"Stay here," Barty Crouch Sr. began, speaking to his son, "and stay under your Invisibility Cloak. You know what will happen if you don't; you're on your last chance." After saying this, he Disapparated leaving the younger man alone.

Crouch Jr. was sitting in the Top Box at the Quidditch World Cup. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and everything looked to be a great day for a match. But the young man's face was not one of happiness, even though he loved Quidditch; he knew what his true master wanted him to do. It was doing it that would be the problem.

Sitting next to him was his father's house elf, Winky. "Listen to your father, young master, he is knowing what's best for you, " she squeaked, trying to be reassuring.

"That's a pretty brave thing to say for a small and useless house elf like yourself--" Barty was about to go on, but he began to hear voices behind him. He knew this was no place to be talking normally with other wizards around.

"Dobby?" asked a voice.

Crouch spun around in his seat. There, sitting next to him, was fourteen-year-old Harry Potter; a black-haired, emerald-eyed boy with the telltale lightning bolt scar on his forehead. Crouch noticed Harry was surrounded by two friends, a tall, red-haired boy and a bushy-haired girl. Assembling as well in the Top Box were a large family of red-haired wizards--the Weasleys. Crouch knew that one of the Weasley boys worked for his father.

Did that half-blood scum just talk to my house elf? Crouch thought to himself. He thinks just because people are calling him 'The-boy-who-lived' that he has the power to walk around and talk to just anynone's house elf. He will pay...

As if sensing the release of the Imperius Curse on her master sitting next to her, Winky gave a fearful glance over her shoulder to Barty Jr. She quickly regretted it, but it seemed Harry and his friends had noticed nothing.

"Did sir just call me Dobby?" Winky asked.

"Sorry, I just thought you were someone I knew," Harry replied, looking slightly disappointed.

Yeah, that's right, Barty Jr. taunted in his mind. No one is here to save you from the Dark Lord, Harry. Too bad I can't just do you in now.

Again, Winky could feel a pang of release from the Imperius Curse. To her dismay, it wasn't working, but for Crouch Sr.'s sake, she had to still try to restrain her young master ."But, I knows Dobby too, sir!" She had to hold onto the curse; she had to keep trying. She held up her hand to cover her face so that no one could see the exertion in her eyes. "My name is Winky, sir-- and you sir--" she paused for a moment, "You is surely Harry Potter!"

There was a movement and a grunt next to her that Harry obviously did not see or hear. But it distracted her enough to miss what Harry had said. She had assumed it was a yes, that he was indeed Harry Potter.

"But Dobby talks of you all the time, sir!" She lowered her hands to make sure the man next to her was still there. She knew that if he left her, she would be punished with clothes--every house-elf's worse nightmare.

"How is he?" asked Harry, "How's freedom suiting him?"

He thinks that he can just talk to Winky as if he in the kind of the world, Barty thought furiously. Well, he's not, and I'm going to show him that. If I could only steal a wand from one of the pesky children's pockets, then I might be able to... He saw one sticking out of Harry's jeans. Perfect. Let's see if the foolish boy can even notice if his wand' missing. He lunged forward, hoping that Winky was preoccupied, and snatched the wand from Harry's pocket. Grinning, he twirled it absently in his hands. This wand meant freedom, and it was all part of the plan.

The curse was getting weaker as Barty worked against it. Winky shook her head; she had to keep holding on. She couldn't let her master's son leave--not again. "Ah, sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, but I is not sure you did Dobby a favor, sir, when you is setting him free. Freedom is getting to Dobby's head, sir, he is wanting pay for his work sir." She said these last words as if it was a horrible, unspeakable thing--which it was to most house elves.

"Paying? Well--why shouldn't he be paid?" Harry asked.

What does that child think he's saying!? Barty thought. 'Why shouldn't he be paid?' Really! Potter thinks he knows everything there is to know, but I'll show him! My master and I will show him, together, we will destroy this filthy half-blood!

Winky felt the strong force pull away from her. She knew this was the end of control on her master's son and the end of a lot of other things. A look of horror appeared on her face, but she had to keep playing along with this game. Thankfully, this horror could be easily disguised as astonishment at Harry's words.

"House-elves is not paid, sir!" she squeaked. She knew she had to keep her tone even if she was to pull this off. "No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family a ndsettle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, which is unbecoming to a house-elf."

"Well, it's about time he had a bit of fun." Harry seemed about to burst out laughing. On the other hand, Winky didn't find this funny at all.

"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter. House-elves does what they is told. I is not liking heights at all, Harry Potter-" she paused, seeing there was no longer anyone sitting next to her. She looked over the edge of the Top Box, but she could see nothing; being up there made her sick. She gulped. "--but my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, sir. Master wants me to save him a seat, Harry Potter. Master is very busy." She looked back over the edge of the box.

Harry went back to talking with his friends as Winky began to get worried. She could not leave the box now--the Potter trio would spot her. But she had to find her master's son.

