Chapter 132: Azkaban Duo, Lovegood House

[The chapter is edited by Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Junior entered a well-decorated hall with a scowl that didn't suit the beauty of the room. If the gaze in his eyes held magic within them, he would've burned through everything he set his eyes upon.

"What has made you so upset, eh, Barty?"

Barty Jr. gazed towards the ornate dining table in the room to see Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew reading a newspaper while sitting in a chair with a cup of tea on the table in front of him. He looked relaxed, as if he didn't have any care in the world. As if he was enjoying the small pleasures of life.

"Moody! That one-eyed freak is weirdly resistant to the Imperious," spat Barty with a toxic tone. "He has begun to somewhat refuse to answer my questions."

Peter looked at Barty. He attributed this to two reasons. First, that Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody was simply a freak of nature with an iron will to resist an Imperious, and second, that Barty Jr., who had not been allowed a wand for over a decade was still rusty when it came to magic. Even he himself had been terrible with magic for a few months after getting out of Azkaban.

"I'll help you to worm information out of Mad-Eye," spoke Peter, picking his cup to sip on some tea. "It's imperative that we get as much information from him before you go to Hogwarts. You have to know everything about him, from the way he moves to the way he behaves. You will be working in close quarters with Dumbledore; anything less than perfect isn't acceptable."

After they found out that Dumbledore had asked Moody to come to Hogwarts and teach Defense Against Dark Arts, the Dark Lord had ordered them to capture the ex-Auror so that they could infiltrate Hogwarts for his plans and schemes for his revival. He had been kept under the Imperius curse constantly to gain information about himself so that Barty Jr. could impersonate him.

"You will help me?" scoffed Barty Jr. He looked down on Wormtail as he continued, "Don't act all high and mighty just because you found the Dark Lord. I still remember the cowardly you. Don't behave as if nobody remembers that. You'll always be that pathetic rat who twitches at the slightest of movements. You'll never be a true servant of our Lord."

Peter set down his teacup back on the table and folded his newspaper. He then stood up from his chair and walked towards Barty Jr. He didn't seem angry at Barty Jr.'s cutting words.

"If I remember correctly, you cried for your mum during the time you were in Azkaban, didn't you?" spoke Wormtail with a calm tone. Barty Jr.'s eyes twitched. He growled. "What was it? Only a month with six dementors assigned to you? That's what you enjoyed in Azkaban, wasn't it? Before your mother took your place and allowed you to escape. You say that you remember the old me, but do you know that the 'true' Death Eaters you respect who didn't escape Azkaban were there when you screamed for your mum like a f**cking whiny little b*tch? They will remember that."

In 1982, his mother's health deteriorated drastically from the stress of her son's imprisonment. In the end, she persuaded her husband to help smuggle their son out of Azkaban. The couple had been allowed to visit due to Bartemius' high status in the Ministry and as Mrs. Crouch's dying wish. Using Polyjuice Potion, undetected by the blind Dementors, Mrs. Crouch took her son's place. She died a short time later and was buried outside the fortress under the guise of her son.

"What you experienced was a happy trip to Azkaban," chuckled Wormtial, but Barty Jr. could see his haunting eyes. "I suffered ten dementors for over a decade. Do you know how it feels to have everything sucked out by those relentless demons for eleven long years? Not spared a single moment of happiness. To be drowned in misery for a decade."

Barty Jr., who thought of himself as the greatest follower to Lord Voldemort, became silent for once and listened to Wormtail. He couldn't recognise this Wormtail from the one he knew before.

"Hmm? Tell me, how is it to be cared for as if you were an infant by a house-elf as we experienced hell in Azkaban," mocked Wormtail. "Was it hard to get three hot meals, a soft bed, and luxuries? Tell me your struggles, Barty. Tell me the horrifying moments you suffered through while the dementors hovered over you."

Peter stared up at the taller man and smiled, "Don't forget that I just didn't find the Dark Lord. If I hadn't found Bertha Jorkins, the Dark Lord would've never ripped past through the memory charm that your father placed on her. If not for me, we wouldn't have come to rescue you. Without me, you would still be rotting beneath an invisibility cloak under your father's imperious..."

