n a hand over his unshaven face, evidently thinking hard.
"All these absences of Barty Crouch's ... he goes to the trouble of making sure his
house-elf saves him a seat at the Quidditch World Cup, but doesn't bother to turn
up and watch. He works very hard to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament, and then
stops coming to that too. . . . It's not like Crouch. If he's ever taken a day off work
because of illness before this, I'll eat Buckbeak."
"D'you know Crouch, then?" said Harry.
Sirius's face darkened. He suddenly looked as menacing as he had the night when
Harry first met him, the night when Harry still believed Sirius to be a murderer.
"Oh I know Crouch all right," he said quietly. "He was the one who gave the order
for me to be sent to Azkaban - without a trial."
"What?" said Ron and Hermione together.
"You're kidding!" said Harry.
"No, I'm not," said Sirius, taking another great bite of chicken. "Crouch used to be
Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione shook their heads.
"He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic," said Sirius. "He's a great wizard,
Barty Crouch, powerfully magical - and power-hungry. Oh never a Voldemort
supporter," he said, reading the look on Harrys face. "No, Barty Crouch was
always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But then a lot of people who were
against the Dark Side . . . well, you wouldn't understand . . . you're too young. ..."
"That's what my dad said at the World Cup," said Ron, with a trace of irritation in
his voice. "Try us, why don't you?"
340
A grin flashed across Sirius's thin face.
"All right, I'll try you. . . ." He walked once up the cave, back again, and then said,
"Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are,
you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control
people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're
scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of
more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing . . . the Ministry of Magic's in
disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden
from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere . . .
panic . . . confusion . . . that's how it used to be.
"Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others.
Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning - I wouldn't know. He
rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures
against Voldemorts supporters. The Aurors were given new powers - powers to
kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed
straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and
authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he
became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters,
mind you - plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and
there were a lot of witches and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister
of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until
Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened. ..." Sirius
smiled grimly. "Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd
managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently they were trying to find
Voldemort and return him to power."
"Crouch's son was caught?" gasped Hermione.
"Yep," said Sirius, throwing his chicken bone to Buckbeak, flinging himself back
down on the ground beside the loaf of bread, and tearing it in half. "Nasty little
shock for old Barty, I'd imagine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with
his family, shouldn't he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while . . .
gotten to know his own son."
He began to wolf down large pieces of bread.
"Was his son a Death Eater?" said Harry.
"No idea," said Sirius, still stuffing down bread. "I was in Azkaban myself when
he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. The boy was
definitely caught in the company of people I'd bet my life were Death Eaters - but
he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf."
"Did Crouch try and get his son off?" Hermione whispered.
Sirius let out a laugh that was much more like a bark.
341
"Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione!
Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his
whole life to becoming Minister of Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted houseelf
because she associated him with the Dark Mark again - doesn't that tell you
what he's like? Crouch's fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son
a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show
how much he hated the boy . . . then he sent him straight to Azkaban."
"He gave his own son to the dementors?" asked Harry quietly.
"That's right," said Sirius, and he didn't look remotely amused now. "I saw the
dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He
can't have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was
screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though . .
.they all went quiet in the end. . . except when they shrieked in their sleep. ..."
For a moment, the deadened look in Sirius's eyes became more pronounced than
ever, as though shutters had closed behind them.
"So he's still in Azkaban?" Harry said.
"No," said Sirius dully. "No, he's not in there anymore. He died about a year after
they brought him in."
"He died?"
"He wasn't the only one," said Sirius bitterly. "Most go mad in there, and plenty
stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a
death was coming, because the dementors could sense it, they got excited. That
boy looked pretty sickly when he arrived. Crouch being an important Ministry
member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit. That was the last time I
saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself,
apparently, shortly afterward. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never
came for his sons body. The dementors buried him outside the fortress; I watched
them do it."
Sirius threw aside the bread he had just lifted to his mouth and instead picked up
the flask of pumpkin juice and drained it.
"So old Crouch lost it all, just when he thought he had it made," he continued,
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "One moment, a hero, poised to
become Minister of Magic...next, his son dead, his wife dead, the family name
dishonored, and, so I've heard since I escaped, a big drop in popularity. Once the
boy had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic toward the son and
started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray.
The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him. So Cornelius Fudge
got the top job, and Crouch was shunted sideways into the Department of
International Magical Cooperation."
342
There was a long silence. Harry was thinking of the way Crouch's eyes had bulged
as he'd looked down at his disobedient house-elf back in the wood at the Quidditch
World Cup. This, then, must have been why Crouch had overreacted to Winky
being found beneath the Dark Mark. It had brought back memories of his son, and
the old scandal, and his fall from grace at the Ministry.
"Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards," Harry told Sirius.
"Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him," said Sirius, nodding. "If
you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one
more Death Eater."
"And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" s aid Ron triumphantly,
looking at Hermione.
"Yes, and that doesn't make sense at all," said Sirius.
"Yeah, it does!" said Ron excitedly, but Sirius shook his head.
"Listen, if Crouch wants to investigate Snape, why hasn't he been coming to judge
the tournament? It would be an ideal excuse to make regular visits to Hogwarts
and keep an eye on him."
"So you think Snape could be up to something, then?" asked Harry, but Hermione
broke in.
"Look, I don't care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape -"
"Oh give it a rest, Hermione," said Ron impatiently. "I know Dumbledores
brilliant and everything, but that doesn't mean a really clever Dark wizard couldn't
fool him -"
"Why did Snape save Harry's life in the first year, then? Why didn't he just let him
die?"
"I dunno - maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out-"
"What d'you think, Sirius?" Harry said loudly, and Ron and Hermione stopped
bickering to listen.
"I think they've both got a point," said Sirius, looking thoughtfully at Ron and
Hermione. "Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why
Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was
famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was," Sirius added, and
Harry and Ron grinned at each other. "Snape knew more curses when he arrived at
school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins
who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters."
Sirius held up his fingers and began ticking off names.
"Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort
343
fell. The Lestranges - they're a married couple - they're in Azkaban. Avery - from
what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under
the Imperius Curse - he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even
accused of being a Death Eater - not that that means much. Plenty of them were
never caught. And Snape s certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself
out of trouble."
