PartyIsntOver
Barty could now read Evan like a book. It was actually stupid that Evan continued to act hostile towards him.
After he got out of the shower Evan was gone, presumably to the music hall to prepare, after all, it was 8.
He changed into a pair of jean shorts, a forest green tee, with his worn converse, keeping his cap on, and left the cabin to just wander.
He had about an hour until the show and he didn’t know what to expect. For All he knows they could be worse than his freestyles he uploaded to SoundCloud when he was thirteen.
He strolled toward the manmade lake and wondered why it was here. Regulus had told him that no-one goes in because it’s filled with rubbish and piss. Instead, they go to ‘Dock 9’, which is a natural lake on the outskirts of the camp, which lead to a gorgeous view of the mountains in the distance.
The sun was setting as he got to the dock. It was concealed by the pine trees and all he could hear was the sound of the wind and a mourning dove in the distance. Barty hadn’t felt peace like this in a while. He walked to the edge of the wooden dock and sat, dangling his legs over the edge.
He sat there for a while embracing the nature around him. It was weird. He never really acted like this. Like there was nothing going on in his head. There always was at least something but right now nothing crossed his mind.
He thought about Evan. About the freckles scattered around his nose bridge. His hair which matches perfectly with his tanned skin. How he looked so at peace when playing piano, not a care in his mind. Barty wished he could see that side of Evan.
The snap of a twig behind him brought him back to reality.
‘Evan, I didn’t take you for a stalker.’ The boy stood silently behind him. Barty’s heart started beating faster. The peacefulness still there but with an added bit of excitement.
‘Coming for round two?’ He added.
‘There was never a round one to begin’ He grumbled.
‘If you say so, Rosie.’ He wiggled his eyes at Evan and received an overly dramatic roll of the eyes in return. Barty scooted over and patted on the space beside his, gesturing for Evan to sit down.
He fully expected Evan to walk away. Hell, he was surprised that Evan hadn’t left already. Maybe that moment in the cabin really turned the cogs in Evan’s brain. What can he say? He’s practically Prince Charming.
He was staring back out at the lake when, out of his peripheral vision, he saw Evan sit beside him. He turned to Evan who kept his stare forward.
‘Not looking at me again, Rosier. We all know how this ends..’ He smirked.
If that was all that he needed to say to get Evan to look at him like that. Barty would only ever speak those words.
Evan was making it excruciatingly obvious he was looking at Barty’s lips. Fuck. He wanted Evan to kiss him stupid, it was not okay. He refused to make the first move however. He would do all the flirting he wanted but he was not making the first move. It was all up to Evan.
All hope was lost when Evan stripped his eyes from Barty and was looking back to the lake. Barty couldn’t be mad though. Just being in Evan’s presence was like sitting beside a god. He would know.
Evan's hair tangled in the wind and he watched as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The things Evan does to him. He hadn’t said anything yet and he still left Barty infatuated with him all over again.
‘Are you coming to the show tonight?’ He asked, voice soft.
A small hum came from Barty.
‘I’ll see you there then.’ Barty watched as Evan got up. There was no smile on his face but he didn’t act as if he had to be this giant wall when he was around Barty. He left Barty by the lake and all in all Barty would take that as a step forward into their relationship. It was going so well in fact, that he thought they might be married by the seventh chapter.
— — —
Barty met with Regulus just outside the hall and he could already hear the music blasting from inside. He didn’t expect everything to be so.. Organised.
There was a lovely girl by the entrance handing out a token to each person who walked in. Barty gave her a quick wink and took a token for himself as she blushed.
Regulus got his own, he wasn’t exactly sure why they needed a token but his questions were quickly answered.
‘The tokens are basically your vote.’ Regulus spoke. ‘It’s sort of like a battle of the bands type thing. Each person gets a token and when each band is performing you get to put your token into the box of whom you want to win. Tonight I think it’s only us and The Marauders playing, so it should be an easy vote.’ His eyes narrowed at Barty.
‘Yeah, yeah I’m gonna vote for you, don't even worry about it.’ He rolled his eyes with a smirk.
The party was already in full blast. People were dancing and some were already drunk. This was Barty’s jam.
‘I need to head backstage to get ready, we’re going up first’ Regulus said, already leaving Barty.
He was almost out of earshot before Barty called out to him, ‘Good luck!! Love you lots like jelly tots!!’
Regulus didn’t even turn around when giving Barty the middle finger. Honestly, could he be so rude that he wouldn’t even look at Barty?! Disgraceful.
