IV
1976 October 8th
Barty
It was a Friday afternoon, They were all in their last class which was defence against the dark arts. They were having a boring lesson on theory. Right after class Barty and Evan had detention, they had to help Slughorn clean cauldrons.
On Saturday he had to attend Slytherin's first quidditch match. Slytherin versus ravenclaw. Everyone knew that ravenclaw had a shit team which meant slytherin had already won that game.
Slytherin winning, meant having an after party with a bunch of drinks and drugs.
On Sunday Barty is going to force himself to write back to his father. Probably wasn’t a good idea to write to him hungover but it’s not like he cared.
Barty was close to falling asleep when someone hit his head. Barty looked up and it was Regulus, who was signing for Barty to get up.
Barty was sitting in the middle of Regulus and Evan, he looked over at both of them who were taking notes down. He realized that he should have been taking notes instead of falling asleep.
Barty started messily scribbling in his notebook, trying to quickly write what the professor had written on the board. In all seriousness, Barty couldn’t give a fuck on what people’s patronuses meant.
On Monday, they were going to start learning how to conjure a patronus, using fancy wand work. Their only task for the weekend was to think of some happy memories to use.
Once they were finally dismissed from class, the four of them split up, Regulus and Pandora heading back to their dorms while Evan and him went down to the potions room to meet Slughorn.
“Boys,” Slughorn greeted them. “Come on in.”
They both followed Slughorn, they walked towards a cabinet filled with cauldrons.
“Alright, you know what you’re supposed to be doing, I’m just going to take your wands.” Slughorn said.
“Hey how about you trust us enough to keep our wands, plus it’s not like we know any caldron cleaning spells, we never learnt them.” Barty tried to negotiate with his professor.
“How about no,” Slughorn said. “I’ve known you guys long enough to know that you are going to pull something. Now hurry up, you guys aren’t allowed to leave until you finish cleaning.”
Evan groaned. “There are like seventy cauldrons in here.”
“I’ll tell you what, I have a little bit of Felix felicis left over, about less than a vial, if you boys can finish cleaning up in an hour thirty minutes, I’ll give you the vial.” Slughorn said.
“I like those odds.” Evan said.
“Your time starts now, I’ll be in my office if you need anything, cleaning supplies are in that cabinet.” Slughorn said, walking out of the room, holding both Evan’s and Barty’s wands.
“Okay, I’ll take this side, you take that side.” Evan said.
About 15 minutes in Barty’s hands felt as if they were going to fall off, the potions brewed in the caldron's weren’t washed out properly which meant that there was some sticky residue on the bottom of the cauldrons which took forever to scrub off.
Barty and Evan had finished a total of seven cauldrons out of fifty six in thirty minutes. They really had to start going faster if they wanted to be out of the potions room soon, and even faster if they wanted a leftover vial of liquid luck.
“Ew ew ew this is fucking gross I am not doing this, I’d rather jump out of a window.” Evan complained.
“Have you ever washed dishes before?” Barty asked.
Evan scoffed, “No? We had house elves to do that.”
Barty playfully rolled his eyes, “well I was going to say that this is like washing dishes but princess Evan hasn’t had to do a single chore in his life.”
“I used to help make dinner.” Evan grumbled.
Barty had to hide his laugh, “you know how to cook?”
“Don’t look so surprised, I’m a man of many talents.” Evan said.
“You’d make a good trophy wife for Harkin, you can cook and sometimes clean.”
“I’m going to throw you off of the astronomy tower. Also me and Harkin are not dating, I promise you.” Evan said, he sounded exasperated. Barty liked this type of thing, just the two of them together, ignoring the world.
“Whatever you say.”
Evan threw a wet sponge at Barty, getting his entire sleeve wet. Barty just rolled his sleeve up, laughing at Evan. Barty honestly hated Harkin, ever since last week, Evan and her would be spending more and more time in the library together, and it felt weird hanging out with the rest of his friends without Evan, his partner in crime.
Barty needed this girl to back the fuck off, how did Evan even like someone like her, something about the way she carried herself fueled a rage inside in him.
An hour and they’d finished twenty cauldrons, not even half, but Evan and Barty could both sense that they were on a time crunch and starting going faster, even though both of his hands were cramping up.
