User Profile

Canon: Harry Potter
Race: Human

Appearance
Barty's face recalls a falcon. Sure, he looked innocent and freckled and fresh-faced at nineteen, but Azkaban wasted his good looks, as it did every good-looking Death Eater's. His features are drawn and angular from starvation and despair, with a hawkish nose just aiming for the next little Mudblood prairie dog he's going to swoop down on. His grey eyes are all at once alight with malice and completely dead, obviously a side effect of having such a good snog with a Dementor that his soul was sucked out of his body. In more mundane news, his hair is straw-coloured and a bit long. He's tall, and more gaunt than lanky these days.

Personality
Batshit insane? No, really. He's fanatically psychotic, completely unhinged. He's absolutely rabid in the belief that Muggles, Muggle-born wizards, and people who cater to them are a blight upon the earth and should be removed -- and, if possible, made to suffer for their treason against good breeding. He's sociopathic and sadistic, and has no regard for human life, even Pureblood life, unless that life is on his same path of ethnic cleansing and serving Lord Voldemort, whom he idolises. He's violent and quick to anger when he's surrounded by traitors, Muggles, and Mudbloods, because it makes him feel helpless and unworthy when he is reminded his work is nowhere near done. He does, however, have a sort of transcendent patience when he thinks of the high ideal his Dark Lord sets for him.

History
Barty started off in a respectable Pureblood wizarding family, the kind that prided itself on its heritage without believing Muggle torture was a noble hobby. While his father was a hard man, his mother was nothing but loving, and as Daddy spent a lot of time at the Ministry positively gagging for a promotion, Barty's childhood was pleasant enough. There was no plucking the wings off flies, or torturing puppies.

It wasn't until he got to school that he started to get nasty. He was sorted into Slytherin, having inherited his father's ambition. As he came to school in the middle of a crusade to turn the Knights of Walpurgis (now called the Death Eaters) into genocidal maniacs, being even a moderate Pureblood supremacist landed him in the wrong crowd. He started by losing his inhibitions to mock Mudbloods. It elevated to being part of the crowd when his friends would corner the filthy beggars to menace them. Eventually little Barty caved to peer pressure and started hexing enemies of Slytherin himself-- not a difficult progression, as by then he saw nothing morally distaseful in teasing these children who were no better than animals. A combination of adolescent hormones and Death Eater indoctrination did its work; Barty grew less considerate of the downtrodden Mudbloods by the year. He even thought it was funny when a Mudblood or Muggle-lover was horribly injured by one of his friends; as far as he was concerned, they had it coming, for going against the destined Armageddon that would wipe away the Muggle taint on their world.

At home, meanwhile, Daddy had won his promotion and so was more scarce than ever, and his poor Mummy was blind. Barty was still a sweet boy, as far as she saw; he had to respect the mother who had been so good as to bring him into the world a Pureblood, even if he conversely resented his father for spurning him. But Barty's friends were still around during the summer holidays, and while Mrs. Crouch thought they were having tea at each other's houses, they were creating more work for Mr. Crouch, in the form of Muggle-baiting in the nearby villages. There were magical fireworks chasing people, buckets throwing themselves over their carriers' heads on the way back from the well, rainstorms following individuals around. Great fun, in Barty's opinion, but only a taste of what was to come.

He met Lord Voldemort immediately after he left school, and if he had ever read the Holy Bible, he would have thought this man was the Messiah Himself. His appearance transcended that of normal mortals; he said all the right things about giving the world back to the wizards; this man was something special. Lord Voldemort saw something special in him, too; he was obviously fanatical and willing to do his Dark Lord's grunt work. The Dark Lord loved grunts. Barty was Marked, and the fun began.

He started small to prove his worth: breaking into the homes of Muggles and of weak Ministry officials who didn't sit their DADA NEWT and killing the defenceless buggers. Soon he was taken on raids against Aurors, and even killed a few with a certain unblockable curse. He suggested and organised a raid on the Ministry, contributing to a death toll of forty-one. It was then Lord Voldemort accepted the Lestranges' word on him, and took him into the Inner Circle. Bellatrix finally took him along on recruitment missions, which entailed torturing a number of fence-sitters and their families to persuade them to give the Dark Lord inside information, or a helping wand. The killings continued, lots of them. They were winning the war against the evil Muggles and Ministry.

