Chapter 4
Age 11
September 2nd 1972
Barty woke up with a bucket of cool water being dumped over his head. He bolted upright. He rubbed his eyes and saw Evan laughing and Regulus holding a now empty bucket.
‘What was that for?’ He asked, still rubbing water out of his eyes.
‘We shouted at you to wake up five times and you still didn’t wake up. That was the only way to get you up,’ Regulus replied as if dumping a bucket of cold water on some poor unsuspecting person was part of his daily routine.
‘I’m sure you could have found another way,’ Barty said, scowling.
‘None that would be as fun though,’ Evan said with a smirk. Barty flipped him off and got up and walked to the bathroom. He did not like being woken up, especially not like that. He would have to get revenge. He contemplated this as he brushed his teeth. He could put garlic over their breakfast. Or chilli powder. Except he had no chilli powder.
He decided to leave a note on his bed asking the house elves for chilli powder and garlic. It was worth a try. After that, he made sure Evan and Regulus weren’t looking at him as he pulled out his phone. He had two new texts.
The one from James read:
Welcome to Hogwarts! I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far. Can you meet me at lunch in the charms classroom? It's empty at lunch, we need to talk. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going.
That didn’t sound too promising. He quickly typed back
OK, see you there
He’d have to tell the other two he felt sick or something. He opened the other message. It was from an unknown number.
Hi Barty. This is Amara. I got a phone for my birthday :D Just wanted to say goodluck at your fancy boarding school. When is your next break? Maybe you could visit. I hope your boarding school isn’t as snobby as it sounds. Have fun :)
He smiled. Trust Amara to brighten his day without knowing it. He replied:
It’s not as snobby as it sounds. I’ve made some friends and they’re pretty chill. I won’t be home until christmas, and I’ll definitely visit. I hope you enjoy secondary school. Have a nice day :)
He quickly glanced around to make sure nobody saw his phone, then slid it under his pillow. His phone was a thing he wanted private, something that was just his. He got dressed in his robes and all three of them went down for breakfast.
When they sat at the table, Barty found Sirius staring at Regulus again. His expression was a mixture of betrayal and disgust.
‘Do you want me to tell him to fuck off?’ Barty whispered to Regulus while Evan was talking to a girl beside him.
‘Yes please. I can’t take it. He’s looking at me like I'm already a Death Eater,’ Regulus whispered back.
Barty looked up and caught Sirius’ eye. He contemplated just raising his eyebrows in a ‘what are you looking at?’ kind of way but he did that yesterday and he was still staring. So he decided to go all in.
‘Fuck off,’ he mouthed. Sirius’ expression quickly changed to that of shock and then anger, but he stopped staring and that was the main thing.
‘Thanks again,’ Regulus muttered and Barty could tell he was upset. He gave him a smile to cheer him up.
‘What class do we have first?’ he asked. They had found their timetables on their beds when they got to their dorms last night.
‘Potions,’ Evan answered.
‘Oh, potions is easy. I read the textbook and there's nothing we don’t know already,’ Barty said.
‘You read the textbook?!’ Regulus asked with raised eyebrows.
‘The entire textbook?’ added Evan.
‘Yeah, I read all of the textbooks to be sure. The hardest thing is astronomy, but I probably think that because I’ve never done astronomy before,’ Barty replied.
‘I can’t believe you read the textbooks,’ Evan said, shaking his head.
‘Of course I did. I didn’t want to be made a fool of.’
‘You’re insane,’ said Evan. Barty didn’t understand. His father would probably send him a howler if he got anything less than the best. Was everybody’s parents not like that?
‘We need to go to potions now,’ Regulus said suddenly. They all got up and headed down to the dungeons. Barty had already heard of their potions teacher. Horace Slughorn. James had told him that he had a Slug club where only exceptional students were allowed.
They walked in and the three of them sat down on a desk with the girl Evan had been talking to at breakfast. Evan had thought they would be doing ‘getting to know each other games’ but apparently not because as soon as they sat down Slughorn called out.
‘Get the cauldrons from the cupboards, we’re going to have a competition. Whoever can make the best shrinking potion shall win a homework pass for later in the year. It is a pretty advanced potion, so if you don’t get it, don’t be worried but I thought this might be a fun introduction to potions. Oh and you’ll be working in pairs.’
Barty had already made a shrinking potion before. His tutor used to be an auror, and potions were a pretty important part of the job, so he taught Barty all kinds of advanced potion-making.
Barty and Regulus paired up and Evan and the other girl did too. Barty opened his text and started working right away. Regulus stood there staring at him. ‘How do you know what to do?’ Regulus asked, seeing the ease at which Barty was making the potion.
