III
1976 October 1st
Evan
They were all sitting in the boys’ dorm together. Pandora and Dorcas were sitting on Evan’s bed, Regulus was sitting on the floor with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and Evan and Barty were sharing a blanket on his bed.
He was trying not to act weird about it. It’s not like this is their first time sharing a blanket. In their first year, Regulus, Barty and Evan used to huddle up in one bed and then talk for hours until the sun started to rise.
Evan needed to get a fucking grip on himself. There is no way he liked Barty. He didn’t even like boys. Evan liked girls, he was sure he did.
Speaking of girls, tutoring that one ravenclaw— Arabelle wasn’t too bad. Evan found himself actually enjoying her company. Though it did take a while for her to figure out how to make a glass disappear, she did get it. Evan offered to tutor her weekly.
It was far too cold for October, or maybe it was just the slytherin dorms, the rest of Hogwarts seemed fine, warm and cozy. It seemed as if all of Hogwarts just hated the slytherins.
“Tomorrow’s Hogsmeade, are we all gonna go?” Barty asked.
“I might stay back in the castle and do some divination homework I have.” Pandora said, a slight blush on her pale cheeks.
Regulus raised an eyebrow at her, “Homework?”
Pandora threw a pillow at Regulus’ head. “I’m not lying.”
“Never said you were.”
Dorcas tapped Pandora’s head. “Oh Pandora, love, you are so far gone for a certain ravenclaw.”
“I am not, Xenophilius is a friend.” She insisted.
“No one said anything about him.” Evan teased.
“I hate you all, except for Barty.” Pandora said, blushing hard.
Barty blew a kiss at her, “Love you too Dora.”
“Stay away from my sister you prick.” Evan said, hitting Barty’s arm.
“Oh Evan how’d your date go?” Barty asked as if he was suddenly reminded of it.
Evan tried to ignore the tightening feeling in his chest.
“Told you, wasn’t a date.” Evan said dryly.
“Goodness, this is gold, the Rosiers in denial.” Dorcas said, laughing brightly.
“Evan, I love you man, but you can do a hundred times better than Harkin.” Barty said, patting his back.
Barty had some type of look in his eyes, Evan couldn’t tell what it was, he looked almost jealous. Evan really needed to get a grip on himself. He was getting more delusional by the day.
“Wait oh my gosh, do you guys know that Toby Amberson and Alyssa Emberlyn got back together?” Dorcas asked.
“But I thought Amberson was with the blonde gryffindor girl- What’s her name again?” Barty asked.
“McKinnon? No, he was dating the blonde hufflepuff, Linda Carlson.” Regulus said.
Although they didn’t have many common interests, gossiping was one of those rare ones.
“Why’d they get back together again?” Evan asked.
“She was apparently the love of his life” Dorcas said with air quotes.
“Poor girl, Amberson’s a horrible person, and an even worse boyfriend.” Pandora said.
“I swear he was with a different girl last week.” Regulus said.
Dorcas rolled her eyes, “he tried to hit on me at last year’s ravenclaw Christmas party.
“What’d you say to him?” Pandora asked.
“I told him to fuck right off and when he wouldn’t back off, I threw my drink at him.”
“Dorcas Meadows, you are my idol.” Barty said, looking starry eyed.
Dorcas laughed at that. These were the moments Evan wanted to hold close to his heart. He wanted to keep these people forever.
“Hold on,” Evan looked at Barty, “do we have detention tomorrow or on Sunday?”
Barty groaned, “fucking Flitch, we have detention this Sunday and Friday afternoon.”
“I’m going to kill that stupid cat.” Evan muttered.
“What’d you two do now to get detention?” Regulus asked.
“I wanted to sneak down to the kitchens with Evan, and we were being so careful walking through the hallway. Then the stupid cat scares me and Flitch finds us out of bed after curfew, and the rest is history.” Barty said, dramatically, resting his head on Evan’s lap.
“You guys are like children that need constant supervision. Can’t leave you alone for more than two minutes.” Regulus said.
Barty grinned at Regulus. “If we’re the children that makes you our mother.”
“Who’s our father?” Evan asked Barty, a similar grin on his face.
He thought about it for a while before Pandora interrupted, “I know who your father is.” She had a knowing look in her eye.
“Pandora I swear on Salazar I will murder you.” Regulus said.
“Reggie, do you have a girlfriend?” Barty teased, dragging out his vowels.
Regulus threw a book at Barty, nearly missing his head, instead it hit the wall. “I’ll kill you too.”
“Love you too.” He flashed his most innocent smile.
Soon enough they all dozed off, Pandora and Dorcas in one bed, Regulus on the floor, and Barty and Evan in one bed.
