AN- There isn't any recording of what Mrs. Crouch's name was, so I made one up.

Fair warning, there is a somewhat graphic death scene in this chapter.

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Chapter 32: Finding Out

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Bartemius Crouch rarely had reason to visit his son. There was no need. His House Elf kept the boy supplied with food and potion to keep him in line, keep him submissive. For a long time now the man felt resentful of his late wife. If he could do it all over again, he would have denied her her last request and spent those last few days or weeks at her side.

He'd known his child was a problem from early on, but Lavinia didn't see it. Junior was her little angel, and any discretion's he'd made were simply poor judgement, she was so sure that he would grow out of it.

He still loved her though, with all his heart. How the two of them could have made a boy that disregarded the rules of society, ones that it had been his job to enforce and lay judgement on, how that boy could be so different from them he just didn't understand. He never took the time to understand.

Now that boy had been hiding in his house for fifteen years and his beloved wife had died cold and alone, her body cast out to sea.

Today though. Today he had reason to see his son.

He wanted to see his face when he realized what a hypocrite his former master was. What his former master had become, simply a decrepit old man that was rotting in a cell in Azkaban where he belonged. A special cell too. One with prime placement in a circular room, surrounded by cells of his old followers who now knew the truth about his history as well as the rest of the Magical world.

How he himself was a Half-blood.

The only special power that that man had was due to the game of politics and nerve. He didn't have any special power because of his lineage. He was descended from Slytherin, so what? There were several in their communities that came from prestigious lines. His ancestor started a school. The Crouch line had prestige from the potioneer who invented Polyjuice. He'd gotten more use out of that than he had out of Hogwarts.

He should have home schooled that brat. It would have done him a world of good to get a caning every now and then instead of a few detentions wiping out cauldrons.

Armed with the publications telling of Tom Riddle's history and the most recent article detailing his return and immediate incarceration, Bartemius Crouch barged into the west wing of the house and located his offspring in the study, he thrust the articles at him.

"Read this," he sneered and turned on his heel. He didn't want to look at Barty any more than he had to. Winky was by the door, having followed him in. "Make sure he reads ever single word," he warned the elf.

She bowed and gave repeated promises of complying as he marched out of the wing and back down the stairs to his own study.

The world had been rocked on its foundations since Sirius Black and Nymphadora Tonks returned to England with the unconscious body of Tom Riddle between them, bringing him directly to Amelia Bones, who immediately called Cornelius Fudge and himself to her office. He hadn't believed it at first, none of the three of them had. This 'man', if you wanted to call him that, had been dead for fifteen years. Where would he have been hiding for so long that no one else had discovered him?

It had taken Albus Dumbledore and a series of tests performed by the retired Head Healer of St. Mungo's, Jacqueline Blake, to confirm that that was in fact the man they were claiming he was.

They were then all sworn to secrecy when told the truth about how it was that he'd survived.

There was no way on heaven or earth that he would be sharing that information with anyone. In fact, he had made Dumbledore put a lock on their minds to hold in that information. Should he somehow fall into a rage and let it slip whilst he beat his son, as he had done a handful of times since locking his son away in his home.

A shiver ran through him as he recalled the way the Inferi had looked. Its red eyes and the expression that came to its face when it recognized itself in the unconscious body out of reach of its cage. Dumbledore had used a spell he had never heard of before to show them the matching pieces of soul residing in the Inferi and the 'man' that was unconscious. There was so little soul left residing in the 'man', it was amazing that a being could live with less than a percentage of one's soul. Cornelius had not hesitated giving Dumbledore the permission he needed to use Fiendfyre to destroy the Inferi. It hadn't taken long for the thing to be disintegrated into ashes.

The emergency Wizengamut meeting had decided the fate of Tom Riddle rather quickly. The articles by George H.M. Rannier had recently been picked up by the Daily Prophet from the Quibbler, the anonymous author providing proof of all the accusations made from newspaper snippets and school and employment records. It was incredible that such a story had come out of the Quibbler and been true.