A little while later she heard a new set of voices come up to the box. The Top Box was filling up, and there was still no sign of Barty. Not that there would be; he was, after all, invisible.

"Ladies and gentlemen... welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-third Quidditch World Cup!" Everyone around her began to scream and clap as Ludo Bagman began announcing the match, but Winky was not happy. Her young master could be anywhere by now, andshe had to keep track of him. She was bound by magic to do so.

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Barty had escaped. He had finally escaped the Imperius Curse that had been set upon him for so long. He had escaped the prison that his father had kept him in since he had returned home. He had escaped the care of a silly little house-elf that knew nothing of the person she was supposed to be caring for. And...he had escaped. It was an astonishing thing for him to get used to.

He quickly made his way down the stairs of the Top Box without bumping into anything. For the most part, he was able to maneuver around without being spotted, but he did run into a few tight situations. It was nothing major, though. He was used to being under the Invisibilty Cloak.

Using his strategy of picking one person and walking directly behind them to avoid bumping into someone, he managed to make his way out of the arena and onto the campsites. He knew what lay ahead of him, but he had to wait for the game to be over first. No matter what the outcome was, there was going to be partying tonight.

He found a nice spot to sit behind someone's tent. There was no one around, as they were all watching the game, but all the same he kept his cloak on- just in case. He was to wait there until nightfall, but sometimes before then he would have to change position, sometime around when the game ended. He couldn't risk being trampled by witches and wizards ecstatic about the match's outcome.

"Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova-- Oh I say!" Barty could hear Ludo Bagman announcing the game. This was convinient; he now would be able to know what was going on. "It's time out, as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"

Obviously the game was going well. With the exception of Lynch, who had fallen out of a dive chasing the Snitch from the sound of it, everything was going according to plan. One of the two teams would win the game and everything would continue from there.

-----------------

It was only a few hours later that Ireland won the game. At 160 to 170, it was a close match, but it woudn't have been so if Krum had not caught the Snitch. As it turned out, the tent Barty was next to belonged to an Ireland fan; this became evident when the family came back clapping and cheering for their home team.

But Barty knew he couldn't stay for the celebrations. That wasn't his assignment. As soon as the sky became dark, he left his place next to the Irish tent and made his way down to a clearing on the campsites that hadn't been occupied. He was the only one there, but that wouldn't last long.

Within a few minutes the clearing began to fill up. Wizards all wearing long black robes and masks Apparated around Barty. He quickly whipped off his Invisibility Cloak to reveal a black cloak and mask he had kept unused for thirteen years. Each of the Death Eaters gathered around him, awaiting his signal.

"You all know what we're doing?" he asked in a rhetorical way. When he saw that none of the Death Eaters questioned him he added, "We're going to party tonight."

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The game was over and Winky didn't know what to do. The Box had eventually emptied, and her master had not shown up. She had not expected him to, but after a while of saying that she was holding a seat for him, she began to believe it herself.

She made her way down the stairs to exit the box, taking careful steps as not to fall down. She hadn't been lying when she said she hated heights. Eventually, when she reached the bottom, she walked even more carefully. When she found her young master, she was going to find him, not bump into him.

After walking around the campsite randomly for what seemed like a few hours, she began to hear screams of terror. Winky might have been a lowly house-elf, but she knew that screams were never good when a escaped convict was on the loose. There was only one place to hide-- the forest.

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The Death Eater "party" was just beginning when the Ministry of Magic showed up. There were Muggles ten feet in the air hanging by their ankles by the time they got there. Even so, they were too late. By the time they were close enough to the Death Eaters to catch them, every last one of them had Disapparated.

Every one of them-- minus one. Barty had stayed behind. All he had to do was change back into his Muggle wear and quickly replace the Invisibility Cloak to over him again. His assignment came next. It was he who was going to find out the after effects of this little shindig.

He walked into the forest following many of the wizard children trying to hide from the goings on outside. Many children were frantically running around him trying to find their family, but all he saw has hundreds of agile bodies for Voldemort to use.

He took Harry's wand out of his pocket, but before he could choose which child to be his next victim for Tom's body, he thought of a new plan.

Let's show the wizarding world who really is in charge. I'll show them that Lord Voldemort will return to power; he cannot be defeated by a child!

Without so much as a second thought, he yelled into the air "MORSMORDRE!" Suddenly, a green jolt of light erupted from the end of the wand, protruding into the sky a Dark Mark. Barty quickly dropped the wand and Disapparated, leaving the wand behind. He would not be caught-- not again.

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"MORSMORDRE!"

Winky heard the familiar voice ring through the trees.

Oh no, young master will get himself into trouble again. Master Sr. will not be happy.

She ran to the place where she had heard the voice. No one was around, but there was a wand on the ground. Knowing this would be evidence for Barty's conviction, she hastefully picked it up; but she was too late.

"STUPEFY!"