Attention

The slytherin common room was empty as the trio settled down on the sofas. Regulus and Evan found their own seats opposite of each other, while Barty chose to sit on Regulus’ lap. 

Evan looked at them, swallowing. “There is plenty of space to sit, Barty. You don’t have to bother Regulus,” he said in hopes of Barty moving away. He did not. 

Barty just chuckled. “Nah, I’m real comfy here,” he smirks, leering at Regulus, who just rolled his eyes and said nothing. He did not move Barty away either. 

Evan willed his eyes not to tear up. He just looked down at his hands. He looked up at the murmuring that came from the two. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they had their heads close to each other, no care for the outside world. Evan couldn’t take it. He stood up, mumbling something about having early classes and needing enough sleep. He didn’t wait for them to speak, instead walking to the dorms. He fell asleep crying.

He woke up with puffy eyes, running to the bathroom before anyone could look at him and notice he had been crying.

It wasn’t a strange sight, Barty and Regulus being close. Barty would always cling onto Regulus. It was obvious he was in love with him. Regulus was better at hiding his emotions, but he still allowed Barty to touch him. He never did that with anyone else. Not even Evan. 

He can’t help being jealous everytime he sees them together. He can’t even help being upset when they don’t notice him being jealous. Or, well, he thinks Regulus knows. Regulus usually knows everything. 

The thought hurts so much. The thought that Regulus knows Evan is in love with Barty, yet he says nothing. Just giving Evan looks everytime Barty touches him. He is aware that Evan knows when Barty goes to Regulus' bed, and what they do behind the curtains. He doesn’t even bother to set up silencing charms around the bed. Evan has to do that himself.

But does he know Evan often cries himself to sleep on those nights? That the silencing charms he puts around Regulus’ and Barty’s beds are also put on his own bed, to stop them from hearing his sobs?

Evan walked alone to the dining hall. The others were probably coming soon too for breakfast. Or at least Regulus would. Barty would sleep until classes started.

He began filling up his plate when someone dropped down beside him. It was Regulus.

“Good morning,” Evan said, not looking up at him.

 Regulus looked at him for a while before saying, “Good morning.” He paused, eyeing him more. “Did you sleep well?” He was waiting for a reaction.

Evan wanted to scream. Why was he doing this to him? He was well aware Evan could hear them. He did not say any of those. “Yes, it was pleasant.” 

“Very well.” He started picking out his own breakfast. Evan was glad to get his attention away from him. Ever since the thing between Regulus and Barty started, it has been tense between all of them, though it didn’t seem like Barty noticed. 

When they both started eating, Evan dared to sneak a glance at Regulus. Staring right back at him was a big, red-purple love bite on the side of his neck. He turned sharply back to his meal. It was suddenly hard to swallow anything down. 

He lifted his head up, choosing to look across the hall this time, his eyes landing on the gryffindor table. He almost started when he thought he saw James Potter looking at him- no, he was looking at Regulus. 

Regulus and Sirius had almost repaired their relationship again, and that included mixing their friend groups. It was very obvious to everyone, except Sirius, that James had a crush on Regulus. Barty never missed an opportunity to mess with him about it. Evan always thought it was something more than a crush. Something more like Evan’s feelings for Barty. Evan never thought he could relate to James Potter. He probably thought the same.

He must have looked too long at Potter, because his attention had shifted to him with a questioning look. He just shaked his head at him and went to shove the rest of his food down before he had to go to classes. 

On their way to class, Barty joined them. His hair was tousled, the top of his shirt unbuttoned and his tie was loose. Evan took in the sight greedily. His gaze then went to Regulus who also took too long to look at the bare skin the unbuttoned shirt revealed. The look shifted to Barty’s face and softened.

Cold settled in his chest at the obvious sign of attraction Regulus showed. It made Barty’s seemingly unrequited love more likely to be requited. He walked a little faster than the others.

Barty talked the whole time they were in class. His attention was mostly on Regulus, but occasionally Evan was also dragged in. Evan and Barty had their usual arguing and managed to lose twenty points because of it. They got berated by Regulus after class. 

They went to the courtyard, where they met Sirius and his gang. Evan notices James’ attention sets straight away on Regulus. 

“Reggie!” Sirius shouted and went to give Regulus a hug, who held his hand out and said, “no.”

“Aww but Reggie!” he pouts at his brother. 

"No." he says firmly, and adds on, “and don’t call me Reggie,” with an expression of disgust. 

Sirius fake-cries while Lupin pats his back and says “There there.”

Regulus rolls his eyes at the dramatic display. As if drama doesn’t run in their family, Evan scoffs inside. 

The group immediately starts a conversation. In the middle of it, Barty puts an arm around Regulus, which he doesn’t shrug off. Evan notices Sirius directing a sharp look at the arm. Regulus barely lets Sirius touch him, yet he is okay with Barty doing it. Evan feels dread at more people noticing their relationship. Another thing that makes it more real. 

Evan observes Potter’s reaction to the arm. He had a stormy look on his face before his face turned indifferent. It shocked Evan, who had thought Potter wore his heart on his sleeve. 

He looked at Lupin, who apparently also was looking at James. He had a look of worry on his face. Everyone but Sirius knew about James’ feelings. Not long ago James would be very short with Barty, who was always teasing him about his feelings and giving out hints about his own relationship with Regulus. James’ knew something was going on between them, and Barty never failed to remind him of it, which almost always resulted in fights that Lupin and Evan had to break up. Regulus just stood at the side and looked at them with a bored look. 

After years of friendship, Evan started to think of Regulus as an unfeeling bastard. He was always starting chaos around him that he never stood long enough in and left it to others to clean up his mess. Evan was sick of it. 

Evan barely spoke on the way to dinner, or after dinner either. Mumbling a good night, he went straight to bed again. Not unlike his other nights, he struggled to sleep. In the end, exhaustion won and he fell asleep.