No one was afraid to call him by his birth name now, if rather felt like one was spitting directly in his face by calling him that. It gave Bartemius himself a perverse thrill to have called him that to his face, now he would get to see what Barty Jr. thought about all this when he went back to check on him shortly. He couldn't stop the sinister twitching at the side of his mouth as he rolled through some of the scenarios that could play out when he went back to the west wing while he prepared a light dinner for himself.

He ate his food and then went to pour himself a dram of scotch. He took his time walking back up the stairs, holding his head high and proud as he headed towards the locked west wing. Unlocking the door he swung it open an froze in shock as he saw his House Elf laying face down in the hall in front of him, a small puddle of blood collecting under her head.

"Hello, Father," came the cold voice of his son beside him before everything went black.

()()()

"Well, fancy meeting you here." Ginny grinned as she walked into the Common Room and promptly dropped her suitcase beside the couch he was on before plopping herself in his lap and giving him a big kiss.

Harry chuckled against her lips but wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back. "Mmm, missed you," he grinned.

"You had a very exciting holiday," she said pulling back enough for them to properly look at each-other's faces.

"Did I ever," he agreed. It had been in all the papers about the discovery and incarceration of Tom Riddle, but she was one of the few people that knew his involvement. He'd sent her an owl as soon as he got back from Albania, simply letting her know he was back, safe, and the country had been beautiful. Then Sirius had taken him away to the Isle of Gibraltar for the last few days of the holiday while everyone else let the news settle in back home.

The general public probably wouldn't ever know the whole story of what happened, and no doubt there were several people out there that thought Tom Riddle needed to be drawn and quartered rather than tucked away in Azkaban for who knows how many years. Apparently, Grindelwald was still locked away somewhere, but it was much cushier an environment than one would expect a prison to be, Grindelwald had books and such to keep him occupied and pass the time with a personal guard.

There were reports directly from a few of the Auror's that had put Riddle in his cell stating that there was no way he was going to get out, and it was bound to be the most miserable and soul crushing place in the world to lock him up. Dora had been one of the Auror's that got to escort him to his cell. They'd moved a bunch of the convicted Death Eaters into surrounding cells and filled them in with all the proof they needed of Tom Riddle's history to discredit him. Riddle himself was essentially stuck in a bird cage circled with his previous followers, whom were none too pleased to find out his true history when it was given to them before his arrival.

"Did you miss me though?" she asked cheekily.

"Did I ever," he repeated and pulled her in for another kiss.

"Oi," Ron called over from the stairs. "How about you put your luggage away first? Then find somewhere else to be mushy, I don't want to see that."

Ginny rolled her eyes but got up and picked up her bag. "Meet you over in your dorm in a minute?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Bring Hermione with you? She wanted to ask some questions about what happened too, but figured we should wait until you and Ron are back."

Harry had come back through the Floo in Remus' office again, Ginny and Ron coming back through Hogsmeade as they had over Christmas. Hermione had opted to stay through the holiday so that she could get a head start on her exam prep. He would just never be able to wrap his head around the way his friends mind worked. She could probably stop reading her textbooks now, ignore the next two months of classes and still get 110% on her finals. She'd be even worse next year.

Neville came back on the train and had gone up to the dorm for a lay down and a sulk; his Gran had been giving him a hard time over the break because his tests scores had not improved over the year. Luna had tried to take his mind off it, if the lipstick on his neck was any indication, but he still would take a bit to get over the disappointment of his Gran.

Ron was chatting with Neville as he shook the belongings of his bag back into the trunk at the end of his bed. "-but I got a lot of time up by the goal posts. I tell ya, Gin has got one wicked arm on her."

"Did you spend the entire holiday playing Quidditch?" asked Neville, rather stupefied.

"Yeah," Ron shrugged as though there was nothing wrong with that. "I finished up all my assignments first, wasn't like I had anything else to do."

Harry was happy they'd done some practice over the holidays. They had a game coming up against Ravenclaw in a few weeks, and he'd had three crappy practices before the Easter break. "The girls are coming over in a minute," he told them.

"Were you there when they found him?" Ron asked with wide eyes.