‘My tutor was an auror and was especially keen on potions. I’ve done this before,’ Barty replied, adding cinnamon into the already bubbling potion.
‘Can I do anything to help?’ Regulus asked.
‘Yeah, sorry I’m taking control. Here, cut that into thin slices,’ he handed Regulus some Borage (which was the next ingredient). They worked in silence. They made a good pair and Barty concluded that Regulus was actually good at potions, despite not having made the potion before.
They were done before everyone else. Regulus called Slughorn over and Slughorn checked the potion.
‘That’s brilliant! What did you say your names were boys?’ Slughorn said and Barty felt a sense of pride.
‘I’m Barty Crouch junior sir.’
‘And I’m Regulus Black.’
‘Very good. The way this is, I'm sure you’ll be flying through the year.’ Barty felt that sense of pride again.
‘If only your brother was like you in first year, Mr Black. Your whole family is or was part of the Slug club, I’m sure you will be too. I never taught any of your family, Mr Crouch but I’m sure you will do brilliantly.’
Regulus visibly dimmed at the mention of his brother but seemed to perk up a bit at the mention of joining the Slug club. Barty was elated. He was sure he could get in as soon as he was old enough.
The class ended soon after that and Regulus and Barty won the homework pass. The next class was transfiguration. It passed by in a blur and soon it was time for lunch. While they were walking to the great hall Barty said he felt sick and might just go lie down for an hour. Evan offered to bring him food but Barty said it was fine and that he would meet them next class.
It took Barty longer than it should have to find the charms classroom and once he arrived, James was already sitting on the table. He felt awfully nervous. He walked over and sat on the table beside James.
‘What's up?’ Barty asked.
‘I don’t think we should let our friends know we’re friends,’ James said in a rush.
‘Why?’ Barty asked, hurt.
‘My friends hate all Slytherins and they won’t understand. Sirius even says he’s not sure if he can trust his brother anymore.’
‘Well Sirius can-’ Barty was cut short.
‘Sirius also doesn’t like you, since you told him to fuck off this morning.’
‘Sirius was staring at Regulus and poor Regulus only wanted to eat his breakfast without somebody calling him a Death Eater with their eyes,’ Barty countered.
‘I’m not justifying him. I still like you, and you’re Slytherin. Sirius just doesn’t realise that Regulus is still the same person, like I realise with you,’ James added.
‘It’s not a bad idea,’ Barty said, contemplating. ‘I think Regulus has mixed feelings for Sirius and us being friends wouldn’t help that.’
‘How about we meet up every two weeks? And we can text each other all the time. Just make sure our friends don’t know where we’re going,’ James suggested.
‘Ok,’ Barty sighed. ‘The amount of trouble we’re going through to keep our friends happy is ridiculous. Maybe if they sort things out we can actually hang out in public but for now, that’s not a bad idea.’
‘Thanks. So can we meet up next Saturday? So can we meet in the forbidden forest?’
‘Isn’t it forbidden for a reason?’ Barty asked, concerned.
‘I know my way around it.’
‘If you say so. I’ve got to go now.’ Barty left and went to the dungeons. When he reached his dorm room he ate one of the crisp packets he had brought with him since he had no lunch.
His next class was charms and now he knew the way. He walked back to the charms classroom alone, and found Evan and Regulus already there.
‘Hi. You feeling any better?’ Regulus asked.
‘Yeah. I heard that charms class has assigned seats. We won’t be together,’ Barty said.
‘That sucks,’ Evan sighed.
Professor Flitwick was the charms teacher and as soon as they entered the room they were given assigned seats. Barty was near the back of the classroom, next to a Hufflepuff boy and a Ravenclaw girl. The girl had long, flowing blonde hair, fair skin and piercing blue eyes. How come everybody he met seemed to have blue eyes?
As soon as he sat down the girl introduced herself. ‘I’m Pandora,’ she said, vigorously shaking his hand.
‘I’m Barty,’ he replied.
‘We’re going to be good friends Barty,’ she said as if that was a normal thing to say.
‘Um.. Ok? Cool,’ he said, unsure of what to say.
‘I’m sorry, that sounds arrogant. I mean that I’ve seen that we’re going to be good friends,’ she said easily. She was rather peculiar.
‘Are you a seer?’ he asked.
‘Yes, if that’s what you prefer to call it,’ she answered. She had a sort of airy way of speaking, like we were in the clouds having a tea party.
‘What would you prefer to call it?’
