the end of the cycle is near
Barty~
Barty had spotted Evan in the hallway. He was standing by the wall, talking with some Hufflepuff girl. Probably someone from his arithmetics class, which Barty knew he’d just come from. Barty himself did not take arithmetics (why suffer more than he had too?) despite being a bit of a prodigy when it came to numbers (and to be honest, when it came to everything else too). He himself had just come from a free period, one of many that decorated his weekly schedule, but now they both had History of Magic together, as well as with their other friends, but Barty was less preoccupied with them at the moment.
He broke into a sprint and rushed over to Evan. The Hufflepuff girl spotted Barty and looked quite alarmed, but when Barty launched himself onto Evan’s back, he was easily caught, and Evan’s strong arms wrapped under his legs. Evan continued talking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, meanwhile Barty rested his chin on his shoulder, face painted with a wide grin.
“We’ll probably have the results in a few weeks,” reasoned Evan as the girl looked slightly confusedly between the two of them, “And anyway, it’s just a practice test.”
“Yeah,” she agreed absently, “You’re right. Uh, I should probably head to class.”
“Same here,” agreed Evan. The girl nodded but didn’t leave. Instead, she looked between them again, as though she was contemplating whether or not to say something.
“Are you two…going out?” she asked eventually.
“Unfortunately,” confirmed Evan.
“Don’t listen to him,” Barty chimed in, “He has a huge crush on me.”
Barty leaned further forward and kissed Evan affectionately on the cheek, still being carried on his back. The poor Hufflepuff girl only looked more confused.
“You’re really going out?” she repeated. Evan nodded. “Fuck,” she groaned, “I owe Regulus so much money.” And with that, she left to her own class.
Evan and Barty shared a look. Regulus had some kind of betting scheme going on? They’d have to ask him more during History of Magic. Evan set off, manoeuvring Barty so that he was being carried over his shoulder like a gangly sack of potatoes.
“If Reg is making money off of us we ought to get a cut,” mused Barty. Evan grunted in response. He moved Barty once again to carry him bridal style. “Or at least buy us drinks with the profit,” he continued, crossing his arms, “Don’t you think?”
“I just want to know when he started this betting,” replied Evan, “And how he somehow won.”
Barty wrapped an arm around the back of Evan’s neck.
“Stupid little git,” commented Barty.
“Mmm,” was Evan’s response.
“Give me a kiss?”
Evan leant down and pressed a kiss to Barty’s waiting mouth. Without warning, Barty slipped him tongue. Evan was caught off guard, and not just from the suddenness.
“Your tongue piercing tastes like lavender,” he remarked.
Barty smiled smugly to himself.
“Charmed it that way,” he explained, “Now I can taste you all the time.”
Evan rolled his eyes but Barty could see a smile tugging at his lips.
“Gimme another kiss?” he asked, batting his eyelashes.
“We have to get to class,” countered Evan, who was probably only continuing to carry Barty so that he didn’t whisk them away to skip the lesson. Now it was Barty’s turn to roll his eyes, but he too, was hiding a small smile. He loved it when Evan carried him places.
Soon they were at the classroom door. Binns was fiddling with the chalkboard while students settled in. Evan made a beeline for their friends and dropped Barty unceremoniously in his usual chair. Binns did not notice or care (this was pretty standard Binns behaviour).
“Barty’s having an awful lot of trouble walking these days,” commented Reg dryly.
“To class? Always.” countered Evan, sliding in next to Pandora, who gave him a friendly squeeze on the arm in greeting.
“Why walk when you can be carried?” added Barty.
“You’re such a princess,” sighed Dorcas, but Barty was far from offended.
Binns began his usual droning monologue, and most of the class started to take notes. Barty was not among them (he never was). Instead of listening to even one word, he scooted over to Evan and whispered in his ear for another kiss.
Evan~
“Not now.” he replied dryly, not pausing from his notes.
“Oh come on,” whined Barty, “As if you didn’t already know wizard history inside out.” Evan merely grunted in response, still meticulously writing down the lecture. “I promise I’m a lot more exciting than Binns,” he added mischievously.
“Oh, I’m sure,” replied Evan, without missing a beat.
“Won’t you at least hold my hand?” pleaded Barty. Evan wordlessly offered him his free hand, and Barty took it happily. He began to trace gentle patterns over Evan’s skin that made his stomach flutter. Not that he was going to let that show, he was still furiously taking notes.
Barty nudged Evan’s foot. That was uncharacteristically subtle for him, so Evan looked up. Someone was staring at them, more specifically their intertwined hands. Without warning, Barty pulled Evan’s hand up to his face and licked it. All while staring down their stalker, who looked utterly repulsed. Evan had to hide a smile.
“Barty,” chided Pandora quietly, “Evan isn’t food.”
Barty turned around to face her and bit Evan’s hand. Barty was a biter, and Evan never minded being bit. Liked it, even.
“Why does he taste so good then?” taunted Barty, and Evan rolled his eyes again.
“You have far too many wrackspurts,” she commented with an air of disdain.
“Am I supposed to know what those are?”
Pandora only sighed.
“You’re strangely quiet,” Barty rounded on Reg.
“Yes,” agreed Regulus, “You see I’m doing this thing where I pay attention in class and write down what the teacher is saying. You should try it some time.”
“You never tell Pans off for not taking notes,” he retorted.
