“Rosier,” Barty called as he slid onto the bench next to Evan.
“Barty,” Evan addressed him, an amused smile on his face.
“Is this for me Evs? Thanks you’re the bloody best,” he sighed and took the half-drunken butterbeer flask away from the taller boy.
“No hello for the rest of us Crouch?” Dorcas folded her arms, hair matted from where she had been resting on Pandora’s shoulder.
“Of course not Meadowes!” Barty clutched his chest, “Never in a million years could I forget you lot,”
“Not unless I obliviate you,” muttered Regulus who twirled his wand in response.
“Awe,” he cooed, “I love you too Reg.”
And that was how it always was - well, not always was, but as far as Barty’s good memories extend it started with his four friends. Though he would never admit it of course, but from the moment he stepped foot into his Slytherin dormitory and found Evan and Regulus talking together he had known he’d found his people. Here he was, on the bench he had been at every month for the past 6 years at the Three Broomsticks with the same people he had started out with. Regulus sat across from him with Pandora and Dorcas on the inner side of the bench. Evan sat to his left, evidently trying to take his butterbeer glass back.
“Oi, you thief! Let me have my sodding cup,” Evan reached over, a sour expression on his face.
“Hey! It was just friendly borrowing, right guys?” Barty looked around the table for confirmation.
Regulus snorted, “Crouch, Potter’s the one with glasses, you’re supposed to be able to see. I think it’s clearly obvious you took it from Evan in the first place.” He leant back, settling into a conversation with Dorcas, who was leaning over Pandora with a grin on her face.
Barty shared a look with Evan. Evan looked at Regulus pointedly then turned his gaze to a table of Griffindors. He couldn't help himself but smile. From the moment he and Evan had been paired together in potions and ‘accidentally’ lit one of Slughorn’s books aflame they had been inseparable. He mouthed the word ‘Potter’ in Evans direction and Evan, being Evan, snorted a mouthful of butterbeer out of his mouth. Regulus had a not-so-subtle crush on the Gryffindor chaser.
“That wasn’t very pureblood mannered of you Evs,” Barty nudged Evan’s ribs.
“You’re one to talk, prick, don’t act all high and mighty on me.” he retorted in response.
Barty leaned over to ruffle Evan’s hair, and in his clumsy state knocked over Regulus’ tea.
“Oi, save it for the dorm will you?” Regulus huffed, squeezing closer to Pandora to avoid the spillage.
“Yeah Crouch,” Dorcas stifled a snort, “Keep it in your pants,”
“For him? I could never,”
Evan’s blush deepened.
“Christ! Evs you’re burning up, are you feeling alright?”
Evan shared an exasperated look with the rest of the group. For the smartest person there, Barty was certainly either a great actor or terribly naive - probably neither though, Barty was just bloody oblivious.
“Fucking dandy Crouch.” the sentence came out deadpanned.
Pandora, Dorcas and Regulus burst out with laughter.
“So let me get this straight, McKinnon told you they were planning something?” Regulus scoffed in disbelief.
“Don’t sound so doubtful of my girlfriend, Reg.” Dorcas shrugged, “She thought it would be amusing if we caught them in the act.”
“And Marlene told you because… she thought it would be funny?” Evan questioned, a frown appearing on his face.
“Sounds like a load of shit to me,” Barty agreed.
“Oh, I don’t think so. She needs to get back at Black for hexing her shampoo,”
Pandora piped up animatedly, “I remember that! Her hair stuck up in all different angles!” She imitated it by lifting two strands of hair above her head, “And he did it right before the Gryffindor VS Ravenclaw quidditch final! Poor thing.”
“Ah. Explains why she was so defensive when I tried to pull that beanie of her head,” Evan snickered, “Bloody ugly thing that was,”
Dorcas turned to him, “It’s a muggle thing apparently, making hats and the like without magic,”
“Lily calls it knitting,” Pandora perked up mentioning the ginger.
“Sounds bloody stupid if you ask me,” Regulus replied.
Barty admonished, “Don’t be rude to Pan, Reg!”
“Great Merlin! We’re getting sidetracked from the point of this conversation.” Evan sighed, causing the rest of the bicker to silent down.
They had snuck Pandora into Evan, Barty and Regulus’ dorm — a common occurrence, but a risky one still. Especially with the prefects patrolling the halls on high alert after the last incident between the Marauders and Snape’s group. Pandora’s cat — well technically Dorcas’ cat, but they weren’t focused on the technicalities of it all — nicknamed Luna (she was always awfully fond of that name) slept soundly on Barty’s lap.
Pandora let out a yawn, “I’m devastatingly tired,” she announced, “Could this conversation perhaps continue at a later time?”
“Oh come off it Pan, aren’t you the least bit excited for what we could do with what Cas told us?” Evan shuffled closer to her, eyes shining with mischief.
“Bloody time we do something from when they charmed the common room chairs to walk.” Regulus muttered.
“Reg, James came and warned you about it. Not our sodding problem, you're so stubborn.”
“He didn’t warn me, he warned us.”
“Honestly, I think you lot need to get some sleep.” Pandora tilted her head towards Barty whose head was resting against the side of his bed.
“She’s right, we’ll do this some other time,” Dorcas added, giving another direct glance at a slumped Barty. “I know he will be perfectly fine for the DADA quiz, but Evan on the other hand…”
“What’s that supposed to mean, aye, Meadowes?” Evan scowled, casting a jinx at her - which thankfully missed and instead burned a hole through Regulus’ bed curtains.
“Come off it Evan, you barely know how to cast an imperturbable charm. Some of us here actually pay attention in class or are lucky enough,” she glanced at Barty, “-to naturally have been born a genius.”