‘Nothing. Occasionally, I just know something is going to happen and it's as natural as the sun rising everyday. There’s no need to label me as different because of it,’ she said simply. Barty couldn’t help but agree that they were going to be friends.
‘If we’re going to be friends, do you want to have dinner with me and my friends tonight then?’ he asked.
‘Are we allowed to sit at different house tables?’
‘As far as I’m aware, yes. I think it’s only during the choosing ceremony that you can’t move tables.’
‘Ok then. I will have dinner with you and your friends,’ she said with a shining smile. Her cheerfulness was infectious and Barty found himself smiling too. They continued whispering to each other the entire lesson. At the end, when they were about to leave he asked, ‘what class do you have next?’
‘Transfiguration.’
‘Aw too bad, I have herbology. I’ll see you later.’
‘Bye.’
Barty found Evan talking to the girl that sat beside him at potions. The girl had black hair that flowed in locs to her shoulders, dark brown skin and deep brown eyes.
‘Hi Barty, this is Dorcas.’
‘Hey,’ he shook her hand. ‘I’m Barty.’
‘As Evan said,’ she said.
‘As Evan said,’ he confirmed with a laugh.
‘Hi,’ Regulus walked up to them.
‘Dorcas, this is Regulus, Regulus this is Dorcas,’ Evan introduced them.
‘Nice to meet you Dorcas,’ Regulus said.
Together, all four of them walked to class. Herbology passed without incident and they headed to dinner.
‘Oh guys,’ Barty said. ‘I invited this girl to dinner with us.’
‘Is that the girl you sat beside in charms?’ Evan asked.
‘Yeah.’
They walked in and sat down and about a minute later Pandora came and sat next to Barty.
‘Hi,’ she said.
‘I’m-’ Evan tried to introduce himself but was cut off by Pandora.
‘You’re Evan, You’re Dorcas, You’re Regulus, and I already know Barty. I’m Pandora,’ she said and Barty laughed.
‘How did you know our names?’ Dorcas demanded.
‘I’ve seen we will be friends. I also heard your names when I saw we would be friends,’ she smiled.
‘Pandora isn’t a seer since she doesn’t like that term. She just sees glimpses of the future sometimes,’ Barty said to clear any confusion. Pandora nodded in confirmation. They had a nice dinner, and everybody got on well with Pandora.
Later Pandora left to go to Ravenclaw and when the rest of them arrived at the dungeons, Dorcas left for the girls’ dorms. The remaining three went upstairs and sat on their beds.
‘Do you mind if I smoke a cigarette? I’ll smoke it out the window,’ Barty asked.
‘No, although I really think you should quit,’ Regulus said. Barty shook his head and looked at Evan.
‘I don’t mind either.’
Barty took a cigarette out of the box and sat on the windowsill. He lit the cigarette and started to take a drag when he caught Evan looking at him.
‘You want one?’ he asked.
‘No. I’m just thinking how on earth you got into that habit,’ Evan answered.
‘Do you want me to tell you?’ he asked. Regulus and Evan nodded so he gestured them over and they sat on his bed while he was on the windowsill.
‘Some time last year, my dad took me to a muggle estate. He didn’t want me wrecking the house and my mother was away. He told me to stay outside. A group of kids waved me over. We played a game of truth or dare and I dumped a bucket of ice-cold water over my head. One of the girls revealed that one of the other girl' older sister had given her a cigarette. The girl’ older sister came over and asked for a lighter. She asked if we wanted a cigarette and nobody but me and her younger sister agreed. We smoked and then I asked if I could pay her for cigarettes. She said yes and gave me the first box free as an apology to my lungs and my bank account,’ Barty finished.
‘How did you stay in contact?’ Regulus asked. Barty decided he trusted them enough to tell them. He might even let them use it to call someone.
‘If I tell you this, you have to promise to keep it a secret.’ They both nodded. Barty hopped down from the windowsill and took his phone out from under the pillow.
‘What’s that?’ Regulus asked.
‘It’s a phone. You use it to talk to people from far away. It's a bit like the post, only it's quicker and you can talk to the people as well. Normally it doesn’t work for wizards but a friend of mine modified it.’
‘What friend?’ Evan asked.
‘Doesn’t matter. The girl’s younger sister texted me this morning saying that she hoped boarding school wasn’t as snobby as it seemed,’ Barty said, hoping they wouldn’t keep asking about his ‘friend’.
‘That’s cool,’ Regulus said.
They chatted for a few more minutes before the other two went to bed. Barty finished his cigarette, putting it in the ashtray he bought before going to sleep