——
When he woke up his shoulder was completely numb. Barty was resting his head on his shoulder, Evan didn’t want to wake him up, he looked so innocent when he was asleep, like a little boy. Evan looked around and saw that he was the only one awake. The rest of his friends still lay in deep slumber.
Soon enough, Barty finally woke up, he looked up at Evan through his long eyelashes. “Morning.” He said, his voice heavy from his sleep.
“Morning.”
“Time?”
“Ten.”
“I’m gonna go shower.” Barty said.
Evan just hummed in response. He looked up to see Pandora sitting up in bed and smiling at him.
“What?” Evan asked his sister.
“Nothing, just realized something.” She replied.
“What’d you realize?”
“Oh nothing important, I’m gonna head back to my dorm, get ready, I’ll see you at breakfast.” Pandora said, trying to get out of bed without waking Dorcas up.
Barty finally came out of their bathroom, dressed up in muggle clothes. Evan could smell his cologne, he smelt like warm sunsets. Fuck Evan was going crazy.
“Is that my shirt you’re wearing?” Evan asked, stepping closer to Barty.
“I don’t know what you're talking about.” He said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
Evan rolled his eyes. They’d all had a shared closet since first year which meant that all their clothes got mixed up. Evan remembers the three of them sitting on the floor on their last day of first year with a huge pile of clothes in front of them and trying to sort out who’s clothes are who’s. From there on they’d all given up on trying to keep their clothes organized. Anything important stayed in their trunks.
“Evan hurry up, go shower I’m hungry.” Barty whined like a kid.
“I’m going. Wake up Reg and Dorcas before you leave.”
Evan locked the bathroom door behind him and just stood there, leaning against the wall.
He took his time showering, letting himself finally relax under the hot water. He let hair hair air dry and put on a dark green sweater. Probably one of Regulus’.
His hair was still slightly wet and messy but he couldn't care less at this moment. Evan was minutes away from passing out from his hunger.
He made it down to the great hall, he took his regular seat next to Barty, Evan noticed that Pandora wasn’t sitting with them. He looked over and she wasn’t at the ravenclaw table either. They were talking about — when the owls carrying the daily prophet came in.
Dorcas took a look at the headlines and Evan watched at the color drained from her face. She wordlessly passed the prophet to Regulus while she was still trying to process what she’d just read.
“Dorcas, what happened?” Barty asked as he took the prophet out of Regulus’ hands, he also looked paler.
Evan leaned over Barty’s shoulder trying to read the headline when he saw it.
FIVE MUGGLE FAMILIES MURDERED
The front page had a picture of a house on fire. Most likely one of the families that was killed. On top of the house was a green skull with a snake coming out of its mouth.
The article read: Five muggle families of wizard/witch children were all murdered last night. Out of five families, around 22 people, all of them are dead. The unforgivable killing curse is what was used to kill them all.
Evan couldn’t read anymore, it made him feel sick to his stomach. He knew there were talks of a war going around, but no one was taking it too seriously. Maybe now was the time to grow up and take this war seriously.
Dorcas looked almost close to tears, she was clutching a fork in her hand. “Who could do such a thing? I mean even the little kids? They weren’t even eleven.”
“My dad once brought up some dark lord dude at dinner once last summer. You think it was him?” Barty asked.
“Walburga and Orion worship that man. I’ve never met him, but I’ve heard rumours about him. Bellatrix also has some weird obsession with him.” Regulus said, fidgeting with his rings.
Evan looked over to the gryffindor table and saw that one of the sixth year muggleborn girls, -MacDonald?- was crying on some other girl’s shoulder. Evan felt even more sick when he realized that maybe one of those families was hers.
Evan noticed a little slytherin girl sobbing on one end of the table, she didn’t have anyone beside her. She too was a muggleborn, most likely a first year too. Her family was probably wiped out too.
Fuck Evan was going to be sick. These blood purists were getting crazier day by day.
The great hall felt more sober now. The usual chatter and occasional screams were replaced with quietness and sniffles.
Evan didn’t know it yet, but there were going to be many days like this in the future. Quiet, somber, days filled with sorrow, grief and anger.
#####
Barty
They’d all left the great hall awhile ago, now Evan, Regulus, Dorcas and him were wasting time in the boys’ dorm, Pandora was still nowhere to be found.
Barty heard Regulus mutter to himself after glancing over at the time. He saw him trying to quickly get his shoes and a coat on before saying “I completely forgot that I was supposed to meet with the other prefects to help guide the third years to Hogsmeade. I’ll see you guys later.”
Regulus was out the door in seconds. Rushing to wherever his prefect meeting was taking place.
“So are we still gonna go to Hogsmeade or?” Barty asked.