"No," he shook his head. "I was basically the kitchen boy for the last few days, only so much I could have contributed with my being underage and all. The first few days we were just us looking everywhere for where he might have been hiding." He turned back to Neville, "doing any better?"

"I guess I could have had a worse holiday," he admitted. "At least I got to see Luna a bit. She hasn't met Gran yet though. I don't want to subject her to that."

"I wouldn't think there would be much that could make Luna act any way other than how she is. Bet any opinion your Gran has of her wouldn't bother her," Harry offered.

"Probably, but still. My Gran is opinionated and doesn't have a filter. Luna doesn't need to deal with that from someone in my family. It's bad enough that she still gets it from the girls in her dorm."

"They still swiping her stuff?" Ginny asked as she let herself and Hermione into their room. She headed straight for Harry's bed while Hermione went over and greeted Ron with a hug before settling down beside him on his bed.

"Yeah, they are," Neville frowned.

"I'll take care of it."

"Ginny! What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked pointedly.

"Don't you worry your Prefect little head over it. I promise I will leave no proof of my involvement in any episodes they have."

Hermione pursed her lips at her friend and turned her attention to Harry. "We're all together now. Will you tell us?"

"Is George H.M. Rannier all done?" Harry needed to know. She'd gotten Tom Riddle's story out there as much as was needed for a rounded enough record in the history books.

"All done. I've accomplished what I set out to with those articles," she swore. "And!" she brightened. "I've talked to Muggle Studies Professor, Professor Burbage, they're going to be getting new textbooks made! She put me in contact with the person that was responsible for creating the last one, and I've offered to help. Now there will be information on computers and technology that has been created. There will be a field study component added to the class as well. We're going to meet up over the summer and discuss all the potential changes. She seemed really eager about it!"

"That's great Hermione," Harry told her, mentally making a note to talk to Professor Hooch and Sirius about getting the Nimbus 2001's that he'd meant to get for the Quidditch teams like he'd thought of during the first meeting with the Goblin's about the Basilisk proceeds.

"So," Ron turned to him, "Albania? What was it like? Did you see him?"

"I only saw him for a few minutes. They had to get him back to the Villa we were staying at and get a Portkey back to the Ministry. It was super early in the morning. Sirius, Dora and Snape took him, Remus and I got everything packed away and came back later. By the time we'd arrived there had already been a Wizengamut meeting and they'd confirmed who he was, everything."

"I'm amazed that it all happened like that," Hermione expressed.

"Everyone had been prepared for it. Snape had been researching the potion he'd used for months, Remus had a few 'net' spell ideas he'd been playing with for months as well. Dora had all kinds of maps with potential area's crossed off and narrowed down. The only reason it seems to have gone so easily is because there were so many people working on it," he explained.

"So then," Ron picked up the conversation after they'd all had a few moments of silence to reflect on what could have possibly gone wrong. "You don't have to worry about tracking down the last Dark Lord, and Hermione, you are all done with one of your major research projects. Looks like it should be just schoolwork and Quidditch for the rest of the year," he grinned.

"Well," said Hermione, "those and the other thing."

"What other thing?" Ron asked in confusion.

She swiftly grabbed his collar and pulled his lips firmly against his. The other three laughed and clapped as Ron quickly wrapped his arms around her and responded eagerly.

()()()

It was ridiculously easy getting there. Really. He should have killed Winky and stolen the hair of his father much, much sooner. No one questioned him at any point along the way. Bartemius Crouch's demand for a Portkey to and from Azkaban prison was given to him without question. He'd simply walked into the Ministry and gotten what he needed immediately. His fathers wand worked for him perfectly, his magic was still as strong as ever; that was going to be necessary for what he had in mind.

It had taken a lot to break the hold his father had on him. All these years his will power had been kept at bay by the Imperius his father had placed on him. He'd been sequestered away and hidden from sight of anyone but that House Elf. It was the articles that had made his emotions strong enough to break the curse.

Now Winky was dead, his father was dead, and he was standing on the dock looking at the fortressed prison in his father's likeness with enough Polyjuice Potion to last him several more hours in a flask at his hip.

