New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|21| Chapter Twenty-One

T W E N T Y  O N E 

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"What's going to happen to Winky?" whimpered Hermione the second they were out of earshot from the Ministry contingent. The way that Hermione kept on looking backwards told Saffron that the girl wanted to go back to do something to help the house-elf out. There was no chance that they were going to let that happen though. The others all wanted to be as far away from them as possible, especially Saffron who was worried that Sage and Mr. Crouch would get into an actual duel if they spent only a few more seconds together.

"I don't know, and I don't want any of you to think about it," Sage told Hermione intently. "It's out of our hands completely, I'm just glad I was there to get the five of you away from him before he spun the story to blame it on youse,"

"The way they were treating her!" Hermione sighed furiously. "Mr. Diggory, calling her 'elf' all the time...and Mr. Crouch! He knows she didn't do it and he's still going to sack her! He didn't care how frightened she'd been, or how upset she was - it was like she wasn't even human!"

Saffron raised her eyebrows. Mr. Diggory? Maybe that meant that Amos was Cedric Diggory's, a fanciable Hufflepuff in Maya's year in school, father. At the very least he was probably a relation. Saffron made a mental note to ask about it later.

"Well, she's not," Ron stated matter-of-factly.

"That doesn't mean she hasn't got feelings, Ron. It's disgusting the way they treated her. She feels things too, just because she isn't the same as us doesn't mean she's any less important!"

"All of that may be true Hermione, but there's no point in dwelling on it," Sage said to Hermione shortly. "I know it might be hard for you to hear that, especially from someone like me seeing as we've only just met. But I know these people, I have a lot of experience. Barty Crouch was willing to send his own son to Azkaban. Trust that he could have gotten him off if he wanted to, but the thing is that he didn't want to let him off. He'll tell you the law is everything to him but really, it's his perception that matters to him most of all. He makes populist decisions, like when he allowed Sirius to go to prison without a trial and effectively put a bounty on my head as an accomplice. As long as he stays in power, he'll be happy and he'll do whatever it takes to stay there,"

"No wonder Percy works with him," said Ron, as though everything was suddenly making sense now. 

"Your brother works with Crouch?" Sage enquired curiously.

"He's basically his personal assistant," Ron informed the woman, as they hurried down a downhill section towards the campsite. "But what your saying really makes sense, Crouch doesn't even know his name. Calls him Weatherby,"

"Wait, Sage what happened to the others?" Saffron asked the woman, the thought of her other siblings only now popping into her mind.

"They're all okay," Sage assured Saffron with a reassuring smile, as Saffron and Rowan both let out sighs of relief. "They managed to stay together, thank Merlin. Sirius sent me a Patronus during our little dispute with Crouch, but I managed to tail it off when they weren't looking. Had it of been bad news, I wouldn't have been able to make it go away so I expect them to all be at the tent when we return,"

"And, if you don't mind me asking, what was it that you and Crouch were talking about?" Saffron hated to ask Sage this question but she didn't see any point in avoiding the question as it had been such a defining moment of the quarrel. "You mentioned his son, who was he? And he talked about your brother and your friend? Did he mean Peter?"

Sage bit her lip and Saffron could tell she was considering her answers for a few moments before finally giving her one.

"Look, I can't tell you everything simply because I don't know everything myself. But I'll summarize what I do know. Essentially, Crouch's son was a Death Eater, Barty Crouch Jr was his name. He was a few years below me in school, I never saw much of him to be quite honest, Amanda would know him better. He was a Ravenclaw. Anyway, he got caught and it was his own father that sentenced him to go to Azkaban. He showed no remorse whatsoever. The evidence on Barty Crouch Jr wasn't too concrete, if he wanted to get him off I reckon he could have managed it. So many others got off, the people we saw tonight are only some of them. But he didn't, he sent him there and he died there. Sirius probably heard about it while he was there, I don't know. But I remember was my sister telling me that the trial was a sham, merely a chance for Crouch to show everyone how much he hated his son, probably trying to keep his name in the hat to be the next Minister,"

"My next encounter with Barty Crouch was a few years later, my one and only time that went back to the wizarding world. I didn't have any choice. My brother had gotten in some trouble, and I really was the only person to get him out of it. It--- it's difficult to explain and difficult for me to talk about, but in the end, I failed. He ended up passing on, way before his time and Barty Crouch stuck his nose in as he always does. Of course, you could argue it's his job, but he was more than willing to break the law to get what he wanted which goes against the very nature of what it is he's supposed to be doing,"

"Then finally, to answer the last part of your question. My friend is Peter, yes, or at least I think that's who he means. But why he tried to use that against me when he's the one who wrongly convicted Sirius and didn't even bother to hear him out makes no sense to me. I think it just shows his age, to be quite honest. He needs to retire, he's served his purpose. I'm not going to tell you all he's the worst in the world, there are many worse than Barty Crouch. He did a lot of good for us during the war but not after it, certainly not after it,"

"I know that's probably a lot for you all to stomach and I don't expect you to care about any of it," Sage said to them, her note of finality on the questions Saffron had asked creeping into her voice. "There is no cause for any of you to worry. That's all you need to know. You all have the opportunity to have a proper childhood and to truly live your teenage years, without worrying about adult issues. But it's still important to be aware, considering you'll probably be seeing a lot more of Crouch this year,"

"But what if Volde---" Harry began but he stopped upon noticing that everyone else that he was with flinched at the sound of the name, even Sage. "Sorry, what if You Know Who's sign, the one in the sky tonight, what if that meant something?"

"If it did, let the adults deal with it," Sage told Harry firmly. "Not the Barty Crouch's of the world, but other people. Not even people like me, I'm not going to act like I'm the perfect person to deal with any of this. I'm not. I'm one of the biggest failures out here,"

"You're not a failure," said Rowan sympathetically.

"I failed both of your mothers, Prina and Lily," Sage shook her head with a frown. "They were my friends and if they were gone, I was supposed to try to take their place and ... and I didn't. You all deserve so much better than that,"

"You can think that's true, but we don't want anything else," Saffron said to Sage softly. "We're happy we have you,"

Sage smiled at them with emotion welling up in her bright blue eyes. "I'm going to try my best, from now on. To answer your question Harry, because I don't want you worrying about it, the Dark Mark tonight I'm almost certain was done to put fear into us all. It was probably a plan by the ex-Death Eaters, to reminisce over old times, their glory days. In their mind, this was the perfect opportunity to do it, when everyone would see it. And I mean, it worked, they got what they wanted and very likely got away with it by framing Winky,"

"It's just so unfair," Hermione huffed. "Winky doesn't deserve to be punished for something she couldn't possibly have done,"

"You're absolutely right Hermione," Sage nodded in agreement as they made their way back to the campsite. "But it's often the innocent that pay the price for the guilty, just ask Sirius,"

Saffron gulped at that. As always with adults, she knew she was getting probably half of Sage's story. But what she said rang true. Innocent people served as casualties for guilty ones but if someone was going to be the casualty, she was glad it was Winky and not those who were closest to her.