Darius rushed through the underbrush as he pushed himself to move even faster.

“Ventus!”

The wind-based body augmentation spell helped him speed up even faster but there was no one at the scene by the time he got there. That is when Darius remembered that the Crouch’s were in possession of an invisibility cloak that was used to hide Crouch Jr.

“Homenum Revelio!”

The presence revealing charm was just for the sake of any investigators that turned up. Darius had already seen the DE hiding in the bushes some 5 meters away with his Aura sight, but he was extremely reluctant to let that ability become public knowledge. The presence revealing spell could be a good charm to cover that ability up. The charm actually did reveal the location of Crouch Jr. But Darius wasn’t familiar enough to cast the spell silently and had alerted Crouch Jr to his presence with his incantation, the man was already on the move and trying to escape when Darius used his aura sight ability derived from his innate patho-ergokinetic abilities. It helped him to easily keep track of the man and then send a wide area bombarda maxima to knock him off balance.

The spell was just meant to hold him off from escaping for long enough to capture him, but it was even more efficient than Harry could have hoped for. The spell knocked him clean on his back when it impacted rather close to his position and blew the invisibility cloak away, revealing the stunned form of Crouch Jr. to the world. Before the man could collect himself, Darius shot off a veritable chain of spells at him.

“Flippendo! Stupefy! Stupefy! Incarcerous!”

With the first spell, Crouch Jr was knocked back a few feet and unable to reach his wand. He managed to dodge the first stunner but the other one caught him right on the chest and knocked him out. He thereafter bound him up with some strong ropes. This was one person that Darius most definitely wanted caught alive. If he could be made to spill his guts, his criminal father could be sentenced as well, despite his position as a department head in the Ministry.

The Aurors apparated in at that moment in a contingent of six people and Remus and the others broke through the tree line just seconds later. Remus could have made it much faster if he was alone and unencumbered with others, but he understood that it was more important to protect the other members of the group from harm and made their way here together. Fleur and Gabrielle were there with them as well.

“Drop your wand and hands on your head, now!”

And the first thing the fools do after arriving at the scene is to go after Darius himself. The guys must be utter incompetents to arrive at such hasty conclusions.

“I am most certainly not going to drop my wand, not today, when it was due to YOUR negligence that the area was attacked by the masked morons. And certainly not after I just capture a supposedly DEAD death eater who cast the Dark Mark into the sky.”

“How dare you? We’re Aurors and-“

“And that will be enough of that Dawlish. He has not said anything wrong at all, though I would like to see this supposedly dead Death Eater he has captured.” Said Aunt Amelia, as she walked in from the other side.

Sirius was with her as well but moved to the rest of the group to check over them. Madam Bones on the other hand, was tearing into the rest of the Aurors for rushing to hasty conclusions and making the rest of them look bad.

“So, who is the death eater? You have got him well and truly bound up, I can’t even see most of his face. He looks more giant-sized cocoon than a human right now.” Said Sirius as he sidled up to me.

“Diffindo!”

The cutting charm removed the roped binding him above the neck level and Sirius stepped back in shock at the sight of the familiar face. The face of Barty Crouch Jr. Madam Bones had walked over when she heard Sirius’ gasp of surprise and almost lost her balance in shock right there.

“But how is it possible? He should be dead. His body was buried outside the walls of Azkaban.”

“Judging by the fact that he was declared dead about a year after he was sentenced, the man has been at large for about twelve years now and no one even knew about it. I find it highly circumspect, Madam Bones.”

“As do I, Darius. But it will take time to investigate how it came to this. The man is a pure-blood and as per our laws they cannot be investigated using veritaserum. So, it will be pretty difficult to get the man to open his mouth.”

That is when Darius remembered a technique that he had read inn one of the several Harry Potter fanfictions in his previous life.

“Madam Bones, can you put up an Auror level privacy sphere around the two of us as well as Crouch Jr.? I have something I want to try but don’t want it to become public knowledge. It may help us in getting the information you need.”

She seemed a bit hesitant at first but finally complied and put a blue dome with swirls of energy running through it. Poor witch probably thought he meant to torture Crouch Jr. or something.

