Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "My mind is on vacation"

Username: 
Password:    
Remember Me
  • Create Account
  • IJ Login
  • OpenID Login
Search by : 
  • View
    • Create Account
    • IJ Login
    • OpenID Login
  • Journal
    • Post
    • Edit Entries
    • Customize Journal
    • Comment Settings
    • Recent Comments
    • Manage Tags
  • Account
    • Manage Account
    • Viewing Options
    • Manage Profile
    • Manage Notifications
    • Manage Pictures
    • Manage Schools
    • Account Status
  • Friends
    • Edit Friends
    • Edit Custom Groups
    • Friends Filter
    • Nudge Friends
    • Invite
    • Create RSS Feed
  • Asylums
    • Post
    • Asylum Invitations
    • Manage Asylums
    • Create Asylum
  • Site
    • Support
    • Upgrade Account
    • FAQs
    • Search By Location
    • Search By Interest
    • Search Randomly

barty crouch ([info]blithelybaleful) wrote in [info]lockewood,
@ 2010-03-07 00:17:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:alice longbottom, barty crouch

Who:  Alice Longbottom and Barty Crouch
What:  Something of a pest problem
When:  Sunday morning
Where: The greenhouse
Rating:  TBD
Status:  Incomplete


A pocket full of posies. A pity, perhaps, that there were no posies about. There were, however, a few sprigs of white heather that had found their way into Barty's grasp. What silly little things, these silly soundless bells. Surely no one believed they worked. If ever there were danger, he was certainly it. But not magic had stopped him, no wards or charms had kept him at bay. He knew that she worked here. Maybe the most beautiful thing he'd ever done, and she was up again, walking and talking and working in a greenhouse, of all banally absurd things. In his own way, Barty was exceptionally fond of the idea of Alice Longbottom. Perhaps it was because she was so ignorant of what fate might lay before her. Whole and unspoilt. Not unmarred, because no one was truly unmarred, but not yet shredded to bits and patched back up together. Not yet. Maybe. Maybe soon.

A sharp smile sliced across Barty's lips as he ripped another little flower from the stem. The severed blossom was flicked down toward his outstretched feet, landing atop the three mice he'd killed since he'd arrived. It had been dark when he'd first settled in. It was difficult to sleep at night. He much preferred to sleep during the day. When it was bright and warm. It was far nicer being awake in the cold, dark hours when the rest of the village seemed so ridiculously quiet. Barty couldn't help it. He was restless. The Dark Lord was just... silent. His Mark felt hollow. And Bella wasn't the fun sort of addled, not yet. And Regulus was... well, Regulus needed a little extra care these days. Rodolphus- well. Barty enjoyed Rodolphus most when they were working. And without work, they weren't working. Disappointing.

Boring. Tedious. Unspeakably dull. But the minutes were ticking by. And it wouldn't be so many more before lovely little Alice made her way in.

He hoped.

If worse went to worst, he at least had a couple of presents to leave behind.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-09 04:16 am UTC (link)
She couldn't help but gasp audibly when she heard a man's voice and turned in the direction it came from. She didn't recognize the voice, which put her on guard, if she wasn't enough already. "I wasn't aware this place had an exterminator. Or that I had ask one to come in," Alice said, keeping what she considered to be a safe distance.

"Who are you?" she asked, still putting off pulling her wand. He looked familiar to her, but she didn't recognize him, she'd probably seen his picture someplace before and she really hoped that didn't mean what she thought it meant. She didn't want another meeting like the one she'd had with Lestrange.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-03-09 05:41 am UTC (link)
Who. What a boring question. Who was trivial, nothing more than an arrangement of syllables with no innate meaning. What- now what was more fun altogether. And what was he. He was her, unrestrained. Because that's all they were, people like her- greedy, hungry, mindless things. They wanted, they hungered for things- things they feared. Bound by shackles of fear and guilt, they never reached for them.

And what was he. A dementor with a pulse. How he positively relished the idea. And she had helped him do it. With her, he'd become the things he feared. He really was quite fond of her. But still, he didn't move. No, she wasn't nearly near enough to the edge of fear for him to move just yet. But he did look up at her, a smile slicing across his lips. "How sad that you don't know me, when I know you, oh so very well. When you've given me such lovely little gifts." And then his eyes narrowed, as if he suspected her of pulling his leg. "Are you so very sure that no part of you knows what I am?"

His arms were covered. No Mark peeking out beneath the long sleeves of his thin black jumper. But surely. Surely prey knew a predator on some fundamental level.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-09 05:59 am UTC (link)
The man standing in her greenhouse had been one of the figures in her house the night she came home, the night she came here. She didn't need a name to know that, there was nobody else he could be. Nobody else would take this interest in her. Not the sort of interest that would involve sneaking into the greenhouse and killing rats at ungodly hours of the morning.

A sudden chill came over her. This man was quite unlike Lestrange had been. Rodolphus Lestrange had been happy to let her think he was someone else, that he was just a stranger on the street but this man wanted her to know who he was. "I've heard that the other Lestrange isn't in town, so you must be Bartemius Crouch, Jr."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-03-09 06:17 am UTC (link)
Other Lestrange? Bellatrix didn't call herself Lestrange, which still baffled him, so that whittled the potential list down to Rodolphus. Rodolphus had sought her out and left him out? Fair was fair, he supposed, since Rodolphus wasn't around at the moment.

