I do not own Harry Potter or anything you recognize from the Harry Potter World.

Barty Jr has watched Hermione Granger in class. For a Mudblood, she was fairly powerful. Not only that, but she actually was loyal, where everyone else turned against that awful Potter brat, she stood by him. Loyalty was something he could respect.

That didn't mean he respected her, though he wasn't as hard on her as the other Mudbloods he was forced to teach. That loyalty, he wanted to test it, see how strong it really was. If she didn't falter, he would use her as an example once the Dark Lord was with them once again. Show the others that Loyalty was the only way to be.

If a Mudblood could stay loyal, then why should a Pureblood show anything else to the one they willingly chose to serve.

That was his intentions, though it seemed his plans were never to be realized, being caught by that traitor Snape and the Headmaster. All his hard work and plans, nearly ruined. At least, that was how it seemed...

.:':. ':.:' .:':.

Four years later, Barty found himself free once again. The Dark Lord was victorious, and the most loyal rewarded. Barty Jr, was among the rewarded. He had his soul returned from the Dementor that stole it from him. Barty had never felt himself to be so alive as that day. It was made even better, when the Dark Lord gave him his reward.

The Mudblood was chained, dirty, her bushy hair a matted mess, but she was his reward for his loyalty.

"She is untouched," he was told, right before she was thrown at his feet, her body twitching from a Crucio from Bellatrix. Sneering at the Mudblood, he turned her face up with his boot, seeing the pain in her face. Her eyes, however, it was her eyes that really captured him. They were defiant, as though there was still a chance for those on the side of Light to win.

Raising a single brow, he thanked his Lord for the generous gift. Even from her second year, Barty knew that she was one of Potter's closest friends, his rock when everything else sought to tear him down. To be given Potter's Mudblood, well, that was truly a mark of the highest honor.

Taking his prize, Barty took them both to his family home.

While he would have preferred somewhere else, this was his, and the Dark Lord was still sorting through the spoils of war and passing things out as he came to them. With Barty's loyalty, he did not doubt he would receive another place to call home.

The Mudblood, however, was thrown into a cellar and a House Elf ordered to make certain he remained alive or it would be killed. Needless to say, the newly revived Death Eater didn't give the girl another thought.

.:':. ':.:' .:':.

It was several months later before Barty recalled the girl in the cellar. By chance, of course. He was wandering the halls late at night, wondering why he was not given a new home. The Dark Lord knew how he felt about this place, but still he was given nothing more than the Mudblood as a prize.

Had she not been crying softly and whispering the Potter boy's name in the dead silence, Barty would have forgotten she was even still there.

Scowling, he stalked toward her holding cell, his hand gripping his wand tightly as he prowled ever closer, listening to her mourning the Boy-Who-Lived-No-More. Even after all of this time, she remained loyal to the brat, much like he to his Lord.

Frowning, but no longer intending to curse her for daring remind him of her presence, Barty opened the door and stared at her.

She was still dirty, her hair shorn short and sticking at odd angles from her scalp. The only other difference, she had a little more flesh on her bone thin frame, and her clothes were in much better shape. She was nothing, really, not to Barty, but her loyalty, he could not understand how someone who stole magic was so damned loyal.

She didn't see him that night, and he left quickly. Though he did give orders for the Mudblood to be fed more and cleaned. If there was one thing Barty could respect, it was loyalty, even from a Mudblood who didn't truly deserve to live.

.:':. ':.:' .:':.

A year passed, and Barty would take late night walks into the cellar, watching the girl sleep on the thick quilt he had given when she still refused to break. Sometimes she was awake, swaying side to side and reciting potions and their ingredients. Others, every spell from Hogwarts she ever learned and others she must have learned while she and those two boys were on the run.

Barty found it amusing, but her loyalty still baffled him. How, after watching her best mates murdered, tortured, and being given to a Death Eater could she remain so bloody loyal to her side.

It was a week after he sent a better meal that he made his presence known, stalking into the cellar and taking in the way the Mudblood acted like a wild anima, crouched and moving along the floor on her hands and the balls of her feet.

She was afraid, he could smell her fear, but he was not here for that. No, he was here to find out why she was still loyal. He had kept her from everything she had held dear, isolated with only the House Elf popping in for the basic requirements and leaving without saying much, another order.

Barty had started this wanting to break the last surviving member of the Light, but instead, he found himself intrigued.

He didn't get what he wanted, her voice to hoarse from lack of proper use, but he tried again and again for weeks. Ever night, and sometimes during the day, until at last, the Mudblood acted human again.