The two Auror's guarding the only entrance to the prison didn't request any proof of who he was. That was one thing his father had going for him; he was such a miserable bastard that no one wanted to talk to him. He went through the doors and barked at the only other Auror inside the building that he required an audience with Tom Riddle, then was given directions on how to get there.

"How many other Auror's are there in here?" he demanded of the young man in uniform.

"There's ten total on patrol," he answered immediately. "They don't go into that room though unless it's feeding time. That's not for another two hours. Did you need one of us with you?"

"I think I can handle him. He is locked up and pathetically weak right now, is he not?" he scoffed.

"Yes sir, of course, sir." The Auror's cheeks colored and his lips tightened together.

Barty narrowed his eyes at him. His father really didn't deserve any kind of fear from these people. He was a worthless man. A dead worthless man.

Marching down the damp corridors he found the room and observed it from the entrance.

There was a single beam of light shining into the small domed cage he was locked in, a total of ten cells surrounded the exterior of the room. There was Bellatrix, her hair even more crazy than ever. Two cells down from her was Rabastien, it appeared that he had been scratching at his face for the last decade. There were others that he hadn't known as well pacing back and forth behind the bars muttering towards the middle about Mudbloods and filthy half-breeds, all directed towards the center cell.

He moved further into the room and all attention snapped to him. There were calls and jeers and taunts coming at him from all directions as he made his way towards the cell.

"This looks like it is rather uncomfortable," he said taking in the small camp bed and bucket. There was a tin for water, but nothing else in the space, not even a blanket. "Are they concerned you might try to hang yourself if they give you some kind of fabric?"

"I cannot be killed," sneered the half-man.

"You can be deceived though, can't you."

His red eyes flashed with pure hatred. He had no rebuttal though. What more could he say? He was stuck in here forever as far as the Ministry was concerned.

He still claimed he couldn't be killed though.

"Are you saying that if I raised my wand to you right now, you wouldn't die, no matter what spell I cast your way?" he asked calmly.

"You wouldn't be capable of casting a killing curse," his eyes narrowed, there was a small glint of promise behind them though. Very nearly taunting him into trying.

"Are you sure about that? I believe you may have me confused with someone else," he raised an eyebrow at him and let a smirk come to his face. "My father, perhaps?" he tilted his head.

The weak man managed to rise to his feet, attempting to hold himself as proud and able as he had once been. Riddle surveyed the man in front of him, realizing what was really going on. "Come to free your master? What a good Death Eater you are, Barty."

Barty Crouch Jr took a few steps back from his cage. "Actually, I am my own master now. I just really wanted to watch this," he smirked with a deranged glint in his eyes. Swiftly had cast his wand towards each cell around the room in succession, freeing the inhabitants.

Each of the other prisoners took a moment to understand what was happening before stepping out of their cells hesitantly.

"You have all learned of how this Half-blood has deceived us?" Barty asked them.

A resounding "Aye" was called out.

"And what do we do with filthy, lying half-bloods that leave us in incarceration?" he asked them sinisterly.

Tom Riddle's face dropped into one of frozen shock as his eyes darted around to all of his previous followers. Each of them had been living in this place for the years since he'd fallen. He'd been listening to their calls and jeers, about his parentage, about how he'd been defeated by a baby, about how he'd been caught and was visibly weak. They were all bloodthirsty and he was the reason for it.

Barty Jr. blasted the iron of the cage apart and the ten prisoners around him lunged towards it. They descended on Riddle's weak form, knocking him to the floor and stomping on his limbs. Barty watched as they kicked his ribs, punched his face and then five of them started pulling at his appendages and his head until there were audible popping noises.

He watched gleefully with wide eyes as they threw him to the ground and Rabastien picked up the camp bed and broke off one of the legs. He took that leg and jammed it through Riddle's eye socket as the others held him down. Another broke of a second leg and did the same with his other eye. A third took yet another leg of the bed and brought it down between his already compressed chest cavity.

Their hoots and hollers called the attention of the Auror's that were on duty.

Barty didn't care, he had his fail safe in place. Why, he was just an innocent bystander.