No matter, he went out, got himself a drink and waited by the back wall chatting with Pandora. She had offered him some sort of pill but Barty refused, he wanted to fully experience his first gig here.
Soon after, she realised the time and skipped away backstage.
Minutes later the band took the stage.
— — —
The stage lights shone bright across the room and there, in all their glory, stood The Pantheon.
Dorcas stood front and centre behind the mic. Regulus stood to her right, a black bass strapped over his shoulder. Pandora was on the drums, looking ready to bring the whole place down. And Evan to her left standing behind his keyboard looking fantastic, per usual.
People started cheering and clapping and Barty was actually looking forward to seeing them perform.
Dorcas spoke into the mic. Her voice sounded over the screams of drunk and excited kids.
‘Camp Hogwarts! My name is Dorcas and I’m proud to present, The Pantheon!’
Another roar of voices came from the crowd.
‘If you like our shit, make sure to vote for us to be crowned tonight’s winning band! This song is called ‘After the Storm’ Enjoy!’ She smiled, bowed and Pandora’s drums kicked it.
The song was amazing. It was like he was on fucking cloud nine. It was chilled out and everyone was swaying along to Dorcas’s velvety voice, Reg’s funky groove on the bass, Evan’s whimsical keys and Pandora’s complicated yet soft drum beats. It was brilliant.
They’re ballot box was filling up, but not as much as Barty thought they hoped.
The chorus kicked in and he could swear someone had spiked the fucking air because he felt like he was flying.
‘The sun’ll come out,
Nothing good ever comes easy.
I know times are rough,
But winners don't quit,
So don't you give up.’
Barty remembered dinner that evening. They were telling him about this song and he’d completely underestimated how good it was. Dorcas said that they didn’t know what to do since there was a bit after the chorus where there would usually be a guitar solo but didn’t since now they didn’t have a guitar player or a guitar they could borrow.
He had only half jokingly offered to sing something in replace of the guitar solo but Doracs had insisted they’d figure something out.
Turns out, they did not.
Barty could tell by the look she was throwing Evan. They were having a silent argument before she brushed him off making direct eye contact with Barty urging him to come on stage.
Barty was taken aback for a second but he had little time to give her his answer before it would be his time to shine. So, he handed his drink to a random girl beside him and ran towards the stage. He swiftly hopped on, giving a wink to Evan and a reassuring smile to Dorcas. He didn't have anything planned but he could figure something out… Hopefully.
‘Cause after the storm’s
when the flowers bloom…’
She steps aside for Barty to take the microphone. Before he starts absolutely making a fucking fool out of himself he spots Evan giving Dorcas a concerned look.
Never mind, he’s gonna fucking ace this verse.
Evan, what you mean?
I take it offensive
'Cause I'm the hottest flower boy
That popped up on the scene
Feeling better, better than ever
'Cause your umbrella, -brella,
Sun is beaming on me like headlights beaming on Bambi.
Now let's pretend the street is the room
And you are a Camry
'Cause your drama candid
The Tito to my Randy
Now let's produce some thrillers
My chocolate with yo vanilla, uh.
The crowd loved it (he thinks). He quickly hopped off the stage and through the crowd as people gave him back pats and ‘well dones’.
He knew he would be alright with coming up with a verse, he used to do stuff like that with his friends back home. But what he didn’t expect was how good it turned out. Holy fuck.
He reached the back wall again and took back his cup from the girl and downed the rest of it in one go. Hopefully she didn’t spike it.
Maybe it was because he was tipsy or maybe it was the look of doubt Evan gave Dorcas before he performed that caused him to try his hardest whatever it was, it didn’t matter now because he fucking did it and smashed the fuck out of it.
The song came to a close and it was received so well by the campers. He thought The Pantheon might have a chance of winning.
They played a couple other songs Barty couldn’t remember, he was to drunk realise they left the stage and now it was The Marauders that were setting up to play.
The group found Barty swaying to whatever music was playing, plastic cup in his hand.
Pandora grabbed him and gave him the biggest hug known to man.
‘You were incredible! We were so worried because we didn’t have a guitar solo but I think that was way better than any guitar solo. We were like ‘Ahh’’ and you were like a superhero coming in at the last secon…’
Her words were drowned out as he was staring at Evan Rosier. Who wasn’t making eye-contact with him but was trailing his eyes along Barty’s body.
Fuck. He felt like he was naked. He felt uncomfortable under Evan’s gaze but enjoyed it so much at the same time. When Evan finally looked back at him, Barty couldn’t help but gulp.
And just like before, James Potter interrupted them.