.:':. ':.:' .:':.

"Your Lord is wrong," were the first words she ever spoke to him outright. It took him back, expecting only those strange sounds she had made before.

At his demand to explain herself, the girl grew quiet. She was 'the girl' now, rather than Mudblood. He wasn't certain when he started thinking of her as human, and he wasn't certain he liked it.

He left without another word, not returning for several days.

It was the dead of night, returning once she was asleep before Barty entered the cellar once again.

Sitting against the wall, he looked around the spartan dwelling. The girl had been here for close to two years now. It reminded him of Azkaban, only without the Dementors.

It was then that the girl became Hermione.

Hermione, suffering a fate just as horrible as death, remained true and loyal. Hermione, who did not back down from him, only away. Hermione, who made Barty realize, she was right. The Dark Lord was wrong.

.:':. ':.:' .:':..:':. ':.:' .:':..:':. ':.:' .:':.

Five years later, after Barty had earned Hermione's truth and gained her loyalty, they became a couple. Five years after that night Hermione was no longer just 'the girl' and became a person, Barty helped her take down the Death Eaters, one by one, until only the Dark Lord remained.

It took two long, painful years, but at long last, only Lord Voldemort remained to be destroyed.

Barty let Hermione do the honors, running the Dark Lord through with the Sword of Gryffindor while he was distracted by Barty saying the Mudblood escaped when one of the Dark Lord's Followers had broken into his Manor the day before.

They had left one Death Eater alive just for this reason, making it appear that Barty was still the loyal follower he always had been, and Draco had been the one removing everyone from the Dark Lord's ranks.

It was untrue, Hermione just didn't wish to kill someone she grew up with, even it if was Malfoy. Barty had plans for the boy, but he stayed his hand for her. At least, until she finished what she had started at age eleven without even realizing it.

.:':. ':.:' .:':.

Three years later, they were wed in a small ceremony just outside of Hogwarts grounds, where they met, were parted, and now, swearing to spend the rest of their lives together.

Hermione may not have denounced Harry Potter, she never gave up that loyalty that drew Barty to her, but she was broken.

All of that time isolated, having to relive the death of her friends, professors, even her parents, fractured the Muggleborn's mind. But Barty kept her fragmented mind together just enough. She would never truly trust him, not really, but she was loyal to him, if only because he helped to take down the Dark Lord, Tom Riddle Jr, in the end.

.:':. ':.:' .:':.

Thirteen years after that small wedding, not much of the Magical world remained from the two wars, the slaughter, and then the purging of Death Eaters, but it was slowly rebuilding.

But, the Magical world was not the only thing rebuilding.

Hermione Crouch, the wife of Barty Crouch Jr, was healing. All thanks to their son and his innocence. He was what healed the Muggleborn, not the spells and potions Barty brought for her, but rather, her child's untainted laugh.

She had grown to love Barty, even though she knew he had been the one to help bring the Dark Lord back, but he had changed. It wasn't enough to fully forgive him, but enough to forgive him and give him a second chance to make things truly right again.

Besides, had he not, Hermione would never have had her perfect baby boy, who was now boarding the Hogwarts Express for his first year at school.

Barty had returned to teach, as he had been rather good all those years ago, and after seeing their son off, Hermione was going to return to the Castle as well.

At long last, Muggleborns were being welcomed into the Magical world. Yes, they were taken from their families as soon as their magic registered, but at least they were no longer being slaughtered like sheep.

They had a place in the Magical world now, they were no longer accused of stealing magic.

And it was all thanks to Hermione proving that Muggleborns deserved to live, because they were far more loyal than most Purebloods. She was even also the only one who had survived to talk about the war, teaching that Muggleborns were witches and wizards, if only given the chance.

It was all thanks to Hermione, that the Magical world still existed.

Barty couldn't have been more proud, nor even as Loyal, as he was to his wife for showing him the truth.

A little Gift Fic one shot for the amazingly brilliant Heeley, for just being awesome. If you haven't read anything by her, please, go do so! She's amazing at what she does, and she has this awesome fic by the title of Freedom which is a Barty x Hermione story and its just amazingly well written.

This is a touch darker than my other stories posted so far, but when I think Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr, this popped into my head after thinking on it for awhile. The idea is actually from another Barty x Hermione story I read before, Loyalty by cocoartist. Just, altered a bit. SO go check that out as well.

Thank you all for reading, and if you enjoyed this little foray into a different part, let me know! All comments are welcome!

Take care!