All of it had started when the Dark Lord decided to gather information about the wizarding world. He started with Bertha Jorkins, a ministry employee that Peter had brought along with him while looking for the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord had been surprised after he found that someone had put a powerful Memory Charm on her upon torturing her. After breaking the charm, he learned from her that this year the Triwizard Tournament would be held at Hogwarts and that Alastor Moody, an ex-Auror, would teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. She also knew that Bartemius Crouch Jr, one of his most loyal Death Eaters that apparently had been imprisoned in Azkaban after his fall and was thought to be dead, was alive.

Voldemort, unable to possess her body and mind that was damaged by the spells he cast, killed her. Voldemort also knew that Peter's status would attract too much attention, so he didn't possess his body either. Together, they built a rudimentary body that Voldemort used for travel and performing magic. While in this form, Voldemort was forced to drink a Rudimentary body potion made from unicorn blood and venom from Nagini, whom he had turned his Horcrux using Bertha Jorkins.

After creating himself a body, Peter and Voldemort moved to the Crouch residence. Voldemort needed a loyal follower to help him regain power and easily managed to free Barty Jr. from his father's imprisonment. They put Bartemius Sr. under the Imperius Curse and forced him to keep working at the Ministry as he usually would. The house-elf, Winky, who had been caring for Barty Jr. for a decade, was killed without a single thought as she, sadly, provoked the wrath of the Dark Lord.

They stayed at the Riddle House in Little Hangleton for a while because Voldemort wanted to stay close to Little Hangleton's graveyard. Still, Peter convinced Voldemort to move to the house of the Crouch family, away from the muggle population. Since then, the trio had been living in the Crouch residence while planning their future moves.

"... Bartemius Junior, keep in mind why you are here and who you're talking to because, if you don't, things might just surprise you, and that surprise won't be a pleasant one," said Wormtail before walking back to his chair and resume what he was doing.

Barty Jr. looked at Peter and recalled a chat he had had with the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord had told him that he had rescued him because of his loyalty. The Dark Lord told him that he didn't trust Wormtail and that Barty's presence filled him with relief in that turbulent time.

Right then, he understood why the Dark Lord didn't trust Peter Pettigrew. The man he saw now and the man he was a decade ago were just too different. Neither he nor the Dark Lord believed that Peter would look for the Dark Lord after escaping Azkaban; that he would run away from everything and leave behind the life that had put him into Azkaban. But unexpectedly, Peter didn't run away and looked for the Dark Lord.

As he stood there looking at Peter, Barty held himself from lashing back.

'It isn't the right time,' thought Barty Jr. 'The Dark Lord will reward me when he returns to power. Then, we will see who matters more. All that matters is the Dark Lord and his return.'

Barty Jr. gave Peter one last look and then turned towards the door. It was time to see his Lord, who had called him to discuss some things. Unlike Peter, Barty Jr. was a true and faithful follower and would never betray his Lord. He didn't notice the look that Peter gave him when he turned, missing his cold, calculative gaze.

- (Scene Break) -

Quinn laid on the bed. He was reading a book that hovered in his head while occasionally turning pages without actually touching the book. His fake wand lazily laid in his hand and his eyes moved left-to-right on the lines as he moved down the pages.

He removed his eyes from the book. He had heard the noise of a discordant crunch and continuous things snapping together, which created a popcorn of satisfying clicks in his ears. The repeated sound rang in Quinn's ears. It was like white noise, but was so satisfying that Quinn had to look at the source of the noise.

Quinn watched as a dainty hand picked up tan-colored plastic bricks while adding them to a grand, yet incomplete structure with a satisfying snap. One by one, the plastic blocks, which looked like bricks, started to be added to the structure. And with each addition, the structure moved towards what looked like a castle. The conical tops were grey, whereas the rest of the building was tan in color.

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"Luna, there are two protrusions rather than three in the big tower," said Quinn as he saw his blonde junior add a mini castle head to the side of two other castle heads that extended from a much larger castle tower.

Luna Lovegood looked at him with her dreamy eyes and blinked a couple of times before nodding and silently removing the third mini castle head, leaving the other two alone. She looked at the work-in-progress, which was a representation of Hogwarts made from what Quinn had gifted her, Legos.

