Chapter 3
"Come on, Evan, we need to go."
"Mm, no."
"We need to go, Evan. Get up, Petals. Or I will steal your Charms notes."
Evan sat bolt upright in a second, "You wouldn't dare."
Barty smiled, exaggeratedly and innocently, "Try me."
Evan watched him, confused, until he saw the hand snaking towards his bedside table.
"I said," Barty laughed at his shocked expression, voice lowering to a whisper, leaning forwards with a hand still on the table, "try me."
Evan shuddered, "Oh yeah? I will, then."
"Wait - what are you doing?"
Evan stood up and turned around, he began to make his way over to Barty's 'shrine'. He called it a shrine, because everything in there was apparently 'representing and honouring the wonder that is Barty Crouch Jr'.
Evan sat down on his bed and picked up his jumble of Potions notes.
Barty's once-smug face fell.
"You - you wouldn't dare, Evan Rosier."
"Oh, yeah? Try me."
Barty lunged himself forwards at Evan, who was not expecting the attack. He tried to hold Barty's wad of notes away, but Barty caught them. Evan and Barty sat up, laughing, and Barty still had an arm behind Evan's back. Barty dipped his face, still laughing, and he tilted his face up again, a smile etched onto his face.
Evan noticed that they were close, really close, and Barty must have too, because his face went straight (except for his eyes, which watched Evan with a twinkling expression) and his breathing, from what Evan could hear, seemed to speed up.
"I-" Evan tried to speak, but how could he when Barty was looking at him like that.
Barty moved away, suddenly, and cleared his throat.
"So . . . before we leave, if you want to, why . . . were you upset earlier?"
Evan knew it was coming. He shifted his body to mirror Barty's, facing the wall.
"The lesson."
"Oh, yeah, I figured. Was it . . . who you smelled?"
Fuck.
"Yeah, I guess so."
Barty looked at him again, smiling sadly and hopefully, "Did you identify who?"
Evan nodded.
"Who . . ." he started, But Evan felt his face heat up and turned away fully, not wanting the other boy to see.
"You wouldn't believe me, and anyway, I'm pretty certain that," he paused, trying to find the right pronouns, "they don't like me back."
"They? It's not Pandora, is it? I know she also doesn't mind if we call them 'she' . . ."
"Pandora? Are you fucking kidding me? My sibling?"
"Yeah, yeah, okay maybe not." a pause, "who is she?"
Evan's face heated up even more, "She?" he asked.
"Are they . . . what, not a girl? I assumed you liked girls, y'know."
"I don't think," Evan began to say, "I don't think I'm really into girls, if I'm honest."
Barty took a few seconds to digest that.
"So . . . you're into blokes?"
"Yeah . . . Yeah, I guess I'm into blokes."
Evan hadn't said that out loud before.
"Can't blame you, mate. There's this boy I wouldn't mind . . ." he stopped.
The two boys froze.
Somewhere, Evan thought, his crush had to be painfully obvious. Even if he hadn't really let himself imagine much, he really liked Barty. He was certain he didn't have any chance at all.
Until, perhaps, there may be a very small one.
Barty spoke again, "Oh. I think I might like blokes too. How funny's that? I didn't even realise it was a crush until now, actually, or maybe I did . . . Never really let myself admit it, to be honest."
"That's exactly how I feel!" Evan turned back around, forgetting that his face was still flushed. Barty, surprisingly, looked quite red himself.
"So . . . what's he like?"
Double fuck.
"He's a bit scary on the outside, to be honest, but he's pretty nice." Evan began, be careful, his brain told him, "Slytherin. Likes Quidditch -"
"Does he play?"
"Yeah . . ."
"What position?"
You sly, sly, motherfucker.
"If I tell you, you'll know who he is."
"Who is he, though? I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours?"
Evan hesitated. He could make something up, if he convinced Barty to go first and it wasn't him . . .
"Yeah, go on then. You first."
Barty blinked, he obviously wasn't expecting Evan to say yes.
"Uhm . . . well, the thing is . . ." his face looked like a Gryffindor banner without the gold.
"He's - ah - he's . . . a friend?"
Quidditch friend.
"Do I know him?"
"Yeah . . . really well, actually."
Probably Regulus.
"Okay."
A pause, "He . . . he's . . ."
"Regulus?" Evan blurts out.
"Erm, no actually. Reg's great, but he's not my type. Never liked him like that. It's always been . . ."
"Why not Regulus, though? What is your type?"
Barty seemed to be hyping himself up, befor saying, "I'm more into blondes."
Evan stopped breathing. His heart rate sped up, hard and fast, as if his heart wanted to jump right into Barty's hands.
"Stupid. Stupid of me. Sorry, I'll just-" He began to leave, but Evan grabbed his sleeve.
"I haven't . . . told you mine." He pulled Barty back down on the bed beside him.
"Oh, okay. Who did you smell?"
". . . You know him. He's a friend. Not Regulus."
Barty's eyes went wide.
"Do I . . . Do you . . . Are we . . ."
