Chapter 4
friday had come and barty had actually forced evan to go out with him. regulus gave them an odd look but apparently barty had already told him, regulus just hadn't expected evan to actually go along with him. pandora floated around them lightly while lily and barty glared daggers at each other, for what reason, evan was unsure of.
pandora didn't seem to notice, or care more likely, and was content with walking next to evan with lily and barty on each other side of them. regulus had chosen to not come after finding out pandora too was going on a date, claiming he didn't fancy being a "double third wheel."
evan thought he might just be talking the time to wallow, and while he wasn't a comforting person, he had heard barty and regulus talking at night from across their beds lightly. he knew he should say something, but he didn't necessarily know what to say. sorry you broke up with your boyfriend? I don't want you to be upset?
pandora had moved on to weaving flowers through lily's braid, having barty gather some from across the street for her which he scoffed at but still ran to do. evan felt his smile coming on but didn't let it surface. they made their way down the long winding road, now accompanied with flurries of snow. pandora wordlessly recasts his warming charm, to which he blinks at her for.
she lights up at the view of christmas lights and bustle of people in hogsmeade, securing her earmuffs and pulling lily along as she sprints down the road. while running, pandora looks back and waves at evan, which he waves back slowly.
“c'mon rosie, there's this new store in knockturn I wanna take you to.”
evan let's barty guide him towards the narrow sidewalk that leads to knockturn alley. in takes a couple minutes but eventually they end up in front of a quite large store on the corner.
“ta da!”
evan pushes past barty and goes to enter.
“never say those words again.”
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barty had ended up buying evan a completely new scalpel set, along with a few medical textbooks. evan had wanted to buy one of the frogs in a jar that was in the shop window but the clerk had informed him that it was solely for display.
in return for the set, evan had agreed to be taken to the three broomsticks for some drinks. when they had entered it smelled strange, but occasionally barty would bring him and regulus back drinks from here so he wasn't enterily unfamiliar with the essentialy pub.
evan carries his purchases in a bag hung on his arm, trying not to have it leave from the little space. barty laughs and asks if he wants him to carry it. he says no and barty asks if he can kiss him instead. he says yes and barty lightly presses his lips to the top of his head.
when they walk into the pub evan tugs on barty's sleave; it's loud and he wants to leave.
“we can get the drinks to go baby, we just gotta wait.”
evan wrinkles his face at the name, but doesn't say anything. he stands there dutifully with barty until it's finally their time to order. when evan sees the girl at the kiosk he sees it's the girl he saw running down the stairs on his birthday.
“serena! long time no see! how's edgar doing?”
the girl narrows her eyes at barty and frowns.
“either order or leave barty, I don't get payed enough to deal with people like you.”
barty ends up getting them two butterbeers and an order of “french fries”. there's no way for evan to check the nutritional facts so he can't say they're won't fit in his carefully composed palette.
when their drinks and food comes out barty puts the fry container in evan's bag and grabs both drinks, ushering evan out.
“who was that?”
“serena brudwick, we were gonna engage in some adult activities before she miraculously remembered she had a boyfriend. but then she left and you came up and now we're here, so happy accidents as that one muggle painter guy says.”
“so we only did that cause she left?”
“are you jealous, rosie?”
“no, just not surprised, seems like something you'd do.”
“I do like you evs, it's not like me and her had anything going on.”
“and what do we have going on?”
“well hopefully a relationship.”
“what if I don't want that?”
“then why'd you come out with me, rosie?”
evan doesn't say anything, just tightens his grip on barty's sleeve. he had complicated feelings on the whole thing happening with barty. one one hand evan had never wanted a relationship, no desire of being someone's boyfriend. but with barty nothing had changed. he still behaved as he had when they were still friends, besides the names and sexual aspect. evan felt different and he knew it. at night he wanted to go into barty's bed and curl up the best he knew how into his warm body and get annoyed when barty would call him “a desperate little thing, aren't ya rosie?"
surprisingly evan didn't mind whatever he and barty had going on. it wasn't actually as terrible as evan thought relationships would be, but then again that might have just been barty.
because barty was absolutely the perfect on paper specimen. he was handsome, had good grades, was theoretically funny and not opposed to sexual intercourse. but there was something else about him that made evan want to break him open and see everything else that laid inside his body. he wanted to know what the imperius had done to him, who would he be now if he hadn't been under it's control?
so many questions evan needed the answers to. did barty get sad? what specific things had his father done that impacted him? did he ever feel alienated from himself? ever forget he could move his body on his own? did he ever make barty feel vulnerable? did barty ever make him feel vulnerable? what would he want his future to look like? did he even picture a future? did he picture a life outside these castle walls? did he picture it with evan?
the journey home continues and so does evan's wandering mind. did evan even want barty? why did he like sleeping in the same bed as him? why was he always so warm at night? why did he like evan? what would he be like in ten years? would he still be the same? would evan crave his old self if he changed?
“c'mon rosie, come back.”
evan looks up at barty and he grins sheepishly.
“whatcha thinkin about?”
“nothing.”
he hauls evan closer and leans down to place a light kiss on his neck. evan's eyes widen and he wants to swat barty away but he feels frozen.
“don't get too caught up.”
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it's about 12 at night, and barty is sitting patiently on the floor letting evan cut him open and then heal him. there's a piece of cloth in his mouth so he doesn't scream and wake up regulus. he hasn't made any noises yet, only bit down on the fabric. evan was attempting to try a new technique where he would stitch up the wounds and seal it into his skin so no scar would be visible. pandora was attempting to make a new charm that would heal the wound with no scar since the october.
“hmmpf.”
“what.”
evan yanks the cloth out of barty mouth with a scowl.
“you almost done rosie? i’m feeling a bit dizzy.”
“fine. take this” he hands barty a tiny bottle and inspects his work. as he believed, no scar could be seen and barty only had a little blood loss.
“what's this?”
“for the dizziness, get up, I need to clean.”
barty downed the liquid and carefully stepped around evan's supplies that littered the floor around them. he looked down at a scalpel in particular and grinned.
“is that the one I bought you?”
“yes.”
“good. i'll wait up for you.”
it was stupid of barty to just assume evan was going to sleep with him. he packs up his scalpels and tucks them underneath his bed carefully before throwing out the piece of cloth and bloody cotton swabs. he reviews his notes carefully before returning his notebook to it's place on his nightstand. his mind was clouded by sleep and he decided it would be more effective to dissect them tomorrow with pandora to give her insight for her spell.
avoiding the cold, evan changes quickly and struggles to settle into his sheets before turning the light off. the blankets are never enough, and it's so much easier to fall asleep with barty burning to the touch right next to him. this night though, he would stand his ground. he wouldn't give into silly thoughts of body temperature and deal with what he had. the tossing and turning helps, wears him out and helps his eyes flutter close. sleep approaches, and he dances on the threshold for thousands of seconds, before finally feeling his body shut down. as soon and he feels unconsciousness wipe over him, regulus flips over in his bed, creating a sound that makes evan's eyes shoot open in the dark.
the clock says it's quarter to one everything would be so much easier if evan just gave into his stupid childish idea of how warm barty would be. quite frankly he was disgusted in himself, and it wasn't like he hadn't attempted to stop the cold that overtook him at night. his heating charms never lasted more than half an hour, and the heater regulus bought him last winter after he had apparently “gotten tired of his bitching”, was useless. he mumbles to himself about how improper sleep could set back his thought process as he gets up and walks on tiptoes across the room. he doesn't even bother bringing a blanket anymore, and barty is awake to greet him.
“when are you gonna learn, baby?”
evan falls asleep counting 34 seconds.
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