I've returned from the past

Chapter 26

Barty was aware of quite a few things, having been entrusted by the Dark Lord and his second in command, Lord Black, to certain missions. For example espionage, sabotage, information gathering and other, less appealing things. 

Now he was also aware of Hadrian Potter and his strange activities. 

For a boy of only fourteen, his actions made no sense and neither did the company he had. Although it wasn't necessarily Barty's job to question these things, it certainly didn't stop him either. His opinions were sometimes warranted by the Triarii and the Knights and thus he had to make sure he was no only a spy, but a thinker. 

While he has no recollection of anything the Dark Lord does when Barty acts as a temporary vessel- he does recall some of the Dark Lords feelings himself and never has he felt more confused or intimidated by him. 

It is not Barty's job to question the Dark Lord- and yet he finds himself walking around London for clues- questioning.

It felt strange picking apart the emotions he'd experienced and it most certainly confused him that these emotions were felt towards a fourteen year old boy. He might even say it disgusted him. 

Anger, hatred- self loathing (validly, Barty might say), excitement, longing, fear and something bordering on compassion. And yet there was lots of confusion, lots of it. 

In fact, Barty would be surprised if the Lord wasn't confused about the boy because there had never been a day that passed as a temporary teacher in Hogwarts that the staff members had not convened about Hadrian or that Barty hadn't questioned the boys actions in his class. 

There was no point in him taking Care of Magical Creatures- the boy knew everything and yet the creatures still avidly avoided him. Some still came to him- like the thestrals and he saw them. Which was only to be expected but... 

Barty scratched his greasy hair and made a mental note to go in the shower but knew he would forget anyway. 

Now he was in charged with a name he had only heard once or twice in his days exploring the darker side of wizarding society and a name he had heard at Hadrian's funeral. Of course he hadn't grasped the context in which it had been said but something Lord Black's expression told him that the Lord had heard. 

That was another thing actually. Barty may act like he doesn't understand certain things, he might be a bit jumpy, a bit magically aware of emotional fluctuations which makes him more reactive- but he's not stupid. 

The Triarii seemed to forget this but... Mr Potter had not treated him as foolish. Perhaps irritated by his blatantly terrible attempts to become James Moriarty- but never had he spoken down to Barty. 

Which he appreciated and he has a funny feeling that Hadrian Black would have also done the same. Mr Black had died ten years prior to Barty's birth and he does regret never being able to meet him.

He sighs and then his shoulder get's slammed into rather roughly- and the temporary contact sets his blood on fire- a temporary agony and then the contact disappears, the person cursing and he looks over his shoulder to see a long haired blonde man in odd clothes walking swiftly towards a pub not more than a few lanes over- which an unusually large amount of people seemed to be entering at a rather rapid rate. 

He counts eight in the next minute as he watches and the blonde vampire was given a large berth as he enters. 

What on earth- 

He picks up the newspaper next to the post office as he walks to sit on the bench in front of the inn and reads, listening with his back to it. 

"Did you hear?"