“I fucking hate this.” Barty complained as he aimed to throw another dirty sponge in the bin, he missed horribly.
“How many have you done?” Evan asked.
“Like ten or maybe eleven, I stopped counting a while ago.”
“Alright there are fifty six cauldrons in this room, if we both do twenty seven we’ll be done.”
“I hate everything.” Barty whined.
“Shut up and start cleaning, seventeen more each and we’ll be done.”
At the end of their one hour and thirty minutes they unfortunately had not finished cleaning, they had done forty in total, sixteen short.
Slughorn came to check up on them, he saw that they still had a bunch of cauldrons left, he just wordlessly shook his head and left.
“Hey Evan let’s make this a game, whoever finishes the most cauldrons can….” Barty trailed off.
“Winner can copy off any homework for a week.” Evan filled in.
“Oh yeah, 14 left, whoever finishes seven first wins.”
Evan nodded, throwing another wet sponge at the bin he made in it.
In the end it was Barty that finished first, Evan threw a cloth at him.
——
Regulus had the great idea to force Pandora, Evan, Dorcas and Barty down to the library to study. Why? Because they had O.W.L.S coming up in June. Barty could strangle Regulus right now. All he wanted to do was to lay in bed and do absolutely nothing.
Dorcas was just there for emotional support, but she left them the moment she saw some Gryffindor girl, she said that they needed to work on a potions project.
Pandora was coloring Barty’s nails with ink and a quill out of boredom, she had a book about mythical creatures open on her lap.
Evan and Regulus looked like they were the only ones studying, they were writing things down in their notebooks.
“I can’t believe I thought it was a good idea to take divination again, what do you mean I have to figure out someone’s future by using their tea grains.” Barty said, trying to figure out what Pandora’s teacup meant.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to get 12 O.W.L.S?” Regulus asked.
“I’m done with trying to make history, I hate divination.”
“Barty, you’re reading it upside down,” Pandora said, turning the cup around. “It’s all about your perspective.”
“Pandora is this a fucking dog?” Barty asked. “What does that mean?” Barty asked, flipping through a book, while Pandora leaned over to take the cup in her hands.
“I remember that from third year, it’s called the grim, it means death.” Regulus chimed in.
“Pandora you can’t die, what about my 10 sickles you owe me.” Evan said dramatically, while he looked over at his sister.
“Barty you’re still reading it wrong, it’s a bunny.” Pandora said, taking the cup in her hands. “How dare you try and predict my death.” She said with a dramatic tone.
“Well it looked like a dog, what do you want me to do?”
“At least this cup shit isn’t going to be on our exams, I’m glad we left this behind in third year.” Pandora said.
“At least you’re good at this, I can’t even tell what animal that is.”
“It’s all about perspective.”
“Reg, want some tea?” Barty asks.
“No way am I gonna let you predict my death.” Regulus said.
“Evan?”
“Nope.”
“I hate you guys, I mean seriously why am I not allowed to read your futures?”
“First of all, how’d you even bring tea in the library, you know Pince doesn't allow any drinks in here.” Evan asked.
“Oh we snuck it in, put it in a bag.” Pandora answered.
“How’d she not notice?” Regulus asked, pushing his work away, Barty noticed that he looked tired.
“She’s too busy watching the Gryffindors, making sure they don’t blow the library up.” Barty said, pointing to where Black, Potter, Pettigrew, McKinnon and apparently Dorcas were sitting.
“Why’s Cas sitting with them?” Evan asked.
“Is she trying to replace us?” He said before dramatically laying his head on Pandora’s shoulder.
“Working on some potions projects with McKinnon.” Regulus answered. “It’s a full tonight, they need to figure out ingredients.”
Barty noticed the way Dorcas was laughing with McKinnon, she looks happier, was Dorcas trying to replace them? No way, they were hanging out in their dorm again last night, Dorcas wouldn’t replace them.
“Have you guys ever heard of nargles?” Pandora asked.
“What the fuck is that?” Barty asked.
Pandora sighed, looking disappointed in him. “Well do your things sometimes go missing?”