What he hadn't been prepared for though was for one of the escapees to grab his flask and take a celebratory drag, effectively turning himself into Bartemius Crouch Senior as well, and before the eyes of the Auror's that had just infiltrated the room.

These young Auror's were no more than cowboys at this point in their training. There was an outbreak in the prison and it was obvious to them now that one or both of these Ministry representatives in front of them was an impostor. The fear inside them must have been what called them to use the cutting hexes on the prisoners. The escapee's standing behind Barty Jr. used him for a shield, making his clothing and skin cut open repeatedly and the world around him fade away to black.

Only a few hours of freedom he'd had. Now he would be joining his former master in hell.

()()()

The first morning after the Easter Holidays the Great Hall received nearly double the amount of owls than usual, even considering the number of students that could have simply left their assignments at home, that was a ridiculously high amount of correspondence.

Hermione was the first one of their group to figure out why. She was gasping from the headline on the front page of the Daily Prophet before Neville or Ron had managed to untie the letters that had come to them from their Gran and Mother respectively.

Ginny was beside her and read over her shoulder. "Holy Fuck!" she exclaimed loudly.

Hermione was too shocked by the contents of the newspaper to remark on her crass words. That was a major indicator to Harry that he should get off his arse and read over her shoulder as well.

Break in at Azkaban! Tom Riddle Brutally Killed by Death Eaters. Auror's Required to Execute Those Involved in Attack!

Harry nearly fell over from what he saw there. His head snapped over to the Head Table. Remus and Dumbledore were missing, but Snape was talking to McGonagall. He didn't know if going up to Snape would be a wise decision.

"Harry," Ginny tugged on his sleeve to gain his attention. "The Map?" she asked, reminding him that he had the Marauders Map on him.

He took back up in his seat and pulled it out of his seat as a muffled sob came from the other side of the table. Looking over he saw it was Neville. He had one hand over his mouth and was staring at a letter in his hands with wide watery eyes.

"Neville?" Hermione asked with concern. "Neville, what's wrong?"

He couldn't form an answer, he closed his eyes tight and passed the letter to Ron before setting his head down on his crossed arms on the table. Ron skimmed the letter and Harry watched as the color drained from his face. He took a gulp and looked up at the three of them on the other side of the table.

"The Death Eaters that, that… his parents," he looked awkwardly down at his friend. "They were executed in the attack."

"The Lestranges," Hermione nodded sadly.

"And…" Ron swallowed. "And Bartemius Crouch Junior."

"What?!" Hermione exclaimed in a screech.

Ron held up the letter a bit. "This says that his body was found there as well. He had Polyjuice Potion to look like his father and basically walked right into Azkaban. He was the one that started the… riot."

Harry looked over at Hermione with wide eyes. They'd talked about that before Christmas. It was mentioned in the Quibbler that it had been odd that Barty Crouch Junior and his mother seemed to have died at the same time. It looks like those remarks had been founded.

"What's happened to his father then?" Ginny asked, "has someone talked to him? Has he been hiding his son all this time?"

"He was found dead at his home. Recently. Looks like he'd been keeping him locked away," Ron told her from what he'd read.

"Neville?" Ginny reached out to clasp her hand over his balled-up fist. "Neville, did you want me to grab Luna? Do you want to go somewhere?"

"ATTENTION STUDENTS," Dumbledore's voice boomed out.

Harry gave a start, he hadn't been there a moment ago.

"Students, no doubt you all heard about how, over the holiday, the one who called himself Voldemort, Tom Riddle, was finally captured after all this time. No doubt most of you received word this morning through your loved one's or through journalistic efforts about the break-in at Azkaban and subsequent death of he and several of his old followers.

"This may be difficult news for several of you as I know for a fact that quite a lot of you had friends and family that suffered in the last war because of them. We will be cancelling classes for today. If you feel the need or desire to talk to anyone, please see your head of house, lean on a trusted friend or go to a Professor. I would urge you to please talk about this. Too much of the last war was kept quiet, and I do believe that this event came about as a direct result of the truth being shared."

He didn't look too long over towards Hermione at that point, but Harry was sure that the majority of his classmates would have believed Dumbledore to have been looking at himself instead. Harry wanted to turn and look at Hermione then as well.

