The Trial
James pushed open the doors to Oedipus Tattoos the next day, coffee in hand and Sirius trailing behind him.
“Why did you bring a friend with you?” Barty folded his arms, legs swung over the armrest of his desk chair.
“He’s here to look at your work, I told him your tattoos were class.”
Sirius huffed doubtfully, and sat down in the waiting area, before grabbing the folder of designs and putting his legs up on the table, flicking through the pages.
James walked over to the desk, placing the coffee on to it and pushing it towards Barty, “I got this for you, it’s just a flat white, I didn’t know what you like.”
Barty frowned, “Are you trying to bribe me?”
“Yes.”
Barty stared at the coffee for a moment before nodding, and letting his feet hit the ground, “I’ll accept your terrible effort of bribery. The person you’re tattooing is running late so you’re going to have to wait.”
“That’s okay.”
Barty stared as James sat down on the sofa next to Sirius, the two whispering to each other in hushed voices.
“You want to work for Crouch Junior?” Sirius whispered.
James leaned over to whisper back, “Yeah, why not?”
“Maybe because he’s unstable, very likely to burn down this place, and is best mates with my brother for some unknown reason.”
James shrugged, “If he burns the place down, then I’ll just find another place to work.”
Sirius groaned, “Well I’m not getting tattooed here. When you said I’d like his designs, you never told me he was Crouch Junior.”
“His designs are sound though, right?”
“Hm”, Sirius huffed, unable to disagree, sliding down further in his seat. He glanced over to Barty and frowned as the man bit his nails, doodling on a sheet of paper.
Barty glanced up at Sirius with a sneer, holding up the sheet of paper, a fairly realistic face frowned on the page, the drawing of the boy had similar features to Sirius but his hair was shorter and much neater, there were no piercings or tattoos drawn, but had small freckles that Sirius did not possess, and much shorter eyelashes than Sirius’ own.
Sirius glanced away from it quickly, causing Barty’s lips to slide further upright, tongue sticking out in triumph.
Just as Sirius started to stand up, the door swung open, followed by a familiar voice coming in from the cold winter air.
“That wee funt had no right intercepting you, I mean you’re on the same team! She’s a pure dafty, I swear.”
Barty frowned, staring at the doorway as if he wanted to lock it to stop the person speaking from entering.
Whilst James jumped up from the voice and grinned widely, yelling out, “Marlene!”
Marlene turned to the seating area, grinning back, “Alright, la?”
Dorcas followed shortly behind Marlene, ignoring Sirius and James, and instead making their way over to the desk as Marlene clambered onto the sofa. Barty’s disgruntlement slowly melted away at the sight of them.
“Why exactly are they here?” Dorcas questioned Barty, sparing a glance behind them to where their girlfriend was now bouncing up and down with James and Sirius.
Barty tapped the desk, “Potter is piercing you.”
“Him?”
“Yes, him.”
“He’s an eejit, Barty.”
“Well he’s got better O.W.L’s and N.E.W.T’s than both of us. And I was the top student of my year.”
“I was close, only four people did better than me, three in n.e.w.t’s.”
Barty leaned on his desk, “I know, and who was one of those people?”
Dorcas shot a glance to James, before turning back to Barty with a roll of her eyes.
James strutted over to the desk, Marlene in tow, “Look at her ears!” He declared to the two.
Dorcas frowned, “I know what my girlfriend's ears look like.”
“Gross!” Sirius shouted from the other side of the room.
“I pierced her ears!”
Marlene moved her hair from in front of her ears, then stuck her tongue out, “Pierced my tongue too”, she tried to say, tongue still out.
Barty snorted, turning to Dorcas, “Happy?”
Dorcas looked James up and done before reluctantly nodding, “Grand.”
“Then let's proceed to the backroom.”
“Very official”, Dorcas snided.
“This is an official place of business, Cas”, Barty smirked back, opening the door for James and Dorcas to come through.
Dorcas sat down in the client seat as James looked over the equipment Barty had laid out on the side, immediately putting on a pair of the plastic gloves
He grabbed the marker, undoing the lid and turning around to Dorcas, “Where did you want it?”
They pointed to their right upper lobe, and James made a mark in place, grabbing a small hand mirror to show them.
Dorcas nodded and James then laid a paper towel on her right shoulder. He glanced over to the small radio and turned to Barty and Dorcas.
“Music?” He asked, nodding to the radio.
Dorcas nodded back, and Barty strolled over, turning it on. The Rolling Stones started to blare out.
James cleaned Dorcas’ ear with an alcohol swab, and then his hands.
He grabbed the thin needle, “Ready?”
“Yes.”
He started to pierce her ear, both Dorcas and Barty carefully watching him.
Once through, he grabbed a plain silver stud and quickly put it through, adjusting the tightness of the earring.
He threw the plastic gloves in the bin, before passing Dorcas the mirror to see the piercing.
He gestured to the piercings they already had, “I’d explain aftercare to you, but I assume you already know?”
“Yeah… you did surprisingly well.”
He grinned, “Thanks.”
Barty flicked his eyes between James and Dorcas before crouching down next to Dorcas and looking closely at the piercing, he glanced at Dorcas, “You happy with it?”
Dorcas nodded, “Yep.”
Barty nodded and swivelled to face James, “Then you have the job.”
“Class”, he held his hand out for Barty to shake.
Barty glared at it, “I’m not my father, I’m not shaking your fucking hand.”
James turned away, “Wow, rude.”
As James clasped onto the door knob, Barty frowned.
“I’m your boss, you can’t call me rude!”
“You can be my boss and still be rude”, he spoke as he opened the door, walking out.
Dorcas snorted, “He’s right, you can.”
Barty huffed, leaning against the side, “Fucks sake, why am I hiring him?”
“Because he’s good.”
“Yeah”, he turned back to the door James had just walked through, “He is.”