Detention
They were all walking back from Potions, a subject that Barty had come to hate. Slughorn would just go on and on about Regulus and the Black family, and how disappointed he was that Regulus’s older brother wasn’t in his house.
“That must be kinda hard to deal with, though. I mean, always being told off about your brother. It’s not your fault he’s in a different house!” Barty said, waving his hands for emphasis. They were in a crowded corridor. It was a miracle that he didn’t hit anyone.
Regulus fixed him in a hard stare. He always got tense whenever his family was brought up. Barty tried, Godric, he tried so hard to be careful because he knew what it was like to have a difficult family. He didn’t want to cause Regulus any more discomfort. Barty felt like he was going to crumble under the pressure of Regulus’s gaze, but then he smiled and slung an arm around Barty’s shoulders.
“You’re a good mate, you know?” Regulus said. Barty grinned, glad that he had finally said something right for once.
“You too, man. I’m glad that you moved to our dorm,” Barty said. “Oh, yeah! Guess what my mum sent me!” Barty smirked, elbowing his way through some second years. One of them kicked him in return, and he stuck up his middle finger at the student. He always felt braver around his friends.
Evan was trying not to smile at how brazen Barty was being. “What did your mum get you, Bee?” He asked. Barty smiled.
“Three chocolate frogs! I told her about how you guys were in my dorm, and she sent us chocolate,” Barty announced, jumping onto an empty bench at the end of the corridor.
“Get down, you weirdo,” Regulus said, tugging his sleeve and looking around nervously. “Your mum sounds really nice.” Barty jumped off the bench, pushing Evan out of the way as he landed.
“Yeah. She is,” Barty said. He didn't like to talk about his family much, either. “We have fifteen minutes until History of Magic. Wanna quickly run down to the dorm and get ‘em?”
***
“Barty! I told you we shouldn’t have gone! History starts in three minutes!” Evan yelled, elbowing him out of the way as he exited the common room. Regulus, though he was small, was the fastest out of the three. He was running at full speed, chocolate frog box in hand, down the corridor and up the stairs. He was muttering something, but he was too far away to be audible.
Barty was laughing, doubled over with his hands on his knees. Regulus disappeared around the corner, and Evan was halfway up the stairs when he called back, “You’re my best mate, but I am not going to risk being late if it means I will get a detention with you. Binns will put you with Slughorn if you’re even five minutes late!” Evan had made it up the stairs, following Regulus’s receding footsteps. Barty wiped away tears from his eyes. He really didn’t mean to make his friends late for class, but seeing Regulus’s expression when he realised they would be late was so funny, he couldn’t help himself.
But they were right. If Barty didn’t run to class, he would get a detention. Cold fear trickled down his back at the thought of his father’s reaction when he would get notified of his misbehaviour. Oh, I’m fucked, he thought.
Barty put the chocolate frog in his pocket for safekeeping, already running as fast as he could to his class. But, just his luck, the damn staircases had moved. He needed to find an alternate route - and quickly.
By the time he made it to the classroom, he was twenty minutes late, and severely out of breath. He barged into the room, taking heaving gulps of air and disrupting the class. Regulus and Evan had saved a seat for him, thinking that he would be right behind them.
“I am so sorry, I was making my way over but the staircases moved, and-” Barty gasped, attempting to regain his breath.
“First you… arrive twenty minutes late, and disrupt my class, but then you… make up lies, to justify your actions,” Professor Binns rasped, his ancient voice sounding like sandpaper.
Barty paled. “I-I’m not lying, I swear, please. I’ll get right to work.” Barty hung his bag on the free desk and sat down, head bowed, shame running through him. Look at you. You can’t be clever like your friends, so you try to bring them down with you. Useless excuse for a boy! Barty silently took out some parchment and a quill, when Professor Binns spoke again. He could feel the entire class staring at him.
“As this is the first time you have… done something like this… I will only be giving you one detention, to be completed tomorrow, after dinner.” Barty felt his blood go cold - not only would his parents be notified, but tomorrow was a Friday. Barty had detention on a bloody Friday night.
Well. Fuck.