The others were swift to leave. Dorcas was half-tempted to leave a drowsy Pandora in the boy’s dormitory. Regulus waved his hand in the air claiming to be off in the astronomy tower to “star gaze because his star was out” — though everyone knew he was lying, because since the third year they had all the star patterns and charts memorised. Regulus quietly made his way out of the door wearing a suspiciously large sweater and bade a quick goodnight to Evan. Barty on the other hand acknowledged his departure with a lethargic nod of the head and mumbled a “g’dnigh’ Reg,”
Evan was left sitting on the edge of his bed, untying the laces of his shoes. He glanced over at Barty — an indescribable feeling of warmth washed over him. It was unlike anything he’d felt before, perhaps he’d always thought it didn’t have the capacity to love or be loved. Yet he knew that wasn’t true. Sure he’d felt love through the trinkets Pandora randomly gave as gifts, the times he and Dorcas spent staying up studying until morning, or the times even Regulus would crack the brightest smile. That was love. And although he would never admit it, he might have had a crush on Regulus in the first year and then an undeniable infatuation with his best friend for the years to follow - an infatuation. A passing notion. He made that very clear. Evan made his way over to Barty, and quietly tapped on his shoulder.
“B, you gotta get up.”
A smile crept onto Barty’s lips, “You’re gonna have to carry me Rosier,”
“And I would do that because?”
“Because I said so,” the shorter boy replied, grinning lazily up at Evan.
“I’m not going to carry you, you idiot. Don’t come complaining to me tomorrow when your back’s killing you,”
“Yeah? But then you’ll just have to take me to Promfrey’s, aye?” Barty stretched out his hand.
Evan rolled his eyes and grasped their palms together, static flowing through them from the sudden contact. “Looks like we got a connection going on Crouch,” He winked playfully, hauling the shorter boy off the floor.
“Oh how you serenade me Evs,”
Evan scoffed and let go of Barty’s hand, making his way towards the other side of the room. Barty landed with a thud on the floor, “Oh fucking hell, Evs what was that for,”
Evan gave his best Cheshire grin, “Motivation for you to get your bloody arse up.” And promptly plonked onto his bed. Barty followed, and shrugged his school jacket off. He reached over to his bed covers and dramatically fell into the duvet.
“Prick,”
“Twat,”
“Bastard,”
“Arse-hole,”
Evan sighed. Out of the pair he was always deemed the more “responsible”. Merlin knows how either of them could be responsible enough to be left alone in a classroom for too long. In fact a certain incident in Slughorn’s first year class initiated by Evan was something the pair would never live down. He still remembers Regulus’ groan of annoyance and Dorcas’ cackle of laughter when he and Barty were given detention for a month. The two had become very familiar with Binns the poor soul (no soul actually) who had the unfortunate duty of supervising detentions. Evan remembers hours of Binn rambling on about wandlore - apparently an area of expertise for wandmakers. A comfortable silence was drawn out between the pair as they busied themselves with their nightly routines — Evan was very strict on routines. Evan watched as Barty reached over to his bedside table and grabbed his contacts.
“If you keep staring at me like that Rosier, I think I’ll swoon.” Barty stated, not bothering to look up from his bed.
Evan stupidly flushed, “You’re such a cunt. Go to sleep.”
“Of course honey, anything for you honey-”
The bang of the door and a disheveled Regulus stalked in. He blinked, taking in the scene in front of him.
“Who’s calling who, honey?” He grimaced looking between the pair.
“No one’s calling anyone ‘honey’” Evan sent a pointed look in Barty’s direction.
“Well I meeean,” Barty dragged out.
Reg’s hands flew into the air, “Wait nevermind- don’t answer that question, I really don’t want to know what’s going on with you guys.”
Evan deflected, subtly (okay, maybe not so subtly) changing the flow of the conversation. “So Reg, how’s you and loverboy.”
Regulus ran a hand through his already mussed up hair, “He’s so fucking stupid and I-”
“Oh look at this Evs baby Black’s obsessed!” Barty threw his head back with laughter. “He hasn’t acted like this since WE dated,”
“Piss off you fucking prick, might I add he’s much better than you ever were,” Regulus grumbled, causing Barty to erupt in another fit of laughter.
“Better at doing what Reg, hmm?”
Evan burst out with an audible laughter and Barty sent him a look; an intense gaze, but meaningful nonetheless. A special smile, reserved for times Barty called 'memorable moments'. Evan saw a lot of that smile. The lines of their friendship had always blurred past the lines, in and out throughout the years - though they didn't let that stop their friendship, their ever-growing love and peace. Something changed in Evan the night all 5 of them had been sitting around the hearth together; it was never uttered or even mentioned, but deep down, buried somewhere was the feeling that they were all finally happy. Finally. After years of neglect and disappointment from each of their families, they had found a way to bandage and patch the broken parts of their souls. They were family. Him, Pandora, Dorcas, Regulus and Barty - blood ties or not his family was chosen. Evidence of such a statement were times when Dorcas would barge into their dorm and shake them all awake, times when Pandora would take candid pictures of everyone and document them into her journals, or moments when they would all burst out into laughter at the back of the classroom. So Evan looked on, a wistful edge to his gaze. What he felt wasn’t something tangible. Something he could lose, yes, but not misplace. It wasn’t an object he could throw or a dream he could wish away. And so he sat, listening to the chatter of Barty's 'plans for revenge' and the occasional input by Regulus. Regulus laughed as Barty imitated (quite poorly, one might add) how James would react once they had revealed their plan.
It was a quarter past 3 when a hyper-active Barty finally passed out. Evan retrieved the notebook ('of plans') from Barty's grasp and set it on the side of his bed.
Evan looked on fondly. "Night B," he murmured and headed towards his own bed.
"Night... love 'ya, Evs." Came the breath of a reply.