I
1976 September 1st
Evan
The five of them reunited— well technically three, Regulus had left to go do his prefect duties, and Barty was nowhere to be seen. They were an odd sort, Evan can’t even remember how’d they all become this close with each other. Maybe it’s because they were all young children who bonded over their trauma, but whatever sort of odd thing they had going on, they were Evan’s family, he had Pandora, his older sister, only by 30 minutes. but that’s the only family by blood Evan genuinely liked. Maybe Narcissa on his good days.
The train was just starting to move when Barty entered their compartment. He looked older, Barty had definitely grown since the last time Evan saw him last in June. He didn’t look like an overgrown 11 year old anymore, he looked like a man. His hair was grown out and his jawline looked sharper and—
Fuck.
He looked hot.
Really fucking hot.
“Rosy, are you drooling?” Barty teased with a smirk.
“Shut up.” Evan said lightly punching his arm.
Even his voice had gotten deeper. Barty took a seat next to Pandora, sitting in front of him.
“So anything interesting happen over summer?” Dorcas asked.
Barty hummed, “nothing too exciting, mum left to go to Italy, and y’know how my dad is, how about your summer?”
“Ah, same as yours, nothing exciting, did you two do anything interesting?” Dorcas asked Pandora and Evan.
“Ugh this summer was probably the worst one, our parents weren’t home, and we weren’t allowed to leave the house.” Pandora complained.
Evan smiled at the memory, the two of them causing chaos in their house and fixing it all with their wands before their parents came back.
Roughly 30 minutes later Regulus joined them after his prefect duties, Evan noticed that he looked quite mad but he didn’t question it. Pandora and Barty had fallen asleep on each other’s shoulders while the other three whispered to each other.
——
Once they’d finally got back to their dorms Evan was ready to just fall asleep but his mind kept on drifting to other places.
Evan didn’t like men, he couldn’t.
He certainly did not like Barty.
After hours of twisting and turning, Evan finally fell asleep.
####
Barty
He glanced over at the clock— Oh fuck he was going to be late. Barty got out of bed as fast as he could and rushed to get ready, he messily buttoned his shirt up and he just couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out how to tie his tie. Whatever he thought, better then nothing.
He walked into the great hall late. He had around 10 minutes. At least he’d have time to quickly eat something.
“You’re wearing your tie wrong.” Evan commented.
“Can you fix it for me? You know I can’t tie a tie.” Barty said, while stealing a piece of toast from Dorcas’ plate.
Evan rolled his eyes at him. “Stand up, I’ll fix it for you.”
“Why did none of you two think it was a good idea to wake me up?” Barty asked.
“You get grumpy when someone wakes you up, we thought we’d just go back up right before class and force you out of bed. Evan answered.
Something about Evan remembering the little things about Barty gave him butterflies—friendly butterflies, Barty didn’t think of Evan like that. They were just friends.
While Evan was fixing his tie, he realized how much taller Evan had gotten. He looked over his shoulder and saw Pandora, who was sitting in front of them, slightly smirking at him. He wondered what that was about.
“One day, I’m going to choke you with this tie.” Evan commented once he finished.
“And what if I wanted you to do that?”
“Get a room.” Regulus said dryly, while getting out of his seat.
“Hey where are you going?” Barty asked.
“Class,” Regulus glanced over the big clock placed in the great hall, "you guys have three minutes left.”
“But I just got here.”
“That’s your fault for sleeping in.” Pandora said, while also leaving.
“This is Evan and Reg’s fault for not waking me up.”
“Hey at least your dorm mates don’t wake up at fucking six in the morning.” Dorcas said.
“Thank god you and Reg aren’t morning people. I’d kill you both.” Evan said.
“You two should go, you’re gonna be late, wouldn’t want to get detention on the first day.”
Barty glanced at the clock. “Well then, see you around Meadows.”
Evan and him both walked to class together, since the first years had no idea where they were going, the hallways were completely crowded.
Once the two of them finally made it to potions they were greeted with a disappointed look from Slughorn.
“Late on the first day? If this ever happens again I’ll have you two scrubbing my cauldrons down. Now go take a seat.”
Evan and him took seats beside each other, sitting behind Regulus and Pandora.
——
The whole day was pretty much a blur, crowded hallways, professors warning them about O.W.L.S, people talking about their summers, and Regulus forcing Evan and Barty into the library.