"Describing eachother? Yeah I think so."
There was a beat of silence.
"I . . . I think I . . . Fuck it, I love you, Evan. Have since that day in fourth year. Pandora came into Potions late, remember, yeah? And she was sorry, and Slughorn lectured her about wasting lesson time. You yelled that he had been lecturing her for three minutes, and that he was wasting his own time. You got detention, but I knew that what I felt for you was more complicated than friendship. I only let myself admit it was more than 'like', it was love, today. Earlier. When Slughorn came in, and opened the first vial, I smelt you. I love you, Evan."
Evan blinked, smiling, "I smelt you too. I guess I just thought it was a tiny crush until today, too. Sorry, don't have a long speech, but will and I love you make up for it?"
Barty nodded.
"Okay, then. I love you, Barty Crouch."
Barty gave Evan that look, that twinkly look, before leaning over slowly.
Evan let him close the distance between them, and put a hand on Barty's neck, pulling him closer.
It was slow and gentle, but full of love and unspoken words and them.
Evan wanted it more.
He wanted it badly.
____________________________________________
"Evan? Barty? You've missed Herbology! And lunch! And Arithmancy!" Pandora's sing-song voice jolted the boys apart as the door flew open. They looked away from eachother, trying and failing to not look guilty.
Evan had turned away and was fiddling with his tie, putting it back on from when he had discarded it during his crying-sleeping session.
Barty was running a hand through his messy hair.
Pandora looked between them.
"Dorcas! I think they got their shit together!" They yelled and skipped back down the stairs.
The door shut.
"No point going to divination, is there?" Barty asked cheekily.
"Nah, we're gonna fail anyways. Don't need it." Evan replied. He might have been imagining it, but he could swear he felt his right arm twinge.
Evan sat next to Barty on his bed. They had kissed and sat in awkward silence and talked and kissed some more and they didn't even realise the time. It had been an hour or two.
"So . . . what next?" Barty asked.
"What?" Evan replied.
"What next . . . for us?"
"Oh." Evan laughed, "I guess the proper code would be one of us asking the other on a date, but do we need to follow the code?"
"I don't know about the code, but to be honest a date with you doesn't sound bad either."
"So . . ."
"So . . . ?"
Evan turned sharply to Barty, "Do you want to go on a date with me, then?"
Barty's smile got, if possible, wider, "I would absolutely love to, Evan."
Then he kissed him.
____________________________________________
"So!" Dorcas announced, "I was thinking - should we stay in the castle tomorrow? I mean, Hogsmeade's fun, but we would have the place to ourselves. We could - we could get food from the kitchens and just hang out?"
Evan and Barty glanced guiltily at eachother, as the rest of their group agreed to the plan.
"Oi, you two," Pandora said, "you there?"
Evan looked at Barty, question in his eyes.
Barty nodded and smiled.
"Well, we - ah - we-"
"What Evan's trying to say, is that . . ." Barty took Evan's hand, "we can't make it tomorrow because, well, we're . . . we have plans to . . ."
"You . . . you're dating?" Regulus asked.
Evan nodded.
"HOW - HOW LONG?" Dorcas asked, panicked.
Evan thought, "Last Thursday, I think. Not long, really, but that was when we kissed for the first time?" He looked at Barty, who nodded.
"Yeah, confessions and kisses that day."
Evan rolled his eyes, smiling, and shuffled closer to Barty, "Thanks." He whispered.
"No problem."
"YES, MOTHERFUCKERS! I WIN!" Regulus shouted.
Evan and Barty looked at eachother, confused.
"There's still the announcement date, we haven't checked that."
"I WIN THAT AS WELL!" Regulus shouted again.
"What the fuck?" Evan asked.
Pandora and Dorcas sighed and both put four galleons each into Regulus's outstretched palm.
"Did you bet on us?" Barty asked, befuddled.
"Yup." Regulus said, "And I won! Oh James is going to be so mad, he had two galleons each on Monday!"
"James?" Barty asked, "Why - Didn't you smell him in Amortentia?"
"Yeah . . ."
"They're dating." Evan smiled.
"You -"
"He left his tie under Reg's pillow." Evan interrupted.
"Thanks, Ev."
"Now that we're on the subject of relationships . . ." Pandora but in nervously, "I'm in one too . . . with two people?"
"What? How?" Dorcas asked.
"Well . . . we're all dating each other, at the same time, and we're all aware of it and there's no individual relationships involved?"
"Oh . . . that's - different, like, me and Marlene are just two, and you are three in a relationship? It's . . . a little bit -"
"Confusing? Yeah. But . . . I'm dating Lily Evans and Mary Macdonald."
"Well, we all totally support you, right?" Evan asked, and his friends - and maybe-possibly-soon-to-be boyfriend - nodded.
"Thanks, everyone." Pandora said.
"Thank you all, for accepting us, as well." Barty nodded between him and Evan.
The five then made plans for how to fit Evan and Barty into their plans after their date. Something new unlocked, an understanding of them all.
Just them.