Lurched like a stray to the arms that were open
“Hey, Bart? Do you think our furry friends are looking a little… fragile today?” Evan asks, making Barty turn to the Gryffindor table curiously where, sure enough, James Potter is sitting with a pale, despondent Sirius Black, while Peter whatever-his-last-name-is is sat as far away as possible for a seventh year with a furious looking Remus Lupin.
“…Holy fuck does he look hot when he’s mad though,” is Barty’s extremely eloquent contribution to the conversation.
“Who’s hot when mad?” Evan hears to his left, turning to watch as Regulus and Dorcas join them, Regulus waving off his sister Pandora as she takes her own seat further up at the Ravenclaw table.
“Remus ‘sex appeal’ Lupin, who else?” His boyfriend replies, turning again to continue his blatant ogling, making Dorcas shake her head fondly - she’s well aware of the couple’s soft spot for Hogwarts’ resident werewolf.
“Oh, that. Yeah, if Lupin is spitting mad, it definitely has something to do with my idiot brother and Snape,” Regulus says drolly, raising a sleek eyebrow when all three of his friends turn to him for an explanation.
Letting out a sigh of annoyance - like they don’t all know him well enough to know he’s the biggest gossip girl in Slytherin - he continues, “I was down in the common room last night when Snape and Sluggy came storming in - around midnight, I think? - and Snape was shouting some dross about my brother and how it isn’t fair that he can get away with attempted murder just because he’s a Black, to which Slughorn did as Slughorn does when it comes to those with more power than him - he simpered. Said that it was surely an accident, that my brother would never do such a thing - he would, there’s a reason he was always cousin Bella’s favourite - and that Snape should leave the matter alone ‘for the sake of his future’… whatever the hell that means.”
There’s silence at the table as the four of them take all of the new information in, Barty once more resuming his staring across the great hall, eyes darting between Remus and the eldest Black sibling. “Surely it’s got something to do with the fluffy fiasco he ponders.
’Fluffy Fiasco’ is what the five of them started calling Lupin’s little werewolf problem when Regulus figured it out in second year because he was stalking - ’I did not stalk him!’ - his brother and realised that his roommate was always in the medical wing for a day or two after the full moon - add to that all those delicious scars he has? It was an easy conclusion to come to. When he came to Barty and Evan with his evidence, they all decided to keep it quiet and use a code name for if they wanted to talk about it in public, hence the fluffy fiasco.
“It was the full moon last night,” Evan says quietly. He’s always been the best at keeping track of things like that.
“Shit,” Dorcas hisses. “It definitely was then - especially if Snape’s mad at Sirius and Remus is actively not sitting with him. What the hell did your brother do?” She asks Regulus, who lifts a shoulder elegantly - fucking Blacks.
“No idea, but as soon as I find out, I’ll let you know,” he replies, eyes narrowing as he stares around the hall intently, looking for his informants.
“Well,” Barty says with a clap. “Maybe this is the moment we’ve been waiting for, Ev. We can finally bring Lupin over to the dark side,” he grins, turning to his boyfriend with a manic look in his eye.
A smaller smile curls on Evans face as he too turns to stare at the wolf. “He has Ancient Runes first thing this morning, where he normally sits next to Sirius.”
The couple stare at each other without speaking for a couple of seconds, before Barty scoffs and turns away, stuffing an obnoxiously large piece of pancake in his mouth petulantly, while Evan grins victoriously.
“… Want to share with the class?” Dorcas asks, exasperated.
“Evan gets to sit with Remus today,” Barty mumbles around his pancake, making Regulus grimace in disgust. “Apparently I’ll scare him off by coming across too strong.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Regulus sneers, holding out an embroidered napkin to Barty, “and wipe your mouth you fucking heathen. Being seen with you in an embarrassment!”
“Awww, thanks Regs, love you too!” Barty coos, wiping the syrup from his lips and blowing his friend a kiss, the boy’s uppity attitude not fooling him. “Come on Pumpkin!” He calls to Evan, standing from the table and gathering his things. “I want you to be the first person in that classroom today!”
Sighing, the blond picks up a slice of toast to eat on the way there. “Yes, my love,” he drones, with a fond smirk and roll of his eyes towards Dorcas who smiles back.
Letting himself be pulled away from the table by his eager boyfriend, Evan turns to the Gryffindor one final time as Barty starts talking his ear off about some dream he had last night. He startles slightly when he makes direct eye contact with Lupin, but not being one to waste an opportunity - he is a Slytherin after all - he nods to the other, before slowly staring at Black and then looking back at Remus, tilting his head in question.
While they may be from rival houses and Regulus has his whole thing going on with his brother, there’s no bad blood between them and Remus personally. With he and Barty being a year below the other, they only started having lessons with him this year due to both being in NEWT classes - Evan joining him in Arithmancy, both he and Barty having Ancient Runes with him and just Barty being part of a small Healing class.
While they may be trouble in comparison to their other, more sensible, Slytherin counterparts, they don’t have bad relations with the Gryffindors in seventh year… hence Evan feeling bold enough to question Remus about his and Sirius’ sudden distance.
Turning to see what Evan is looking at, the golden-eyed boy quickly whips back around with a glare. Donning a put upon shocked face, Evan raises his eyebrows in response. Woah there Lupin, that’s quite the potent glare.
Looking slightly mollified, Remus rolls his eyes and shrugs sadly, before tuning back in to what Peter is saying to him.
Walking out of the hall, brow furrowed in thought, he realises his boyfriend has fallen silent beside him. Looking up, he sees a small, more genuine smile on Barty’s face.
“What?”
“I think he’ll be more willing to sit with you after your little charades game,” is all he says, before launching back into his tale about his dream. “So! As I was saying, Slughorn was forcing me to eat slugs, while I was yelling at him that they had to be sautéed in garlic first!”