“Well yeah, I’m constantly losing quills because someone keeps on stealing them.” Regulus said glaring at Barty, he looked quite interested at what she was saying now.
“No no, not like that, I meant things that just randomly go missing.” She explained.
“My aunt randomly went missing.” Evan said.
“No for Salazar’s sake you guys know what I mean.” Pandora said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Also Evan, it was our aunt that went missing.”
“Alright where were you going with that?” Evan asked.
“Okay well nargles steal those things, me and Xeno are trying to get one on his muggle camera.”
“Pandora, those things do not exist. If they did, wouldn't we know more about them?” Regulus asked.
“That’s the thing, our world denies their existence because they sound stupid, you guys don’t know about them because they’re ignored.” Pandora said she sounded passionate about the topic.
“Well I’m sure you guys will catch him on camera one day.” Barty said, patting Pandora on her shoulder.
#####
1976 October 9
Evan
Saturdays were always quidditch match days, and the first match of the year fell on this Saturday. Truth be told, Evan couldn’t stand watching quidditch, what do you mean Evan was going to leave the warm castle just to sit in the rain and watch people throw a ball around.
Evan could easily just sit in the castle and do nothing but both Regulus and Dorcas were playing today, it wasn’t them forcing Evan to sit out, it was Barty and Pandora, they dragged him out of bed and said that he needed to show more house pride.
It was obvious that slytherin was going to win, ravenclaw’s team was too inexperienced for the slytherins. Their oldest player was 15, even Slughorn had warned them to go easier on the younger players.
What Evan couldn’t wait for, was the celebratory party. Everyone knew quidditch parties were the craziest, last year, someone beat the shit out of Snape. Evan hoped someone might do it again, Snape and his little gang were pissing Evan off.
They were all sitting at breakfast, Dorcas looked to be giving their team some sort of motivational speech, although it didn’t look like anyone was paying much attention to her. Regulus was sitting with them.
Evan felt someone tap on his shoulder, it was Arabelle, standing behind him.
“Hey, you coming to watch the game?” She asked.
“Yeah, you?”
“Oh yeah,” she said with a laugh. “My best friend’s playing.”
“Well good luck.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re going to be their personal cheerleader aren’t you?”
“Yep, crossing my fingers for a win.” Arabelle said, walking back to her table.
Evan turned back around to his friends and was met with a glare from Barty. “Evan, you’re hot, you can have anyone in this castle, yet you chose that one? Seriously? I mean who goes up to their opposing team and says "oh I'm hoping for our first win!”
“Barty, that's rude.” Pandora said, nudging him with her elbow.
Did Barty just call him hot?
“Yeah and I mean we all know we’re gonna win this shit.”
“Okay well couldn’t she mention that her friend’s playing when you met up with her in the library?”
“Barty, we meet at the library once a week.”
“You guys met up four times last week.”
“Why are you so mad?”
“I’m not mad, I’m just saying, have better taste.” Barty crossed his arms like a kid who was denied candy, slouching in his seat.
Evan rolled his eyes, he couldn’t tell if Barty was jealous, or if he was just being a bitch. Probably both.
——
The game had lasted thirty minutes. Obviously slytherin won, back in their common room Evan noticed that most of the seventh years were missing, they’d probably snuck out to go find alcohol.
Regulus, Barty and Evan sat together in their dorm, Dorcas and Pandora were playing chess on the floor. Or some version of chess, the pieces were mixed up and every time a piece was taken out of the game it blew up.
Dorcas looked up from the ground and asked, “what are you guys wearing tonight?”
“Jeans.” Barty said, leaning on Evan.
“That’s it? You’re going to go shirtless?” Pandora asked.
“I’m sure some people would love it.”
“Evan?” Dorcas asked, ignoring Barty.
“Nothing too fancy.” He replied
“Goodness you guys are boring, Dora?” Dorcas sounded like she was getting fed up.
“A skirt with a nice top.”
“You’re going to look great,” Dorcas said. “What do you think I should wear?”
“The black dress.” Pandora said, “the one with the lace.”
“Oh yeah.”
“You think I should do my nails?” Pandora asked, inspecting her hand.
“If you want,” Dorcas said. “I have black, green, red, and pink.”