“Now, Madam Bones, I’ll try to use an idea I had but I would like it if you could keep it under wraps. The Ministry and that includes your Auror department is rife with corruption and this getting into the hands of unscrupulous people out there who would use it for their own nefarious agendas doesn’t please me, at all. I am going to use a combination of the confundus charm and a cheering charm to put him in a euphoric state similar to a muggle in a drug-addled state and ready to spill his guts out to anybody. Seeing as this is a combination of two simple school-level charms and doesn’t use any potions such as Veritaserum or any variants of it, you may use it even on the pure-bloods to get you the information you need.”

Madam Bones’ eyes had steadily grown wider as she listened to Darius’ explanation and she looked ready to kiss him by the end of it. She was always seething at the way a number of Death Eaters had gotten off scot-fee after the last war with their claims of being under the Imperius curse. The next time she caught one of those masked morons, she could have them spilling out everything to her in short order. She leapt forward to try it out personally and cast the simple charms with ease, after first casting a Rennervate, of course. The spells did their job just as he had envisioned. The first one placed him in a befuddled and uncertain state and the immediate second state put him in a state between being dead drunk and high at the same time. Madam Bones immediately started her investigation.

“Can you hear me?”

“Yes.” He murmured.

“Tell me how you escaped from Azkaban and how you have managed to remain undetected as of yet?”

Crouch began to speak in a sort of annoying sing song tone with frequent giggles in between. “My mother saved me. She knew she was dying. She persuaded my father to rescue me as a last favor to her. He loved her as he never loved me. He agreed. They came to visit me. They gave me some of the Polyjuice potion containing my mother’s hair, and she took one containing mine. We took each other’s appearance.”

“That bastard! Here he spouts off about his hatred for the Dark arts and Death eaters, while he helped his own son escape from a well-deserved punishment in Azkaban.” Madam Bones was absolutely incensed and looked ready to leave to go and get hold of Crouch Sr right then and there, but she managed to calm herself. Taking out her Auror badge once more, she started to speak into it.

“All Aurors to keep on a lookout for Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation. Stun him and bring him in on sight. Suspected to be harboring a Death Eater on his premises for nigh on twelve years. Portkey to secure DMLE cells for interrogation if he is captured and then send me a message.”

Barty Crouch Jr continued speaking, supremely unconcerned with whatever Madam Bones was doing or saying.

The dementors are blind. They sensed one healthy, one dying person entering Azkaban. They sensed one healthy one dying person leaving it. My father smuggled me out, and my Mother died a short while afterward in Azkaban. She drank the potion until the end. Once my father got me home, he staged my Mother’s death. A quiet, private funeral. That grave is empty. My father used a number of spells to subdue me while I recovered

“How did your Father subdue you?”

“The Imperius curse.”

“Tell me about the Quidditch World Cup.”

“Winky talked my father into it,” said Crouch, still in the same delirious voice. “She spent months persuading him. I had not left the house for years. I had loved Quidditch. Let him go, she said. He will be in his Invisibility Cloak. He can watch. Let him smell fresh air for once. She said my mother would have wanted it. She told my father that my mother had died to give me freedom. She had not saved me for a life of imprisonment. He agreed in the end. I t was carefully planned. My father led me and Winky up to the Top Box early in the day. Winky was to say that she was saving a seat for my father. I was to sit there, invisible. When everyone had left the box, we would emerge. Winky would appear to be alone. Nobody would ever know. But Winky didn’t know that I was growing stronger. I was starting to fight my father’s Imperius Curse. There were times when I was almost myself again. There were brief periods when I seemed outside his control. It happened, there, in the Top Box. It was like waking from a deep sleep. I found myself out in public, in the middle of the match, and I saw, in front of me, a wand sticking out of a woman’s purse. I had not been allowed a wand since before Azkaban. I stole it. Winky didn’t know. Winky is frightened of heights. She had her face hidden.”

“So, you took the wand,” said Madam Bones, “and what did you do with it?”

“We went back to the tent,” said Crouch. “Then we heard them. We heard the Death Eaters. The ones who had never been to Azkaban. The ones who had never suffered for my master. They had turned their backs on him. They were not enslaved, as I was. They were free to seek him, but they did not. They were merely making sport of Muggles. The sound of their voices awoke me. My mind was clearer than it had been in years. I was angry. I had the wand. I wanted to attack them for their disloyalty to my master. My father had left the tent; he had gone to free the Muggles. Winky was afraid to see me so angry. She used her own brand of magic to bind me to her. She pulled me from the tent, pulled me into the forest, away from the Death Eaters. I tried to hold her back. I wanted to return to the campsite. I wanted to show those Death Eaters what loyalty to the Dark Lord meant, and to punish them for their lack of it. I used the stolen wand to cast the Dark Mark into the sky.

