Barty Crouch Senior brought Moody away from the hearing range of Alan and his son, Alex.
"Alastor," Barty questioned, his face masked in frustration and irritation. "What were you doing just now?"
Barty was really annoyed at Alastor.
"Can you not see it?" Alastor argued back, his face equally frustrated but also disappointed. "Did you not see his reaction when we brought up the Dark Mark? The way his facial expression changed?"
"Alan Timirus is clearly hiding something. Something about Ragsan being a Death Eater, or perhaps about himself being a Death Eater. He is well aware of all these facts."
Barty instinctively clenched his fist as his eyes bulged in shock. He was angry and livid.
"How many times do I have to tell you to keep your behavior and words in check and not cross the line, especially with Lords of the Wizengamot and especially when that Lord is Lord Timirus?" He almost snarled. "You cannot go on slandering or accusing everyone you meet, see, or do not like. Accusing someone like Lord Timirus without any proof? Have you gone mad? Do you not realise the consequences?"
"No!" Alastor almost snapped, barely keeping his voice under control. "I have not gone mad. But all of you, the Minister, the DMLE head, and all other department heads, everyone has gone blind for sure. You all cannot see the basic truth lying in front of your eyes."
"And you ask what proof do I have?" he continued. "I just need to tear apart Alan Timirus' and Alex Timirus' sleeves, and you will have all the proof you need. I am certain that they too have the Dark Mark inscribed on their arms."
Barty did not react immediately. Deep down, he knew that whatever Alastor was speaking had a good chance that it was the truth. It was just that he was not really willing to face or acknowledge that truth. He could not bring himself to imagine that a respectable Lord like Lord Timirus could be a heinous Death Eater.
"Alastor," Barty sighed, his tone defeated. "If not for your skills as an Auror, you would have already been dismissed from your services for your insolence."
Moody snorted in response.
"And you think I am too happy or pleased to work in the Ministry," he said. "If not for the looming threats of Death Eaters, I myself would have resigned long ago, seeing the incompetence of the Ministry as an institution. I am still working here only because I have a conscience. Because I believe that I should not leave and run away in this time of peril. "
"When I joined the institution as an auror, I had lofty ideals of justice, righteousness, and whatnot. I had hopes that I would serve for the well being of the people, to make Wizarding Britain crime free and a better place ," Moody continued. "And it worked fine as long as we had no big trouble brewing in Wizarding Britain."
"But the moment trouble starts to brew in Wizarding Britain in the form of Death Eaters and the Dark Lord, I get to see the true face of the Ministry's incompetence."
"Instead of acting aggressively, we are forced into shells. It is rare but if and when we get a clue that can lead us towards Death Eater and their organization, we are pressured not to dig deep. When we get hold of a death eater, we are asked not to 'force' the truth about his mouth. We cannot torture them. We cannot force the Veritaserum, the truth serum into their throat. All kinds of regulations, humanely and benevolent ideals are forced upon us."
"Why?" Moody snapped. "Because the cowards in the Ministry are worried that some respectable name might come up in the investigation. That the things they are trying to bury in the coffin might come out."
"People might think that the Aurors at the Ministry are cowards and incompetent," he added. "It might be true that we are not as powerful as the Death Eaters, and neither as cruel nor ruthless as them."
"But we are neither cowards nor incompetent. We appear so because we are forced to remain cowardly and incompetent. We are not allowed to act out of our free will. We are forced to tow the cowardly line drawn by the higher ups of the ministry."
Barty stood there in a bit of stunned silence. This was not the first time Alastor had lashed out at the incompetence of the Ministry. But more than the incompetence, Alastor was livid at the restrictions of rules and regulations that were applied to him.
There was one thing that Alastor desired the most. A free hand to deal with the Death Eaters. And there was nothing that Barty could say that would make Alastor feel good. He too, like Alastor, understood the perspective he was coming from.
But unlike him, he also understood and agreed with the perspective of the other side. Alastor could not be granted a free hand. He could not be allowed to unravel all the secrets of the Death Eaters. If everything that they were hiding and had been doing for the past few months were to be revealed to the public, it would be doom for the pure blood wizarding society.
The world could not know, nor did he himself want to know, how the pure bloods at the very top of wizarding society were complicit in this movement. Barty dreaded the fact that what would happen if the names of the most influential Lord would be associated with the Dark Lord. and he hoped that such a day never came.
"Alastor," Barty sighed. "Right now, we are not investigating the Death Eaters. We are investigating who killed these three people and why and if these killings have any connection with the killing of Death Eaters that happened a few days earlier."
"I want you to focus on this issue," he added. "Am I clear?"
Alastor gave a clear nod but did not say anything.
Barty sighed with a shake of his head.
"Let us go," he said, and the next moment, both of them vanished for the Ministry.
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