At first, she didn't understand the aim of those Lego bricks, but after Quinn sat her down and made a small cabin surrounded by woods from a load of bricks together, she understood the potential of the gift Quinn had given to her. From that day onwards, Luna got obsessed with Legos and started to build so many things from her imagination; from buildings to magical creatures to… well, anything Luna could imagine. Just as Quinn had promised her when he gifted her the boxes full of colorful bricks, tiles, plates, studs, and tubes type Legos.

"Are you going to help me?" asked Luna while continuing to add Legos to the incomplete Hogwarts castle, which was only in an initial stage- as Luna planned to recreate the landscape around the castle.

"Yeah," spoke Quinn, took out a thin A-4 size notebook, and handed it to Luna.

"What's this?" inquired Luna and opened the notebook to see detailed sketches of every part of the Hogwarts exterior sketched onto the numerous pages. Some were up close; others were from far away, from a bird-eyes view, or from the ground. As Luna flipped the pages, she saw every conceivable angle of Hogwarts she could think of.

"You can reference those for your build," muttered Quinn and continued to read his book. He had a mental structure of Hogwarts inside his head; he was sure that he knew Hogwarts better than anyone else. So after Luna sent him a MagiFax about her upcoming build, Quinn drew up an entire notebook worth of Hogwart shorts.

"So you aren't going to help me?" asked Luna once again, setting the notebook aside. Quinn raised his fake wand prompting Luna to immediately interject, "Without magic."

Quinn snatched the book out of the air and snapped it close. The book went back into his expandable pockets, and he slipped down from the bed to the blue rug that was spread on the floor of Luna's room in the Lovegood house.

"What do you want me to take care of?" asked Quinn.

"The viaduct bridge, please," answered Luna.

"Alright. One bridge coming up," nodded Quinn, and his hands went into the box of legos.

As the two Ravenclaws built Hogwarts, Quinn occasionally looked around the room while recalling how Luna's room had been described in the books. He remembered that in The Deathly Hallows, Harry had described Luna's room and had come across his and the other Ministry Five's faces painted on the ceiling with the word "friends" written in golden ink, creating a circle around each of them and connecting them together. Currently, the top was bare with no faces or any other mural painted on it.

In the books, Harry described Luna as having pictures of hers and her mother in the frame, and this was true, as he saw Luna and Pandora Lovegood in photos together. But what made Quinn smile was the fact that there were more photos in Luna's room other than her mother's.

He saw familiar photos: photos of him, Luna, Eddie, and Marcus, together at Hogwarts. He and Luna together at the A.I.D. office. Luna playing catch with Eddie while flying on a broom. Marcus and Luna playing chess in the Ravenclaw common room. A few photos from Luna's second year at Hogwarts, the year she became a part of Quinn's friend circle.

'Have to make sure that she makes more memories,' thought Quinn and went back to putting blocks into the structure.

"Quinn, is Hogwarts a girl or a boy?" asked Luna.

"Hogwarts is a lady, Luna," answered Quinn.

"How do you know?"

"Don't know, I just think Hogwarts is a lady... Lady Hogwarts just sounds right."

"Lady Hogwarts... Lord Hogwarts... hmm, you're right, Lady Hogwarts sounds better," nodded Luna. "So we live inside a girl?"

"..."

- (Scene Break) -

Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley walked on a stamped-out path between the grass. They were surrounded by trees and flowers that grew in patches; there wasn't a single sign of urbanization in sight.

"How much more do we have to walk?" asked Ivy as they moved across the small, quaint village known as Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, England.

The village had both muggle and magical communities, the latter being quietly established after the Statute of Secrecy in the 17th century. Four wizarding families were known to live around Ottery St. Catchpole: the Weasleys, the Fawcetts, the Diggorys, and the Lovegoods.

"It's a fifteen-minute walk, so maybe five minutes more," answered Ginny. She paused to pick up a wild lavender flower. She added it to a bouquet of flowers she had collected during their walk.

The three were walking towards the Lovegood house on the other side of Ottery St. Catchpole. The three girls had escaped the Burrow, home to the Weasley family when the Quidditch talk about the upcoming tournament had become too much for Ivy and Hermione.