“Use ink,” Barty said as he showed the girls his hands which were still covered with ink. “It doesn’t come off.”
“Barty your nails look beautiful, it’s my finest work.” Pandora said.
“Take it off, I look stupid.” Barty whined.
“Just go wash your hands.” Regulus said, looking up at him from his book.
“You think I haven’t tried that.”
“I mean, Regulus said. “You do lack common sense.”
“I’ll bite you.” Barty said, shuffling closer to Regulus.
“What the fuck, stay away from me.” He said, pushing Barty away.
“You know what, I’m gonna go do my hair.” Pandora said, getting up to leave. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Evan come here and finish this game of chess with me.” Dorcas demanded.
“How do you even play this?” Evan asked, joining Dorcas on the floor.
“Just try to win and don’t lose pieces, they blow up.”
They wrapped their game of chess up, which meant Evan gave up, all of the remaining pieces blew up, leaving minor scratches on the board.
——
The lights were dimmed, so much that Evan could barely make out his friends’ faces. There was some muggle band playing in the background, and a small cup filled with amber liquid, firewhiskey was in his hand.
They were all doing shots, except for Regulus, who insisted that he wasn’t going to drink tonight, he said he was going to finish his essay tomorrow and needed a clear head. His shot glass was filled with soda.
Evan swallowed his shot on Pandora’s count, the burning liquid going down his throat. Barty was already out, getting them more shots.
He noticed some older Hufflepuffs in their common room, it’s not unusual to see them at parties, it was like their unspoken rule, the Hufflepuffs were always here, even last year. He wondered what it was about.
Barty still wasn’t back yet but another boy joined them, Alden Selwyn, seventh year. Evan had heard that he was some sort of rebellious kid. Evan only had the mentality to deal with one rebellious kid, and that was Barty.
“Do any of you guys have a cigarette?” He asked, running his fingers through his hair.
Evan wordlessly pulled a pack out of his pocket, took one out and handed it to him.
“Thanks kid.” He finally walked away.
When Barty came back, he didn’t have shot glasses, instead he had cups filled with Salazar knows what. Knowing Barty he probably mixed random drinks together. Making his own special drink.
“Barty what’s in this?” Dorcas questioned him, she had to yell over the blaring music.
“Firewhiskey, beer, something fizzy and something pink.” He said, already sounding drunk.
“Something pink?” Pandora asked, inspecting the drink he handed her.
“Yep, it didn’t have a label, I’m sure it’s fine, and for our little baby,” Barty said, handing Regulus a drink. “I got you more soda.”
“Thanks.”
“Alright on three we finish them.” Barty said he sounded way too enthusiastic for this.
“On three.” Pandora agreed, Evan never really took his sister to be one for drinks, maybe this was her last.
On the count of three, they all finished the inner contents of their cups. It was the most disgusting drink he’d ever tasted. Was Barty trying to kill them all? Lightweights die first or some shit?
Despite how gross he may have thought it was, Evan finished his drink and smiled at Barty.
“Fuck Crouch,” Dorcas said. “That was the worst thing I’ve ever tasted.
“Dorcas you know he’s sensitive.” Evan said, “if you’re going to insult his concoctions, do it gently.”
“I am not sensitive. Pandora you liked it didn’t you?” Barty asked.
The poor girl looked like she was holding back tears. “It was lovely.”
“See? She gets the magic.”
Evan just scoffed at him.
Soon enough they were all holding normal drinks when a group of sixth and seventh year boys took Barty away, he was the social butterfly of their group. Then Pandora left, she said the music was giving her a headache. So it was just Regulus, Dorcas and Evan sitting together against a wall.
Evan could see Barty across the room, he was yelling out song lyrics, he was swaying side to side, as if he’d fall down. Beside him was a girl with blonde hair, a sixth year, he had his arm lazily wrapped around her waist.
“You guys wanna play a game?” Dorcas asked, her words slurring into each other.
“What game?” Evan asked, forcing himself to take his eyes off of Barty.
“Truth or Dare?” She asked the boys.
“Sure.” Regulus said.
“Okay I’ll go first,” Dorcas said. “Evan truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Okay…” Dorcas thought about it for a couple seconds. “Are you with someone?”
