Who: Aloysius Croaker & Barty Crouch, Jr.
What: Barty learns about a highly advantageous next-door neighbor.
When: Friday night, 27th May, 1979. (BACKDATED.)
Where: Grindylow Gardens.
Status: Thread, in progress
Rating: Probably PGish.
For as opposed to the idea as he'd initially been, Barty had to admit: his first week of living on his own had given him a fairly substantial amount of evidence that said that he'd been short-sighted in writing it off as a worthless exercise in his father's sadism. True, he still missed his Mother and Winky, when he allowed himself to think about them, and truer still, Grindylow Gardens was far from being home just yet -- but this was not completely pointless. Marius was right: if Barty had been a true Slytherin and if he had any sense at all, then he would seize the opportunities that living on his own afforded him, from the simple things like being able to have Regulus over when ever he pleased to the more practical applications of living on his own, like being able to infiltrate the other side, which would hopefully yield better information than Tempting Trousers Thursday.
One thing he did not enjoy, though, was the tricky lock on the door to his flat. While it seemed to behave itself fairly well, in general, it got rather finicky at the worst times -- like when Mr Abergavenny had brought him to the flat for the first time, for example. Now... it was just being ridiculous, and the fact that Barty had put three different charm locks on the door and lock was
not helping. Barty's Friday had hardly been an experience that he felt like repeating, even though he knew that more Fridays like it would happen in the future. How on Earth so many customers had been allowed into Quality Quidditch Supplies at once was beyond Barty, but they had come in, they had made Barty's life unduly difficult, and, after dealing with them from open until close, the last thing he really wanted to be doing was fussing with his idiotic lock. Sighing, he took the key out of the lock and let it sit unperturbed for a moment before he started the whole process over again. Why on Earth couldn't the physical lock be undone as easily as the magical locks?