He had a jumble of feelings about this. On the one hand he believed they'd deserved it and he hoped it hurt horribly before they all met their end, on the other hand would others feel that they'd gotten justice for all of the awful things Riddle and his followers had done? Riddle had been in hiding for fifteen years, then imprisoned for only four days?

It wasn't like they could tell everyone what had truly happened to him, where he'd been, what he'd been.

Remus still wasn't at the head table. Harry unfolded the map to display Remus' quarters and kept it out of sight before activating it and seeing that not only was Remus in his suite, but so was Sirius. Before he could leave the table though and go talk to them, he had to make sure Neville was alright.

They were all sitting in the middle of the long Gryffindor Table, Neville had his head in his hands still and his shoulders were shaking. Not caring how it would look, Harry stood up, stepped up onto the bench and walked over the table to sit down by his friend and put his arm around him. He was expecting to hear a reprimand from the Head Table, or Hermione, over that one. There would have had to have been too many reprimands though as it appeared he'd started a trend. Several students in every house had begun climbing over and under the tables to get closer to a friend in need of comfort.

Neville turned towards him at Harry's touch and wrapped his arms around him, crying softly into his shoulder. He didn't have any words of comfort for him, even just telling him to let it all out, he just hugged his best mate back and waited until he was ready to let go.

Luna came over to the table and tapped Harry on the shoulder.

"Nev? Luna's here. I think she wants to be a part of this." Harry told him softly.

Luna gingerly pulled Neville's arm from around him and put it over her shoulder instead, scooching in to occupy the bench beside him as Harry moved back. "Thanks Luna," Harry told her. "Neville mate, I'm sorry. I have to go and talk to Remus, I'll find you right after, okay?"

He didn't acknowledge that he heard him, but he knew Luna would relay that.

"We'll stay," Ron spoke for himself and Hermione. Ginny had come around to that side of the table as well and took Harry's hand.

They turned and rushed as fast as they could to Remus' suite without breaking into a run. One knock on the door and it swung open.

"Did any of the Auror's mention anything about a vapor or whatever leaving the body?" Harry asked by way of greeting to the two men.

"None. Nothing whatsoever about an excess of power being shown, dark lights… no magic of any kind was shown being used by Riddle or any of the Death Eaters besides Barty Crouch Jr." Remus said firmly. "Dora must have interrogated the Auror's on duty ten time's each, asking them specific questions. Looks like Junior went in looking like his father and basically let the other Death Eaters have at him."

"So," Ginny started. "So then, he's really dead then. Those were all the Horcruxes? He only made six?"

"It seems so," Sirius told them.

"Is there any way to check?" Harry asked.

"It has been checked. Was before he was put in Azkaban and the Inferi was destroyed," Remus told him.

The two students took a sigh of relief. "Dumbledore cancelled classes for the rest of the day," Ginny told them.

"Time for a cup of tea then," Sirius went to the small kitchen and the rest moved to take a seat at his table.

They drank their tea silently, reflecting over the news of the day. This was what they'd all been working towards, it just wasn't the ending that they'd seen coming. They finished the pot of tea Sirius went home after giving Harry hug and kissing the top of Ginny's head, Remus waited for word from Dora and Harry and Ginny found their friends outside and spent the rest of the day trying to give whatever comfort they could to Neville.

It was a few days before Neville was doing better. After a few weeks the student population had moved on to exam stress, and after a few months everyone was excited to head home for the summer. The Magical world had all moved on from the shock.

No one was talking about it anymore. The subject had been exhausted and forgotten.

Summer break came and Sirius had planned a few little trips away for he and Harry to take to the Continent. Harry and he also had many an occasion to head over the Weasley's for, and Ginny had talked Harry into having everyone over to Potter Manor for a big end of summer bash before they headed into their new year.

Harry was named Quidditch Captain again, Hermione was named Head Girl, and Sirius surprised everyone by enrolling in Auror Training. He claimed he needed to do something to pass the time, and those girls were fit.

Life was no more stressful than it should have been for the lot of them.

The End

()()()

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