“Well I need more quills. I don’t think any of us are in the mood for getting drinks.” Evan replied.
“I wonder where Pandora is.” Dorcas absentmindedly asked.
Barty smirked, trying to lighten the mood, “she’s probably with her boyfriend.”
“I’m gonna go and see if I can find her.” Dorcas said, quickly leaving Evan and Barty alone.
“We leave in 30, what do you want to do while we wait?” Barty asked.
Evan shuffled closer to Barty, close enough that Barty could smell his stupid forest-y shampoo. “Are you okay?”
That question caught Barty off guard. Of course he was okay, that was a stupid question to ask.
“Fine, why?”
Evan turned to look at Barty in his eyes— Evan’s eyes were beautiful, it’s always the first thing Barty notices about him. Ocean blue eyes that shine in the dark.
“A couple days ago you were crying on my shoulder, the next moment you started acting as if nothing happened.”
“Yeah well it was stupid, I’m not a helpless five year old kid. I’m perfectly fine, don’t ask me stupid questions, Evan.” Barty said it came out with more force than intended, but he would do anything for Evan to stop looking at Barty with those eyes.
Evan looked as if he was going to interrogate him until the door swung open. It was Pandora and Dorcas.
“Where’ve you been?” Barty asked, stepping away from Evan.
“Oh I just met with my friend in the library.”
“Friend? Or that ravenclaw boy?” Evan chimed in.
Pandora’s cheeks turned pink while she promptly flipped her brother off. “Well yeah, that ravenclaw boy is my friend.”
They teased her for a while before slipping their coats on and leaving for Hogsmeade. Barty thought that it was too cold, but to be fair he hated anything that wasn’t summer.
Once they finally made it to Hogsmeade, they met up with Regulus and decided to split up. Pandora and Regulus went into some bookstore and Dorcas went to get school supplies that they’d needed. That left Barty and Evan alone, wandering the open streets.
They found a little store at the very end, it looked new, so they decided to go and check it out.
The moment they entered the two of them were greeted by a sweet old lady.
The store was filled with what looked to be handmade teddy bears. The shopkeeper said that she makes them all the time. They reminded her of her late husband.
“Barty, you should get me this.” Evan said, holding a little grey bunny.
Beside it was a red teddy bear, just about the size of his hand. “You should get me this.”
Evan smiled at him. “Barty, you want me to buy you a teddy bear?”
“I mean, why not.”
Evan sighed. “Get me a bunny.”
“Deal.”
The two of them went to check out, and the older woman smiled at them and asked, “Are you two buying these for each other?”
“Yeah.” Barty said, fishing through his pocket trying to find coins.
“Oh darling, keep it, I’m not charging you.”
“Oh no it’s okay, Evan here is filthy rich, he doesn’t mind paying.” Barty grinned at the poor woman.
The old lady smiled, “it’s a gift.”
Evan’s eyes softened, “one day, we’ll pay you back.”
“Hogwarts students?”
“Yep.” Barty said.
“You two remind me of my own children.” she said. “What are your names?”
“That’s Evan and I’m Barty, you are?”
“Lauren.”
Evan looked at his pocket watch, “hey it was really nice meeting you Lauren but we really have to go but next time we visit, I promise we’ll come back.”
She laughed, “see you kids next time!”
They walked out of the store holding a small bag of their animals. Honestly Barty wouldn’t have expected him to buy something like this, but it felt nice. Especially since it was from Evan.
“Salazar, we look like little 5 year olds, buying shit like this.” Evan said.
“Hey, don't disrespect it. I was just trying to support a small business.”
“Well consider this your early Birthday present.”
“My birthday’s in June. We’ll call it an early Christmas.”
Evan smiled, he looked adorable, with his pink cheeks from the cold, messed up hair and his eyes shining with happiness.
——
Back at their dorm Dorcas relentlessly teased Evan and Barty for being saps.
What Barty would rather die than admit was that Lauren reminded him too much of his mother.
He’d just have to wait until Christmas, then he’d see her. Barty knew his mother wanted to see him before Christmas but no way was he going to spend time in that house unless he has no choice. He knows he’s being fucking selfish but every time his mind reminds himself of that topic Barty feels the need to throw his guts up.
So yes, he will be ignoring any problem that’s happing in his house. Actually, he’s going to be ignoring all of his problems.
#####
1976 October 7th
Regulus
He was patrolling the hallways with his prefect partner, Lily Evans. At first Regulus thought that she’d be a complete bitch but after a week, he doesn’t think she’s that bad.
Regulus has talked to her before at Slug club but that’s only because Slughorn thought they’d make a good team.
They’d walked in mostly silence with the occasional conversation starter by Evans. All of them being shot back down by Regulus.
They were walking down a corridor when they heard muffled cries.