Pretty little thrills went merrily skimming across his senses as she said his absurdly long name. His smile sharpened further.

"Wont you call me Barty?" he offered, all too amused by the farce of good manners. After a moment, he added, "Your son did," as if he thought this might actually encourage her. And for all her knew, it would. People could be so strange about their children.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-09 06:27 am UTC (link)
"No. I don't think I will," Alice said sharply. Of course he would bring up Neville. So far they all had. What better way to get at her than through her child? However it was also starting to get old. Neville wasn't here and she couldn't do anything about anyone or anything he had encountered growing up. It made her angry and she hated the sneering little arse who had invaded the greenhouse. Her greenhouse.

"What do you want, Bartemius? Because if you are just here to do some sort of twisted gloating about how you destroyed my family, I'd rather you just left." She hoped he would, she was trying very hard not to let him get the better of her. She really needed to keep her temper under control.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-03-10 07:25 am UTC (link)
Pity. Bartemius was a mouthful.

Oh, would she rather. Of course she would. Did she really think it mattered, to him, of all people? (But really, destroyed? He'd left them all alive. Sort of. They were all still breathing by the end of it, anyway. He couldn't quite recall, though, why they'd left lonely little Neville alive.)

"The things parents name their children," Barty mused with a critical shape of his head.

Oh, that was right. The proverbial tree in the forest. If you shred someone's soul to ragtag bits, and no one's around to mope about it for the whole of their lives, did it really happen? Had Neville wished for their deaths? Had he longed to put them out of his misery?

Of course he had.

But Barty was standing. The discarded blossoms fell from his form like a lost flurry of too-fat snowflakes. "What I want," he repeated, as if the words were foreign to him. "Do you truly wish to know?" His wide, unblinking eyes just soaked in the sight of her. Whole, un-mangled her. "Or are you just being polite?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-10 07:48 am UTC (link)
Of course she didn't want to know. She didn't care about a thought this man had in his head, how could she? She just hated feeling like a lamb waiting for the slaughter. They'd done it once and it didn't seem like they'd have any issue with doing it again. All the same, maybe she might be able to get some sort of insight into something. Her morbid curiosity got the better of her.

"I don't want to know," she admitted. "But why don't you tell me anyway?" Alice held her wand a bit higher, stepping around him to try to avoid any potential cornering, but it was difficult when there were nothing but corners to be backed into.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-03-13 12:28 am UTC (link)
Merlin, but people baffled him. The things they did, the things they said, so little of it made sense. Why do anything you didn't wish to do unless you were being forced? And even coercion was a difficult thing. A convenient excuse, but a difficult thing. But nothing was stopping her, nothing was trapping her here. She could run. Maybe she ought to be running. What would she do if he touched her? Would she tremble, or flail, or scream? Would she be as unnerved by his touch as he was by the touches of others? Would some kind of awareness transcend space and time to reach out and wrap itself around her brain?

A vibrant sort of light kindled in his sharp, staring eyes. "I just want to play," he answered. It would have sounded like an innocent statement if it weren't for the velvet edge in his voice. He took an impossibly slow step toward her. "And you, all shiny-brand-new... I didn't there'd be a way to undo what we did. But look. At. You." And he did, though his eyes never strayed from her face.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-13 04:13 am UTC (link)
Alice wasn't about to leave the greenhouse now that she was here. She didn't back down and this young man was on his own here. He didn't have three other people to help him now and here she was, a fully trained Auror. A few months out of practice, but she was confident she could handle it. She wasn't about to let these people keep her running scared.

"I'm not your toy," she said, her voice strained. He had her unnerved, but she refused to let it show. "You're mental." Alice kept eye contact, determined not to break it. But keeping eye contact with a wild animal was the same as a challenge, wasn't it? If that was the case, then so be it. She was entirely too stubborn to back down now.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-03-13 06:12 pm UTC (link)
"Oh- dear, sweet little Alice," Barty practically purred. "You might be my favorite toy. Well- maybe second-favorite." There was, after all, Regulus to consider. But no, Barty respected Regulus more than that. No matter. "But still, special. How could you not be, after all that you've given me?"

Barty's mental capacity however... he knew that he was different. He simply didn't care about the things so many people seemed to hold significant. Their stupid little lives. He couldn't understand how they all cared so much about such trivial things. Barely any of them ever did anything that amounted to... well, anything. But Alice? No, Alice and Frank, what little blessings they'd been to him.

"How is it possible that you have no memory me?" he wondered aloud, more pondering the philosophical justness of it than the actual mechanics.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-15 02:27 am UTC (link)
Alice found it hard not to be disgusted at the way he spoke to her. She wasn't anybody's toy, especially not this creep. She truly felt bad for whomever he considered his first favourite. "You're sick," she said, knowing that it was pointless. It seemed to her that he thought of himself as being on another plain, not bogged down into whatever mental illness twisted his brain into thinking of other people as his play things.