Then the boy arrived. The first spell sent us flying and disoriented us. I managed to dodge the first stunner, but it caught Winky on her side and the second hit me. Winky must be still laying stunned on the ground somewhere.”

Madam Bones immediately stepped out of the dome and got one of the Aurors to track down said elf and see her remitted to the custody of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She came back into the dome after that.

Darius took the chance to speak up. “Now what?”

“Now we catch that hypocrite dirtbag who helped this scum escape and then give them adjoining cells in that prison to enjoy each other’s company.

By the way, who are the two new additions to the group. And I notice you have a bound death eater with you. You wouldn’t have anything to do with two other sites we found today that had traces of a fight as well as killed or trussed up death eaters along with vials of memory left there for our benefit, would you?”

With a most angelic smile which most definitely didn’t fool her, Darius begin to speak. “Of course not, Madam Bones. How could I even think of doing such a thing, it would be so risky. This is the job of the DMLE and the Aurors and better left to them, don’t you think so?”

Madam Bones gave an equally innocent smile and replied. “Of course, it should be left to them. But I just thought it would be nice to thank the person who stepped up to the plate when the situation called for it and made the DMLE’s job just that much easier.”

Both of them knew exactly what the other one was doing and played along with it beautifully. Darius would have been in a lot of legal hassle if it came out I the open that he was the one who took out the Death Eaters. In spite their status as Death Eaters, they were regarded as members of high society and taking them out from behind would be frowned on heavily. But Darius didn’t care about that, he had steeled his heart and mind about what he had to do and did it in the least risky way possible, rules of war be damned. And Amelia Bones understood and played along with the charade beautifully. She had no desire to send a young man who was responsible for removing these scum from society into that den of wolves. She only routinely asked the question as her position demanded she did and didn’t pursue it any further. Like her mentor, Alastor Moody, she followed a simple creed. A good Death Eater was a dead Death Eater. And Darius whole-heartedly approved of it.

“And the two girls?”

“They are Fleur and Gabrielle Delacour, part-Veela witches who are here from France. I happened upon them in a small copse of trees not far from here.”

Madam Bones definitely understood exactly which copse of trees he was talking about and gave them a second glance. Thankfully, it seemed thay hadn’t encounterd the worst and it seemed it was all thanks to the boy here.

“They were very lucky to meet you then. Their name is familiar for some reason. Delacour….Delacour…Dela-! Oh! Oh no! This could be a disaster!”

She didn’t deign to explain any more and rushed towards the girls. Darius easily kept up with her and they reached at the same time. She spoke to Gabrielle first since Fleur was off to the side speaking into some sort of enchanted mirror, probably letting their family members know they are safe.

“Quel est votre nom, votre petit chéri?" (What is your name, little darling?)

“Gabrielle Delacour!" (Gabrielle Delacour!)

"Comment êtes-vous parent avec Fleur Delacour?" (How are you related to Fleur Delacour?)

"Elle est ma soeur" (She is my sister)

"Êtes-vous apparenté à Jean-Paul Delacour, le Ministre du droit magique en France?" (Are you related to Jean-Paul Delacour, the Minister for Magical Law in France?)

"Oui. Il est mon père." (Yes. He is my father)

Amelia threw her hands in the air and half-snarled, "Oh, this is just getting better and better!"

"What's wrong?" asked Darius.

Darius could barely string together a few words in French and couldn’t keep up with the fast conversation just then.

"Not only have those masked morons tried to assault two underaged witches for this bloody attack, this young lady here," pointing at young Miss Delacour, "is the daughter of the French Minister for Magical Law!”

Even Darius gasped at that. He had had no idea the girls were from a powerful family, let alone the fact that their Father was a very high-level Ministry worker there. This was a great surprise. But Madam Bones didn’t see it that way, not at all.

“This could spark a war among the nations if it isn’t handled properly. And I don’t trust Fudge to handle anything properly, let alone something of this caliber.”

“Well then, it is a good opportunity for you to stave of that meeting before it can even occur. Unless I am very much mistaken, an I don’t think I am, that is the French Minister for Magical Law walking towards this place.” Darius said, pointing at a man walking towards them at a great pace, followed by a contingent of French Aurors.

“Let’s go and have ourselves a talk and maybe we can stave off a war.” Darius grinned and the two of them headed towards the rapidly approaching Minister.