Both Evans and Regulus briefly looked at each other before heading towards the noise.
“People like you shouldn’t be allowed here.”
“Disgusting mudbloods.”
Fuck fuck fuck it was Snape, Avery and Mulciber standing in front of of two little kids, they looked about 12.
Evans quickly took charge, casting a spell and taking all three of their wands in her free hand.
“Go make sure the kids are okay.” Evans commanded. As much as Regulus hated her, he had to respect her for being a good leader, a good role model.
Regulus crouched down, “do you want to tell me what happened?”
One of the kids sniffled, “we were walking around-I know we were breaking curfew. I’m sorry”
Regulus took a deep breath in, “that’s not what I asked you about. Do you two need to go to the hospital wing?”
The other kid answered this time, “no we’re fine, we’re gonna head back to our dorms now.”
“Hey wait, show me your arm.”
The little girl showed him her heavily bruised arm. Regulus gently healed her arm for her. “Now come on, I’ll walk you two to your dorms.”
The little kids followed Regulus up into the hufflepuff dormitories, they muttered a password -something Regulus couldn’t catch- and then left him there.
Regulus had to run through the halls trying to find Evans, he needed to make sure she was alright. It’s not safe for her kind of people.
Regulus walked into the corridor just to find Evans yelling at the slytherin boys. Maybe in another life, if they were friends, Regulus would be proud of her.
Regulus crept up behind her, listening to what she was saying
“—Cannot go around harassing fucking twelve year olds just because they don’t meet your standards. You make me sick, all of you, I’m talking off a hundred points of slytherin, and two months of detention.”
“You can’t do that.” Avery sneered, it was subtle but Regulus noticed that he was sliding his wand back into his hand, preparing for a fight.
“3 months of detention, now go back to your dorms.” Regulus chimed in from behind her.
“You’re defending a mudblood? Regulus I knew there was something wrong with the older one, but now you? I’m disappointed.” Mulciber said.
“I’m not defending anyone, you were wrong to go around harassing little kids. That’s a new low, even for you guys.” Regulus said.
“A new low for you is that you’re being influenced by this mudblood shit.” Snape sneered.
“Severus, you can’t be talking about muggleborns right now, look at your family heritage.”
Snape flushed an ugly red. “Regulus we’re on the same si- “Stop being so fucking desperate, go back to your dorms now before we go and get a professor.” Evans interrupted.
Something in Snape’s eyes died down, he started walking back, leaving Avery and Mulciber to follow.
“You alright?” Regulus asked her after making sure that the slytherins had left.
Evans looked surprised that Regulus had actually talked to her, “yeah.”
“We have two more corridors left, let’s hurry up.” Regulus said, walking in front of her.
When they finally finished checking all the corridors, they awkwardly bid goodbyes and went their own separate ways.
Right after that, Regulus took off to the astronomy tower. It was his calm space, away from everyone, all Regulus could hear was the wind.
Regulus sat there reading his muggle book that Dorcas had lent him. Jane Eyre, that’s what it was called.
He was enjoying the quiet atmosphere until someone obnoxiously barged through the heavy door.
Regulus turned his head and saw Sirius standing in front of him. He looked almost close to tears while clutching a pack of cigarettes in one hand.
Sirius noticed Regulus sitting there and scoffed down at him.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Sirius asked him, eyeing Regulus suspiciously as if he would suddenly push him off the tower.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Regulus throws the question back at him.
Sirius looked as if he was considering something. “How’s…” he trailed off, “everything?”
Now it was Regulus’ turn to scoff. Why did he even care, he stopped caring about Regulus the moment he’d come to Hogwarts at eleven years old.
Instead Regulus just said, “good.”
“Hey Reggie- “Don’t call me that.” He snapped.
“Okay, uh Regulus, I know things aren’t good back there, I mean they never are, or maybe it was just me that seemed to notice… Fuck I’m rambling, Reg, all I want to tell you is that if you were to ever leave that house, you know where to find me.”
Regulus laughed, not warm or kind, but cold and sharp, almost like Walburga. “Sirius, you haven’t cared about me since you were eleven years old, why the fuck do you think I’d leave my parents for you.”
“Regulus, they aren’t good parents, I mean for fucks sake, did they even want us? I’m offering you a better place to stay. You could leave it all behind.” Sirius said the last part softly, like they were seven years old again, hiding in his rooms from their parents.
Regulus got up to leave, he swung the door open, but before he left, he turned around and said, “Fuck you Sirius.”
Regulus was being as quiet as he could, walking to the dungeons. Regulus couldn’t help but think about what Sirius said, what if Regulus left with him? Maybe then he wouldn’t dread going home.
Maybe then Sirius would still like him.