And then, the unthinkable happened. Lord Voldemort was vanquished. Killed by a baby. It couldn't be; he was immortal; he was only hiding. Together with Bellatrix and her husband and brother-in-law, Barty hunted down the best surviving Aurors, Frank and Alice Longbottom, to question them as to what the Ministry knew about Voldemort's flight. They tortured both husband and wife into madness, and where Rabastan and Rodolphus were growing nervous, Bella and Barty were as fanatical as ever about wringing the truth from the babbling idiots. They could be tortured back to sanity, they could--

Be caught red-handed by the Longbottoms' colleagues and chucked into Azkaban. They were ushered into a mockery of a trial a couple days later, and the Dementors had already begun to wilt Barty's resolve. He begged, he pleaded; he had no love for his father, residing over the trial, but he did not want to stay with the Dementors. But stay with the Dementors he did, until his mother's mercy brought him out of Azkaban, leaving her in his place. His love for his mother was secretly renewed; she was laying down her life to allow him freedom, freedom to bring Voldemort back.

Of course, it didn't work like that. His father put him under the Imperius Curse to keep him docile-- how dare he use such weapons after all his bluster against the Death Eaters? Weak from Azkaban, Barty Jr. did not have the resolve to fight the curse, so for years he remained a prisoner, never even seeing the outdoors. He grew bitter, tired, came close to giving up. It was only his house elf's babying that kept him going, and growing stronger again. If only he had a wand, he would show his father what's what, and start the search for Voldemort once more.

The elf convinced Mr. Crouch to arrange for his son to attend the Quidditch World Cup -- he had always loved the sport. No one knew Barty was almost ready to break free. Sitting in the Top Box, his mind was not on the game (as exciting as it was) but forcing his limbs to move of his volition. He managed to reach forward and take the wand of the boy sitting in front of him -- Harry Potter no less! The boy who had vanquished his Dark Lord. Barty longed to lift the wand and cast Avada Kedavra, but he decided to bide his time; if he killed Potter, he would be discovered, and never have the opportunity to return to Lord Voldemort.

He thought his time came that night, when his so-called comrades, the ones who had lied and cheated to avoid Azkaban, came out for Muggle-baiting. Barty was so disgusted, he wanted to kill them all, but he didn't have the strength to fight the elf, who was dragging him away from the melee. He did, however, manage to cast the Dark Lord's symbol, the Dark Mark, into the sky, scaring the cowardly Death Eaters away.

The house elf was blamed and dismissed for letting him get a wand, and Barty was left alone under his tyrannical father, without even the kindnesses the elf provided. Happily, Lord Voldemort stopped by one day-- alive, albeit weak. His lackey put Mr. Crouch under Imperius, and Barty was at last free. He eagerly agreed to kidnap Alastor Moody and to take his place at Hogwarts, to implement a plan to bring Lord Voldemort back to his body.

He came to Hogwarts with an initial supply of Polyjuice Potion, drinking it from Moody's hip flask, but ultimately he had to steal from Potion Master Snape's stores -- incidentally another traitor who denied his work for Lord Voldemort. He put Harry Potter up for the Triwizard Tournament, and gently nudged him through the first two events, alive. He did little wrong but sneak at this time; Dobby was the one who stole gillyweed for the brat. When the third event came, however, it was vital that Harry not merely survive, but reach the Portkey-enchanted prize first. While patrolling the maze, he put Viktor Krum under Imperius and made him incapacitate Fleur Delacour. He set him to torture Cedric Diggory, but Potter was fool enough to rescue him and knock Krum out. He still managed to make Potter reach the Portkey, although he was again foolish enough to share the prize with Diggory. But the Dark Lord had the person he needed to restore himself to a fully functional, wand-holding body. And Barty had done it all by himself.

Unfortunately, he did pay for it by having his soul sucked out of his mouth, but he passed on more or less happy, for he had restored the Dark Lord to continue his noble crusade against the Muggles!

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