‘Hello everybody!’ The crowd cheered. ‘My name is James, as you all probably know,’ he could tell Evan scoffed at that, ‘and I'm going to sing and play the keys tonight. Beside me we have Remus Lupin on bass and his male wife Sirius Black on the electric guitar.’ Laughter erupted from the crowd. He could hear protests from Sirius and Remus but James happily smiled and moved on. ‘And behind me, Camp Hogwarts very own, Peter Pettigrew.’ The crowd cheered as Peter played a small drum solo grinning while looking down at the people below him.
‘We are The Marauders!’ James threw his hands in the air and the crowd did the same along with the loudest cheer he heard all night. The Pantheon were fucked.
— — —
The Marauders were absolutely destroying The Pantheon. It was almost like The Pantheon had never performed in the first place. Their new song ‘Get Lucky’ was an absolute hit. And Barty had to admit that if he wasn’t friends with the majority of the other band, his token would have definitely been placed in the Marauders box. Not that his vote would make a difference anyway. The Marauders ballot box was overflowing with tokens.
The whole room had a new vibe to it. Laid back and friendly. Plenty of people were dancing in the centre of the room, cups of vodka and liquor flying from their cups. And Barty was jealous.
The urge to just leave the loiter squad in the corner and to get up and dance was tremendous. And it seemed Pandora had the same idea. It was almost like her and Barty had a telepathic connection. They both clung onto each other as they made their way to the dancefloor, ignoring what could only be the loud protests of Evan Rosier. Dorcas was dancing with her girlfriend, Marlene, and Barty thought they were the cutest couple in existence. Fuck him and Evan.
‘If only he wasn’t so stubborn,’ he thought, ‘they could’ve been back in the cabin together, if you know what he means’.
The thought quickly left his head as James sang the chorus. Barty had to admit, if Evan wasn’t in the picture he would’ve gone for James. You couldn’t blame him. James Potter was fit. Lily was a lucky woman.
Speaking of Lily, just as Barty was laughing and twirling Pandora around, Lily came up to him.
‘Do you mind if I steal her from you?’ Lily asked with a laugh as Pandora swiftly let go of Barty’s hand and pulled Lily towards the drinks table.
Now Barty was alone but he couldn't give less of a shit. He could feel the smooth bass line Remus was playing flow through his veins.
‘We’ve come to far,
To give up who we are
So let’s raise the bar,
And our cups to the stars..’
Just then a boy, slightly taller than him, approached Barty. And without hesitation, placed his hands loosely on Barty’s waist and guided him to dance in sync with him. It caught Barty off guard, but he got used to it quickly and oh how Barty loved the feeling.
His hands subconsciously moved towards the other boy’s shoulders and when they did the other boy grinned showing off his smiley piercing. And if Barty didn’t have a thing for that specific piercing, he sure did now. Holy shit.
Barty pressed his body to the other boy and in return the hands of the other slipped underneath Barty's shirt and his head to Barty’s neck giving him firm kisses along the side of his neck and Barty couldn’t help but make a not so innocent noise, receiving a smirk for the other boy.
Thank God! He’s been waiting forever for something like this to happen, even before he came to camp. He didn’t lack in the flirting department,, no. He just couldn’t be arsed. He was too tired of giving and wanted to start receiving. Although his heart was for Evan, he refused to kiss him. Because he was giving, not receiving. If Evan wanted Barty to kiss him he was gonna have to come get it himself.
So what if it’s selfish? It’s not Barty’s problem. No sir.
He was enjoying this way too much. It was hot in the room and the boy’s hands started to move towards Barty’s waistband. Sorry Evan, his bed would be occupied tonight.
Suddenly he could feel eyes on him. Specifically one pair of eyes. The music drowned out and the dim lights became blurry as he saw that Evan Rosier was staring right at him. His arms were crossed and he was wearing a less than approving expression.
Barty didn’t waver this eye contact, taking this as a challenge. He was going to get Evan to make the next move whether he wanted to or not.
Without taking his eyes off Evan, he grabbed the boy's chin in between his fingers and kissed him with as much passion as possible. The boy didn’t complain, his hands still on Barty’s waistband and he didn’t seem to notice that Barty didn’t care about him anymore.
Evan only scoffed and left the room through the back door and Barty watched him go.
Fuck this. And without giving the boy on him a second glance, Barty pushed him aside and instead of going after Evan he headed straight for the drinks table.
Pushing through clusters of people, it was like he was walking through a fucking bog, all so he could get some alcohol flowing through his veins. Thinking about it now, he should’ve taken Pandora’s offer.
‘Evan’s a fucking coward’, he thought as he took a large swig of the bottle full of clear liquid.
