O.W.L.s were only a week away and Evan was simply trying to revise in the library. That’s all he wanted to do and it should have been just that. He sat at a table in the back corner with Regulus and they were pouring over charms together.
“Please tell me when I’ll ever need to grow legs onto a teacup. Why the fuck is it even on our O.W.L.s?” Evan asked, frustrated at the charm he’d tried to do many times but had never gotten the hang of.
Regulus shrugged, trying once again to explain the wand movement.
The library grew louder as people began muttering and pointing out the window and the two Slytherins did their best to ignore it.
“Evan, I’m telling you, your wand is dropping too much before you go left.”
“ Merlin, why is he doing that?” “What the fuck is his problem?” “He’s a psycho.”
He nodded but continued to make a mess of the complicated wand work. And it didn’t help that the library was full of enlivened whispers. He tried to concentrate but couldn’t as his mind tried to follow the confusing conversations around him.
“ I think he’s targeting the first years.” “He’s terrifying.” “I avoid him at all costs.”
“Focus, Rosier. We both know that this will be on the test.”
Evan tried again but it was useless.
There was a collective gasp in the library.
“Some of us are trying to revise!” Evan snapped at a nearby table.
“Aren’t you the one dating Crouch?” A fourth year Ravenclaw girl asked. “You may want to go and check on him,” she said, nodding toward the window that everyone seemed to be watching with wrapped attention.
For the first time Evan looked over and saw none other than his boyfriend, Barty, sitting at the top of a large tree with a basket of pinecones, chucking them at anyone who came close enough. Evan sighed and looked to Regulus who only shook his head.
Evan pushed himself up from his books and made his way outside, narrowly avoiding a few pinecones until Barty realized it was him. McGonagall was yelling at him to come down but he was ignoring her.
“You okay, love?” Evan yelled to the top of the tree.
Barty didn’t say anything, rather targeted a second year that made the mistake of walking by.
Evan walked up to the base of the tall tree and despite McGonagall’s yells telling him not to, he began to climb. It was far too high for Evan who pointedly hated heights. And he refused to look down as he secured himself on a branch a meter or so below his boyfriend.
“Whatcha doing, Bat?”
Barty shrugged. “Throwing pinecones.”
“Why?”
“Just felt like it.”
Evan knew Barty very well, well enough to know that he was very capable of batshit things but they were always motivated by something, even if that something didn’t really make sense to anyone except Barty. Evan climbed up a bit more to a branch directly opposite of the one his boyfriend was on. Now at the same level he could see the tears that threatened to spill over.
“What’s going on, love?” he asked in a much softer voice.
They sat in silence for a while, Barty occasionally chucking a pinecone at a passing kid. “How’s revision going?”
Evan was thrown by the question. “It’s fine,” he said slowly before realizing that the two might be connected. “Barty, love? Are you stressed about O.W.L.s? Is that why you’re up here throwing pinecones at bystanders?”
“It wasn’t the plan when I climbed up here. But then they kept trying to question what I was doing up here and some Hufflepuff tried to climb up, I think to check on me. So I started throwing the pinecones at people.”
Evan couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of some poor Hufflepuff student who was simply trying to help getting targeted by an onslaught of pinecones. “You ready to come down, Bat? We can do something else to destress that doesn’t involve concussing kids with baby trees.”
Barty snorted. “Like what?”
“Whatever you want.”
"I want you."
“Come down and let me take care of you.”
He followed Evan who would begin to shake when he looked down. He wasn’t surprised when he reached the bottom and received a detention from the Gryffindor head of house and he simply ignored her questions about what on earth he was doing.
Barty took him by the hand, dragging him back to the dorm. He pulled his boyfriend into bed, arms wrapping tightly around him.
“Hi, love,” Evan whispered.
"I need you." Barty snuggled into his chest.
"You have me, Bat. I'm sorry I didn't notice you were stressed before." Evan twisted, pulling his boyfriend to lay on top of him, arms wrapped protectively around his shoulders with one hand moving up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. “You are the smartest person I know. You have Os in every class and top marks in most of them. You’re going to kill your O.W.L.s.”
He heard Barty sniffle and pulled his arms tighter around him.
"You can always come and get me, love. You're far more important than a stupid leggy teacup. And also if you're worried, come revise with Reg and I sometime."
"I don't revise."
Evan laughed. "I know. You're just a natural genius, my mad scientist." He wiped away the tears that sat on the edge of his boyfriend's eyes.
Barty smiled and kissed up Evan’s neck, eventually making it to his lips.
“I love you, Rosie.”
“I love you too, Bat.”