“Nope.” He said. “Okay Reg, truth or dare.”
“Truth.” He replied.
“Is there anything you’re too embarrassed to tell us?”
Regulus thought about it, “yeah.”
“What?” Dorcas asked him.
“It’s only one question.” Regulus said. ”Cas truth or dare?”
“Dare, it’s time we spice the game up.” She said.
“Alright,” Regulus replied. “Go find the pink thing Barty was talking about and take a shot of it.”
Dorcas got up, and five minutes later she returned with two shot glasses filled with a pink liquid.
“Two?” Regulus asked.
“We might need it again.” She said before drinking the first one and making a face.
Their game got worse as it went, there were multiple sex related questions and random dares were thrown out. Evan had been dared to go mix every drink they had in a cup and drink it. Regulus gave up on trying to be sober and was dared to drink multiple firewhiskey shots.
The party slowly started to die down, students passed out on the couches. Barty joined the other three, his cheeks were pink and he looked way more drunk than the rest of them. He was carrying a bottle, the writing was in a different language.
Beside Barty, clinging to him was the girl from before, and a couple other people. They all sat in a circle, before deciding to play spin the bottle.
Barty went first, the bottle landed on some other girl, Evan couldn’t even remember her name.
The blonde girl went next, the bottle landed on Dorcas. They shared an awkward kiss. Both of them wouldn’t remember this tomorrow morning.
A couple turns went by, another girl ending up kissing Barty, and another girl kissed Evan. It was Selwyn’s turn now, he spun the bottle, it landed on Evan.
It was a harmless kiss, all in good fun, no one really cared, but Evan couldn’t wrap his head around kissing another boy. Still, he leaned in and kissed him. It was longer than he wanted it to be, Selwyn was a good kisser. Eventually though, they finally broke apart.
Fuck this was bad, no way in hell Evan just kissed another boy and liked it. No way. It was the alcohol he tried to convince himself. Evan didn’t enjoy it.
A couple more turns went by, and soon it was Dorcas, it landed on some dude sitting beside Selwyn.
Next it was Evan’s turn, he spun the bottle, it landed right beside him, on another boy, but this time, it was Regulus. Evan didn’t even think he was playing but apparently he was.
Evan leaned in first, it was probably the worst kiss he’d ever had in his life, his best friend Evan would never think of Regulus in that way, he was always like a brother to him.
Regulus pulled away from him first. Their kiss lasted for about two seconds. If both of them weren’t drunk, they wouldn’t have done it.
A couple more people went, a the blonde girl who draped herself over Barty, kissed Evan. Selwyn and Barty kissed, and some more random people who Evan did not care about, kissed.
That night they all passed out in the corner of their common room, all of them too drunk to think straight.
#####
1976 October 10
Barty
He woke up with a horrible headache, and Beth was laying in his lap. Barty honestly couldn’t remember much of last night except for the fact that they’d all played spin the bottle. They were all friends, Barty trusted these people. He knew they wouldn’t snitch if they saw girls kissing girls or guys kissing guys.
Then was Barty being the problem? He couldn’t remember much but he remembered that Evan kissed a guy, two of them actually. Why’d his stomach feel weird when he tried to think about that moment.
His eyes looked over to where Evan was laying passed out on Dorcas’ shoulder. His blond curls messed up. Evan was beautiful, whichever girl got to have him should consider herself the luckiest girl on this planet.
He got up, untangling himself from Beth. He went back to his dorm, showered underneath cold water and went back down to the common room to see that most of his friends were awake now and Pandora was sitting beside them. He was pretty sure that she’d left early last night.
“Morning losers,” Barty said, standing behind them. “You all look like shit.”
Regulus flipped him off before getting up and heading back down to their dorm.
Evan was still asleep on Dorcas’ shoulder, even though she was up. Dorcas was trying to shake him awake.
“I’m never going to get drunk again.” One of the seventh year girl, Ally declared.
“You say that every time.” Another girl replied, Barty couldn’t remember her name.
“I’m going to be sick.” Dorcas complained, even her usually perfect hair was messed up. “And can someone please wake Evan up.”