Barty saw Evan tense from his peripheral vision, and Regulus’ jaw twitched slightly. Barty spluttered, trying to find something to say in retaliation. But he couldn’t think of anything. He just closed his mouth and nodded, sullen. He felt disappointed in himself. Barty hoped that his mother might be able to intercept the owl before it got to his dad.
And, more importantly, ever since Barty invited Regulus to play Exploding Snap with him and Evan all those weeks ago, the trio had made it into a weekly thing. Every Friday they would borrow a game from the shared cabinet in the common room; mainly they would take a deck of Snap, but they also liked to play Gobstones and once, Regulus tried to teach Barty how to play chess. It didn’t end well.
Barty felt like the weekly games were a testament, in a way, to his, Evan's and Regulus’s friendship. In these games, the three of them bonded and fought over the smallest things. It was now halfway through November, and the three of them had been doing this for about ten weeks. For the first time in his life, Barty was looking forward to an element of his routine. Even if he had a bad day, the thought of Friday game night made him smile.
Barty sighed, muttering an apology and a promise to meet Professor Binns at his office at 7 o'clock. He kept his head down for the rest of the lesson, too ashamed to meet his friends’ eyes.
***
As soon as the bell went, Barty folded up the parchment he was working on and stuffed it inside his bag. He waited until Binns had finished giving them their homework (ten inches on the Mesopotamian priestesses) and walked out of the classroom, striding ahead of his friends. That was one good thing about having long legs, he supposed; although he often tripped on his own feet, he could also get ahead of everyone else easily.
“Bee - B-Barty! Wait up!” Evan appeared at his side, matching his pace easily. “You forgot your inkpot, mate.” He held the well in his palm, putting it in Barty’s backpack when he didn't answer. He sighed, flicking his dreads behind his shoulder. “Listen, I'm sorry that you got detention, I really thought you were right behind me!” Evan waited for Barty to speak, but he didn’t.
“Bee, c’mon, please say anything so I know you’re alright! I-”
“Evan. Hold on.” Barty looked behind him for Regulus, but he was nowhere to be found. “Where’s Re-”
“Dinner, saving us seats,” Evan interrupted. “Are you ok?” Barty pulled Evan to the side of the corridor so they wouldn't be trampled by hungry students making their way to dinner.
“Y-Yeah, I think so… it’s just that I’ll miss Game Night tomorrow, and I don’t want Regulus to hate me for missing it,” Barty explained. Evan blinked.
“Barty, Regulus won’t hate you for missing one Game Night! You have a detention anyway, it’s not like you’re ditching us. We will both miss you, but no one will hate you. We just hope you're ok, and that you're not stuck cleaning cauldrons or something nasty tomorrow; that’s all.” Barty felt like a weight had been lifted off him. It was ok! Regulus wouldn’t hate him!
Barty smiled weakly at Evan. “Thanks, man. I dunno, I can never seem to get it right with Regulus…”
“He’s just having a tough time, I think, with his brother and all.” Barty nodded.
“Yeah, that makes sense. Let’s not leave him alone at dinner, then.”
Regulus was having a conversation with some second-year boys. He looked uninterested in the conversation, and a little bit annoyed. He looked up and saw Barty and Evan approaching, and he smiled brightly. “Barty! Evan! Over here!” Regulus beckoned, cutting off the second-year. Barty sat next to him, looking at the second-year who was talking. He had long, greasy black hair.
“I’m Severus Snape,” the boy said. Even his voice was greasy. Ew.
“‘M Barty Crouch,” Barty said. “Junior.”
“Rosier,” Evan said shortly, with a curt nod. Severus sneered, eyes flicking over Evan, and turned to Barty. Barty sat up straighter in his seat, attempting to intimidate the boy for looking at Evan like that.
“Nice to meet you. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Severus turned back to his second-year friends, completely ignoring Regulus now that the other two were there.
“Ugh, what did he want?” Barty asked. “He looks like he hasn’t showered in a month.” Regulus and Evan sniggered.
“I dunno, I think he was asking about my brother, but who knows. I don’t like his voice, and I wasn’t listening to him,” Regulus said.
“Nah, enough said mate,” Evan responded, and with that, all three of them began to pile their plates.
They had Shepherd's Pie tonight. Barty loved it.