#way to f*** this poor guy up even more AU!cecelia

[carewyncromwell]

[HPHL] Dark!Bartholomew “Bat” Varney AU Moodboard

--Inspired by the Dark AU started by @cursebreakerfarrier--

“They all deserve to die... Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why: Because in all of the whole human race, Mrs. Lovett, There are two kinds of men and only two -- There's the one staying put in his proper place, And the one with his foot in the other one's face! Look at me, Mrs. Lovett, look at you! No, we all deserve to die...even you, Mrs. Lovett, even I! Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief -- For the rest of us, death will be relief! We all deserve to die! And I'll never see Johanna... No, I'll never hug my girl to me...FINISHED!”

~ “Epiphany,” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

x~x~x~x

Robert Harker, A.K.A. Bat Varney, didn’t have a great time of things in his original life where he died in the War for American Independence alongside his best friend, only to be brought back to life as a vampire trapped in his friend’s reanimated corpse. But along with all that, he was still able to find a way to enjoy the half-life he was cursed to lead, rediscover the joy of loving others through connecting with Atticus Grimsley @cursebreakerfarrier​, the Selwyn-Ellisons @that-ravenpuff-witch, and others, and even save many lives through helping the Ministries of Europe fight back against the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

Amazingly, however, there was a nightmare far worse that Robert Harker dodged.

In this particular nightmare, when Robert first stumbled onto the Varney estate in Bartholomew’s body to get help, Cecelia Crouch-Varney out of guilt and shame didn’t tell him what she had done, feigning ignorance about what must have happened. She promised to help Robert and persuaded him to stay with her under Bartholomew’s identity and cloistered away from everyone else until they could find a way to satisfy his blood lust. Robert begged Cecelia to tell his wife Loretta what was going on, but Cecelia reminded him that under the Statute of Secrecy, she wouldn’t be allowed to tell Loretta anything about the Wizarding World. If she did, she could get arrested, which would leave Robert with no safe place to stay and no chance of seeing his family again. And so, very reluctantly, Robert relented, but he made Cecelia promise to take care of Loretta and Irene until Irene received her Hogwarts letter, at which point she’d be allowed to learn the truth.

Robert, now solely called Bartholomew, stayed with Cecelia, who as the original Bartholomew’s widow acted as his wife around her servants and guests at the estate. The arrangement made Robert a bit uncomfortable, given that he still so desperately missed his real family, but Cecelia had been his friend for such a long time that he didn’t dislike spending time with her. Unfortunately for Bartholomew, Cecelia’s romantic attachment to him made it so that she treasured every moment they were together where she could care for him and treat him like her husband. And over time, she grew to resent that one day she’d have to “give him back” to Loretta and Irene, leaving her completely alone at the Varney estate with neither a husband nor a child for company. And so, when that special September arrived when Irene was to receive her letter...Cecelia lied, when Bartholomew asked if she’d spoken to Loretta about his condition. She claimed that Loretta was a bit overwhelmed by everything she’d learned, and needed time. Then Cecelia lied again, saying that Loretta seemed very troubled about Bartholomew’s condition and said it’d be best if he stayed at the estate a while longer. Then Cecelia lied again, and again, and again, with it becoming worse each time. First Loretta was scared for Irene’s safety -- then she was scared for her own safety -- then she was scared because of her religious convictions that ascribed vampiric traits to demons. Bartholomew, still unable to control his blood lust enough to be too close to anyone let alone leave the estate, knew he couldn’t ask to see Loretta himself to try to reassure her, so he wrote letter after letter for Cecelia to deliver to Loretta. At first, he received nothing back -- then, after seven whole years, Bartholomew finally received a letter written in his wife’s hand and enclosing her wedding ring. Her husband, Robert Harker, was dead, it said -- may Bartholomew Varney live the best life he can. 

Brokenhearted, Bartholomew resigned himself to remain at the Varney estate. He was all the more determined to get a handle on his blood lust, if only to see his precious daughter Irene once, even if it had to be from afar. Cecelia tried to encourage Bartholomew to move on, saying Loretta already had and that she seemed to be a bit happier now, after so many years. Cecelia even admitted that she cared for him deeply, that she always had -- and that she didn’t want him pining after the woman who had started her life over without him. Bartholomew was actively repulsed by Cecelia’s advances -- she had always been enamored of him? Even while she was married to their best friend? The unpleasant feeling sparked a flicker of doubt, one that slowly grew as Cecelia grew into an old woman and seemed more and more desperate for Bartholomew’s love and Bartholomew caught snippets of conversations from her Crouch family relatives talking about “the mess she’d put them in,” regarding him. And so, one night, while Cecelia was asleep, Bartholomew did some digging -- and he finally found the original notes that had guided Cecelia in how to bring back the dead.

Bartholomew at first didn’t want to believe it -- he couldn’t believe that his best friend, the woman who had housed him for so many years and had tried so hard to reunite him with his family, could’ve done such a thing. At first he kept his discovery to himself, determined to make sure those notes truly could create a vampire, rather than an Inferi or some other unknown creation. In the end, though, Cecelia unknowingly answered that question herself in the winter of 1887, while confined to her bed with sickness. She had lived to the ripe old age of 126 years old caring for Bartholomew, and on her death bed, she begged Bartholomew to turn her into a vampire too, so they could care for and accompany each other until they could die in peace together. With this, Bartholomew put it all together -- Cecelia had been the one to curse him! He furiously confronted her, and the trembling old woman eventually confessed everything. Her prediction about his death -- her feelings for him -- her guilt and shame -- and, worse of all, the truth about Loretta and Irene. Cecelia had in fact never told Loretta about her husband coming back as a vampire -- Loretta had even died not long after Irene graduated from Hogwarts, thinking she’d at least rejoin her husband in Heaven. Cecelia -- always a master at mimicking other people’s handwriting -- had even forged the letter from Loretta, taking custody of the wedding ring from the priest who had collected her body and enclosing it with the letter, so that Bartholomew would stop asking after Loretta when she was already dead. After her mother’s death, Irene had also left Britain all together, so Bartholomew would have no way to reach her anyway, since his blood lust was too strong for him to safely try to cross the ocean by boat again.

This betrayal was a hundred thousand times worse than the one from Bartholomew’s original life. His rage and anguish was so great that his brilliant, passionate, lighthearted mind cracked. He tore out Cecelia’s throat with his teeth, draining her of all of her blood, and then proceeded to do the same to the rest of her servants before leaving.

Bartholomew then spent the next fifty years prowling the streets of Britain, hunting down prey of all stripes, but especially wizards and witches and even more especially those of the Crouch family line. After a while, the vampire serial killer would even send the Department of Magical Law Enforcement taunting letters about how long it was taking them to stop him.

Now, gents -- this is getting embarrassing. One would almost think you want innocent people dying gruesomely every day. If you’re truly so eager, I could always pay you and your families a visit.

Should you wish to find my current address, here’s your clue: from the campaign to Saratoga, take away the day that the weather itself evoked a public bath. Then add it to a street name blood purists now disdain in a city whose name you’ve already read.

I will be gone by sunset, off to roost somewhere new.

                                  Catch me if you can.

                                                               the vampire Bat

Every night, he continued to kill, and every day, the Ministry continued to hunt him. As much as Bat kept out of their reach, however, it was only to increase the odds that, when he was finally caught, they would slaughter him quickly. For he knew he deserved to die -- just as all people deserve to -- just as all should.