Barty took that as his chance to sit down in front of Evan and shake his shoulders. “Wake up baby”
Evan’s eyes finally opened, “am I dead yet? Am I in hell?”
“Nope, still alive.” Dorcas said.
Evan groaned, “my head’s going to fall off.”
“Go shower, we’ll get breakfast.” Barty told him.
“I can’t eat anything,” Evan said, before dramatically falling back onto Dorcas. “I’m going to die.”
“You shouldn’t have drank Barty’s devil concoction” Pandora chimed in.
“Someone remind me to never take a drink from him, I swear he’s trying to kill me.”
“Evan, go shower, cold water, you’ll feel much better.” Barty said, trying to get Evan to stand up.
He finally made it down the stairs and into their dorm. Now it was just Dorcas Pandora and Barty sitting in the common room, waiting for their friends.
“Barty, are you immune to hangovers?” Dorcas asks.
“Nope, just ignoring it.”
“I hate you,” Dorcas declared. “Why were you blessed with the power to ignore hangovers?”
“It takes practice.” Barty grinned at her.
“Give me a couple hours and I will kill you.” Dorcas said.
Soon enough Dorcas left and Evan and Regulus came back, looking a little less rough.
“Morning sunshine.”
“Fuck you.” Evan drawled.
“I mean, if you insist.” Barty smirked at Evan.
“Gross, get a room.” Regulus said, sounding grumpier then usual.
None of them really had much of an appetite, still feeling quite nauseous from the alcohol. They were all back in the boys dorm now, recounting moments from the party.
#####
1976 October 9th
Pandora
The music was way too loud from Pandora’s liking, there were too many people talking over the music, she could barely see anything and it smelt like pubescent teens. She was going to throw up, no way was she going to stay here for another couple hours.
She gently tapped Regulus on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “hey Reg, I’m going to leave, too many people, it’s giving me a headache.”
He nodded his head at her. She squeezed through people to get out of the common room. Finally, it was much nicer outside, the silencing charm made sure no noise was let outside.
Pandora was walking around the castle aimlessly, she didn’t know where she was going, until she found herself up at the astronomy tower, gazing up at the sky.
It was a full moon yesterday. She was experimenting with different types of potions, so she got up and went to the empty classroom. She wasn’t expecting to see anyone there but she saw a familiar head, it was Xenophillus, checking up on their potions.
He finally turned around and saw Pandora hovering at his shoulder, “hey.”
“Hey.” Pandora said, she was quite drunk, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to drink alcohol tonight.
“Do you think that the color looks off? Or is it supposed to be like this?” He asked.
Pandora took a good look at the caldron, it was filled with a dusty pink liquid, it looked good but she decided to mess with him a little. “It’s supposed to be green, what’d you do?”
“Wait what? I’ve just been adding in the herbs you told me to. Are you sure it’s supposed to be green?”
Pandora tried putting a serious face on, but she couldn’t, she burst out laughing, he looked adorable in distress.
“Pandora you had me worried, I thought all of our hard work was gone to waste.” He said with a smile.
Pandora smiled at the taller man, “don’t worry, the color isn’t off. It’s supposed to be like that.”
The moonlight was shining in through the window, casting shadows on Xenophillus’ face, he truly was handsome. He wore a mix of gold and silver jewelry, which suited him. He was wearing a simple dark blue sweater with the sleeves rolled up.
His face was being lit up by the moon, making his green eyes look like magic, like a warm sunny day, his hair was slightly ruffled, like he’d been running his fingers through it.
Fuck Pandora was really drunk. She had the urge to kiss him, she’s never thought of him in that way, but something about the lazy smile across his face made her feel butterflies.
Fuck it, Pandora thought to herself and her lips on on his. It seemed to take him by surprise for a second before he was pulling Pandora closer, wanting more.
They broke apart and Xenophillus was looking down at her with his beautiful eyes. “Is this what we’re doing now?”
“Do you want to?” She asked him.
“Yes,” he answered. “I really want to, do you?”
Pandora laughed, he was so oblivious. “Why do you think I kissed you,” she playfully flicked his forehead.
And this time it was Xenophillus who pulled her into a kiss, both of them, together, it felt right. Both of them kissing in a dimly lit room. Together.