Corruzione (A Barty Crouch Jr Fanfiction)

FIFTEEN - A Crooked Avidity

Barty and Darcy got dressed in their guest room at Malfoy Manor after a briefing from the Dark Lord. In his address to the deatheaters that had crowded into the Malfoy's living room, he stated that they would be infiltrating the Ministry of Magic that evening. An evening when, incidently Darcy had told them that most of the Order of the Phoenix would be at Bill and Fleur's wedding. She had known what a great disservice she was doing her former group but she felt justified in the idea that she and Barty had a plan to topple the Dark Lord's reign from the inside. It would not be a quick journey and many innocents would die, but at least she and Barty would be doing a job only they could from their position.

"You look nervous," Barty commented, watching her hands shake as she buttoned her dress. She shook her head and let Barty finish the top buttons, which he did.

"I'm excited." She tried. Barty gave her a sceptical look. "Okay, I am a bit nervous. it's one thing to say that we will bring down the Dark Lord, and another to actually defy him right under his nose." Darcy sighed.

"I know," said he, straightening the collar of her dress. "But think, we'll be doing them a favour, proving ourselves worthy to the Order, in the long run anyway." He kissed her lightly.

"Okay," she repeated. "Lets make it fun, shall we?"

They apparated to the Ministry of Magic's entrance along with the rest of the deatheaters and filed into the toilets that granted them access to the green fireplaces. The moment Darcy appeared in a grate she saw others appear alongside her, they had no hesitation as they ran at the few employees who still milled about after hours. Spells shot everywhere as the Ministry guards swarmed towards the intruders in flanks, the grates of the fireplaces began to shut like portcullis' and it was all Darcy could do to grab hold of Barty as he appeared and pull him towards her before the grate shut behind them. We're trapped! But not so, the ministry guards may have been more numerous than the deatheaters that managed to enter the ministry but they were intimidated. "Come on!" Shouted Bellatrix at the other deatheaters, they cast killing curses and hexes, the cruciatus curse and knockback jinxes. Darcy felt she had no choice but to join in. She shot a stunning spell at a guard who advanced her way. A thrill shot through her, he would wake up tomorrow to find the Ministry overrun with deatheaters but he would not be seriously hurt and it felt good to Darcy that she could be free to do what she wished.

Before her father had died he always spoke of not giving in to the spark of immoral behaviour that ran through the Selwyn line but now she was free and she needn't feel shamed of how exciting it was to her. She and Barty followed the throng of deatheaters through the halls, past the large glittering fountain, and thinking that she might as well do the thing properly, she cast a spell at the fountain causing it to explode, showering all the deatheaters in bits of stone, but they were not angry. On the contrary, they shouted and whooped at her and she was taken up in that moment. "We have to get to the Department of Mysteries!" Darcy shouted to Barty over the sound of calamity. He frowned at her but conceded to follow her up the many flights of stairs, Darcy doubted the lifts would work, she suspected Bellatrix would have blown them up.

She grabbed Barty's hand as they rounded a corner and standing there, waiting for them was Kingsley Shacklebolt, an Order member. An Order I've betrayed. "Kingsley!" Darcy gasped, instinctively placing herself between Barty and he. He looked thunderous and because of his height, menacing. Barty reached round her and cast a spell at him but he easily deflected it, then all three whirled into a duel. Darcy had to hand it to him, Kingsley was an excellent fighter. "I don't want to hurt you!" She cried, as Barty had to grab her waist and pull her out of the way of a speeding spell.

"It's a bit late for that now," Kingsley shouted and hurled another flurry of spells at them. He cast another spell over his shoulder and a blue light leapt from the tip and dashed through the wall, a message to the Order.

"Tell them not to come here, they'll be killed." Darcy cried, panicked. She had wanted them to stay at the wedding uninterrupted by this massacre.

"You should have thought about that earlier," Kingsley said and with that, threw himself over the edge of the stairs they had been climbing, he broke his fall with a spell and dashed away to join the fray. Darcy and Barty were left stunned in the dark hallway.

"Well, that could have gone better." sighed Barty, running a hand through his hair.

"Definitely could have, now they're coming here, Barty, they'll die." She was wracking her brain, thinking hard. If the Order members set foot in the Ministry they would be on dangerous territory and there was no way Darcy could rectify it.

Unless... "Barty, come with me!" She pulled him back the way they had come. "Bellatrix! Oi, you lot!" She shouted at the nearest deatheaters, they looked up from their fighting, one eye on her, one eye on their duelling partners. "I know where the Order are, I can breach their defences!" She yelled to them.

"Show us!" some yelled back. Darcy looked at Barty one last time, she tried to communicate to him with her eyes, and she tried to say; Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. But he looked worried nonetheless.

Then Darcy did something she vowed she never would do, she used the flight that the Dark Lord taught all of his deatheaters, she leapt into the air and smashed through the roof of the Ministry, a trail of black smoke behind her, the other deatheaters had followed her, their own trails of black smoke easily distinguishable in the sunset.

They travelled to the Burrow by air. Darcy saw the familiar topsy turvey Burrow that she had visited so many times in her youth and her stomach turned over. She landed just outside of where she guessed the boundary to be. The deatheaters landed beside her: "Well, get us in!" instructed Bellatrix impatiently. Darcy began to undo the spells that she knew would have been placed on the boundary as a matter of Order protocol, she made sure to kick her foot into the boundary a few times in an attempt to warn them, but she guessed that Kingsley's patronus had already done that.

All was silent when she finally removed the last spell. "It's done." She said to Bellatrix, who stepped forward into the Burrow's land. A dark marquee was standing to the right of them and Bellatrix set it alight, all of a sudden, all the Order members rushed from the tent, casting spells at them. Darcy's heart flooded with momentary relief, she thought that she had failed and that they had indeed gone to the Ministry. But no, they were here, and ready to fight back.

"Darcy," Barty said, from just behind her. "We should leave."

"What? But—" Her words were cut short as she caught sight of Remus and Dora, they were preoccupied with Bellatrix, both duelling her at the same time. Darcy took half a step towards them but Barty stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't," he warned, Dora had caught sight of them and the look on her face was enough to make Darcy start to cry. "Barty," she said shakily, backing away from Dora's unforgiving look as she tried to make her way to Darcy. She reached out for his hand, feeling for the first time that night as if everything was too much and she was too little for the world. "Please." That was all he needed, he took hold of her hand and they spun on the spot, apparating far away from Dora and her piercing eyes.

"She'll never forgive me." Darcy cried as they landed in the garden of Malfoy Manor. Barty could not comfort her, it seemed there were no words that could make it right. So they sat on the grass, the silence of the night only broken by Darcy's sobs.