See You Again

-𝕀𝕏-

"And what do we have here? A curious, new little lion, up to no good."

Bartemius Crouch Junior, a.k.a. Barty. Well, it could have been worse. Not his name; that name is just awful, but getting caught on the other hand... She prefers him as opposed to the Marauders or a Professor. Seeing him for the first time since... it only made her remember just how much she missed him. Ara made a lot of mistakes in her life; she wasn't perfect despite how people always expected her to be. When everyone turned on her, friends included, when her name came out of the cup, she spent a lot of her time with "Mad-Eye Moody." Despite how Ara hid her smarts to avoid incurring Hermione's wrath, that someone could dare to be smarter than her. Or Muffy's wrath at being "overshadowed" once again... Well, she quickly figured out that it was him who'd put her name in the cup. She also quickly figured out that he wasn't, in fact, "Mad-Eye Moody." But she chose not to say anything.

Why? Because she was a scared girl who had the weight of the world put on her shoulders, once again. Also, everyone turned against her, once again, and she was unable to properly get the support she needed from Sirius or Remus due to circumstances, once again! And, well... she liked him. A lot. He was the only one who helped her or listened to her. Cedric's death was just as much her fault as it was Riddle's. She had bonded with a Death Eater within the walls of Hogwarts, forming an odd and unusual friendship with one another. He was there for her when she felt most alone. He refused to kill her in the end and gave himself up. Fudge sentenced Barty to a fate worse than death: the Dementor's kiss.

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Barty and her had managed a... truthful face-to-face prior to Dumbledore and Snape interrupting. Barty was just a rebellious kid who joined the Death Eaters not out of blood purity beliefs but out of loyalty. His best friend, Regulus Black, was being forced into it, and he signed up along with him. It was just a bonus that it could piss off his father if he ever found out. He never expected it to go as it did. At some point, he realized he had trapped himself into a life of servitude to a madman. He was there that night at the Longbottoms' when Bellatrix and Rodolphus tortured them into insanity, though he didn't take part in it. He couldn't. Instead, he took baby Neville into a different room, away from it, keeping watch. Though he sort of failed at that, too busy trying to calm a crying little Neville, and they all got arrested.

When his mother took ill, she hatched a plot to take his place in Azkaban, using the Polyjuice Potion to disguise herself. She died and was buried in Azkaban, and the wizarding world believed that Barty Jr. was dead. He spent the following years living under his father's Imperius Curse, trapped in his own home. Something she could understand... life with the Dursleys and all. Voldemort, who had learned that he was still alive, freed him. A life debt was owed, forcing him to re-enter the Dark Lord's services again. He paid that debt, the second Ara had grabbed the Portkey cup and made it to the graveyard. She didn't want him to die... or have his soul ripped out of him. She didn't want him to end up back in Azkaban. The world already believed him dead, and he paid his debt. So, she told him to go. Begged him to run. He believed himself to be a coward who deserved what was coming to him...

When she learned what they were gonna do to Barty, she truly believed she lost her mind that night. Kicking, screaming, crying, she was a mess, and they had to knock her out at some point. Fudge, being Fudge, refused to believe that Voldemort returned and tried to pin it all on Ara. She awoke in her cell in Azkaban prison. For 34 days, she was forced to relive every single horror she had ever experienced.

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At the time, she didn't understand why the Dementors would constantly be trying to surround her like a five-star full-course meal. Turns out, the whole damn time they kept coming after her was because of the Horcrux. Dementors are Death's creatures, and Ara being her, well - they wanted to rip what they deemed a parasite out of her to protect Death's chosen. They weren't supposed to affect her the way that they did, but because Dumbledore had put a block on over half her magic that night he left her on the doorstep, her natural abilities never got to grow and develop the way they were supposed to. Not until the shock of Sirius's death naturally ripped the block to shreds.

"Little lion? Does that make you a little snake?" She smirked back mischievously, which grew wider when he couldn't hold back a quiet little snort.