the planning.
Barty always knew he was a bit unwell. It’s not really something you can ignore. Especially not when you’re six years old and having possibly some of the most terrifying thoughts a seven year old shouldn’t be having. They’re wrong, and he knows that. He’d like to blame his parents. His mum died the year before, a few days before his seventh birthday, in a car crash.
He remembers that day so vividly, like it was yesterday. His father was driving the three of them home from one of the many functions he was forced to go to due to his family’s status while under the influence of alcohol, which resulted in a brutal crash. Unfortunately, his dad survived, but the impact of the crash killed his mum within an instant.
Some nights when he’s lying in his bed the memories of that event come flooding back. Reminding him of possibly the worst childhood memory he has. Ever since that day, he vowed he’d be the one to kill his father, to avenge his mother. That was his motive.
But soon enough those thoughts grew stronger, and it wasn’t just his father he fantasised killing. It was anyone who angered him. Anyone who upset him, or his friends, or anyone dear to him.
He likes to think of it as somewhat poetic, the fact he’d kill for someone he loves. In Barty’s opinion, it says a lot about a person if they’re willing to commit a crime for someone else. It shows dedication, loyalty, love.
Barty’s never known much about love. It’s not like he grew up in a household full of it, his parents hated each other. Their relationship was an arranged marriage. He can still remember the day he heard his parents fighting about it. He could hear his mother’s sobs from across the house, she was saying how it wasn’t fair. How she was forced to stay in this position and how she was stuck, and it was all his fault.
The sounds of he crying were shortly drowned out by possibly one of the loudest slaps Barty had ever heard in his life. His mother had never bought that topic up again since. Barty was two.
When he turned eleven, his father shipped him off to Scotland and enrolled him in a boarding school. It was very fucking pretentious. It was mostly full of rich kids whose parents didn’t love them enough to keep them around all year, so they sent them away.
That was where he met Regulus Black. Regulus has been Barty’s best friend since the very first train ride.
Barty’s never had much good in his life, especially not in his brain, but Regulus was something else. The word love is not nearly strong enough to describe how he feels for Regulus. He would let Regulus do anything to him. He could kill Barty, shoot him, and he would gladly lay there with a smile on his face as his blood pools out beneath him.
And in those final moments of life, all he would think of would be his curls. His dark grey eyes that Barty swears if he stares at for too long, he will turn to stone.
Regulus is fucking beautiful, but it’s not just his looks. Barty knows how his brain works, how his heart beats, what his blood feels like. And every single part of that man is beautiful. Barty has felt the imprint of his fist on his face. Barty has seen him cry, seen him laugh. Regulus’ soul is as gorgeous as it gets, and Barty wants nothing more than for it to be his.
Regulus is exactly like Barty in so many ways, but also completely different. The day Regulus came clean about the thoughts he’d been having, the day he felt he could trust Barty with such a burden of horrific and dangerous thoughts, Barty wanted to cry.
Their brains were alike in all the same sick and twisted ways, and Barty loved it.
So here they were, sitting on the couch in Barty’s living room, planning their first move. They’re out for blood and they’re going to make sure that they get it.
“Does your dad have much security?” Regulus asked, not looking up from the planning sheet he’s currently scribbling on. Barty didn’t wasn’t even listening to Regulus though. All he could think about was how unbelievably in love with his best friend he is. Barty is fucking enamoured.
“Barty?” Regulus says again, snapping Barty out of his thoughts. He looks up from Regulus’ hands and meets his eyes, before shrugging. “Come on Bee, I need you to focus here. We can’t just walk in and kill him. We need to strategize.”
“Why can’t we?” Barty asked, and by the now annoyed look on Regulus’ face, it makes him feel like he should know the answer to that question. “I mean, it won’t be that weird. He’s my father, so it’s not like we’ll look suspicious or anything.”
Regulus sighed before running a hand through his hair. Oh how Barty wishes he would run that hand through his own hair. “We can’t be seen going in or out. When the police are eventually called and they start their investigation, they’ll find out we were the last people to see your dad. We’d be caught instantly.”
“Right, okay. Well we’d be better off doing it while he’s asleep then. Not many people would ever show up at his house while I was still living there, but that was about five years ago so that could’ve changed.” Barty says, before stopping to think. He runs through all the memories he has in that house and what his dad’s schedule used to be like. “What I do know hasn’t changed is that he hates being disrupted during nights, so any butlers or maids or anyone who wasn’t me or my mother would be forced to leave by eight. So any time after that would be our best option.”
Regulus smiled and Barty couldn’t help but feel giddy. “That’s really good, Bee. I can work with that.” He said before leaning towards the coffee table and grabbing his laptop. He leaned back against the couch and pushed the screen up before he started typing.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Barty asked, after a few minutes of silence. Regulus' head snapped up from his laptop and he stared at Barty with a confused look. “I mean, we’re seventeen, we’ve got less than a week left of our summer break before we start our final year, and we’re about to murder my dad.”
“You’re my best friend Barty, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. And if killing your dad happens to be one of those things then so be it.” Regulus said. And he said it like he meant it. Like it was the easiest thing he’d ever said. Regulus is willing to kill for Barty, and Barty can’t help but smile at that.
“Okay,” is all he says, but he smiles softly at Regulus who smiles back before turning his attention back to his laptop.
It’s silent again for a few minutes before Regulus shuts his laptop and jumps up from the couch. “I’ve got to go do some things, but I’ll come back later tonight.” Regulus says, before unzipping his bag and putting everything he brought back inside it neatly. He looks back over at Barty before saying, “and then tomorrow night, we’ll kill him. The next day we’re off to Hogwarts again and no one will know.”
Barty nods his head before watching his best friend sling his back over his shoulder before walking out of his apartment.