Chapter 1
I stared at him from my table to the back of the room, not touching my coffee. I never did. It was a waste of money but I came anyway. Every single day for what must have been over a year now, I came. I would order a coffee, not drink it and leave. Every single morning.
I did it to check on him. Well, at this point, it was mostly for myself rather than for him. I knew by now that he was safe. It had been quite a bit of time since anyone was after him and even if someone was, he couldn’t remember anything that would incriminate himself.
But I came every day. I needed to know he was safe. After all this time, he may not know me anymore but to know that at least he was safe, that helped. He still meant the world to me and if anything were to happen to him, i have no clue what I'd do. Even after everyone else who had died, just to know that at least he was okay, that made everything else more bearable.
I watched him move, the way he glided so swiftly behind the counter like this was what he was meant to do all his life. He cheerfully greeted the costumers which was somehow the most Barty like thng I've ever seen but it also felt so wrong. Maybe it was because I hadn't seen him do magic for such a long time. Even though i knew it could land me in jail, i still used it for simple tasks when no one was looking. Barty didn't even know he could use magic. Hell, he didn't even know magic was real.
I bit down on my lip, and not for the first time, thought about how much i hated myself for what i had done. This was my fault. If i didn't let my feelings get in the way he could be here next to me, laughing about the stupid nights in our dorm where we drank and said to much. We could live together and fall into that rhythm we had back in Hogwarts, knowing each others morning routine and basing our own around the others so we wouldn't bother him. And then there would be the nights where he would wake up from nightmares and i could cradle him in my arms until he fell back asleep.
At least he was happy. That’s what I cared about, the most important thing to me. His happiness. It may have caused my own happiness to get here but at least e had his. Knowing that restored a little bit of mine.
Barty’s happiness always has and will come before mine, no matter what. And this was no different. No matter what is cost, no matter who would get hurt, i would make sure Barty was happy. Because if there was one person on this god forsaken Earth who deserved happiness it was Barty Crouch Jr.
I knew deep down that if Barty remembered everyone, something in him would break. If he had seen everything that had happened, it would've destroyed everything that he had worked so hard to build. I loved Barty and I’d known him for years, meaning that I knew him better than anyone else still on this Earth.
And I knew that he wouldn’t be the same person after everything had happened. No offense to Barty, but he would be a changed being. He just wouldn’t be the same. And i couldn't let that happen.
So I knew my decision to obviate him had been right. Sure i had lost a lot because of it, sure Regulus had hated my desicion and Barty probably would to if he knew. This was the only way he could be happy and who was I to take that from him? And who was i to change it after he was so obviously happy? Especially for my own happiness. No, I couldn’t do that.
I stood, stealing one last look at him, knowing that i'd be back tomorrow and i would see him again then. He was so fucking beautiful. His hair, his eyes, his ekin, his lipw, his hands, his neck, he mouth, all of it was so fucking beautiful.
Then his eyes met mine, those amazing caramel colored eyes, and I was back in the Gryffindore common room at one of the stupid parties Regulus' brother had hosted. It was loud and we were all drunk, talking the stupid nonsense we always did when we were drunk. We were both stupid when we had a little alcohol in out system but there was been something different about the look that he had given me. It was pure emotion, coming from hi heart rather than the alcohol. The look was hungry, like he wanted something from me (or rather, wanted me). But it was also innocent, like he himself was still figuring out what was going on and why.
That had also been the first time he had kissed me. There, in the back of the Gryffindore common room, on one of their stupid red couches , he had kissed me. This became easily one of the most amazing nights of my life and then it led to so many more.
So why was he looking at me like this again? And why now? I had been going here for over a year so what had changed?
Trying not to think too hard about it, I grabbed my coffee from the table and went to throw it out when I saw the numbers written on the side. They were is neat hand writing, small enough that you weren't to obvious but big enough to notice. I read the numbers over and over in my head until i had it memorized, all 10 digits. It was a phone number. It had to be.
But there was only one person who could’ve written on my cup.
I turned my head back to Barty, but he didn’t meet my eyes again. He was busy now with another customer, smiling again like he had always belonged here.
I turned and stared back down at the writing on the cup once more, my brain on one single thought.
Maybe, just maybe, even after everything that had happened, things would turn out okay.