And as much as Ginny enjoyed Quidditch, she, too, wanted to get out so she tagged along with Ivy and Hermione. After they got out of the house, they thought about what to do and somehow came to the conclusion that they should go see Luna Lovegood, who lived on the opposite side of the village.

"How is Luna Lovegood?," asked Hermione. "I mean, I know a little about her; she is a little weird, but how is she exactly?" The intelligent witch had once called the Quibbler "rubbish" without knowing that Luna's father was the editor. Luna had heard it and had called her mean. It was safe to say that the two didn't get along well.

"Even though we both live here, I don't know Luna that well. We played a couple of times when we were little, but then, Luna's mum died and she stopped coming over," answered Ginny. The last time she had played with her was when she had been nine. "Luna is... peculiar to say the least. But if you ignore her eccentric behaviour, Luna is nice... it's just that she has different interests."

"Some call her 'Loony Lovegood,' though," commented Hermione.

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"Er, don't call her that," interjected Ivy.

"Huh, of course, I'm not going to call her that. It's rude."

"No, I mean don't even say it behind her back," continued Ivy. "If someone hears you call her Loony, then there are good chances that you'll be cornered later that day."

"What do you mean?"

"You know Luna Lovegood is friends with West, right? She also works with him at the A.I.D... so, if you talk about someone calling Luna' Loony,' then people will come for a talk with you."

"Who will come?" asked Ginny. Hermione wondered the same.

"West, Carmicheal, and Belby; Luna's three friends," Ivy said. "If the person who called Lovegood' Loony' is a first or second year, then they will be visited by Belby, who will talk to them peacefully and ask them not to call Luna that. If the offending person is a third, fourth, or fifth year, then Carmicheal will corner them and straight out threaten them to back off, or they will get beat up; from what I have heard, one Hufflepuff and two Slytherin did get beat up by Carmichael. Finally, if it's someone from sixth or seventh year, West will call them in for a talk, and then... they'll stop. If they call Luna' Loony' to the face, they'll have to apologise to her on the same day or the day after. If Luna doesn't hear it, then they are only released after a warning."

"What does West do?" asked Hermione as Ivy didn't specify it.

"I tried asking a seventh-year Gryffindor, but they wouldn't say anything. They would just shake their heads with a cramped smile. No one has given me a clear answer."

Hermione and Ginny looked at each other and then lightly gulped. Getting beat up by Eddie Carmichael sounded terrible enough, but from how Ivy described it, getting called in by Quinn West sounded more nerve-wracking.

"How do you know all this?" asked Ginny as neither she nor Hermione had heard about this.

"... they only started doing this after the Christmas break," she replied shortly, not wanting to reveal that when he had been in his third year, Ivy had kept tabs on Quinn's activities as much as she could.

"Ahaa!" shouted Ginny, as the wind whipped their hair and clothes. She was pointing upward toward the top of the hill, where a strange-looking house rose vertically against the sky, a great black cylinder with a ghostly moon hanging behind it in the afternoon sky.

"That's Luna's house, right? It suits her. It looks like a giant rook!"

"Do you see a bird, really?," said Hermione, frowning at the tower.

"I was talking about a chess rook," said Ginny. "A castle to you."

Ginny's legs reached the hilltop first. When Ivy and Hermione caught up with her, panting and clutching stitches in their sides, they found her grinning broadly.

"Finally," said Ginny. "Look."

Three hand-painted signs were tacked to a broken-down gate. The first read,

「THE QUIBBLER. EDITOR: X. LOVEGOOD」

The second,

「PICK YOUR OWN MISTLETOE」

The third,

「KEEP OFF THE DIRIGIBLE PLUMS」

The gate creaked as they opened it. The zigzagging path leading to the front door was overgrown with a variety of odd plants, including a bush covered in the orange radish like fruit. Ivy thought she recognized a Snargaluff and gave the wizened stump a wide berth. There were two aged crab apple trees without many leafs bent because of the wind, though they were still heavy with berry-sized red fruits and bushy crowns of white-beaded mistletoe. The trees stood as sentinels on one side of the front door. A little owl with a slightly flattened, hawklike head peered down at them from one of the branches.

Ginny stepped forward to rap on the thick black door, but before she could even raise her hand, the door opened, and someone they weren't expecting greeted their sights.

