared the potion, working every night underneath her bed while the others in her dorm were asleep, until the potion was complete. She knew what she had to do. But before that, she had decided to write a letter to Barty, she had been debating it all the past week but she had finally made up her mind to tell him.

Barty,

While I was looking for the prophecy, I found one with your name on it and a question mark. I cannot retrieve it because it's not about me, but I wanted you to know and perhaps we could stage our own little break-in?

Let me know how the deatheaters are progressing.

Faithfully,

Darcy.

She had become quite the rebel, meeting the Dark Lord on her birthday, brewing illegal potions, proposing a break into her own place of work. She welcomed it. Barty had awoken a dormant side to her, one that was mischievous. Her father would have warned her that was the deatheater side of the family talking.

This was the day that Darcy would forever be irredeemably on the dark side, there was no going back from intentionally luring and harming Harry Potter. The other offenses she had committed—well perhaps not bringing the Dark Lord back from the dead—but the others could be forgiven because she had been underage. This was her coming out. She would finally show her true colours, after this night she would no longer be an Order member, she would be a wanted criminal. And she had to admit she was a little excited.

The potion was ready, the potion only needed to come into contact with Harry Potter's skin before it became active and working in his system, so Darcy thought the easiest way to achieve it would be to 'spill' her drink on Harry.

So that night in the Great Hall, just when everyone was chatting and waiting for dinner, Darcy left Daphne, who was still a little odd with her since Hogsmeade, and joined the Gryffindor table with her 'pumpkin juice' goblet in hand. Which really contained the potion.

"What are you whispering about?" Darcy asked, poking her head into the huddle that contained all the Weasleys and Harry and Hermione, their conversation looked serious.

"About what was in today's paper." Ron brandished the paper at her, "It's an absolute pack of lies!" Darcy read the front cover, which defended that the Dark Lord was not at large, despite Harry's claims. Darcy couldn't care less about What the Daily Prophet knew or suspected, she was only looking for a way to inconspicuously spill the contents of the goblet.

Thankfully, she didn't have to try very hard because while Ron and Hermione were arguing, George had nudged her shoulder, a game they had always played, mostly ending in a scuffle. She pushed him back a little harder and then they were grinning and shoving each other, "hey! Watch my drink!" Darcy cried as she tried to move closer to Harry. That made George lash out and Fred trip her up from her other side. Now, there were two great things about the situation and one horribly bad thing. The great things were that she was falling, actually falling, which looked realistic and the second was that she was falling towards Harry.