#crowkiller

Yap all you want about dear Bartemius and Augustus. I'm listening 😁

-- @four-toast

😫😫 my pookies

okok i want to yap about the vibe of the ship... first of all, it's a bit of a slow burn.

it's so funny, because months pass before they start talking to each other. from the moment voldemort puts them on a team together, augustus's refusal to acknowledge barty's very existence is total. it's not difficult for him: he's always on a mission, or—at the ministry—in his department where no one is allowed into. barty is somewhere else entirely, behind a desk piled high with documents to be catalogued. at most, they meet accidentally during coffee breaks—barty exhausted from hours of work, augustus elegant, perfect, and divine, he never seems to struggle—and no matter how many times barty tries to offer him coffee, he always refuses.

the missions for the death eaters, then, are rare. at first, barty doesn't even know of their existence: voldemort tells augustus about them, and he doesn't tell barty. he discovers at a death eater meeting that he was supposed to help all that time, and no one had told him. he makes sure to intercept every communication from then on. he shows up for every mission, and augustus is always shocked but continues to refuse to speak to him.

the only way barty can finally be acknowledged is to become a threat to augustus. he says that if he's ignored again, then he'll be forced to talk to his father. and well, it works, because barty is the son of one of the most powerful men in the ministry, and that grants him immunity (little did they know...)

they start working together, and augustus is absolutely grumpy, nervous, and unpleasant. there's more than a generation difference between them; they don't even know what they could talk about. barty is intimidated, and augustus is uncomfortable. they don't speak to each other, yet. barty simply observes augustus in silence, hoping to learn from an expert. i guess it worked: a few months of this, silence and long stares, feeling barty's breath on his neck... augustus is starting to catch feelings. he's dense, he thinks it's just paternal affection for a guy he sees as his son........

barty doesn't realize it until weeks later, when he notices that augustus's hands are incredibly gentle when they touch him now, as if they're afraid he might break. he panics.

YESS YAPPING SESSION!!!

let me introduce you to my favorite old man. as always, starting with canon:

he was an unspeakable (-> he worked in the department of mysteries)

we know he was a friend of ludo bagman's father, and ludo, not knowing that rookwood was secretly a death eater, passed him some information

he was named by karkaroff and then imprisoned in azkaban, from which he escaped in the 1996 mass breakout

he fought in the battle of the department of mysteries, was imprisoned again, and again escaped in the breakout of 1997

he killed fred 💔💔 but he was then stunned by abertforth and probably sent to azkaban for the third time

this is literally everything.

for me, the most appealing thing about him is that he managed to fool everyone at the ministry just like barty fooled everyone at hogwarts. he worked in the ministry's top-secret department, and at the same time, he used the imperius curse on everyone around him to get information to send to voldemort, without ever being discovered, without raising any suspicion. and who knows if they would've ever caught him if karkaroff hadn't talked.

i think he joined the death eaters because he was a miserable man. he knows criminal circles for work, and he first heard of voldemort on a mission. he probably can't even tell you what the death eaters' ideological agenda is; he doesn't really care, he just wants a master. he's good for nothing but following orders, but he also has a bloodlust that the ministry won't ever accept. he became an unspeakable just to be some sort of soldier, but it wasn't as satisfying as he thought. as soon as he found voldemort, his loyalty went to him.

he's completely impassive and emotionless most of the time. he's a lone wolf. he works alone and alone only, so when voldemort tells him to babysit barty, it's torture for him. he doesn't care how good, smart, or helpful barty could turn out to be; he doesn't need help.

except, he grows fond of him the more time passes. because sure, barty is pushy and annoying when he wants something; no matter how many times augustus curses him, he doesn't give up. but he's also a great observer, and he learns quickly. when they're forced to work together, barty knows what to do before augustus even asks, and he does it well. he has a soft spot for the "kid." they're a good team, after all.

small moodboard just because... yes...

so... is augustus protective of barty? absolutely. does he try to protect barty from voldemort? probably not. but i have an explanation.

well, first of all, i don't think voldemort considered barty important before his "death." barty was always obsessed and devoted to him, but voldemort never cared about him. if in the fourth book he calls him "one of his most faithful and intelligent servants," it's because:

he literally realized it at that moment

what other options did he have? 💀

so i don't think there was anything special between barty and voldemort in those years that would have made augustus suspicious. and also, rookwood is so terrified of voldemort. he would never.

BUT! augustus is protective of barty with everyone else. he knows barty is generally confident, and if someone makes him uncomfortable even for a moment, even by mistake, and barty's pretty smile falters... well, that person ends up on augustus's blacklist. he thinks barty can't defend himself, that he needs a knight in shining armor. it annoys barty so much, and the poor guy is constantly forced to prove to augustus that he's perfectly capable of getting his own revenge, thank you very much. it doesn't matter: in any case, augustus knows how to do a better job.

the only times when augustus really risks his position are precisely these cases. he gets barty to tell him who made fun of him or was rude, and that evening he attacks them at the ministry. yn x mafia boss vibes lmao. barty begs him to stop, but he's an old-fashioned man and believes this is what he should do for his boyfriend.