Ivy's eyes widened in surprise. "Huh, what are you doing here?"

"That would be my question as well. Why are you here?" He turned his eyes to the younger redhead of the trio. "I get why she is here. Her house being what... ten minutes away."

The trio of girls stared at Quinn West dressed in a black collared tee and khaki cargo shorts, a positively clear muggle attire on a pureblood.

"We were wondering whether Luna was available to play with us," said Ginny.

At that point, Luna Lovegood popped up from behind Quinn with sparkling eyes. "Play? I want to play. What are we playing?"

Two pairs of silver stone-grey eyes stared at the girls. One excited in dreamy curiosity, the second in... slight surprise and gradual acceptance.

"Didn't we just spend hours building Hogwarts in Legos? You still want to play?"

Hermione, who heard the word Legos, did a double take because of her current location. She hadn't expected to hear that Luna owned Lego or that Quinn had been playing with Legos for hours.

"Is there a limit as to how much I can play? Daddy has never said anything like that."

Quinn crossed his arms and stared at the girls for a few seconds. "I suppose." 'Luna spending time with girls for a change was good for her, he thought. She did spend most of her time with him, Eddie and Marcus. Plus, he didn't have a say in who Luna decided to spend time with.

"Just tell her dad before you take her out, would you?"

"I'll go tell him," said Luna before skipping back to the house towards her father's study.

Quinn turned to Hermione and addressed her, "I'm surprised to see you here, Ms. Granger; the break is about to end. Shouldn't you be with your family?"

Hermione, surprised with the sudden question, took a moment to reply. "Ivy has invited me to see the World Cup's final; the tickets are rare." Plus, she had already spent the first half of the summer break vacationing in France with her family.

"Of course, the World Cup's final. Yes, the tickets are rare. Just over a hundred thousand seats to be distributed to magicals from the six continents."

"From what you told, you aren't going, are you?" asked Ivy.

"Well, yes, I'll be going to see some games. Only I'm not going to be there at the stadium to see the World Cup's final."

Quinn glanced back into the house before looking back at the girls and smiled. "Now, if you excuse me, I was about to leave, and I should probably leave before Luna comes back and tries to rope me into joining you guys. I'm sure you all are an excellent company, but unfortunately, I have previous commitments."

He wasn't sure if he would be able to refuse Luna if she asked him to stay. He spoiled her too much.

"Say goodbye to Luna for me, if you would," he said while taking out his shrunken hoverboard and expanding it to full size. "It was nice seeing you three. Ms. Granger, Ms. Weasley, and Ivy. I guess I'll see you at Hogwarts."

Then he was off, gliding away on the magic-powered skateboard-styled hoverboard.

And a few seconds after Quinn left, Luna came out, while pulling an older man with her. "Quinn, you should play with us... huh, where did he go?"

"He left and asked us to say goodbye for him."

"Aww, well, nothing we can do about that," she said and tugged on the man's hand, who looked like he wasn't paying attention. "This is my daddy."

A/N: Do you know that in the books, the attire of wizards is described as robes. But interestingly, J.K. hasn't specified what they wear inside those robes... Or if they even wear anything inside.

In the books, the school uniform was just Hogwarts robes and no uniform. Movies added the standard uniform that British schools (among many other countries) follow.

And just to specify, my version of pureblood/magical society attire is old-style muggle clothing or specific, simplest of the muggle clothing. Barebones stuff like shirts and pants and, of course, suits are necessary. Also, I don't have a clear image of girls/women clothing: I am just going with what Molly, Narcissa, and Bellatrix wore in the movies.

Quinn West - MC - "... I can build the entire thing under a minute with magic."

Luna Lovegood - Artist - Lego is her latest obsession.

Bartemius 'Barty' Crouch Jr. - Death Eater (Hates the ones that went free) - Technically, he is the first one to escape Azkaban

Peter Pettigrew - Wormtail - That makes him the second one, even though he did it alone, without any help.

Ivy Potter - "Ivy" - Keeping tabs.

Hermione Granger - "Ms. Granger" - Living at the Potter cottage since a few days ago.

Ginny Weasley - "Ms. Weasley" - Luna's childhood playmate.

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