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Sitting at his desk preparing for the next lesson, Defence Against the Dark Arts with the fourth years, Barty thought back to when he went to Hogwarts. Defence Against the Dark Arts had always been one of his favourite subjects, even when he had it with the Gryffindores.
Today's lesson wasn't anything that special as it was the first one with these particular students, they were just doing some prediction spells that he knew that he had found useful when… well, when everything went downhill.
He couldn't stifle the laugh that escaped him when he thought back on his life. It started with a young boy who hated his father and did everything he could just to spite him. He was sorted into Slytherin when he knew his father expected him to be in Ravenclaw and befriended all of the sacred 28 which he had succeeded in. They were quite the group, weren't they? A Black, a Rosier, a Lestange, a Crouch, and somehow a Meadows. He never figured out how Dorcas ended up with them, being neither a Slytherin nor one of the sacred 28, but somehow, the five of them worked out.
He continued on becoming a death eater with Regulus and Evan, where he in the end became part of the Dark Lord's closest circle, even at such a young age. And look at him now. Back at the school where he met his best friends, his better half, all of them gone, and him, stuck in the body of the auror who was the cause of all the pain he’s been through. He can't help but laugh at the irony of it all. The place that promised help and protection to everyone who asked for it. Bullshit. He had seen it then and he can see it now.
As he sat back daydreaming, the students began filing in, Ravenclaws and Slytherin alternatively. Of course it was them paired together, he thought to himself, shaking his head in disbelief, some things never changed.
When the classroom looked close to being as full as it was gonna be, Barty stood up, taking a sip from his hip flask. He was never gonna get used to the taste of that foul tasting gunk. His new metal leg was also something he had had to work on when he first took the aurors body but he was finding it quite useful at times. All the students' eyes turned to him as they heard the thunk of his leg when he approached.
“For those of you who don't already know, my name is Alastor Moody, I’m an auror. I’m here as a favour to Dumbledore.” Getting that information out of the old man had been the hardest part of the entire plan to get here. “Any questions?” Multiple hands shot up in the air but he ignored them in favour of starting the lesson. “Great, let's start this lesson.”
He took out the parchment with all of their names on it. There were a lot of them. Most of them he didn't recognise, but there were a few that caught his eye. He made it a game for himself to figure out whom all the children belonged to.
Of course, there were Crabbe and Goyle, he could have spotted them anywhere. Nott was on the list. Malfoy. That had to be Cissy’s kid, or maybe Bellatrix, but there had to be some Black-blood in there with those cheekbones and that posh posture, probably Cissy’s fault.
He didn't recognise any of the Ravenclaws’ names, but then he called out ‘Miss Lovegood’ and looked up just to see his best friend sitting right there. “Pandora”, he whispered.
There was no question despite the name. They had the same long blonde hair and dim, sort of shadowy haze of their eyes, like they were on a completely different planet. He never had any clue what was going on inside her head, but God did he miss her. For just a moment it was like having his best friend back.
The day he found out she was gone, he was out on a mission. He had wanted to reach out to Dorcas so badly but he knew, even then, that she would never forgive him, because he had been there the day McKinnon was killed. Struck by his own grief he couldn’t care less anymore. He went after everyone who wasn't wearing a mask in hope that he would hit the man who was responsible for Ev… his death and whose body he was now trapped in, again, the irony isn't lost on him.
Barty never claimed to be a good person or even a nice one, but just for once, he wished that he had someone who still believed in him. Regulus always did. No matter what happened, Regulus never blamed Barty, not even when he deserved it, he just helped him through whatever was happening. How could all of them be gone? They were suppressed to make it, not him, a stubborn kid who wanted to get a rise out of his father. They were all supposed to make it, all of them.
The day he found out she was gone he aborted the mission and disappeared, no one came looking for him so he just sat there with his own thoughts. She was so good! She was supposed to make it through this war and raise her daughter. She would open a potions store in Diagon alley and sell her potions and take care of homeless animals. She would make sure her daughter knew how to pet them all so as not to hurt them. She was supposed to live and have grandkids and push them on the swing in her backyard. She had so many reasons to live. But somehow she was gone and he was still here, despite everything.
“Sir, my name is Luna”. Luna, of course she would name her that. Luna Lovegood, that means she must have married that lunatic after all. “Sir, are you okay?”, she, Luna, continued to ask. He must have zoned out, because the entire class was staring at him. “Yes, Miss Lovegood, you just reminded me of someone”.