"I've never met you before," she said. "Why would I remember you?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-03-18 07:22 am UTC (link)
Barty gave a bemused roll of his eyes. Sick. And crazy. These silly little words people came up with. Terminology and classifications and label after label that made them feel safe and different and not-him. What were they all so scared of?

Themselves of course. Either too sharp or too weak and too much to stomach, either way.

His eyes flicked over her. No memory then, not even a little. Pity. "You and I... we have such a beautiful history. And you've given me such lovely gifts. And I? I remember you."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-19 02:51 am UTC (link)
"That's lovely," Alice said, walking toward the door and opening it. "You need to go." She was trying not to let him unsettle her, but it was getting to be too much. She didn't like being anywhere near him and she wasn't about to make him aware of the minutes before she arrived, the small taste she'd gotten of what they did to her before she came to this place. She stood by the door, waiting to see what he'd do now.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-03-24 09:13 pm UTC (link)
Leave? No, he didn't see any point to that.

"Why would I want to go?" he wondered, turning his attention to the greenery around him. His fingertips skimmed over slippery-smooth leaves. "With so many pretty little things to amuse?" And yet, he couldn't help but ponder how much more entertaining this could be. So much more, if only- if only. If only there were permissions, concessions, allowances- but no. The freedom of this place was starting to chafe. Hardly interested in lingering on the topic of his departure, he asked, "Does your husband come to visit you- here?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-03-24 09:22 pm UTC (link)
Of course, she didn't think it would be that easy to get rid of him. Her life didn't seem to work that way. She couldn't help but wonder what it would take for him to leave or if she was going to have to do the leaving herself, in which case she couldn't go far. She wasn't about to let Ariana run into this man, but a small part of her was tempted. One of Ariana's fits might be able to get rid of him, but she wouldn't be able to forgive herself for traumatizing the girl.

"No, he doesn't," she answered truthfully. Alice had hardly seen her husband, each of them keeping to their assigned housing. He had come here once, but it was hardly a regular occurrence. "Leave him alone," she said.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-04-20 01:09 am UTC (link)
"Now that's not very nice," Barty chided. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to be greedy?"

It was hardly fair at all, really, if Alice wanted so badly to keep Frank all to herself. Or maybe- maybe she didn't really want him to leave Frank alone. Because why else would she say such an inviting thing. 'Leave him alone.' 'Don't touch me.' 'Dear god in heaven, please, no.' Honestly, what sort of reaction did people really expect to such pleas?

((OOC: zomg I don't know why this update got sorted into my bulk folder- I'm so sorry it took me forever to get back to you xD))

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-04-20 02:15 am UTC (link)
Alice took a deep breath. "I was obviously taught more than you ever were. But sometimes people are just born broken. Is that what you are?" She asked, trying to figure out how to get rid of him without causing a scene or inciting violence. "Broken."


(ooc: it happens, no worries.)

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-04-20 02:45 am UTC (link)
Barty doubted that. No, he reckoned he knew far more terribly interesting things than she. Otherwise, surely she'd have found a way to protect herself from them.

But was he? Broken? Barty paused to consider. Most people just told him he was. Or that he was mad. Or touched. Or no-good-rotten-damned-Death-Eater-son. But things like him, they didn't get turned in what he was. Had to be born this way- had to be brought bare and bloody into the world like this. But what a clever little question she'd made.

"Born broken?" he mused, as if trying to puzzle out a riddle. "Born barbed, bellicose Barty?" Because that was what she meant when she said broken. He wasn't, not really, not like how he'd broken her. He still worked. But then he'd have to, if he were born that way? A merry little laugh went chiming out of him.

"How delightful, my ticking, tocking Alice," he beamed as he snapped the neck of the nearest blossom. When he moved closer, he wasn't quite sure if it was to close the distance, or to head for the door in order to leave- because her question kept rattling around in his head. Like a cat with a freshly caught bird, his mind wanted to find someplace private and rip the inquiry to shreds. With something approaching fondness he said, "I never knew that you liked riddles."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]thrutheglass
2010-04-20 02:52 am UTC (link)
"There's a lot of things you don't know," Alice said, side-stepping away from him. There weren't many places she could go, but she was willing to take the chance that he was leaving. Finally.

She was finding herself drained, although she was certain if he tried anything the adrenaline would take over, but she didn't want it to come to that. Not now. She just wanted him to go away.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]blithelybaleful
2010-04-22 05:19 pm UTC (link)
His idle fingers meandered by little spider-steps along the door frame as he watched her retreat. But it would be rude, he supposed, to go backing her into corners without Bella along to play, too. Barty's hum both considered and agreed with Alice's claim. There was, after all, quite a good deal in the whole wide world of things worth knowing.

"Give me time, impatient Alice- I think you'll find I'm a quick learner." It was less a boast and more a statement of fact, and it sounded a good deal more like a promise than anything else. His privately pleased smile sliced across his features as he twirled the beheaded blossom in his grasp. An amused sound bubbled out of him and then he was slipping from the greenhouse, his thoughts descending and clawing over her lovely little riddle.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -

Home | Site Map | Manage Account | TOS | Privacy | Support | FAQs