When the three boys returned to their room, took turns showering, and when Back down to the great hall for dinner. Like always, Barty and Evan were sitting beside each other and in front of them, Dorcas and Regulus.
“Where’s Pandora?” Regulus asked.
“She’s sitting with the ravenclaws, she’s been getting awfully close with one of the boys.” Evan answered.
Dorcas looked over her shoulder at the ravenclaw table and smiled at someone. Were all of Barty’s friends just going crazy? Or maybe it was just him.
“How were your classes?” Dorcas asked, finally turning back to look at them.
“Barty and Evan almost got detention, three times. It’s the first day how is that even possible.” Regulus said, sounding like a worried mother.
“You know what, that’s a whole lot better than having the gryffindor gang in most of your classes. The two of them almost blew up the potions classroom.” Dorcas said, sounding exasperated.
They all knew who Dorcas was referring to when she said those two. She was referring to James Potter and Sirius Black, but anything about Sirius and Potter was a sore subject to bring up around Regulus.
Barty looked over at Evan and he looked pretty deep in his thoughts, he gently nudged Evan’s knee with his underneath the table.
When Evan finally returned back to his senses he quickly pulled his knee away.
Why the fuck was Evan acting so weird. Was he mad at him? Barty thought back to last year, trying to remember if anything had gone wrong and maybe Evan was still holding a grudge for that.
That night, when Barty went to sleep, he dreamt of golden curls and ocean blue eyes.
#####
Evan
The nights were getting longer, and the days were getting colder. It was a Friday night, Dorcas and Pandora were in their dorm, Pandora Regulus and him were chatting amongst themselves while Dorcas and Barty passed a joint back and forth.
The boys’ dorm was pretty much Pandora and Dorcas’ dorm, Evan was pretty sure that they both spent more time here then in their own dorms.
Evan flashed his most charming smile to Regulus before saying, “Reg, would you be a dear and pass me a cigarette?”
“If you’re gonna smoke go outside, the whole dorm smells like shit when you two smoke.” Regulus said, throwing a pack of cigarettes at Evan.
“I hate being underwater, I mean we can’t even open our windows to smoke.” Barty complained.
Pandora stared at the window before saying, “you know there aren’t any charms preventing us from opening the windows right? I mean if you were really curious, you could try and open one.”
Barty looked as if someone had told him the most shocking news of his life. He guessed that being high meant everything sounded like a good idea. Barty walked over and fiddled with the window before Regulus tried to stop him.
“Okay, how about we stay away from the window?”
Moments after Regulus said that water was pouring into their dorm, It was cold and wet. They all stood up on their beds. Expect for Barty who was still standing by the window.
“Shit.” Barty muttered, he fiddled with the window, trying to close it.
The water was now up till their knees, soaking the three beds, and Barty still couldn’t close the window.
“Fucking crouch.” Regulus muttered, with a wave of his wand, and a spell Evan didn’t catch, the window finally slammed shut.
The water was pretty deep, if Regulus was standing on their floor, he might as well just drown, he was pretty short.
“How the fuck are you going to sleep with all of this water?” Dorcas asked, she was also high.
Pandora muttered an incantation and the water slowly started to disappear. Evan looked over at Barty who was soaking wet and looked distressed. He smiled at Barty before bursting out laughing. Soon enough they were all back to sitting on the floor and laughing. Evan wanted to bottle that moment up and keep it forever.
“Barty, take this as a learning lesson, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Regulus said.
“Yeah yeah, whatever.”
“How are we going to get the smell of wet wood out of our room?” Evan asked.
Pandora looked as if she was thinking about any charms she knew. “I could try a spell.”
She waved her wand, a beam of red light came out before there was smoke in the dorm. The smoke quickly disappeared, their dorm now smelt like flowers.
Regulus looked quite impressed. “Dora, how’d you do that?”
“Oh it’s one of the spells I made with the help of Xeno.” Pandora answered.
Who the fuck names their child Xeno. Evan thought to himself.
“Who the fuck is Xeno?” Barty asked Pandora.
“Xenophillus. The ravenclaw boy I spend time with in the library.”
“Pandora, is he your boyfriend?” Dorcas said, teasing Pandora.
”No, we're just friends.” Pandora said, even though she was slightly blushing.
“Whatever you say.” Regulus said, while smiling at her.
——
Evan didn’t realize he drifted off, but when he woke up, he woke up wrapped up in Barty’s blankets.