He gagged at the taste on his tongue. Fucking gross. Barty didn’t know why people liked the taste of alcohol. It tastes as if you accidentally drank piss then immediately sucked off your history teacher. He would know.
His thoughts were immediately cut off when the music suddenly stopped and the lights suddenly went out. Fantastic.
There were panicked exclamations coming from around the room but Barty just sighed and took another swig of his drink. It’s not his problem.
He was about to stumble his way back to the cabin when he heard Sirius’s aggravated voice shout above others, ‘Oi, Rosier where are you, little shit. I bet you turned off the fucking power’. Barty heard the back door open and three figures hurriedly walked outside. One of them who looked awfully like Regulus.
Now it was his problem.
He followed the light from the back door and found himself behind the music hall with: Regulus, Pandora, Docas and Evan.
Pandora was frantically telling Evan that The Marauders thought he turned off the power during their performance. Regulus and Dorcas standing behind her. Evan just shrugged, looking unbothered. It was hot.
Then the door behind Barty opened with a bang and out stepped The Marauders with very happy expressions on their faces (note the sarcasm).
Peter was the first one to speak. ‘Can you be that petty that you would turn off the bloody power to keep us from winning.’ his eyes locked on Evan.
‘Why do you automatically think it was me?!’ Evan shot back.
‘Hmm, I don't know,’ Sirius said his words dripping with sarcasm, ‘You left the hall, obviously in a fit of rage after you saw we were winning, then ‘coincidently’ the power goes out two minutes later. And where is the power generation the the music hall? Right fucking behind you!’ he pointed to the small box on the wall behind Evan.
‘Bold of you to assume I would be worked up over someone like you’ Evan replies even though that’s 70% of what he was worked up over from. (The other 30% being Barty, obviously).
Sirius was about to pounce onto Evan until luckily James interrupted.
‘Can we please not fight over this. Just admit it was you and all will be forgiven.’ His hands were held up in defence.
‘Over my fucking dead body.’ Evan spits.
All of a sudden Dorcas speeds forward. Not towards the Marauders, but to a hooded figure eavesdropping on their little conversation. The figure has no time to react before Dorcas throws him on the floor. And like an episode of Scooby-Doo she unveils the figure, and when she does everyone gasps.
Barty doesn’t know who this guy is, or why they’re gasping, but he felt like being included.
‘Snape you greasy bastard’ Sirius spits, ‘You fucking did it didn’t you’.
The boy, Snape, didn’t say anything but he didn’t need to as Regulus stepped forward and pulled a wire clipper from Snape’s jacket pocket. Regulus gave a bored sigh, ‘You couldn’t even hide it properly.’
Honestly if Barty had studied film in college, he would definitely make this camp into a soap opera. The plot twists are insane.
‘Slimy fucker, you just have to ruin everything, don’t you’ Remus spoke up, ‘Where’s the rest of your posse anyways.’
Barty was too drunk to fully understand what was going on. So, to make things better he emptied the remaining bottle. And sighed.
‘Well, a win is a win’.
He was trying to get the last drops out of the bottle when he heard angered noises coming from behind him.
He turned around and saw what must’ve been the rest of Snape’s posse fighting the Marauders and the Pantheon. He chuckled to himself. He was so far gone that he didn’t even hear when the fighting started. He must've stood there for a good solid five minutes.
Although there were only four of them against the two bands, they sure were a lot better at fighting. It was funny seeing as how the two bands were ready to beat the head off each other mere minutes ago and now they had gotten together to fight these other guys for some reason. All Barty knew was that he wanted to be involved.
So, he did the badass thing to do and smashed the glass bottle on the wall nearest to him and gripped the remainders, ready to stab someone. And stab someone he did.
The guy was muscular but while he was busy fighting James, Barty took it upon himself and stabbed the guy in the side. It wasn’t fatal, but it would leave a nasty mark. He fell to the ground and Barty was left with blood splattered on his hand and arm. Oh how he missed this.
The bottle was no longer useful to him so he chucked it to the side and headed for another one of Snape’s and punched him square in the jaw. He heard the jaw crack and Barty couldn’t help but smile. He ended up fighting the guy with Remus and Dorcas and they were doing great. Blood got on his fists, his hair and his favourite t-shirt. But it's okay, he knew a good home-made stain remover for blood.
Remus and Dorcas had gone off to punch someone else which left Barty by himself. It was going great until he got kicked right in the back. He fell backwards and stumbled trying to turn around to see who his opponent was. The last thing he saw was Snape's sadistic smile and a wooden bat being swung at his head. Cool.