“She is taking notes.” defended Reg.
“No she’s not!” hissed Barty, “She’s drawing some weird locket.”
“She’s a visual learner,” returned Regulus, dead serious.
“Exactly,” she agreed.
“Merlin, please can you all shut up,” complained Dorcas.
“Exactly,” repeated Pandora, giving the boys a pointed look and returning to her sketch, where she added a small black book next to the necklace. Evan often wondered where she got her inspiration for her doodles, they always seemed so random.
The silence (in which Evan, Dorcas and Reg continued their notes in peace) didn’t last long.
“Reg,” whispered Barty, although there was no need to be discreet, Professor Binns wasn’t bothered in the slightest. “Reg!” he called again when Regulus ignored him.
“What?” bit Regulus without even sparing him a glance.
“Did you place bets with people on whether or not me and Evan would get together?”
This caught Evan’s attention, and he too turned to look at Reg. There was a pause. Regulus’ pen stilled for a moment.
“I’m a businessman,” he replied easily. Barty and Evan shared a dubious look.
“You’re filthy rich,” countered Barty.
“He was drunk,” Dorcas chipped in.
“You knew?!” exclaimed Barty, completely forgoing his previous quiet tone as he rounded on her. Reg was busy staring daggers. Dorcas wasn’t perturbed in the least.
“How much have you made?” Evan asked. He was beginning to come round to Barty’s idea about getting a cut.
“Nothing yet,” said Regulus, “People can’t tell if you’re together or not.”
“How?” replied Evan bluntly. He was currently holding hands with Barty, not to mention he’d walked in holding him bridal style, and before that kissed him in the middle of the hallway.
“Most people thought you’d always been together,” Dora supplied airily.
“What?” they both exclaimed in unison. A student a few rows in front of them signalled angrily for them to be quiet, and Barty pulled a face at him.
“Don’t act surprised,” chastised Dorcas, “Everyone’s been confused about you two since first year.”
Evan blinked. Had they really been so obvious? Surely not. Barty may have been brash and loud and ‘flirty’, but he was that way with everyone. And Evan prided himself on being impossible to read or interpret (or predict) even by his closest friends. He and Barty did a lot of things together, sure, (like bewitching a handful of cockroaches to look like Slughorn’s favourite pineapple sweets until they were touched, or switching uniforms with Dorcas and Pandora for a week in protest against dress code, or changing Potter’s names on all school documents to ‘Jiant Ponce’ to prove he wasn’t the only prankster at Hogwarts, or skipping class to get day drunk, or covering Barty in tattoos and dyeing his hair or basically any of their other daily activities), but that didn’t mean they were together. To outsiders they couldn’t have had appeared as anything more than a pair of troublemakers. Surely not as a romantic couple anyway.
“Alright Mr Businessman,” Barty piped up after some silence and Evan was jolted from his thoughts, “I’ve got a deal for you.”
“Do you now?” drawled Regulus, trying his best to seem uninterested (but Evan could spot the way he’d perked up).
“Me and Evan make a big, public statement to announce we’re together,” now Evan had perked up too, “And in return, once people start coughing up, you cut us a profit for helping you out.”
Regulus pretended to deliberate for a bit, but it was clear he was interested.
“How much do you want?” he said eventually.
“40%” quipped Barty.
Reg raised an affronted eyebrow.
“That’s a very unlucky number,” reasoned Evan.
“Alright, 30 then.”
“Bats,” said Evan kindly, giving Barty’s hand a squeeze, “You can’t even do percentages,” (Barty had dropped out of arithmetics as early as possible and never looked back. Even when he had been in the class he’d been awful at it) “Why don’t we just ask Reg for a bottle of vodka or something?”
“Fine,” he agreed eventually. He sounded like a sullen child, but Evan knew he didn’t so much care about the money, it was the principle of it.
“It’s a deal,” preened Reg, “It had better be a big statement,” he added.
“Oh, it will be.” Barty assured him. Evan didn’t know what to make of that.
Barty ~
Barty had been a little sour that he’d been talked out of a 30% cut of Reg’s profits. A bottle of vodka wasn’t bad (not bad at all really) but it was the principle of it.
Either way, it was a good excuse to show Evan off, and Barty would never pass up the chance. It was going to be a big statement alright.
That evening, for dinner in the Great Hall, Evan arrived exactly 22 minutes late, carrying Barty in his arms. As everyone looked on, the two arrived at their usual spot and Evan leaned down and kissed him right on the mouth before sitting him on the table. Barty kicked his dangling legs with glee. All eyes were on them, or most eyes anyway.
As Evan sat down in front of him Barty slid down into his lap, draping himself across the other boy as if he were a throne. Regulus watched the scene unfold with a mixture of mild disdain and humour. Pandora was staring at the ceiling. Dorcas was holding back laughter. The rest of the students around them were transfixed in horror and surprise. As they all began to return to their meals and whisper about what they’d all just witnessed, Evan picked up his fork and started to feed Barty his dinner, forkful by forkful. That dinner was probably one of Barty’s favourites ever, as he smirkingly ate every bite offered to him.
In the end, Reg made a killing, and he bought the whole lot of them vodka (uncharacteristically charitable of him, he was in such a good mood these days). Strangely enough, Barty and Evan continued to get questions about whether or not they were ‘really’ together, as if their little demonstration hadn’t been obvious enough.